Barton Booth - A Just View of the British Stage, or Three Heads are Better Than One
by William Hogarth
1724
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library, Kinnaird 64K(b) Box 105
The image, a satire on farces, shows the stage of Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, with banners above reading "Vivitur Ingenio" (genius lives on). A violinist has been hanged on the right beside a fragment reading "Musick for ye whole Entertain-." Seated at a table on the stage, with theatrical rigging (or nooses) suspended above them, are the theatre's three actor-managers: A, Robert Wilks (holding Punch), says " Poor R-ch Faith I Pitty him"; C, Colley Cibber (holding a Harlequin puppet), says "Assist ye Sacred Nine"; and B, Barton Booth (lowering a puppet of Jack Hall into the privy of Newgate), exclaims "Ha this will do G-d D- me." On the table is a pamphlet with a print of Jack Sheppard in shackles in Newgate. Ben Jonson's ghost appears through a trap door on the left. Above the privy on the right is tacked a collection of pages from Shakespeare's plays to be used for toilet paper: "Hamlet," "Way of the World," and possibly "[Mac]beth" and "[Juli]us Ceasar," sic. On the left at the front of the stage a statue representing Tragedy has a playbill reading "Harlequin D. Faustus" tacked over its face; on the right a stature representing Comedy has a playbill reading "Harlequin Shepherd" tacked over its face.
The text below the print reads:
This print represents the Rehearsing a new Farce that will Include two famous Entertainments Dr. Faustus & Harlequin Shepherd to wch. will be added Scaramouch Jack Hall the Chimney-Sweeper's escape from Newgate through ye privy, with ye comical Humours of Ben Johnsons Ghost, Concluding wth the Hay-Dance Perform'd in ye Air by ye Figures A.B.C. Assisted by Ropes from ye Muses, Note there are no Conjurers concern'd in it as ye ignorant imagine. The Bricks, Rubbish &c. will be real, but the Excrements upon Jack Hall will be made of Chew'd Gingerbread to prevent Offence. Vivat Rex. price six pence.
—Allison Muri, March 2014, edited April 2024
This image is provided courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library, which permits the use of materials in the public domain. The copyright term for this image is assumed to be expired.