Part 16

"MINUET DE LA COUR, DEVONSHIRE, LE ROI, STATUTE, SURPRISE.

"A gentleman of merit, well educated and properly qualified by seven of the best masters that ever trod on English ground, teaches the above minuets to noblemen and real ladies only, for the sum of five guineas, paid down, with all the excelled graces of the head, body, arms, wrists, hands, fingers, toes, sinks, risings, bounds, rebounds, twirls, twists, fourfold mercuries, coupees, borees, flourishes, demi-corpus, curtseys _à-la-mode_, hat on, off, giving hands and feet, in an advanced octagon adorned style, and divided into one, two, three, or four steps exact to time or bars; introducing at the same moment the _à-la-mode_ form, Chassa's springs, five and nine orders of the graces, and annexed with the rigadoon, Louvre, cotillion, and ancient and modern hornpipe steps and elegant country-dance positions.--The said gentleman is no common dancing-master, has some character to lose; _therefore_ ladies of a common capacity may soon attain to dance equal to the best French or Italian dancer in this kingdom, only for five guineas, on applying to Number 79 in the Haymarket, between ten and eleven in the morning, and four and six in the afternoon, and they will be seen by the aforesaid _gentleman_ himself."

In his Analysis, Mr. Hogarth thus writeth:--

"The minuet is allowed by dancing-masters themselves to be the perfection of all dancing. I once heard an eminent dancing-master say, that the minuet had been the study of his whole life, and that he had been indefatigable in the pursuit of its beauties, yet at last could only say with Socrates, _he knew nothing_; adding, that I was happy in my profession as a painter, in that some bounds might be set to the study of it."

[22] Mr. Wilkes informs us that this subject was not thought of until _after_ the publication of Marriage à la Mode. _In_ CHRONOLOGY, _the Chamberlain is not so accurate as Doctor Trusler!_

[23] Mr. Townley, under the signature of a connoisseur, wrote the following lines to Mr. Hogarth on his _Analysis of Beauty_:--

"How could you dare, advent'rous man, To execute so bold a plan, Or such unheard of truths advance? At once so rashly to oppose Those fierce, outrageous, hardy foes, _Fraud_, _Prejudice_, and _Ignorance_!

"To their despotic, cruel sway, Fair Science long has been a prey, All _modern art_ they trampled down; The rising genius they deprest, The British taste they turned to jest, And damn'd at once--because our own.

"The slavish principle _I_ caught, The southern land of merit sought, And learn'd to think, to see, to say Eager I ran through every town, Penn'd every observation down, And gather'd judgment by the way.

"On foreign tales and terms of art, On scraps of French, got well by heart, And _learned guides_, was my reliance; With light and shade my head I fill, The _style_ of schools was all my skill. _The painter's name_ was all my science.

"Thus deeply tutor'd, I return'd, And o'er my tasteless country mourn'd; I pitied first, then laugh'd and sneer'd; Then curs'd the crude unfinish'd tints, The statues, busto's, vases, prints, When lo! th' ANALYSIS appear'd.

"I smil'd and read; grew grave--read on; Was pleas'd; the truths apparent shone; Nor could my prejudice resist 'em. _The Line of Beauty_ I survey'd, The arguments I fairly weigh'd, And then acknowledg'd all your system.

"With reverence, and respect, like you, The ancient works of art I view; But, like you, see with my own eyes; Abhor the tricks so grossly play'd, Lament the science sunk to trade, And dealers from my soul despise.

"Pursue, unrivall'd yet, that art, Which bounteous nature did impart (Ne'er to be so profuse again): Our sons, in time to come, shall strive Where the chief honour they shall give, Or to your pencil or your pen."

Hogarth had previously presented this gentleman with a volume of his prints, in return for which he received the following very flattering testimony to his talents:--

"TRINITY LANE, _Feb. 28, 1750_.

