Industry and Idleness

• 1. Two Apprentices, Twelve Plates

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  In 1747, the English artist William Hogarth published Industry and Idleness, a series of twelve linked engravings about two young apprentices. They begin on equal terms, working side by side, and they finish at opposite ends of the social order. Hogarth made the set for working children. He wanted to show them what steady effort could earn and what neglect would bring down on them without fail. Each plate is crowded with small details that reward a slow look. How does a run of prints tell one story with almost no text? Who are the two young men, and why does their master matter? And what did Hogarth plan but never finish?

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• 2. A Shilling a Print

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  One shilling bought a single plate of Industry and Idleness, so the complete set of twelve cost twelve shillings. That modest price suggests Hogarth was aiming at a wider and less wealthy market than before. His method changed too. A Harlot's Progress in 1731 and Marriage à-la-mode in 1743 were painted first and engraved afterwards. Industry and Idleness skipped the paintings and was made only as a set of engravings. The originals now belong to the British Museum. Hogarth was not the first to follow two lives that begin together and part ways, and the stage had already tried it.

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• 3. Borrowed Roads

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  The scholar Paulson points to two plays that Hogarth may have echoed: Eastward Hoe and The London Merchant. Eastward Hoe was revived only after Hogarth's prints appeared. The London Merchant holds a line that nearly summarises the series, describing "business is the youth's best preservative from ill, as idleness is the worst of snares". Paulson also suggests the idea was already forming when Hogarth painted Hudibras and the Lawyer. That picture includes two clerks, one industrious and one idle.

  In the finished series, each plate shows one apprentice at a telling moment. Plates 1 and 10 are the exceptions, since both men appear in them. The prints otherwise alternate between the Industrious and the Idle 'prentice. Francis Goodchild and Thomas Idle each appear seven times. Francis climbs toward power and esteem, while Thomas slides toward crime and legal disgrace. Every plate also carries a Bible passage that explains or foreshadows the scene. These verses were supposedly chosen by a friend of Hogarth, the Reverend Arnold King. The opening plate shows how much meaning Hogarth could pack into a single frame.

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• 4. At the Looms

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  In plate 1, Francis is hard at work with his loom and shuttle, and a copy of The Prentice's Guide lies at his feet. Behind him, the wall holds wholesome reading such as The London Prentice. Beside it hangs a notice reading "Whitington Ld Mayor", a portentous hint of his future. Thomas Idle, by contrast, leans snoring against a silent loom. A huge mug labelled "Spittle Fields" sits on the loom, a clay pipe is wedged into its handle, and a cat meddles with the shuttle. Moll Flanders is tacked to his post, and his own Prentice's Guide lies shredded and filthy on the floor. Their master stands to the right with a thick stick, looking at Thomas with disappointment.

  The border of the print already announces the endings. Over Idle hang a whip, fetters and a rope. Over Goodchild hang a ceremonial mace, a sword of state and a golden chain. The master's sword runs exactly into the shaft of the mace. That alignment foreshadows the moment the two men meet again in plate 10.

  The verses divide them too. For Idle, Proverbs warns that the drunkard shall come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe a man in rags. For Goodchild, the same book says "The hand of the diligent maketh rich". The very next plate sends Francis to church.

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• 5. Francis Climbs

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  In plate 2, it is a Sunday, and Francis stands in a pew at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, singing from a hymnal beside his master's daughter. Hogarth surrounds their piety with failings. A man sleeps in a nearby pew, and a vain woman sits at the far right. An old pew opener faces away from the service to spot new arrivals. His career is shown starting, quite literally, with devotion.

  By plate 4, Francis has left the loom for the counting desk. He holds the Day Book, the keys to the house and a pouch of money, and his master treats him with warm familiarity. Two gloves shaking hands lie on the desk, foreshadowing their agreement in plate 6. Behind them, a row of women work at looms and one sits at a spinning wheel. A porter wearing the badge of the Corporation of London carries material labelled "To Mr West". A London Almanack tacked on the wall shows the genius of Industry assaulting Father Time.

  Plate 6 finds Francis free, having served his time, and a journeyman weaver. A sign reading "WEST and GOODCHILD", beneath a lion rampant, shows that his master has taken him into partnership. Miss West is now Mrs. Goodchild, and the scene is likely the day after the wedding feast. Francis leans from a window holding a handleless teacup and giving a coin to the poor. At the door, a footman hands out a plate of leftovers. A legless man in a tub, probably invalided from the Army or Navy, offers a song sheet titled "Jesse or the Happy Pair". Nearby, a British butcher shoves a Frenchman with a bass viol out of the line. In the background stands the London Monument, carrying an inscription blaming "the treachery of the Popish Faction".

  Plate 8 shows Francis as Sheriff of London. He and his wife sit in state at the end of a banqueting table. The sword of state rests on his chair, and a crowned mace on hers. A chamberlain with a staff of office reads a paper addressed to "Fras Goodchild". An orchestra plays from a balcony above. In the left foreground, Hogarth adds a satire of gluttony, and two figures at the far right warn that even earned riches can be squandered. Between each of these scenes of success sits a scene of ruin.

