File:Lieut goverr Gall-stone, inspired by Alecto; -or- the birth of Minerva (BM Y,5.25 1).jpg
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Captions
Summary
[edit]Lieut goverr Gall-stone, inspired by Alecto; -or- the birth of Minerva ( ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Artist |
Print made by: James Gillray
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Title |
Lieut goverr Gall-stone, inspired by Alecto; -or- the birth of Minerva |
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Description |
English: Philip Thicknesse writes at a table; he listens to Alecto who whispers slyly in his ear, her right hand on his right shoulder; she is seated partly on his knee partly on a cloud behind him which rises from the jaws of Hell, the gaping mouth of a monster in the lower right corner of the design. Alecto (as in BMSat 7889) is a winged hag, with hair of writhing serpents, one of which coils round Thicknesse's right arm, its poisoned fang touching the tip of his pen. He is seated on a close-stool inscribed 'Reservoir for Gall Stones'. An explosion issues from the crown of his head in the centre of which is Minerva who is shot into the air surrounded by books written by Thicknesse. She is a classical figure in back view; her head is the source of a billowing pillar of smoke which conceals it. In her right hand she supports a gun, which rests on her hip, and is inscribed 'The Coward's delight or, the Wooden Gun'. On her left arm is an oval shield, cracked and bordered with serpents, inscribed: 'Acts of Courage and Wisdom. Running away from my Command in Jamaica, for fear of the Black-a-moors Refusing to fight Lord Orwell, after belying him; & afterwards begging pardon. Extorting 100 pr Annum from my eldest Son by a Pistol - Swindling my youngest son Phil: out of £500£ by a forged Note of Hand - Debauching my own Neice, on a journey to Southampton - Horsewhipping my own Daughter to death for looking out at Window. Attempting to gull Lord Thurl[ow] Extorting £100 pr Annum from Lord Camd[en] for suppressing his confidential Letters to myself. Gulling of Lord But: - D° Lord Bathu: - D° Lord Coven: Causing my Footman to be pressed from Bath & cruelly Flogg'd or refusing to Father my own Child by the Cook Maid Scandalizing Women of Virtue, to be reveng'd upon their Husbands: - Noble defence before the Court Martial for embezzling the Kings Stores; - Patient endurance of my Sentence in a Goal: - and heroic bearing of my discharge from the Service for Cowardice.'
Etching and aquatint |
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Depicted people | Associated with: James Makittrick Adair | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Date |
1790 date QS:P571,+1790-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
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Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Dimensions |
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Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q6373 |
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Current location |
Prints and Drawings |
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Accession number |
Y,5.25 |
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Notes |
(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938) Thicknesse was eccentric, very quarrelsome, and a prolific writer. One of his enemies, Dr. James Mackittrick Adair, styled him 'Formerly gunner of Landguard fort, and now Censor General of Great Britain, Professor of Empiricism and Animal Magnetism, and casual Compiler, Rape, and Murder-Monger to the St. James's Chronicle' in 'Curious Facts and Anecdotes . . .', see BMSat 7588. In this he is accused of using his 'Memoirs' for blackmail. In his 'Memoirs' (i. 138 ff.) Thicknesse relates that he recommended to Thurlow, as a cure for gall-stones, laudanum and exercise on a trotting horse, saying he was the best of all doctors in England owing to his own sufferings. He also records overtures to Bute relating to correspondence of Lady Mary Wortley Montague (Bute's mother-in-law) which appear to verge on (unsuccessful) blackmail. Ibid., ii. 102 ff. For the Pretender's portrait and star (once in the possession of his sister-in-law, not sister), see ibid., ii. 209 f. Foote (whom he opposed over the threat to the Duchess of Kingston) said of him, according to Adair, 'that he had the stupidity of an owl . . .' ['ut supra', as in Gillray's inscription], 'Curious Facts ...', pp. 60-1. On his travels in France he took a pet monkey, Jocko, who used to ride postilion 'with a pair of French jack boots and his hair en queue'. Thicknesse, 'A Years Journey through France and Spain', 1789, ii. 72 (pl.). In 1776 he visited his 'unfortunate daughter', who had been ten years in a convent at Ardres, at her own wish (he says) after being ravaged by small-pox. Ibid., i. 11-12. Adair, op. cit., pp. 48, 73-4, says that Struenzee's head and hand in wax (bought in Paris) were exhibited gratis to purchasers of Thicknesse's 'Queries to Lord Audley' (1782). They were so exhibited to purchasers of Thicknesse's 'Bath Guide', 1778. They were from casts taken after death by order of the King of Denmark. 'Guide', pp. 10, 53-4. Marlborough's pistols were also exhibited by him and offered as propitiatory gifts. Adair, op. cit., p. 48. Thicknesse erected a memorial to Chatterton in the garden of his house at Bath; 'Memoirs', ii. 309. See also 'D.N.B.' for Thicknesse and his third wife Anne Ford, who was a musician. This viperine print is part of a concentrated attack on Thicknesse. It was advertised in an insulting card (endorsed by Miss Banks 'Feb. 18. 1790. recd by penny post'): 'This day is Published ... Price five Shillings', title and inscription as above; it replies to the 'ridiculous insinuations' as to its subject: 'as the Engraving is intended merely as an attempt to gibbet Meanness, Vice and Empiricism it therefore cannot possibly allude to so respectable a Personage as Philip Thicknesse Esq.' Miss Banks had received a similar card on 28 Jan. 1790, directed 'To the Nobility and Friends of PHILIP THICKNESSE Esq', ostensibly a defence of Thicknesse, actually an advertisement of the forthcoming print. Anonymous verses and an anonymous and libellous paragraph were also circulated (copies with the print). A large bill like those posted offering a reward for the Monster (see BMSat 7648, &c.) advertises Philip Thycknesse Esq as THE MONSTER: "he has already frightened a Number of Women and Children...." Since his last arrival in London, "he had assumed the name of Lieutenant Governor Gallstone . . ." (in the Banks Collection, B.M.L. [British Library] 1890. e. 15/107); this is also printed on a card (for the penny post) dated by Miss Banks 11 June 1790. A handbill headed 'Strayed from Kensington-Gore A vicious Old Dog;' described 'A Mongrel. . . answers to the name of Gallstone. . . . Whoever will trace him, and give Intelligence by the Post, to J.G. [James Gillray] at 18 Old Bond-Street . . . will be gratefully thanked'. Endorsed 'July 22. 1790'. See BMSats 7588, 7722-5. Grego, 'Gillray', pp. 116-17 (reproduction). .................................................. One card, lettered "To the Nobility, the Friends, and the Admirers of Philip Thicknesse, Esq. ......" and annotated on the verso by Sarah Banks "Jany 26 1790", is kept in the collection of Banks Ephemera (C,2.1855). Similar cards in the British Museum collection are kept with prints by Gillray (BM Satires 7721) and images are attached to the present catalogue record: "To the Nobility, and Friends of Philip Thicknesse, Esq. ...", annotated on the verso by Sarah Banks, "Jany. 28 1790 Recd. by penny Post". "This Day is Published, By H. Humphrey, (No.18.) Old Bond-street, A Print ...", annotated on the verso by Sarah Banks, "Feb. 18. 1790 recd. by penny post." "The Monster / B. Argensteen, takes the earliest opportunity of informing the Nobility and the Public, ....", annotated on the verso by Sarah Banks, "June 11. 1790." "The old Assassin.", not annotated. Kept with these cards are two handbills: one, mentioned above, measuring 255 x 195 mm, lettered, "Strayed From Kensington-Gore, A vicious Old Dog ....", and annotated on the verso by Sarah Banks, "July 22. 1790."; a smaller sheet, measuring, 219 x 130 mm, lettered with the same text as one of the cards, "This Day is Published, By H. Humphrey, (No.18) Old Bond-street, A Print ...", annotated on the verso by Sarah Banks, "1790". |
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Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Y-5-25 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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current | 18:09, 15 May 2020 | 1,919 × 2,500 (1.26 MB) | Copyfraud (talk | contribs) | British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1790 image 2 of 4 #10,643/12,043 |
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Date and time of digitizing | 12:12, 11 October 2006 |
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Date metadata was last modified | 12:12, 11 October 2006 |
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