[11] If Hogarth calls himself idle, who shall dare to denominate himself industrious? [12] _Hudibras_ was published in 1726, so that his father probably died about the year 1721, leaving two daughters, Mary and Anne, besides his son William, who, on the leaf of an old memorandum book in my possession, after mentioning the time of his own birth and baptism, thus continues: "Mary Hogarth was born November 10th, 1699. Ann Hogarth, two years after in the same month. Taken from the Register at Great St. Bartholomew's." [13] The leader of the figures hurrying to a masquerade, crowned with a cap and bells, and a garter round his right leg, has been supposed to be intended for George II., who was very partial to these nocturnal amusements, and is said to have bestowed a thousand pounds towards their support. The purse with the label £1000, which the satyr holds immediately before him, gives some probability to the supposition. The kneeling figure on the show-cloth, pouring gold at the feet of Cuzzoni, the Italian singer (with the label, "Pray accept £8000"), has been said to be designed for Lord Peterborough. [14] As this print, to heighten the burlesque, was almost invariably impressed on blue paper, I have stamped the annexed copy on the same colour. [15] It has been truly observed that comedy exhibits the character of a species,--farce of an individual. Of the class in which Hogarth has a right to be placed, there can be little doubt: he wrote comedies with a pencil. [16] For these pictures he was elected a governor of the hospital. On the top of the staircase, beneath the cornice, is the following inscription: "The historical paintings of this staircase were painted and given by Mr. William Hogarth, and the ornamental paintings at his expense, A.D. 1736." [17] The Reformed religion is, in almost all its branches, rather a drawback than an assistance to art. Thus are its effects described by Mr. Barry: "Where religion is affirmative and extended, it gives a loose and enthusiasm to the fancy, which throws a spirit into the air and manners, and stamps a diversity, life, quickness, sensibility, and expressive significance over everything they do. In another place it is more negative and contracted: being formed in direct opposition to the first, its measures were regulated accordingly; much pains were taken to root out and to remove everything that might give wing to imagination, and so to regulate the outward man by a torpid inanimate composure, gravity, and indifference, that it may attend to nothing but mere acts of necessity, everything else being reputed idle and vain. They have had as few words as buttons, the tongue spoke almost without moving the lips, and the circumstances of a murder were related with as little emotion as an ordinary mercantile transaction."--_Barry on the Arts_, p. 214.