"DEAR SIR,--Having been confined to my house by a violent cold, I have had many hours for contemplation, which at such a time generally turns on my friends, among whom you have been so good to let me call you one. Your late kind intention came into my mind, and gave me an uncommon degree of satisfaction; not on my own account only, but with respect to my family. Your works I shall treasure up as a family book, or rather as one of the classics, from which I shall regularly instruct my children, just in the same manner as I should out of Homer or Virgil. You will be read in your course,--and it will be no unusual thing to find me in a morning in my great chair, with my three bigger boys about me, construing the sixth chapter of the Harlot's Progress, or comparing the two characters in the first book of the 'Prentices.

"You are one of the first great men I ever was acquainted with, and the first great man I desire to be acquainted with, because you have neither insolence nor vanity. Your character has been sketched in different pieces, by different authors, and great encomiums bestowed on you here and there in English, French, Latin, and Greek: but I want to see a full portrait of you. I wish I were as intimate with you, and as well qualified for the purpose, as your friend Fielding,--I would undertake it. I have made an humble attempt here towards something, but I am afraid it has more of a death's head than the face of a man.--You won't be dispirited because my character of you is in the form of an epitaph, for you will observe at the bottom that I have given you a great length of days.

"In the corner, near Shakspeare, in Westminster Abbey, on a monument, elegant only by neatness and symmetry, the next generation may see something like the enclosed inscription, the freedom of which you will excuse, and consider it as coming from a man confined to his room, but from one who is ever, dear sir, your constant admirer, and most obliged servant,

"JAMES TOWNLEY.

"_To Mr. Hogarth in Leicester Fields._

"AD GULIELMUM HOGARTH, DUM TU QUID PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, VOLUMINE DICIS, NATURÆQUE DOCES QUID SJT, ET ARTIS OPUS, ATQUE ANIMO CAUSAS, OCULO TABULASQUE DEDISTI, PICTORIS PRIMI NOMEN UTRINQUE PERES."

[24] The work was translated into German, under the author's inspection, by Mr. Mylins; and with two large plates and twenty-two sheets of letterpress, printed in London at five dollars.

A new and correct edition was (July 1st, 1754) proposed for publication at Berlin by Ch. Fr. Vok, with an explanation of Mr. Hogarth's satirical prints, translated from the French; the whole to _subscribers_ for one dollar, but after six weeks to be raised to two dollars.

An Italian translation was published at Leghorn, 1761, octavo, dedicated _Al illustrissime Signora Diana Molineux dama Inglese_.

That Sterne had read the Analysis, appears by the following _reference recommendatory_, in the first volume of _Tristram Shandy_:--

" ... Such were the outlines of Doctor Slop's figure, which, if you have read Hogarth's _Analysis of Beauty_, and if you have not, I wish you would, you must know may be as certainly caricatured and conveyed to the mind by three strokes as three hundred." Hogarth's engraving of the air-balloon figure is said to be intended for Doctor Burton, the Jacobite physician of York; a microscopic miniature of the plate (so small that it requires the aid of a glass) is in the engraved frontispiece to these volumes.

[25] He bought the picture in for Lady Schaub, and she has since sold it to the present Henry Duke of Newcastle.

[26] The original letter is in the possession of the editor, and with all the circumstances relating to the transaction, _copied from Hogarth's handwriting_, published in the third volume of this work.

[27] The correspondence between Sir Richard Grosvenor and Mr. Hogarth relative to the picture of Sigismunda is in the 3d volume of this work.

[28] I mean to speak of alterations suggested by his friends: to the public at large, if we can confide in the following note, which I found in a volume of the late Doctor Lort's, he paid little attention:--

"HOGARTH'S SIGISMUNDA.

"He placed that picture, which in spite of all the critics could say against it, had infinite merits in the view of the public, and at the same time placed a man in an adjoining room to write down all objections that each spectator made to it. Of these there were a thousand at least, but Hogarth told the writer of this[29] that he attended only to one, and that was made by a madman; and perceiving the objection was founded, he altered it. The madman, after looking stedfastly on the picture for some time, suddenly turned away, exclaiming,--_Hang it_, I hate these white roses. The artist then, and not till then, observed that the foldings of Sigismunda's _chemise_ sleeves were too regular, and had more the appearance of roses than of linen. I know not in whose possession this picture now is, but I will venture to pronounce, that nowhere can distress be more forcibly exprest on canvas: it is a distress, not of the minute, but the day."

