print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0612.1235
- Title
- Object: Prelude to Crim Con and the Finale!
- Description
-
Six couples arranged in two rows. Above and on the extreme left a lady and a parson in gown and bands sit facing each other. She takes his left hand and puts her right hand on his shoulder. He says: "consider the dignity of my character". She answers, "A fig for character a good living is worth ten Bishops' characters any time." (Perhaps Mrs. Cecil and William Sneyd, see BMSat 7705.)
Next, a man fashionably dressed in regimentals and holding a bludgeon, puts his left arm across the shoulders of a woman who sits beside him, saying, "I toasted you in ten pint bumpers last night - There's an instance of love for you, match it if you can!" She says: "You are a most delightful creature to be sure."
On the right a plainly dressed couple sit together, he takes her right hand in his left. A pen and ink-bottle attached to his coat and a large book under his right arm show that he is an exciseman. He says: "You're certain there will be no damages"; she answers: "Lord what a simpleton! dont you know you fool an Exciseman can make an entry when he likes without any kind of suspicion." 20 February 1793
Etching
- Production date
- 1793
- Dimensions
-
Height: 497 millimetres
-
Width: 683 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
They are evidently Mrs. Mason, wife of a tobacconist, alleged to have seduced Rogers, an exciseman, in collusion with her husband, for the sake of the damages to be obtained in a suit of crim. con. See BMSat 7940.
Below (left), a short, stout officer in regimentals embraces a woman, saying, "There's not a more amorous little dog in our whole regiment."
Next, an Irishman wearing the dress of the 'blood' of 1791, a bludgeon under his arm (see BMSat 8040, &c), kneels at the feet of a lady, tears pouring down his cheek. He says: "You think its all bother - pon my soul my dear Creater I've been Crying my eyes out all this morning." Cf. BMSat 8458.
Last (right), a disillusioned couple sit on two chairs; he frowns with folded arms, she turns her back on him, reading with a pleased smile a 'Trial [for] Adultery'.
There are probably other allusions to recent trials for crim. con. besides the two suggested. The costume and the altered imprint indicate 1791 or 1792 as the probable date.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0612.1235
