In the interval between the " Analysis" and the "Election Prints," which (with the exception of the fourth, not completed till 1758) appeared in 1755, our Artist produced nothing of importance, his only works being the "Frontispiece to Kirby's Perspective," and a plate entitled "Crowns, Mitres, Maces," &c. The Frontispiece is a whimsical collection of the most absurd solecisms against the rules of perspective, such as no one could possibly commit. The other plate, which was originally intended as a compliment to Parliament for the protection afforded by them to the copyright of engravings, was altered so as to serve as a subscription ticket to the series of Election Prints.

The first of this excellent set of plates, the "Election Entertainment," is dated Feb. 24, 1755. Of this subject Mr. Lamb speaks in rapturous terms of commendation. For the whole of this elegant criticism the reader must be referred to the Essay itself*, from the perusal of which he will rise with an entire conviction that Hogarth was a genuine painter of Human Nature in all its modifications, and as capable of exciting generous sentiments, as of entertaining by his humour and his wit. This series was published at different intervals, the second plate not appearing until two years after the first, and the third and fourth at the beginning of the year 1758. Other works, however, were produced in the interim; in 1756 his "France" and " England," two prints etched by himself: in these Hogarth appears to have indulged in his spleen, or his patriotism, against the French nation. Nothing can be imagined more antithetical than these two companion prints, as to the subjects exhibited, although they certainly accord admirably as to their

* See p. 113.

object, namely, to turn the Grand Monarque and his armies into ridicule. The puny and haggard forms of the French are strongly contrasted with the ample persons of the English; nor are their respective signs, "Soup Meagre," and "Roast and Boiled every Day," less speakingly opposed to each other. In all that concerned national feelings Hogarth was a staunch John Bull. Walpole, indeed, says, that these were two of the instances in which he stooped to low images and national satire, to please his vulgar customers.

In the same year he painted the three pictures that decorate the Altar-piece at St. Mary's Redcliffe, at Bristol, viz. 1. "The Ascension;" 2. "The High-priest and Servants sealing the Tomb;" 3. "The Three Marys at the Sepulchre*."

Shortly after this period (in 1757) Hogarth obtained both honorary titles and substantial emolument. The former were conferred upon him by the Imperial Academy at Augsburg, which elected him a Counsellor, and an Honorary Member of their Institution; the latter he obtained from his appointment of Serjeant Painter to the King, an office from which he derived £200. per annum. This had been originally held by his father-in-law, Sir James Thornhill, by whom it was given up to his son, John Thornhill, Esq. and at his death Hogarth was appointed.†

Our Artist may now be considered as having produced all the more vigorous offspring of his genius; for from this period, with one or two exceptions, his engravings consist of small and unimportant works. He published, however, in 1758, a portrait of himself, in which he is represented paint

Some judicious observations on these three pictures by John Britton, Esq. F.S.A. have already been inserted in p. 86. † See p. 49.

ing a figure of the Comic Muse; also another print, entitled "Character, or the Bench," containing four portraits of Judges of the Common Pleas, which plate he afterwards altered, and worked upon even the day preceding his death. As one of the exceptions to the above remark must be noticed his "Cockpit," which exhibits great diversity of character in individuals actuated by the same passions. In the decrepid Old Man, who is holding a trumpet up to his ear, the Artist has shewn how strong the attachment to such disgraceful and inhuman pursuits continues, in spite of the infirmities of age, when they appear doubly criminal and inexcusable. The figure seated on the left of the President, and looking up, is strikingly natural, and one of those which every one recognizes, without being able to identify it with any particular individual.

In 1759, the same year in which this print made its appearance, Hogarth produced his celebrated picture of "Sigismunda," to which performance he was, in evil hour, instigated by his ambition to enter into competition with Correggio. This was indeed a desperate and imprudent attempt, undertaken without duly considering his own talents. Hogarth, like Boccacio, could be alternately comic or serious, but he did not possess the instinctive delicacy of pathos and the simplicity of the Italian, nor could he do justice to such a subject as Count Guiscardo's Widow. This failure occasioned him much vexation, although the self-love of the Artist preponderated over public neglect and disapprobation.

From this period till 1762, when his satirical prints of "The Medley," and "The Times" appeared, he was employed upon a few subjects of minor importance, viz. The Frontispieces to two volumes of Tristram Shandy and Brook Taylor's Perspective, "Time smoking a Picture," and the

"Five Orders of Periwigs." The print of Time was intended as a subscription ticket for his "Sigismunda,"-likewise to ridicule the affectation of connoisseurs for old pictures, and the artifices of picture-dealers and vampers-up of undoubted originals. For the latter he always professed a strong aversion, taking not the least pains to conceal it. Speaking of" Sigismunda," he says, "the most virulent and violent abuse thrown on it was from a set of miscreants with whom I am proud of having been ever at war. I mean the expounders of the mysteries of old pictures*" Against the quackery of connoisseurship, too, he always expressed himself with particular asperity.

"The Five Orders of Periwigs+" was intended, it is said, as an oblique satire upon Stuart's Athens, and the minute accuracy with which the different measurements and proportions are given in that work. This, if may judge from a fragment preserved by Mr. John Ireland, was, in Hogarth's opinion, supreme trifling; indeed, to such a mind as his, whatever partook of that scrupulous investigation necessary to the study of antiquities must have appeared pedantic and mechanical. Could he, however, have foreseen that the study of the Grecian Orders would have superseded the school of Burlington and Kent, he would probably rather have been eager to promote, than have attempted to ridicule it.

The first idea of "The Medley; or, Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism," was entitled "Enthusiasm Delineated;" but in this state of the copper only two impressions were taken. It was afterwards altered so completely as to be rendered altogether a different subject. Originally it was intended to ridicule the gross and palpable absurdities ↑ See p. 67.

* See p. 57.

of the Romish Church, but was altered so as to apply to the prevailing superstitions of the day in general, and to Methodism in particular. The foolish and profane presumption of attempting to represent under a visible form that which can never be an object of the senses, and the monstrous absurdities which arise from it, are well exemplified in the grotesque Cherubim. Such hieroglyphical forms are but one degree removed from the profane Anthropomorphism of the Catholic painters, who represent the First Person of the Trinity under the appearance of an Old Man; as if decrepitude and age were the attributes of the Deity. Speaking of this print, Mr. Walpole says, that it is, " for deep and useful satire, the most sublime of all his works."

This year was marked by an event that contributed in no small degree to embitter the declining days of Hogarth, and even, perhaps, to abridge them. In evil hour he turned aside from subjects of universal and permanent interest, to become a political caricaturist, and to embroil himself in all the asperities of party contention, attacking his former friends, Wilkes and Churchill. The plate of "The Times” was published in September 1762, and immediately produced a very severe paper upon the artist, written by Wilkes, in the 17th number of the North Briton. Hogarth retorted by publishing a caricature portrait of the writer. This, however, so far from terminating the contest, served only to call an ally into the field. Churchill, eager to chastise the painter for this personal attack upon his friend, produced his "Epistle to William Hogarth." But although this keen invective is said to have been felt by him less than the North Briton was, he was not at all disposed to let it pass with impunity; therefore, as he had before exhibited Wilkes, by merely heightening the natural obli