[29] The late Philip Thicknesse, Esq.

[30] The attack was commenced in No. 17 of the _North Briton_, which was published on the 17th of September 1762. On the 16th, Mr. Hogarth being at Salisbury, called upon the colonel of the Buckinghamshire militia (who was then quartered in the neighbourhood), with the good-natured intention of shaking hands: as _his old friend_ was not at home, they neither met then, nor at any future period. In my account of the _Times_ there are a few strictures on this political pasquinade, which was followed by much metrical lampoon from the reverend Mr. Churchill. Let us hear his coadjutor, Robert Lloyd, who in a fable entitled _Genius_, _Envy_, and _Time_, gives TIME the following speech:--

"Yet, Genius, mark what I presage, Who look through every distant age: Merit shall bless thee with her charms, Fame lift thy offspring in her arms, And stamp eternity of grace On all thy numerous, various race. Roubiliac, Wilton, names as high As Phidias of antiquity, Shall strength, expression, manner give, And make e'en marble breathe and live, While Sigismunda's deep distress, Which looks the soul of wretchedness; _When I_, with slow and soft'ning pen, Have gone o'er all the tints agen, Shall urge a bold and proper claim To level half the ancient fame; While future ages yet unknown, With critic air shall proudly own, Thy Hogarth first of every clime, For humour keen, or strong sublime, And hail him from his fire and spirit, The child of Genius and of Merit."

--_Lloyd's Works_, p. 204.

[31] I learn from Mr. Nichols, that he was a dupe to flattery; that his easiness of disposition should be practised on is natural, but that any of _his friends_ should boast of such an imposition as the following, is extraordinary:--

" ... A word in favour of Sigismunda might have commanded a proof print, or forced an original sketch out of our artist's hand. The furnisher of this remark owes one of his scarcest performances to the success of a compliment which might have stuck even in Sir Godfrey Kneller's throat."--_Nichols' Anecdotes_, p. 55.

[32] Having given Mr. Walpole's remarks, it is but fair to insert that part of the Analysis which gave rise to them:--

"Notwithstanding the deep-rooted notion, even amongst the majority of painters themselves, that Time is a great improver of good pictures, I will undertake to show that nothing can be more absurd. Having mentioned the whole effect of the oil, let us now see in what manner Time operates on the colours themselves, in order to discover if any changes in them can give a picture more union and harmony than has been in the power of a skilful master with all his rules of art to do. When colours change at all, it must be somewhat in the manner following; for as they are made, some of metal, some of earth, some of stone, and others of more perishable materials, Time cannot operate on them otherwise than as by daily experience we find it doth, which is, that one changes darker, another lighter, one quite to a different colour, whilst another, as ultra-marine, will keep its natural brightness even in the fire. THEREFORE, how is it possible that such different materials, ever variously changing (visibly, after a certain time), should accidentally coincide with the artist's intention, and bring about the greater harmony of the piece, when it is manifestly contrary to their nature; for do we not see, in most collections, that much time disunites, untunes, blackens, and by degrees destroys, even the best preserved pictures?

"But if, for argument's sake, we suppose that the colours were to fall equally together, let us see what sort of advantage this would give to any sort of composition: we will begin with a flower-piece. When a master hath painted a rose, a lily, an african, a gentinnella, or violet, with his best art and brightest colours, how far short do they fall of the freshness and rich brilliancy of nature! And shall we wish to see them fall still lower, more faint, sullied, and dirtied by the hand of Time, and then admire them as having gained an additional beauty, and call them mended and heightened, rather than fouled, and in a manner destroyed? How absurd! instead of mellowed and softened, therefore, always read yellow and sullied; for this is doing Time, the destroyer, but common justice. Or shall we desire to see complexions, which in life are often literally as brilliant as the flowers above mentioned, served in the like ungrateful manner? In a landscape, will the water be more transparent, or the sky shine with a greater lustre, when embrowned and darkened by decay? Surely no.--These opinions have given rise to another absurdity, viz. that _the colours now-a-days_ do not stand so well as formerly; whereas colours well prepared, in which there are but little art or expense, have, and will always have, the same properties in every age; and without accidents, damps, bad varnish, and the like (being laid separate and pure), will stand and keep together for many years in defiance of Time itself."

