social nadir of Bedlam illumines darkly Rakewell's last loss--his reason--and this graphic anti-progress concludes, as it began, with Sarah's sorrow (Pl. 8). What did the playwright do with Hogarth's harsh comment on the misappropriation of inherited wealth? He seems to have enhanced entertainment values and emphasized instruction at the same time. The drama embellishes the series by (a) adding stage links only imaginable by spectators of the print sequences, (b) framing the progress with a morality masque starring Virtue and Vice, and (c) replacing Hogarth's serious ironic tone with slapstick and songs drawn from stage musical fare, such as the burletta _Poor Vulcan!_ by Charles Dibdin, which premiered in February 1778 (_LS_, 5, I, 109). Basically, Hogarth's eight prints of 1735 are transformed in part into a series of _tableaux vivants_ which served, with variations, in the late 1770's as strong visual reminders for an audience already familiar with the original pictorial sequence. For example, directions for the second scene attempt to put on the boards the initial print, adding music and slapstick as "money from the raftor falls into Clown's mouth." The play invites the spectator to follow Sarah and her mother after they leave Rakewell and listen to their duet, sung to the music of Air I of _The Beggar's Opera_. The lyrics change, so that Peachum's cynical comment "Through all the employments of life/Each neighbor abuses his brother" becomes "His vows, ah! Why did'st thou believe?/He ne'er meant a promise to keep," with the new association of Sarah's being cast off by Rakewell. The drama closely follows the series for the rake's levee, where professionals "pay Court" to Rakewell. A new character, "Van Butchel," who sings in dialect, is added. The opportunism of those proffering services to the young man becomes clear in their musical medley when they announce they will "plunder him as fast as we can agree." At the Rose Tavern, stage directions for Rakewell state "the actor must let his intoxication gradually increase." Before Rakewell's arrest, the bailiff sings a solo. Sarah saves her lover, as in the sequence, but a small revelation of his character not in the print marks the incident: he "kisses her hand" before returning to his sedan chair. The stage piece exploits the potential emotional element in such gestures to the point of sentimentality. For instance, Sarah's lament following Rakewell's marriage to the rich "Old Woman" shows grief driving her to despair; she sings "The Grave will extinguish my woes/Then Sarah--prepare thee to die" to the music of the seventeenth century ballad tune "Mary's Lamentation." The drama also exploits the sensational as the smoking fire in a Covent Garden gambling house (Hogarth's Pl. 5) becomes a public catastrophe with fire engines and furniture being carried into the street and "Confusion kept up as long as necessary."