A copy of the fourth print in William Hogarth’s series “Four Times of the Day”, set at the intersection of Rummer Court and Charing Cross. Le Sueur’s equestrian statue of Charles I can be seen in the background. It is the anniversary of the Restoration of Charles II (29 May, known as “Oak Apple Day”). In the foreground a drunken freemason (probably the corrupt magistrate Sir Thomas De Veil) is supported by a serving man. Behind them a man pours gin into a keg. To the left a barber is seen at work through a window; each pane of the shop window contains a lit candle. From a window above the barber shop, a chamber pot is being emptied onto the top of a wooden shelter under which a man and woman sleep. Beside them, a link boy crouches as he blows on the flame of his torch. Behind and to the right of the freemason, the Salisbury Flying Coach has crashed and overturned while trying to avoid a bonfire in the middle of the street; the passengers reach out the window of the coach, alarmed looks on their faces.Two men look on, one of whom appears to be a butcher. Shop and tavern signs include the barber’s which is decorated with oak leaves and advertises “Shaving Bleeding & Teeth Drawn wth. a Touch Ecce Signum”; the Rummer Tavern; the Earl of Cardigan; and, the Bagnio and the New Bagnio.
- Printmaker: Cook, Thomas, approximately 1744-1818, printmaker.
- Title: Night [graphic] / designed by Wm. Hogarth ; engraved by T. Cook.
- Published: [London] : Published February the 1.st 1798 by G.G. & J. Robinson Pater-noster Row London, [1 February 1798]
Hogarth 798.02.01.01++ Box 310
Acquired January 2021
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 6 of A harlot’s progress: A dilapidated room with Moll Hackabout’s friends, mostly prostitutes, gathered around her open coffin, several of them weeping; one young woman stands with her back to the scene as she gazes at herself in the mirror. On the right, a clergyman spills his brandy as he surreptitiously gropes beneath a woman’s skirt; Moll’s serving woman, standing at the coffin with a wine bottle and glass in hand scowls at the pair. Under the window and to the left, the undertaker flirts with a pretty young prostitute who picks a handkerchief from his pocket. In the foreground Moll’s small son plays with a spinning top. Sprigs of yew (rosemary?) decorate her coffin; a plate of yew rests on the floor at the parson’s feet, another spring at her son’s feet.
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 5 of A harlot’s progress: In a squalid room Moll Hackabout, wrapped in a sheet, is dying while two doctors (Richard Rock and Jean Misaubin) argue over their remedies. Her serving-woman reaches out to them in alarm to get their attention for the invalid, while another woman rifles through Moll’s portmanteau (with her initials as in Plate 1). A small boy knelling next to Moll’s chair scratches his head as he turns a joint of meat roasting in front of the fire while a pot overflows on the grate. An over-turned table with an advertisement “Practical scheme … ‘Anodyne” litters the floor in the foreground.
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 4 of A harlot’s progress: A scene in Bridewell prison with Moll Hackabout and the other inmates beating hemp under the supervision of a stern warder holding a cane. Moll is still dressed in her finery, but a one-eyed female attendant fingers the lace lappet hanging from her cap and her serving-woman sits before her in Moll’s elegant shoes; next to her a fellow inmate picks vermin off her clothes. Next to Moll is a gambler, a torn playing card on the floor in front of him; behind her, a man stands with his hands in a pillory on which hangs a sign “Better to Work than Stand thus.” Further down the wall is a whipping post with the words “The Wages of Idleness.” On a shudder against the back wall is an effigy of Sir John Gonson (“Sr. J G”).
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 3 of A harlot’s progress: In a shabby room in Drury Lane; Moll Hackabout is shown having risen late (the watch shows 11:45), attended by a serving-woman who has lost part of her nose to syphilis; in the background, the magistrate, John Gonson, enters quietly with officers to arrest her; pinned to the window frame are two portrait prints of the hero and heroines of “The Beggar’s Opera”, Captain Mackheath and Polly Peacham, (Polly replaces Dr. Sacheverell in Hogarth’s print), the wig-box of James Dalton, highwayman, sits above the bed, and one of several beer tankards on the floor carries the name of a Drury Lane tavern. A kitten plays at Moll’s feet. A copy of Bishop Gibson’s “Pastoral Letter to …” serves as a butter dish. Above the window on the left is a print after a Titian painting depicting the angel staying the hand of Abraham as he is about to slay Isaac. Medicine bottles on the window sill suggest that Molly is already ill with the disease that will later kill her.
A copy in reverse of William Hogarth’s Plate 1 of A harlot’s progress: A scene outside the Bell Inn: a country girl, Moll Hackabout, having just arrived on the York Wagon (seen on the right), meets an extravagantly dressed bawd (Mother Needham); a clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter, but a lecherous old gentleman (Colonel Charteris) eyes the girl with anticipation. In the lower left the girl’s initials “H.M.” (M[ary?] Hackabout, initials reversed on this copy) are on her portmanteau, next to which is a basket with a goose with a note around its neck, “For my Loving Cosen in Tems Stret in London”, presumably the person who has failed to meet her. In the background a woman hangs out her laundry on a balcony. A clergyman on horseback fails to notice the encounter as his horse feeds on hay next to the wagon. In the back of the wagon, four other country girls sit holding onto a rail.
