"Two men sit in a dilapidated room, the floor completely covered by water in which three pigs wade, ducks swim and dive, and geese run aggressively towards a dog. Their feet rest on boulders. One stout man in a broken chair sits with his elbows on a small round table, holding up a large watch, the hands showing that it is 9.40, and yawning deeply. On the table are a decanter containing a tiny 'blue devil', cf. British Museum Satires No. 8745, and a guttering candle stuck in a potato at which a rat is nibbling. Another rat runs up the table leg. The other man (right), with closed eyes, and hands on knees, sits on a stool, registering melancholy resignation. One pig (left) devours a 'Racing Calendar' which floats on the water. A fire of sticks burns smokily on a wide hearth; a large pot is overturning, the contents gushing over. Above the chimney-piece hangs a picture in a broken frame of a country house. There is one small casement window, half boarded up, the other half partly stuffed up with a pair of breeches. A ham and a hare hang from hooks in the ceiling. High up on the wall is a small shelf on which is broken china; a cat stands on it."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Possibly etched after a design by Bunbury; see British Museum catalogue. and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
H. Humphrey, No. 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Bunbury, Henry William, 1750-1811, attributed name., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., and Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
"Two fat friars gormandize in a Gothic cloister, seated in easy chairs. A lean old friar or lay brother brings in a sucking-pig. On the ground beside them are a chest of 'Relicks', bottles of 'Tokay' and 'Lackrymy Christi', church plate, with a 'Consecrated Cup' and a paper: 'Absolu[tion] Confess[ion] of Miss Wagtail.' On the wall is pinned a large print, 'Food for the Convent' [see British Museum Satire No. 3777]: a friar walking to the convent door with a large sheaf of corn on his back, from which project the head and feet of a girl. On a window recess are a skull, hour-glass, and cross ..."--Description of an alternate state in British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
I am a friar of orders grey.
Description:
"Sir E. Bunbury" may refer to the artist H.W. Bunbury. See British Museum catalogue., For state numbered "Q. 2", see no. 10924, in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., Grego identifies a companion print: Monastic fare., Plate from: Woodward, G.M. Caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror. London : Thomas Tegg, [1808?], v. 1., Title etched below image., Two columns of verse below title: I am a friar of orders grey, And down the vallies I take my way; I pull not blackberry, haw or hip, Good store of ven'son does fill my scrip, My long bead roll I merrily chaunt, Wherever I walk no money I want; And why I'm so plump the reason I'll tell ... "Who leads a good life, is sure to live well." What baron, or squire, or knight of the shire, Lives so well as a holy friar ..., and Verses are a parody of Thomas Percy's Reliques of ancient English poetry. See British Museum catalogue.
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Bunbury, Henry William, 1750-1811, attributed name., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Johnstone, Henry Arthur--Ownership., and Tegg, Thomas, 1776-1845, publisher.
