Frith the madman hurling treason at the King

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Isaac Cruikshank
1756?-1811?
Frith the madman hurling treason at the King
Peel 1681
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

On the extreme right the royal coach is passing, the King is seen through the window in profile to the right. A ragged man with the head of Burke, bald and aged, stands with a hatful of stones, about to hurl one at the King. He is restrained by a burly Bow Street officer with a long constable's staff who grasps his ragged shirt. A young man, plainly dressed but resembling the Prince of Wales, seizes him firmly by the right arm. A stout woman and a sailor stand arm-in-arm on the left. The woman, who is Fox, carries a basket and a 'Dying Speech', she looks regretfully at Burke; above her head is etched 'Creul [sic] Fortune thus our hopes [to] Destroy'. The sailor, who is Sheridan, turns his head away, saying, "Dam'd unlucky". He holds a paper '[Ki]ngs last Speech'. In the background is a procession of Life Guards riding behind the King's coach and looking towards Fox and his friends. A beefeater with a pike stands on the extreme right, the head of another appears in the background. On the roof of the coach sits a small demon playing a fiddle. Cf. George.

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