Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850

Hoxton.

HOGARTH'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF HUDIBRAS

"Butler's Hudibras, by Zach. Grey, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Cambridge, 1744.

"Best edition. Copies in fine condition are in considerable request. The cuts are beautifully engraved, and Hogarth is much indebted to the designer of them; but who he was does not appear."

The above remarks in Lowndes's Bibliographical Manual having caught my attention, they appeared to me somewhat obscure and contradictory; and as they seemed rather disparaging to the fame of Hogarth, of whose works and genius I am a warm admirer, I have taken some pains to ascertain what may have been Mr. Lowndes's meaning.

On examining the plates in Dr. Grey's edition, they are all inscribed "W. Hogarth inv

, J. Mynde sc

." How, then, can Hogarth be said to be much indebted to the designer of them, if we are to believe the words on the plates themselves—"W. Hogarth inv

"?

It is clear that Mr. Lowndes supposes the designer of these plates to have been some person distinct from Hogarth; and he was right in his conjecture; but he was ignorant of the name of the artist alluded to.

Whoever he was, he can have little claim to be regarded as the original designer; he was rather employed as an expurgator; for these plates are certainly copies of the two sets of plates invented and engraved by Hogarth himself in 1726.

All that this second designer performed was, to revise the original designs of Hogarth's, in order to remove some glaring indecencies; and this, no doubt, is what Mr. Lowndes means, when he says that "Hogarth is much indebted to the designer of them."

The following passage in a letter from Dr. Ducaral to Dr. Grey, dated Inner Temple, May 10th, 1743, printed In Nichols's Illustrations, will furnish us with the name of the artist in question:—

"I was at Mr. Isaac Wood's the painter, who showed me the twelve sketches of Hudibras, which he designs for you. I think they are extremely well adapted to the book, and that the designer shows how much he was master of the subject."

In the preface to this edition, Dr. Grey expresses his obligations "to the ingenious Mr. Wood, painter, of Bloomsbury-square."

In the fourth volume of Nichols's Illustrations of Literature are some interesting letters from Thos. Potter, Esq., to Dr. Grey, which throw much light on the subject of this edition of Hudibras.

I cannot conclude these observations without expressing my dissent from the praise bestowed upon the engravings in this work. Mr. Lowndes says "the cuts are beautifully engraved." With the exception of the head of Butler by Vertue, the rest are very spiritless and indifferent productions.

    J. T. A.

FOLK LORE

Overyssel Superstition.—Stolen bees will not thrive; they pine away and die.

    Janus Dousa.

Death-bed Superstitions.—When a child is dying, people, in some parts of Holland, are accustomed to shade it by the curtains from the parent's gaze; the soul being supposed to linger in the body as long as a compassionate eye is fixed upon it. Thus, in Germany, he who sheds tears when leaning over an expiring friend, or, bending over the patient's couch, does but wipe them off, enhances, they say, the difficulty of death's last struggle. I believe the same poetical superstition is recorded in Mary Barton, a Tale of Manchester Life.

    Janus Dousa.

Popular Rhyme.—The following lines very forcibly express the condition of many a "country milkmaid," when influence or other considerations render her incapable of giving a final decision upon the claims of two opposing suitors. They are well known in this district, and I have been induced to offer them for insertion, in the hope that if any of your correspondents are possessed of any variations or additional stanzas, they may be pleased to forward them to your interesting publication.

"Heigh ho! my heart is low,
My mind runs all on one;
W for William true,
But T for my love Tom."

    T. W.
Burnley, Lancashire

Death-bed Mystery.—It may, perhaps, interest Mr. Sansom to be informed that the appearance described to him is mentioned as a known fact in one of the works of the celebrated mystic, Jacob Behmen, The Three Principles, chap. 19. "Of the going forth of the Soul." I extract from J. Sparrow's translations., London, 1648.

"Seeing then that Man is so very earthly, therefore he hath none but earthly knowledge, except he be regenerated in the Gate of Deep. He always supposeth that the Soul (at the deceasing of the Body) goeth only out at the Mouth, and he understandeth nothing concerning its deep Essences above the Elements. When he seeth a blue Vapor go forth out of the Mouth of a dying Man (which maketh a strong smell all over the chamber), then he supposeth that is the Soul."

    A. Roffe.

Bradshaw Family.—There is a popular belief in this immediate part of the country, which was formerly a stronghold of the Jacobites, that no Bradshaw has ever flourished since the days of the regicide. They point to old halls formerly in possession of Bradshaws, now passed into other hands, and shake their heads and say, "It is a bad name,—no Bradshaw will come to good." I heard this speech only yesterday in connexion with Halton Hall (on the Lune); but the feeling is common, and not confined to the uneducated classes.

Haigh Hall remains in the possession of the descendants of the family from which Judge Bradshaw was descended, because, so said my informant, the heiress married a "loyal Lindsay" (the Earl of Balcarras).

    E. C. G.

Lancaster.

ADVICE TO THE EDITOR, AND HINTS TO HIS CONTRIBUTORS

My signature Σ. having been adopted by another correspondent, I have been obliged to discontinue it.

My other signature Φ., which I have used since your commencement, is in your last number applied to the contribution of another gentleman, although the same number contains two articles of mine with that signature.

As this is palpably inconvenient, pray accept the following

ADVICE TO THE EDITOR

A contributor sending a Note or a Query,
Considers what signature's better;
And lest his full name too oft should prove weary,
He sometimes subscribes with a letter.

This letter in English or Greek thus selected,
As his personal mark he engages;
From piracy, therefore, it should be protected,
Throughout all the rest of your pages.

By a contrary practice confusion is sown,
And annoyance to writers of spirit,
Who wish not to claim any Notes but their own,
Or of less or superior merit.

I submit in such cases no writer would grumble,
But give you his hearty permission,
When two correspondents on one mark should stumble,
To make to the last an addition.