Following imprint: Soon as possible will be published, price One Guinea. N. 1. of Shakespeare Illustrated, with the Text, annotations, & c. complete; the Engravings to be carried on, in imitation of the Aldermans liberal plan -further particulars will shortly be given in all the Public Papers.
Satire on publisher John Boydell's series of prints illustrating Shakespeare, published by subscription and engraved after paintings commissioned from English artists expressly for Boydell's Shakespeare gallery.
Print shows Boydell standing within a magic circle, directing a sacrifice of Shakespeare's plays which burn at his feet. The smoke which rises from the fire obscures a monument to Shakespeare, concealing the head and shoulders of a figure of Shakespeare in bas-relief pointing to an inscription which is a quote from The Tempest. Beside the fire stands a huge volume inscribed 'List of Subscribers to the Sacrifice'. On it sits an aged gnome-like creature with a large head, symbolizing Avarice; under each skinny arm he clutches a large money-bag inscribed '£'. On his shoulders stands an infant crowned with peacock feathers and blowing from a tobacco-pipe the bubble of 'Immortality'. An evil-looking creature wearing a fool's cap crouches by the fire blowing it with bellows. He is a caricature of the fool in West's picture of Lear. The smoke as it rises expands into heavy clouds which support various figures, more or less travestied, from the pictures commissioned by Boydell for his Shakespeare Gallery.