CATALOGUE OF HOGARTH'S PRINTS.[1] (continued 4)

This plate, which is executed in the dotted manner so much at present in fashion, should have been etched or engraved like those excellent performances by Bartolozzi after the drawings of Guercino. Spirit, rather than delicacy, is the characteristic of our artist's Shrimp Girl.

6. 7. Portraits of Gabriel Hunt and Benjamin Read, in aqua tinta, from the original drawings in the possession of the late Mr. Forrest. The drawing of Mr. Hunt was taken in 1733, a period when, from the number of street-robberies, it was usual to go armed. Hunt's couteau is stuck in one of his button-holes.

The figure of Ben Read was taken in 1757. Coming one night to the club after having taken a long journey, he fell asleep there. Hogarth had got on his roquelaure, and was about to leave the room; but, struck with the drollery of his friend's appearance, he exclaimed, "Heavens! what a character!" and, calling for pen and ink, took the drawing immediately, without sitting down.

To be recorded only as votaries of the bottle and pipe, is no very flattering mark of distinction to these members of our artist's club. There is scarce a meaner avenue to the Temple of Fame.

8. Three plates, from the original sketches of Hogarth, designed for the epitaph and monument of George Taylor. The drawings are the property of Mr. Morrison.

George Taylor was a famous boxer, who died February 21, 1750. A writer already quoted speaks of him in these terms: "George Taylor, known by the name of George the Barber, sprang up surprisingly. He has beat all the chief boxers but Broughton. He, I think, injudiciously fought him one of the first, and was obliged very soon to give out. Doubtless it was a wrong step in him to commence a boxer by fighting the standing champion: for George was not then twenty, and Broughton was in the zenith of his age and art. Since that he has greatly distinguished himself with others; but has never engaged Broughton more. He is a strong able boxer, who, with a skill extraordinary, aided by his knowledge of the small and back swords, and a remarkable judgement in the cross-buttock fall, may contest with any. But, please or displease, I am resolved to be ingenuous in my characters. Therefore I am of opinion, that he is not overstocked with that necessary ingredient of a boxer, called a bottom; and am apt to suspect that blows of equal strength with his too much affect him and disconcert his conduct." Godfrey on the Science of Defence, p. 61.

On Taylor's tombstone in Deptford church-yard is the following epitaph:

Farewell ye honours of my brow! Victorious wreaths farewell! One trip from Death has laid me low, By whom such numbers fell. Yet bravely I'll dispute the prize, Nor yield, though out of breath: 'Tis but a fall—I yet shall rise, And conquer—even Death.

The idea, however, is all that can merit praise in these rough outlines by Hogarth. Some graver critics, indeed, may think our artist has treated the most solemn of all events with too great a degree of levity.

9. Nine prints of Hogarth's Tour from drawings by Hogarth, &c. accompanied with nine pages of letter press. The frontispiece of this work (Mr. Somebody) was designed by Hogarth, as emblematical of their journey, viz. that it was a short Tour by land and water, backwards and forwards, without head or tail. The 9th is the tail-piece (Mr. Nobody) of the same whimsical nature with the first; the whole being intended as a burlesque on historical writers recording a series of insignificant events intirely uninteresting to the reader. "Some few copies of the Tour," says Mr. Walpole,[1] "were printed by Mr. Nichols in the preceding year. It was a party of pleasure down the river into Kent, undertaken by Mr. Hogarth, Mr. Scott, and three of their friends, in which they intended to have more humour than they accomplished, as is commonly the case in such meditated attempts. The Tour was described in verse by one of the company, and the drawings executed by the painters, but with little merit, except the views taken by Mr. Scott."

I have transcribed this paragraph lest the readers of the truly valuable work whence it is taken should imagine the Tour printed by J. N. in 1781, was the same with that published by Mr. Livesay in 1782. The former was the production of the ingenious Mr. Gostling of Canterbury; the latter was written by one of the company, and, with the omission of a single glaring indelicacy, and many false spellings, has been faithfully edited by Mr. Livesay.

10. Hogarth's Crest, exhibiting the Line of Beauty. Cyprus and Variety subjoined by way of mottoes; but my readers will anticipate me when I observe that the universe contains no place in which Hogarth had so little interest as in the Cyprian isle, where Venus was attended by the Graces. Hogarth's original sketch, which he delivered to Mr. Catton the coach-painter for the purpose of having it transferred on his carriage, is now in the possession of Mr. Livesay.

11. The card of invitation mentioned in p. 63. is introduced in the title-page of the present publication. It is engraved by J. Cary, a young artist, whose abilities, more particularly in the line of map-engraving, will soon raise him into notice.

12. An Old Man's Head with a band. In the dotted stile. Published by Livesay.

1785.

1. Orator Henley Christening a Child. Etched by Sam^l Ireland from an original sketch in oil—in his possession—by Hogarth.—To Francis Grose, Esq; F. A. S. an encourager and promoter of the arts, this etching, from his favourite Hogarth, is inscribed by his obliged friend and servant, Sam^l Ireland.

2. A Landscape. Etch'd by Sam^l Ireland, from an original picture in his possession, said to be the only landscape ever painted by Hogarth.—To the Right Honourable the Earl of Exeter, an admirer of Hogarth, and encourager of the arts, this etching is inscribed by his Lordship's most obliged and obedient servant. S. Ireland.

The very considerable degree of skill and fidelity, displayed in the execution of these two plates, entitles the gentleman who etched them to the warmest thanks of every collector of the works of Hogarth.—May a hope be added, that he will favour us with yet other unpublished designs of the same master?

Prints of uncertain Date.

Before Mr. Walpole's enumeration of the following shop-bills, coats of arms, &c. made its appearance, perhaps few of them were known to our collectors. Concerning the genuineness of some of these unimportant engravings, no doubt can be entertained; but whence is it inferred that all of them were his productions? Do we receive them merely on the faith of Mr. Pond? or are they imputed to our artist for any other reason, or on the strength of any other testimony? I am assured, by a gentleman who possesses the chief of them, and is well acquainted with Hogarth's manner, that from mere external evidence several of these could not have been authenticated.

It is natural, however, to suppose that most of them (if Hogarth's) were the fruits of his apprenticeship.[1] As such, therefore, they should be placed at the beginning of every collection.

1. People in a shop under the King's arms: Mary and Ann Hogarth. "A shop-bill" for his two sisters, who for many years kept a linen-draper's, or rather what is called a slop-shop.

Mary and Ann Hogarth. from the Old Frock-shop near the corner of The Long Walk, facing The Cloysters, Removed to y^e Kings Arms joyning to y^e Little Britain-gate, near Long Walk. Sells y^e best and most Fashionable Ready Made Frocks, sutes of Fustian, Ticken and Holland, stript Dimmity and Flañel Wastcoats, blue and canvas Frocks, and bluecoat Boys Dra^rs. Likewise Fustians, Tickens, Hollands, white stript Dĩ̃mitys, white and stript Flañels in y^e piece. By wholesale or Retale, at Reasonable Rates.

2. His own cypher, with his name under it at length; "a plate he used for his books." I have reason to think it was neither designed nor engraved by Hogarth.

3. A Turk's head. "A shop bill," for John Barker, goldsmith, at the Morocco Ambassador's head in Lombard-Street.—A copy of this has been made.

4. A shop-bill, with emblems of Trade. Grand Duke of Tuscany's arms at the top; those of Florence within the plate. At the four corners, views of Naples, Venice, Genoa, and Leghorne.

At Mrs. Holt's, Italian Warehouse, at the two Olive Posts in y^e broad part of The Strand almost opposite to Exeter Change are sold all Sorts of Italian Silks, as Lustrings, Sattins, Padesois, Velvets, Damasks, &c. Fans, Legorne Hats, Flowers, Lute and Violin Strings, Books of Essences, Venice Treacle, Balsomes, &c. And in a Back Warehouse all Sorts of Italian Wines, Florence Cordials, Oyl, Olives, Anchovies, Capers, Vermicelli, Bolognia Sausidges, Parmesan Cheeses, Naple Soap, &c.

5. A large angel, holding a palm in his left hand. "A shop-bill" for

Ellis Gamble Goldsmith, at the Golden-Angel in Cranbourn-street, Leicester-Fields. Makes Buys and Sells all Sorts of Plate, Rings and Jewels &c. Ellis Gamble Orfeure, a l'Enseigne de l'Ange d'Or dans Cranbourn-Street, Leicester-Fields. Fait, Achete, & vend toutes sortes d'Argenterie, Bagues & Bijouxs, &c.

6. A smaller angel. This is a contracted copy from the preceding, was another shop-bill for our Artist's Master, and has the same inscription as that already given.

7. Another small angel "almost the same as the preceding," in the collection of Mr. Walpole.

8. A large oval coat of arms, with terms of the four seasons.

9. A coat of arms, with two slaves and trophies. Plate for books.

10. Another coat of arms, and two boys as terms.

11. A foreign coat of arms; supporters a savage and an angel. Ditto.

12. Lord Aylmer's coat of arms.

13. Two ditto of the Duchess of Kendal; one of them, an impression from a silver tea table.

14. The Earl of Radnor's arms, from a silver cup and cover.

15. A grifon, with a flag. A crest.

16. Minerva, sitting and holding the arms of Holland, four Cupids round her. "Done for the books of John Holland, herald-painter."

Of this there are two plates. The Fleurs de Lys in the one are more numerous and crowded than in the other.

17. A ticket for a burial.

For the same purpose our artist's contemporary Coypel likewise engraved a plate, which is still in use.

18. Two small for Milton. W. Hogarth inv. & sculp.

It is so singular, that only plates referring to the first and third books of Paradise Lost should be discovered with our artist's name subscribed to them, that I almost suspect they were not executed for any edition of that work, but rather for some oratorio or operatical performance founded thereon, though neither performed nor printed. An example of two prints by Hogarth to a single dramatic piece, we have already met with in Perseus and Andromeda.

