Hogarth, William (1697 London 1764). Frontispiece and its Explanation to Samuel Butler’s “Hudibras” as an English Don Quixote. Pedestal illustrated with Hudibras and his shield-bearer Ralpho as duo before a chariot driving round Mount Parnassus – on its top the springing Pegasus – with Butler’s buck-legged genius as driver, swinging the whip against the personifications of Rebellion, Hypocrisy + Ignorance carried at the neck at the back. “This satyr symbolises nature as opposed to the repressive Puritanism represented by Hudibras and Ralpho, the anti-heroes of the poem” (Bindman).

On the left a sitting satyr showing the opened page with canto I, stanza 15 of the poem to a cherub with master-apron chiseling at the pedestal. On the right sitting Britannia with spear resting on the large cross arms. On her left leg a faun holding, cheekily laughing, her mirror image before her. “Th(is) implication is that Hudibras and his ilk are still a presence and that the poem is relevant to present times and not just the previous troubled century” (Bindman).

Eventually on the pedestal the poet in crowning medallion with long laurel tendrils wound round with lettered tape. On the left placed back pyramidal pedestal with bust. In front of it a gentleman pointing on it and, kneeling, the winged death. Engraving by Thomas Cook (ca. 1744 – London 1818). (1801.) Inscribed: Plate 1. / Design‘d by W. Hogarth. / Engrav‘d by T. Cook., otherwise as above. 26.5 x 35.7 cm.

HUDIBRAS I. – With 6-lined subtext: “The Basso Releivo, on the Pedestal represents the general Design of M^r. BUTLER in his Incomparable Poem of Hudibras viz BUTLERS Genius in a Car Lashing round Mount Parnassus, in the Persons of Hudibras and Ralpho Rebellion Hypocrify and Ignorance the reigning Vices of his time.”

Cook “made a name for himself as Hogarth engraver, too (1795 ff.) whose complete work he has reproduced” (Thieme-Becker VII, 1912, p. 348/I) and whose original format he maintained in contrast to all later Hogarth editions, which moreover mostly don’t contain the consequently rarer Hudibras. Several works not published by Hogarth himself had been engraved by Cook for the first time as he met with approval by a contemporary connoisseur as Maximilian Speck von Sternburg, too. – Below trimmed within the white platefield.

Unten innerhalb des weißen Plattenfeldes geschnitten. Upper white plate/papermargin with two weak smaller water-streaks and, hardly noticeable, some fox-stipples, as on the right,.too. – On strong paper, of finest chiaroscuro. – RICH  SHEET .

(Laaths, Geschichte der Weltliteratur, 1953, p. 375), a “satiric scourge” (Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4^th ed., III, 693/I) on the politically just sacked Puritanism and the best-known work of its creator esteemed by Charles II,

SAMUEL  BUTLER

(Streensham, Worcestersh, 1612/13 – London 1680), as result of his impressions in the employ of Cromwell’s Colonel Sir Samuel Luke, “at which religious and political sects were about” (Meyers). Remaining incomplete the first two parts of the epic were published in 1663/64, a third one in 1678, then, joined, long-lived through the centuries. In three cantos each

“ describing in rough, mostly eightsyllabic songs (later known as ‘hudibrastic verse’) the loosely connected, grotesque adventures of two Puritans, the knight Hudibras and his shield-bearer Ralpho. Hogarth has engraved two different sets of illustrations to this poem: twelve large, carefully executed engravings he has created on his own, independently of a publisher, and published in February 1726, and seventeen smaller ones which have more the character of woodcuts and presumably done before, but were published the following April only in a poem edition. These follow the course of the action while the large sheets only represent the decisive scenes with an abridgement as legend … Epic and pictures are an antiheroic satire on Puritanism and sectarianism ”

(Margrit Bachofen-Moser in Hogarth Catalogue Zurich, 1983, pp. 25 ff. illustrating the large version in partly differing arrangement).

The Hudibras set – Thieme-Becker judge – is “of decisive significance for Hogarth’s development.

Here  lies  the  key  to  the  understanding  of  the  satirist  H. ”

(Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, vol. XVII, 1924, p. 300/II).

And Austin Dobson in the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 :

“ These (plates Hogarth) himself valued highly, and they are the best of his book illustrations. But he was far too individual to be the patient interpreter of other men’s thoughts, and it is not in this direction that his successes are to be sought … (And generally resuming) If we regard him – as he loved to regard himself – as ‚author‘ rather than ‚artist‘, his place is with the great masters of literature – with the Thackerays and Fieldings, the  Cervantes  and Molières. ”

Offer no. 14,741 / EUR  169. (c. US$ 273.) + shipping

– – – The same in Cook’s smaller repetition, in reverse to the large version and Hogarth’s own copper with the subtext being replaced by the series title. Inscribed: Pl. I. / Hogarth pinx^t. / HUDIBRAS. / T. Cook sculp^t. / Published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, & Orme, July 1^st. 1807. Subject size 13.4 x 17 cm. – Trimmed within the wide white platemark and this at three sides especially in the outer part slightly foxed, below also finger spotted.
Offer no. 14,743 / EUR  50. (c. US$ 81.) + shipping

– – – The same in Hogarth’s own etching/engraving of 1726 with the Sayer address of the 1768 new edition and here in the impression on strong paper from the plate reworked by the royal engraver James Heath (1757 London 1834, “earned applause early”, Nagler) about 1822 (“Even these impressions became relatively rare today though”, Art Gallery Esslingen 1970; and Meyers Konv.-Lex., 4^th ed., VIII [1888], 625:

“A fine edition”). Inscribed: 1 (by the publisher) / W Hogarth Inven. & Sculp / London Printed for Rob^t. Sayer, Map & Printseller, at N^o. 53 in Fleet Street., otherwise with title + subtext. 26.5 x 35.3 cm. – Nagler 10-1. – Illustration of the 1^st state with the Overton/Cooper address on occasion of the 1997/98 English-North-American touring exhibition in Bindman, Hogarth and his Times, no. 30 and of the 2^nd state in Hogarth Catalog Zurich, 1983, 1. – Plate below left rounded off under loss of 2½ letters. – The wide white margin at three sides weakly foxstippled.
Offer no. 14,742 / EUR  130. (c. US$ 210.) + shipping

Further single sujets of the set available in several qualities.

„ das ‚Haupt-Schwein‘ ist gut … angekommen und gefällt … falls sich weitere Funde … auftun, freue ich mich über Ihre Nachricht “

(Herr W. S., 29. August 2002)