A Harlot’s Progress: Plate 1

This is the first of six plates from William Hogarth's engraved series A Harlot's Progress. One of Hogarth's best known morality tales, it illustrates the story of Moll Hackabout, a girl from the countryside who travels to London to visit her cousin but is quickly swallowed up in a world of prostitution.

A Harlot's Progress begins with a scene in a courtyard where coaches from northern England stop in the city. Hogarth depicts Moll in a country dress and kerchief, with a rose tucked in her bosom. A pincushion and a pair of scissors tied at her waist indicate her intended profession of seamstress. Her cousin has not shown up, but rather the owner of a brothel, Mother Needham. With a caress, she praises Moll's beauty and suggests a profitable occupation, pressing her into service for the gentleman shown at the back of the image. Subsequent plates show Moll's debasement and eventual death from syphilis. Hogarth's prints were wildly popular because they taught morals as well as entertained. Today, they are invaluable documents of life in 18th-century London.