"A box-like room is suspended in the sea by ropes on pulleys, a shaft ascending from its roof. There is no front wall, enabling sea-monsters to attack the occupants, who are four terrified little men, naked except for breeches. In each of the three walls is a barred window; through one (right) a large fish has pushed its head to seize the head of a man in its jaws, while water gushes in."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state
Description:
Title from text above image., P.F.L.B. is a pseudonym of James Gillray., Reissue with altered imprint; originally published July 19, 1801, by H. Humphrey., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Temporary local subject terms: Fishing spears -- Fishing rakes -- Fishing hooks -- Diving-machines -- Pastimes: Diving.
The Devil, flying above the scene, has cast a fishing net over a table in the foreground of a large assemblage. A judge (?) outside the net on the left points to the individuals within. These are, from left to right, a man with spectacles holding a pen and writing in a book, his place card reading "The High Bailiff's conscience", followed by a central figure at whom the assemblage is looking, a young man in a fools cap, another man standing wearing clerical bands, and an old woman seated wearing a cap. At the right of the table stands a man who lifts the tablecloth to reveal the personification of Justice decapitated below, her scales lying next to her. In the foreground on the left a dog labelled "Prerogative" urinates on a round object. His collar is inscribed "W.P. Downing Street" (a reference to Pitt?). The man wearing spectacles is almost certainly Edmund Burke, the central seated figure perhaps the King, and the man lifting the tablecloth resembles Fox. Possibly relating to the 1783 Westminster election
Title etched above image., Publication date in British Museum catalogue: August 1762., Below image: To the courteous readers of the Monitor, Briton, North Briton, & other political Quixotes, this print is humbly inscrib'd., "Price 6d.", Temporary local subject terms: Journals: The Patriot -- Signboards -- Emblems: Caduceus -- Buildings., and Watermark: Strasburg bend.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Name):
Beardmore, Arthur, d. 1771., Brühl, Heinrich, Graf von, 1700-1763., Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 1713-1792., Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778., Murphy, Arthur, 1727-1805, Churchill, Charles, 1731-1764, Beckford, William, 1709-1770, and Smollett, T. 1721-1771 (Tobias),
Subject (Topic):
Sedition, Newspapers, Signs (Notices), Taverns (Inns), and Fishing nets