[33] "It may be truly observed of Hogarth, that all his powers of delighting were confined to his pencil. Having rarely been admitted into polite circles, none of his sharp comers had been rubbed off, so that he continued to the last a gross, uncultivated man. The slightest contradiction transported him into rage. To be member of a club consisting of mechanics, or those not many removes above them, seems to have been the utmost of his social ambition; but even in these assemblies he was oftener sent to _Coventry_, for misbehaviour, than any other person who frequented them. He is said to have beheld the rising eminence and popularity of Sir Joshua Reynolds with a degree of envy; and, if I am not misinformed, spoke with asperity both of him and his performances. Justice, however, obliges me to add that our artist was liberal, hospitable, and the most punctual of paymasters; so that, in spite of the emoluments his works had procured to him, he left but an inconsiderable fortune to his widow."--_Nichols' Anecdotes_, p. 97.

[34] In furniture, decorations, etc., this place has not been altered since his death. There is not one of his own prints, but in the parlour are framed engravings from Sir James Thornhill's paintings in St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Houbraken heads of Shakspeare, Spencer, and Dryden. The garden is laid out in a good style: over the door is a cast of George the Second's mask, in lead, and in one corner a rude and shapeless stone, placed upright against the wall, and inscribed,

ALAS, POOR DICK! OB. 1760. AGED ELEVEN.

Beneath the inscriptions are two cross bones of birds, surmounted with a heart and death's head. The sculpture was made with a nail, by the hand of Hogarth, and placed there in memory of a favourite bullfinch, who is deposited beneath.

[35] This is Doctor Johnson's epitaph, and he wrote only four. He has broken his own rule, that the name should always be inserted in the body of the verse.

[36] The verses, as first written by Mr. Garrick, and now in the possession of Mr. James Townley, are as follows:--

"If thou hast genius, reader, stay; If thou hast feeling, drop the tear;-- If thou hast neither,--hence, away, For Hogarth's dear remains lie here. His matchless works, of fame secure, Shall live our country's pride and boast, As long as nature shall endure, And only in her wreck be lost."

[37] In the _Daily Advertiser_ of January 27, 1783, I find the following advertisement:--

"HOGARTH'S ORIGINAL WORKS.

"As an opinion generally prevails, that the genuine impressions of Hogarth's works are very bad, and the plates retouched, Mrs. Hogarth is under the necessity of acquainting the public in general, and the admirers of her deceased husband's works in particular, that it has been owing to a want of proper attention in the conducting this work for some years past that the impressions in general have not done justice to the condition of the plates; and she has requested some gentlemen, most eminent in the art of engraving, to inspect the plates, who have given the following opinion:--

"LONDON, _January 21, 1873_.

"We, whose names are underwritten, having carefully examined the copperplates published by the late Mr. Hogarth, are fully convinced that they have not been retouched since his death.

"FRANCIS BARTOLOZZI.

"WM. WOOLLET.

"WM. WYNNE RYLAND."

[38] Notwithstanding this, Mrs. Lewis told me, that a gentleman who possessed a collection of Hogarth's works, once requested she would lend him the plates for the purpose of having a set faintly taken off, as a contrast to his own. It is scarcely necessary to say this _modest request_ was refused, and she received much consequent abuse.

[39] He frequently drew sketches of heads upon his nail, and when he came home, copied them on paper, from whence they were transferred to his plates.

[40] See two large pictures of the Good Samaritan, and the Pool of Bethesda, which he presented to St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

[41] G. M. Stainforth, Esq., of Berkeley Square, has in his possession a portrait of the late Justice Walsh, which, for a wager, Mr. Hogarth painted in less than an hour, and it is said to be a strong resemblance.

[42] This observation extends no further than to his conversations among his intimates.

