Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

The Devil to pay, the wife metamorphos'd, or, Neptune reposing, after Fording the Jordan

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James Gillray
1756-1815

The Devil to pay, the wife metamorphos'd, or, Neptune reposing, after Fording the Jordan

[London] : Pubd. Octr. 24th 1791 by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street, [1791]
etching, hand colored
image: 225 x 350 mm; sheet 301 x 407 mm
Bequest of Gordon N. Ray, 1987.
1986.180
Notes
By James Gillray.
Below caption title: "Ten Thousand Transports wait "To crown my happy State, ... "Then Jobson, now adieu, "Thy Cobbling still pursue, "For hence I will not, cannot, no, nor must not buckle to.
Provenance

From the library of Gordon N. Ray.

Summary

Print shows a large bed where the Duke of Clarence lies asleep with Mrs. Jordan, who sits up with a rapt air, saying, "What pleasant Dreams I have "had To-night! methought I was in Paradise, upon a bed of Violets & Roses, "and the sweetest Husband by my side! . . ." [&c. &c] a quotation from Coffey's play 'The Devil to pay, or, the Wives metamorphosed'. On a chair (left) are the Duke's naval coat and a pair of breeches; on a stool (right) a petticoat and pair of stays. Under the bed is a chamber-pot inscribed 'Public Jord[an] open to all Parties'.

Associated names
Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.
Ray, Gordon Norton, 1915-1986, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints