Note 3 — CATALOGUE OF HOGARTH'S PRINTS.[1]

In a two-shilling pamphlet, printed for J. Mechell at The King's Arms in Fleet street, 1740, entitled "An Apology for the life of Mr. T—— C——, comedian; being a proper sequel to the apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber, comedian; with a historical view of the stage to the present year; supposed to be written by himself in the stile and manner of the Poet Laureat," but in reality the work of Harry Fielding; the following passages, illustrative of our subject, occur. "In that year when the stage fell into great commotions, and the Drury Lane company, asserting the glorious cause of liberty and property, made a stand against the oppressions in the patentees—in that memorable year when the Theatric Dominions fell in labour of a revolution under the conduct of myself, that revolt gave occasion to several pieces of wit and satirical flirts at the conductor of the enterprize. I was attacked, as my father had been before me, in the public papers and journals; and the burlesque character of Pistol was attributed to me as a real one. Out came a Print of Jack Laguerre's, representing, in most vile designing, this expedition of ours, under the name of The Stage Mutiny, in which, gentle reader, your humble servant, in the Pistol character, was the principal figure. This I laughed at, knowing it only a proper embellishment for one of those necessary structures to which persons out of necessity repair." p. 16, &c.—Again, p. 88.—"At the Fair of Bartholomew, we gained some recruits; but, besides those advantages over the enemy, I myself went there in person, and publickly exposed myself. This was done to fling defiance in the Patentee's teeth; for, on the booth where I exhibited, I hung out The Stage Mutiny, with Pistol at the head of his troop, our standard bearing this motto,—We eat."—Whether this account which Cibber is made to give of his own conduct is entirely jocular, or contains a mixture of truth in it, cannot now be ascertained. Hogarth might have transplanted a circumstance from Bartholomew to Southwark Fair; or Fielding, by design, may have misrepresented the matter, alluding at the same time to Hogarth's print.