CANTO II. "The wedding o'er, the ill-match'd pair Are left at large, their fate to share; All public places he frequents, Whilst she her own delight invents; And, full of love, bewails her doom, When drunk i'th' morning he comes home; The pious stew'rd, in great surprize, Runs from them with uplifted eyes." CANTO III. "My Lord now keeps a common Miss, Th' effects describ'd of amorous bliss, Venereal taints infect their veins, And fill them full of aches and pains; Which to an old _French_ Doctor drives 'em, Who with his pill, a grand p--x gives 'em; A scene of vengeance next ensues, With which the Muse her tale pursues." CANTO IV. "Fresh honours on the Lady wait, A Countess now she shines in state; The toilette is at large display'd, Where whilst the morning concert's play'd, She listens to her lover's call, Who courts her to the midnight-ball." CANTO V. "The dismal consequence behold, Of wedding girls of _London_ mould; The Husband is depriv'd of life, In striving to detect his Wife; The Lawyer naked, in surprize, Out of the Bagnio window flies: Whilst Madam, leaping from the bed, Doth on her knee for pardon plead." CANTO VI. "The Lawyer meets his just reward, Nor from the triple tree is spar'd; The Father takes my Lady home, Where, when she hears her Lover's doom, To desperate attempts she flies, And with a dose of poison dies." In these plates only a single variation is detected. In the very first impressions of the second of them (perhaps a few only were taken off) a lock of hair on the forehead of the lady is wanting. It was added by our artist, after _Baron_ had finished the plate. In the early copies he inserted it with _Indian_ ink. A passage in the _Analysis_[2] will perhaps account for this supplemental ornament: "A lock of hair falling cross the temples, and by that means breaking the regularity of the oval, has an effect too alluring to be strictly decent." The room represented in this plate is adorned with a _melange_ of pictures on wanton and devotional subjects. Mr. _Walpole_ has remarked, that the works of _Hogarth_ have little obscurity. This position is true in general, though _Marriage à la Mode_ may supply an exception to it; no two persons, perhaps, having hitherto agreed in their explanation of Plate the third.[3] When this set of plates was to be engraved, _Ravenet_, a young artist, then just coming into employ, was recommended to Mr. _Hogarth_; and a hard bargain was made. _Ravenet_ went through two of the plates, but the price proved far inadequate to the labour. He remonstrated, but could obtain no augmentation. When the _Sigismunda_ was to be engraved, Mr. _Ravenet_ was in a different sphere of life. The painter, with many compliments, solicited his assistance as an engraver, but _Ravenet_ indignantly declined the connexion.