Note 3 — CATALOGUE OF HOGARTH'S PRINTS.[1] (continued 2)

Of whom a separate portrait, by Ellis, had been published by Overton. Figg died in the year 1734. As the taste of the publick is much changed about the importance of the noble Science of Defence, as it was called, and as probably it will never again revive, it may afford some entertainment to my readers, to see the terms in which this celebrated prize-fighter is spoken of by a professor of the art. "Figg was the Atlas of the Sword; and may he remain the gladiating statue! In him strength, resolution, and unparalleled judgement, conspired to form a matchless master. There was a majesty shone in his countenance, and blazed in all his actions, beyond all I ever saw. His right leg bold and firm, and his left, which could hardly ever be disturbed, gave him the surprising advantage already proved, and struck his adversary with despair and panic. He had that peculiar way of stepping in I spoke of, in a parry; he knew his arm, and its just time of moving; put a firm faith in that, and never let his adversary escape his parry. He was just as much a greater master than any other I ever saw, as he was a greater judge of time and measure." Captain John Godfrey's Treatise upon the Useful Science of Defence, 4to, 1747, p. 41. "Mr. Figg," says Chetwood, History of the Stage, p. 60, "informed me once, that he had not bought a shirt for more than twenty years, but had sold some dozens. It was his method, when he fought in his amphitheatre (his stage bearing that superb title), to send round to a select number of his scholars, to borrow a shirt for the ensuing combat, and seldom failed of half a dozen of superfine Holland from his prime pupils (most of the young nobility and gentry made it a part of their education to march under his warlike banner). This champion was generally conqueror, though his shirt seldom failed of gaining a cut from his enemy, and sometimes his flesh, though I think he never received any dangerous wound. Most of his scholars were at every battle, and were sure to exult at their great master's victories, every person supposing he saw the wounds his shirt received. Mr. Figg took his opportunity to inform his lenders of linen of the chasms their shirts received, with a promise to send them home. But, said the ingenious courageous Figg, I seldom received any other answer than D-mn you, keep it!" A Poem by Dr. Byrom, on a battle between Figg and Sutton, another prize-fighter, is in the 6th Volume of Dodsley's Collection of Poems.