print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1935,0522.6.50
- Title
- Object: A Repentant Sinner at Prayers or A Stormy Night
- Description
-
Sir W. Curtis, grossly caricatured, in nightshirt and night-cap, kneels beside a low disordered bed, gazing up at darts of lightning, seen through a partly unshuttered window. He prays: Lord look down upon me, and grant me life that I may repent of my sins speedily and soon [see BM Satires 14382] (bless me how it lightens) let thy wrath fall on the founders of the Villainous association that inveighled [sic] a simple Old Man among such Unmercifull Persecutors of their fellow Citizens) Bless me how it Thunders!) I withdraw my name as the first proof of my intended repentance, and with the help of thy Grace will (as speedily and soon) as my habits will permit) retrench my stomach of superfluos gormandizeing, and my politicks of self interest, that it may be engraved on my Tomb He Repented in Time!!!! The head and talons of the Devil look out from under the bed; he grasps a document: Contract and says: Ah! Praying!! I shall lose him after all! On an arm-chair by the bed (right) are Curtis's coat and striped (sailor's) trousers, cf. BM Satires 11353. On them is an open book: Simple Restorative Jelly—Cook—Soup Royal—Provocative Sauce. On the floor are docketed papers: Contract (two) and orphan accounts, and books: English Grammar and Sinclair on Longevity with a card: London Tav[ern]. On a round table (left) are a lighted candle, bowl of Turtle Soup, box of Digestive Pills, watch, and cards: Free Mason Dinner; London Tavern Dinner £1.1.0. After the title:
"Try what repentance can! What can it not? [. . .]
"Bind stubborn knees, and Heart with strings of steel,
"Be soft as sinews of the new born Babe;
"All may be well.
Shaxspeare. [Hamlet, III. iii.]
c. 1823
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1822-1824
- Dimensions
-
Height: 245 millimetres
-
Width: 347 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
Curtis, the leader of the Ministerial interest in the city, and supposedly illiterate, refers to the discredited Constitutional Association, see No. 14221, &c. It was defeated by 1822, and virtually dead by 1823. For the Orphans' Accounts see No. 13706.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.6.50
