per-Plates, engrav'd by the best Masters in Paris, after his own
Paintings; representing a Variety of _Modern Occurrences in High-Life_,
and called MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE. Particular Care will be taken, that there
may not be the least Objection to the Decency or Elegancy of the whole
Work, and that none of the Characters represented shall be personal."
Then follow the terms of subscription. The last quoted lines are
probably a bark at some forgotten detraction, and if not actually
ironical, doubtless about as sincere as Fielding's promise, in the
Prologue to his first comedy, not to offend the ladies. Those who had
found inelegancy and indecency in the previous productions of the
painter, would still discover the same defects in the masterpiece he now
submitted to the public. And although it may be said that the
"characters" represented are not "personal" in a satirical sense, his
precautions, as he himself tells us, "did not prevent a likeness being
found for each head, for a general character will always bear some
resemblance to a particular one."

But what, no doubt, interested his critical contemporaries even more
than these preliminary protestations, was the painter's promise to
represent, in his new work, "a variety of modern occurrences in
high-life." Here, it may be admitted, was a proposition which certainly
savoured of temerity. What could one whose pencil had scarcely travelled
beyond the limits of St. Giles's, know of the inner secrets of St.
James's? A Hervey or a Beauclerk, or even a Fielding, might have
sufficed; but a Hogarth of Leicester Fields, whose only pretence to
distinction (as High Life conceives it) was that he had run away with
Thornhill's handsome daughter,--what special title had he to depict that
charmed region of cards and folly, ringed with its long-resounding
knockers, and flambeau-carrying footmen! This was, however, to reckon
without genius, which over-leaps loftier barriers than these. It is true
that the English Novel of Manners, which has since stimulated so many
artists, had only just made its appearance; and _Pamela_ and _Joseph
Andrews_ but falteringly foreshadowed _Clarissa_ and _Tom Jones_. Yet
there is nothing in the story of _Marriage A-la-Mode_ which was beyond
the powers of a _spectator ab extra_, always provided he were fairly
acquainted with the Modelys and Wildairs of the stage, and the satires
of Johnson and Pope. The plot, like that of all masterpieces, is
extremely simple.