‘The Modest Girl rejects the Illicit Addresses of the Master’, Thomas Hellyer, after James Northcote, 1796
etching, h 465mm × w 537mm More details
This print belongs to a series of ten with the title Diligence and Dissipation, about two servant girls – a virtuous one and a debauched one – living with an unmarried gentleman. In this episode, the good maid is resisting her master’s advances. The moralizing caption urges women to keep their honour spotless, a piece of advice that was heeded by this girl, who married her master at the end of the story.
