"Pity the sorrows of a poor old man" vide scene in Bloomsbury Square / [graphic]

"Burke (left) as a shambling beggar, holds out his hat towards the Duke of Bedford who looks between the folding gates of Bedford House, holding one side to keep them almost closed. Their words float upwards from their mouths: Burke says: ""Pity the Sorrows of a poor old Man, add a trifle to what has been bestowed by Ministry to stop my Complaints: - O give me opportunity of recanting once more! - Ah! remember me in your Golden Dreams! - great Leviathan of liberty, let me but play & frolick in the Ocean of your royal Bounty, & I will be for ever your Creature; - my Hands, - Brains, - my Soul & Body, - the very Pen through which I have spouted a torrent of Gall against my original Friends, and cover'd you all over with the Spray, every thing of me, & about me, shall be yours - dispence but a little of your Golden store to a desolate Old Man". Bedford says: "Hark'ee, old double Face, - its no use use [sic] for you to stand Jawing there, if you gull other people, you won't bother us out a single Shilling, with all your canting-rant, - no, no, it wo'nt do, old Humbug! - let them bribe you, who are afraid of you, or want your help, - your Gossip wont do here: -" Burke wears the red and blue of the Windsor uniform, his dress is tattered, one foot protrudes through his shoe. In his right hand is a sheaf of broadsides: 'Last Dying Speech of Old Honesty the Jesuit' [cf. BMSat 6026, &c.]. On his back is a sack inscribed '£4000 pr Annum' indicating his two pensions. From his back protrudes a book inscribed 'Reflections upon Political Apostacy'. The design is framed by the stone gateway of Bedford House, each side surmounted by a sphinx (cf. BMSat 8639)."--British Museum online catalogue