Note 1 — INTRODUCTION

There are at least three dramatic pieces other than the Theophilus Cibber work reprinted here which were inspired by William Hogarth's "A Harlot's Progress." Ronald Paulson reports one announced in the Daily Advertiser (13 November 1732) by Charlotte Charke entitled The Harlot. It had been printed by Curll; but there is no record of performance (Hogarth: His Life, Art, and Times, I, London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971, p. 290). Paulson also mentions the publication announcement in the Daily Advertiser (5 February 1732/3) of: "The Decoy, or The Harlot's Progress (on February 14 called The Jew Decoy'd), a new ballad opera, said to be performed at Goodman's Fields" (p. 290). The Jew Decoy'd, a work never performed and discussed at length by Robert E. Moore (Hogarth's Literary Relationships, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948, pp. 34-36) as being published in 1733, is a different piece than The Decoy; or, The Harlot's Progress, A New Ballad Opera [By Henry Potter] (The London Stage, ed. Arthur Scouten, Part 3, Vol. I, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1962-68, pp. 269-270, abbreviated in later citations as "LS" followed by part, volume and page number.) The title page of Potter's piece reads: "The Decoy. An Opera. As it is Acted at the New Theatre in Goodman's Fields. London, 1733, with the "Dedication" signed by Potter. This three-act piece contains 52 songs, three of which also appear in Cibber's "The Harlot's Progress." The "Introduction" alludes to Hogarth's series as the source ("the Sketch is now in Print"), but it has many links to John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and, like Cibber's piece, only follows the first three plates. Potter's small theater in the Haymarket opened in 1720 but no organized company had produced legitimate drama there by 1728 (LS, 3, I, cxxxix). The run was successful for Potter: he had a benefit on 8 February, with the comment "On account of the great Demand for Places, the Pit and Boxes will be laid together at 5s each" (LS 3, I, 270). Hogarth had advertised the subscription for "A Harlot's Progress" as early as 8 March 1731. (See Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, I, Rev. Ed., New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970, p. 141. Citations in my text are abbreviated HGW followed by volume and page number.) This piece appears in Baker's Biographia Dramatica (Vol. II, p. 157) without comment, while he lists "The Jew Decoy'd; or The Progress of an Harlot," 8vo. 1733 "as never being performed, but founded on the Hogarth series." The Jew Decoy'd discussed by Moore has the title page: "London: Printed for E: Rayner ... 1733," published on 14 February (p. 34). The Henry E. Huntington Library has a copy, "Printed by W: Rayner ... 1735" but does not have the frontispiece Moore describes. For engravings, see Vol. II of Paulson's Hogarth's Graphic Works.