[ [1] There are at least three dramatic pieces other than the Theophilus Cibber work reprinted here which were inspired by William Hogarth's "A Harlot's Progress." Ronald Paulson reports one announced in the Daily Advertiser (13 November 1732) by Charlotte Charke entitled The Harlot. It had been printed by Curll; but there is no record of performance (Hogarth: His Life, Art, and Times, I, London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971, p. 290). Paulson also mentions the publication announcement in the Daily Advertiser (5 February 1732/3) of: "The Decoy, or The Harlot's Progress (on February 14 called The Jew Decoy'd), a new ballad opera, said to be performed at Goodman's Fields" (p. 290). The Jew Decoy'd, a work never performed and discussed at length by Robert E. Moore (Hogarth's Literary Relationships, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948, pp. 34-36) as being published in 1733, is a different piece than The Decoy; or, The Harlot's Progress, A New Ballad Opera [By Henry Potter] (The London Stage, ed. Arthur Scouten, Part 3, Vol. I, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962-68, pp. 269-270, abbreviated in later citations as "LS" followed by part, volume and page number.) The title page of Potter's piece reads: "The Decoy. An Opera. As it is Acted at the New Theatre in Goodman's Fields. London, 1733, with the "Dedication" signed by Potter. This three-act piece contains 52 songs, three of which also appear in Cibber's "The Harlot's Progress." The "Introduction" alludes to Hogarth's series as the source ("the Sketch is now in Print"), but it has many links to John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and, like Cibber's piece, only follows the first three plates. Potter's small theater in the Haymarket opened in 1720 but no organized company had produced legitimate drama there by 1728 (LS, 3, I, cxxxix). The run was successful for Potter: he had a benefit on 8 February, with the comment "On account of the great Demand for Places, the Pit and Boxes will be laid together at 5s each" (LS 3, I, 270). Hogarth had advertised the subscription for "A Harlot's Progress" as early as 8 March 1731. (See Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, I, Rev. Ed., New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970, p. 141. Citations in my text are abbreviated HGW followed by volume and page number.) This piece appears in Baker's Biographia Dramatica (Vol. II, p. 157) without comment, while he lists "The Jew Decoy'd; or The Progress of an Harlot," 8vo. 1733 "as never being performed, but founded on the Hogarth series." The Jew Decoy'd discussed by Moore has the title page: "London: Printed for E: Rayner ... 1733," published on 14 February (p. 34). The Henry E. Huntington Library has a copy, "Printed by W: Rayner ... 1735" but does not have the frontispiece Moore describes. For engravings, see Vol. II of Paulson's Hogarth's Graphic Works.
[ [2] Reprinted here with permission of the Henry E. Huntington Library (No. 151783). There are two other extant copies of the first edition: one in the Boston Public Library and the other in the British Library. The British Library copy has two inserted engraved portraits (Theophilus Cibber in his role of Pistol, and Hogarth seated at an easel studying a cartoon of a goddess, probably based on "Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse" of 1758). Yale University has a photostat facsimile of the Boston Public Library edition. I thank David Rodes for looking at the British Library copy.
[ [3] Reprinted here in typescript form from a manuscript difficult to reproduce legibly. The work is anonymous. The typescript appeared as "Appendix I" of my unpublished New York University dissertation on William Hogarth with permission of the Trustees of the British Library. I have discussed it in "The Rake's Progress: A New Dramatic Version of William Hogarth's Prints," in Notes and Queries (October 1972), 381-383. The theatrical career of the author, Theophilus Cibber (1703-1758), has not been fully assessed. He did know Hogarth: they both belonged to John Rich's group, the "Sublime Society of Beef Steaks," which met in the scene-painting loft over the Covent Garden stage. Cibber joined the group in September 1739, and Hogarth was a charter member in 1735 (HGW, I, 188). Cibber himself played an active role in the creation of the position of stage manager or "under-manager" (LS, 3, I, xcvi).
[ [4] See my essay concerning such connections, in "William Hogarth and London Theatrical Life," Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture, Vol. 5, ed. R. Rosbottom (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975), 11-31.
[ [5] See my "Music and Theatre in Hogarth," The Musical Quarterly, 57 (July 1971), 409-426.
[ [6] "Some Aspects of Music and Literature," repr. Facets of the Enlightenment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), p. 92.
[ [7] See "The Tunes" at end of Introduction.
[ [8] English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 108.
[ [9] "The Popularity of Various Types of Entertainment at Lincoln's Inn Fields and Covent Garden Theatres, 1720-1733," Theatre Notebook, XXIV: 4 (Summer 1970), 156.
[ [10] The complete title is "The Judgment of Paris. A Dramatic Entertainment In Dancing and Singing, After the Manner of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. As it is Perform'd at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane," with words by Congreve, music by Seedo and "Compos'd by J. Weaver, Dancing-Master." This work had its Drury Lane debut 6 February 1733, and The London Stage entry for 31 March 1733 reads: "John Banks's The Albion Queens ... Also The Harlot's Progress; or, the Triumph of Beauty" (LS, 3, I, 283). Many actors and actresses doubled (e.g., Mrs. Raftor is one of the "Graces" in the masque). No doubt the concluding "Masque" of The Harlot's Progress is Weaver's piece (p. 12).