Note 4 — CATALOGUE OF HOGARTH'S PRINTS.[1]
Reading edition
It seems agreed on by our comic-writers, not to finish the character of a Bawd without giving her some pretence to Religion. In Dryden's Wild Gallant, Mother du Lake, being about to drink a dram, is made to exclaim, "'Tis a great way to the bottom; but heaven is all-sufficient to give me strength for it." The scene in which this speech occurs, was of use to Richardson in his Clarissa, and perhaps to Foote, or Foote's original of the character of Mother Cole.