A Rake's Progress, Plate 8

Date1735

Maker William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

MediumEtching and line engraving on laid paper

DimensionsOverall: 17 3/4 × 22 7/8in. (45.1 × 58.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1967-566,8

DescriptionUpper margin: "MAD IN BEDLAM."
Lower margin: Madness, Thou Chaos of the Brain,/ What art? That Pleasure giv'st, and Pain?/ Tyranny of Fancy's Reign!/ Mechanic Fancy; that can build/ Vast Labarynths, & Mazes wild,/ With Rule disjointed, Shapeless Measure,/ Fill'd with Horror, fill'd with Pleasure/ that but Seen/ Wou'd split the Shaking Sides of Spleen./ O Vanity of Age! here see/ The Stamp of Heaven effac'd by Thee -/ The headstrong Course of Youth thus run,/ What Comfort from this darling Son!/ His rattling Chains with Terror hear,/ Behold Death grappling with Despair;/ See Him by Thee to Ruin Sold,/ And curse they self, & curse thy Gold./ Retouch'd by the Author 1762/ Invented &c. by W.m Hogarth& Publish'd According to Act of Parliament June y.e 25. 1735."
Label TextThis is the eighth and final scene of one of William Hogarth's most popular "Modern Moral Subjects”: " A Rake's Progress." With the popularity of ‘A Harlot's Progress,' he commenced selling subscriptions in late 1733, but the prints were not completed until June 1735. Part of this delay was the passage of the Engraver's Act, which was designed to prevent pirating of engraver's works. Hogarth waited until the act took effect on June 25th, 1735 - the date engraved on the prints - to publish the series. Despite his careful planning, pirated copies appeared on the market in early June apparently based on Hogarth's original paintings for the set, now in the collection of Sir John Soane's Museum.

The final scene in "A Rake's Progress" shows Thomas Rakewell in Bethlem Royal Hospital, nicknamed Bedlam in London, an institute for the poor and mentally ill. Rakewell is at the center of the scene, a scene half-naked and in a state of distress attended by his former lover Sarah Young, and warden, who loosens his manacles. In the background, are other inmates: a man who believes himself to be God, with cheap prints of saints tacked to the walls of his cell; an astronomer who draws a globe and calculates longitude on the walls; a man who believes himself to be King, sitting naked with a crown of straw atop his head. Some of the other figures, represent the types of individuals who met with Rakewell in plate 2, the Levee including: a tailor who has gone mad, plays with a measuring tape wearing a hat made of patterns and a wig of straw, is sitting cross-legged, still practicing. Grouped by or near the stairs are a musician, a man dressed as the Pope, and a sighing lover sitting next to a balustrade carved with the name of Betty Careless, a contemporary prostitute. An aristocratic woman and her maid shield their eyes out of fascination and disgust as they tour the hospital. Hospitals like Bedlam were open to the public for a fee as a form of entertainment and spectacle.

This is state three of the print. Though printed from Hogarth's original copperplate (with some strengthening), this print is part of the Boydell edition published after 1790. Hogarth's copperplates were re-used after his death by his widow, Jane until her death in 1789. They were sold to the print publishers John and Josiah Boydell who published until the Boydell sale in 1818. In 1822, James Heath was in possession of the plates and published at least four bound editions of the plates. For more, see Ronald Paulson, Hogarth's Graphic Works, Third Revised Edition (London: Print Room, 1989), pp. 20-21.

For the rest of the set see 1967-566, 1-8.