Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism

Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism

Farce on Possession

William Hogarth's, Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism is an eighteenth century print. Hogarth has satirized religious enthusiasm and the beliefs it inspired. Hogarth makes connections to witchcraft by the witch on a broomstick held by a Methodist minister, and demonic possession, indicated by William Perry, a boy demoniac, the Boy of Bilson, vomiting pins beneath the lectern. The female demoniac in the foreground delivering rabbits is Mary Tofts, who was believed to have delivered fourteenth rabbits in 1726. By including her in this engraving, of 1762 Hogarth linked popular belief in prodigies; with the irrational belief in possession and witchcraft. This image comes from The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West by Brian P. Levack.

William Hogarth

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Rosenwald Collection

ARTstor

1762, 18th century

ARTstor

http://www.artstor.org/copyright

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Print

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Still Image

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