print;
satirical print;
book-illustration
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.10033
- Title
- Object: The Ghost of Omichund
- Description
-
It illustrates a dialogue in verse (a parody of Hamlet) between 'Nabob' (Clive) and Omichund. Omichund, wearing a feathered turban, appears from clouds addressing Clive with a minatory gesture. Clive, who is supported on each side by a military officer, starts back in horror. Omichund stands under a high palm-tree, from whose branches a man, stripped to the waist, is hanging by the wrists. A note explains that he is "the man under Breeches punishment". The scene is a walled enclosure or compound, on the right. behind Clive part of a high tent is visible.
Beneath the title is engraved the beginning of the dialogue, spoken by the ghost of Omichund:
"What Woes, he cried, hath lust of Gold
O'er my poor Country widely roll'd,
Plunderers proceed!" January 1773
Engraving
- Production date
- 1773
- Dimensions
-
Height: 165 millimetres
-
Width: 106 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
From the 'Westminster Magazine', I 67
Clive's trick on Omichund who had threatened to divulge the negotiations with Mir Jaffier before the Battle of Plassey unless he was given 30 lakhs of rupees is said to have led to Omichund's loss of reason and death and is the chief stain on Clive's reputation. See also BMSat 5017, 5100, 5102, 5111.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1990/1 Oct-Mar, London, National Portrait Gallery, 'The Raj...'
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.10033