Note 39 — HOGARTH.

This idea originally occurred in Colley Cibber's Apology. From thence it was transplanted by Lloyd into his celebrated poem intituled The Actor. Lying thus in the way of Garrick, he took it up for the use of the prologue already quoted. Lastly, Mr. Sheridan, in his beautiful Monody, condescended to borrow it, only because it spared him the labour of unlocking the richer storehouse of his own imagination.

I may however remark that Cibber, when he suggested this mortifying reflection, had more reason on his side than some of his successors who have indulged themselves in the same dolorous strain of complaint. To whatever oblivion the celebrated actors of the last age have been resigned, the pencil of Hogarth, Dance, Zoffani, and Reynolds, had left Mr. Garrick not the slightest reason to be apprehensive that, in his own particular case, the art and the artist would alike be forgotten. Meanwhile, let our heroes of the stage be taught to moderate their anxiety for posthumous renown, by a recollection that their peculiar modes of excellence will, at least, be as well preserved to futurity as those of the lords Chatham and Mansfield, whose talents, perhaps, might support an equal claim to perpetuation.