Ireland, John: Hogarth illustrated (Band 1): William Hogarth (London, 1793)

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS. 18J

" gains make a heavy purse; it is good to be

" merry and wise," etc. etc.

" Seek not to go beyond your tether,
" But cut your thong unto your leather;
" So shall you thrive by little and little,
" 'Scape Tyburn, Counter, and the Spittal,"

The prologue concludes with what may serve
as an explanatory apology for the prints as well as
the play.

" Bear with our willing pains,—or dull, or witty,

" We only dedicate it to the City."

Golding marries Touchstone's favourite daugh-
ter, and the old citizen, in the quaint style of that
day, wishes he may live to see him " one of the
" monuments of the city, and reckoned among her
*' worthies -t to be remembered the same day with
" Lady Ramsay, and grave Gresham, when the
" famous fable of Whitiington and his puss shall
" be forgotten, and thou and thy acts become the
" posies for hospitals; when thy name shall be
f( written upon conduits, and thy deeds played
" i'thy lifetime, by the best company of actors,
" and be called their Get-penny; this I divine
" and prophesy."

In the comedy, as in the prints, one of the
scenes is laid at Cuckold's Haven: young Goiding
becoming a magistrate, Quicksilver is brought be-
fore him as a criminal, etc. etc.