"Ah! why so vain, though blooming in thy spring;
Thou shining, frail, adorn'd, but wretched thing!
Old age will come; disease may come before,
And twenty prove as fatal as threescore!"
[Illustration: THE HARLOT'S PROGRESS, PLATE II.]
Entered into the path of infamy, the next scene exhibits our young
heroine the mistress of a rich Jew, attended by a black boy,[50]
and surrounded with the pompous parade of tasteless profusion. Her
mind being now as depraved as her person is decorated, she keeps
up the spirit of her character by extravagance and inconstancy. An
example of the first is exhibited in the monkey being suffered to
drag her rich head-dress round the room, and of the second in the
retiring gallant. The Hebrew is represented at breakfast with his
mistress; but having come earlier than was expected, the favourite
has not departed. To secure his retreat, is an exercise for the
invention of both mistress and maid. This is accomplished by the lady
finding a 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 with which the room is decorated are,
David dancing before the ark, and Jonah seated under a gourd.[51]
They are placed there, not merely as circumstances which belong to
Jewish story, but as a piece of covert ridicule on the old masters,
who generally painted from the ideas of others, and repeated the same
tale _ad infinitum_. On the toilet-table we discover a mask, which
well enough intimates where she had passed part of the preceding
night, and that masquerades, then a very fashionable amusement, were
much frequented by women of this description; a sufficient reason for
their being avoided by those of an opposite character.
Under the protection of this disciple of Moses she could not remain
long. Riches were his only attraction, and though 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 sunshine
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 astonishment of the Jew,[52]
eagerly grasping at the falling 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 attempt has seldom succeeded; but in this print, the
tea equipage really appears falling to the floor.[53]