A. Description of the Warden, Thomas Bambridge.
Source.—Horace Walpole: Anecdotes of Painting in England, 1771. Vol. iv., p. 71.
I have a sketch in oil that Hogarth gave me, which he intended to engrave.[8] It was done at the time when the house of commons appointed a committee to enquire into the cruelties exercised on prisoners in the Fleet to extort money from them. The scene is the committee; on the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn of Iago in the moment of detection. Villainy, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance, his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes.