Swearing to the cutting monster, or, A scene in Bow Street

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Swearing to the cutting monster, or, A scene in Bow Street
etching, hand colored
image: approx. 237 x 330 mm; plate mark: 249 x 352 mm; sheet: 262 x 366 mm
Peel 2706
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

By James Gillray.
Political cartoon inspired by the notorious case of slasher Renwick Williams, A.K.A. "the Monster".

Summary: 

Print shows a young woman standing upon a high stool, her skirts raised to show her posterior to three men behind her. She bends forward, pointing to Charles Fox who stands with his hands handcuffed in a booth behind a bar. The three men have been identified as Bow Street Justices Sir Sampson Wright, Addington, and Bond. Above their heads are the evenly balanced scales of Justice. In front of the woman stands a clerk meditatively biting his pen.

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