Part 2 (2/2)
Mr Nichols remarks of this plate:--”In the early impressions, a shoe-black steals the Rake's cane In the roup of sweeps, and black-shoe boys, are introduced ga on the pavement; near the-house, against which a flash of lightning is pointed The curtain in theof the sedan-chair is thrown back This plate is likewise found in an inter made unnaturally obscure, with an atte very aukwardly represented It is supposed to be a first proof after the insertion of the group of blackguard ga only arth appears to have so far spoiled the sky, that he was obliged to obliterate it, and cause it to be engraved over again by another hand”
Mr Gilpin observes:--”Very disagreeable accidents often befal gentlemen of pleasure An event of this kind is recorded in the fourth print, which is now before us Our hero going, in full dress, to pay his compliments at court on St David's day, was accosted in the rude ood
The forures in action, the chair, and the la Only, here we have an opportunity of re when the extreroup in some respects should resee (the cup, as the landscape-painter calls it) is always near the middle; the outside branches, which are relieved by the sky, are light and airy An inattention to this rule has given a heaviness to the group before us The two bailiffs, the woether in that part of the group which should have been the lightest; while the th and consistence
It may be added too, that the four heads, in the forures should be studiously avoided--The light had been well distributed, if the bailiff holding the arrest, and the chairlare of the white apron is disagreeable--We have, in this print, some beautiful instances of expression The surprise and terror of the poor gentleman is apparent in every li his dress The insolence of power in one of the bailiffs, and the unfeeling heart, which can jest with ly marked The self-importance, too, of the honest Cambrian is not ill portrayed; who is chiefly introduced to settle the chronology of the story--In pose of grace, we have nothing striking Hogarth ure: at least heforreeable shape”
[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS
PLATE 4
ARRESTED FOR DEBT AS GOING TO COURT]
PLATE V
MARRIES AN OLD MAID
”New to the school of hard _mishap_, Driven from the ease of fortune's lap
What schemes will nature not embrace T' avoid less shame of drear distress?
_Gold_ can the charms of youth bestow, Andof shame, In Winter's are, And raded by the rude enforceence by one whom he had injured, would have wounded, humbled, I had al or elevation of ression of vice, we here see this depraved, lost character, hypocritically violating every natural feeling of the soul, to recruit his exhausted finances, and ht of whom nature must recoil
The ceremony passes in the old church, Mary-le-bone, which was then considered at such a distance from London, as to become the usual resort of those ished to be privatelylance at the object of his choice Her charhtened by the affectation of an arateful return for a siives her faceof such a sort, that an observer being ask, ”_How dreadful must be this creature's hatred?_”
would naturally reply, ”_How hateful must be her love!_”
In his demeanor we discover an atte decoruh assu his troth_ to the old woirl who kneels behind her
The parson and clerk seem made for each other; a sleepy, stupid sole of the _lay brother_ is most happily expressed Accompanied by her child and ain introduced, endeavouring to enter the church, and forbid the banns The opposition ave the artist a good opportunity for indulging his taste in the burlesque, and he has not neglected it
A dog (Tru his addresses to a one-eyed quadruped of his own species, is a happy parody of the unnatural union going on in the church
The commandments are broken: a crack runs near the tenth, which says, _Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife;_ a prohibition in the present case hardly necessary The creed is destroyed by the damps of the church; and so little attention has been paid to the poor's box, that it is covered with a _cobweb_! These three high-wrought strokes of satirical humour were perhaps never equalled by any exertion of the pencil; excelled they cannot be
On one of the pew doors is the following curious speciraphy
THESE : PEWES : VNSCRUD : AND TANE : IN : SVNDER IN : STONE : THERS : GRAUEN : WHAT : IS : VNDER TO : WIT : A VALT : FOR : BURIAL : THERE : IS WHICH : EDWARD : FORSET : MADE : FOR : HIM : AND : HIS
This is a correct copy of the inscription Part of these lines, in raised letters, now forallery, as the church is entered from the street The ilt over, is still preserved: it is seen in Hogarth's print, just under the
A glory over the bride's head is whiive a date to the period, and determine this preposterous union of January with June, to have taken place about the tier'd in her icy veins”