Visiting the sick [graphic]

"Fox reclines in an armchair of Gothic shape, his vast swathed legs resting on a cushion, his head against a pillow. He wears a dressing-gown and night-cap. His friends and colleagues stand round him. On his right. is Mrs. Fitzherbert, a meretricious 'Abbess' (cf. BMSat 5181, &c), holding a rosary and placing her hand under his chin; her face and breasts are covered by a large veil of transparent black. On his left. stands a bishop in lawn sleeves and mitre, a rosary hanging from his waist; he puts one hand on Fox's arm, and raises the other in admonition, saying, "O Tempora, O Mores! - Charley! dear Charley! - remember your poor Soul! - & if you're spared this time give us Emancipation - or!!!" His head is concealed, but he is identified by Lord Holland as O'Beirne, Bishop of Meath, educated as a Catholic, and a Whig pamphleteer. Mrs. Fitzherbert says: "Do confess your Sins Charley! do take Advice from an Old Abbess [cf. BMSat 10404] & receive Absolution! - here is Bishop O'Bother, 'twill be quite snug among Friends you know!" Fox says: "I abhor all Communion which debars us the comfort of the Cup! - will no one give me a Cordial?" Facing Fox, and in back view, stands the Prince, holding a handkerchief to his face; he says: "Alas! poor Charley! - do give him a Brimmer of Sack, 'twill do him more good Abbess, than all the Bishop's nostrums!" In his left hand he holds his cocked hat; in a coat-tail pocket is a pamphlet: 'Letter from N. Jeffreys'. Sheridan on the extreme right., furtive and bloated, puts his hand on the bishop's shoulder, saying, "Emancipation! - fudge! - why Dr OBother I thought you knew better!" In his pocket is a paper: 'Scheme for a new Administra[tion]'. Behind him stands Howick, in the extremity of grief, throwing back his head, and holding his handkerchief to his face. Three men stand, on the Prince's l., looking towards Fox, all weeping with raised handkerchiefs. Their heads rise one above and behind the other from the short Petty who wears a laced coat and bag-wig and has a large roll under his arm: 'New Taxes for 1806'. He says "Ah poor me! - If my Dancing-Days are over!" Windham says: "O Lord! what side can I tack round to Now!" The tall Moira says: "I must get back to Ballynahinch! Och! Och." [The allusion is to Moira's Irish estate and to Canning's verses, 'Ballynahinch' in the 'Anti-Jacobin', 9 July 1798, cf. BMSat 9235.] The three '(Ministerial) Grenvilles stand in the doorway (l.) apart from the mourners. Lord Grenville turns to Sidmouth, who is just within the room, putting a hand on his arm, and saying, "Well Doctor, have you done his business? - shall we have the Coast clear, soon?" Sidmouth answers, with sly satisfaction, "We'll see!" He holds a bottle labelled 'Composing Draft' [cf. BMSat 9849]. The spectacled Marquis of Buckingham looks round to say "O! Such a Day as This! so renown'd so Victorious"; his son, Lord Temple, continues: "such a day as This! was never seen!" In the foreground (l.) the fat Mrs. Fox faints in a small ornate chair; under her chair is a square spirits-bottle of 'True Maidstone', with a broken glass beside it. Lord Derby, wearing top-boots, bends over her, holding a bottle to her nose. He says: "My dear old Flame Bet, dont despair! - if Charley is pop'd off - a'nt I left to Comfort you - ?" On a stool at Fox's r. hand is a urinal decorated with Britannia, standing on a scroll: 'Negotiations for Peace between Great Britain & France'. On the ground beside him are a broken dice-box and dice. Behind the back of Fox's chair heavy fringed curtains are festooned, giving an impression of ducal magnificence, the scene being the Duke of Bedford's house in Arlington Street (or Stable Yard, St. James's)."--British Museum online catalogue