Another point of interest in connection with this burlesque is the
frontispiece which Hogarth supplied to the edition of 1731. It has no
special value as a design, but it constitutes the earliest reference to
that friendship with the painter, of which so many traces are to be
found in Fielding's works.

Hitherto Fielding had succeeded best in burlesque. But, in 1732, the
same year in which he produced the _Modern Husband_, the _Debauchees_,
and the _Covent Garden Tragedy_, he made an adaptation of Moliere's
_Medecin malgre lui_, which had already been imitated in English by Mrs.
Centlivre and others. This little piece, to which he gave the title of
the _Mock-Doctor_; or, _The Dumb Lady cur'd_, was well received. The
French original was rendered with tolerable closeness; but here and
there Fielding has introduced little touches of his own, as, for
instance, where Gregory (Sganarelle) tells his wife Dorcas (Martino),
whom he has just been beating, that as they are but one, whenever he
beats her he beats half of himself. To this she replies by requesting
that for the future he will beat the other half. An entire scene (the
thirteenth) was also added at the desire of Miss Raftor, who played
Dorcas, and thought her part too short. This is apparently intended as a
burlesque of the notorious quack Misaubin, to whom the _Mock-Doctor_ was
ironically dedicated. He was the proprietor of a famous pill, and was
introduced by Hogarth into the _Harlot's Progress_. Gregory was played
by Theophilus Cibber, and the preface contains a complimentary reference
to his acting, and the expected retirement of his father from the stage.
Neither Genest nor Lawrence gives the date when the piece was first
produced, but if the "April" on the dubious author's benefit ticket
attributed to Hogarth be correct, it must have been in the first months
of 1732.