Page 450

Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
"A Harlot's Progress" Plate 4 (detail)
by Hogarth

Moll Hackabout has been sentenced to Bridewell Prison. Here she is shown beating oakum (also done in the workhouse). Moll is threatened by the gaoler (to her left) with a leg iron and cane; the engraving implies that she in immediate threat of the stocks because they are already occupied. On Moll's right a woman mocks her "fashionable condition" while stealing something from the pockets of her dress. On Moll's left stands an older well-dressed man. At this point in her progress, Moll has at least three discernible syphilitic lesions on her face.
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