This plate, copied from a painting in the portico of the old great room in Vauxhall Gardens, has very idly been imagined to contain the portraits of Frederick Prince of Wales, and the beautiful but unfortunate Lady Vane; but the stature and faces both of the lady and Henry are totally unlike their supposed originals.
CROWNS, MITRES, MACES, ETC.
This plate forms so important a feature in the annals of Hogarth, that it requires his own elucidation:—
"After having had my plates pirated in almost all sizes, I applied to Parliament for redress, and obtained it in so liberal a manner, as hath not only answered my own purpose, but made prints a considerable article in the commerce of this country, there being now more business of that kind done here than at Paris, or anywhere else, and as well."
The statute, which took place June 24, 1735, was drawn up by our artist's friend Mr. Huggins, who took for his model the eighth of Queen Anne in favour of literary property. But it was not so accurately executed as entirely to remedy the evil; for, in a cause founded on it, which came before Lord Hardwicke in Chancery, that excellent lawyer determined that no assignee, claiming under an assignment from the original inventor, could take any benefit by it.
Hogarth, immediately after the passing of the Act, published this print with the following inscription:—
"In humble and grateful acknowledgment
of the grace and goodness of the Legislature,
manifested in the Act of Parliament for the Encouragement
of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, etc.,
obtained by the Endeavours, and almost at the sole Expense,
of the Designer of this Print in the Year 1735;
by which,
not only the Professors of those Arts were rescued
from the Tyranny, Frauds, and Piracies
of Monopolizing Dealers,
and legally entitled to the Fruits of their own Labours;
but Genius and Industry were also prompted
by the most noble and generous Inducements to exert themselves.
Emulation was excited;
Ornamental Compositions were better understood;
and every Manufacture, where Fancy has any concern,
was gradually raised to a pitch of Perfection before unknown;
insomuch, that those of Great Britain
are at present the most elegant
and the most in Esteem of any in Europe."
The royal Crown at the top is darting its rays on mitres, coronets, the Chancellor's great seal, the Speaker's hat, etc. etc.; and on a scroll is written, "An Act for the Encouragement of the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching, by vesting the properties thereof in the inventors and engravers, during the time therein mentioned."
The plate was afterwards used as a receipt for the subscriptions to his four prints of "The Election."
In 1767, three years after Hogarth's death, his widow stated, in a petition to the House of Commons, "that she was informed that a Bill was depending in the House to amend an Act made in the eighth year of the reign of his late Majesty, for the encouragement of the arts of designing, engraving, and etching: that her late husband was the inventor, engraver, and publisher of various designs—moral, humorous, and historical; the sole property whereof was vested in him by the said Act for the term of fourteen years; that her chief support arose from the sale of her late husband's works; that, since his decease, many persons had copied, printed, and published several of those works, and still continued to do so; and that the sale of those spurious copies, both at home and for exportation, had already been a great prejudice to the petitioner, and, unless timely prevented, would deprive her of her chief support and dependence; and praying that provision might be made for vesting in her the property of her said husband's works." The petition was thought reasonable; and a clause was added to the Bill for "vesting in, and securing to, Jane Hogarth, widow, the property in certain prints."
THE ROYAL MASQUERADE.
This very interesting scene, which may be dated early in 1755, is thus anticipated by Mr. Walpole, in a letter to Mr. Richard Bentley, Dec. 24, 1754:—"The Russian ambassador is to give a masquerade for the birth of the little great prince (the Czar, Paul I.). The King lends him Somerset House: he wanted to borrow the palace over against me, and sent to ask it of the cardinal-nephew (Henry Earl of Lincoln, nephew to the Duke of Newcastle, to whose title he succeeded), who replied, 'Not for half Russia!'"
The print abounds with real portraits of personages of the first distinction, of whom several may be identified by the following extract from the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxv. p. 89:—"Feb. 6.—The Russian ambassador gave a most magnificent ball at Somerset House. His Majesty came a little after eight, dressed in a black domino, tie-wig, and gold-laced hat. Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales was in a blue and silver robe, and her head greatly ornamented with jewels. The Prince of Wales was in a pink and silver dress. Prince Edward in a pink satin waistcoat, with a belt adorned with diamonds. Princess Augusta in a rich gold stuff. The Duke (of Cumberland) was in a Turkish dress, with a large bunch of diamonds in his turban. A noble lady shone in the habit of a nymph, embroidered over with stars studded with brilliants to the amount of £100,000. In short, the dresses of the whole assembly were the richest that could possibly be devised upon such an occasion; and the whole entertainment, particularly the desert, was the most elegant that expense could furnish. Few exhibitions of this kind have equalled it,—none excelled it. The number of persons were above a thousand."
