Depicts a furious man (William Austin) on a sidewalk, shouting "Damn your foollish [sic] caricatures" as he attacks the windows of Matthias Darly's London printshop with his walking-stick. On his left arm he carries a portfolio as a shield (emblazoned with a broken anchor). From it fall papers and drawings, including a prescription (suggestive of madness) from Dr. Monrow (i.e. John Monro, physician of Bethlehem Hospital). One print in the shop window echoes the present image, while Austin's "Proposals for opening a museum of drawings" is trodden underfoot by a dog in the foreground
Description:
Title etched below text., Text beneath image: "Be it known to all men that I -- upon just cause before God and men do declare & pronounce war with and against all and every printshop and printseller within and without the city of London....", Text on shield is a quote from John Gay's My own epitaph: Life's a jest and all things show it. I thought it once, but now I know it., At bottom of plate: B--b--y., Attributed to Francesco Bartolozzi. See British Museum catalogue., and Cropped within plate mark. Numbered in ink by an unidentified hand: 46.
Publisher:
Published as the act directs by Danl. Demoniae
Subject (Geographic):
England and London.
Subject (Name):
Austin, William, 1721-1820., Darly, Matthias., and Monro, John, 1715-1791.
Subject (Topic):
Mental illness, Shields, Dogs, Coats of arms, Prints, Stores & shops, and Window displays
