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 countryman's dream of coalescing virtue and vice / W.D.

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William Dent
active 1783-1793

The countryman's dream of coalescing virtue and vice / W.D.

Published

[London] : Pubd. as the Act directs, by J. Ridgway, Piccadilly, March 20th 1784.

etching & drypoint
sheet: x mm
Peel 3258
Notes
Title from item.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.
Provenance

Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.

Summary

Thomas Powys, sleeping in a chair on the left, and Charles Marsham, with a tankard, two of the country gentlemen urging the union between Fox and Pitt, preside over a maypole dance in front of the "St. Albans" tavern, their meeting place. The maypole is decorated with a sleeping head of George III. Dancers include members of the Coalition cabinet, pictured with devil's horns: Charles Fox, with a fox's body, Burke, dressed as a Jesuit, and the Duke of Portland, and members of the preceding cabinet, pictured with haloes: Lord Thurlow, in a judge's robe, a smiling Lord Shelburne, and the Duke of Richmond. They are watched on the left by the "nurse North," with horns, holding baby Pitt, with a halo, behind North (left) is the door of the inn, over which is inscribed "Messrs Powass and Mash em [i.e. Powys and Marsham] Dealers in British Spirits", and on the right, by the Prince of Wales, dancing to his own tune he is playing on a pipe and a drum.

Associated names
Ridgway, James, active 1784-1847, publisher.
Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, former owner.
Classification
Department
Century prints