"Mr. Walpole once invited Gray the poet and Hogarth to dine with him; but what with the reserve of the one, and a want of colloquial talents in the other, he never passed a duller time than between these two representatives of tragedy and comedy, being obliged to rely entirely on his own efforts to support conversation."--Nichols' _Anecdotes_, p. 97.

Johnson, though his colloquial powers were gigantic, could not speak in the Society of Arts: he could not, as he himself expressed it, _get on_.

[43] In this he resembled a man whose simplicity of manners and integrity of life give me a pride in avowing myself one of his descendants.

"He could not bear that any one should in their absence be evil spoken of; and in such cases frequently recommended the person who censured to peruse that verse in Leviticus xix. 14, which says, _Thou shalt not curse the deaf_"; adding, "Those that are _absent_ are deaf."--_Life of Rev. Philip Henry_, Orton's edition, p. 252.

[44] A merchant named Purse, whom he never saw, left him a legacy of one hundred pounds, as a trifling acknowledgment for the pleasure and information the testator had received from his works. By this solitary testimony to his talents he was highly gratified.

[45] The attendant represents John Gourlay, the Colonel's favourite and confidant.

[46] To show how fair an object for satire the painter has selected, and how properly he has hung up such a miscreant as an example for posterity to avoid, part of it is inserted:--

Here continueth to rot, the body of FRANCIS CHARTRES; who, with an INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY, and INIMITABLE UNIFORMITY of life, PERSISTED, in spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES, in the practice of EVERY HUMAN VICE, excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY. His insatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first; his matchless IMPUDENCE from the second.

Oh, indignant reader! think not his life useless to mankind; Providence connived at his execrable designs, to give to after ages a conspicuous proof and example of how small estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH in the sight of GOD, by His bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY OF ALL MORTALS.

[47] Mother Needham, who stood in the pillory at Park Place on the 5th of May 1734, and was so roughly treated by the populace that she died a few days afterwards. The crime for which she suffered was, _keeping a disorderly house_.

[48] The _Grub Street Journal_ for August 6, 1730, giving an account of several prostitutes who were taken up, informs us that "the fourth was Kate Hackabout (whose brother was lately hanged at Tyburn), a woman noted in and about the hundreds of Drury, etc."

[49] Among a great number of copies which the success of these prints tempted obscure artists to make, there was one set printed on two large sheets of paper for G. King, Brownlow Street, which, being made with Hogarth's consent, may possibly contain some additions suggested and inserted by his directions. In this plate, beneath the sign of the Bell, is inscribed, PARSONS INTIER BUTT BEAR.

[50] The attendant black boy gave the foundation of an ill-natured remark by Quin, when Garrick once attempted the part of Othello. "He pretend to play Othello!" said the surly satirist; "he pretend to play Othello! He wants nothing but the tea-kettle and lamp to qualify him for Hogarth's Pompey!"

[51] In the copies printed for G. King, this picture has a label, Jonah, why art thou angry? and under the lower portrait is written, Mr. Woolston.

[52] This has been said to be a portrait, but of whom I never could get any information.

[53] In Rembrandt's "Abraham's Offering," in the Houghton collection now at Petersburgh, the knife dropping from the hand of the patriarch appears in a falling state.

[54] This paper is a pastoral letter from Gibson Bishop of London, and intimates that the writings of grave prelates were sometimes to be found in chandlers' shops, as they are even unto this day.

[55] Following the Doctor's name are the letters S.T.P., _sanctæ theologiæ professor_. A fellow not knowing the import of these dignifying capitals, well enough translated them, SAUCY TROUBLESOME PUPPY.

[56] When Theodore, the unfortunate king of Corsica, was so reduced as to lodge in a garret in Dean Street, Soho, a number of gentlemen made a collection for his relief. The chairman of their committee informed him by letter, that on the following day, at twelve o'clock, two of the society would wait upon his Majesty with the money. To give his _Attic_ apartment an appearance of royalty, the poor monarch placed an arm-chair on his half-testered bed, and seating himself under the scanty canopy, gave what he thought might serve as the representation of a throne. When his two visitors entered the room, he graciously held out his right hand, that they might have the honour of--kissing it!