, enraged at being neglected, holds a lighted
candle to a map of the globe, determined to _set the world on fire,
though she perish in the conflagration_! A fourth is undressing. The
fellow bringing in a pewter dish, as part of the apparatus of this
elegant and Attic entertainment, a blind harper, a trumpeter, and a
ragged ballad-singer, roaring out an obscene song, complete this motley
group.

"This design may be a very exact representation of what were then the
nocturnal amusements of a brothel;--so different are the manners of
former and present times, that I much question whether a similar
exhibition is now to be seen in any tavern of the metropolis. That we
are less licentious than our predecessors, I dare not affirm; but we are
certainly more delicate in the pursuit of our pleasures.

"The room is furnished with a set of Roman emperors,--they are not
placed in their proper order; for in the mad revelry of the evening,
this family of frenzy have decollated all of them, except Nero; and his
manners had too great a similarity to their own, to admit of his
suffering so degrading an insult; their reverence for _virtue_ induced
them to spare his head. In the frame of a _Caesar_ they have placed a
portrait of _Pontac_, an eminent cook, whose great talents being turned
to heightening sensual, rather than mental enjoyments, he has a much
better chance of a votive offering from this company, than would either
Vespasian or Trajan.

"The shattered mirror, broken wine-glasses, fractured chair and cane;
the mangled fowl, with a fork stuck in its breast, thrown into a corner,
and indeed every accompaniment, shews, that this has been a night of
riot without enjoyment, mischief without wit, and waste without
gratification.

"With respect to the drawing of the figures in this curious female
coterie, Hogarth evidently intended several of them for beauties; and of
vulgar, uneducated, prostituted beauty, he had a good idea. The hero of
our tale displays all that careless jollity, which copious draughts of
maddening wine are calculated to inspire; he laughs the world away, and
bids it pass. The poor dupe, without his periwig, in the back-ground,
forms a good contrast of character: he is maudlin drunk, and sadly sick.
To keep up the spirit of unity throughout the society, and not leave the
poor African girl entirely neglected, she is making signs to her friend
the porter, who perceives, and slightly returns, her love-inspiring
glan