A Just View of the British Stage
A Just View of the British Stage | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Artist | William Hogarth |
Year | 1724 |
A Just View of the British Stage or Three Heads are Better than One is an unsigned 1724 engraving attributed to the English artist
Background
The staging of Harlequin Sheppard — a play by John Thurmond based around the exploits of the famed criminal and escape-artist Jack Sheppard — by the three impresarios of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane: Colley Cibber, the actor Barton Booth, and Robert Wilks, in November 1724, spurred Hogarth into immediate action.[1]
The picture was issued at sixpence, announced as Just Published in the Daily Post on 10 December 1724. It was advertised as "A Print representing the Rehearsal of a new Farce, call'd three Heads are better than one...." It shows some of the popular print conventions Hogarth usually dropped, such as speech banners and labelling of the principal characters,[2] and has parallels to the anonymous British Stage published the same year.[3]
In the print, the production of popularist plays are taken to an extreme by suggesting that the three impresarios are planning a spectacle which combines
Throughout the scene Hogarth litters the trappings of the pantomime and objects representative of the arts obscured or defaced by the detritus of the production. There is a dragon ready to be swung in from the wings, a dog appearing from a kennel, and various farcical props scattered on the stage. Ben Johnson's Ghost wearing laurels, promised in the commentary below, rises from a trapdoor urinating on the broken statue of a Roman soldier (the soldier's detached leg may be a reference to a scene in Dr. Faustus). The statues on either side of the picture probably refer to the death of Tragedy and Comedy,
The three principals endure the brunt of Hogarth's satire. Wilks (to the left of the picture) declares "Poor R—ch, Faith I pitty him" as he sits dangling a puppet of
See also
Notes
References
- Eck, Caroline (1995). The Question of Style in Philosophy and the Arts. ISBN 0-521-47341-1.
- Hogarth, William (1833). "Remarks on various prints". Anecdotes of William Hogarth, Written by Himself: With Essays on His Life and Genius, and Criticisms on his Work. J.B. Nichols and Son. p. 416.
- ISBN 0-7188-2854-2.
- "The Newgate Calendar: Jack Hall". Archived from the original on 1 December 2008. Retrieved 25 November 2008.[unreliable source?]