Part 21

[188] On his return from a tour on the Continent, he once met a plain man, who, addressing him with great familiarity, was repulsed with a cold formal frown,--and, "Sir, I really don't remember you." "Not remember me! why, my goodness, Doctor! we both lodged on one floor in Round Court." "Round Court,--Round Court,--Round Court?--Sir, I have been in every court in Europe, but of such a court as Round Court I have no recollection."

[189] _September 16, 1736._ "On Thursday Mrs. Mapp's plate of ten guineas was run for at Epsom. A mare, called Mrs. Mapp, won the first heat, when Mrs. Mapp gave the rider a guinea, and swore, if he won the plate she would give him a hundred."

_September 23, 1736._ "Mrs. Mapp continues making extraordinary cures: she has now set up an equipage, and on Sunday waited on her Majesty."

_October 19, 1736, London Daily Post._ "Mrs. Mapp being present at the acting of _The Wife's Relief_, concurred in the universal applause of a crowded audience. This play was advertised by the desire of Mrs. Mapp, the famous bone-setter from Epsom."

_October 21, 1736._ "On Saturday evening there was such a concourse of people at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's-Inn Fields to see the famous Mrs. Mapp, that several ladies and gentlemen were obliged to return for want of room. The confusion at going out was so great, that several ladies and gentlemen had their pockets picked, and many of the former lost their fans, etc. Yesterday she was elegantly entertained by Doctor Ward, at his house in Pall Mall."

"On Saturday, and yesterday, Mrs. Mapp performed several operations at the Grecian Coffeehouse, particularly one upon a niece of Sir Hans Sloane,[190] to his great satisfaction, and her credit. The patient had her shoulder-bone out for about nine years."

_December 22, 1737._ "Died last week, at her lodgings near Seven Dials, the much talked of Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter, so miserably poor, that the parish was obliged to bury her."

[190] I have heard it suggested that this harlequin figure, received as Mrs. Mapp, was really intended for Sir Hans Sloane.

[191] He was originally in partnership with his brother, a drysalter in Thames Street. By a fire which broke out in an adjoining house, their joint property was destroyed, and Mr. Ward escaped by clambering over the tops of several houses in his shirt.

In the year 1717 he was returned member for Marlborough, but by a vote of the House of Commons declared not duly elected. It is imagined that he was in some manner connected with his brother John Ward (immortalized by Mr Pope) in the South Sea Bubble, for he left England rather abruptly; and during his residence abroad, is supposed to have turned Roman Catholic.

It was during his exile that he acquired such a knowledge of medicine and chemistry as was afterwards the means of raising him to a state of affluence. About the year 1733 he began to practise physic, and combated for some time the united efforts of argument, jealousy, and ridicule, by each of which he was opposed. By some lucky cures, and particularly one on a relation of Sir Joseph Jekyl, Master of the Rolls, he triumphed over his enemies; was, by a vote of the House of Commons, exempted from being visited by the censors of the college, and called in to the assistance of George the Second, whose hand he cured; and in lieu of a pecuniary compensation, was, at his own request, permitted to ride in his gaudy and heavy equipage through St. James's Park, an honour seldom granted to any but persons of rank. Besides this, the King gave a commission to his nephew, the late General Gansel.

He distributed medicine and advice to the poor gratis. There is as bad a print as I have seen representing him thus employed. By such conduct he acquired great popularity, and was, indeed, entitled to great praise.

He died December 21, 1761, at a very advanced age, and left the receipts for compounding his medicines to Mr. Page, member for Chichester, who bestowed them on two charitable institutions, which have derived considerable advantage from the profits attending their sale.

In the _London Chronicle_ for February 27, 1762, is the following intimation:--

"A monument is going to be erected in Westminster Abbey, next to that of Mr. Dryden's, to the memory of Joshua Ward, of Whitehall, Esq., on which will be placed a fine bust of the deceased, that had been long in his possession."

