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

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..