Plate VII: The Idle ’Prentice returned from Sea and in a Garret with a common Prostitute

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

‘Industry and Idleness VII: The Idle ’Prentice returned from Sea and in a Garret with a common Prostitute’ (October 1747)

[First  state] Etching and engraving on copper; printed on laid paper.

Tom Idle has returned from sea to face making his way in the world without work.  The two pistols on the floor suggest that, in desperation, he has become a highwayman.  Like Goodchild, he has also found a companion, but not in marriage; he has bought the favours of a prostitute of criminal character for the night.  Housed in her garret with holes in the floor and cracking walls, Idle and his whore lie in a broken bed.  Though the door is bolted, locked and barricaded, the noise made by a cat chasing a rat down the chimney has alarmed the guilty Idle; he sits up in terror, his hair on end and his face twisted in fear.  His calm companion ignores him and turns to admire a trinket from the evening’s booty.  On the mantelpiece sit the harlot’s ‘cures’ for venereal disease.

© David Morris, The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester