“Copy of a room in the Fleet Prison; Tom sits at a table, to left, on which is a rejection letter from John Rich to whom he has submitted a play; his wife clenches her fists, the gaoler asks for garnish money and a boy asks payment for a tankard of ale; to left, Sarah Young has fainted and is being administered smelling salts by one woman while another slaps her hand, her child clings to her skirt; she is supported by an older man with a beard who has dropped a sheet containing a scheme for paying the national debt (a reference to such a scheme put forward by Hogarth’s father); in the background an alchemist works at a forge.”–British Museum online catalogue.
- Title: Confined in the Fleet Prison [graphic].
- Publication: [London] : Published with the consent of Mr. William Hogarth by Tho. Bakewell, according to act of Parliament, July 1735.
Hogarth 735.07.00.01+ Box 200
Acquired January 2021
Copy (reversed) of the first state of Plate 7 of Hogarth’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’ (Paulson 138): A room in the Fleet Prison (after the painting at Sir John Soane’s Museum); Tom sits at a table, to right, on which is a rejection letter from John Rich to whom he has submitted a play; his wife clenches her fists, the gaoler asks for garnish money and a boy asks payment for a tankard of ale; to left, Sarah Young has fainted and is being administered smelling salts by one woman while another slaps her hand, her child clings to her skirt; she is supported by an older man with a beard who has dropped a sheet containing a scheme for paying the national debt (a reference to such a scheme put forward by Hogarth’s father); in the background an alchemist works at a forge.”–British Museum online catalogue.
