By the appearance of his Harlot's Progress, his fame was completely established, and his finances raised, by the ra pid sale of the plates that were struck from the pictures. He might be said in this production to create a new spe cies of painting,—the moral comic ; and in the furniture, dresses, and details of the scenes, to give a history of the manners of the age. The Rake's Progress, which appear ed in 1735, though, in the opinion of many, superior in merit, had not so much success from want of novelty. In the following year, ambitious of distinguishing himself as a painter of history, he finished the Scripture scene of the Pool of Bethesda, and of the Good Samaritan ; but the bur lesque turn of his mind mixed itself with all subjects, and here with disadvantage. Nor was he more successful in his picture of Danae, where the old nurse tries the gold by ringing it with her teeth. His fame was however now so high, that Swift complimented him in the Legion Club, and Fielding in his preface to Joseph Andrews. Thcophilus Cibber had also brought his Rake's Progress on the stage, in the shape of a pantomime.
His printed proposals, dated January 25, ascertain his Company of Strolling Players, and his Marriage a la Mode, to have been then ready for sale. He had also projected a Happy Marriage, by way of a counterpart to his Mar riage a la Mode. The time supposed was immediately after the return of the parties from church. The scene lay in the hall of an antiquated country mansion. On one side the married couple were represented sitting. Behind them was a group of their young friends of both sexes, in the act of breaking bride cake over their heads. In front appeared the father of the young lady grasping a bumper, and drinking, with a seeming roar of exultation, to the fu ture happiness of her and her husband. By his side was a table covered with refreshments; jollity rather than polite ness, was the designation of his character. Under the screen of the ball, several rustic musicians in grotesque at titudes, together with servants, tenants, &c. were arranged. Before the dripping-pan stood a well-fed divine, with his gown and cassock, witivhis watch in his hand, giving di rections to a cook dressed all in white, who was basting. a Launch of venison. Among the faces of the principal figures, none but that of the young lady was completely finished. Hogarth had been often reproached for his ina bility to give grace and dignity to his heroines. The bride was meant to vindicate his pencil from this imputation. The effort, however, was unsuccessful. The girl was pret ty, but her features were uneducated. She might have at tracted notice as a chambermaid, but would have failed to extort applause as a woman of fashion. The parson and his culinary associates were more laboured than any other parts of the picture. The painter sat down with a resolu tion to delineate beauty improved by art, but seems, as usual, to have deviated into meanness, or could not help neglecting his original purpose to luxuriate in more con genial ideas. He found himself, in short, out of his etc
. , ment in the parlour, and therefore hastened in quest of ease and amusement to the kitchen fire.
Soon after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he went over to France,'and was taken into custody while he was draw ing the gate of that town ; a circumstance which he has recorded in his picture, entitled 0 the Roast Beef of Old England, published in 1749. Ile was actually carried be fore the governor as a spy ; and after a very strict exami nation, committed a prisoner to Grandsire his landlord, on his promising that Hogarth should not go out of the house till he was to embark for England. Previous to this com mitment, he had behaved with a sturdiness and sauciness which he thought became an Englishman, but which be tray the extreme grossness of his manners. In the streets he was often clamorously rude. A tattered bag, or a pair of silk stockings with holes in them, drew a torrent of im prudent language from him, and which there were Scotch and Irish emigrants on the spot who could interpret to the French. But his pleasantry was extinguished by what hap , pened when he was drawing the gates of Calais ; for though the innocence of his design was rendered perfectly apparent on the testimony of other sketches he had about him, which were by no means such as could serve the pur pose of an engineer, he was told by the commandant, that had not the peace been actually signed, lie should have been obliged to have hung him up immediately on the ram parts. Two guards were then provided to convey him on shipboard ; nor did they quit him till he was three miles from the shore. They then spun him round like a top on the deck, and told him he was at liberty to proceed on his voyage without farther molestation or atten&nce. The slightest allusion to this ludicrous affair used to be off( I sive to our painter.
In 1753, he appeared in the character of an author, awl published a quarto volume, entitled The ?lnalysis of Beau ty, written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste. His intention was to shew that a curve is the line of beauty, and that round swelling figures are most pleas ing to the eye. He received assistance in this work from Dr Benjamin Hoadley the physician, and the Rev. Mr Town ley corrected the preface. The family of Hogarth re joiced when the last sheet of his Analysis was printed off, as the frequent disputes he had with his coadjutors in the course of the work, (lid not much harmonize his disposi tion. If beauty really did consist in any particular kind of lines, there were few painters less likely to discover them than Hogarth, and he was no metaphysician ; but the refu tation of an exploded theory would be now superfluous.