High life at five in the morning [graphic].

Description

Title: High life at five in the morning [graphic].
Published / Created: publish'd according to act of Parliament, May 1st, 1769.
Publication Place: London
Publisher: publisher not identified
Abstract: Print shows an interior view of a room; a duke has arrived home drunk at 5 a.m. (as shown on the longcase clock beside the door) accompanied by two attendants and watchman only to find his bedchamber occupied by another man. Through the open curtains around the bed can be seen a bare-breasted duchess. On the floor near the bed is an open book, "Memoirs of a woman of pleasure" (a reference to John Cleland's Fanny Hill ...) beside the chamber pot. As the duke with sword drawn, staggers forward, his rival climbs through a window in the background, leaving his clothes behind on a chair. A monkey dashes onto the table near the window on the heels of the husband's rival but pulls down the tablecloth causing the items on the table to be strewn across the floor in the foreground; a book opened to pages “Chastity in the nobility a farce. Dedicated to their Graces the Duke & Dutchess xxx”, breaking a broken mirror, and sending the bottles and jars onto the floor. The bottles have labels "Viper drops" and "Surfeit water" and the jar is labeled "Lip salve".
Description: Title engraved below image.
Text preceding publication statement: A recent transaction.
"Price 1s. but given gratis to the purchasers of the Court Miscellany."--Following imprint.
Eight lines of verse beneath image, four on either side of title: Persons in exalted station, Should patterns be of imitation; But if a duke must have his punk, And from the bagnio ride home drunk. What wonder if her wanton grace, Invites another in his place? He draws his sword raps out his oaths, But what redress? his rival's cloaths.
Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum.
The reference to the duke is probably Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, 1745-90.
1 print : engraving and etching ; sheet 22.2 x 33.1 cm.
Imperfect; sheet trimmed within plate mark with loss of imprint statement from bottom edge.
On laid paper. Folded to 22.2 x 25 cm; mounted to 32 x 26 cm.
Mounted on page 64 in a copiously extra-illustrated copy of: King, R. The new London spy, or, A twenty-four hours ramble through the bills of mortality. London : Printed for J. Cooke [and 3 others], [1771?].
Provenance: With the armorial bookplates of "Fraser, of Ledeclune, baronet" and "Herbert Henry Raphael" in volume. Sold at Sotheby's, 22 April 1901, to Sotheran. Schatzki, lot 1193; June 1961;
Extent: 1 print : plate mark 23 x 35 cm, on sheet 29.8 x 41.5 cm
Extent of Digitization: This object has been completely digitized.
Language: English

Collection Information

Repository: Lewis Walpole Library
Call Number: Quarto 724 771N
Collection Title: Page 64. New London spy, or, A twenty-four hours ramble through the bills of mortality.
Collection / Other Creator: King, Richard, Esq.
Collection Date: London : Printed for J. Cooke [and 3 others], [1771?].