No longer a "kept woman", Moll is reduced to the life of a common prostitute. Only a fancy bed, the tool of her trade, remains from her former life, and the coarse, pox-marked maid reflects her reduced means. The pose of the cat is hardly accidental. The broom and the witch's hat on the wall are surely meant to say something about her character.
A magistrate and three bailiffs are entering the room, ready to arrest Moll for her illicit activities, but she is more interested in a watch, perhaps a gift for her services, or perhaps stolen from one of her customers. Does it also indicate that her time is soon to be up?
The wig box over the bed is labeled as belonging to James Dalton, a notorious highwayman of the time, apparently left behind from one of his visits.
The two pictures on the wall are of Macheath, the anti-hero from the popular A Beggar's Opera, and Henry Sacheverell, a clergyman who had gained fame for a scathing political sermon. I think of a teenage girl's posters of her heroes when I look at them.
Is that also a picture of Christ, or a saint, below them? And a piece of paper on the table from a sermon? Is there still something pure within Moll?
I am told the jars on the windowsill are her medicine for syphilis.
Just as the first plate was a twisted reference to the Visitation, critics observe that this plate now darkly mimics the arrangement of the Annunciation by Gabriel to Mary.
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