print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.7841
- Title
- Object: Honi soit qui mal y pense
- Description
-
Justice, seated on clouds (left), holds up a pair of scales with the beam much tilted. She is blindfolded and holds against her shoulder a sword, with the wavy blade conventionally representing flame; she says: By their actions I Judge all Men. One scale (right) rests on the ground. In this sits the Duke of York in uniform, holding his sides and looking towards the other scale which three men vainly try to hold down; in this Wardle crouches dejectedly with Mrs. Clarke seated on his shoulders. The Duke says: Ha Ha—the only man amongst them who had Virtue & Courage to attack me he. he he—. Wardle says: Oh I am lost, I'm undone, D------n the Martella Towers [see No. 11341]. She looks down at him, swinging out her legs with pert confidence; she says: What are you grumbling at now Taffy. Wardle sits surrounded with Gold boxes, addresses of Thanks, one inscribed Thanks to a Welch Ass, and grants of Freedom. Two of the men stand on tiptoe; the legs of the third, Burdett, dangle over a Slough of Despond [also inscribed Mud] separating the ground under the two scales. He says: Pull away Pull away if we dont Pull the scale down we will be pulled up. From his shoulders hangs a bulky bag filled with Plans of Reform Patriotism Eloquence &c &c &c [see No. 11328, &c.]. He faces Whitbread (left), to whose shoulders is slung a cluster of tankards inscribed Whitbred Int [see No. 10421]. The latter says: I wish that I had never had a hand in it we shall burn our fingers I see it as Clear as the Sun at Noon. Between them, and full face, is a fashionably dressed man wearing trousers. From his pockets project papers inscribed Lies. He may be Major Hogan, see No. 11211, or Major Dodd, see No. 11341.
July 1809
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1809
- Dimensions
-
Height: 345 millimetres
-
Width: 247 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
See No. 11341. Cf. No. 11269, in which Mrs. Clarke, helped by Wardle, outweighs the defenders of the Duke, and No. 11344.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.7841