If the first of the present designs was made for the first book of Paradise Lost, one might almost swear that Hogarth had never read it, or he could not have fallen into the strange absurdities and incoherences that his engraving displays. We have on one side a Dæmon exalted in a kind of pulpit, at the foot of which another infernal spirit lies bound in chains, while a cannon is pointed at his head. At a distance, in the centre of an arcade adorned with statues, is a throne with a personage seated on it. Over his head are little beings supporting an emblem of eternity. Stars, &c. appear above them. Whether this dignified character was designed for "a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd," it would be difficult from his figure and attributes to determine. Perhaps several works of fancy might be named, with which the present representation would as naturally connect as with the first book of Milton's Poem.

The following plate exhibits two celestial characters of equal age. They sit aloft in the clouds, and listen to a concert of angels playing on various instruments, and, among the rest, on a clumsy organ. A ray of light darts down on a distant orb, designed, I suppose, for the new-created world, towards which the figure of a little being, scarce bigger than a bird, though meant for Satan, is seen directing its flight.[1]

A bookseller of common sagacity would have been justified in rejecting these designs, if prepared for Milton. Indeed, had I not been taught by Mr. Walpole's catalogue that such was their destination, I should not hastily have conjectured that the former of them had the least reference to the Poet's Pandæmonium. Let it be remembered, however, that these must have been among the earliest of Hogarth's performances, and, like his prints for Don Quixote, were in all probability thrown aside, as unsuited to the purpose for which they were engraved. I have been told, indeed, that a couple of plates, by our artist, to the comedy of The Spanish Friar, are still existing.[2] If Hogarth, therefore, was once employed in preparing cuts to the plays of Dryden, the designs already mentioned might have been intended for two different scenes in The State of Innocence, or the Fall of Man.

19. A coat of arms from a large silver tea table. Under these arms are a shepherd and his flock, exactly the same as those on the tankard, N° 25. A shepherd and shepherdess also are the supporters. This has been ascribed to Hogarth, but I suspect it to be a copy, and am told indeed that it was engraved by Pelitreau.

20. Impression from a coat of arms engraved on a silver dish made by Delemery; purchased, at some distance of time, by Sir Gregory Page, Bart. who erased the original arms from the escutcheon, and had his own put in. The dish was afterwards bought at Christie's at a sale of Sir Gregory's plate; and when 25 impressions only had been taken from it, was cut to pieces by R. Morrison, 1781. I wish some of these discoveries of Hogarth's engravings had been made by people who had no immediate view to their own profit, and the sale of their acquisitions. Too many of our collectors are become dealers.

21. Small oval print for the Rape of the Lock. This was not designed for any edition of it. A few impressions only were taken off from the lid of a snuff-box engraved by Mr. Hogarth, as it is believed, for some gentleman characterized by Pope in his celebrated mock-heroic poem. It is one of the poorest of Hogarth's performances.

22. An emblematic print, representing Agriculture and Arts. "It seems to be a ticket for some society."

23. A ticket for the benefit of Milward the tragedian. A scene in The Beggar's Opera; "Pitt 3 s." inserted with a pen between "Theatre" and "Royal," in a scroll at the bottom of it. I have seen an impression of it, under which is engraved, "Lincolns-Inn Fields, Tuesday, Aprill 23. A Bold Stroke for a Wife, with Entertainments, for the benefit of Mr. Milward." This careless, but spirited little engraving, has more of Hogarth's manner than several other more laboured pieces, which of late have been imputed to him.—Let the connoisseur judge.

This ticket (as is already observed) must have been issued before 1733, when the Theatre in Lincolns-Inn-Fields was shut up, and all the actors, Milward among the rest, removed to Covent Garden.

24. The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by the Gormagons.

A. Chin Quaw-Kypo' Done from ye Original. 1st Emperor of China. Painted at Pekin by Matt-chauter, B. The sage Confucius. Grav'd by Ho-ge C. In Chin present and sold by ye Printsellers Oecumenical Volgi. of London Paris and Rome. D. The Mandarin Hangchi. Hogarth inv. et sculp.

To the earliest impressions of this plate, the name of Sayer (for whom it has since been retouched) is wanting. "Stolen from Coypel's Don Quixote." Underneath, these verses:

From Eastern climes, transplanted to our coasts, Two oldest orders that creation boasts Here meet in miniature, expos'd to view That by their conduct men may judge their due. The Gormagons, a venerable race, Appear distinguish'd with peculiar grace: What honour! wisdom! truth! and social love! Sure such an order had its birth, above. But mark Free Masons! what a farce is this? How wild their mystery! what a Bum they kiss![1] Who would not laugh,[2] who such occasions had? Who should not weep, to think the world so mad?

I should suspect that this plate was published about 1742, when the Procession[3] of Scald Miserables had been produced[4] to parody the cavalcade of the Free Masons, who ever afterwards discontinued their annual procession. Hogarth was always ready to avail himself of any popular subject that afforded a scope to ridicule. Among Harry Carey's Poems, however, 1729, third edition, is the following;

"The Moderator between the Free-Masons and Gormogons. "The Masons and the Gormogons Are laughing at one another, While all mankind are laughing at them; Then why do they make such a pother? "They bait their hook for simple gulls, And truth with bam they smother; But when they've taken in their culls, Why then 'tis—Welcome Brother!"

The particular disputes between the parties referred to by this poem, it is not easy to ascertain. Perhaps the humourous writer alludes to some schism or dissention now forgotten. Mr. Gray, in one of his letters to Mr. Walpole, says, "I reckon next week to hear you are a Free Mason, or a Gormogon at least." 4to edition, p. 188.

I learn from Masonry Dissected, &c. a pamphlet published in 1730, by Samuel Prichard, late member of a Constituted Lodge, that "From the Accepted Mason sprang the real Masons, and from both sprang the Gormogons, whose grand master the Volgi deduces his original from the Chinese, whose writings, if to be credited, maintain the hypotheses of the Pre-adamites, and consequently must be more antique than Masonry."—This circumstance will account for the Chinese names and habits in our artist's plate.

24. Sancho, at the magnificent feast, &c. starved by his Physician. On the top of this plate are the following words: "This original print was invented and engraved by William Hogarth. Price 1 s." At bottom we read, W. Hogarth inv. & sculp. Printed for H. Overton and J. Hoole. Perhaps this design was meant as a rival to that of Coypel on the same subject; or might be intended by way of specimen of a complete set of plates for Don Quixote. Mr. S. Ireland has the original drawing.

25. Impression from a tankard belonging to a club of artists, who met weekly at The Bull's Head in Clare-Market. Of this society Hogarth was a member. A shepherd and his flock are here represented.

26. The Gin Drinkers. This may have been one of Hogarth's early performances; and, if such, is to be considered as a rude fore-runner of his Gin-Lane. But I do not vouch for its authencity.

27. The Oratory.[1] Orator Henley on a scaffold, a monkey (over whom is written Amen) by his side. A box of pills and the Hyp Doctor lying beside him. Over his head, "The Oratory. Inveniam viam, aut faciam."[2] Over the door. "Ingredere ut proficias."[3] A Parson receiving the money for admission. Under him, "The Treasury." A Butcher stands as porter. On the left hand, Modesty in a cloud; Folly in a coach; and a gibbet prepared for Merit; people laughing. One marked The Scout,[4] introducing a Puritan Divine. A Boy easing nature. Several grotesque figures, one of them (marked Tee-Hee) in a violent fit of laughter. I discover no reason for regarding this as a production of Hogarth, though his name, cut from the bottom of one of his smaller works, was fraudulently affixed to an impression of it belonging to the late worthy Mr. Ingham Foster, whose prints were sold at Barford's, in March 1783. Hogarth, whose resources, both from fancy and observation, were large, was never, like the author of this plate, reduced to the poor necessity of peopling his comic designs with Pierot, Scaramouch, and the other hackneyed rabble of French and Italian farces.

Underneath a second impression of it, is the following inscription:

"An extempore Epigram, made at the Oratory: "O Orator! with brazen face and lungs, Whose jargon's form'd of ten unlearned tongues, Why stand'st thou there a whole long hour haranguing, When half the time fits better men for hanging!" Geo. B—k—h[5] jun. Copper-scratcher and Grub-Street invent. sculp.

28. Orator Henley christening a child. John Sympson jun. fecit. Mezzotinto (commonly of a greenish colour), with the following verses under it:

Behold Vilaria lately brought to bed, Her cheeks now strangers to their rosy red; Languid her eyes, yet lovely she appears! And oh! what fondness her lord's visage wears! The pamper'd priest, in whose extended arms The female infant lies, with budding charms, Seeming to ask the name e'er he baptise, Casts at the handsome gossips his wanton eyes, While gay Sir Fopling, an accomplish'd ass, Is courting his own dear image in the glass: The Midwife busied too, with mighty care, Adjusts the cap, shews innocency fair. Behind her stands the Clerk, on whose grave face Sleek Abigal cannot forbear to gaze: But master, without thought, poor harmless child, Has on the floor the holy-water spill'd, Thrown down the hat; the lap-dog gnaws the rose; And at the fire the Nurse is warming cloaths. One guest enquires the Parson's name;—says Friendly, Why, dont you know, Sir?—'tis Hyp-Doctor[1] H——y.

Sold by J. Sympson, at the Dove in Russel-Court, Drury-Lane. An original sketch in oil, on the same subject, is in the possession of Mr. S. Ireland.[2]

29. A woman swearing a child to a grave citizen.[1] W. Hogarth pinx. J. Sympson jun. sculp. Sold by J. Sympson engraver and print-seller, at The Dove in Russel-Court, Drury-Lane. This Mr. Walpole observes to be a very bad print. Perhaps he had only seen some wretched impression, or copy of it (for there are two, the one in a small size, the other large, but fit for no other purpose than to adorn the walls of a country Inn), and therefore spoke with contempt of a performance which hardly deserves so unfavourable a character. This entire design, however, is stolen from a picture of Heemskirk, which has been since engraved in mezzotinto by W. Dickinson of New Bond-street, and published March 10, 1772. The original picture is in the possession of Mr. Watson, surgeon, in Rathbone Place.

The title given to this plate by the ingenious engraver, is The Village Magistrate. All the male figures are monkies; all the female ones, cats. Hogarth has likewise been indebted to its companion—The Constable of the Night. Few impressions from these plates having been hitherto sold, they are both in excellent condition, and the former of them exhibits an indisputable instance of Hogarth's plagiarism.

While Picart was preparing his Religious Ceremonies, he wrote to some friend here, to supply him with representations illustrative of his subject. His correspondent, either through ignorance or design, furnished him with the two preceding plates by Hogarth. Picart has engraved the former with a few variations, and the latter with the utmost fidelity. The one is called by him Le Serment de la Fille qui se trouve enceinte; the other, Le Baptême domestique. The first contains a supposed portrait of Sir Thomas de Veil. For the conversion of a civil into a religious ceremony, let the Frenchman, or his purveyor, be answerable. The lines under Hogarth's performance are as follows:

Here Justice triumphs in his elbow chair, And makes his market of the trading fair; His office-shelves with parish laws are grac'd, But spelling-books, and guides between 'em placed Here pregnant madam screens the real fire, And falsely swears her bastard child for hire Upon a rich old letcher, who denies The fact, and vows the naughty Hussif lies; His wife enrag'd, exclaims against her spouse, And swears she'll be reveng'd upon his brows; The jade, the justice, and church ward'ns agree, And force him to provide security.

Hogarth's picture is in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Whalley, at Ecton, Northamptonshire.

Mr. Whalley is the nephew of John Palmer, whose portrait is mentioned among the works of Hogarth. See p. 295. This picture too is at Ecton. The foregoing print (as already observed, p. 121.) must have been published before the year 1735.

30. Right Hon. Gustavus Lord Viscount Boyne, &c. &c. Whole length, mezzotinto. W. Hogarth pinx. Andrew Miller fecit. "A very bad print, done in Ireland."

I have since met with an early impression of this mezzotinto. The inscription, dedication, &c. underneath it, are as follows:

"W. Hogarth pinx. Ford fecit. The R^t. Hon^ble. Gustavus Lord Visc^t. Boyne, Baron of Stackallen, one of his Majesty's most Hon^ble. Priuy Council, one of the Com^rs. of the Revenue of Ireland, &c.

"To the R^t. Hon^ble. the Earl of Kildare this plate is humbly dedicated by his Lordship's most obedient humble serv^t. Mich. Ford.

"Published and sold by Mich. Ford, Painter and Print-seller on Cork Hill. Price 5^s. 5.^d. [i. e. five thirteens."]

Mr. Walpole's is probably a later or a retouched impression from the same plate, after it had fallen into the hands of one Andrew Miller, who effaced the name of Ford, and substituted his own.

This scarce print will undoubtedly suffer from comparison with the works of Smith, M'Ardell, Earlom, Jones, &c. and yet perhaps it is the best mezzotinto that Ireland has hitherto produced. It must be confessed, however, that Hogarth's whole-length figure of Lord Boyne is equally void of grace, meaning, and proportion; but these defects have no connection with the labours of Ford, which would have appeared to more advantage had they been exerted on a better subject.

31. Mr. Pine (the celebrated engraver), in the manner of Rembrandt. Mezzotinto (about the year 1746), by M'Ardell, Price 2 s. The original was in the possession of the late Mr. Ranby the surgeon.

There is a second head of Mr. Pine, a mezzotinto; both his hands leaning on a cane. Printed for George Pulley, at Rembrandt's Head, the corner of Bride-court, Fleet-street.

I have called this "a second head," but know not which of the two was first published.

In the first edition of the present work I had described this plate as an unfinished one, but have since met with it in a perfect state.

32. A View of Mr. Ranby's house at Chiswick. Etched by Hogarth. This view, I am informed, was taken in 1750, but was not designed for sale.

33. Daniel Lock, Esq. F. S. A. formerly an architect. He retired from business with a good fortune, lived in Surrey-street, and was buried in the chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge. Mezzotinto. W. Hogarth pinx. J. M'Ardell fecit. Price 1 s. 6 d.

34. Christ and his disciples; persons at a distance carried to an hospital. "In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." St. Matt. xxv. ver. 40. W. Hogarth inv. C. Grignion sculp. Ticket for The London Hospital.

As this charitable foundation was instituted in 1740, probably the ticket was engraved soon afterwards.

35. Original of the same, in a smaller size, with the Duke of Richmond's arms as president.

36. Another, almost the same as N° 34, but with a view of The London Hospital.

37. Six prints for Don Quixote. W. Hogarth inv. & sculp.

When Lord Carteret, about the year 1737, was seeking artists to design, &c. plates for his Spanish edition of this famous novel, published in 1738, Hogarth, of course, was not overlooked. His performances, however, gave so little satisfaction to his noble employer, that they were paid for, and then laid aside in favour of Vandrebank's drawings, afterwards engraved by Vandergucht. The plates remaining in the hands of Mr. Tonson, his lordship's publisher, at his death, were bought by Mr. Dodsley, who, finding they exhibited no descriptions that could render them welcome to the possessors of any copy of Don Quixote whatever, had the titles of the chapters, &c. to which they belong, together with references to the corresponding pages in Jarvis's translation, engraved under each of them. The subjects of them are, I. Funeral of Chrysostom, and Marcella vindicating herself; vol. I. p. 71. II. The Inn-keeper's wife and daughter taking care of the Don after being beaten and bruised, p. 129. III. Don Quixote releases the galley slaves, p. 129. IV. The unfortunate Knight of the Rock meeting Don Quixote, p. 140. V. Don Quixote seizes the barber's bason for Mambrino's helmet, p. 155. VI. The Curate and Barber disguising themselves to convey Don Quixote home, p. 166. Tonson had several specimens of plates, both in quarto and octavo sizes, executed for editions of Shakspeare, but they shared the same fate with the others prepared for Don Quixote.

38. An oval, with two figures representing Hymen and Cupid. A view of a magnificent villa at a distance. This print was intended as a ticket for Sigismunda, which Hogarth proposed to be raffled for. It is often marked with ink 2 l. 2 s. The number of each ticket was to have been inserted on the scroll hanging down from the knee of the principal figure. Perhaps none of them were ever disposed of. This plate, however, must have been engraved about 1762 or 3. Had I not seen many copies of it marked by the hand of Hogarth, I should have supposed it to have been only a ticket for a concert or music-meeting.

39. Four heads from the cartoons at Hampton-Court. An etching.

Mr. Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting, &c. vol. IV. p. 22. speaking of Sir James Thornhill's attention to these celebrated pictures, has the following remark: "He made copious studies of the heads, hands, and feet, and intended to publish an exact account of the whole, for the use of students: but his work never appeared."

As this plate was found among others engraved by Hogarth, it might probably have been one of his early performances. His widow has directed a few impressions to be taken from it, and they are sold at her house in Leicester-square.

40. A Scene in a Pantomime Entertainment lately exhibited; designed by a Knight of Malta. A satire on the Royal Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain. No name.

This design is difficult to be explained, as it alludes to some forgotten dissentions among the artists before the Royal Academy was founded. Sir William Chambers, Kirby, Rooker the Engraver and Harlequin, Liotard, remarkable for having adopted the Turkish dress, and others, are introduced in it. The hat and head of Hogarth also appear on one of the necks of a Hydra. It is hardly credible, therefore, that he should have rendered himself an object of his own satire. A mere etched outline of the same design, with additions, was afterwards published, and is marked plate II. It is larger than the original plate, and must be considered as a slight temporary sketch, of which the author is uncertain.

41. A Ticket-porter carrying a load of chamber-pots to some place of public resort, from the entrance of which three grenadiers are keeping off the crowd. At the bottom is written.

"Jack in an Office, or Peter Necessary, with Choice of Chamber-pots.

"A Ticket for the——————————Price 6 d."

Of the following articles the 49th, and 53d, are the undoubted productions of Hogarth. Some of the rest may admit of dispute. Those marked * I have not yet seen in any collection but that of Mr. S. Ireland.

* 42. Arms of George Lambart [Lambert] the painter, an intimate friend of our artist.

* 43. Arms of Gore, engraved on a silver waiter.

* 44. Arms of a Duke of Kendal. N. B. There never was a Duke of Kendal, but an infant son of James II. The arms mentioned are certainly those of the Dutchess of Kendal. The male shield must be a mistake.

* 45. Arms of Chudleigh; motto "Aut vincam, aut peribo." Done for Major L'Emery, whilst Hogarth was apprentice.

46. The Great Seal of England, from a large silver table. This was given to Mr. S. Ireland by a Mr. Bonneau, who took off the impression before the year 1740.

47. Twenty-six figures, on two large sheets, engraved for "A Compendium of Military Discipline, as it is practised by the Honourable the Artillery Company of the City of London, for the initiating and instructing Officers of the Trained Bands of the said City, &c. Most humbly dedicated to his Royal Highness George Prince of Wales, Captain General of the Honourable the Artillery Company. By John Blackwell, Adjutant and Clerk to the said Company.

"London. Printed for the Author; and are to be sold at his house in Well-Court in Queen-Street, near Cheapside, 1726."