The original painting formed part of the fine collection of the late Roger Palmer, Esq., on whose death it devolved, with the rest of a very ample property, to his only sister, Elizabeth, wife of the brave and benevolent Captain Joseph Budworth, who assumed the name and arms of Palmer.
RICH'S TRIUMPHANT ENTRY.
This plate represents the removal of Rich, and his scenery, authors, actors, etc., from Lincoln's-Inn Fields to the new house. The scene is the area of Covent Garden, across which, leading toward the door of the theatre, is a long procession, consisting of a cart loaded with thunder and lightning, performers, etc.; and at the head of them Mr. Rich (invested with the skin of the famous dog in Perseus and Andromeda) riding with his mistress in a chariot driven by harlequin, and drawn by satyrs.
Some indifferent verses, which accompanied the original publication, allude to Walker and Hall, the original Macheath and Lockit, and conclude thus:
"To the Piazza let us turn our eyes,
See Johnny Gay on Porter's shoulders rise,
Whilst a bright Man of Taste his works despise."
"Another author wheels his work with care,
In hopes to get a market at this fair,
For such a day he sees not every year."
By the "Man of Taste," Mr. Pope was apparently designed. He is represented in his tie-wig, at a dark corner of the Piazza, amusing himself (not very delicately) with the Beggars' Opera. The letter P is over his head; his little sword is significantly placed, and the peculiarity of his figure is well preserved. The reason why our artist has assigned such an employment to him, we can only guess. It seems, indeed, from Dr. Johnson's Life of Gay, that Pope did not think the Beggars' Opera would succeed. Swift, however, was of the same opinion; and yet the former supported the piece on the first night of exhibition, and the latter defended it in his Intelligencer against the attacks of Dr. Herring, then Preacher to the Society of Lincoln's-Inn, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Hogarth might be wanton in his satire, might have founded it on an idle report, or might have sacrificed truth to the prejudice of Sir James Thornhill, whose quarrel on another occasion he is supposed to have taken up, when he ridiculed the translator of Homer, in a view of "The Gate of Burlington House."
THE POOL OF BETHESDA, AND THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
These magnificent prints are placed among the early productions of Hogarth, as the paintings from which they are copied were completed in 1737; and in 1748 a small copy of the "Pool of Bethesda" was engraved by Ravenet, as a frontispiece to Stackhouse's Family Bible.
Mr. Walpole observes, that "the burlesque turn of our artist's mind mixed itself with his most serious compositions; and that, in the 'Pool of Bethesda,' a servant of a rich ulcerated lady beats back a poor man (perhaps woman) who sought the same celestial remedy." To this I may add, that the figure of the priest, in the "Good Samaritan," is supremely comic, and rather resembles some purse-proud burgomaster, than the character it was designed to represent.
In the "Pool of Bethesda" is introduced, as I was assured by Dr. Ducarel, a faithful portrait of Nell Robinson, a celebrated courtezan, at whose shrine both Hogarth and the Doctor had in early life occasionally paid their devoirs.
On the subject of these two very fine prints, it will not only be candid, but amusing and instructive, to transcribe Hogarth's own unvarnished remarks:—
"As I could not bring myself to act like some of my brethren, and make the painting of small conversation pieces a sort of manufactory to be carried on by the help of background and drapery painters, it was not sufficiently profitable to pay the expenses my family required. I therefore turned my thoughts to a still more novel trade, the painting and engraving modern moral subjects, a field not broken up in any country or any age. The reasons which induced me to adopt this mode of designing were, that I thought both writers and painters had, in the historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate species of subjects, which may be placed between the sublime and grotesque. I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas, similar to representations on the stage; and further hope that they will be tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion. Let it be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes where the human species are actors; and these, I think, have not often been delineated in a way of which they are worthy and capable. In these compositions, those subjects that will both entertain and improve the mind bid fair to be of the greatest public utility, and must therefore be entitled to rank in the highest class. If the execution is difficult (though that is but a secondary merit), the author has a claim to a higher degree of praise. If this be admitted, comedy, in painting as well as writing, ought to be allotted the first place, as most capable of all these perfections, though the sublime, as it is called, has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more conviction to the mind of a sensible man than all he would find in a thousand volumes; and this has been attempted in the prints I have composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced eye; let the figures in either pictures or prints be considered as players, dressed either for the sublime—for genteel comedy, or farce—for high or low life. I have endeavoured to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer; my picture is my stage, and men and women my players, who, by means of certain actions and gestures, are to exhibit a dumb show.
