Chapter V (6)

[49] On Mr. Lane's death they became the property of his nephew, Colonel Cawthorn; and on the 5th of February 1797, were sold by auction at Christie's room, and purchased by Mr. Angerstein for one thousand guineas.

It has frequently been the fate of painters, as well as poets, to have their works disregarded until the authors were out of the hearing of praise or censure. Young, in his _Love of Fame_, speaking of the value which a writer's death gave to his productions, neatly enough concludes with an allusion to Tonson the bookseller:

"This truth sagacious Tonson knew full well,
And starv'd his authors that their works might sell."

[50] Such is the date both in his MS. and the preface to the _Analysis_, though under the print he has engraven, "_Se ipse pinxit et sculpsit_, 1749." It is probable that in the first instance he meant to speak of the painting it was taken from, which is now in the possession of Mr. Angerstein.

[51] To this he evidently alludes in giving the well-known story of Columbus breaking the egg as a subscription-receipt to his _Analysis of Beauty_.

[52] Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose lectures are, generally speaking, the best rules conveyed in the best language, in his discourse, read December 11th, 1769, acknowledges "that old pictures celebrated for their colouring are often so changed by dirt and varnish, that we ought not to wonder if they do not appear equal to their reputation in the eyes of unexperienced painters or young students." But he asserts "that an artist whose judgment is matured by long observation considers rather what the picture once was than what it is at present. He has acquired a power by habit of seeing the brilliancy of tints through the cloud by which it is obscured."

Don Quixote, through the cloud of dirt and deformity which obscured a vulgar country wench, discovered the brilliant beauties of that peerless princess, the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso! Such is the power of enchantment.

[53] I do not know what Hogarth here alludes to; perhaps to some figure that he had threatened to paint as an exemplification of his system.

[54] In this notice of the writers by whom he was attacked, he particularly alludes to the _North Briton_, No. 17. As to the crooked compliments paid him by his brethren in art, they were numerous indeed.

Among his papers I found a tolerably spirited drawing in pen and ink, entitled "A Christmas Gambol from Leicester Square to Westminster Hall," representing the artist with ass's ears, stripped, and tied to a cart's tail, and an old fellow with a long wig and cat-o'-nine-tails in his hand, lashing his naked back, and exclaiming, "You'll write books, will ye!" A barber's block, fixed on a straight pole, is stuck at the head of the cart, and labelled, "Perpendicular and beautiful blockhead." The horse is led by a vulgar drayman, whose locks being so dishevelled as to form a kind of glory, are inscribed, "Lines of beauty." Over the head of the painter is this motto: "'Twere better a millstone had been tied about thy neck, and (THOU) cast into the sea."

The following specimen of polite satire and curious orthography crowns the whole:--

"_N.B._--Speedily will be published, an apology, in quarto, called _Beauty's Defiance to Charicature_; with a very extraordinary frontispiece, a just portraiture (printed on fool's-cap paper), and descriptive of the punishment that ought to be inflicted on him that dare give false and unnatural descriptions of beauty, or charicature great personages; it being an illegal as well as a mean practice; at the same time flying in the face of all regular bred gentlemen painters, sculptures, architects--in fine--arts and sciences."

Numerous prints were published in ridicule of his system and himself.

In a set of engravings, entitled "The New Dunciad, done with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste, dedicated to his friend Beauty's Analyzer," I find several prints with mottoes, which, in most vile and vulgar phrase, ridiculed both author and book. Some of them are not destitute of humour; but all would ere now have been consigned to oblivion, had not they been occasionally collected as relatives to Hogarth. One of them is entitled "Pugg's Graces, etched from his ORIGINAL daubing."

In this the artist is represented at his easel, with _Lomazzo_ in his pocket, and with a satyr's feet (one of which rests on some copies of his _Analysis_), and painting the picture of "Pharaoh's Daughter." He is accompanied by a fat and a lean connoisseur; the former shows evident marks of admiration, but the latter holds the _Analysis_ in his left hand, and appears rather puzzled. A figure in the background, who, to show that he is a judge, is arrayed in a gown, a band, and ample periwig, shows evident marks of disgust. Three naked and most filthy female figures, one of them fat as was Bright of Malden, and another tall and thin as a splinter of the Monument, are intended to represent "Pugg's graceless Graces." One of these _beauties_ rests her foot on a box inscribed, "For the March presented to the Foundling Hospital, with a gilded frame for the admiration of the public." The other is seated on a chest of drawers, on which are written under the word FOLLY, "Bid for by Pugg's friends, £50, £100, £120." This most pointed piece of wit evidently alludes to the auction of "Marriage à la Mode," which has been already noticed. On the upper part of the print is a head, entitled "A modern cherubin," with a bag-wig on, and a stick bent into a waving line in his mouth, a satyr holding a medallion, on which is a head with a cap and bells, and many other curious allusions to the serpentine line. On the floor are a pair of stays, a pair of boots, a pair of candlesticks, etc. etc., allusive to the prints to the _Analysis_. Beneath is a grotesque figure of a devil, with a little incubus, masks, etc., holding in his hand a piece of paper, which seems a leaf of the book, and is inscribed, "To be continued."

A. C. _Invt. et Sculp._--Published according to Act of Parliament, 1753-4.

On the back of this delicate satire is printed the following address:--

"TO THE PUBLIC.

"I propose to publish by subscription an _Analysis of the Sun_,
in which I will show the constituent parts of which it is
composed, and of which it ought to have been composed.

"I will compute exactly its magnitude and quantity of matter,
both as it is, and as it ought to have been constructed.