[192] The veil which was then spread over this science has been partly removed by the publication of Doctor Buchan's _Domestic Medicine_,--a treatise which I have frequently heard reprobated by gentlemen of the Faculty, for laying open to the world, in language so perspicuous, those mysterious secrets which had been before disguised in dog Latin: it has, however, gone through more editions than any book in this language, except _Robinson Crusoe_ and the _Pilgrim's Progress_.

[193] The poet, in this instance, laboureth under a mistake; for I am informed by a gentleman learned in the law, that if a physician neglecteth to receive his fees, and his patient recovereth, he hath no legal claim, neither will an action lie; but if his patient dieth, an action against the executors is good: the Court will admit the claim, and the jury find a verdict, with full costs of suit.

This is very proper, and proveth that _law_ and _equity_ are the same; and that if a physician _doth his business_, he can recover his reward; but if he neglecteth, and _his patient doth not die_, why should he have any remuneration?

[194] What caricature is in painting, burlesque is in writing; and in the same manner the comic writer and painter correlate to each other. But here I shall observe, that as in the former the painter seems to have the advantage, so it is in the latter infinitely on the side of the writer; for the monstrous is much easier to paint than describe, and the ridiculous to describe than paint. And though perhaps this latter species doth not in either science so strongly affect and agitate the muscles as the other, yet it will be owned, I believe, that a more rational and useful pleasure arises to us from it.

"He who should call the ingenious Hogarth a burlesque painter, would, in my opinion, do him very little honour; for sure it is much easier, much less the subject of admiration, to paint a man with a nose or any other feature of a monstrous size, or to expose him in some absurd or monstrous attitude, than to express the affections of men on canvas. It has been thought a vast commendation of a painter to say, his figures seem to breathe; but surely it is a much greater and nobler applause, that they appear to think."

This is Fielding's opinion, and the _fiat_ of such a writer ought to have great weight; for his characters and Hogarth's pictures are drawn from the same source.

[195] I have adhered to Hogarth's orthography.

[196] She was suspected to have been concerned in the murder of Mr. Nesbit in 1729, near Drury Lane, for which one Kelly, _alias_ Owen, suffered death. The only ground of his conviction was a bloodied razor, that was known to be his property, being found under the murdered man's head. Kelly died protesting his innocence, and solemnly asserted that he had lent the razor to a woman whose name and habitation he did not know.

[197] It appeared on the trial that Mrs. Duncombe had only fifty-four pounds in her box; and fifty-three pounds eleven shillings and sixpence were found upon Malcolm.

[198] One part of her defence was, it must be acknowledged, rather weak: she declared that seventeen pounds of the money found in her hair was sent to her by her father; but on inquiry, it was proved that he lived in a state of extreme and pitiable poverty in the city of Dublin, where she was born.

[199] The crowd was so great, that a Mrs. Strangeways, who lived in Fleet Street, near Serjeants' Inn, crossed the street from her own house to Mrs. Coulthurst's, on the opposite side of the way, over the heads and shoulders of the populace.

[200] This paper he sold for twenty pounds; and the substance of it was printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1733. Peddington died September 18, 1734.

[201] The late Mr. Barry, whose works are an honour to his age and country, and would alone give celebrity and immortality to the English school, in his picture of "Elysium," or the state of final retribution, has introduced Sir Isaac Newton looking at the solar system, which an angel is to him uncovering. This is one of the most sublime and poetical thoughts I ever saw expressed upon canvas.

[202] That his conquests have in their consequences rendered the people he subdued unhappy, must be admitted, and is to be lamented. Though I am inclined to suspect that the narrations of Bartholomew de las Casas, and some other writers, are greatly exaggerated, we have indisputable evidence of such oppression, murder, and massacre, as must make every reader shudder. If the same system is still pursued,--and I fear it has been but little softened,--the evil will correct itself; and who will not rejoice at the total extirpation of these merciless tyrants, and emancipation of that unhappy race whom they have so long enslaved? Let us not, from this, censure the extension of commerce, or civilisation of the savage; for both these great objects ultimately tend to make men wiser, better, and happier. To the beardless philosopher, who adopts the fascinating visions of Rousseau, is an advocate for the blessings of barbarism, and contends for the superiority of the savage to the civilised animal, I earnestly recommend the perusal of Mickle's _Introduction to the Lusiad_. If the arguments adduced by that excellent writer--and, from intimate personal knowledge, I venture to add, excellent man--will not convince him, and he still languishes for pathless wilds, let him retreat from civilised society to the frozen rocks of Kamtschatka, or join the Aborigines of New Holland.

