Part 20

The figure of the beau holding the china-saucer is said to have been that of Lord _Portmore_, dressed as he first appeared at court after his return from _France_. The young female was designed for a celebrated courtezan, who was the _Kitty Fisher_ of her time. Her familiarity with the black boy alludes to a similar weakness in a noble duchess, who educated two brats of the same colour. One of them afterwards robbed her, and the other was guilty of some offence equally unpardonable. The pictures with which the room is adorned, contain many strokes of temporary satire. See the _Venus_ with stays, a hoop, and high-heel'd shoes; _Cupid_ burning all these parts of dress, together with a modish wig, &c.; a second _Cupid_ paring down a plump lady to the fashionable standard; and [in a framed picture classed with a number of insects] the figure of _Desnoyer_ the dancing-master in a grand ballet. The ridicule on the folly of collecting old china, &c. &c. are alike circumstances happily introduced, and explanatory of the fashions then in vogue. The colouring is better than that in most of _Hogarth's_ pictures. The plate is now the property of Mr. _Sayer_.

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1743.

1. _Benjamin Hoadly_, bishop of _Winchester. W. Hogarth pinx. B. Baron sculp._ The plate belongs to Mrs. _Hoadly_.

2. Captain _Thomas Coram_, who obtained the charter[1] for _The Foundling Hospital_. Mezzotinto; a three-quarters. The first print published by _M'Ardell_. The original is a whole length. The captain has the seal of the charter in his hand. Before him is a globe; at a distance a prospect of the sea. This is perhaps the best of all _Hogarth's_ portraits, and is thus described in the _Scandalizade_, a satire published about 1749.

"Lo! old Captain _Coram_,[2] so round in the face, And a pair of good chaps plump'd up in good case, His amiable locks hanging grey on each side To his double-breast coat o'er his shoulders so wide," &c.

[1] In which the name of _William Hogarth_ stands enrolled as one of the earliest governors of the charity.

[2] Mr. _Coram_ was bred to the sea, and spent the first part of his life as master of a vessel trading to our colonies. While he resided in that part of the metropolis which is the common residence of seafaring people, business often obliging him to come early into the city and return late; he had frequent occasions of seeing young children exposed, through the indigence or cruelty of their parents. This excited his compassion so far, that he projected _The Foundling Hospital_; in which humane design he laboured 17 years, and at last, by his sole application, obtained the royal charter for it.[A] He died at his lodgings near _Leicester-Square, March_ 29, 1751, in his 84th year: and was interred under the chapel of the _Foundling Hospital_, where the following inscription perpetuates his memory:

"Captain THOMAS CORAM, whose Name will never want a Monument so long as this Hospital shall subsist, was born about the year 1668; a Man eminent in that most eminent Virtue, the Love of Mankind; little attentive to his private Fortune, and refusing many Opportunities of encreasing it, his Time and Thoughts were continually employed in endeavours to promote the public Happiness, both in this Kingdom and elsewhere, particularly in the Colonies of North America; and his Endeavours were many Times crowned with the desired Success. His unwearied Solicitation, for above Seventeen Years together, (which would have battled the Patience and Industry of any Man less zealous in doing Good) and his Application to Persons of Distinction of both Sexes, obtained at Length the Charter of the Incorporation (bearing Date the 17th of _October_, 1739) FOR THE MAINTENANCE AND EDUCATION OF EXPOSED AND DESERTED YOUNG CHILDREN, by which many Thousands of Lives may be preserved to the Public, and employed in a frugal and honest Course of Industry. He died the 29th of _March_, 1731, in the 84th Year of his Age, poor in worldly Estate, rich in good Works; was buried, at his own Desire, in the Vault underneath this Chapel; (the first here deposited) at the East End thereof; many of the Governors and other Gentlemen attending the Funeral, to do Honour to his Memory. Reader, thy Actions will shew whether thou art sincere in the Praises thou may'st bestow on him; and if thou hast Virtue enough to commend his Virtues, forget not to add also the Imitation of them."

[A] For his other charitable projects, see Biog. Dict. 1784, vol. IV. p. 120.

3. The same engraving, for the _London Magazine_.

4. Characters and Caricaturas, "_to show that Leonardo da Vinci exaggerated the latter._" The subscription-ticket to Marriage à la Mode.

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1745.

