heroine the mistress of a rich Jew, attended by a black boy,[1] and
surrounded with the pompous parade of tasteless profusion. Her mind
being now as depraved, as her person is decorated, she keeps up the
spirit of her character by extravagance and inconstancy. An example of
the first is exhibited in the monkey being suffered to drag her rich
head-dress round the room, and of the second in the retiring gallant.
The Hebrew is represented at breakfast with his mistress; but, having
come earlier than was expected, the favourite has not departed. To
secure his retreat is an exercise for the invention of both mistress and
maid. This is accomplished by the lady finding a pretence for
quarrelling with the Jew, kicking down the tea-table, and scalding his
legs, which, added to the noise of the china, so far engrosses his
attention, that the paramour, assisted by the servant, escapes
discovery.

The subjects of two pictures, with which the room is decorated, are
David dancing before the ark, and Jonah seated under a gourd. They are
placed there, not merely as circumstances which belong to Jewish story,
but as a piece of covert ridicule on the old masters, who generally
painted from the ideas of others, and repeated the same tale _ad
infinitum_. On the toilet-table we discover a mask, which well enough
intimates where she had passed part of the preceding night, and that
masquerades, then a very fashionable amusement, were much frequented by
women of this description; a sufficient reason for their being avoided
by those of an opposite character.

Under the protection of this disciple of Moses she could not remain
long. Riches were his only attraction, and though profusely lavished on
this unworthy object, her attachment was not to be obtained, nor could
her constancy be secured; repeated acts of infidelity are punished by
dismission; and her next situation shows, that like most of the
sisterhood, she had lived without apprehension of the sunshine of life
being darkened by the passing cloud, and made no provision for the hour
of adversity.

In this print the characters are marked with a master's hand. The
insolent air of the harlot, the astonishment of the Jew, eagerly
grasping at the falling table, the start of the black boy, the cautious
trip of the ungartered and barefooted retreating gallant, and the sudden
spring of the scalded monkey, are admirably expressed. To represent an
object in its descent, has been said to be impos