[203] "When he promised a new hemisphere, it was insisted upon that no such hemisphere could exist; and when he had discovered it, asserted that it had been known long before. The honour was given to the Carthaginians; and, to prove they deserved it, a book of Aristotle's was quoted, which Aristole never wrote. It was further said, that one Martin Behem went from Nuremburg to the Straits of Magellan, in 1460, with a patent from the Duchess of Burgundy, who, as she was not alive at that time, could not issue patents."--VOLTAIRE.

[204] Some authors have said from the port of Gomera, and dated his departure on the 6th of September. This _momentous_ point must be decided by those who study minute chronology; and we are so fortunate as to live in the same age with a writer who can determine the day of the month and day of the week when Adam was created:

"Adam created, Friday, October 28, 4004; died, 3034 before Christ, aged 930."--Trusler's _Chronology_.

[205] Americus Vespucius, a merchant of Florence, had the honour of giving his name to this new half of the globe, in which he did not possess one acre of land; and pretended to be the first who discovered the continent. Admitting it true that he first discovered it, the glory is due to the man who had the penetration to see that the voyage was practicable, and the courage to perform it. Columbus made three voyages, as viceroy and admiral, five years before Americus made one as a geographer; but Vespucius writing to his friends at Florence that he had discovered a new world, they took his word, and the citizens decreed that a grand illumination should be made before the door of his house every three years, on the feast of All Saints. Such are the accidents by which honours are attained. A merchant gives his name to one half of the globe from happening to be on board a fleet that in 1489 sailed along the coast of Brazil!

[206] This story has been told of Brunelleschi, who improved the architecture of Florence many years before Columbus was born, and it has been since related of many others. These ambulatory anecdotes are transferred from one traveller to another, like the wishing-cap of Fortunatus, that was made to fit every head on which it was placed.

[207] "There is scarce an Egyptian, Greek, or Roman deity, but hath a twisted serpent, twisted cornucopia, or some symbol winding in this manner, to accompany it."--_Preface to Analysis of Beauty_, p. 18.

[208] Some of these were in wood, and some in copper. The painter, when once asked why he did not answer them, replied, that "he had not seen one which promised to live so long as it would take to engrave a plate." A few of these poignant satires I have seen; but they have now attained a black letter value, and are seldom to be found except in the cabinets of the curious. A series of six or eight, beginning with one entitled "The Butifyer, or a Touch on the Times," Plate I., were designed and engraved by an artist of deserved celebrity.[209] With a frankness for which he is remarkable, and which does him honour, he once acknowledged to me, that being a very young man, he was deceived by the loud clamours of certain veterans, at that time leaders in the arts; but had he seen Hogarth's merit then as he does now, nothing should have induced him to attempt the ridicule of such talents.

[209] Mr. Paul Sandby.

[210] This alludes to the time Hogarth thought would elapse before Stuart's plan was completed; and the prediction was amply verified, for the second volume of _Athens_ was not published until 1789 or 90, though the title-page is dated 1787.

[211] Stuart being once questioned by Frank Hayman upon his right to assume both these titles, said that "Poetry was his wife, and Architecture his mistress." "You may call them so," said Hayman, "but I never heard that you had living issue by either."

[212] The mortification Hogarth naturally felt at seeing more money given for a drawing of an ancient pig-sty than he received for his most capital work, was unquestionably the strongest inducement.

