print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1935,0522.1.6
- Title
- Object: January and May
- Description
-
Beneath the title is engraved, 'From Pope's favourite Poem of January and May, or the Merchant's Tale, from Chaucer'. A garden scene. A young woman (right) kneels on the back of her blind old husband, who stoops down, clasping the trunk of a pear-tree to support her that she may reach her lover who sits in its branches leaning towards her. The old man is dressed in an old-fashioned manner, with wide cuffs; the other two are fashionably dressed: she wears a feathered hat and long elbow-gloves; the anchor of Hope is suspended from her neck on a ribbon. He wears boots with deep tops, and a round hat. In the background (right) is a piece of water crossed by a wooden bridge with Chinese rails. Beneath the design are engraved eight lines from Pope, beginning, 'At least kind Sir, for Charity's sweet sake / Vouchsafe the Trunk between your arms to take,'. (She is pregnant, and has deceitfully asked her doting husband to help her to reach a pear for which she craves.) c.1785
Hand-coloured mezzotint
- Production date
- 1785
- Dimensions
-
Height: 350 millimetres
-
Width: 249 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: The Merchant's Tale
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.1.6