"A room in the Fleet Prison (after the painting at Sir John Soane's Museum); Tom sits at a table, to right, on which is a rejection letter from John Rich to whom he has submitted a play; his wife clenches her fists, the gaoler asks for garnish money and a boy asks payment for a tankard of ale; to left, Sarah Young has fainted and is being administered smelling salts by one woman while another slaps her hand, her child clings to her skirt; she is supported by an older man with a beard who has dropped a sheet containing a scheme for paying the national debt (a reference to such a scheme put forward by Hogarth's father); in the background an alchemist works at a forge."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Happy the man whose constant thought (tho' in the school of hardship taught,) can send remembrance back to fetch and A rake's progress
Description:
Title, state, and imprint from Paulson., "Plate 7"--Added at the bottom left., Added title from first lines of verses below image., and Sheet torn at lower right edge with loss of some text and date in imprint.
Publisher:
Wm. Hogarth
Subject (Topic):
Children, Debt, Jails, Poverty, Rake's progress, and Unmarried mothers
