"Fox and his party (three quarter length) surround a Twelfth Night cake which Weltje was about to cut into portions. The cause of a sudden check to this proceeding is indicated by a broad ray of light (which strikes the cake and the bystanders) and by a scroll: 'The King shall enjoy his own again'. Weltje stands on the left, his arms extended towards the scroll, saying, "Den by Got we sail heb no Cake"; he drops his knife. He and Sheridan are the most agitated of the party: Sheridan with a face of despair looks up, saying, '"Now our Ruin is complete" School for Scandal'. (He is Joseph Surface as in British Museum Satires No. 7510, &c; the actual words are "Tis now complete!') Fox stands disconsolately, his hands in his pockets, his back to the ray. Burke (right), his arms folded, scowls up at the ray. Behind these three Stormont, Loughborough, and Sandwich (on the extreme right) regard it with less pronounced despair. Portland stands behind the cake, frowning fixedly. The centre of the cake is ornamented with the Prince of Wales's coronet and feathers (as are Weltje's buttons); on the centre feather is poised a crown. The cake has been marked in sections where it is to be cut, these are inscribed 'Ist Lord Admy' [Sandwich had been considered for the post and also for that of Ambassador to France], 'Secrety State foreign' [Fox], 'Secrety State home' [Stormont], 'Paymar Genl' [Burke], 'Ist Comm Board Control', and 'Treas Navy' (Sheridan's arm extends across this, the place intended for him, pending a transfer to the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, Sir G. Elliot, 'Life and Letters', i. 260-1)."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Signed with the monogram of James Sayers., Temporary local subject terms: Quotation from Sheridan's School for scandal., Identifications of Fox and Sheridan added in contemporary hand below the plate., and Watermark: Initials L V [G], obscured by design.
Publisher:
Publ. by Thos. Cornell
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816., George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Burke, Edmund, 1729-1797, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Sandwich, John Montagu, Earl of, 1718-1792, Rosslyn, Alexander Wedderburn, Earl of, 1733-1805, Mansfield, David Murray, Earl of, 1727-1796, Portland, William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, Duke of, 1738-1809, and Weltje, Louis, 1745-1810