48. Farinelli, Cuzzoni, and Heydegger. Cuzzoni and Farinelli are singing a duet. The latter is in the character of a prisoner, being chained by his little finger. Heydegger sits behind, and is supposed to utter the eight following lines, which are engraved under the plate:

Thou tuneful scarecrow, and thou warbling bird, No shelter for your notes these lands afford. This town protects no more the singsong strain, Whilst Balls and Masquerades triumphant reign. Sooner than midnight revels ere should fail, And ore Ridottos Harmony prevail; The cap (a refuge once) my head shall grace, And save from ruin this harmonious face.[1]

I am told, however, that this plate was designed by the last Countess of Burlington, and etched by Goupy. I may add, that the figures in it, though slightly done on the whole, consist of more than a single stroke, being retouched and heightened by the burin in several places. On the contrary, Hogarth's plate, intituled The Charmers of the Age, only offers an etched outline, which at once afforded the extent of his design, leaving no room for improvement. The former print exhibits traces of perseverance and assiduity; the latter is an effort of genius that completes its purpose without elaboration.

49. The Discovery. This scarce plate is acknowledged as genuine by Mrs. Hogarth. The subject is a black woman in bed; her eyes archly turned on her gallant just risen, who expresses his astonishment on the entrance of three laughing friends, one of them with a candle in his hand. Underneath the print is this apposite motto:

Qui color albus erat nunc est contrarius albo.

A similar circumstance occurs in Fletcher's Monsieur Thomas, and in Foote's Cozeners.

I know not of any among our artist's works that displays so little character. It must have been one of his early performances.

It should be observed that, being founded on a private occurrence, this print was never designed for general circulation. Mr. Highmore the manager of Drury-Lane, who bought Cibber's share in the patent, is the Hero of it. A few copies only were distributed among Hogarth's particular friends, and the gentlemen whose portraits it contains. At the bottom of the plate there is no descriptive title. The Discovery was that by which Mrs. Hogarth mentioned it when she recollected the very laughable circumstance here commemorated by her husband's pencil.

* 50. The Cottage. An impression from a breeches-button, the size of a crown-piece; a sketch made for Mr. Camfield, a surgeon, on a subject that will not bear explanation. There is a copy of this little plate by Mr. S. Ireland.

51. Pug the Painter. This has been usually understood as a satire on Hogarth, rather than a design by him. Mr. Ireland once told me it was etched by Dawes, and that our artist gave a copy of it, as his own design, to Mr. Kirby. But I am assured with superior confidence by another gentleman, that the true author of it is to be sought among those artists whom Hogarth had provoked by his contemptuous treatment of their works. If Pug was not designed as his representative, why is the animal exhibited in the act of painting the ridiculous figure of the Priest in The Good Samaritan?

52. A Head in an oval, coarsely engraved, and subscribed "Samuel Butler Author of Hudibras." Several connoisseurs, beside Mr. Thane who possesses the plate, conceive it to be an undoubted work of Hogarth. For what purpose it was executed, and why suppressed (for no one has hitherto met with even a proof from it) it is vain to enquire. I am silent on the subject, heartily wishing that throughout this work I had had the opinions of more friends to record, and had offered fewer sentiments of my own.

53. "A very rare hieroglyphic print; representing Royalty, Episcopacy, and Law, composed of emblematic attributes, and no human features or limbs; with attendants of similar ingredients. Beneath is this inscription. Some of the principal inhabitants of the Moon, as they were discovered by a telescope, brought to the greatest perfection since the last eclipse; exactly engraved from the objects, whereby the Curious may guess at their Religion, Manners, &c. Price Six-pence."

A kind of scaffold above the clouds is the theatre of this representation. Monarchy, Episcopacy, and Law, appear characteristically seated. Their faces are—a Crown-piece—a Jew's Harp, and—a Mallet. The monarch holds a globe and sceptre, with crescents on the tops of them. Instead of a collar of esses, he wears a string of bubbles; his side is ornamented with a pointed star; and a circle, the emblem of perpetuity, is embroidered on the cloth under his throne. Episcopacy is working at a pump (a type I suppose of the Church) by the assistance of a bell-rope. The Bible is fastened to the handle of the pump, and out of the nose of it issues money that falls into a chest discriminated by an armorial escutcheon, containing a knife and fork, properly emblazoned, with a mitre by way of crest. The lid of the coffer leans against a pillar, that serves also to support a triple pile of cushions. Over the top of the pump (which is fashioned much like a steeple) is a weathercock on a small pyramid supported by balls; and below it, through a circular opening, a little bell appears to ring. Under the sacerdotal robe, a cloven foot peeps out. Law sustains a sword; and behind him appears a dagger thrust through the bottom of a sieve. The attendants on Monarchy are of various materials. The bodies and legs of such as seem designed for soldiers, are composed of circular fire-screens resembling shields. The trunks of the courtiers are large looking-glasses, the sconces with candles in them serving for hands and arms. The face of the chief of these is the reverse of a sixpence; and a key significantly appended to his sash, at once denotes his sex and office. Under the figure of law are a male and female modishly drest. Her head is a tea-pot, her neck a drinking-glass, and her body a fan half spread. On the oval that forms the countenance of her paramour, is a coat of arms with supporters. His right honourable legs are fan-sticks, and he seems in the act of courtship. How this couple are immediately connected with Law, is not very clearly pointed out. Hogarth, however, we may suppose, had planned some explanation of his hieroglyphics, as the letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, are placed over some of them, and beneath others.

From the form of the perukes exhibited in this design, I should suppose it was made above forty years ago. Other circumstances in it need no decyphering.

* 54. The Master of the Vineyard. St. Matthew chap. xxi. v. 28. "Son, go work to-day in my Vineyard."

* 55. The London Infirmary for charitably relieving sick and diseased Manufacturers and Seamen in the Merchants' service, their Wives and Children. A blank certificate for Pupils in Surgery and Anatomy, printed on a half sheet, folio.

56. A ticket for the benefit of Spiller the player. He died in the year 1729.

In the plate before us, which possesses no small share of humour, poor Spiller is represented in a melancholy posture. His finances are weighed against his debts, and outweighed by them. His taylor's bill appears to be of great length, and many others for ale, gin, &c. are on the ground near him. A bailiff is clapping him on the shoulder—a prison is in sight—ladies and gentlemen are taking tickets, &c. This very uncommon and beautiful little print is, at present, found only in the collection of Mr. Ireland.

57. St. Mary's Chapel. Five at night. Several performers playing on different instruments. William Hogarth inv. G. Vandergucht sculpt.

This was certainly an ornament at the top of a ticket for a music-meeting. The name of Hogarth is affixed to it, and the whole design might have been his. I do not, however, believe it was so. A few of the figures appear to have been collected from his works by some other hand, rather than grouped by his own. Vandergucht too was so thoroughly a mannerist, and especially in small subjects, that he was rarely faithful to the expressions of countenance he undertook to trace on copper. There is no humour, and indeed little merit of any kind, in this performance. It has not hitherto been met with on the entire piece of paper to which it must originally have belonged.

A print called The Scotch Congregation, by Hogarth, is almost unique, on account of its extreme indecency. One copy of it was in a collection of his works belonging to Mr. Alexander of Edinburgh. He is said to have had it from Mrs. Hogarth. A second copy is reported to exist in the possession of another gentleman. No more impressions of it are known.

A correspondent at Dublin informs me, that in the collection of Dr. Hopkins of that city are the following seven prints by Hogarth:

1. The History of Witchcraft. Humbly dedicated to the Wise. Allegorically modernized. Part the First. Published according to act of Parliament. Hogarth inv. et sculpt.

Half sheet print. At one end, Witches attending the punishment of two human figures; at the other, several at their different occupations.

2. The History of Witchcraft. Part the Second. Published according to act of Parliament. Hogarth inv. et sculpt.

Same size as the former. Witches dancing; others at various amusements. These two prints contain a great variety of distorted figures.

3. A Suit of Law fits me better than a Suit of Clothes. Invented and engraved by W. H. and published pursuant to an Act of Parliament, 1740.

An upright half-sheet. A Man in embroidered clothes, his hat under his arm. A scroll in his left hand, inscribed, "I'll go to Law." Huntsmen, dogs, and horses in the back ground. Four lines in verse underneath.

Useful in all families. Invented and engraved by W. H. and published pursuant to an Act of Parliament, 1740.

4. The same man in a tattered garment in a wild country; a staff in his right hand, and a scroll in his left, inscribed, "To shew that I went to law, and got the better." Four lines at the bottom.

These two may be classed among his indifferent prints.

5. The Caledonian March and Embarkation. Hogarth invent. London, printed for T. Baldwin.

A number of Scotchmen embarking in the Caledonian Transport. Labels issuing from their mouths.

The Laird of the Posts, or the Bonnets exalted. Printed for T. Baldwin, London. Hogarth inv.

6. A Scotch Nobleman and his Friends taking possession of several posts, having kick'd down the former Possessors. Labels from their mouths too tedious to copy. A Lion on the fore-ground, hood-winked by a Scotch plaid.

Supposed to be printed for The London Magazine.

7. The Lion entranced. Printed for T. Baldwin, London. Hogarth inv. 1762.

A Lion in a Coffin. A plate on the cover, inscribed, "Leo Britanicus, Ob. An. 1762. Requiescat in pace." Attended by state mourners with labels as above. In one corner Hibernia supplicating for her Sister's interest.

A respect for the obliging communicator has induced me to publish this supposed addition to the foregoing catalogue of Hogarth's works. But, without ocular proof, I cannot receive as genuine any one of the plates enumerated. The name of our Artist has more than once been subscribed to the wretched productions of others; and a collector at Dublin must have had singular good fortune indeed, if he has met with seven authentic curiosities unknown to the most confidential friends of Hogarth, and the most industrious connoisseurs about London. I may add, that two, if not three, of the above-mentioned anti-ministeral pieces, appeared in 1762, the very year in which our artist was appointed Serjeant Painter. Till that period he is unsuspected of having engaged his pencil in the service of politicks; and T. Baldwin (perhaps a fictitious name) is not known to have been on any former occasion his publisher. So much for the probability of Hogarth's having ushered performances like these into the world.

Chance, and the kindness of my friends, have not enabled me to form a more accurate series of Hogarth's labours. Those of the collector, however, are still incomplete, unless he can furnish himself with a specimen of several other pieces, said, I think, to have been produced a little before our artist's marriage. I forbear to keep my readers in suspense on the occasion. Hogarth once taking up some plain ivory fishes that lay on his future wife's card-table, observed how much was wanting to render them natural representations. Having delivered this remark with becoming gravity, he proceeded to engrave scales, fins, &c. on each of them. A few impressions have been taken from these curiosities, which remain in Mrs. Hogarth's possession. As a button decorated by her husband has been received into the foregoing catalogue of his works, it can hardly be disgraced by this brief mention of the ornaments he bestowed on a counter.

There are three large volumes in quarto by Lavater, a minister at Zurich (with great numbers of plates), on Physiognomy. Among these are two containing several groups of figures from different prints of Hogarth, together with the portraits of Lord Lovat and Wilkes. For what particular purpose they are introduced, remains to me a secret.[1]

In "An Address of Thanks to the Broad Bottoms, for the good things they have done, and the evil things they have not done, since their elevation, 1745," is what the author calls "A curious emblematic Frontispiece, taken from an original painting of the ingenious Mr. H——th;" a palpable imposition.

Mr. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, Vol. IV. 63, observes, that "Hogarth drew the supposed funeral of Vanaken, attended by the painters he worked for, discovering every mark of grief and despair." To explain this passage, it should be added, that "he was employed by several considerable artists here, to draw the attitudes, and dress the figures in their pictures."

The merits of Hogarth, as an engraver, are inconsiderable. His hand was faithful to character, but had little acquaintance with the powers of light and shade. In some of his early prints he was an assiduous imitator of Callot, but deviated at last into a manner of his own, which suffers much by comparison with that of his coadjutors, Ravenet and Sullivan. In the pieces finished by these masters of their art, there is a clearness that Hogarth could never reach. His strokes sometimes look as if fortuitously disposed, and sometimes confusedly thwart each other in almost every possible direction. What he wanted in skill, he strove to make up in labour; but the result of it was a universal haze and indistinctness, that, by excluding force and transparency, has rendered several of his larger plates less captivating than they would have been, had he entrusted the sole execution of them to either of the artists already mentioned. His smaller etchings, indeed, such as The Laughing Pit, &c. cannot receive too much commendation.

Mr. Walpole has justly observed, that "many wretched prints came out to ridicule" the Analysis of Beauty. He might have added, that no small number of the same quality were produced immediately after the Times made its appearance. I wish it had been in my power to have afforded my readers a complete list of these performances, that as little as possible might have been wanting to the history of poor Hogarth's first and second persecution. Such a catalogue, however, not being necessary to the explanation of his works, it is with the less regret omitted.[2]

The scarceness of the good impressions of Hogarth's larger works is in great measure owing to their having been pasted on canvas or boards, to be framed and glazed for furniture. There were few people who collected his prints for any other purpose at their first appearance. The majority of these sets being hung up in London houses, have been utterly spoiled by smoke. Since foreigners have learned the value of the same performances, they have also been exported in considerable numbers. Wherever a taste for the fine arts has prevailed, the works of this great master are to be found. Messieurs Torré have frequent commissions to send them into Italy. I am credibly informed that the Empress of Russia has expressed uncommon pleasure in examining such genuine representations of English manners; and I have seen a set of cups and saucers with The Harlot's Progress painted on them in China about the year 1739.

Of all such engravings as are Mrs. Hogarth's property, the later impressions continue selling on terms specified many years ago in her printed catalogue, which the reader will find at the end of this pamphlet. The few elder proofs that remain undisposed of, may be likewise had from her agent at an advance of price. As to the plates which our artist had not retained as his own property, when any of these desiderata are found (perhaps in a state of corrosion), they are immediately vamped up, and impressions from them are offered to sale, at three, four, or five times their original value. They are also stained to give them the appearance of age; and on these occasions we are confidently assured, that only a few copies, which had lurked in some obscure warehouse, or neglected port-feuille, had been just discovered. This information is usually accompanied by sober advice to buy while we may, as the vender has scarce a moment free from the repeated solicitations of the nobility and gentry, whom he always wishes to oblige, still affording that preference to the connoisseur which he withholds from the less enlightened purchaser. It is scarce needful to observe, that no man ever visited the shops of these polite dealers, without soon fancying himself entitled to the more creditable of the aforesaid distinctions. Thus becoming a dupe to his own vanity, as well as to the artifice of the tradesman, he has speedily the mortification to find his supposed rarities are to be met with in every collection, and not long afterwards on every stall. The caution may not prove useless to those who are ambitious to assemble the works of Hogarth. Such a pursuit needs no apology; for sure, of all his fraternity, whether ancient or modern, he bent the keenest eye on the follies and vices of mankind, and expressed them with a degree of variety and force, which it would be vain to seek among the satiric compositions of any other painters. In short, what is observed by Hamlet concerning a player's office, may, with some few exceptions, be applied to the designs of Hogarth. "Their end, both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature; to shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his own form and pressure."

I may add, that, since the appearance of Mr. Walpole's Catalogue, a disposition to attribute several anonymous plates, on ludicrous subjects, to Hogarth, has betrayed itself in more than a single instance:[3] a supposition has also prevailed that there was a time when Hogarth had the whole field of satire to himself, and we could boast of no designers whose performances could be mistaken for his own. The latter notion is undoubtedly true, if real judges are to decide; and yet many prints, very slightly impregnated with humour, continue to be ascribed to him. It should therefore be observed, that, at the same period, Bickham, Vandergucht, Boitard, Gravelot, Laguerre the younger, &c. were occasionally publishing satirical Sketches, and engraving laughable frontispieces for books and pamphlets. To many of these, for various reasons, they forbore to set their names; and we have at present collectors, who, to obtain the credit of having made discoveries, are willing to adopt such performances as the genuine effusions of Hogarth, although every way beneath his talents, and repugnant to his style of engraving. Perhaps also the names of other painters and designers have been occasionally obliterated, to countenance the same fallacy. Copies likewise have been palmed on the unwary for originals. "Therefore" (gentle reader) for once be content to follow the advice of Pistol, "Go clear thy chrystals, and Caveto be thy counsellor." For if all such fatherless engravings, as the vanity of some, and the interest, or the ignorance, of others, would introduce among the works of our artist, were to be admitted, when would the collector's labour and expence be at end?

Among other anonymous plates ascribed to Hogarth, but omitted in the present catalogue, is the following, A living Dog is better than a dead Lion, or, The Vanity of human Glory; a design for the Monument of General Wolfe, 1760. A medallion of our hero appears on the side of a pyramid. On the base of it is the well known speech of Shakespeare's Brutus,

Set Honour in one hand, and Death in t' other, And I will look on both indifferent: And let the Gods so speed me, as I love The name of Honour more than I fear Death.

At the bottom a dying Lion is extended, while a Dog (with Minden on his collar, and Honour's a jest, &c. issuing from his mouth) is at once lifting up his leg against the noble brute, and treading on a wreath of laurel. Here lies Honour, is also written on the side of the expiring animal. I have since been assured that this print was by another artist, whose name I omit to mention, because perhaps he would wish it, on the present occasion, suppressed.

POSTSCRIPT.

The Author of this pamphlet, being convinced that, in spite of all his care and attention, some errors may still be found in his catalogue, list of variations, &c. will think himself highly obliged by any gentlemen who will point them out, and enable him to correct them. Such favours shall be gratefully acknowledged, if the present rude Essay towards an account of Hogarth's different performances should happen to reach another edition.

As in consequence of the extraordinary prices lately paid for the collected works of this great master, certain dealers, &c. are supposed to be assembling as many of his prints as they can meet with,—binding them up in pompous volumes,—writing "fine old impressions" either over or under them—specifying the precise sums pretended to have been disbursed for several of them (perhaps a guinea for a three shilling article)—preparing to offer a few rare trifles to sale, overloaded with a heap of wretched proofs from our artist's more capital performances;—exhibiting imperfect suites of such as are cut out of books; and intending to station puffers at future auctions, whose office will be to intimate they have received commissions to bid up as far as such or such an amount (i. e. the sum under which the concealed proprietor resolves not to part with his ware), &c. &c. it is hoped the reader will excuse a few parting words of admonition. Perhaps it may be in the power of Mrs. Hogarth to select a few sets from such of her husband's pieces as have remained in her own custody from the hour of their publication. Let the multitude, who of course cannot be supplied with these, become their own collectors. Even ignorance is a more trusty guide than professional artifice. It may be urged, indeed, that the proportionate value of impressions[1] can be ascertained only by those who have examined many of them in their various states, with diligence and acuteness. But surely to qualify ourselves for estimating the merit of the curiosities we are ambitious to purchase, is wiser than to rely altogether on the information of people whose interest is commonly the reverse of our own. Let it also be remembered, that the least precious of all Hogarth's productions are by far the scarcest; and that when, at an immoderate expence, we have procured impressions from tankards ornamented by him, or armorial ensigns engraved for the books of his customers, we shall be found at last to have added nothing to his fame, or the entertaining quality of our own collections. By such means, however, we may open a door to imposition. A work like The Harlot's Progress will certainly remain unimitated as well as inimitable; but it is in the power of every bungler to create fresh coats of arms, or shop bills with our artist's name subscribed to them: and wherein will the Lion or Griffin of Hogarth be discovered to excell the same representation by a meaner hand? A crafty selection of paper, and a slight attention to chronology and choice of subjects, with the aid of the hot-press, may, in the end, prove an overmatch for the sagacity of the ablest connoisseur. A single detection of such a forgery would at least give rise to suspicions that might operate even where no fallacy had been designed. How many fraudulent imitations of the smaller works of Rembrandt are known to have been circulated with success!—But it may be asked, perhaps, from what source the author of this pamphlet derives his knowledge of such transactions. His answer is, from the majority of collectors whom he has talked with in consequence of his present undertaking.