"Before I had done anything of much consequence in this walk, I entertained some hopes of succeeding in what the puffers in books call the great style of history-painting; so that, without having had a stroke of this grand business before, I quitted small portraits and familiar conversations, and, with a smile at my own temerity, commenced history-painter; and on a great staircase at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, painted two Scripture stories, 'The Pool of Bethesda' and 'The Good Samaritan,' with figures seven feet high. These I presented to the charity; and thought they might serve as a specimen, to show that, were there an inclination in England for encouraging historical pictures, such a first essay might prove the painting them more easily attainable than is generally imagined. But as religion, the great promoter of this style in other countries, rejected it in England, I was unwilling to sink into a portrait-manufacturer; and, still ambitious of being singular, dropped all expectations of advantage from that source, and returned to the pursuit of my former dealings with the public at large. This I found was most likely to answer my purpose, provided I could strike the passions, and, by small sums from many, by the sale of prints which I could engrave from my own pictures, thus secure my property to myself."
While these pictures were in progress, it was announced that "among the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital was lately chosen Mr. William Hogarth, the celebrated painter, who, we are told, designs to paint the staircase of the said hospital, and thereby become a benefactor to it by giving his labours gratis." And a newspaper of July 14, 1737, says, "Yesterday the scaffolding was taken down from before the picture of 'The Good Samaritan,' which is esteemed a very curious piece."
Hogarth paid his friend Lambert for painting the landscape in this picture; and to the imaginary merits of his coadjutor, the Analysis, p. 26, thus bears testimony: "The sky always gradates one way or other, and the rising or setting sun exhibits it in great perfection; the imitating of which was Claude de Lorraine's peculiar excellence, and it is now Mr. Lambert's."
Both pictures, which appear of an oblong square in the engravings, in the originals are surrounded with scroll-work which cuts off the corners of them, etc. All these ornaments, together with compartments carved at the bottom, were the work of Mr. Richards. These the late Mr. Alderman Boydell caused to be engraved on separate plates, and appended to those above them, on which sufficient space had not been left. Hogarth requested that these paintings might never be varnished. They appear, therefore, to disadvantage, the decorations about them having, within these few years past, been highly glazed.
"The Pool of Bethesda" has suffered much from the sun; and "The Good Samaritan," when cleaned about the year 1780, was pressed so hard against the straining frame, that several creases were made in the canvas.
MARTIN FOLKES, ESQ.
This elegant scholar was a mathematician and antiquary of much celebrity in the philosophical annals of literature. In 1713, at the early age of 24, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1741 was elected President. Mr. Folkes was also an early Member of the Society of Antiquaries, having been elected in 1719-20; and his communications to both societies were numerous and valuable. His knowledge in ancient and modern coins was very extensive; and the most important work he produced, was The History of the English Gold and Silver Coin, from the Conquest to his own time.
Algernon, the famous Duke of Somerset, who had been many years President of the Society of Antiquaries, dying February 9, 1749-50, Mr. Folkes, who was then one of the Vice-Presidents, was immediately chosen to succeed his Grace; and was continued President by the Charter of Incorporation of that Society, November 2, 1751. But he was soon disabled from presiding in person either in that or the Royal Society, being seized, on the 26th of September the same year, with a palsy, which deprived him of the use of his left side. On the 30th of November 1753, he resigned the Presidentship of the Royal Society; but continued President of the Society of Antiquaries till his death. After having languished nearly three years, a second attack of his disorder, on the 25th of June 1754, put an end to his life on the 28th of that month.
The original portrait is preserved in the meeting-room of the Royal Society.
BISHOP HOADLEY.
This portrait is in grand style, though rather in the French manner. The painting, and the plate engraved from it by Baron, were carefully preserved in the Bishop's family.
Dr. Benjamin Hoadley, a prelate of considerable eminence, was born November 4, 1676; educated at Catharine Hall, Cambridge; elected Lecturer of St. Mildred, Poultry, 1701; Rector of St. Peter-le-Poor in 1704, and of Streatham in 1710; King's Chaplain, February 16, 1715-16; Bishop of Bangor, March 18 following; translated to Hereford in 1721, to Salisbury in 1723, and in 1734 to Winchester, which he held nearly twenty-seven years, till on April 17, 1761, at his house at Chelsea, in the same calm he had enjoyed amidst all the storms that blew around him, he died, full of years and honours, beloved and regretted by all good men, in the 85th year of his age. Few writers of eminence have been so frequently or so illiberally traduced; yet fewer still have had the felicity of living till a nation became their converts, and of knowing "that sons have blushed their fathers were their foes." His useful labours, which will ever be esteemed by all lovers of the natural, civil, and religious rights of Englishmen, were collected in 1773, in three folio volumes.
The Bishop had two sons: Benjamin Hoadley, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Frederick Prince of Wales, and to George the Second; of high rank in his profession; and well known by many valuable writings, more especially by his comedy of The Suspicious Husband. He died, in his father's lifetime, in 1757. The other son, the Rev. Dr. John Hoadley, Chancellor of Winchester, was also a most amiable man, and an elegant poet. He was the editor of his father's collected works, introduced by a well-digested biographical memoir. He died March 10, 1776; and with him the name of Hoadley became extinct. His relict, who long survived him, possessed several original paintings by Hogarth, which were afterwards the property of the late Mr. Archdeacon D'Oyley.
MR. RANBY'S HOUSE AT CHISWICK.
This view, etched by Hogarth in 1748 without any inscription, was first published by his widow in 1781.
HYMEN AND CUPID.
This neat plate was engraved as a ticket for the masque of Alfred, performed in 1748, at Cliveden House, before the Prince and Princess of Wales, on the Princess Augusta's birthday. It was afterwards intended as a receipt for "Sigismunda."
FALSE PERSPECTIVE.
Early in 1753, Hogarth presented to his friend Mr. Joshua Kirby this whimsical satirical design; which arose from the mistakes of Sir Edward Walpole, who was learning to draw without being taught perspective: an anecdote recorded by Mr. Steevens, on Sir Edward's own authority.
To point out in a strong light the errors which would be likely to happen from the want of acquaintance with those principles, Hogarth's design was produced.
A traveller is represented on an eminence, lighting his pipe from a candle presented to him by a woman from a chamber-window at the distance of at least a mile. We are also astonished at the representation near it, of a crow seated on the spray of a tree, without incommoding by its weight the tender sprouts issuing from its branches; and our astonishment increases when we recollect that this tree, if weighed in the balance with the bird, would hardly be found to preponderate. The tree on which the feathered animal is so securely stationed is, however, of a much greater height and magnitude than those which are nearer, and which gradually diminish as they approach the foreground. The sheep, taking example from the trees, are very large at a distance, but regularly become minute by their proximity, the nearest being almost invisible. Both ends of the church, the top, and the whole extent of one side of it, are clearly seen. To take the view which Hogarth has represented, we must, at the same time, be above, at each end, and in front of that parochial erection; but he has not been so complaisant as to favour us with the sight of the road on the bridge, which the vessel seems determined to sail over, while the waggon and horses appear floating on the other side. A fellow in a boat, nearly under the bridge, is attempting to shoot a swan on the other side of it; though, as he is situated, he cannot possibly have a view of the object whose destruction he pretends to be aiming at. The waggon and horses, which are supposed to be on the bridge, are more distant than the tree which grows on the further side.
Many other absurdities are visible in this curious perspective view, which are too obvious to escape observation: such as the signpost extending to a house at the distance of half a mile, and the remote row of trees concealing part of the nearer sign of the half-moon; the angler's line interfering with another belonging to his patient brother, though at a considerable distance from each other; and the tops and bottoms of the barrels being equally visible.
The favour of this communication was gratefully acknowledged by Kirby, who in 1754 prefixed it to Dr. Brook Taylor's Method of Perspective made easy both in Theory and Practice, with a dedication to Hogarth, who subsequently furnished him with a serious design for the plate which is described at page 132.
THE FARMER'S RETURN.
The little drama by Mr. Garrick, in which this exquisite frontispiece first appeared, was thus prefaced: "The following interlude was prepared for the stage, merely with a view of assisting Mrs. Pritchard at her benefit; and the desire of serving so good an actress is a better excuse for its defects than the few days in which it was written and represented. Notwithstanding the favourable reception it has met with, the author would not have printed it, had not his friend Mr. Hogarth flattered him most agreeably, by thinking the farmer and his family not unworthy of a sketch of his pencil. To him, therefore, this trifle, which he has so much honoured, is inscribed, as a faint testimony of the sincere esteem which the writer bears him, both as a man and an artist."
The original drawing was given to Mr. Garrick, and was in the possession of his widow during her life.
The receipt for "The March to Finchley," which accompanies this plate, has been already described.
Rec'd. of 7s 6d being the whole Payment for a Print Representing a March to Finchly in the Year 1746 which I promise to deliver when finished on sight hereof.
N.B. Each Print will be half a Guinea after the Subscription is over.
TRISTRAM SHANDY.
For this popular work of his friend Lawrence Sterne, Hogarth furnished two frontispieces; one in 1759, for the second volume; the other in 1761, for the fourth.
The first of these is taken from the chapter in which Corporal Trim is represented reading a sermon to Tristram's father, Uncle Toby, and Dr. Slop, the latter of whom is fallen asleep, and who was intended for Dr. John Burton, a physician of great eminence at York, well known as an able and industrious antiquary, and also as a sturdy Jacobite.
The second frontispiece represents the christening, so humorously described in the fourteenth chapter of the fourth volume of Tristram Shandy.
FOUR HEADS FROM THE CARTOONS.
These heads were copied from the cartoons at Hampton Court; and Mr. Walpole, speaking of Sir James Thornhill's attention to these celebrated pictures, has the following remark: "He made copious studies of the heads, hands, and feet, and intended to publish an exact account of the whole for the use of students; but his work never appeared."
As this plate was found among others engraved by Hogarth, it might probably have been one of his early performances. His widow, in 1781, directed a few impressions to be taken from it; which were sold in Leicester Square.
THE SHRIMP-GIRL.
In this portrait from the life, first published in 1782, from the original sketch in oil, are united the talents of Hogarth and Bartolozzi; but the plate, which is executed in the dotted manner then so much in fashion, should have been etched, or engraved, like those excellent performances by Bartolozzi after the drawings of Guercino; as spirit, rather than delicacy, is the characteristic of our artist's shrimp-girl.
LORD HOLLAND.
This is a serious portrait, from a drawing by Hogarth in 1757, of that celebrated nobleman, whom he afterwards introduced in the second plate of "The Times," as the powerful antagonist of Lord Bute.
The public life of this great statesman is too well known to need recital here. Let it suffice to say, that in 1756 he resigned the office of Secretary at War to Mr. Pitt; and in the following year was appointed Paymaster of the Forces, which he retained until the commencement of the reign of King George III. May 6, 1762, his lady was created Baroness Holland; and April 16, 1763, he himself was advanced to a peerage, by the title of Baron Holland of Foxley, Wilts. In the latter part of his life he amused himself by building, at a vast expense, a fantastic villa at Kingsgate, and died July 1, 1774, in his 69th year.
EARL OF CHARLEMONT.
James Caulfield, son of James Viscount Charlemont, was born August 18, 1728; succeeded to his hereditary honours, April 21, 1734; and in December 1782, was raised to an earldom. He was F.R.S., F.S.A., and LL.D.; and died August 4, 1799, aged 70.
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
This fine print exhibits an inside view of the House of Commons, from an original painting taken in 1726 or 1727, and now in the possession of the Earl of Onslow.
The prominent portraits are those of the Right Hon. Arthur Onslow, the then Speaker; Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister; Sidney Godolphin, Esq., Father of the House; Colonel Onslow; Sir James Thornhill; Sir Joseph Jekyll; Edward Stables, Esq., Clerk of the House; Mr. Askew, Clerk-Assistant, and several others in the background.
DEBATES ON PALMISTRY.
The figures employed in the study of palmistry seem to have been designed for physicians and surgeons of an hospital, who are debating on the most commodious method of receiving a fee, inattentive to the complaints of a lame female who solicits assistance. A spectre, resembling the royal Dane, comes out behind, perhaps to intimate that physic and poison will occasionally produce similar effects. A glass-case containing skeletons is open; a crocodile hangs overhead; and an owl, emblematic of this sapient consistory, is perched on a high stand.
