The Death of the Earl, plate 5 from Marriage a la Mode

By publishing his own engravings and catering to a mass market, William Hogarth was the first artist to exploit printmaking as an alternative to traditional patronage. His satirical social commentaries embraced the common and irreverent, sparing no class from his biting wit. Marriage A-la-Mode, after a series of paintings from 1743, were the most popular of what Hogarth called his "modern moral subjects" - didactic tales that unfold through six or eight engravings following the vanities, vices, and ultimate self-destruction of their protagonists. Embedded emblematic details and accessories further elucidate the narratives depicted. Marriage A-la-Mode chronicles the union of the bankrupt Earl Squanderfield's son and a wealthy merchant's daughter, an arrangement intended to elevate the former's financial situation and the latter's social standing. The lawyer Silvertongue quickly beguiles the young wife into an affair while her husband frequents prostitutes, from whom he has already contracted syphilis in the first scene. Overindulging in frivolous pastimes and expensive luxuries, the couple's household and relationship falls into disarray. Upon finding his wife with Silvertongue the husband is fatally wounded by the lawyer, who later hangs for murder. Distraught, the wife commits suicide, leaving her crippled child motherless.