He ought not, however, to conclude without observing, that several genuine works of Hogarth yet remain to be engraved. He is happy also to add that a young artist, every way qualified for such a task, has already published a few of these by subscription.

J. N.

J. N. had once thoughts of adding a list of the copies made from the works of Hogarth; but finding them to be numerous, beyond expectation, has desisted from a task he could not easily accomplish. This pursuit, however, has enabled him to suggest yet another caution to his readers. Some of the early invaders of Hogarth's property were less audacious than the rest; and, forbearing to make exact imitations of his plates, were content with only borrowing particular circumstances from each of them, which they worked up into a similar fable. A set of The Rake's Progress, in which the figures were thus disguised and differently grouped, has been lately found. But since the rage of collection broke out with its present vehemence, those dealers who have met with any such diversified copies, have been desirous of putting them off either as the first thoughts of Hogarth, or as the inferior productions of elder artists on whose designs he had improved. There, is also a very small set of The Rake's Progress, contrived and executed with the varieties already mentioned; and even this has been offered to sale under the former of these descriptions. Thus, as Shakspeare says, While we shut the gate upon one imposition, another knocks at the door.

It may not be impertinent to conclude these cautions with another notice for the benefit of unexperienced collectors, who in their choice of prints usually prefer the blackest. The earliest copies of Hogarth's works are often fainter than such as have been retouched. The excellence of the former consists in clearness as well as strength; but strength only is the characteristic of the latter. The first and third copies of The Harlot's Progress will abundantly illustrate my remark, which, however, is confined to good impressions of the plates in either state; for some are now to be met with that no more possess the recommendation of transparency than that of force. I may add, that when plates are much worn, it is customary to load them with a double quantity of colour, that their weakness, as far as possible, may escape the eye of the purchaser. This practice the copper-plate printers facetiously entitle—coaxing; and, by the aid of it, the deeper strokes of the graver which are not wholly obliterated, become clogged with ink, while every finer trace, which was of a nature less permanent, is no longer visible. Thus in the modern proofs of Garrick in King Richard III. the armour, tent, and habit, continue to have considerable strength, though the delicate markings in the face, and the shadows on the inside of the hand, have long since disappeared. Yet this print, even in its faintest state, is still preferable to such smutty impositions as have been recently described. The modern impressions of The Fair, and The March to Finchley, will yet more forcibly illustrate the same remark.

To the original paintings of Hogarth already enumerated may be added a Breakfast-piece, preserved in Hill-Street, Berkeley-Square, in the possession of William Strode, Esq; of Northaw, Herts. It contains portraits of his father the late William Strode, Esq; his mother Lady Anne (who was sister to the late Earl of Salisbury), Colonel Strode, and Dr. Arthur Smith (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin).

ADDITION.

Four Times of the Day, p. 250.

It should have been observed, that the third of these plates was engraved by Baron, the figure of the girl excepted, which, being an after-thought, was added by our artist's own hand.

APPENDIX.

N° 1. [See p. 23.]

The following letter, printed in The Public Advertiser soon after the first edition of the present work made its appearance, may possibly contain some authentic particulars of the early life of the famous Monsieur St. André. Mr. Woodfall's ingenious correspondent does not, however, dispose me to retract a syllable of what is advanced in the text; for he fails throughout in his attempts to exculpate our hero from any one of the charges alledged against him. On the contrary, he confirms, with additions, a considerable part of them, and strives only to evade or overwhelm the rest by studied amplifications of the little good which industrious partiality could pick out of its favourite character. I shall now subjoin his epistle, with a few unconnected remarks appended to it. A rambling performance must apologize for a desultory refutation.

"Sir,

"The entertaining author of the last biography of the admirable Hogarth, in the excess of commendation of a particular risible subject for his pencil, has written too disadvantageously of the late Mr. St. André. One who knew him intimately (but was never under the smallest obligation to him) for the last twenty years of his life, and has learned the tradition of his earlier conduct seemingly better than the editor of the article in question, takes the liberty to give a more favourable idea of him, and without intending to enter into a controversy with this agreeable Collector of Anecdotes, to vindicate this notorious man, who must be allowed to have been such; but it is to be hoped in the milder sense Lord Clarendon often or always uses the epithet. The making a subject of Mr. St. André is therefore merely accidental. The writer expects to derive no praise from exhibiting that person as the Hero of a page. He thinks it is only doing justice (for the Dead deserve justice as well as the Living) when he draws his pen against some very injurious insinuations, thrown out with more inadvertence and at a venture than in malice, against the memory of an acquaintance and of a foreigner (to whom perhaps more mercy is due than to a native), who is more roughly handled than he appears to deserve.

"Mr. Nathaniel St. André came over, or rather was brought over, very early from Switzerland, his native country, in the train of a Mendez, or Salvadore, or some Jewish family. Next to his countryman Heidegger, he became the most considerable person that has been imported from thence. He probably arrived in England in no better than a menial station. Possibly his family was not originally obscure, for he has been heard to declare, that he had a rightful claim to a title, but it was not worth while to take it up so late in life. He had undoubtedly all the qualifications of a Swiss. He talked French in all its provincial dialects, and superintended the press, if the information is to be depended upon, and perhaps taught it, as his sister did at Chelsea boarding-school. He was early initiated in music, for he played upon some musical instrument as soon as he was old enough to handle one, to entertain his benefactors. He had the good fortune to be placed by them with a surgeon of eminence, and became very skilful in his profession. His duty and gratitude to his father, whom he maintained when he was no longer able to maintain himself, was exemplary and deserving of high commendation. Let this charity cover a multitude of his sins! His great thirst for anatomical knowledge (for which he became afterwards so famous as to have books dedicated to him on that subject), and his unwearied application, soon made him so compleat an anatomist, that he undertook to read public lectures (and he was the first in London who read any), which gave general satisfaction. The most ingenious and considerable men in the kingdom became his pupils. Dr. Hunter, now at the head of his profession, speaks highly of his predecessor, and considers him (if the information is genuine) as the wonder of his time. He continued his love of anatomy to the last, and left noble preparations behind him, which he was continually improving. The time of his introduction into Mr. Molyneux's family is not known to the writer of this account. Whether anatomy, surgery, knowledge, or music, or his performance on the Viol de Gambo, on which he was the greatest master, got him the intimacy with Mr. Molyneux, is not easy to determine. Certain it is, that he attended his friend in his last illness, who died of a dangerous disorder (but not under his hands), which Mr. Molyneux is said to have pronounced, from the first, would be fatal. Scandal, and Mr. Pope's satirical half-line, talked afterwards of 'The Poisoning Wife.' She, perhaps, was in too great a hurry, as the report ran, in marrying when she did, according to the practised delicacy of her sex, and her very high quality. The unlucky business in which one Howard, a surgeon at Guildford, involved him, who was the projector, or accessary of the impudent imposture of Mary Tofts, alias the Rabbit-woman of Godalmin, occasioned him to become the talk and ridicule of the whole kingdom. The report made by St. André, and others, induced many inconsiderately to take it for a reality. The public horror was so great, that the rent of rabbit-warrens sunk to nothing; and nobody, till the delusion was over, presumed to eat a rabbit. The credulous Whiston believed the story (for to some people every thing is credible that comes from a credible witness), and wrote a pamphlet, to prove this monstrous conception to be the exact completion of an old prophecy in Esdras. The part St. André acted in this affair ruined his interest at Court, where he had before been so great a favourite with King George I. that he presented him with a sword which he wore himself. Now, on his return out of the country, he met with a personal affront, and never went to Court again. But he continued anatomist to the Royal Houshold to his dying day, though he never took the salary. He probably was imposed upon in this matter. And has it not been the lot of men, in intellectual accomplishments vastly above his, such as Boyle, for instance, a man infinitely his superior, to be over-reached and misled? He took up the pen on the occasion (and it was not the first time, for he wrote some years before a bantering pamphlet on Dr. Mead), which could at best but demonstrate his sincerity, but exposed the weakness of his judgement, on that case. It had been insinuated he adopted this scheme, to ruin some persons of his own profession. If he had a mind to make an experiment upon the national belief, and to tamper with their willingness to swallow any absurdity (which a certain nobleman [Duke of Montagu] ventured to do, in the affair of a man who undertook to jump into a quart bottle), he was deservedly punished with contempt. Swift (according to Whiston), and perhaps Arbuthnot, exercised their pens upon him. The cheat was soon discovered, and rabbits began to make their appearance again at table as usual. But they were not at his own table, nor made a dish, in any form of cookery, at that of his friends. Perhaps they imagined that the name or sight of that animal might be as offensive to him, as the mention of Formosa is said to have been to Psalmanazar. It is told, that, on his asking for some parsly of a market-woman of Southampton, and demanding why she had not more to sell, she, in a banter, assured him, 'That his rabbits had eat it up.' The fortune he acquired by marrying into a noble family (though it set all the lady's relations against him, and occasioned her being dismissed from her attendance on Queen Caroline) was a sufficient compensation for the laughter or censure of the publick. His high spirit and confidence in himself made him superior to all clamor. So that people did but talk about him, he seldom seemed to care what they talked against him. And yet he had the fortitude to bring an action for defamation in Westminster-Hall against a certain doctor in divinity, and got the better of his adversary. He was not supposed, in the judgement of the wiser and more candid part of mankind, to have contributed, by any chirurgical administration, to the death of his friend Mr. Molyneux, nor to have set up the imposture at Godalmin. Though he was disgraced at Court, he was not abandoned by all his noble friends. The great Lord Peterborough, who was his patron and patient long before he went to Lisbon, entertained a very high opinion of him to the last. His capacity in all kinds, the reception he gave to his table and his garden, with his liberality to the infirm and distressed, made him visited by persons of the highest quality, and by all strangers and foreigners. He did not continue to enjoy the great fortune his marriage is supposed to have brought him, to the end of his life, for a great part went from him on the death of Lady Betty. He by no means left so much property behind him as to have it said, he died rich. His profession as a surgeon, in a reasonable terms of years, would probably have put more money into his pocket than fell in the golden shower so inauspiciously into his lap, and have given him plenty, without envy or blame. He was turned of ninety-six when he died; and though subject to the gout, of which he used to get the better by blisters upon his knees, and by rigid abstinence, yet, when he took to his bed (where he said he should not lie long), and permitted a physician to be called in to him, he cannot be said to have died of any disease. In one sum of generosity, he gave the celebrated Geminiani three hundred pounds, to help him to discharge his incumbrances, and to end his days in comfort. The strength and agility of his body were great, and are well known. He was famous for his skill in fencing, in riding the great horse, and for running and jumping, in his younger days. He, at one time, was able to play the game at chess with the best masters. After a slight instruction at Slaughter's coffee-house, he did not rest till, in the course of two nights sitting up, he was able to vanquish his instructor. He was so earnest in acquiring knowledge, that he whimsically, as he told the story, cut off his eye-lashes, that he might not sleep till he arrived at what he wanted. His face was muscular and fierce. One of his eyes, to external appearance, seemed to be a mass of obscurity (as he expressed it of Handel's, when he became stark-blind), at least it had not the uncommon vivacity of the other. His language was full of energy, but loaded with foreign idioms. His conversation was seasoned sufficiently with satire and irony, which he was not afraid to display, though he ought never to have forgot that he was once a proper subject for it. He built; he planted; he had almost 'from the Cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth upon the wall,' in his hot-house, green-house, and garden. If he was not deep in every art and science (for even his long life was not sufficient for universal attainment), he cannot be reckoned to have been ignorant of any thing. He was admired for his knowledge in architecture, in gardening, and in botany, by those who should have been above flattery. But praise, from whatever quarter it comes, is of an intoxicating nature. Those who found out that he loved praise, took care he should have enough of it. He kept a list of the wretched and the indigent, whom he constantly maintained; and their names might be written alphabetically. The poor of Southampton know they have lost their best friend. Call it, reader, ostentation or vanity, if you will; but till you know it did not proceed from his goodness of heart, this tributary pen considers his giving away his money to relieve the necessitous, as a spark of the spirit of the Man of Ross or the Man of Bath. He was all his life too much addicted to amours, and sometimes with the lower part of the sex. His conversation, which he was always able to make entertaining and instructive, was too often tinctured with double entendre (a vice that increases with age), but hardly ever with prophaneness. He may be thought to have copied Hermippus, and to have considered women as the prolongers of life. How far he was made a dupe by any of them at last, is not necessary for relation. He died, as he lived, without fear; for to his standers-by he gave no sign of a ruffled mind, or a disturbed conscience, in his last moments.

