Jealousy [graphic]

"A man sits behind a cloth-covered table, a prey to demons and to little figures enacting scenes that madden, urging to suicide and divorce. He clutches his head, his elbow resting on a book, Werter [cf. BM Satires 7765]; his right fist is on a letter signed your sincere Friend -- Anonymous. One tiny demon whispers in his ear, another runs up his arm holding a pair of spectacles; both have reindeer-antlers. At his right hand a pistol, with arms, legs, and face, bows invitingly. At his left hand a fat pugnacious barrister proffers a paper: Damages 1000; another, simian, and with barbed tail, clambers up the table-cloth towards him. A demon lies flat on the table, holding the rope by which a little man hangs himself, having just kicked away a stool. Under a chair (left) an officer in dandified uniform embraces a woman; the same woman, wearing a hat, clambers down a rope-ladder from the back of a chair (right) towards her lover who stands below extending his arms; a little watchman in the shadow of the table, holding his lantern, watches them with a cynical grin. On the chimneypiece is a duel scene: the officer fires a pistol killing his opponent, the jealous man. Pictures on the wall: Horn Fair, a fair scene, horns and antlers displayed on poles; Othello smothering Desdemona. This hangs above an oval miniature of a lady. Books (on the table) are The Revenge [E. Young, 1721]; (on the floor) Don Juan and The Cuckoo Song Book."--British Museum online catalogue