"As to the supposed motion of the sun or earth, I shall prove
that Ptolemy and Copernicus were neither of them right in any
part of their conjectures; and that consequently Kepler, Des
Cartes, Cassini, Leibnitz, and Sir Isaac Newton are absolutely
wrong.

"I will likewise refute that vulgar error, that the sun, with
respect to our earth, is the cause of light and heat; and I will
show how they are caused.

"I will prove that the figure of our earth is an inverted ∽. And
lastly, I will demonstrate that their systems show nothing of my
line of beauty.

"This work will be printed on a new invented fool's-cap paper, at
half a guinea to subscribers; but to those who do not subscribe,
it will be fifteen shillings.

"Subscriptions will be taken in by the etcher of this plate, and
at my house, at the sign of the Harlot's Head in Leicester Fields.

"_N.B._--It will be in vain for astronomers, foreign or domestic,
to crowd my house for information in their art; I grant them
leave to subscribe, which is all the favour they are to expect
from me.

"W. H."

In a well-etched print which, on a monumental stone placed in the corner, the engraver has chosen to denominate "A self-conceited arrogant dauber, grovelling in vain to undermine the ever-sacred temple of the best painters, sculptors, architects, etc., in imitation of the impious Herostratus, who with sacrilegious flame destroyed the temple of Diana to perpetuate his name to posterity."

We have here a very rich and well-imagined column, the base ornamented with historical bas-relief; and between a serpent, which is spirally twisted round a circular pillar, are portraits of painters, sculptors, etc. At the bottom of this, on his knees, and still with satyr's legs and feet, and a pen stuck in his hat, the artist has represented Hogarth; who, attended by a well-dressed connoisseur in the character of his torch-bearer, accompanied by his favourite dog, and armed with his palette knife, is grubbing up whatever he can find under it. No. 3, the inscription informs us, is "A satyr ready to lash the scribbler away;" and by the same authority we learn that No. 4 are "Geese," which being placed close to this emulator of the fame of Erostratus, "greedily swallows whatever he can rake up with his palette knife," etc. etc. etc. The print is enriched with cypress trees, capitals, well-formed vases, and superb edifices; the whole (for it is a night scene) is lighted up by the temple of Diana in flames. Beneath it is the waving line in a small triangle, and the following verses:--

"The vile Ephesian, to obtain
A name--a temple fires;
Observe, friend H--g--th, 'twas in vain,
He had not his desires.
You might with reason, sure, expect
Your fate would be the same;
Men first thy labours will neglect,
Next quite forget thy name."

One nauseous delineation is entitled, "The Artist in his own Taste;" and another, "The Author run mad." In one he is represented as "A mountebank, demonstrating to his admiring audience that crookedness is most beautiful;" and in another of a larger size, entitled "The Burlesquer Burlesqued," depicted with satyr's legs, painting what the designer calls "A history piece, suitable to the painter's capacity, from a Dutch manuscript." This history piece is a copy of the Dutch delineation of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, by pointing a blunderbuss at his head, with an angel hovering over the figures, etc. The lives of Rembrandt, Rubens, Vandyke, and other eminent painters, are ingeniously imagined to be torn in pieces to make a window-blind for the author of the _Analysis of Beauty_; which book, with allusions to it, are displayed in different parts of the print, and in a storied border at the bottom it appears to be selling for waste paper.

Of this engraving, the satire of which is principally levelled at the burlesque "Paul before Felix," there are two editions; the first, for the more extensive circulation of Hogarth's fame, and the benefit of such foreigners as do not understand English, has an explanation in French.

[55] The Doctor's orthography is adhered to.

[56] Mr. Emlyn, of Windsor, who in 1782 published _A Proposition for a New Order in Architecture_, thus divides them: "The Doric was composed on the system of manly figure and strength, of robust and Herculean proportions; the Ionic, on the model of the easy, delicate, and simple graces of female beauty, to which the Corinthian on a similar design adapted a system of more artificial and complicated elegance."

[57] Among Hogarth's papers I found the following notice, in which he evidently glances at Athenian Stuart:--

"Now in hand, and will be published in about two months' time, a short addenda or supplement to the _Analysis of Beauty_, wherein, by the doctrine of varying lines, it will plainly be shown that a man who had never seen or heard of Roman architecture might, by adhering to these lines, produce new and original forms.

"The number of pompous and expensive books of architecture which have been lately published, consist of little more than examples of the variations that were made among the ancients; and nice and useless disputes about which were the most elegant, without assigning any other reason for their choice than the authority of the columns they have measured, which gives them no other merit than that of mere pattern drawers."

[58] This quotation is from p. 130, and refers to two heads in the second plate, Nos. 108 and 9, one of which has a slight tendency to a smile, and the other has a broad grin. The head here copied, in point of character, comes between them.

[59] This is copied from the MS. of the _Analysis_, where he had made the drawings of the "Round and Square Heads," which he evidently intended to have introduced in his plate.

[60] "_Cleop._ Bear'st thou her face in mind?
Is't long or round?

"_Mess._ Round even to faultiness.

"_Cleop._ For the most part, they are foolish that are so."

[61] This truth is amply verified in the epistle above quoted:

"Oh, lasting as thy colours may they shine,
Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line!
New graces yearly like thy works display,
Soft without weakness, without glaring gay;
Led by some rule that guides but not constrains,
And finish'd more through happiness than pains."

In what light can we consider the character painted by the bard when we compare it with the pictures painted by the artist? It has been truly said, that "the poet has enshrined the feeble talents of the painter in the lucid amber of his glowing lines."

The conclusion of his epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller affords another notable example:--

"Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works; and dying, fears herself may die."

