Lettered inside image, lower center: "A Hellgate Blackguard | A Newgate Scrub | A Cripplegate Monster | LES TROIS MAGOTS."; lower right: "Pubd. Novr. 1st 1791. by H. Humphrey N.18 Old Bond Street"; lettered below image, lower left: "To whip a Top, to knuckle down at Taw | To swing upon a Gate, to ride a Straw | To play at Push-Pin with dull brother Peers | To belch out Catches in a Porter's ears | To reign the monarch of a midnight cell."; lower right: "To be the gaping Chairman's Oracle, | Whilst in most blessed union, rogue and whore, | Clap hands, huzza, & hiccup out, Encore; | With midnight howl to bay th' affrighted Moon, | To walk with torches thro' the streets at noon, | To force plain nature from her usual way."; lower right: "Each night a vigil, and a blank each day, | To match for speed one feather 'gainst another, | To make one leg run races with his brother, | To coin new fangled wagers, and to lay 'em, | Laying to lose, and losing not to pay 'em, | The Magots, on that stock which Nature gives, | Without a Rival stand:"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection