Part 2 (1/2)
THE TAVERN SCENE
”O vanity of youthful blood, So by ood!
Woift of powers above, Source of every household blessing; All charues above; Foe to thy being, foe to love!
Guest divine, to outward viewing; Ablest ift divine, Sweet poison of misused wine!
With freedom led to every part, And secret chamber of the heart, Dost thou thy friendly host betray, And shew thy riotous gang the way To enter in, with covert treason, O'erthrow the drowsy guard of reason, To ransack the abandon'd place, And revel there ild excess?”
Mr Ireland having, in his description of this Plate, incorporated whatever is of value in Dr Trusler's text, with much judicious observation and criticism of his own, the Editor has taken the former _verbatied in one of his ent of the future, he riots in the present Having poured his libation to Bacchus, he concludes the evening orgies in a sacrifice at the Cyprian shrine; and, surrounded by the votaries of Venus, joins in the unhallowed mysteries of the place The companions of his revelry are s to the servants of all work in the isle of Paphos;--for the maids of honour they are not sufficiently elevated
”He may be supposed, in the phrase of the day, to have beat the rounds, overset a constable, and conquered a watchht into the room, as trophies of his prowess In this situation he is robbed of his watch by the girl whose hand is in his bosom; and, with that adroitness peculiar to an old practitioner, she conveys her acquisition to an accomplice, who stands behind the chair
”Two of the ladies are quarrelling; and one of them _delicately_ spouts wine in the face of her opponent, who is preparing to revenge the affront with a knife, which, in a posture of threatening defiance, she grasps in her hand A third, enraged at being neglected, holds a lighted candle to a h she perish in the conflagration_! A fourth is undressing The fellow bringing in a pewter dish, as part of the apparatus of this elegant and Attic entertainer, roaring out an obscene song, con may be a very exact representation of ere then the nocturnal amusements of a brothel;--so different are the manners of former and present times, that I much question whether a similar exhibition is now to be seen in any tavern of the metropolis That we are less licentious than our predecessors, I dare not affirm; but we are certainly more delicate in the pursuit of our pleasures
”The room is furnished with a set of Roman emperors,--they are not placed in their proper order; for in the , this family of frenzy have decollated all of thereat a si an insult; their reverence for _virtue_ induced them to spare his head In the frame of a _Caesar_ they have placed a portrait of _Pontac_, an e sensual, rather than mental enjoy from this company, than would either Vespasian or Trajan
”The shattered lasses, fractured chair and cane; the led foith a fork stuck in its breast, thrown into a corner, and indeed every accoht of riot without enjoyratification
”With respect to the drawing of the figures in this curious fearth evidently intended several of thear, uneducated, prostituted beauty, he had a good idea The hero of our tale displays all that careless jollity, which copious draughts of hs the world away, and bids it pass The poor dupe, without his periwig, in the back-ground, forood contrast of character: he is maudlin drunk, and sadly sick
To keep up the spirit of unity throughout the society, and not leave the poor African girl entirely neglected, she is htly returns, her love-inspiring glance This print is rather crowded,--the subject deures, thrown into shade, eneral effect, but would have injured the characteristic expression”
[Illustration: THE RAKE'S PROGRESS
PLATE 3
TAVERN SCENE]
PLATE IV
ARRESTED FOR DEBT
”O, vanity of youthful blood, So by ood!
Reason awakes, and views unbarr'd The sacred gates he wish'd to guard; Approaching, see the harpy _Law_, And _Poverty_, with icy paw, Ready to seize the poor reains
Cold _penitence_, laht, Call back his guilty pleasures dead, Who'd, and whom betray'd”
The career of dissipation is here stopped Dressed in the first style of the ton, and getting out of a sedan-chair, with the hope of shi+ning in the circle, and perhaps forwarding a former application for a place or a pension, he is arrested! To inti plundered is the certain consequence of such an event, and to she closely one misfortune treads upon the heels of another, a boy is at the sairl whoh attends in the crowd, tohis distress, with all the eager tenderness of unabated love, she flies to his relief Possessed of a ss of unreenerously offers her purse for the liberation of her worthless favourite This releases the captive beau, and displays a strong instance of fe once planted in the bosolect, or harshest cruelty
The high-born, haughty Welshman, with an enormous leek, and a countenance keen and lofty as his native y, and fixes the day to be the first of March; which being sacred to the titular saint of Wales, was observed at court