"If the preceding memoir of St. André had not been composed entirely from memory (a faculty which, like the sieve of the Danaids, is apt to lose as much as it receives), and had not been conveyed to the press with so much precipitancy, the writer, by a second recollection, might have made supplementary anecdotes less necessary. Whilst St. André was basking in the sun-shine of public favour in Northumberland-Court, near Charing-Cross, under pretence of being wanted in his profession at some house in the neighbourhood, he was hurried through so many passages, and up and down so many stair-cases, that he did not know where he was, nor what the untoward scene was to end in, till the horrid conclusion presented itself, of which he published an extraordinary account in The Gazette of Feb. 23, 1724-5, no less than of his being poisoned, and of his more extraordinary recovery. Such uncommon men must be visited through life with uncommon incidents. The bowl of poison must have been for ever present to his imagination. Socrates himself could not expect more certain destruction from the noxious draught he was forced to take down, than seemed inevitable to St. André. Nay, a double death seems to have threatened him. Probably it was not any public or private virtue for which Socrates was famous, and which occasioned him to suffer, that endangered our hero's life. His constitution was so good, that he got the better of the internal potion. The truth and circumstances of the story could only be known to himself, who authenticated it upon oath. His narrative partakes of the marvellous; and the reader of July, 1781, is left in total ignorance of the actor, and the provocation to such a barbarous termination. His case was reported, and he was attended, by the ablest of the faculty: and the Privy Council issued a reward of two hundred pounds towards a discovery. A note in the second supplemental volume of Swift informed the writer of this sketch, a day or two ago (who takes to himself the reproof of Prior, 'Authors, before they write, should read!'), that St. André was convinced he had been imposed upon respecting the woman of Godalmin, and that he apologised handsomely to the public in an advertisement, dated Dec. 8, 1726.—'He's half absolv'd, who has confest.'—In the autumn, before the heat of the town-talk on this affair was over, he was sent for to attend Mr. Pope, who, on his return home from Dawley in Lord Bolingbroke's coach and six, was overturned in a river, and lost the use of two fingers of his left-hand (happy for the lovers of poetry they were not the servants of the right one!), and gave him assurance, that none of the broken glass was likely to be fatal to him. It is highly improbable, that Pope and Bolingbroke would have suffered St. André to have come near them, if he had been branded as a cheat and an impostor. He died in March, 1776, having survived all his contemporary enemies, and, which is the consequence of living long, most of his ancient friends. Such men do not arise every day for our censure or our applause; to gratify the pen or the pencil of character or caricature. He may be considered, as Voltaire pronounces of Charles the Twelfth, an extraordinary, rather than a great man, and fitter to be admired than imitated.

"Impartial."

In the first place, I avow that the epithet notorious was not meant to be employed in the milder sense of Lord Clarendon. Had I undertaken to compile the life of a man eminent for virtue, I should have been happy to have borrowed the softer application of the aforesaid term from our noble historian. But having engaged to delineate a mere impostor's character, there is greater propriety in adopting the disputed word with that constant signification affixed to it by the biographers of Bet Canning, or Fanny the Phantom of Cock Lane.—I shall absolve myself no farther from the charge of "malice," than by observing that there are always people who think somewhat much too rough has been said of Chartres.

The dead, declares our apologist, deserve justice as well as their survivors. This is an uncontested truth; nor will the precept be violated by me. I may observe however, with impunity, that the interests of the living, for whose sake a line of separation between good and bad characters is drawn, should be consulted, rather than the memories of the flagitious, who can no longer be affected by human praise or censure, should be spared.

Our apologist next assures us, that perhaps more tenderness is due to a foreigner than to a native. The boasted amor patriæ is not very conspicuous in this remark, which indeed was dropped, to as little purpose, by a learned counsel on the trial of the French Spy who was lately executed.

"Next to his countryman Heidegger," adds our apologist, "Mr. St. André became the most considerable person that has been imported from Switzerland." To judge of the comparative value of the latter, we must estimate the merits of the former. Heidegger is known to us only by the uncommon ugliness of his visage, and his adroitness in conducting Operas and Masquerades. If St. André is to be regarded as a person still less considerable than Heidegger, can his consequence be rated very high?

That St. André arrived here in a menial station, is not improbable. The servility of his youth afforded a natural introduction to the insolence of his riper years. He was indeed (if I am not mis-informed) of the same family with the fencing and dancing-master whom Dryden has immortalized in MacFlecknoe;

"St. André's feet ne'er kept more equal time;"[1]

and was intended for the same professions; a circumstance often hinted at by his opponents during the Rabbit controversy. Having been thus early instructed in the management of the foil and kitt, no marvel that he so often prated about the art of defence, or that "his gratitude to his benefactors" broke out in the language of a minuet or a rigadoon.

That he became famous enough in his profession to have anatomical works occasionally dedicated to him, will easily obtain credit among our apologist's readers; for many of them must have seen a book on surgery inscribed to Dr. Rock, a political poem addressed to Buckhorse, and a treatise on religion sheltering itself under the patronage of the late Lord Baltimore. St. André, however, was not the earliest reader of anatomical lectures in London. Bussiere, the surgeon who attended Guiscard (the assassin of Harley), was our hero's predecessor in this office, and I am told even he was not the first who offered public instructions to the students at our hospitals. Dr. Hunter, who has been applied to for intelligence on this occasion, declares that he never described St. André as "the wonder of his time," but as a man who had passed through no regular course of study, and was competent only in the article of injections, a task as happily suited to minute abilities as to those of a larger grasp.

Æmilium circà ludum faber imus et ungues Exprimet, et molles imitabitur ære capillos.

The art of pushing fluids through the vessels was at that period a secret most scrupulously kept by the few who were in possession of it, so that a great show might be made at the expence of little real knowledge. I am also informed, that St. André, like the workman described by Horace, had no general comprehension of any subject, but was unable to have put two propositions together:—that he neither extended the bounds of the chirurgical art by discoveries, nor performed any extraordinary cures; and, boasting somewhere that he had detected vessels in the cuticle or scarf-skin, a foreigner of eminence in the same profession offered (through the medium of a printed book) to lay him a wager of it, a challenge which he prudently declined. I am also told, that when solicited to exhibit his preparations, he always declared the majority of them to have been destroyed in a fire. What remain, I am instructed to add, deserve little or no commendation. Thus, on enquiry, sinks our "enthusiast in anatomy" down to a frigid dabbler in the science; while his "noble preparations, which he was continually improving," dwindle into minutiæ of scarce any value.

