print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8794
- Title
- Object: The plaything
- Description
-
The Duchess of St. Albans sits like a children's nurse holding a little boy, the Duke, on her knee. On a round table is a bowl of Spoon Meat, she offers him a spoonful. He holds out a melon from which a slice has been cut, as in BM Satires 15453. She says:
Eat your breakfast pretty Boy,
Such nice Spoon Meat cannot cloy
Or, that Melon you may eat
Such a Melon is a Treat
Then wee'I ride within the Ring
That you know will be the thing
Afterwards my little Duke,
You may go and read your book.
He answers:
I can't eat the Spoon Meat because Fm not thirsty
And I'm sick of the Melon because its so Musty
But if you'd indulge me and give me my way
Pray give me the Counters—and let me go Play.
On the floor: a book, Memoirs of Nell Gwin [see BM Satires 15455]; a round board inscribed Counters on and beside which are coins. Below the title: "All the World's a Stage And all the Men and Women merely players" Shakespeare. June 25 1827
Etching
- Production date
- 1827
- Dimensions
-
Height: 350 millimetres
-
Width: 253 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
See No. 15453, &c. 'Ring' (in Hyde Park) and 'thing' have double meanings, see Partridge, Slang Dict., and O.E.D.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8794
