"John Bull (left) capers clumsily to a tune played by Pitt, Dundas, and two others. He has a drink-bloated profile, wears a round hat and old-fashioned buckled shoes. He says: "Lord love ye my good Masters - do give us something new - I be tired of all the old Jigs - I knows the March to Paris by heart, - and as for Indemnity for the Past, and Security for the future, they are as easy to me as my A-B-C - I want something stilish, and grand." Pitt, seated, plays a large 'cello incorrectly drawn and having a rose under the strings which suggests the viol da gamba. He looks up at John Bull jauntily, saying, "I will endeavour to please you if I can, what do you think of this - it is a grand serious-movement called the Deliverance of Europe or Union with Ireland". Dundas (right), wearing kilt and feathered bonnet with legal wig and bands, stands in profile to the left, impassively playing the bagpipes. Two background figures dejectedly play wind-instruments; one is probably Grenville."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from item., Printmaker from Krumbhaar. Attributed to Sansom in the British Museum Catalogue., Printseller's announcement following publication statement: Folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening., and Watermark: Strasburg lily.
Publisher:
Pub March 21, 1799, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Pitt, William, 1759-1806 and Melville, Henry Dundas, Viscount, 1742-1811
Subject (Topic):
John Bull (Symbolic character), Bagpipes, Dance, Musical instruments, and Violoncellos