[213] A description of this print was published in _The Beauties of all the Magazines_ for 1761; part of it I have subjoined:--

"Over the first row is written the title Episcopal. The first capital discovers only a forked nose, lips, and one eye; the rest of the face is eclipsed by the wig's protuberance. The next three etchings are only the hinder parts of heads; by these Mr. Hogarth satirizes the present age for their immoralities, which are so notorious, that three-fifths of the religious orders turn their backs upon us, not being able to behold such wickedness.

"The last visage in the line is marked with true pedantic contempt; the wig's fore-top is like the forked hill of Parnassus, and there is a roll round the forehead, like a MS. scroll; the eyelids are almost closed, which denotes _the wise man's wink_, or that he can see the world with half an eye. The muscles of the countenance are curled up into disdain, and he seems to say, 'I despise ye, ye illiterati!'

"The immense quantity of grizzle which is wove into the wigs carries a twofold design--for reverence and for warmth. The make of these canonicals evinces the care this order take of themselves, for the sake of those committed to their trust; and the profusion of curls or friz in each denotes the wearer must be most learned, because, as the country folk say, Why should they put a double coat of thatch upon a barn, without there was a greater proportion than ordinary of grain housed therein?

"The next row is inscribed Aldermanic. The first wig has two ends, exactly like the dropsical legs of some over-gorged glutton; and the three-quartered face indicates Plenty, Porter, and Politics. On the brow, domestical significancy is seated; a look necessary to each master who dozes in his arm-chair on the Sunday evening, while his lady reads prayers to the rest of the family. It is a countenance which carries dignity with it even at the upper end of a table at a turtle-eating.

"The second has one lock dependent like a sheep's bushy tail. This man could make speeches, knew the nature of debentures, and was much harassed by cent. per cent. commerce. Many are the sleepless nights he has passed in scheming how to fix, if for only half a day, the fluctuating chances of 'Change Alley.

"The third wig is, as the sailors say, 'all aback.' By the swelling of the full bottom, we have an idea of Magna Charta consequence, and guess that the wearer would say something--if he could but see it.

"The next is parted triangular-wise, to fall each side the shoulders. This design was originally taken from a nutting-stick. Thus one of our finest capitals was delineated from a square tile, a weed, and a basket.

"With all modest conjecture we presume, from our intense application to mathematics, that the semicircular sweep at the end of the last full bottom signifies a gold chain. But as we are Englishmen, and will have nothing to do with chains, we shall hasten to the wigs and chins in the third, entitled 'Lexonical.'

"Great men are always celebrated for great things: Cicero for his wart; Ovid for a nose almost equal to Slawkenbergius'; and this portrait seems to be ushered into notice by the curvature of the chin. How venerably elegant do these Lexonicals appear! Here is indeed law at full length. Special pleadings in the fore-top; declarations, replications, rejoinders, issues, and demurrers in every buckle. The knotty points of practice in the intricacies of the twisted tail, and the depth of the whole wig, emblematically express the length of a Chancery suit, while the black coif behind looks like a blister."

[214] A term peculiarly appropriated to the Court of Common Pleas.

[215] To the honour of Sir John Fielding, he once attempted to prevent its being performed, but the attempt failed. Since that time it has been so completely disfigured by Mr. Charles Bannister being disguised in the character of Polly, and Macheath personated by Mrs. Cargill, etc. etc. etc., that no person who had the least pretensions to taste would be seen at such a drama in masquerade.

[216] "_Johnson._ I am of opinion that more influence has been ascribed to the _Beggars' Opera_ than it in reality ever had; for I do not believe that any man was ever made a rogue by being present at its representation. At the same time, I do not deny that it may have some influence, by making the character of a rogue familiar, and in some degree pleasing." Then collecting himself, as it were to give a heavy stroke; "There is in it such a labefaction of all principles, as may be injurious to morality."--Boswell's _Johnson_.

[217] A very eminent physician, whose discernment is as acute and penetrating in judging of the human character as it is in his own profession, remarked once at a club where I was, that a lively young man would hardly resist a solicitation from his mistress to go upon the highway, immediately after being present at the _Beggars' Opera_. I have been told of an ingenious observation by Mr. Gibbon, that "the _Beggars' Opera_ may perhaps have sometimes increased the number of highwaymen, but that it has had a beneficial effect in refining that class of men, making them less ferocious, more polite, in short, more like gentlemen." Upon this Mr. Courtenay said, that Gay was the Orpheus of highwaymen.--Note upon Boswell's _Johnson_, vol. i. p. 488.

[218] Glory be to great Apollo! At that auspicious period his lyre should have been new strung, and exalted in Britain; for her nobles were as much interested in the disputes between a trio of Italian singers, as they now are in those on which depends the salvation of the empire.

[219] The Ridiculous Travellers returned to Italy.

An Italian I was once talking with upon this crotchet contest, concluded an harangue, calculated to throw Gay's talents and taste into ridicule, with "Saire, this simple signor did tri to pelt mine countrymen out of England with _Lumps of Pudding_," another of the _Beggars' Opera_ tunes.

[220] Doctor Arbuthnot, describing the declining state of operas (in a letter printed in the _Daily Journal_), says, "I take the _Beggars' Opera_ to be the touchstone to try British taste on, and it has accordingly proved effectual in discovering our true inclinations, which, how artfully soever they may be disguised by a childish fondness for Italian poetry and music, in preference to our own, will, in one way or other, start up and disclose themselves."

[221] In the _London Chronicle_ for April 6, 1762, is the following paragraph: "On Friday last, at the sale of the late Mr. Rich's pictures, jewels, etc., a clock by Graham was bought by the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield for £42; and a scene in the _Beggars' Opera_, where Lucy and Polly are pleading for Macheath, painted by Hogarth, was sold for £32, 14s. to his Grace the Duke of Leeds. The money arising from the whole sale amounted to £683, 14s."

[222] The name of that right cunning workman, Filch, is not introduced in the description of the outline; by an edition of the opera, published in 1729, I find he was personated by a Mr. Clark.

[223] The part of this hero of the highway being originally cast for Quin, intimates the style in which it was thought characteristic to play it. Walker was praised for performing it with dignity!

[224] In this are several portraits; one of Sir Francis Page of severe memory, with a halter round his neck--

"Hard words or hanging, if your judge be Page."

[225] In this, as in almost all his dedications, the poet is very lavish of his panegyric. Thus does it begin:--

"MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE,--The favour which heroic plays have lately found upon our theatres, has been wholly derived to them from the countenance and approbation they have received at Court. The most eminent persons for wit and honour in the royal circle having so far owned them, that they have judged no way so fit as verse to entertain a noble audience or to express a noble passion. And among the rest which have been written in this kind, they have been so indulgent to this poem, as to allow it no inconsiderable place. Since, therefore, to the Court I owe its fortune on the stage; so, being now more publicly exposed in print, I humbly recommend it to your Grace's protection, who by all knowing persons is esteemed a principal ornament of the Court. But though the rank which you hold in the royal family might direct the eyes of a poet to you, yet your beauty and goodness detain and fix them," etc. etc. etc.

In the fourth act is the line about which Dryden has been so unmercifully laughed at, and which I have invariably seen quoted:

"I follow fate, which does too fast pursue."

This might be, and has been defended, by supposing that the race was run in a circle; but the line in a song, warbled by an Indian woman at the side of a fountain, is as follows:--

"Ah, fading joy, how quickly art thou past! Yet we thy ruin haste: As if the cares of human life were few, We seek out new, And follow fate, which would too fast pursue," etc.

[226] The following was given to me by a collector of dramatic curiosities, who in the course of a long life has raked together as many quires of ancient and modern play-bills as would cover every dead wall in the metropolis, and I am assured that of the above-mentioned handbill it is

A TRUE COPY.

"Connection of the _Indian Emperor_ to the _Indian Queen_.