Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 1 (of 3)Ireland, John
General
Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Volume 1 (of 3)
Ireland, John
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764
The old fellow in a black periwig has a most vinegar-like aspect, and
looks with great contempt at the frippery gentlewoman immediately
before him. The woman with a demure countenance seems very piously
considering how she can contrive to pick the embroidered beau's
pocket. Two old sibyls joining their withered lips in a chaste
salute, is nauseous enough, but, being a national custom, must be
forgiven. The divine seems to have resided in this kingdom long
enough to acquire a roast-beef countenance. A little boy, whose
woollen night-cap is pressed over a most venerable flowing periwig,
and the decrepid old man, leaning upon a crutch-stick, who is walking
before him, I once considered as two vile caricatures, out of nature,
and unworthy the artist. Since I have seen the peasantry of Flanders
and the plebeian youth of France, I have in some degree changed my
opinion, but still think them rather _outré_.
Under a sign of the Baptist's Head is written, "Good Eating;" and
on each side of the inscription is a mutton chop. In opposition to
this head without a body, unaccountably displayed as a sign at an
eating-house, there is a body without a head, hanging out as the
sign of a distiller's. This, by common consent, has been quaintly
denominated "The Good Woman."[136] At a window above, one of
the _softer sex_ proves her indisputable right to the title by her
temperate conduct to her husband, with whom having had a little
disagreement, she throws their Sunday's dinner into the street.
A girl, bringing a pie from the bakehouse, is stopped in her career
by the rude embraces of a blackamoor, who eagerly rubs his sable
visage against her blooming cheek.
Good eating is carried on to the lower part of the picture. A
boy,[137] placing a baked pudding upon a post with rather too
violent an action, the dish breaks, the fragments fall to the
ground; and while he is loudly lamenting his misfortune, and with
tears anticipating his punishment, the smoking remnants are eagerly
snatched up by a poor girl. Not educated according to the system of
Jean Jacques Rousseau, she feels no qualms of conscience about the
original proprietor, and destitute of that fastidious delicacy which
destroys the relish of many a fine lady, eagerly swallows the hot and
delicious morsels with all the concomitants.
The scene is laid at the door of a French chapel in Hog Lane,--a part
of the town at that time almost wholly peopled by French refugees or
their descendants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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