 The emblem, in other words, identifies the poet's "side" in the battle between dunces and men of wit.Hogarth was well acquainted with the struggles of the Grub Street hack though, through the travails of his own father, Richard, who had been unable to make a living as writer and had eventually ended up at the Fleet Prison as a bankrupt.Hogarth may have been more than sympathetic to the dunce struggling with his rhymes.