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Apollo and the Muses inflicting penance on Dr. Pomposo round Parnassus

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James Gillray
1756-1815

Apollo and the Muses inflicting penance on Dr. Pomposo round Parnassus

[London] : Pubd. July 29th 1783 by Holland No. 66 Drury Lane, [1783]
etching with stipple, hand colored
image: 251 x 322 mm; sheet: 262 x 321 mm, trimmed; inlaid in sheet: 284 x 434 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.195
Notes
By James Gillray.
Provenance

From the library of Gordon N. Ray.

Summary

Print shows Dr. Johnson with a rope round his neck driven by Apollo and the nine muses with scourges and birch rods. Johnson is clad only in breeches, shoes, and stockings; on his head is a dunce's cap shaped like a four-sided pyramid, on this is inscribed the names of poets whose lives he had written: 'Milton', 'Otway', 'Waller', 'Gray', 'Shenston[e]', 'Lyttelton', 'Gay', 'Denman', 'Collins &c. &c. &c.' Over his shoulder he carries a placard inscribed, 'For defaming that Genius I could never emulate, by criticism without Judgment; - and endeavouring to cast the beauties of British Poetry into the hideous shade of oblivion.' A tear falls from his eye and he is saying, 'I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sins are ever before me'; an asterisk indicates a note in the margin: 'Vide The Last Sermon at St Dunstans'. Above the ground by Johnson (right) are two books, each with a pair of wings, in full flight: 'An Essay on the Milk of Human kindness dedicated to Dr Johnson as a Man', and 'An Essay on Envy dedicated to Dr Johnson as an Author'. Clouds and a rocky mountain form the background. On the summit of the mountain is a small circular temple behind which is the sun; Pegasus flies near the summit..

Associated names
Holland, William, active 1782-1817, publisher.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints