Here we see, very vividly depicted, the introduction of a new prisoner; the Chamberlain is introducing him to the Cook, whilst the Goaler and Tapster seem, already, to have made his acquaintance.
The notes appended to the Poem are in the original.
After a somewhat long exordium on prosperity and poverty, together with the horrors of a spunging-house, and imagining that the debtor has obtained his Habeas, which would permit him to choose his prison, the Poet thus sings:
"Close by the Borders of a slimy Flood,
Which now in secret rumbles thro' the Mud;
(Tho' heretofore it roll'd expos'd to Light,
Obnoxious to th' offended City's Sight.)[114]
"Twin Arches now the Sable Stream enclose
Upon whose Basis late a Fabrick rose;