Mr. Steevens conjectured that this might have been a repented effort of hasty spleen against the officers of St. Bartholomew's, who might not have treated some recommendation of a patient from our artist with all the respect and attention to which he thought it was entitled: but this is mere supposition.
THE STAYMAKER.
The humour in this print is not very striking. The male staymaker seems to be taking professional liberties with a female in the very room where her husband sits, who is playing with one of his children presented to him by a nurse, perhaps with a view to call off his attention from what is going forward. The hag shows her pretended love for the infant by the mode in which she is kissing him. A maidservant holds a looking-glass for the lady, and peeps significantly at the operator from behind it. A boy with a cockade on, and a little sword by his side, appears to observe the familiarities already mentioned, and is strutting up fiercely towards the staymaker, while a girl is spilling some liquor in his hat.
CHARITY IN THE CELLAR.
The original picture from which this print was engraved, was painted for the late Lord Boyne. It represents a convivial party assembled in a cellar over a hogshead of claret, who, it is said, resolved not to separate till they had drunk all the wine it contained. Whether such a circumstance really gave rise to the picture or not, it is unnecessary to inquire. It is too well known that the habit of drinking to excess, among all classes of society, existed at the time of Hogarth to such a degree as to draw the particular attention of this distinguished painter to it; and it is not perhaps too much to say, that the most distinguished preachers, or most able moral writers, have not done more to drive this odious and degrading vice from society than has been effected by the valuable pencil of Hogarth. The individuals here represented were members of a society well known by the name of the "Hell-fire Club." In the centre is the portrait of Sir Philip Hoby, seated on the cask. Behind him, with his hand held up, is that of Mr. De Grey, and below him is the portrait of Lord J. Cavendish, who has drawn a spigot from the cask to let the wine flow into a bowl. Opposite to him Lord Sandwich is represented kneeling down to draw in the intoxicating draught; and behind him (extended on a form) is also Lord Galway. The grouping of the four centre figures is an ingenious imitation of a statue of Charity which is seen in the cellar. The position of the bottles brings the comparison still nearer, and is one of those little incidents for which Hogarth was so particularly distinguished from all other painters, in omitting nothing that might carry out his intention and make himself understood.
The devotedness of this group to the object for which they are assembled is extremely well portrayed. The positions of the figures are easy, and the principle of observing the pyramidal form (so often insisted upon as necessary to beauty in the grouping of figures) is here strikingly exemplified. It is impossible to show a more unconquerable love for the intoxicating draught than is expressed in the portrait of Lord Galway. Unable to stand, he has placed himself on his back in such a manner that the liquor from the cask above him is flowing into his mouth; and he has perhaps been represented by Hogarth as thus persevering in the fatal habit, in order to show the excess to which it was then carried, and is a forcible point in the painter's composition.
The picture is now in the possession of the present Lord Boyne, and the print from it, which we have added to our present edition, is not to be found in any other of the collected works of Hogarth.
SIX TICKETS.
The several designs collected in this plate require no particular description. They are given as specimens of the facility with which Hogarth descended to minor subjects, at the same time embellishing them with strokes of his peculiar vein of pleasantry and humour; and each of them sufficiently evinces the purpose it was intended to recommend.
1. For the Mock Doctor. 2. For Pasquin. 3. For the Beggars' Opera. 4. For Joe Miller. 5. Thomas Figg, the noted prize-fighter. 6. The Ram Inn at Cirencester.
NOTES.
The following hints are offered principally with a view to assist in identifying such characters in Hogarth's prints as are unnoticed, or but slightly described, in the preceding volumes. A key to the whole (for many of the figures not yet recognised were undoubtedly meant by the artist as portraits) would, to the other merits of these inimitable compositions, add the important one of making them an assemblage of the similitudes of the leading remarkables of his day.
SOUTHWARK FAIR.
Although Hogarth, from a fear of creating himself enemies, disclaimed individual portrait in his compositions, particularly of characters in the higher walks of life, he was evidently not so scrupulous in indulging his satire when representing more familiar scenes; and accordingly his "Harlot's Progress," "Four Times of the Day," "Industry and Idleness," "March to Finchley," etc., are found to be less peopled with ideal personages than the "Marriage à la Mode," and some others. "Southwark Fair" was an annual assemblage of remarkables, whose follies and peculiarities he could hold up to the derision of the public without the danger of retaliation; and he has availed himself of the opportunity by bringing together a number of persons then well known on the town, and placing them in the most ludicrous situations.
