print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12634
- Title
- Object: The bond of patriotism.
- Description
-
Plate from the 'Satirist', ix. 77. Burdett stands in profile to the left snatching at a large deed held by a barrister in wig and gown, tearing it, and so revealing a child dressed in a frock. He says: "I will have my bond"; the child, who has an adult profile like that of Burdett, says: "O you cruel Papa!" Lady Oxford, standing behind the little boy, turns her head away, saying, "Gold is the Patriots God He offers up his Mistress to it." The barrister, William Scott, Lady Oxford's brother, points severely to the deed which is headed 'Know all men by these presents', and contains the words in large letters 'Twenty Thousand Pounds'. The first of three signatures is 'F B'. The child (Lord Harley, 1800-28) sits on a pile of four volumes all inscribed 'Harlien [sic] Miscellany'; another volume, 'Harleian Miscellany', lies face down by Burdett; other papers, &c. lie on the floor: 'a Map of Oxford', 'Secrets worth knowing', 'Adultery Patriotism', and 'School [for] Scandal'. The last (right) is near Sheridan (poorly characterized) who kneels on one knee, pointing at Burdett to say "Look at Morality now." On the wall is a picture of the head of an ox gazing at Lady Oxford, and representing her (horned) husband.
1 August 1811
Etching and aquatint
- Production date
- 1811
- Dimensions
-
Height: 196 millimetres
-
Width: 361 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
For this scandal see No. 11734; after it Lord and Lady Oxford continued to live together as before. The children of Lady Oxford were known as the Harleian Miscellany from their doubtful paternity; Park's edition of the 'Harleian Miscellany' (1808-13) in ten volumes was appearing (a selection of scarce pamphlets, &c. from the library of the 1st and 2nd Earls of Oxford). Burdett and Sheridan had come into conflict over the Westminster election of 1806, see No. 10619 (when Burdett attacked Sheridan and his son as placemen and the moral Burdett had been contrasted with his dissolute opponent); they were opposed in politics, the former being in the Princess of Wales's circle, the latter a friend of the Regent. The only reference to the subject in the text is indirect: 'Letter from a detected Adulteress', pp. 123-5.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12634