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• 6. Tom Falls

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  In plate 3, Tom Idle gambles and cheats with a few pence on top of a tomb in a churchyard, while the service goes on without him. Spare bones and skulls litter the ground. Behind him, a beadle raises a cane to strike him for his insolence. The frame is reversed here, and the mace and sword now sit on the left.

  Plate 5 sends him to sea. His master, perhaps prompted by Francis, throws him out or orders him away. Tom answers by tossing his indenture into the boat's wake in the lower left corner. His companions have heard about him. One teases him with the frayed end of a rope, a nod to the cat o' nine tails. The other points to a man hanging from a gibbet at the waterline, though he may be pointing at their ship. The sky darkens in the direction the boat is heading. A crate lettered "Tho Idle his Chest" gives us his name for the first time. An old woman in widow's dress weeps and pleads with him while he ignores her. The verse identifies her as his mother. Dutch windmills stand on low land in the background.

  By plate 7, Tom is back from sea and living in a ruined garret with a woman Hogarth labels a common prostitute. He has turned highwayman, or more likely footpad. The only furniture is the broken bed they lie on. She examines the spoils of his robberies, including an earring shaped like a gallows. Bottles on the mantel hint at venereal disease, as in plate 3 of A Harlot's Progress. A broken flute, a bottle and discarded breeches suggest drunken debauchery. Samuel Ireland suggests Tom drinks to drive away his fear of the law. A cat tumbles down the chimney with a few bricks, and Tom starts up in terror. A hoop petticoat covers the window, so he appears to be in hiding. The verse promises that "The Sound of a Shaken Leaf shall Chace him."

  Plate 9 shows him moving from robbery to murder for petty gain. He and an accomplice sort through the dead man's belongings while another man drops the body through a trap door. They do not notice armed men descending the stairs with lit lanterns. They also miss Tom's prostitute, who is being paid one coin for her information. The cellar around them is lawless. Playing cards litter the floor, a rope hangs from a ceiling beam and a woman with no nose serves a drink. A huge drunken brawl fills half the room while everyone else ignores it. Some versions of the title include the words "by his Whore" and others drop them. His next appearance puts him before a familiar face.

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• 7. The Reckoning

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  In plate 10, the two apprentices meet again, with Tom on the left and Francis on the right. The frame is reversed, so the rope and its companions hang above Francis. Francis, now an Alderman of London, sits in judgment. Tom's accomplice has turned King's evidence, and a man behind Tom holds up the two pistols and the sword used in the killing while pointing at the accused. Francis turns away. He may be struggling with his feelings or spurning Tom's pleas, and the clerk beside him writes a warrant "To the Turnkey of Newgate". Tom's mother again pleads tearfully with an officer who waves her off. A bailiff administering the oath has put his quill behind his ear, which makes him look ridiculous. A woman beside him seems to be paying him to ignore that the oath is sworn with the wrong hand, making it worthless. Fire buckets marked "SA" hang from the balcony.

  Plate 11 takes Tom to Tyburn, like Tom Nero in The Four Stages of Cruelty. A tumbrel carries him past soldiers on horseback, with a preacher at his side holding a book labelled Wesley, a reference to Methodism. Tom is now hairless and leans on a coffin marked "T.I.". A coach ahead carries the official clergyman who will preside, and the Tyburn Tree looms beyond. The executioner lies along a crossbeam smoking his pipe, unbothered by his work. In the right background, a spectator releases a pigeon that will carry word of the death back to Newgate.

  Around the procession, chaos reigns. A woman with a baby already sells "The last dying Speech & Confession of Tho. Idle", though he has not yet reached the gallows. To her left, a brawl breaks out. A drunk courts a woman with ridiculous airs while holding a dog up by its tail. The dog hangs directly below the gibbet, and it prefigures the "cur" who is about to be hanged. A woman attacks a man who has overturned her cart of fruit. In one corner, two boys stand together, one picking a pocket and the other resisting temptation, possibly echoing Idle and Goodchild. The frame shows his fate, a man hung on a gibbet. Proverbs completes his doom, saying God will not answer those who call on him in distress.

  Plate 12 finally rewards industry. Francis rides as Lord Mayor in the state carriage, holding the sword of state and wearing an outsized top hat. A genteel crowd watches from a balcony and the windows along the street. In the street, the crowd nearly riots. A disorganised militia escort accidentally fires muskets or drinks from mugs. At lower right, a boy sells "A full and true Account of ye Ghoſt of Tho Idle", showing that Idle's memory has ended up in The Newgate Calendar. Cornucopias surround the frame, echoing the verse about riches and honour. Hogarth planned more.

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• 8. Unmade Scenes

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  Hogarth sketched at least three other scenes that never became engravings. One would have shown the inside of Goodchild's home after his marriage, presumably placed after plate 6 or in its place. The other two were meant to follow plate 7. They show Goodchild giving money to his parents while Idle swipes a tankard belonging to his mother. Had the plan gone ahead, the woman who weeps over Tom in plates 5 and 10 would have been robbed by him as well.

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