DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61480#0115
INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.
PLATE XII.
THE INDUSTRIOUS PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour." Proverbs, chap. iii. ver. 16.
Having seen the ignominious end of the idle apprentice, nothing remains but to
represent the completion of the other's happiness ; who is now exalted to the highest
honour, that of Lord Mayor of London ; the greatest reward that ancient and noble city
can bestow on diligence and integrity. Our artist has here, as in the last plate, given
a loose to his humour, in representing more of the low part of the Lord Mayor's show
than the magnificent; yet the honour done the city, by the presence of the Prince and
Princess of Wales, is not forgotten. The variety of comic characters in this print serves
to show what generally passes on such public processions as these, when the people
collect to gratify their childish curiosity, and indulge their wanton disposition, or natural
love of riot. The front of this plate exhibits the oversetting of a board, on which some
girls had stood, and represents them sprawling upon the ground; on the left, at the
back of the scaffold, is a fellow saluting a fair nymph, and another enjoying the joke :
near him is a blind man straggled in among the crowd, and joining in the general
halloo : before him is a militia-man, so completely intoxicated as not to know what he
is doing; a figure of infinite humour. Though Mr. Hogarth has here marked out two
or three particular things, yet his chief intention was to ridicule the city militia, which
was at this period composed of undisciplined men, of all ages, sizes, and height; some
fat, some lean, some tall, some short, some crooked, some lame, and in general so un-
used to muskets, that they knew not how to carry them. One, we observe, is firing
his piece and turning his head another way, at whom the man above is laughing, and
at which the child is frightened. The boy on the right, crying, " A full and true
account of the ghost of Thomas Idle," which is supposed to have appeared to the Mayor,
PLATE XII.
THE INDUSTRIOUS PRENTICE LORD MAYOR OF LONDON.
" Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour." Proverbs, chap. iii. ver. 16.
Having seen the ignominious end of the idle apprentice, nothing remains but to
represent the completion of the other's happiness ; who is now exalted to the highest
honour, that of Lord Mayor of London ; the greatest reward that ancient and noble city
can bestow on diligence and integrity. Our artist has here, as in the last plate, given
a loose to his humour, in representing more of the low part of the Lord Mayor's show
than the magnificent; yet the honour done the city, by the presence of the Prince and
Princess of Wales, is not forgotten. The variety of comic characters in this print serves
to show what generally passes on such public processions as these, when the people
collect to gratify their childish curiosity, and indulge their wanton disposition, or natural
love of riot. The front of this plate exhibits the oversetting of a board, on which some
girls had stood, and represents them sprawling upon the ground; on the left, at the
back of the scaffold, is a fellow saluting a fair nymph, and another enjoying the joke :
near him is a blind man straggled in among the crowd, and joining in the general
halloo : before him is a militia-man, so completely intoxicated as not to know what he
is doing; a figure of infinite humour. Though Mr. Hogarth has here marked out two
or three particular things, yet his chief intention was to ridicule the city militia, which
was at this period composed of undisciplined men, of all ages, sizes, and height; some
fat, some lean, some tall, some short, some crooked, some lame, and in general so un-
used to muskets, that they knew not how to carry them. One, we observe, is firing
his piece and turning his head another way, at whom the man above is laughing, and
at which the child is frightened. The boy on the right, crying, " A full and true
account of the ghost of Thomas Idle," which is supposed to have appeared to the Mayor,