"In a squalid room Johnson and Boswell lie in two short truckle beds. Boswell (right) is in the foreground, his face contorted with horror, his hands before his mouth as if to stifle a scream, his bare feet drawn up, but projecting over the end of his bed. A gigantic spider descends towards his head, insects are spotted over the bedclothes and pillow, from which projects Ogden (see BMSat 7031). Johnson lies on his back (left) under a casement window, his eyes closed, his hands clasped as if in prayer, his knees drawn up to accommodate the shortness of the bed. A woman's dress hangs as an improvised curtain between the two beds. Under Johnson's bed two rats gnaw Boswell's wig."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Five lines of verse below title: "There were two beds in the room, and a woman's gown was hung on a rope to make a curtain of seperation [sic] between them ..." Vide Journal p. 153., One in a series of twenty plates by Rowlandson after S. Collings. See British Museum catalogue, v. 6, page 345., Plate from: Picturesque beauties of Boswell, Part the Second. [London] : [E. Jackson], [1786], and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
E. Jackson, No. 14 Mary bone Street, Golden Square
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Boswell, James,--1740-1795.--Journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.--Illustrations., Boswell, James,--1740-1795--Caricatures and cartoons., Collings, Samuel, artist., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Jackson, Elizabeth, fl. 1785-1797, publisher., and Johnson, Samuel,--1709-1784--Caricatures and cartoons.
Subject (Topic):
Atttics., Bedroooms., Nightmares., Sleepwear., and Spiders.
