Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"A Rake's Progress, Plate 8
William Hogarth, English, 1697-1764
Engraving
Gift of Prof. William A. McGill, 2001.10.04.08
“The rake's life of excesses has finally driven him completely mad. Committed to Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam), he is being chained to prevent him from injuring himself (the patch below his breast suggests he may have knifed himself). Half-naked, grinning and tearing his flesh fiercely, he is attended to the end only by the weeping Sarah Young. Two men restrain him, though one is more interested in Sarah than in the patient.
In the hospital science has claimed two victims. The fellow peering at the ceiling through a roll of paper which he imagines to be a telescope is an astronomer. Behind him the fellow who has drawn the ship, mortar and shot, earth, moon and various geometric patterns is attempting to discover a scheme for calculating longitude. Religion has two adherents here. The man in the first cell sitting on straw chained to a rock is a fanatic; he keeps a crucifix and icons of three saints (St. Lawrance, St. Athanatius [C]lemen[t]) beside him. His body is contorted in prayer and his adoring face is screwed up into the likeness of a wild animal. The person on the stairs with the cone-shaped hat and triple cross who seems to sing imagines himself the pope.
In cell 55 a naked man with a crown of straw and a stick as scepter believes he is king. He urinates. Two elegantly dressed court ladies come in curiosity not charity as Sarah has, smile at his exposed condition. In front of them a wretchedly dressed tailor with a wig of straw, patterns on his hat and tape in his hands, gestures vacantly. To his right a mad musician with sheet music on his head saws a violin with a stick; his fingers are covered with rings. Beside him sits a figure who suffers from depression over the loss of his love; he has carved her name (Charming Betty Careless [the name of a particularly beautiful and well-known prostitute of the period]) on the banister and wears her picture. The collar around his neck suggests he has attempted to hang himself.
On the wall stands the image of a halfpenny portraying Britannia with her hair flying madly behind her. It is chained to cell 54. Added in a late revision of the plate, it suggests that in 1763 Hogarth questioned the sanity of the British nation.”
From Sean Shesgreen, Engravings by Hogarth
Alternate label:
Scene in Bedlam
Plate 8: A Rake’; Progress ends in the famous
madhouse, Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam). Tom
Rakewell is chained, half-naked, and in anguish in
our final view of him. Faithful to the end, Sarah
Young attempts to give him whatever comfort she
can. One keeper attends to Tom's chains while
another molests Sarah.
This particular image is among Hogarth's
greatest and most damning indictments of society.
Its cast of tormented characters points to the many
causes of madness.
More disturbing, however, are the two pretty
aristocratic ladies who have come to view the
suffering of the insane as a form of entertainment.
Almost thirty years after completing A Rake's
Progress, Hogarth returned to this final plate and
made one significant addition. On the wall he
etched an image of a halfpenny portraying Britannia
with her hair wildly flying behind her. In the last
year of his life, Hogarth clearly felt that Britain and
its ruling classes had not improved."