1. Marriage à la Mode.[1] Six plates. In 1746 was published, "Marriage à la Mode: an Humourous Tale, in Six Canto's, in Hudibrastic Verse; being an Explanation of the Six Prints lately published by the ingenious Mr. _Hogarth. London_: printed for _Weaver Bickerton_, in _Temple-Exchange Passage_, in _Fleet-Street_, 1746. Price One Shilling." Of this pamphlet it will be sufficient to extract the Preface and the arguments of the several Canto's; the poem itself (if such it may be called) being extended to the length of 59 pages.

"The prints of Marriage à la Mode, being the latest production of that celebrated Artist who had before obliged the town with several entertaining pieces, have, ever since their publication, been very justly admired; the particular vein of humour, that runs through the whole of his works, is more especially preserved in this.

"If the Comic Poet who draws the characters of the age he lives in, by keeping strictly up to their manners in their speeches and expressions; if satirizing vice and encouraging virtue in dialogue, to render it familiar, is always reckoned amongst the liberal arts; and the authors, when dead, dignified with busts and monuments sacred to their memory; sure the master of the pencil, whose traits carry, not only a lively image of the persons and manners, but whose happy genius has found the secret of so disposing the several parts, as to convey a pleasing and instructive moral through the history he represents, may claim a rank in the foremost class, and acquire, if the term is allowable, the appellation of the Dramatic Painter.

"The Modish Husband, incapable of relishing the pleasures of true happiness, is here depicted in his full swing of vice, 'till his mistaken conduct drives his wife to be false to his bed, and brings him to a wretched end; killed in revenging the loss of that virtue which he would never cherish. The Lady is equally represented as a true copy of all the fine ladies of the age, who, by indulging their passions, run into all those extravagances, that at last occasion a shameful exit. If the gentlemen of the long robe, who ought to know the consequences, are guilty of committing such a breach of hospitality as is here described, they are properly reprimanded: the penurious Alderman, and the profligate old Nobleman, are a fine contrast; the Quack Doctor, the _Italian_ Singer, &c. are proofs of the Inventor's judgement and distinction, both in high and low life.

"Though these images are pleasing to the eye, yet many have complained that they wanted a proper explanation, which we hope will plead an excuse for publication of the following Canto's, as the desire to render these pieces more extensive may atone for the many faults contained in this poem, for which the _Hudibrastic_ style was thought most proper."

THE ARGUMENTS.

CANTO I. "The joys and plagues that wedlock brings, The Limner paints, the Poet sings; How the old dads weigh either scale, And set their children up to sale; How, void of thought, the Viscount weds The nymph, who such a marriage dreads; And, whilst himself the Fop admires, _M----y_ with love her soul inspires."

CANTO II. "The wedding o'er, the ill-match'd pair Are left at large, their fate to share; All public places he frequents, Whilst she her own delight invents; And, full of love, bewails her doom, When drunk i'th' morning he comes home; The pious stew'rd, in great surprize, Runs from them with uplifted eyes."

CANTO III. "My Lord now keeps a common Miss, Th' effects describ'd of amorous bliss, Venereal taints infect their veins, And fill them full of aches and pains; Which to an old _French_ Doctor drives 'em, Who with his pill, a grand p--x gives 'em; A scene of vengeance next ensues, With which the Muse her tale pursues."

CANTO IV. "Fresh honours on the Lady wait, A Countess now she shines in state; The toilette is at large display'd, Where whilst the morning concert's play'd, She listens to her lover's call, Who courts her to the midnight-ball."

CANTO V. "The dismal consequence behold, Of wedding girls of _London_ mould; The Husband is depriv'd of life, In striving to detect his Wife; The Lawyer naked, in surprize, Out of the Bagnio window flies: Whilst Madam, leaping from the bed, Doth on her knee for pardon plead."

CANTO VI. "The Lawyer meets his just reward, Nor from the triple tree is spar'd; The Father takes my Lady home, Where, when she hears her Lover's doom, To desperate attempts she flies, And with a dose of poison dies."

In these plates only a single variation is detected. In the very first impressions of the second of them (perhaps a few only were taken off) a lock of hair on the forehead of the lady is wanting. It was added by our artist, after _Baron_ had finished the plate. In the early copies he inserted it with _Indian_ ink. A passage in the _Analysis_[2] will perhaps account for this supplemental ornament: "A lock of hair falling cross the temples, and by that means breaking the regularity of the oval, has an effect too alluring to be strictly decent." The room represented in this plate is adorned with a _melange_ of pictures on wanton and devotional subjects.

Mr. _Walpole_ has remarked, that the works of _Hogarth_ have little obscurity. This position is true in general, though _Marriage à la Mode_ may supply an exception to it; no two persons, perhaps, having hitherto agreed in their explanation of Plate the third.[3]

When this set of plates was to be engraved, _Ravenet_, a young artist, then just coming into employ, was recommended to Mr. _Hogarth_; and a hard bargain was made. _Ravenet_ went through two of the plates, but the price proved far inadequate to the labour. He remonstrated, but could obtain no augmentation. When the _Sigismunda_ was to be engraved, Mr. _Ravenet_ was in a different sphere of life. The painter, with many compliments, solicited his assistance as an engraver, but _Ravenet_ indignantly declined the connexion.

In the fourth of these plates[4] are the following portraits: Mrs. _Lane_ (afterwards Lady _Bingley_) adoring _Carestini_; her husband _Fox Lane_ asleep. _Rouquet_ only calls him "Un gentilhomme campagnard, fatigué d'une course après quelque renard ou quelque cerf, s'endort." This idea seems to be countenanced by the whip in his hand. The same explainer adds, speaking of the two next figures, "Ici on voit en papillotes un de ces personages qui passent toute leur vie à tâcher de plaire sans y reüssir; la, un eventail au poing, on reconnoît un de ces hérétiques en amour, un sectateur d'_Anacreon_." The former of these has been supposed to represent Monsieur _Michel_, the _Prussian_ ambassador. _Weideman_ is playing on the _German_ flute.--The pictures in the room are properly suited to the bed-chamber of a profligate pair--_Jupiter_ and _Io, Lot_ with his Daughters, _Ganymede_ and the Eagle, and the Young Lawyer who debauches the Countess. The child's coral, hanging from the back of the chair she sits in, serves to shew she was already a mother; a circumstance that renders her conduct still more unpardonable. Some of her new-made purchases, exposed on the floor, bear witness to the warmth of her inclinations. These will soon be gratified at the fatal masquerade, for which her paramour is offering her a ticket.

The pompous picture on the right hand of the window in the nobleman's apartment, Plate I. also deserves attention. It appears to be designed as a ridicule on the unmeaning flutter of _French_ portraits, some of which (particularly those of _Louis_ XIV.) are painted in a style of extravagance equal at least to the present parody by _Hogarth_. This ancestor of our peer is invested with several foreign orders. At the top of one corner of the canvas, are two winds blowing across each other, while the hero's drapery is flying quite contrary directions. A comet is likewise streaming over his head. In his hand he grasps the lightning of _Jove_, and reposes on a cannon going off, whose ball is absurdly rendered an object of sight. A smile, compounded of self-complacency and pertness, is the characteristic of his face.

On the cieling of this magnificent saloon is a representation of _Pharaoh_ and his Host drowned in the Red Sea. The pictures underneath are not on the most captivating subjects--_David_ killing _Goliath--Prometheus_ and the Vulture--the Murder of the _Innocents--Judith_ and _Holofernes_--St. _Sebastian_ shot full of Arrows--_Cain_ destroying _Abel_--and St. _Laurence_ on the Gridiron.

Among such little circumstances in this plate as might escape the notice of a careless spectator, is the Thief in the Candle, emblematic of the mortgage on his Lordship's estate.

When engravings on a contracted scale are made from large pictures, a few parts of them will unavoidably become so small, as almost to want distinctness. It has fared thus with a number of figures that appear before the unfinished edifice,[5] seen through a window in the first plate of this work. _Hogarth_ designed them for the lazy vermin of his Lordship's hall, who, having nothing to do, are sitting on the blocks of stone, or staring at the building;[6] for thus _Rouquet_ has described them, "Une troupe de lacquais oisifs, qui sont dans le cour de ce batiment, acheve de caracteriser le faste ruineux qui environne le comte." The same illustrator properly calls the _Citizen_ Echevin (i. e. sheriff) of _London_, on account of the chain he wears.

Plate II. From the late Dr. _Ducarel_ I received the following anecdote; but there must be some mistake in it, as _Herring_ was not archbishop till several years after the designs for _Marriage à la Mode_ were made.

