Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"A Rake's Progress, Plate 4
William Hogarth, English, 1697-1764
Engraving
Gift of Prof. William A. McGill, 2001.10.04.04
“In Plate IV the first inevitable consequences of Tom's new life style appear; his money runs short. The leek on the Welshman's hat identifies the date as March 1, the feast of St. David. Tom, dressed as a beau to assure his credit, seems to be on his way to White's to recover by gambling what he has squandered by excess. Despite the half-drawn curtain on his chair, he has been surprised with an Arrest notice. The bailiff is accompanied by a threatening assistant who does not disguise his interest in Sarah Young.
Rakewell is rescued not by his aristocratic acquaintances whose carriages and chairs stand outside White's gambling den in front of St. James's Palace, but by the plainly dressed girl from Oxford who has preserved the middle-class values of work, thrift and compassion. In a pointed reversal of Tom's cynical attempt to buy her off in Plate I, she offers her earnings as a milliner to the bailiff. Above Tom an inattentive lamplighter by a saddlemaker's sign (Hods[on] Sadle) spills oil from a vessel.
An outdoor gambling school operates beside a post labeled Blacks. [bootblacks, shoeshine boys] Here mere children, corrupted by city life, ape the vices of the fashionable adults at places like White's. One steals Rakewell's handkerchief; another tiny, ragged figure smokes a pipe and bends like an old man over a newspaper (The Farthing Post). Two bootblacks in the foreground cast dice; both wager their means of livelihood in a throw. The figure with the star tattoo has lost all his clothes to his companion except for his cap and pants. The loser has a liquor glass and measure beside him, the winner three thimbles and a pea (another gambling device). Behind them a news vendor (the trumpet at his side) and election canvasser (the sign on his cap reads Your Vote & Interest — Libertys) plays cards with an ape-like sweep. Behind the former a third boy signals the contents of his perplexed neighbor's cards to the sweep.
As the first state of this print reveals, the entire gambling school, the lightning bolt and the Whites sign were added in later states. The ragged youth stealing Tom’s stick is omitted and Sarah’s countenance is made slightly more angry in the later states.”
From Sean Shesgreen, Engravings by Hogarth
Alternate label:
Arrested in Debt
Plate 4: On his way to White's gaming house (in
the background) Rakewell has been stopped by a
bailiff with an ‘Arrest’ notice in hand. None other
than Sarah Young has appeared and offers her hard
earned savings to the bailiff. Above them a careless
lamplighter spills some oil, perhaps intimating that
the good intentioned Sarah is simply throwing away
her money.
Sarah Young represents a direct contrast to
Rakewell. Unlike the frivolous aristocrat, she stands
for the solid middle class values of prudence, hard
work and morality.
In Hogarth’s imagery, such virtues as Sarah
Young represents are sadly absent from most of
society. To the left another aristocrat, accompanied
by his manicured dog, simply watches the scene.
And the poor street urchins are in the process of
gambling away what little they possess."