The comedian James Spiller is selling tickets under a giant set of scales which is weighing the actor's debts against his proceeds from theatre tickets. Etching by T. Cook, 1808, after W. Hogarth.

A banderolle at the top is supported by Fortuna standing on a wheel. On the left is a tavern, on the right is a debtor's prison: Spiller, a successful comedian but a feckless and short-lived character, spent time in both. According to the Oxford dictionary of national biography, he is here represented as Matt of the Mint, the role which he played in John Gay's The Beggars' Opera (1728), though Paulson thinks the date of the print is 1720. Spiller is selling theatre tickets labelled "Box", "Gallery", or "Pit" . On the right a bailiff touches him on the shoulder as he presents "A writ". The right pan of the scales is weighed down by "The taylor's bill", and bills for gin, tripe, ale, beer and tobacco