"_Edward Swallow_, butler to Archbishop _Herring_, had an annuity of ten pounds given to him in his Grace's will. For the honesty and simplicity of his physiognomy, this old faithful servant was so remarkable, that _Hogarth_, wanting such a figure in _Marriage à la Mode_, accompanied the late dean of _Sarum_, Dr. _Thomas Greene_, on a public day, to _Lambeth_, on purpose to catch the likeness. As they were coming away, he whispered, 'I have him!' And he may now be seen to the life preserved in the old steward, in Plate II. with his hands held up, &c."

In Plate V. the back ground, which is laboured with uncommon delicacy (a circumstance that will be remarked by few except artists), was the work of Mr. _Ravenet's_ wife. _Solomon's_ wise judgement is represented on the tapestry. When _Ravenet's_ two plates were finished, _Hogarth_ wanted much to retouch the faces,[7] and many disputes happened between him and the engraver on this subject. The first impressions, however, escaped without correction. Those who possess both copies, may discover evident marks of _Hogarth's_ hand in the second. See particularly the countenance of the dying nobleman, which is fairly ploughed up by his heavier burin.

I have been told that our artist took the portrait of the female, who is so placed, that the legs of a figure in the tapestry supply the want of her own, from a coarse picture of a woman called _Moll Flanders_.

Plate the sixth of this set, affords _Rouquet_ an opportunity of illustrating the following remark, which he had made at the outset of his undertaking: "Ce qu'un _Anglois_ lit, pour ainsi dire, en jettant les yeux sur ces estampes, va exiger de vous la lecture de plusieurs pages." Speaking of our citizen's parsimony, says he--"Voyez-vous ces pipes conservées dans le coin d'un armoire? Vous ne devineriez pas, vous qui n'êtes pas jamais venu en _Angleterre_, qu'elles sont aussi une marque d'economie; mais il faut vous dire que les pipes sont si communes ici, qu'on ne fume jamais deux fois dans la même. La païsan, l'artizan le plus vil prend une pipe gratis dans le premier cabaret où il arrête: il continue son chemin en achevant de la fumer, et la jette à ses pieds."

As _Rouquet_ observes, "Ce qui sert à garnir cet apartement ne contribue pas à l'orner. Tout y indique une économie basse." The scarcity of the real dinner--the picture exhibiting plenty of provision--the starved dog--the departing physician--the infected and ricketty condition of the child who is brought to take a last kiss of its dying mother--are circumstances too striking to be overlooked.

_The Daily Advertiser_ of 1750 affords the following illustration of our artist's history: "Mr. _Hogarth_ proposes to publish by subscription two large prints, one representing _Moses_ brought to _Pharaoh's_ daughter; the other _Paul_ before _Felix_; engraved after the pictures of his painting which are now hung up in _The Foundling Hospital_ and _Lincoln's-Inn Hall_. Five Shillings to be paid at the time of subscribing, and Five Shillings more on the delivery of the print. On the first payment a receipt will be given, which receipt will contain a new print (in the true _Dutch_ taste) of _Paul_ before _Felix_. Note, The above two prints will be Seven Shillings and Six Pence each after the subscription is over; and the receipt-print will not be sold at a less price than One Guinea each. Subscriptions are taken in till the 6th of _June_ next, and no longer, at _The Golden-Head_ in _Leicester-Fields_, where the drawings may be seen; as likewise the author's six pictures of _Marriage-à-la-Mode_, which are to be disposed of in the following manner: That every bidder sign a note with the sum he intends to give. That such note be deposited in the drawer of a cabinet, which cabinet shall be constantly kept locked by the said _William Hogarth_; and in the cabinet, through a glass door, the sums bid will be seen on the face of the drawer, but the names of the bidders may be concealed till the time of bidding shall be expired. That each bidder may, by a fresh note, advance a further sum if he is outbid, of which notice shall be sent him. That the sum so advanced shall not be less than Three Guineas. That the time of bidding shall continue till twelve o'clock the 6th of _June_ next, and no longer. That no dealer in pictures will be admitted a bidder.

"As (according to the standard of judgement, so righteously and laudably established by picture-dealers, picture-cleaners, picture-frame-makers, and other connoisseurs) the works of a painter are to be esteemed more or less valuable as they are more or less scarce, and as the living painter is most of all affected by the inferences resulting from this and other considerations equally uncandid and edifying; Mr. _Hogarth_, by way of precaution, not puff, begs leave to urge, that, probably, this will be the last suit or series of pictures he may ever exhibit, because of the difficulty of vending such a number at once to any tolerable advantage, and that the whole number he has already exhibited of the historical or humourous kind does not exceed fifty, of which the three sets called _The Harlot's Progress, The Rake's Progress,_ and that now to be sold, make twenty; so that whoever has a taste of his own to rely on, not too squeamish for the production of a Modern, and courage enough to own it, by daring to give them a place in his collection (till Time, the supposed finisher, but real designer of paintings, has rendered them fit for those more sacred repositories where Schools, Names, Heads, Masters, &c. attain their last stage of preferment), may from hence be convinced that multiplicity at least of his (Mr. _Hogarth's_) pieces will be no diminution of their value."