This Fair, the humours of which an ingenious author truly observes, "will never be forgotten while Hogarth's inimitable print of it exists," was anciently called "Our Lady Fair," and lasted fourteen days. Like most others in the kingdom, it was originally established for the purposes of trade; but having become in process of time a mere scene of low riot and debauchery, its duration was shortened to three days; and it was at length totally abolished as a nuisance to the neighbourhood, and an encouragement to vice and dissipation. It was held at the top of Blackman Street, on the open space opposite the walls of the King's Bench prison, and began yearly a fortnight after Bartholomew Tide.
The following characters in this print have been identified, in addition to others before noticed: Middle group.—The person whom the bailiffs are arresting, and who is supposed to have been playing (not Alexander the Great, but the part of Paris) in the Siege of Troy (announced for representation on one of the neighbouring show-cloths), was intended for Walker, afterwards the famous Macheath in the Beggars' Opera, whose portrait it exactly resembles. It is introduced in this place with strict propriety, as we learn that Walker kept a great theatrical booth in Southwark Fair, as did Penkethman. "He also acted," says one of his biographers, "in the same way at Bartholomew Fair, where Booth saw him playing the part of Paris in the Siege of Troy."[121] The painter probably placed him in the ridiculous situation we see him, on account of his known extravagancy and consequent embarrassments, which often procured him a visit from the bailiffs.
Figg, the prize-fighter, who in another part of the print is making his triumphal entry on a blind horse, and brandishing his sword in defiance, was a native of Thame in Oxfordshire, and attained so high a celebrity as a master of the "noble science of defence," that we find him praised in the Tatler, Guardian, Craftsman, and almost all the periodical works of the time. The mezzotinto portrait of him by Faber represents him exactly as here—with a bald head and open collar. His own school was in Oxford Road, but he was probably accustomed to exhibit his skill at fairs, or he may be introduced here merely as a well-known character. The Bear Garden, a famous place for prize-fighting, anciently stood in this neighbourhood, and had then been but recently demolished. The manner of the combatants at this place, parading the streets previous to their encounters, as described by a French traveller in 1672, and the way in which Figg is represented, strictly agree. "Commonly," says he, "when any fencing-masters belonging to the Bear Garden are desirous of showing their courage and their great skill, they issue mutual challenges; and before they engage, parade the town on horseback, with drums and trumpets sounding, to inform the public there is a challenge between two brave masters of the science of defence, and that the battle will be fought on such a day." Figg's public challenges were the very acme of bombast. This extraordinary character died in the year 1734.
Miller, the tall man, whose effigies are exhibited on a show-cloth, was a native of Saxony, and probably came into England in the reign of George I. This gigantic personage was eight feet high, the stature, within a few inches, of the late O'Brien. He died in 1734, aged 60. Boitard engraved a portrait of him the year before his death.
The two jugglers in senatorial wigs, who are displaying their magic wonders with cups and balls, etc., seem to have been intended likewise for two real characters (Fawkes and Neve), the Breslaw and Katterfelto of their day. Fawkes is most certainly introduced in the print of "Burlington Gate," where, on a board, the "Long Room" is announced, and "Fawkes' dexterity of hand." Portraits of these worthies still exist, and bear a sufficient resemblance to identify them with their representatives in the plate. Neve in a wood print prefixed to his "Merry Companion, teaching tricks in legerdemain;" and Fawkes in a large sheet print by Sutton Nichols, where he stands in the midst of his performances. Fawkes was no indifferent wit. When Breslaw, a more modern performer of the same kind, was at Canterbury, the former requested permission to display his cunning a little longer, promising Mr. Mayor that if he was indulged with permission, he would give such a night (naming a particular one) for the benefit of the poor. The benevolent magistrate acceded to the proposition, and he had a crowded house. Hearing nothing about the money collected on the specified evening, the Mayor waited on the man of trick, and in a delicate way expressed his surprise. "Mr. Mayor, I have distributed the money myself." Still more surprised, "Pray, Sir, to whom?" "To my own company; none can be poorer." "This is a trick." "We live, Sir, by tricks."