[10] Old Manners, brother to the late Duke of Rutland.
[11] The old Duke of Devonshire lost the great estate of Leicester abbey to him at the gaming-table. Manners was the only person of his time who had amassed a considerable fortune by the profession of a gamester.
[12] "The first print of this capital work is an excellent representation of a young heir, taking possession of a miser's effects. The passion of avarice, which hoards every thing, without distinction, what is and what is not valuable, is admirably described.—The composition, though not excellent, is not unpleasing. The principal group, consisting of the young gentleman, the taylor, the appraiser, the papers, and chest, is well shaped: but the eye is hurt by the disagreeable regularity of three heads nearly in a line, and at equal distances.—The light is not ill disposed. It falls on the principal figures: but the effect might have been improved. If the extreme parts of the mass (the white apron on one side, and the memorandum-book on the other) had been in shade, the repose had been less injured. The detached parts of a group should rarely catch a strong body of light.—We have no striking instances of expression in this print. The principal figure is unmeaning. The only one, which displays the true vis comica of Hogarth, is the appraiser fingering the gold. You enter at once into his character.—The young woman might have furnished the artist with an opportunity of presenting a graceful figure; which would have been more pleasing. The figure he has introduced, is by no means an object of allurement.—The perspective is accurate, but affected. So many windows, and open doors, may shew the author's learning; but they break the back ground, and injure the simplicity of it.
"The second print introduces our hero into all the dissipation of modish life. We became first acquainted with him, when a boy of eighteen. He is now of age; has entirely thrown off the clownish school-boy; and assumes the man of fashion. Instead of the country taylor, who took measure of him for his father's mourning, he is now attended by French barbers, French taylors, poets, milleners, jockies, bullies, and the whole retinue of a fine gentleman.—The expression, in this print, is wonderfully great. The dauntless front of the bully; the keen eye, and elasticity of the fencing-master; and the simpering importance of the dancing-master, are admirably expressed. The last is perhaps a little outré. The architect[A] is a strong copy from nature.—The composition seems to be entirely subservient to the expression. It appears, as if Hogarth had sketched, in his memorandum-book, all the characters which he has here introduced; but was at a loss how to group them; and chose rather to introduce them in detached figures, as he had sketched them, than to lose any part of the expression by combining them.—The light is ill distributed. It is spread indiscriminately over the print; and destroys the whole—We have no instance of grace in any of the figures. The principal figure is very deficient. There is no contrast in the limbs; which is always attended with a degree of ungracefulness.—The execution is very good. It is elaborate, and yet free.—The satire on operas, though it may be well directed, is forced and unnatural.
"The third plate carries us still deeper into the history. We meet our hero engaged in one of his evening amusements. This print, on the whole, is no very extraordinary effort of genius.—The design is good; and may be a very exact description of the humours of a brothel.—The composition too is not amiss. But we have few of those masterly strokes which distinguish the works of Hogarth. The whole is plain history. The lady setting the world on fire is the best thought: and there is some humour in furnishing the room with a set of Cæsars; and not placing them in order.—The light is ill managed. By a few alterations, which are obvious, particularly by throwing the lady dressing into the shade, the disposition of it might have been tolerable. But still we should have had an absurdity to answer, whence comes it? Here is light in abundance; but no visible source.—Expression we have a little through the whole print. That of the principal figure is the best. The ladies have all the air of their profession; but no variety of character. Hogarth's women are, in general, very inferior to his men. For which reason I prefer the Rake's Progress to the Harlot's. The female face indeed has seldom strength of feature enough to admit the strong markings of expression.
"Very disagreeable accidents often befall gentlemen of pleasure. An event of this kind is recorded in the fourth print; which is now before us. Our hero going, in full dress, to pay his compliments at court on St. David's day, was accosted in the rude manner which is here represented.—The composition is good. The form of the group, made up of the figures in action, the chair, and the lamp-lighter, is pleasing. Only, here we have an opportunity of remarking, that a group is disgusting when the extremities of it are heavy. A group in some respect should resemble a tree. The heavier part of the foliage (the cup as the landscape painter calls it) is always near the middle; the outside branches, which are relieved by the sky, are light and airy. An inattention to this rule has given a heaviness to the group before us. The two bailiffs, the woman, and the chairman, are all huddled together in that part of the group which should have been the lightest; while the middle part, where the hand holds the door, wants strength and consistence. It may be added too, that the four heads, in the form of a diamond, make an unpleasing shape. All regular figures should be studiously avoided.—The light had been well distributed, if the bailiff holding the arrest, and the chairman, had been a little lighter, and the woman darker. The glare of the white apron is disagreeable.—We have, in this print, some beautiful instances of expression. The surprise and terror of the poor gentleman is apparent in every limb, as far as is consistent with the fear of discomposing his dress. The insolence of power in one of the bailiffs, and the unfeeling heart, which can jest with misery, in the other, are strongly marked. The self-importance too of the honest Cambrian is not ill portrayed; who is chiefly introduced to settle the chronology of the story.—In point of grace, we have nothing striking. Hogarth might have introduced a degree of it in the female figure: at least he might have contrived to vary the heavy and unpleasing form of her drapery.—The perspective is good, and makes an agreeable shape.—I cannot leave this print without remarking the falling band-box. Such representations of quick motion are absurd; and every moment the absurdity grows stronger. You cannot deceive the eye. The falling body must appear not to fall. Objects of that kind are beyond the power of representation.
