The Harlot's Progress, Plate 2

There is a love triangle at the center of this chaotic scene. Moll is now the “kept” mistress of a wealthy London businessman and lives in a luxurious townhouse surrounded by fashionable entertainments and exotic amusements. Her “keeper” has arrived unexpectedly, interrupting Moll amid an affair with her aristocratic lover. While her lover sneaks out, Moll creates a diversion by kicking the table over, sending the porcelain tea service clattering to the ground. A Black child carrying a tea kettle and wearing a hinged collar around his neck, a symbol of his enslavement, is shocked by Moll’s actions. Although Moll is clearly beautiful and desirable, her keeper’s look of disbelief suggests that she is misjudging the security of her position.

18th-century audiences would have found humor in this modern moral subject. The pandemonium in the foreground is further emphasized by the moralizing Christian paintings hanging on the wall of Moll’s room.