"Pitt steers a small boat, 'The Constitution', with a single sail, a Union pennant flying from the mast, through huge waves between a high rock (left) and a whirlpool whose circumference is an inverted crown which merges in the swirling water. He is in profile to the right, gazing fixedly at a castle on a promontory (right) among still waters, which flies a flag inscribed 'Haven of Public Happiness'. Britannia, a buxom young woman, sits in the boat, her hands raised in alarm, her head turned towards the rock, on the summit of which is a large bonnet-rouge with a tricolour cockade on a post within a ramshackle fence. Spray dashes against Scylla; beside the rock and in the foreground (left) three sharks with human heads closely pursue Pitt's boat: Sheridan, Fox, and Priestley (good profile portraits), their eyes fixed menacingly on the boat. They are: 'Sharks'; 'Dogs of Scylla'."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Vessel of the Constitution steered clear of the Rock of Democracy and the Whirlpool of Arbitrary Power
Description:
Title etched below image., Caption below image, under the heads of Priestley, Fox and Sheridan: Sharks, dogs of Scylla., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on lower edge., and Temporary local subject terms: Flags: union pennant -- Constitution as a boat -- Boats -- Cap of liberty as bonnet rouge -- Allusion to the French Revolution -- Crowns: royal crown inverted as a whirlpool -- Cap of Liberty -- Symbols: tricolor cockades -- Allusion to Scylla abd Charybdis (Greek mythology) -- Literature: George Canning, 1770-1827, The Pilot that Weathered the Storm -- Waves -- Fortresses.
Publisher:
Pubd. April 8th, 1793 by H. Humphrey, N. 18 Old Bond Street
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804, and Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
