Part 6 (1/2)

PLATE 1

ENSNARED BY A PROCURESS]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS

PLATE II

”Ah! why so vain, though bloo, frail, adorn'd, but wretched thing Old age will come; disease may come before, And twenty prove as fatal as threescore!”

Entered into the path of infa heroine the mistress of a rich Jew, attended by a black boy,[1] and surrounded with the po now as depraved, as her person is decorated, she keeps up the spirit of her character by extravagance and inconstancy An exa suffered to drag her rich head-dress round the rooallant

The Hebrew is represented at breakfast with hiscome earlier than was expected, the favourite has not departed To secure his retreat is an exercise for the invention of botha pretence for quarrelling with the Jew, kicking down the tea-table, and scalding his legs, which, added to the noise of the china, so far engrosses his attention, that the paramour, assisted by the servant, escapes discovery

The subjects of two pictures, hich the roo before the ark, and Jonah seated under a gourd They are placed there, notto Jewish story, but as a piece of covert ridicule on the old enerally painted from the ideas of others, and repeated the same tale _ad infinituh intiht, and that masquerades, then a very fashi+onable amusement, were much frequented by wo avoided by those of an opposite character

Under the protection of this disciple of Moses she could not reh profusely lavished on this unworthy object, her attachment was not to be obtained, nor could her constancy be secured; repeated acts of infidelity are punished by dismission; and her next situation shows, that like most of the sisterhood, she had lived without apprehension of the sunshi+ne of life being darkened by the passing cloud, and made no provision for the hour of adversity

In this print the characters are marked with a master's hand The insolent air of the harlot, the astonish table, the start of the black boy, the cautious trip of the ungartered and barefooted retreating gallant, and the sudden spring of the scalded monkey, are admirably expressed To represent an object in its descent, has been said to be impossible; the attee really appears falling to the floor; and, in Rehton collection, now at Petersburg, the knife dropping fro state

Quin compared Garrick in Othello to the black boy with the tea-kettle, a circued our Roscius to continue acting the part Indeed, when his face was obscured, his chief power of expression was lost; and then, and not till then, was he reduced to a level with several other performers It has been remarked, however, that Garrick said of himself, that when he appeared in Othello, Quin, he supposed, would say, ”Here's Pompey! where's the tea-kettle?”

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The attendant black boy gave the foundation of an ill-natured remark by Quin, when Garrick once attempted the part of Othello ”He pretend to play Othello!” said the surly satirist; ”He pretend to play Othello! He wants nothing but the tea-kettle and laarth's Pompey!”

[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS

PLATE 2

QUARRELS WITH HER JEW PROTECTOR]

THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS

PLATE III

”Reproach, scorn, infamy, and hate, On all thy future steps shall wait; Thy furor be loath'd by every eye, And every foot thy presence fly”