page_title: William Hogarth
section_title: Beer Street and Gin Lane
hierarchical_section_title: William Hogarth / Moral series art / Beer Street and Gin Lane
caption_attribution_description: English: Gin Lane, from Beer Street and Gin Lane. A scene of urban desolation with gin-crazed Londoners, notably a woman who lets her child fall to its death and an emaciated ballad-seller; in the background is the tower of St George's Bloomsbury. The accompanying poem, printed on the bottom, reads: Gin, cursed Fiend, with Fury fraught, &#160;&#160;&#160;Makes human Race a Prey. It enters by a deadly Draught &#160;&#160;&#160;And steals our Life away. Virtue and Truth, driv'n to Despair &#160;&#160;&#160;Its Rage compells to fly, But cherishes with hellish Care &#160;&#160;&#160;Theft, Murder, Perjury. Damned Cup! that on the Vitals preys &#160;&#160;&#160;That liquid Fire contains, Which Madness to the heart conveys, &#160;&#160;&#160;And rolls it thro' the Veins. Français&#160;: La rue du Gin. Gravure accompagnée d'un poème dans sa première édition. Traduction du poème: "Le gin, maudit démon, empli de furie, &#160;&#160;&#160;Fait de la race humaine une proie. Il rentre en une gorgée mortelle, &#160;&#160;&#160;Et vole a vie, La Vertu et la vérité, menées au désespoir, &#160;&#160;&#160;Sa rage les fait fuir, Mais il chérit avec un attention infernale, &#160;&#160;&#160;Le vol, le meurtre et le parjure. Maudite coupe, qui happe les vivants, &#160;&#160;&#160;Ce liquide contient un feu, Dont il mène la folie au coeur, &#160;&#160;&#160;Et et le guide dans les veines."
context_page_description: William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist.
  He is said to have started western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraits to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". His work is so well known that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".
context_section_description: Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751) was his warning on alcoholism. They were two engravings designed to be seen side by side. Hogarth engraved Beer Street to show a happy city drinking the 'good' beverage of English beer. On the other side was Gin Lane. This showed the effects of drinking gin which, as a harder liquor, caused more problems for society. People are shown as healthy, happy and prosperous in Beer Street, while in Gin Lane they are scrawny, lazy and careless. 
  The woman at the front of Gin Lane who lets her baby fall to its death, echoes the tale of Judith Dufour who strangled her baby so she could sell its clothes for gin money. The prints were published in support of what would become the Gin Act of 1751.
  Hogarth's friend, the magistrate Henry Fielding, may have got Hogarth to help with propaganda for the Gin Act: Beer Street and Gin Lane were issued shortly after Fielding's work An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, and Related Writings.
caption: Gin Lane, 1751, one of his most famous works
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