The following hints are offered principally with a view to assist in identifying such characters in Hogarth's prints as are unnoticed, or but slightly described, in the preceding volumes. A key to the whole (for many of the figures not yet recognised were undoubtedly meant by the artist as portraits) would, to the other merits of these inimitable compositions, add the important one of making them an assemblage of the similitudes of the leading remarkables of his day.

Although Hogarth, from a fear of creating himself enemies, disclaimed individual portrait in his compositions, particularly of characters in the higher walks of life, he was evidently not so scrupulous in indulging his satire when representing more familiar scenes; and accordingly his "Harlot's Progress," "Four Times of the Day," "Industry and Idleness," "March to Finchley," etc., are found to be less peopled with ideal personages than the "Marriage À la Mode," and some others. "Southwark Fair" was an annual assemblage of remarkables, whose follies and peculiarities he could hold up to the derision of the public without the danger of retaliation; and he has availed himself of the opportunity by bringing together a number of persons then well known on the town, and placing them in the most ludicrous situations.

This Fair, the humours of which an ingenious author truly observes, "will never be forgotten while Hogarth's inimitable print of it exists," was anciently called "Our Lady Fair," and lasted fourteen days. Like most others in the kingdom, it was originally established for the purposes of trade; but having become in process of time a mere scene of low riot and debauchery, its duration was shortened to three days; and it was at length totally abolished as a nuisance to the neighbourhood, and an encouragement to vice and dissipation. It was held at the top of Blackman Street, on the open space opposite the walls of the King's Bench prison, and began yearly a fortnight after Bartholomew Tide.

The following characters in this print have been identified, in addition to others before noticed: Middle group.—The person whom the bailiffs are arresting, and who is supposed to have been playing (not Alexander the Great, but the part of Paris) in the Siege of Troy (announced for representation on one of the neighbouring show-cloths), was intended for Walker, afterwards the famous Macheath in the Beggars' Opera, whose portrait it exactly resembles. It is introduced in this place with strict propriety, as we learn that Walker kept a great theatrical booth in Southwark Fair, as did Penkethman. "He also acted," says one of his biographers, "in the same way at Bartholomew Fair, where Booth saw him playing the part of Paris in the Siege of Troy."[121] The painter probably placed him in the ridiculous situation we see him, on account of his known extravagancy and consequent embarrassments, which often procured him a visit from the bailiffs.

Figg, the prize-fighter, who in another part of the print is making his triumphal entry on a blind horse, and brandishing his sword in defiance, was a native of Thame in Oxfordshire, and attained so high a celebrity as a master of the "noble science of defence," that we find him praised in the Tatler, Guardian, Craftsman, and almost all the periodical works of the time. The mezzotinto portrait of him by Faber represents him exactly as here—with a bald head and open collar. His own school was in Oxford Road, but he was probably accustomed to exhibit his skill at fairs, or he may be introduced here merely as a well-known character. The Bear Garden, a famous place for prize-fighting, anciently stood in this neighbourhood, and had then been but recently demolished. The manner of the combatants at this place, parading the streets previous to their encounters, as described by a French traveller in 1672, and the way in which Figg is represented, strictly agree. "Commonly," says he, "when any fencing-masters belonging to the Bear Garden are desirous of showing their courage and their great skill, they issue mutual challenges; and before they engage, parade the town on horseback, with drums and trumpets sounding, to inform the public there is a challenge between two brave masters of the science of defence, and that the battle will be fought on such a day." Figg's public challenges were the very acme of bombast. This extraordinary character died in the year 1734.

Miller, the tall man, whose effigies are exhibited on a show-cloth, was a native of Saxony, and probably came into England in the reign of George I. This gigantic personage was eight feet high, the stature, within a few inches, of the late O'Brien. He died in 1734, aged 60. Boitard engraved a portrait of him the year before his death.

The two jugglers in senatorial wigs, who are displaying their magic wonders with cups and balls, etc., seem to have been intended likewise for two real characters (Fawkes and Neve), the Breslaw and Katterfelto of their day. Fawkes is most certainly introduced in the print of "Burlington Gate," where, on a board, the "Long Room" is announced, and "Fawkes' dexterity of hand." Portraits of these worthies still exist, and bear a sufficient resemblance to identify them with their representatives in the plate. Neve in a wood print prefixed to his "Merry Companion, teaching tricks in legerdemain;" and Fawkes in a large sheet print by Sutton Nichols, where he stands in the midst of his performances. Fawkes was no indifferent wit. When Breslaw, a more modern performer of the same kind, was at Canterbury, the former requested permission to display his cunning a little longer, promising Mr. Mayor that if he was indulged with permission, he would give such a night (naming a particular one) for the benefit of the poor. The benevolent magistrate acceded to the proposition, and he had a crowded house. Hearing nothing about the money collected on the specified evening, the Mayor waited on the man of trick, and in a delicate way expressed his surprise. "Mr. Mayor, I have distributed the money myself." Still more surprised, "Pray, Sir, to whom?" "To my own company; none can be poorer." "This is a trick." "We live, Sir, by tricks."

Plate III.—The Procuress at the Quack's in this print is said to be designed for the once celebrated Betty Careless, and the remark is countenanced by the initials "B. C." on her bosom. This woman, by a very natural transition, from being one of the most fashionable of the Cyprian corps, became lady abbess of a brothel; and, after frequent arrests and imprisonments, was buried from the poorhouse of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, April 22, 1752. Fielding, in his Amelia, says: "It is impossible to conceive a greater appearance of modesty, innocence, and simplicity, than what nature had displayed in the countenance of that girl,"—meaning her whom he in another place calls "the inimitable Betsy Careless."

