print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.4877
- Title
- Object: Date obolum Belisario
- Description
-
Colonel Barré stands outside a gate in a high brick wall. Shelburne (right) stands, half within, half outside the gate, his left foot on the outside; he has a cynically complacent smile and is putting into Barré's left hand a paper inscribed "Pension 3000£ pr Ann". Barré, who wears a coat with military facings and half-boots, holds out his cockaded hat in his right hand as if asking for alms. Beneath the design is engraved:
"Rome's Veteran fought her rebel Foes
And thrice her Empire saved
Yet thro' her Streets bow'd down with Woes
An humble pittance craved.
Our Soldier fought a better Fight
Political Contention And grateful Ministers requite
His service with a Pension." 24 August 1782
Etching
- Production date
- 1782
- Dimensions
-
Height: 340 millimetres
-
Width: 235 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
Shelburne had obtained for Barré a pension of £3,200 a year, which only became known when the death of Rockingham broke up the Ministry, when Barré himself obtained the lucrative post of paymaster-general. This was attacked in the House of Commons and defended by Barré in a speech which doubtless suggested the title of the print, [The story that Belisarius was blinded and reduced to beggary is a medieval legend, appearing, perhaps for the first time, in the 'Chiliads' of Tzetzes.] see 'Parl. Hist.' xxiii. 153 ff.; it was regarded as scandalous and contributed to the unpopularity of the new Ministry. Walpole, 'Last Journals', ii. 456-7; Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, ii. 360 ff.; Fitzmaurice, 'Shelburne', 1912, ii, p. 156 f. See also BMSat 6011, 6032. For Shelburne as the successful conspirator see BMSat 6018, &c.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.4877
