Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"A Harlot's Progress, Plate 6
William Hogarth, English, 1697-1764
Engraving
Gift of Prof. William A. McGill, 2001.10.03.06
“Moll, dead at the age of twenty-three, is being waked. The plate on her coffin reads: M. Hackabout Died Sepr 2d 1731 Aged 23. Nobody mourns her passing at the mock vigil held for her. Leading lives that are without options, her sisters have little to learn from her death. Gathered around her coffin, they exhibit a variety of contrasting attitudes toward the occasion. Their spiritual leader, the clergyman (identified by Hogarth as the famous Couple-Beggar in The Fleet), who is supposed to give a religious tone to the event, has his hand up the skirt of the girl beside him. His venereal preoccupation causes him to spill. The face of the girl who covers his exploring hand with a mourning hat is filled with a look of dreamy satisfaction.
Before the coffin Moll's son, decked out grandly as the principal mourner, plays with his spinning top. At the right side of the scene an old woman, probably Moll's bawd, howls in a fit of tears inspired as much by the brandy bottle at her side as by considerations of financial loss. Behind the bawd, an undertaker over solicitously assists a girl with her glove; she postures as if in grief as she steals his handkerchief. At the mirror a girl adjusts her headgear vainly, oblivious to the prominent disease spot on her forehead. A weeping figure shows a disordered finger to a companion who seems more curious than sympathetic.
Only one person lifts back the coffin lid (which is being used as a bar) to look in detached curiosity, rather than in grief or reflection, upon Moll's corpse. In the background two older women huddle together demonstratively and drink. The only person with a sense of decorum is Moll's maid, who glares angrily at the conduct of the parson and his mate. Above the scene stands a plaque showing three faucets with spigots in them, the ironic coat of arms of the company.”
From Sean Shesgreen, Engravings by Hogarth"