Tameing a shrew, or, Petruchio's patent family bedstead gags & thumscrews / [graphic]

"A four-post bed with a tent-shaped canopy is made with hinged planks at head and foot, after the fashion of a pillory. In this lies a woman, her arms confined behind her head and her feet thrust through the holes at the foot. Her husband sits up in bed beside her, holding a whip. He looks down menacingly, holding up a metal gag. She looks up at him, helpless but grimly resentful. At the head of the bed hangs a placard: 'Love Honor and OBEY'; above the man hangs a watch, the hands indicating 2.50. A candle has burned to the socket on a table by the bed on which lies a paper:' By the Kings Patent Petruchios Family Bedstead for tameing a Shrew, also his patent gags and . . .' Thumbscrews lie on the paper. On the ground, with stays and slippers, are three open books: 'Nuptial Dialogues on Various Subjects'; 'Rule a Wife and Have a Wife' [Fletcher's comedy]; 'The Whole Duty of Woman' [torn]."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state