[62] Were the head of the "Satyr of the Wood" (No. 3) close shaved, and dignified with a clerical periwig, it would bear a strong resemblance to Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait of the author of _Tristram Shandy_.

[63] Which he is said to have caricatured in this plate.

[64] "Sing--we will drink nothing but Lipari wine."--_Rehearsal._

[65] The last paragraph in his preface, p. 10, begins as follows:--

"That perspective is an essential requisite to a good painter, is attested by all our most eminent artists, and confirmed by almost every author who has wrote upon painting. Nay, the very term 'painting' implies perspective; for to draw a good picture is to draw the representation of nature as it appears to the eye; and to draw the perspective representation of any object, is to draw the representation of that object as it appears to the eye. Therefore the terms 'painting' and 'perspective' seem to be synonymous, though I know there is a critical difference between the words. I would not be understood to mean that a person is always to follow the rigid rules of perspective, for there are some cases in which it may be necessary to deviate from them; but then he must do it with modesty, and for some good reason, as we have shown in the course of this work. Nor would I be thought to desire the artist to make use of scale or compasses upon all occasions, and to draw out every line and point to a mathematical exactness, as the design of this work is quite the reverse: it is to teach the general rules of perspective, and to enforce the practice of it by easy and almost self-evident principles; to assist the judgment and to direct the hand, and not to perplex either by unnecessary lines or dry theorems."

The publication of this drew forth Mr. Highmore, who, in the preface of a pamphlet with the following title, now become very scarce, gave his decided opposition to the system:--

"A Critical Examination of those two Paintings on the ceiling of Whitehall, in which Architecture is introduced, so far as relates to the Perspective, together with the discussion of a question which has been the subject of debate among painters. Written many years since, but now first published, by J. Highmore. Printed for Nourse, 1754."

The question Mr. Highmore professes to discuss is by himself stated as follows, viz.:--

"Whether a range of columns, standing on a line parallel to the picture, ought to be painted according to the strict rules of perspective; that is, whether those columns, in proportion as they recede from the centre of the picture, should be drawn broader than that directly opposite to the eye, as the rules require; or whether (because they really in nature appear less, in proportion as they are more distant) they ought not to be made less, or at most, equal to each other in the picture?...

"Mr. Kirby says, p. 70 of his first part: 'Since the fallacies of vision are so many and great, etc., it seems reasonable not to comply with the strict rules of mathematical perspective, in some particular cases (as in this before us), but to draw the representations of objects as they appear to the eye,' etc. But I would ask, How? By guess, or by some rule? And if by any, by what rule are they to be drawn contrary to, or different from, the strict mathematical perspective rules?"

In reply to these and many other strictures contained in the preface, Hogarth wrote some remarks to Mr. Kirby, in which he asks, "Whether an oval or egg can be the true representation of a sphere or ball? or whether buildings should be drawn by any such rule as would make them appear tumbling down, and be allowed to be truly represented, because the designer of them is able to show how a spectator may, in half an hour's time, be placed at such a point as would make them all appear upright? as by a like trick or contrivance the oval may be foreshortened so as to appear a circle."

He further asks, "Would a carpenter allow fourteen inches to be the true representation of a foot-rule, since in no situation whatever can the eye possibly see it so?"

Again: "Did ever any history-painter widen or distort his figures as they are removed from the centre of his picture? Or would he draw a file of musqueteers in that manner, when the last man in the rank would be broader than high? Why would he then serve a poor column or pedestal thus, when, poor dumb things, they cannot help themselves? And are all objects exempt from the rules of perspective except buildings? Did Highmore ever so much as dream of an intervening plane when he had been drawing a family piece with four or five people in a row, so as to distort the bodies and forms of those who had the misfortune to be placed nearest to the side of the frame? And what satisfaction would it be to his customers to tell them they were only disposed by the true rules of perspective, and might be seen in their proper shape again if they would give themselves the trouble of looking through a pin hole at a certain distance, which, by learning perspective, they might be able to find in half an hour's time; or, to save themselves that trouble, they might get a painter to lug them about till their eye was brought to the proper point. He then observes, that he would not have the intervening plane wholly rejected, but that it should be laid aside when it begins to do mischief, or is of no use; for it is no doubt as necessary to painters of architecture as scaffolding is to builders; but, like the latter, is always to be taken away when the work comes to be finished; and every defect that either may have occasioned must be corrected by the eye, which is capable to judge of the most complicated objects, perspectively true, where the dry mathematics of the art are left far behind as incapable of lending the least assistance.

"These things our mathematicians are strangers to,--therefore, in my opinion, have rated them too high. Dr. Swift thought mere Philos a ridiculous sort of people, as appears by a song of his on two very remarkable ones--Whiston and Ditton. I forget it particularly, but it was about the longitude being mist on by Whiston, and not better hit on by Ditton: sing Whiston, etc. etc. Ditton has wrote a good book on speculative perspective."

Hogarth then alludes to Highmore's critique on Rubens' ceiling at Whitehall, and asks, "What is it but what almost every child knows, even without the knowledge of perspective? viz. that parallel lines always meet in a point, and that he has with penetration discovered. Oh, wonderful discovery! that Rubens, unskilfully, has kept them parallel in his column, to embellish which he has tacked two fibs: one, that the error was owing to the drawing them as they would appear to the eye; the other, that the historical figures are truly in perspective; whereas King James, the principal, has a head widened or distorted, though it goes off from the eye almost as much as he would have the side columns, which are the subjects of controversy."

