"Mrs. Clarke (left), more of a siren than in authentic portraits, sits indecorously on a sofa, while the Duke, with eyes tipsily closed, reclines against her, seated on the floor. She holds scissors and the Duke's long pigtail, which she has cut off and displays to two men who approach from the r., a military officer, probably Wardle, who puts his finger slyly to his nose, and a good-looking young civilian (? Folkestone). She says: "Gentlemen you may now take him with safety, his strength is gone, I have cut off his regulation tail, and there is no danger"."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from caption below item., Printmaker identified in the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on one side., Variant state missing series number of no. 11262 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., and Mounted to 29 x 42 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. March 19 1809 by Thos. Tegg No. 111 Cheapside
Subject (Name):
Clarke, Mary Anne, 1776?-1852, Radnor, William Pleydell-Bouverie, Earl of, 1779-1869, Frederick Augustus, Prince, Duke of York and Albany, 1763-1827, and Wardle, Gwyllym Lloyd, 1762?-1833
"Cobbett (right) stands facing six men grouped at a round table who applaud the toast he gives: 'Damnation to the House of Brunswick' [cf. No. 11234]. In his left hand is a bottle of 'True Napoleone Spirits'; the contents of his raised glass are exploding. On his right sits Horne Tooke, with a crutch, holding a jug of 'Botley Ale' and a glass, both frothing. He says with a sinister upturned glance: 'Huzza! Huzza'. On Cobbett's left, and in back view, stands a naval officer wearing a cocked hat and high fashionable boots. He holds high a steaming bowl of 'Botley Grog'; under his foot is a paper: 'Basque Roads- Court Martial', showing that he is Cochrane, see No. 11326, &c. Facing Cobbett sit Bosville and Clifford. Bosville, silent, decrepit, and senile, grasps a bottle of 'Botley Ale' and holds a foaming glass; in his pocket is a 'Plan for a new Convention'. Clifford, brandy-faced, and with his barrister's wig awry, holds a bottle of 'French Brandy' and a brimming glass, saying "Huzza". Behind these two stand Burdett and Folkestone. Each holds up a frothing glass; Burdett waves his bonnet rouge and shouts "Huzza!-Huzza!" Folkestone echoes "Huzza!" In the foreground with his back to the table lies Wardle, very sick, clasping a bottle of 'Botley Ale', and vomiting over papers: 'Charges against the Duke of York' and 'Reform', see No. 11328, &c. A cat (left), with a collar inscribed 'Mrs Clarke', miaows at him (see No. 11216, &c). On the right are a tankard inscribed 'Whitbread's Small Beer', and a wine-cooler containing five bottles of 'Napolean Wine' [cf. No. 11004]. The floor is boarded, but under Cobbett's chair is a fringed carpet. The room is lit by candles set in branches which decorate the oval frame of a half-length portrait of 'Napoleone Le Grand'; he is in profile to the right, looking down at Cobbett and holding out a 'Cordon d'Honor'. The portrait is flanked by busts on brackets: 'Despard' [see No. 9969] with a noose round his neck, and 'Robespiere' with two daggers. On the table by Clifford are two more bottles of 'French' [Brandy], by Cochrane a bottle labelled (?) 'Coitaris', an overturned bottle, and a plate of 'Diables'. [Diable = a name given to the Toad-fish, Frog-fish, or Sea-Devil.] Empty bottles and a broken glass lie under the table."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Seventh print of eight in a series entitled: The life of William-Cobbett, written by himself., Below image is printed a second plate etched with text only: Plate 7th. I did not look behind me 'till I got to St Omer's & thence fled to America; here I offer'd to become a spy for the English ... See my own Memoires in [the] Political Register, 1809., Series number etched above image, in upper left., Sheet trimmed to plate mark., and Mounted to 46 x 25 cm.
Publisher:
Publish'd Sept. 29th, 1809, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Cobbett, William, 1763-1835, Tooke, John Horne, 1736-1812, Clifford, Henry, 1768-1813, Burdett, Francis, 1770-1844, Dundonald, Thomas Cochrane, Earl of, 1775-1860, Radnor, William Pleydell-Bouverie, Earl of, 1779-1869, Wardle, Gwyllym Lloyd, 1762?-1833, and Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
