残酷的四个阶段

《四个残酷的舞台》是一系列的四幅雕版画，由英国画家威廉·贺加斯于1751年所制作的。整套印刷品描述了虚构人物汤姆・尼禄一生中四个不同的舞台。一开始从孩童年代的戏虐小狗为《第一个残酷的舞台》，尼禄长大成人后继而对他的马作出摔打为《第二个残酷的舞台》，之后在《终极残酷》中更牵涉抢劫、诱奸和谋杀等发指罪行。然而，贺加斯认为由他一开始铺路作犯科，就要无法避免地承受命运的制裁。结果，尼禄在《残酷的回报》中以凶杀的罪名被送上绞架问吊，而死后他的尸首亦任由一群外科医生在解剖讲堂将之切开解剖。

威廉·贺加斯 (1697年–1764年)

贺加斯有感于同样的伦常惨案每天在伦敦街头不断发生，因而特意制作雕版画来达致教化大众的效果。为方便当时的低下阶层阅读，版画都印刷在廉价的纸张上。整个系列呈现一种处决带来的粗暴与残忍的感觉，而作者亦没有显示一贯幽默的画风来缓和作品的残酷气氛。霍加斯认为画中的残忍感觉能够向既定的观众传递他意图表达的讯息。尽管如此，《四个残酷的舞台》依然可以见到贺加斯作品的色彩，例如带有丰富的细节与隐约的关联思想。

备注

a. ^{^} A pair of impressions from Bell's original printing were acquired for £1600 by the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in 2005.

b. ^{^} There is some confusion over the date of George "The Barber" Taylor's career and death. In his earlier work Paulson puts him as a pupil of Broughton, killed in a fight with him in 1750, and the Tate Gallery dates Hogarth's sketches to c.1750. In Hogarth's "Harlot", he states that Taylor retired in 1750 but came out of retirement in 1757 for a final fight in which he was badly beaten, dying from his injuries several months later. Most records date Taylor's championship to the middle 1730s.

c. ^{^} The initials on the box are normally read as A. G. for Ann Gill, but the G resembles a D, suggesting the box too may have been stolen.

d. ^{^} John Ireland identifies the president as "Mr Frieake, the master of Nourse, to whom Mr Potts was a pupil". Since Ireland identifies him as the master of Nourse, he undoubtedly means John Freke, an acquaintance of Hogarth's and surgeon at St Bartholomew's Hospital from 1729–1755 and a Governor 1736–1756. The dissection could be taking place at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where all three surgeons were based, but it also has features of the Cutlerian Theatre of the Royal College of Physicians near Newgate (particularly the throne, which bears their arms, and its curved wall resembling a cockpit) and the niches of the Barber-Surgeons' Hall (which was not used for dissection after the Surgeons split away to form the Company of Surgeons in 1745).