[66] Though Mr. Malton's description is built on fancy as much as Mr. Hogarth's design, it must be acknowledged that some of his criticism is just. With respect to the column, nothing either elevated or grand has yet been produced by violently deviating from the first models. Mr. Emlyn, in the year 1782, published a proposition for a sixth order, which in some points resembles Hogarth's. The plan of _his_ column is to represent the particular character of our English chivalry in its most illustrious order--the order of the Garter: it is to be composed of the single trunks of trees; his capitals are to be copied from the plumage of the knights' caps, with the Ionic volutes interwoven and bound together in the front, with the star of the order between them. The fluting of the trunk is cabled, and the cables hollow and filled with the English arrow, the feathered end rising out of each of them. The ornament of the frieze over the columns is a plume of three ostrich feathers, etc. etc. etc.

Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his discourse delivered December 10, 1776, gives the following strong reasons against any new order succeeding:--

"Though it is from the prejudice we have in favour of the ancients, who have taught us architecture, that we had adopted likewise their ornaments; and though we are satisfied that neither nature nor reason are the foundation of those beauties which we imagine we see in that art; yet if any one, persuaded of this truth, should therefore invent new orders of equal beauty, which we will suppose to be possible, yet they would not please; nor ought he to complain, since the old has that great advantage of having custom and prejudice on its side. In this case we leave what has every prejudice in its favour, to take that which will have no advantage over what we have left, but novelty, which soon destroys itself, and at any rate is but a weak antagonist against custom."

[67] "On our own stage we have seen dances in which the ingenious composer thought he represented the four seasons, the four elements, and the five senses. These jigs conveyed about as much meaning as dancing odes or dancing sermons."

[68] Mr. Rouquet, enamel painter to the King of France, in his book on _The Present State of the Arts in England_, printed for Nourse in 1755, after enumerating chasing, engraving, painting, sculpture, architecture, etc., as arts that are practised in England, concludes with a chapter on the Art of Cookery, which he thus gravely introduces:--

"There is an art, the only one that can justly pretend to unite pleasure with absolute utility; but this art, born in servitude, to which it is still condemned, notwithstanding its extreme importance, is reckoned ignoble, for which reason some perhaps will be surprised at seeing me give it a place in this work; I mean the art of preparing aliments."

[69] This is a palpable hit at Handel. In a caricatured portrait, entitled "The Charming Brute," this great composer is delineated sitting on a hogshead with the profile of a boar, a bill of fare, and other emblems of voluptuousness scattered round him. Published March 21, 1754. Motto on a scroll, "I am myself alone," and under the print these lines:--

"The figure's odd, yet who would think,
Within this tomb of meat and drink
There dwells the soul of soft desires,
And all that harmony inspires?
Can contrast such as this be found
Upon the globe's extensive round?
There can! yon hogshead is his seat,
His sole diversion is to eat."

When Handel had once a large party to dinner, the cloth being removed, he introduced plain port. Having drank four or five glasses with his guests, he suddenly started up--exclaimed--"I have a thought!" and stalked out of the room, to which after a short absence he returned. Having drank a few more glasses he uttered the same sentence--again retreated, and again returned. It was naturally supposed that he wished to commit to paper some idea that struck him at the moment, and passed over; but, when in less than an hour he a third time started--growled out--"I have a thought!" and a third time left the company, one of the gentlemen privately followed, and traced him into another apartment, where, on looking through the keyhole, he saw this great master of music kneel down to a hamper of champagne, that he might more conveniently reach out a flask, which having nearly finished, he returned to his friends!

[70] In Hogarth's time the forms of nature were tortured and disguised by stiff stays: the ladies of the present day are not guilty of _this_ error. As to _the bloom of Circassia_, the less that is said about it the better.

[71] However unimportant Hogarth thought the cut of a coat, certain adepts in the art, about two years since, published a half-guinea book, on the scientific acquisitions necessary to make a perfect tailor!

"This day is published, price 10s. 6d., _The Tailor's Complete Guide, or a Comprehensive Analysis of Beauty and Elegance of Dress_; containing rules for cutting out garments of every kind, and fitting any person with the greatest accuracy and precision. Also plain directions how to avoid the errors of the trade in misfitting, and pointing out the method of rectifying what may be done amiss; to which is added a description to cut out and make the patent plastic habits and clothes without the usual seams, now in the highest estimation with the nobility and gentry, according to the patent granted by his Majesty; the whole concerted and devised by a society of adepts in the profession.

*** "This work was undertaken solely for the benefit of the trade, to instruct the rising generation, and perfectly to complete them in the art and science of cutting out clothes. The copperplates consist of each separated part, which will on the first view convince the uninformed mind that with a little attention he may be a complete tailor."

[72] Hogarth might conceive that, by rendering the habits of his early figures more conformable to the fashion of the times, when they were altered he improved them. Collectors are of a different opinion, though it must be acknowledged that, in Plate IV. of "The Rake's Progress," the humour is much heightened by introducing a group of vulgar minor gamblers in the place of the shoeblack.

[73] The picture was exhibited at Spring Gardens in the year 1761, with the title of "Piquet, or Virtue in Danger," and is still in the collection of the nobleman for whom it was painted.

It may fairly be considered as a moral lesson against gaming. The clock denotes five in the morning. The lady has lost her money, jewels, a miniature of her husband, and the half of a £500 bank note, which, by a letter lying on the floor, she appears to have recently received from him. In fine, all is lost except her honour; and in this dangerous moment she is represented perplexed, agitated, and irresolute. A print of it has lately been finely engraved by Mr. Cheesman.

[74] In the little memorandum book from which I extracted this, Hogarth has inserted the following note (without the translation) from _Horace_. I do not produce it as a proof that he was a Latin scholar, but suppose that the lines were pointed out by some literary friend, and he thus applied them:--

"Segnius irritant animos dimissa per aures,
Quam quæ sunt oculis commissa fidelibus."

"What we hear,
With weaker passion will affect the ear,
Than when the faithful eye beholds the part."
--FRANCIS.

[75] The artist requested his widow would not sell it during her lifetime for less than £500. She abided by his injunction. Since her death it was put up to auction at Greenwood's rooms, and purchased by Messrs. Boydell: it is in their possession now.

I some years since saw a picture of "Lucretia," by Domenichino, in the collection of Mr. Welbore Ellis Agar, which in air, attitude, and expression, bore a strong resemblance to Hogarth's "Sigismunda."

[76] "The Altar-piece to St. Mary Redcliffe's, Bristol," for which he received five hundred pounds, and the "Paul before Felix," painted for Lincoln's-Inn Hall.

[77] That this picture was much abused is certain, but it is equally certain that the painter had occasionally some consolatory compliments. Robert Lloyd, in one of his fables, asserts that "Sigismunda"

"Shall urge a bold and proper claim
To level half the ancient fame."

A writer in the _Public Advertiser_, March 7, 1761, honours it with the following stanzas:--

"_Upon seeing the picture of 'Sigismunda,' painted by Hogarth._

"Antiquity, be dumb! no longer boast
Arts yet unrivall'd or invention lost:
From Greece, whose taste was fashion'd into law,
From far-fam'd Greece, one instance let us draw.
Atrides' grief Timanthes strove to paint,
But found his art was foil'd, his colours faint:
A veil conceal'd the inexpressive face,
And what was want of power was call'd 'a grace.'
In Sigismund the mind no want supplies,
The painter trusts his genius to your eyes;
Passion's warm tints beneath his pencil glow,
And from the canvas starts the living woe.
At length be just--throw prejudice aside;
The modern shows--what the Greek could but hide.
Then from the ancient take the palm away,
And crown the greatest Artist of his day."
--HOWARD.

[78] _N.B._--At Sir Luke Schaub's sale, Sir Richard Grosvenor bid four hundred pounds for a less picture, said to be a "Correggio," but really painted by an obscure French artist.

[79] It appears by the subscription-book that it closed March 26. During this time there were fifty subscribers at half a guinea each; the receipts were given on the print of "Time Smoking a Picture." The first name is that of Dr. Garnier, for two prints; the last, who also subscribes for two prints, is Mr. Thomas Hollis. This gentleman would not receive back the guinea he had paid, and it was given to a public charity. Among the names are the late Philip Thicknesse, Dr. Hunter, Samuel Curteis of Wapping, and David Garrick; against each of the subscriptions is marked, "Money returned."

Under the direction of Hogarth, Mr. Basire made an etching from "Sigismunda," but it was never finished. A drawing in oil was made from it by Mr. Edwards, and it was a few years since engraved in mezzotinto by Dunkerton. Mr. Ridley engraved it for Messrs. Boydell, and a reduced copy is in the first volume of _Hogarth Illustrated_.

[80] The chosen band who then directed the storm, having dragged poor "Sigismunda" into their political vortex, the cannibal caricaturists of the day tore her in pieces as a carcase for the hounds, and rioted over her mangled remains.

One of these political slaughtermen, in a print entitled "The Bruiser Triumphant," describes Sigismunda in the character of a harlot blubbering over a bullock's heart. In another, elegantly inscribed "Tit for Tat," Hogarth is represented painting Wilkes' portrait, and a bloated and filthy figure displayed in the background baptized Sigismunda. Many other wretched and contemptible squibs were hurled about on the same occasion. Besides this public abuse, some of the anonymous versifiers of the day, who were not yet important enough to figure in a newspaper or flutter in a magazine, condescended to notice his political errors, and for the gratification of the artist transmitted their effusions to Leicester Fields.

The following stanzas I found among his other papers, addressed

"_To the Author of the Times._

"Why, Billy, in the vale of life,
Show so much rancour, spleen, and strife?
Why, Billy, at a statesman's whistle,
Drag dirty loads and feed on thistle?
Did any of the long-ear'd tribe
E'er swallow half so mean a bribe?
Pray have you no sinister end,
Thus to abuse the nation's friend?
His country's and his monarch's glory,
Who prais'd no man as Whig or Tory.
His country is his dearest mother,
And every honest man his brother.
Not so your patron can appear,
He buys up scrip, and stops the arrear;
His practice still, in every station,
To serve himself and starve the nation.
Then, Billy, in the vale of life,
Desist from all this noise and strife;
For though the hint perhaps is bold,
I tell thee thou art growing old.
Read coolly, o'er thy evening glass,
Toledo's bishop in _Gil Blas_."

Christening the author of the _North Briton_ "his country's and his monarch's glory," leads us to suspect that the ingenious gentleman who fabricated the above rhymes had some little portion of party prejudice. The Quaker who wrote the annexed letter and epigram, which, as well as the verses that follow, were amongst Hogarth's manuscripts, was moved by a very different spirit:--

"_Of the eighth month, the 20th day, 1763._

"FRIEND HOGARTH,--I am one of those people, by a sort of
disrespectful appellation, called Quakers; for we strive to
abound in the milk of human kindness, and prefer the dove to
the serpent. I know thee not but by thy works and fame as an
ingenious artist in thine own way. I have seen thy compositions
and handy works, and think them not only ingenious, but moral,
and even more than dramatic, perfectly epic; so that I think thou
deservest the character of _the Epic painter_, which I hereby
bestow upon thee, and by which thou shalt be distinguished in
future generations; for if I do not much mistake the matter,
thy name will be had in honour when thine adversaries shall
have perished,--I would have said, and shall stink,--but _that_
they do already. I have hereby sent thee an epigram, such as my
spirit dictated to me. I fear it hath too much in it of the gall
of bitterness. But I will tell thee, friend Hogarth, I am a man
of some small property and authority, having cattle under me;
and when the brutes are poisoned, I cure them with wormwood. Let
not thy noble spirit that is in thee be diverted from its true
and masterly turn of exposing licentiousness, vice, hypocrisy,
faction, and apostasy.--Thine in all brotherly and good wishes,

"EPHRAIM KNOX."