Mr. _Lane_, of _Hillingdon_ near _Uxbridge_, bought the six original pictures for 120 guineas, at _Hogarth's_ auction.[8]

[1] _London Daily Post, April_ 7, 1743. "Mr. _Hogarth_ intends to publish by subscription Six Prints from copper plates, engraved by the best masters in _Paris_, after his own paintings (the heads, for the better preservation of the characters and expressions, to be done by the author), representing a variety of modern occurrences in high life, and called _Marriage a-la-mode_.

"Particular care is taken that the whole work shall not be liable to exception on account of any _indecency_ or _inelegancy_, and that none of the characters represented shall be _personal_. The subscription will be one guinea; half, &c."

[2] See p. 325.

[3] In the third plate of this work, the figure of the female unclasping a penknife, is said to have been designed for the once celebrated _Betty Careless_. This remark is supposed to be countenanced by the initials E. C. on her bosom. From being in a state to receive company, this woman had been long reduced to show it, and, after repeated confinements in various prisons, was buried from the poor's house of St. _Paul, Covent Garden, April_ 22, 1752, about seven years after this set of prints had been published. Such a representation of her decline from beauty, as may be given in the plate before us, is justified by various passages in _Loveling's_ poems, _Latin_ and _English_, written about the year 1738, and published in 1741. Thus in his ode, "Ad _Sextum_,"

_Carlesis_ turpis macies decentem Occupat vultum----

Again more amply in his Elegiac Epistle, "Ad _Henricum_:"

Nympha _Coventini_ quæ gloria sulferat Horti, Cui vix vidisset _Druria_ vestra parem, Exul, inops, liquit proprios miseranda Penates, Fortunæ extremas sustinuitque vices, Nunc trahit infaustam tenebroso in carcere vitam, Et levat insolito mollia membra toro. _Carlesis_, ah! quantum, quantum mutaris ab illâ, _Carlese_, quæ _Veneris_ maxima cura fuit! Æde tua risêre olim Charitesque Jocique, Hic fuerant _Paphiæ_ currus & arma Deæ; Arsèrunt Cives, arsit _Judæus Apella_, Et te Bellorum deperiêre chori. Jam sordes, pallensque genas, & flaccida mammas, Non oculi, quondam qui micuere, micant. Heu! ubi formosæ referentes lilia malæ! Labra ubi purpureis quæ rubuére rosis! Te puer _Idalius_, te fastiditque juventus Tam marcescentem, dissimilemque tui. Siccine tam fidam curas _Erycina_ ministram? Hæccine militiæ praemia digna tuæ? O _Venus!_ ô nimium, nimiumque oblita tuarum! _Carlesis_ an meruit sortis acerba pati? Quæ posthàc arisve tuis imponet honorem, Ardebit posthàc vel tua castra sequi? Omnigenas æquo circumspice lumine mœchas Quas tua pellicibus _Druria_ dives alit, Quæ cellas habitant, vicos peditesve peragrant, Aut quæ _Wappinios_ incoluêre lares; Invenienda fuit nusquam lascivior, artus Mobilior, sacris vel magis apta tuis. _Carlesis_ ah nostris & flenda & fleta Camœnis! Accedat vestris nulla medela malis? Te vereor miseram fortuna tenaciter anget, Nec veniet rebus mollior aura tuis.

Again in his Ode, "Ad _Carolum B......._"

-----------------relinquent _Carlesis_ quondam miseræ Penates _Douglasa & Johnson_, duo pervicacis Fulmina linguæ.

Again in a "Copy of Verses on _Betty Close's_ coming to Town, &c."

_Roberts_ will curse all whores-- From worn-out _Careless_ to fair _Kitty Walker_.

Again in an Ode intituled "Meretrices _Britannicæ_."

Alma scortorum _Druriæque_ custos Orta _Neptuno!_ tibi cura pulchræ; _Carlesis_ satis data, tu secundà _Carlesis_ regnes.