Ib. Plate IV.—A card on the floor in this print is inscribed:

"Count Basset desire to no how Lade Squander sleep last nite?"

A fashionable foreign adventurer, of the name of Count Basset, occurs as one of the characters in the Provoked Husband, or a Journey to London, which might have suggested the hint for this name. But, query, whether a real person? or the artist might have meant to satirize the game of Basset.

N.B.—The set of prints of "Marriage À la Mode" is said to have furnished the idea for the comedy of the Clandestine Marriage.

Plate II.—The commentators on Hogarth do not seem to have assigned a satisfactory reason for the particular subjects of the two paintings which ornament the Harlot's apartment in this plate, viz. "David dancing before the Ark," and "Jonah sitting under a Gourd." One supposes them merely intended to convey a ridicule on the old masters, or placed here to satirize the impropriety of adorning rooms with inappropriate subjects. Another, as stories selected at random, but having a reference to the nation of the Harlot's Jew keeper. But as Hogarth's incidents have all a meaning, a better reason must be sought for. They undoubtedly conceal a moral applicable to the two principal figures in the print. David's known breach of chastity in the affair of Uriah's wife, and "uncovering himself" when dancing before the ark, "in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself," which his wife charges him with on that occasion, evidently typify the backsliding Jew; while Jonah sitting under the shelter of his gourd, which sprang up in the night, and which the worm destroyed in the morning, as ingeniously points out the girl's upstart grandeur, and the frail nature of her protection, which even now a worm (her infidelity to her keeper) is rapidly undermining.

Plate V.—Dr. Misaubin, or Mizenbank as Trusler calls him (the lean doctor in this print), was a notorious foreign quack of the day, whose ignorant consequence Fielding thus laughably exposes in one of his introductory chapters in Tom Jones:—"The learned Dr. Misaubin used to say, that the proper direction to him was, 'To Dr. Misaubin, in the world,' intimating that there were few people in it to whom his great reputation was not known. And, perhaps, upon a nice examination into the matter, we shall find that this circumstance bears no inconsiderable part among the many blessings of human grandeur."

Watteau painted the portrait of this Esculapius, from which a print was engraved by Pond. The likeness strikingly resembles Hogarth's representation, and is inscribed "Prenez des pillules." The similitude of his opponent Dr. Rock, though not authenticated in the same manner, is, from the testimony of those who recollect him, equally correct.

This "great man" is said to have been originally a porter; for which his strong, squat figure excellently adapted him. An anecdote, in some degree confirmed, is told of him, that passing one day by the end of Fleet Market, with his gold-laced hat and cane, a brother porter, who knew his origin, and was resting his load near the spot, said, "Dr. Rock, you once carried a knot as well as myself." "Yes; and had I been as great a dunce as you," replied the pill merchant, "I should have carried a knot still."

Plate III.—Tavern Scene.—In the second state of this plate, Pontac's head is introduced in the place of a mutilated CÆsar. Pontac was a celebrated purveyor at this time. In the "Hind and Panther" transversed, Pontac's eating-house is mentioned with epicurean honours:

"When at Pontac's he may regale himself."

It was chiefly frequented as a chop-house, but every other luxury might be had there.

Plate VIII.—The maniac chained to the floor of his cell in this print is noticed by Mr. Ireland as being a copy from one of Cibber's figures over the gate of Bedlam. He might have added, that the person of the Rake himself, whose expression of madness Mr. Mortimer so much admired, is, as to features, a copy of the companion figure over the same gate. This plagiarism, if it may be so called, was to the credit of Hogarth's taste; for with all his own amazing powers of expression, he could scarcely have hoped to equal such inimitable representations. Time, and an injudicious attempt, some years since, at restoration, have wofully injured these masterpieces of Cibber's chisel.

It may be observed of this print (the inside of Bedlam), in addition to what has been before said, that the scene portrayed is not only a most faithful representation of those doleful regions, but that most of the persons are certainly intended as real portraits. One at least may, with every appearance of probability, be added to the list of names of those already identified—the man sitting by the figure inscribed "Charming Betty Careless," who is supposed to have gone mad for love. Such a person was actually confined there for that malady some years previous, whose history so exactly corresponds with Hogarth's representation, and whom he must have remembered, that it can scarcely be doubted but he had him in his eye. The portrait of the person alluded to is thus described in a modern biographical work: "William Ellis. Printed and sold by Sutton Nichols, in Aldersgate Street, Æt. 45, 1709." Sitting on the rails of Moorfields. Printed with his life and character written by himself, etc. This poor maniac lost his reason through love for his Betty, who seems to have been a real character. Ellis is represented with a chaplet of laurel on his right, and a Cupid drawing his bow on the left. Under the chaplet is inscribed—

And under the Cupid, amongst others, these lines:

The eight paintings of "The Rake's Progress," which had been originally purchased of Hogarth by Francis Beckford, Esq., for £88, 4s., were, at the sale of William Beckford, Esq. of Fonthill, in 18—, sold by the elder Mr. Christie for the sum of 850 guineas. The buyer was Colonel Fullarton, M.P.