AN EPIGRAM.

_To the Rev. Charles Churchill, Esquire, etc._

"Thou boast'st, vain Churchill, with thy gray goose quill,
Thou'st kill'd, or surely wilt poor Hogarth kill.
Alas! he (with the world) will only smile
At self-importance in a frippery style.
'Churchill, stand forth!'--I call thee not my friend;--
The sober dictates of my lines attend.
"Wast thou, like Hogarth, _in thine own way good_,
Thou in the reading-desk might'st yet have stood;
Though poor,--perhaps a reputable curate,--
Sad! that thy stubborn heart is yet obdurate.
Without fair hope of pension or of place,
To make a shipwreck of _divinest grace_!"
--EPHRAIM KNOX.

_To Mr. Hogarth._

"BRIGHTHELMSTONE, _July 9, 1763_.

"SIR,--You see the effects of the salt waters here; they incline us to scribble by way of amusement. I have sent you the following stanzas, which you may print or do what you please with:--

_To the Rev. C. Churchill._

"Non ut pictura poesis."

"Dear Churchill, what ill-fated hour
Has put thee into Hogarth's power?
This railing shows how much you're hurt,
While Hogarth nothing meant but sport;
Transmitting unto future times
What might not live in Churchill's rhymes,--
The perfect hero, poet, sage!
The pride, the wonder of the age!
That form,--which eating Peers admired,--
Which heaven-born liberty inspir'd!
Which keeps our ministers in awe,
And is from justice screen'd by law!
"The sad resource to which you're driven,
Appears by your appeal to heaven:
A place ne'er thought on once before,--
Withdraw th' appeal and give it o'er.
You must proceed by different ways;
_Your_ only court's the Common Pleas.
"Horace was wrong when once he said,
Hogarth and he were of a trade.
No varying verse, howe'er divine,
Can match with Raphael's stronger line.
The pencil, like contracted light,
Strikes with superior force the sight.
"Churchill, be wise: in time retire,
While Hogarth yet suspends his fire;
There's something in thee like a spell,
Though we can't love,--we wish thee well.
You ne'er can wish to purchase shame,
By driving on a losing game:
His feeble hand, though you despise it,
Will make you tremble, should he rise it:
Already has his fancy hit on
A frontispiece for the _North Briton_;
Where in full view the virtuous pair
Shall thus their various merits share.
"Thy rose and Bible thrown aside,
And the long cassock's tatter'd pride;
His liberal hand shall in their stead
Place nettles circling round thy head,
Entwin'd with thistles fully blown,
To wear these honours _all thy own_!
"Next, round thy friend, and all in taste,
See every social _virtue_ plac'd;
Fair Truth and modest Candour joined,--
Those softer emblems of the mind;
Faction expiring by his pen,
And Loyalty restor'd again;
Whilst he regards not this or that,
Secure of T---- and of P----.
"The piece thus finish'd for our view,
The lines correct, the likeness true,
Hogarth, ensur'd of future fame,
Shall consecrate to Churchill's name."

[81] I think the reader will agree with me, that such assertions as the following demanded an apology:--

"His (Hogarth's) works are his history. As a painter he had but slender merit; in colouring he proved no greater a master: his force lay in expression, not in tints and chiaroscuro."--_Anecdotes of Painting_, vol. iv. p. 160.

How was it possible for Mr. Walpole to have written the foregoing lines after having seen the pictures of "Marriage à la Mode"?

[82] The last volume was not published till October 9, 1780, though printed in 1771.--_Advertisement_ to vol. iv.

[83] The reader is referred to Vol. II. Plate 70, where the picture is given in its perfected state.

[84] Archbishop Tillotson remarks in one of his sermons, that _Hocus Pocus_ is derived from _Hoc est Corpus_.

[85] "This new dispensation (Methodism) is a composition of enthusiasm, superstition, and imposture. When the blood and spirits run high, inflaming the brain and imagination, it is most properly enthusiasm, which is religion run mad. When low and dejected, causing groundless terrors, or the placing the great duty of man in little observances, it is superstition, which is religion scared out of its senses. When any fraudulent dealings are made use of, and any wrong projects carried on under the mask of piety, it is imposture, and may be termed religion turned hypocrite."--Lavington's _Enthusiasm of Methodists and Papists Compared_, vol. i. p. 79.

[86] Mahomet being once asked, What is this Alla, whom thou declarest unto the people? with much more exalted and sublime ideas, replied, "It is he who derives being from himself; from whom all others derive their being; and to whom there is no likeness in the whole extent of space."

[87] Bishop Lavington, after quoting many of the legends of St. Catherine and St. Teresa, and the journals of modern Methodists, which in a very similar style describe their divine love, concludes as follows:--

"'Tis true indeed, as the legendaries own, that St. Catherine was slandered as a fond and light woman, and St. Teresa kept such bad company, that most persons concluded celestial visions were not compatible with her kind of life; but all this may be reconciled; for these excesses of the spiritual and carnal affections are nearer allied than is generally thought, arising from the same irregular emotions of the blood and animal spirits; and the patient is hurried on either way, according to the nature of the object; and I am much mistaken, and so is history too, if some of the warmest and most enthusiastic pretenders to the love of God have not entertained the same violence of passion (not quite so spiritual) for their neighbours."--Lavington's _Enthusiasm of Papists and Methodists Compared_, vol. i. p. 57.

[88] Let it not be supposed that because the female mendicant and her handcuffed neighbour are half naked, they are in any degree ashamed. "Among the Papists there are religious orders who profess to prefer food, bed, and raiment of the vilest sort for their greater spiritual proficiency; and St. Philip Nerius was such a lover of poverty, that he frequently besought Almighty God to bring him to such a state as to stand in need of a penny, and find nobody that would give him one."--Lavington's _Enthusiasm_, etc.

[89] What renders this still more curious is, that the word signifies "oxen."

[90] When this circumstance was once mentioned to Dr. Rundle, as a striking instance of Abraham's obedience, the Doctor in reply said, that however it might be generally understood,--if he had been a Justice of Peace in Abraham's parish, he would have committed him till he found sufficient bail for his good behaviour. Some good-natured friend repeated this speech to Queen Caroline, and it retarded Rundle's promotion for many years.

[91] Of the plate in its first state there are only two impressions, both of them in the possession of the Editor, who has published a correct copy of the same size, which may be had from him or from Messrs. Boydell.

On the margin of these two prints Hogarth has inserted slight pen-and-ink sketches of "A Monk as a Windmill," "the Hopper of a Mill," etc. These are copied in the annexed plate of reference, and in a degree elucidated by the following passage in Burnet's _Travels through Switzerland_, etc., p. 232:--

"Over a popish altar at Worms is a picture one would think invented to ridicule transubstantiation. There is a windmill, and the Virgin throws Christ into the hopper, and he comes out at the eye of the mill all in wafers, which some priest takes up to give to the people. This is so coarse an emblem, that one would think it was too gross even for Laplanders; but a man that can swallow transubstantiation will digest this likewise."

Of painters presuming to explain the Trinity by a triangle, Hogarth and Swift thought alike:

"If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them unless He would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind."--SWIFT.

[92]

"For eating and drinking _we_ know the best rules,
Our fathers and mothers were blockheads and fools;
'Tis dress, cards, and dancing, alone should engage
This highly enlighten'd and delicate age."

[93] Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, a print of a larger size has been copied from the picture by Mr. T. Philips.

[94] These raptures were expensive. The lavish profusion which our people of rank then displayed in their presents to this band of quavering exotics is scarcely credible. The _Daily Advertiser_ gives a list of some of the contributors, and states Farinelli's share at more than £2000 a year; to which if we add his salary £1500 and casual presents, his annual income must have been more than four thousand pounds!

[95] See Shakspeare's _Julius Cæsar_ and _Antony and Cleopatra_.

[96] Of this gentleman there is a tolerably good mezzotinto print, engraved by Kirkall from a picture by Goupy, with the following curious inscription from the Italian:--

"Renown'd Sienna gave him birth and name,
Kind Heaven his voice, and harmony his fame.
While here the great and fair their tribute bring,
The deaf may wonder whence his merits spring,
But all think Fortune just that hear him sing."

There is a portrait of Carlo Broschi Detto Farinelli, Amiconi pinxit. C. Grignion sculp. small circle.

[97] _Art of Spelling, The Complete Justice, etc._ This austere magistrate has been said to be intended for Sir Thomas De Veil, who raised himself from the rank of a common soldier to a station in which he made a considerable figure; but De Veil wrote French and English, and was both intelligent and active.

[98] _Religious Ceremonies of all Nations_, published at Amsterdam in 1735. He entitles this print, "_Le Serment de la Fille qui se trouve enceinte_." On the same page he has introduced a copy from Sympson's print of orator Henley christening a child, and calls it "_Le Baptême Domestique_."

[99] The gates of this charity were for several years open to the orphans of those who fell in the battles of their country. A great number of the children who became orphans by the battle of Minden were admitted into this Hospital.

[100] When Schalcken once painted a portrait of King William, he requested his Majesty to hold the candle; this the monarch did till the tallow ran down upon his fingers. To justify this piece of ill-breeding, the painter drew his own portrait in the same situation.

[101] The conductors of this office have printed proposals, stating their terms, etc.; but the business is sometimes transacted by individuals, through the medium of the public prints. The following advertisements are copied from the daily papers:--

MATRIMONY.

"A gentleman of honour and property having in his disposal at
present a young lady of good family, with a fortune of sixty
thousand pounds on her marrying with his approbation, would be
very happy to treat with a man of fortune and family, who may
think it worth his while to give the advertiser a gratuity of
five thousand pounds. Direct, etc."

MATRIMONY.

"A gentleman who hath filled two succeeding seats in Parliament,
is near sixty years of age, lives in great splendour and
hospitality, and from whom a considerable estate must pass if he
dies without issue, hath no objection to marry any single lady,
provided the party be of genteel birth, polite manners, and five,
six, seven, or eight months advanced in her pregnancy. Address to
---- Brecknock, Esq., etc."--_Pub. Adv., April 16, 1776._

[102] The apology here alluded to was made in a letter to the author of the _Beggars' Opera_, dated December 16, 1731, and ushered into the world as written by a Mr. Cleland, who had a few years before sent a letter to the publisher of the _Dunciad_, explaining the author's motives for writing the poem, and subjoining a list of the books in which he had been abused, etc. This Pope printed; and this, as well as the letter to Mr. Gay, it was universally believed was written by Pope. In a note to the letter to Gay, printed in the same volume with the _Dunciad_, the poet, after giving Mr. Cleland a very high character for diligence, punctuality, etc., concludes: "and yet for all this, the public will not allow him to be the author of this letter."

[103] Hogarth has introduced these three figures in rather a better style, in his print of "The Small Masquerade Ticket, or Burlington Gate."

[104] Mr. Pope has honoured this dignified divine with a slight stroke in the Epistle to Lord Burlington, and note on the lines--

"To rest, the cushion and soft Dean invite,
Who never mentions hell to ears polite."[105]

[105] "A reverend Dean, preaching at Court, threatened the sinner with punishment in a place he thought it not decent to name in so polite an assembly."--P.

[106] To this architectural ornament he has an unquestionable right. His Lordship (besides other buildings) designed the Dormitory at Westminster School, the Assembly Room at York, Lord Harrington's at Petersham, and General Wade's in Cork Street. The latter, though ill-contrived and inconvenient, had so beautiful a front, that Lord Chesterfield said, "As the General could not live in it at his ease, he had better take a house over against it, and look at it."

[107]

"Yet shall (my Lord) your just, your noble rules,
Fill half the land with imitating fools,
Who random drawings from your sheets shall take,
And of one beauty many blunders make."

His Lordship was then publishing copies from the designs of Palladio and Inigo Jones.

The elegant but ill-natured stanzas which allude to the Duke of Chandos, beginning, "At Timon's villa let us pass a day," everybody knows. The delicately turned compliments to Lord Burlington display the poet's art; his precepts on ornamental gardening prove his taste and judgment. I cannot resist the temptation of recalling six or eight lines to the reader's recollection, were it only to subjoin Dr. Warburton's curious note, which admirably illustrates the remark that

"A perfect judge will read each work of wit
With the same spirit that its author writ:"--

"Consult the Genius of the place in all;[108]
That tells the waters or to rise or fall;
Or helps the ambitious hill the heavens to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatre the vale;
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades.
Now breaks or now directs th' intending lines,
Paints as you plant, and as you work designs."

[108] THE NOTE!

"First, the Genius of the place 'tells the waters,' or only simply gives directions: then he 'helps the ambitious hill,' or is a fellow-labourer: then again, he 'scoops the circling theatre,' or works alone, or in chief. Afterwards, rising fast in our idea of dignity, he 'calls in the country,' alluding to the orders of princes in their progress, when accustomed to display all their state and magnificence. His character then grows sacred, 'he joins willing woods,' a metaphor taken from one of the offices of the priesthood, till at length he becomes a divinity, and creates, and presides over the whole."--Warburton's edit. of _Pope_, 1752, vol. iii. p. 285.

Would the reader wish a better specimen of the Bishop's taste!

[109] An artist in the year 1762 stole Hogarth's thunder, and aimed the bolt at the head of him who had forged it. In a print entitled "The Butifyer, or a Touch upon the Times," he is represented in the character of a shoeblack, blackening a great jack-boot, and bespattering the surrounding crowd.

Beneath is inscribed, "With what judgment ye judge, shall ye be judged."--Matt. chap. vii. ver. 2; and,

"In justice to Mr. Hogarth, the engraver of this plate declares to the public he took the hint of 'The Butifyer' from a print of Mr. Pope whitewashing Lord Burlington's gate, and at the same time bespattering the rest of the nobility."

[110] Fielding and Hogarth had in some respects similar powers and similar want of success in things for which they seemed peculiarly gifted. Admirable as was the dialogue of the comic characters in Fielding's novels, he was unable to give them stage effect; and though Hogarth saw nature in all her varieties, and gave to every face the index of their mind, he rarely succeeded in historical pictures.

[111] This etching is so nearly a fac-simile of the original, that when it was brought home Hogarth mistook it for his own drawing, which, considering of no value, he threw into the fire, whence it was snatched by Mrs. Lewis, though not before the paper was scorched.

Hogarth made a very whimsical design for Fielding's tragedy of tragedies, _Tom Thumb the Great_. It was engraved by Vandergucht, and is prefixed to the play published by Lowndes, etc.

[112] Mr. King, in his _Observations on Ancient Castles_, observes that "Lord Lovat was one of the last chieftains that preserved the rude manners and barbarous authority of the early feudal ages. He resided in a house which would be esteemed but an indifferent one for a very private plain country gentleman in England, as it had properly only four rooms on a floor, and those not large. Here, however, he kept a sort of court, and several public tables, and a numerous body of retainers always attending. His own constant residence, and the place where he always received company, even at dinner, was the very same room where he lodged; and his lady's sole apartment was her bedroom; and the only provision for the lodging of the servants and retainers was a quantity of straw, which they spread every night on the floors of the lower rooms, where the whole inferior part of the family, consisting of a very great number of persons, took up their abode!"--_Archæologia_, vol. iv.

[113] By a book on the table, inscribed _Memoirs_, Hogarth seems to allude to the manuscript.

[114] In the name by which the old peer supposed the Maiden was to be distinguished in a future age, he was mistaken. The Guillotine is an improvement of the Maiden; so that, though France has been the first to bring it into universal practice, Scotland is entitled to the whole honour of the invention.

[115] The mad peer in Pope's imitation of Horace was not very grateful to the d--d doctor:

"Who, from a patriot of distinguished note,
Blister'd and bled him to a single vote."

[116] A complete set of reduced copies from his prints are now publishing at Gottingen, with illustrations in the German and French languages.