Though the dreadful crime, which is indistinctly mentioned in the text of the foregoing pamphlet, has been alluded to with less reserve by the apologist of St. André, it shall be explained no further on the present occasion. Many are the common avenues to death; and why should we point out with minuteness such as we hope will never be explored again? Till I perused the defence so often referred to, I had not even suspected that the "poisoning wife"[2] bore the least allusion to any particular circumstance on the records of criminal gallantry; nor, without stronger proofs than are furnished by this expression (perhaps a random one), shall I be willing to allot the smallest share of blame to the Lady, such alone excepted as must unavoidably arise from her over-hasty marriage, which was solemnized at Hesson near Hounslow in Middlesex, on the 27th of May, 1730. This act, however, as well as her derogation from rank, being mere offences against human customs, are cognizable only upon earth.—By "the wiser and more candid part of mankind," who suspected no harm throughout St. André's conduct in this affair, I suppose our apologist means any set of people who had imbibed prejudices similar to his own, and thought and spoke about his hero with equal partiality and tenderness. But the Memoir on which these remarks are founded, proves at least that what J. N. had hinted concerning the death of Mr. Molyneux,[3] was of no recent invention. So far from it indeed, that St. André was openly taxed with having been the sole cause of it, in a public news-paper (I think one of the Gazetteers), by the Rev. Dr. Madden, the celebrated Irish patriot, who subscribed his name to his advertisement. It is related (I know not how truly) that on this account our hero prosecuted and "got the better of his adversary," whose accusation was unsupported by such proofs as the strictness of law requires. How many culprits, about whose guilt neither judge nor jury entertains the smallest scruple, escape with equal triumph through a similar defect of evidence! I may add, that so serious a charge would never have been lightly made by a divine of Dr. Madden's rank and character.

All that is said on the subject of family honours to which St. André was entitled, his gratitude to his father, what he gave to the celebrated Geminiani "in one sum of generosity," must be admitted with caution, for truth was by no means the characteristic of our hero's narrations.[4] These circumstances therefore may be regarded as gasconades of his own. The author of the defence pretends not to have received any part of his information from St. André's countrymen or contemporaries; but, on the contrary, confesses that both his early friends and enemies had long been dead.

The affair of the Rabbit-breeder has no need of further illustration. Several ballads, pamphlets, prints, &c. on the subject, bear abundant testimony to St. André's merits throughout that business, as well as to the final opinion entertained of him by his contemporaries, after Cheselden, by order of Queen Caroline, had assisted in discovering the deceit. Her Majesty was urged to this step by finding the plausibility of our hero had imposed on the King, and that some of the pregnant ladies about her own person began to express their fears of bringing into the world an unnatural progeny.—If Mr. Boyle was occasionally misled, his errors were soon absorbed in the blaze of his moral and literary excellence. St. André's blunder, alas! had no such happy means of redemption. His credulity indeed was not confined to this single transaction. The following is a well-attested story—Two gentlemen at Southampton, who felt an inclination to banter him, broke a nutshell asunder, filled the cavity with a large swan-shot, and closed up the whole with glue so nicely that no marks of separation could be detected. This curiosity, as they were walking with St. André, one of them pretended to pick up, admiring it as a nut uncommonly heavy as well as beautiful. Our hero swallowed the bait, dissected the subject, discovered the lead, but not the imposition, and then proceeded to account philosophically for so strange a phænomenon. The merry wags could scarce restrain their laughter, and soon quitted his company to enjoy the success of a stratagem they had so adroitly practised on his ignorance and gullibility.

Were there any colour for supposing he had patronized the fraud relative to Mary Tofts, with design to ruin others of his profession (an insinuation to his discredit, which the foregoing pamphlet had not furnished), it was but just that he should fall by his own malevolence and treachery. From the imputation of a scheme resembling that contrived by the Duke of Montagu, his want of equal wit will sufficiently absolve him.

That rabbits never were permitted to appear at any table where he dined, is a strong mark of the adulation paid to him by his entertainers. I hope, for similar reasons, had he been seized with his last illness in London (that his organs of hearing might escape an equal shock), his attendants would not have called any physician named Warren to his bed-side, summoned an attorney from Coney Court Grays Inn to have made his will, or sent for the Rev. Mr. Bunny to pray by him. The banishment of rabbits, however, from a neighbourhood that affords them in the highest perfection, was a circumstance that might as justly have been complained of, as Pythagoras's prohibition of beans, had it been published in Leicestershire. I heartily wish that the circumstantial author of the preceding epistle, to relieve any doubts by which futurity may be perplexed, had informed us whether St. André was an eater of toasted cheese, or not; and if it was never asked for by its common title of a Welch Rabbit within his hearing.

That he wrote any thing, unless by proxy, or with much assistance, may reasonably be doubted; for the pamphlets that pass under his name are divested of those foreign idioms that marked his conversation. Indeed, if I may believe some specimens of his private correspondence, he was unacquainted with the very orthography of our language. The insolence of this shallow Switzer's attempt to banter Mead, we may imagine, was treated with contempt, as the work described has not been handed down to us; and few tracts are permitted to be scarce for any other reason than because they are worthless.

It is next remarked by our apologist, that St. André's "confidence, &c. made him superior to all clamour; and so that people did but talk about him, he did not seem to care what they talked against him." This is no more, in other language, than to declare that his impudence and vanity were well proportioned to each other, and that a bad character was to him as welcome as a good one. He did not, it seems, join in the Poet's prayer,

Grant me an honest fame, or grant me none!

but was of opinion, as his apologist likewise admits, that wealth was an ample counterbalance to the loss of reputation.—That he might evade accusation (as I have already observed) in one particular instance, and therefore recover damages, is no proof of his innocence, that his general conduct would admit of defence, or that much of the manifold censure passed upon him had no foundation.

How Lord Peterborough happened to become his patron, &c. may be accounted for without any great degree of credit to either party. His lordship (as Lord Orrery observes) "in his private life and conduct differed from most men;" and, having often capricious disputes with the court, was sure to favour those who, like St. André, had been dismissed from its service. Our hero's musical talents, indeed, if they were such as they have been represented, might procure him access to his lordship and many other noble adepts in the sublime and useful science of harmony. The lovers of a tune urge no severe enquiries concerning the heart of a fidler. If he be a mercenary, while he teaches female pupils, he is watched; and, if he performs in concerts, he is paid. If above pecuniary gratifications, he is rewarded with hyperbolical compliments. Articulate for inarticulate sounds is ample retribution.

His defender adds, that he was visited by all strangers and foreigners. It will be supposed then that his house was never free from company. May we not rather think, that if he was at any time sought after by these peregrine worthies, &c. it was because the keepers of inns and mistresses of boarding-houses had been instructed to disseminate attractive tales of his "capacity in all kinds," his curiosities and good dinners? Besides, all foreigners who have arrived in England have not travelled to Southampton, and consequently could not have seen St. André, who for upwards of the last twenty years of his life had resided only there. It is nearer the truth to say, that not a single Frenchman, &c. in fifty thousand, ever heard of his name.

That "his profession as a surgeon, in a reasonable term of years, would probably have put more money in his pocket" than he gained by his union with Lady Betty Molyneux (i. e. £30,000. a sum that elevated him into a state little short of madness), I cannot believe. The blast his reputation had received respecting the business at Godalming, being seconded by his expulsion from court, he must have felt his business on the decline. Indeed, I am told that he staid long enough in town to try the experiment. Marriage therefore might have been his dernier resort.

The exaggerations of this impostor's generosity and accomplishments, which are next brought forward by his panegyrist with no small degree of pomp, are such as we may suppose himself would have furnished, had he undertaken, like the Chevalier Taylor, to compile his own memoirs. The majority of circumstances collected for the purpose of proving him to have been

Grammaticus, rhetor, geometres, pictor, aliptes, Augur, schænobates, medicus, magus,

could only have been derived from those very flattering testimonials to his merits which he was always ready to exhibit on the slightest encouragement. Those who were content to admit so partial an estimate of his abilities, &c. found it necessary to express their belief that he could have beaten Hercules at quoits, played a better fiddle than Apollo, out-witted Mercury, disarmed the God of War, and forged such chemic thunders, that, compared with the produce of our hero's laboratory, the bolts of Jove were no louder than a pot-gun. So far was he from being deficient in commendation of his own talents, that he thought his very furniture might claim a proportionable extravagance of praise. He was possessed of some foreign tapestry which he was proud on all occasions to display. But the eulogiums of others, lavish as they might be, fell considerably short of his own, so that the spectator retired with disgust from an object which the excessive vanity of its owner would not permit to be enjoyed without the most frequent and nauseous intrusions of self-congratulation.

As to the history of his eye-lashes, which he sacrificed to vigilance, and his sudden proficiency in the very difficult game of chess (provided his instructor, whom he afterwards vanquished, was a skilful one) credat Judæus Apella.—That his language did not want energy, may more easily be allowed, for force is the characteristic of vulgar phraseology. Conceits, expressed with much vigour, are current among sailors; and such nervous denunciations of revenge may occasionally be heard at Billingsgate, as might emulate the ravings of Dryden's Maximin. No man will be hardy enough to assert that the figure, manners, and language, of St. André, were those of a gentleman.

If one of his eyes was a "mass of obscurity" (notwithstanding the other, like that of Lady Pentweazle's Great Aunt, might be a piercer), perhaps he ought to have been sparing of his satire on the personal disadvantages of his acquaintance. Yet, the last time my informant saw him was at the Theatre at Southampton, where, sitting near a gentleman and lady not remarkable for handsome faces, he had the modesty to express a doubt (and in a voice sufficiently audible) which of the two would furnish the most comic mask.