With pallid1 cheek and haggard eye,
And loud laments2, and heartfelt sigh,
Unpitied, hopeless of relief,
She drinks the bitter cup of grief.
In vain the sigh, in vain the tear,
Compassion3 never enters here;
But justice clanks her iron chain,
And calls forth4 shame, remorse5, and pain.
The situation, in which the last plate exhibited our wretched female, was sufficiently6 degrading, but in this, her misery7 is greatly aggravated8. We now see her suffering the chastisement9 due to her follies10; reduced to the wretched alternative of beating hemp11, or receiving the correction of a savage12 task-master. Exposed to the derision of all around, even her own servant, who is well acquainted with the rules of the place, appears little disposed to show any return of gratitude13 for recent obligations, though even her shoes, which she displays while tying up her garter, seem by their gaudy14 outside to have been a present from her mistress. The civil discipline of the stern keeper has all the severity of the old school. With the true spirit of tyranny, he sentences those who will not labour to the whipping-post, to a kind of picketing15 suspension by the wrists, or having a heavy log fastened to their leg. With the last of these punishments he at this moment threatens the heroine of our story, nor is it likely that his obduracy16 can be softened17 except by a well applied18 fee. How dreadful, how mortifying20 the situation! These accumulated evils might perhaps produce a momentary21 remorse, but a return to the path of virtue22 is not so easy as a departure from it.
To show that neither the dread19, nor endurance, of the severest punishment, will deter23 from the perpetration of crimes, a one-eyed female, close to the keeper, is picking a pocket. The torn card may probably be dropped by the well-dressed gamester, who has exchanged the dice-box for the mallet24, and whose laced hat is hung up as a companion trophy25 to the hoop-petticoat.
One of the girls appears scarcely in her teens. To the disgrace of our police, these unfortunate little wanderers are still suffered to take their nocturnal rambles26 in the most public streets of the metropolis27. What heart, so void of sensibility, as not to heave a pitying sigh at their deplorable situation? Vice28 is not confined to colour, for a black woman is ludicrously exhibited, as suffering the penalty of those frailties29, which are imagined peculiar30 to the fair.
The figure chalked as dangling31 upon the wall, with a pipe in his mouth, is intended as a caricatured portrait of Sir John Gonson, and probably the production of some would-be artist, whom the magistrate32 had committed to Bridewell, as a proper academy for the pursuit of his studies. The inscription33 upon the pillory34, “Better to work than stand thus;” and that on the whipping-post near the laced gambler, “The reward of idleness,” are judiciously35 introduced.
In this print the composition is good: the figures in the back-ground, though properly subordinate, are sufficiently marked; the lassitude of the principal character, well contrasted by the austerity of the rigid36 overseer. There is a fine climax37 of female debasement, from the gaudy heroine of our drama, to her maid, and from thence to the still object, who is represented as destroying one of the plagues of Egypt.
Such well dressed females, as our heroine, are rarely met with in our present houses of correction; but her splendid appearance is sufficiently warranted by the following paragraph in the Grub-street Journal of September 14th, 1730.
“One Mary Moffat, a woman of great note in the hundreds of Drury, who, about a fortnight ago, was committed to hard labour in Tothill-fields Bridewell, by nine justices, brought his majesty’s writ38 of habeas corpus, and was carried before the right honourable39 the Lord Chief Justice Raymond, expecting to have been either bailed40 or discharged; but her commitment appearing to be legal, his lordship thought fit to remand her back again to her former place of confinement41, where she is now beating hemp in a gown very richly laced with silver.”

点击
收听单词发音

1
pallid
![]() |
|
adj.苍白的,呆板的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2
laments
![]() |
|
n.悲恸,哀歌,挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3
compassion
![]() |
|
n.同情,怜悯 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4
forth
![]() |
|
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5
remorse
![]() |
|
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6
sufficiently
![]() |
|
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7
misery
![]() |
|
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8
aggravated
![]() |
|
使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 ); 使更严重; 激怒; 使恼火 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9
chastisement
![]() |
|
n.惩罚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10
follies
![]() |
|
罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11
hemp
![]() |
|
n.大麻;纤维 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12
savage
![]() |
|
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13
gratitude
![]() |
|
adj.感激,感谢 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14
gaudy
![]() |
|
adj.华而不实的;俗丽的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15
picketing
![]() |
|
[经] 罢工工人劝阻工人上班,工人纠察线 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16
obduracy
![]() |
|
n.冷酷无情,顽固,执拗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17
softened
![]() |
|
(使)变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 ); 缓解打击; 缓和; 安慰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18
applied
![]() |
|
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19
dread
![]() |
|
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20
mortifying
![]() |
|
adj.抑制的,苦修的v.使受辱( mortify的现在分词 );伤害(人的感情);克制;抑制(肉体、情感等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21
momentary
![]() |
|
adj.片刻的,瞬息的;短暂的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22
virtue
![]() |
|
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23
deter
![]() |
|
vt.阻止,使不敢,吓住 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24
mallet
![]() |
|
n.槌棒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25
trophy
![]() |
|
n.优胜旗,奖品,奖杯,战胜品,纪念品 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26
rambles
![]() |
|
(无目的地)漫游( ramble的第三人称单数 ); (喻)漫谈; 扯淡; 长篇大论 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27
metropolis
![]() |
|
n.首府;大城市 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28
vice
![]() |
|
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29
frailties
![]() |
|
n.脆弱( frailty的名词复数 );虚弱;(性格或行为上的)弱点;缺点 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30
peculiar
![]() |
|
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31
dangling
![]() |
|
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32
magistrate
![]() |
|
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33
inscription
![]() |
|
n.(尤指石块上的)刻印文字,铭文,碑文 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34
pillory
![]() |
|
n.嘲弄;v.使受公众嘲笑;将…示众 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35
judiciously
![]() |
|
adv.明断地,明智而审慎地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36
rigid
![]() |
|
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37
climax
![]() |
|
n.顶点;高潮;v.(使)达到顶点 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38
writ
![]() |
|
n.命令状,书面命令 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39
honourable
![]() |
|
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40
bailed
![]() |
|
保释,帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41
confinement
![]() |
|
n.幽禁,拘留,监禁;分娩;限制,局限 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |