The Harlot's Progress 5

The Harlot's Progress 5

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

Date: 1732
Dimensions:
320 x 385 mm
Medium: Engraving
Object number: PT1094
DescriptionPlate V Death while the Doctors are Disputing
Etching and Engraving.1732. 32.0 x 38.5 cm. State I
Engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764)
Below plate: Plate 5. Wm. Hogarth invt.pinxt.et.sculp.
Paulson 121.
PT1094
In this scene Moll is dying of syphilis. She is wrapped in "sweating blankets" and attended to by her maid.
The only hint as to the apartment's owner is a Passover cake used as a flytrap. This implies that her former Jewish lover is paying for her rent and care during her last days.
Two doctors, Dr. Richard Rock on the left and Dr. Jean on the right, argue over the best treatment to give to Moll. This appears to be a choice between bleeding (opening up the veins to allow the "bad blood" to escape), or cupping (placing a heated glass on the skin to form a vacuum to draw the "humus" or sickness out of the body).
Here Hogarth may be referring to a popular joke of the time: "What was the cause of death? Two doctors!"
Moll's clothes drying on the line over the fire seem to reach down for her as if they were ghosts drawing her to the afterlife.
Moll's maid tries to stop the doctors arguing as she holds Moll up with her arm.
Moll's son sits by the fire picking lice or fleas out of his hair.
A woman, possibly Moll's landlady, looks through Moll's possessions in a trunk to find a dress that she can be buried in.