"Difficulties crowd so fast upon our hero, that at the age of twenty-five, which he seems to have attained in the fifth plate, we find him driven to the necessity of marrying a woman, whom he detests, for her fortune. The composition here is very good; and yet we have a disagreeable regularity in the climax of the three figures, the maid, the bride, and the bride-groom.—The light is not ill distributed. The principal figure too is graceful; and there is strong expression in the seeming tranquillity of his features. He hides his contempt of the object before him as well as he can; and yet he cannot do it. She too has as much meaning as can appear thro' the deformity of her features. The clergyman's face we are all well acquainted with, and also his wig; tho' we cannot pretend to say, where we have seen either. The clerk too is an admirable fellow.—The perspective is well understood; but the church is too small;[B] and the wooden post, which seems to have no use, divides the picture very disagreeably.—The creed lost, the commandments broken, and the poor's-box obstructed by a cobweb, are all excellent strokes of satirical humour.
"The fortune, which our adventurer has just received, enables him to make one push more at the gaming-table. He is exhibited, in the sixth print, venting curses on his folly for having lost his last stake.—This is upon the whole, perhaps, the best print of the set. The horrid scene it describes was never more inimitably drawn. The composition is artful, and natural. If the shape of the whole be not quite pleasing, the figures are so well grouped, and with so much ease and variety, that you cannot take offence.—In point of light, it is more culpable. There is not shade enough among the figures to balance the glare. If the neck-cloth and weepers of the gentleman in mourning had been removed, and his hands thrown into shade, even that alone would have improved the effect.—The expression, in almost every figure, is admirable; and the whole is a strong representation of the human mind in a storm. Three stages of that species of madness, which attends gaming, are here described. On the first shock, all is inward dismay. The ruined gamester is representing leaning against a wall, with his arms across, lost in an agony of horror. Perhaps never passion was described with so much force. In a short time this horrible gloom bursts into a storm of fury: he tears in pieces what comes next him; and, kneeling down, invokes curses upon himself. He next attacks others; every one in his turn whom he imagines to have been instrumental in his ruin.—The eager joy of the winning gamesters, the attention of the usurer, the vehemence of the watchman, and the profound reverie of the highwayman, are all admirably marked. There is great coolness too expressed in the little we see of the fat gentleman at the end of the table. The figure opposing the mad-man is bad: it has a drunken appearance; and drunkenness is not the vice of a gaming table.—The principal figure is ill-drawn. The perspective is formal; and the execution but indifferent: in heightening his expression, Hogarth has lost his spirit.
"The seventh plate, which gives us the view of a jail, has very little in it. Many of the circumstances, which may well be supposed to increase the misery of a confined debtor, are well contrived; but the fruitful genius of Hogarth, I should think, might have treated the subject in a more copious manner. The episode of the fainting woman might have given way to many circumstances more proper to the occasion. This is the same woman, whom the rake discards in the first print; by whom he is rescued in the fourth; who is present at his marriage; who follows him into jail; and, lastly, to Bedlam. The thought is rather unnatural, and the moral certainly culpable.—The composition is bad. The group of the woman fainting is a round heavy mass: and the other group is very ill-shaped. The light could not be worse managed, and, as the groups are contrived, can hardly be improved.—In the principal figure there is great expression; and the fainting scene is well described. A scheme to pay off the national debt, by a man who cannot pay his own; and the attempt of a silly rake, to retrieve his affairs by a work of genius; are admirable strokes of humour.
"The eighth plate brings the fortune of our hero to a conclusion. It is a very expressive representation of the most horrid scene which human nature can exhibit.—The composition is not bad. The group, in which the lunatic is chained, is well managed; and if it had been carried a little further towards the middle of the picture, and the two women (who seem very oddly introduced) had been removed, both the composition, and the distribution of light, had been good.—The drawing of the principal figure is a more accurate piece of anatomy than we commonly find in the works of this master. The expression of the figure is rather unmeaning; and very inferior to the strong characters of all the other lunatics. The fertile genius of the artist has introduced as many of the causes of madness, as he could well have collected; but there is some tautology. There are two religionists, and two astronomers. Yet there is variety in each; and strong expression in all the characters. The self-satisfaction, and conviction, of him who has discovered the longitude; the mock majesty of the monarch; the moody melancholy of the lover; and the superstitious horror of the popish devotee; are all admirable.—The perspective is simple and proper.