Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850 - Various - Страница 4

"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^t, J. Mynde sc^t." 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^t"?

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.