print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1862,1217.377
- Title
- Object: Burning the memoirs
- Description
-
The Prince of Wales and others rejoice at the burning of Mrs. Clarke's Memoirs. On the left is a huge fire, the flames reaching above the chimney-piece. The Prince flings in an open book: Dear Girl &c &c. P W's Letter to me about the D. He says: Echod this is a fine Stroke, my observations on the Family & Letters, all burned, John Bull will still be left in the Dark, & he must pay for it at last. The Duke of Portland (poorly characterized) delightedly hurls a pile of books at the fire, saying: And the Duchess will think me as Chaste as Joseph—So much for my Darling, The printer and publisher, one being Gillet, hasten towards the fire, one with a huge pile of bound volumes, the other with a stack of unbound sheets inscribed Memoirs of M Clarke. The latter (Phillips) says: I shall pocket a Thousand or two; from his pockets issue papers: Lec Gaol Manucripts and Manuscripts; Gillet answers: And I fifteen Hundred. In the foreground (right) Mrs. Clarke walks off triumphantly, grinning over her shoulder; she carries two money-bags, Douceur 4,000 and Annuity 600, She says: I think Eve has been too much for Adam, this comes of being Officiously mean, & Professionally dishonorable [see No. 11283, &c.]. Behind her a man wearing a star (? Moira) says to a friend: Now the Countess will never hear of this Intrigue—a Develish expensive one tho!! The other capers wildly, saying, Faith & I am as light as a fly now for I should have led a Devil of a life—Mrs Clarke he? would have been ding'd in my Ears for Ever, Against the wall is a stack of (printed) sheets labelled Mrs Clarke in Sheets Hot pressed. In the fire are copies of the book; on open pages are the words Letter from Lord, Old Snuffy [Queen Charlotte], Life of Clar . . .
24 April 1809
Hand-coloured etching with stipple on the faces
- Production date
- 1809
- Dimensions
-
Height: 255 millimetres
-
Width: 361 millimetres (cropped)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
For the burning of Mrs. Clarke's Memoirs see No. 11315, &c.; for Mrs. Clarke and Portland see No. 11300. The intervention of Moira suggests a direct interest of the Prince of Wales. Phillips had been sentenced in 1793 to 18 months imprisonment in Leicester jail for publishing Paine's Rights of Man,
Reid, No. 75. Cohn, No. 968 (said to contain a little work by G. C).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,1217.377
