DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61480#0055
THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS.
PLATE V.
With keen remorse, deep sighs, and trembling fears
Repentant groans, and unavailing tears,
This child of misery resigns her breath,'
And sinks, despondent, in the arms of death.
Released from Bridewell, we now see this victim to her own indiscretion breathe
her last sad sigh, and expire in all the extremity of penury and wretchedness. The two
quacks, whose injudicious treatment, has probably accelerated her death, are vociferously
supporting the infallibity of their respective medicines, and each charging the other with
having poisoned her. The meagre figure is a portrait of Dr. Misaubin, a foreigner, at
that time in considerable practice.
These disputes, it has been affirmed, sometimes happen at a consultation of regular
physicians, and a patient has been so unpolite as to die before they could determine on
the name of his disorder.
" About the symptoms how they disagree,
But how unanimous about the fee !"
While the maid servant is entreating them to cease quarrelling, and assist her dying
mistress, the nurse plunders her trunk of the few poor remains of former grandeur. Hei-
little boy, turning a scanty remnant of meat hung to roast by a string ; the linen hanging
to dry; the coals deposited in a corner; the candles, bellows, and gridiron hung upon
nails ; the furniture of the room ; and indeed every accompaniment ; exhibit a dreary dis-
play of poverty and wretchedness. Over the candles hangs a cake of Jew's Bread,
once perhaps the property of her Levitical lover, and now used as a fly-trap. The
initials of her name, M. H. are smoked upon the ceiling as a kind of memento mori to
the next inhabitant. On the floor lies a paper inscribed " anodyne necklace," at that
time deemed a sort of charm against the disorders incident to children; and near the
fire, a tobacco-pipe, and paper of pills.
A picture of general, and at this awful moment, indecent confusion, is admirably
represented. The noise of two enraged quacks disputing in bad English; the harsh,
vulgar scream of the maid servant ; the table falling, and the pot boiling over, must pro-
PLATE V.
With keen remorse, deep sighs, and trembling fears
Repentant groans, and unavailing tears,
This child of misery resigns her breath,'
And sinks, despondent, in the arms of death.
Released from Bridewell, we now see this victim to her own indiscretion breathe
her last sad sigh, and expire in all the extremity of penury and wretchedness. The two
quacks, whose injudicious treatment, has probably accelerated her death, are vociferously
supporting the infallibity of their respective medicines, and each charging the other with
having poisoned her. The meagre figure is a portrait of Dr. Misaubin, a foreigner, at
that time in considerable practice.
These disputes, it has been affirmed, sometimes happen at a consultation of regular
physicians, and a patient has been so unpolite as to die before they could determine on
the name of his disorder.
" About the symptoms how they disagree,
But how unanimous about the fee !"
While the maid servant is entreating them to cease quarrelling, and assist her dying
mistress, the nurse plunders her trunk of the few poor remains of former grandeur. Hei-
little boy, turning a scanty remnant of meat hung to roast by a string ; the linen hanging
to dry; the coals deposited in a corner; the candles, bellows, and gridiron hung upon
nails ; the furniture of the room ; and indeed every accompaniment ; exhibit a dreary dis-
play of poverty and wretchedness. Over the candles hangs a cake of Jew's Bread,
once perhaps the property of her Levitical lover, and now used as a fly-trap. The
initials of her name, M. H. are smoked upon the ceiling as a kind of memento mori to
the next inhabitant. On the floor lies a paper inscribed " anodyne necklace," at that
time deemed a sort of charm against the disorders incident to children; and near the
fire, a tobacco-pipe, and paper of pills.
A picture of general, and at this awful moment, indecent confusion, is admirably
represented. The noise of two enraged quacks disputing in bad English; the harsh,
vulgar scream of the maid servant ; the table falling, and the pot boiling over, must pro-