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.

Dido forsaken : sic transit gloria reginae.

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James Gillray
1756-1815

Dido forsaken : sic transit gloria reginae.

[London] : Pub'd May 21th, 1787, by S.W. Fores, Piccadilly, [1787]
hand colored etching with stipple
image: 264 x 366 mm; sheet: 275 x 376 mm
Peel 1586
Notes
By James Gillray.
Sheet trimmed within plate mark.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Print shows Mrs. Fitzherbert as Dido, seated on a funeral pyre, while the Prince of Wales sails away in a small boat towards a castle flying a flag inscribed 'Windsor'. The wind in the sail of the boat issues from the heads of Dundas and Pitt on the extreme left. It is directed at Dido's head, and has blown off a royal crown, an orb and sceptre, and a coronet decorated with the Prince of Wales's feathers. She holds out in her right hand a mutilated crucifix, her breast is bare, and her girdle of 'Chastity' is broken. At her feet lie emblems of Popery: a sharp-toothed harrow inscribed 'For the conversion of Heretics', shackles, a pair of birch-rods, an axe, a scourge, and a rosary and crucifix. The pyre seems to be made of money-bags. The boat is the 'Honor'; the Prince is seated between Fox, who holds the tiller, and Burke, who holds the sail; his arms are folded and he looks over his shoulder at Fox, saying, "I never saw her in my Life". Fox echoes "No, never in all his Life, Damme"; Burke, wearing a Jesuit's biretta, says "Never", and North, who sits beside him, apparently asleep, says "No, never."

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