_The Rake's Progress_ makes significant changes in the content of Hogarth's series, expanding characters and scenes, and altering the denouement somewhat from madness to suicide. New elements of music and clowning change his lugubrious didacticism to a lyrical warning in a form I call "morality ballad opera." The morality and masque features appear in such characters as "Virtue" and "Vice" who frame the piece, and "Liberty" and "Benevolence" who descend and ascend on a cloud, at the end taking Virtue with them. Not included in the theater version is Hogarth's depiction of the harsh realities of Bethlehem Hospital, or Bedlam, where spectators pay to gawk at the inmates, and where Rakewell's libertine journey ends dismally (Pl. 8). On the boards, the didacticism is even more emphatic. Rakewell shoots himself to background music which slows in tempo until it is "render'd as dismal as possible" and Virtue proclaims a triumph over the demonstrated "baneful influence of Vice." In "A Rake's Progress" (1735), Hogarth depicts an inverse relationship between morality and the misuse of money. In the first of the eight prints, young Tom Rakewell inherits wealth from his miserly father and misspends it for the remainder of his life in copying the lifestyle of an aristocrat. His moral poverty is evident as he offers money to the mother of pregnant Sarah Young, his former girlfriend, who stands disconsolately poising a wedding ring. Letters containing his false promises to her clarify the situation. Material wealth is the cornerstone of this series as we next see the rake being measured by a tailor for new clothes while a lawyer pilfers cash; and an upholsterer's hammering to ready the room for mourning results in a shower of previously hidden gold coins (Pl. 1). The levee (Pl. 2) shows Rakewell in a fashionable morning gown, courted by a gardener, huntsman, and others, while a list of gifts from the nobility to opera star Farinelli includes a snuff box from Rakewell. His nocturnal taste shows in the Rose Tavern where he carouses and is himself raked by harlots (Pl. 3). As part of this debauched ambiance, a pregnant woman sings the bawdy ballad "Black Joke." In daylight, the faithful Sarah saves Rakewell from street arrest while a group of gamblers fills out the visual exposition of the rake's dissipation (Pl. 4). Saved by the middle class girl he ruined, Rakewell next weds a rich widow to recoup his losses. Sarah, her mother, and Rakewell's infant offspring unsuccessfully try to abort this clandestine wedding (Pl. 5). Rakewell's marriage of convenience cannot meet his needs, and he soon rails despairingly in a Covent Garden gambling house (Pl. 6). The juggernaut of vice presses on as he is jailed for debt in Fleet Street prison where he runs up more bills. A prisoner drops a "Scheme for paying y^{e} Debts of y^{e} Nation" to the floor as Sarah faints away and Rakewell's wife scolds (Pl. 7). The