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 padlock. To be. Or not to be. A queen! is the question

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S. W. Fores

The padlock. To be. Or not to be. A queen! is the question

London : Published April the 3rd 1786 by S.W. Fores at his Caracature Warehouse No 3 Piccadilly, [1786].
hand colored etching
image: 252 x 375 mm; plate mark: 284 x 392 mm; sheet: 301 x 411 mm
Peel 1564
Notes
One of a set of prints on the suspected marriage of the Prince of Wales; the title is from Bickerstaffe's popular comic opera "The Padlock" (1768). Cf. British Museum catalog.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

The scene is the churchyard of a country church, a Gothic building partly visible on the extreme right Mrs. Fitzherbert (right), in a riding-habit and a large feathered hat, leads the Prince (left) towards the church door; in her left hand is a riding-switch and a padlock with a chain. She turns to him, saying, "Oh! fie my dear, let's go unto the Alter; And then you know our conscience cannot falter"; the Prince, in riding-dress, looks towards her, but holds out his hat towards a flat gravestone, on which his right foot rests, saying,"'Twas there the famous Catherine W-----[Wade] And the more famous Taylor laid: Who after strugling hours two; Yielded their breath: let's do so too." The tombstone is inscribed: Here on this Stone were laid Tom Stitch and Kitty W . . . . Twas here they languishd here they sigh'd And here dear Souls they Four times died. The Prince's friends and satellites peep at the couple from behind tombstones: in the foreground on the extreme right kneels Louis Weltje, and behind a rectangular tomb on the extreme left are the profile heads of Fox and Hanger; Fox says, "Will they stop in the Porch"; Hanger says, "And follow the Taylors Example"; near them North, asleep, supports his head on a stone inscribed "He is not Dead But Sleepeth here", in the distance (right) a man in riding-dress crouches behind a tomb.

Associated names
Fores, S. W., publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints