- Museum number
- 1868,0808.11934
- Title
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Object: An Irish wake
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Series: Political Sketches
- Description
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No. 618. A group of men and men dressed as women attending a funeral wake in a room (in foreground, Count D'Orsay, Lord Lyndhurst, Duke of Wellington; in background, Lords Duncannon and Normanby, Daniel O'Connell, Lords Melbourne and Palmerston, Richard Lalor Shiel, Lords Monteagle, Lansdowne and Russell); at right, a man lying in bed, pretending to be dead (Lord Brougham); a man standing at his bedside at far right, telling him to be quiet (John Temple Leader). 8 November 1839
Lithograph
- Production date
- 1839
- Dimensions
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Height: 283 millimetres
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Width: 367 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- For preliminary drawing see 1882,1209.458
Text from 'An Illustrative Key to the Political Sketches of H.B.', London 1844:
On the 22nd October, 1839, the public were shocked by an account which appeared in several of the morning papers of the death of Lord Brougham. It was stated that a letter from a Mr. Shafto to Mr. Alfred Montgomery had been seen by Count D'Orsay, and mentioned at one of the Club-houses, relating that his Lordship accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Shafto, Mr. Edwards, and Mr. Leader, then Member for Westminster, had gone out in a hired barouche to visit some picturesque scenery in the neighbourhood of Brougham Hall, Westmoreland, and that the carriage had been overturned, and his Lordship killed by a kick from one of the horses. The 'Times' mentioned the rumour, but, at the same time, acquainted its readers that having made inquiry at his Lordship's house, they had strong reason to doubt the truth of the report. It is unnecessary to report all the assertions and contradictions, the statements and explanations, that were made and given upon the subject; suffice it to say, that the authorship of the hoax remained, and still remains a mystery, and that some persons entertain the suspicion of its originating in Lord Brougham himself. If the suspicion be just, the trick was a bold one. To provoke and let loose the thousand voices which issue from the daily press, and to supply them with such a pregnant theme as the character of Lord Brougham, was voluntarily encountering, in fact, and in the living flesh, what most men tremble to imagine as likely to ensue, when they shall have actually gone to the shelter of the tomb.
The newspapers, generally, treated the affair in all sincerity, and adopting the maxim 'de mortuis nil nisi bonum, expatiated in the fields of panegyric, passing lightly and speedily over such parts of his Lordship's character as they could not honestly praise. The 'Times', however, more cautious than the rest, reserved itself until well assured that his Lordship was alive to read it's remarks, and then put forth such an article as must have made him quiver through every fibre of his flesh. Let the reader peruse the following paragraph - a small portion only of the article in question - and judge for himself of the malignity, (if the hoax proceeded from an enemy of Lord Brougham) of the stupidity, (if it proceeded from a friend) or of the madness, (if it proceeded from his Lordship himself) that could wantonly afford an occasion for laying on the scourge with such lacerating effect:-
"Had he abstained from writing, speaking, and attempting nine-tenths of that with which he has loaded the name of Brougham, he might have accomplished, in each department whereon his multifarious efforts were in a great measure worsted, a success as signal as his failures have been notorious and memorable, and have enrobed himself with a graceful and flowing reputation; not one composed of shreds and patches, here exposing his nakedness, and there oppressing him with a grievous and unwholesome weight.
"There is scarcely a subject on which Lord Brougham has not put himself forward as the author of one or more publications - history, theology, metaphysics, mathematics, political economy, literary criticism, biographical criticism, constitutional dissertation, and party controversy without end.
" 'Omne fere scribendi genus tetigit.' Alas! we are unable to add 'nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.' In fact, there is no one general topic discussed by Lord Brougham with regard to which he has contributed either substance or beauty to the thoughts which preceding writers had expended on it. Where any radiance appears to burst from him, it is but a stream of sparkles from a firework, there is neither steady light nor animating warmth. For discoveries in science, moral or physical, none who know or study this itinerant would ever dream of searching in any of his numerous productions. For fresh and racy illustrations of the nature and character of man, even where nought but illustration of some truth previously recognized and acquiesced in might be needful, we must refer elsewhere than to the declamatory effusions of Lord Brougham, whose faculty is that of mere expression. To him the creative is not given - he is an advocate and nothing more; an advocate who gains attention without inspiring any deep or enduring interest; an advocate who entertains his audience, who strives to cut away objections or obstructions by the edge of sarcasm, not by the force of reason; an advocate who can be vehement but never earnest, who exhibits heat of temper but not of passion, and could as rarely win the sympathy of jurors as he could the sober sanction of the judge."
To sham death and keep open one eye and one ear above the bedclothes, during the "Wake," is some resemblance, though a faint one, to the position in which his Lordship is thought to have placed himself. His natural curiosity betrays itself in his exclamation, "What are they saying of the departed?" The person by his bed-side, placing his finger on his lip is Mr. Leader, here represented as 'particeps joci'. Nothing can exceed the composure of the Duke of Wellington, who looks as if he had officiated many scores of times on similar occasions, and had store enough of ready-made affliction to assist at many more. Lord Lyndhurst, on his knees, is lively in his woe, and Count D'Orsay, wrapped in meditation and an old cloak, looks down on the empty gin bottle, and seems to ruminate on the fleeting nature of all human enjoyments. In the group behind, the Marquess of Normanby appears to be receiving the congratulations of Mr. O'Connell, while Lord Duncannon looking over their heads appears to
"Wonder with a foolish face of praise."
The unaffected Premier, Lord Melbourne, whose character is typified by his hat, lights his pipe, and honestly confesses the many drubbings he has had from the departed, without boasting, as he might well do, of the many good hits with which he repaid them. Lord Palmerston, more genteel, puffs his cigar; but Mr. Shiel, like a thorough Tipperary boy, "shocks his dudeen." Lord Monteagle, Lord Lansdowne and Lord John Russell, complete the group.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated names
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Representation of: Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
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Representation of: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
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Representation of: John William Ponsonby, 4th Earl of Bessborough
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Representation of: Constantine Henry Phipps, 1st Marquess of Normanby
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Representation of: Daniel O'Connell
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Representation of: William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne
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Representation of: Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle
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Representation of: Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
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Representation of: Richard Lalor Shiel
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Representation of: Lord John Russell (later John Russell, 1st Earl Russell of Kingston Russell)
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Representation of: Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne
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Representation of: John Temple Leader
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Representation of: John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst
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Representation of: Count Alfred Guillaume Gabriel d'Orsay
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.11934