The Harlot's Progress (1733), The Rake's Progress (Ms., ca. 1778-1780)

[2]: Reprinted here with permission of the Henry E. Huntington Library (No. 151783). There are two other extant copies of the first edition: one in the Boston Public Library and the other in the British Library. The British Library copy has two inserted engraved portraits (Theophilus Cibber in his role of Pistol, and Hogarth seated at an easel studying a cartoon of a goddess, probably based on "Hogarth Painting the Comic Muse" of 1758). Yale University has a photostat facsimile of the Boston Public Library edition. I thank David Rodes for looking at the British Library copy.

[3]: Reprinted here in typescript form from a manuscript difficult to reproduce legibly. The work is anonymous. The typescript appeared as "Appendix I" of my unpublished New York University dissertation on William Hogarth with permission of the Trustees of the British Library. I have discussed it in "_The Rake's Progress_: A New Dramatic Version of William Hogarth's Prints," in Notes and Queries (October 1972), 381-383. The theatrical career of the author, Theophilus Cibber (1703-1758), has not been fully assessed. He did know Hogarth: they both belonged to John Rich's group, the "Sublime Society of Beef Steaks," which met in the scene-painting loft over the Covent Garden stage. Cibber joined the group in September 1739, and Hogarth was a charter member in 1735 (HGW, I, 188). Cibber himself played an active role in the creation of the position of stage manager or "under-manager" (LS, 3, I, xcvi).

[4]: See my essay concerning such connections, in "William Hogarth and London Theatrical Life," Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture, Vol. 5, ed. R. Rosbottom (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975), 11-31.

[5]: See my "Music and Theatre in Hogarth," The Musical Quarterly, 57 (July 1971), 409-426.

[6]: "Some Aspects of Music and Literature," repr. Facets of the Enlightenment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), p. 92.

[7]: See "The Tunes" at end of Introduction.

[8]: English Theatre Music in the Eighteenth Century (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 108.

[9]: "The Popularity of Various Types of Entertainment at Lincoln's Inn Fields and Covent Garden Theatres, 1720-1733," Theatre Notebook, XXIV: 4 (Summer 1970), 156.

[10]: The complete title is "_The Judgment of Paris. A Dramatic Entertainment In Dancing and Singing, After the Manner of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. As it is Perform'd at the Theatre-Royal in Drury Lane_," with words by Congreve, music by Seedo and "Compos'd by J. Weaver, Dancing-Master." This work had its Drury Lane debut 6 February 1733, and The London Stage entry for 31 March 1733 reads: "John Banks's The Albion Queens ... Also The Harlot's Progress; or, the Triumph of Beauty" (LS, 3, I, 283). Many actors and actresses doubled (e.g., Mrs. Raftor is one of the "Graces" in the masque). No doubt the concluding "Masque" of The Harlot's Progress is Weaver's piece (p. 12).

[11]: Paulson (HGW, I, 148) describes these two doctors, "well known for their quack cures for venereal disease." Dr. Rock's name was added by Hogarth in a later state of the print.

[12]: Cibber's piece may have opened as early as 12 March 1733 in the pantomime house at Sadler's Wells, which had been reconstructed from a seventeenth century Music Room (see LS, 3, I, xxxix). Cibber's The Harlot's Progress had a successful run at Drury Lane in the spring of 1733, from 31 March until 28 May, when the actor-manager dispute led to a closing of the playhouse (see LS, 3, I, 304). It played as an afterpiece to such works as Cato and The Provok'd Husband, and on 26 April a playbill announced the "Royal Family expected to attend" (LS, 3, I, 293). Thereafter it had a career at the fairs, beginning with the Lee-Harper-Petit Booth on Tottenham Court on 30 August 1733 (LS, 3, I, 310), moving on 23 August to Bartholomew Fair and on 28 September to Mile End Green, where the harlot's name is listed as "Moll Hackabout" (LS, 3, I, 321). On 27 October 1733 it had a command performance at Drury Lane (LS, 3, I, 330). It played frequently during that winter and in the spring, on 26 April, the seceding actors returned to Drury Lane to perform in The Conscious Lovers and The Harlot's Progress. The cast list is the same as that in the text reprinted here (LS, 3, I, 390). The successful run continued through October 1734; after that it was only played a couple of times before the 1736 season (LS, 3, I, passim). Scouten observes: "a remarkable feature" is that this piece "places a Jewish merchant in a favorable light, treating him not with sympathy but with respect as a pillar of trade" (LS, 3, I, xcvi).

[13]: "A Letter from Theo. Cibber, Comedian, To John Highmore, Esq." (London 1733).

[14]: Hogarth reversed Laguerre's print, adding the banner "We eat," the label "Pistol's alive" under Theophilus Cibber's feet and the phrase "Quiet and Snug" under Colley Cibber. For descriptions of the rebellion, see John Genest, Some Account of the English Stage from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830, III, Bath: 1832, pp. 415-416, Richard H. Barker, Mr. Cibber of Drury Lane (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), pp. 168-171, and Arthur Scouten, LS, 3, I, lxxxix-xciii.

[15]: For exposition of the eight prints of "A Rake's Progress" (1735) see Paulson's HGW, I, 158-170. The subscription was announced in late 1733, but the paintings were not completed until mid-1734.

[16]: Esther K. Sheldon, Thomas Sheridan of Smock-Alley (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 284-285, and Raymond C. Rhodes, Harlequin Sheridan: The Man and the Legend (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1933), p. 79.

[17]: Sheldon, p. 301.

[18]: I am indebted to Prof. Edgar V. Roberts for pointing out this source to me, and for his help in identifying many of the tunes.

[19]: "Mr. Seedo's London Career and His Work with Henry Fielding," Philological Quarterly, XLV (January 1966), 185 and 189.

[20]: See Bronson's article (above, n. 6) passim, where he mentions many of the songbooks.

Bibliographical Note

The facsimile of The Harlot's Progress (1733) is reproduced from the copy (Shelf Mark: 151783) in the Henry E. Huntington Library. The total type-page (p. 9) measures 155 x 115 mm. The Rake's Progress (ca. 1778-1780) is presented in type from a manuscript (Additional MS. 25997) in the British Library. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been preserved, but colons and doubled colons used to indicate word divisions have been silently emended to hyphens or closed, and free-form brackets for stage directions have been standardized to parentheses.

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS; OR, THE RIDOTTO AL' FRESCO:

A Grotesque Pantomime Entertainment.

As it is perform'd by his Majesty's Company of Comedians AT THE THEATRE-ROYAL in Drury-Lane.

Compos'd by Mr. Theophilus Cibber, Comedian.

The SONGS made (to old Ballad Tunes) by a Friend.