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Charles James Fox, dangerously ill, visited by an entourage of interested factions; representing the social and ministerial conflict surrounding him. Aquatint after J. Gillray, 1806.

Sheridan presented as Francisco Pizarro presented as a physician; representing his loyalty to the British Crown against the Franch Revolution and Bonaparte. Coloured aquatint, 1799.

William Pitt the younger as an alchemist using a crown-shaped bellows to blow the flames of a furnace and heat a glass vessel in which the House of Commons is distilled; representing the dissolution of parliament by Pitt. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1796.

A fearful woman (Britannia) is encouraged by three British politicians to resist the invading fleet of France. Coloured etching by J. Gillray after J. Sneyd, 1803.

Fox running out of the House of Commons in the middle of a debate with William Pitt the younger about the Regency crisis: he is excreting as he runs, which refers to a bout of dysentery he caught on route from Bologna. Etching by J. Gillray, 1788.

The wedding of Lady Lucy Stanhope to Thomas Taylor, a surgeon-apothecary: the bride is given away by her father Earl Stanhope, while Fox and Sheridan officiate. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1796.

A whale with the head of the Prince Regent spouts two streams inscribed "the liquor of oblivion" and "the dew of favour", referring to his desertion of the Whigs and to favours bestowed on the Tories. Coloured etching by G. Cruikshank, 1812.

William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville, dispensing Roman Catholic tracts from a balloon to the people of Oxford; representing his installation as Chancellor of Oxford University. Coloured etching by J. Gillray, 1810.

Writers: twenty portraits. Engraving by J.W. Cook, 1825.

On Pitt the younger's resignation from parliament. Pitt's supporters following him are: Dundas (Secretary of state for war), Grenville (Foreign secretary), George Spencer (First Lord), and Earl of Loughborough (Chancellor). The opposition are led by Richard Sheridan (as a butcher with a cleaver) and Matthew Tierney (as a ragged cobbler wearing a bonnet rouge, reference to his support for the French revolution)

William Pitt the younger leads a group of ministers out of the Treasury as the Opposition in the guise of the rabble are held back by a grenadier sentry holding a bayonet. Etching by J. Gillray.

On the controversial Catholic emancipation bill

1 print : engraving with watercolour ; image 15.8 x 28.8 cm

A group of men from the Ministry sit drinking around a table in celebration of the Catholic emancipation bill as the ghost of Charles James Fox appears on the right and Sheridan falls off his chair to vomit over a copy of a petition. Engraving by Adolphe after C. Keefe, 1807.

Baron Grenville, an advocate of Catholic emancipation, is caricatured as a balloonist with a vast backside, exploiting his Chancellorship ceremony (3-6 July 1810) to impose Catholic rites on the university
The balloon has the face of his nephew Earl Temple, i.e. Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, first duke of Buckingham and Chandos (1776–1839), who was known as Earl Temple from 1784 to 1813: "he grew immensely fat" (Oxford dictionary of national biography)
The buildings shown include various Oxford landmarks such as the Radcliffe Camera (left), All Souls Chapel (right), Tom Tower at Christ Church (behind and above the chapel), the twin towers of All Souls (to the right of the balloon), and the gateway to All Souls (on the left of the balloon)
On the left are three bishops mounted on braying asses, suggesting subservience to the new Chancellor. Above them members of the Grenville family and other politicians are shown in the door and windows of the Radcliffe Camera. On a ledge of the Radcliffe Camera, the Whig politician Michael Angelo Taylor is caricatured as a chicken: he had described himself in a debate in 1785 as "but a chicken" in his profession of law
More politicians are shown on the right waving their mortar-boards towards Baron Grenville. In front of them is Richard Brinsley Sheridan, portrayed as half naked (from poverty) and worsened by drink

William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville, dispensing Roman Catholic tracts from a balloon to the people of Oxford; representing his installation as Chancellor of Oxford University. Coloured etching after J. Gillray, 1810.

xii, 223 pages, plates : illustrations, portraits ; 22 cm

Betsy Sheridan's journal : letters from Sheridan's sister, 1784-1786 and 1788-1790 / Edited by William Le Fanu.

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; image 17.8 x 50.4 cm

Eighteenth Century collections online

The dramatic works of Baron Kotzebue. Translated from the German, by Charles Smith. ...

1 unnumbered leaf, ii, 4 unnumbered pages, 36, that is, 39 pages, 1 unnumbered page, 1 unnumbered leaf of plates : portrait ; 18 cm (12mo)

The critic, or, Tragedy rehearsed, a dramatic piece / by R.B. Sheridan. With prefatory remarks ... faithfully marked with the stage business, and stage directions, as it is performed at the Theatres royal. By W. Oxberry, comedian.

The Whig magazine, or, Patriot miscellany, for ... Addressed to the people of Great Britain ...

[Richard Brinsley Sheridan correspondence].

Sheridan is administering a medicine ("Essence of loyalty"), apparently in the form of smelling salts in a vial, to his patient Charles James Fox: the Duke of Norfolk, King George III and others observe in expectation of a cure. Sheridan is dressed as Francisco Pizarro, referring to his play Pizarro (1799). The play is open to a number of different and inconsistent interpretations. First, the Peruvians are described in the same words as those in which the Indians had been described in Sheridan's speeches against Warren Hastings, leaving Pizarro and the Spanish conquerors to be compared to the British East India Company. Alternatively, the Peruvians are compared to the English, and the Spanish invaders are compared to Bonaparte and the potential invasion of French Revolutionary practices: Sheridan is seen as supporting the British, as loyal to King George III, and as able (through his patent medicine) to convert Charles James Fox to the same loyalty. Finally, the Peruvians are compared to the Irish, and the Spanish conquerors to the English and Scots in Ireland: at the time Sheridan was supporting the United Irishmen in a law suit, but did not support their alliance with France
The present print adopts the second of the three interpretations above: Sheridan is curing Fox of "Jacobin qualms" by administering "Essence of loyalty" to him and to three other supporters of radicals: the Earl of Derby (a sporting associate of Fox), Lord Erskine (who as a barrister had defended radicals in court), and Sir Francis Burdett (opponent of the suspension of Habeas Corpus, supporter of prison reform etc.)
The persons shown are listed below in this catalogue record

1 print : aquatint with etching, with watercolour ; platemark 32.2 x 40 cm

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Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816

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Catalogue

The dramatic works of Baron Kotzebue. Translated from the German, by Charles Smith. ...

The critic, or, Tragedy rehearsed, a dramatic piece / by R.B. Sheridan. With prefatory remarks ... faithfully marked with the stage business, and stage directions, as it is performed at the Theatres royal. By W. Oxberry, comedian.

The Whig magazine, or, Patriot miscellany, for ... Addressed to the people of Great Britain ...

[Richard Brinsley Sheridan correspondence].

Sheridan presented as Francisco Pizarro presented as a physician; representing his loyalty to the British Crown against the Franch Revolution and Bonaparte. Coloured aquatint, 1799.

Wellcome uses cookies.

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816

Images

Catalogue

The dramatic works of Baron Kotzebue. Translated from the German, by Charles Smith. ...

The critic, or, Tragedy rehearsed, a dramatic piece / by R.B. Sheridan. With prefatory remarks ... faithfully marked with the stage business, and stage directions, as it is performed at the Theatres royal. By W. Oxberry, comedian.

The Whig magazine, or, Patriot miscellany, for ... Addressed to the people of Great Britain ...

[Richard Brinsley Sheridan correspondence].

Sheridan presented as Francisco Pizarro presented as a physician; representing his loyalty to the British Crown against the Franch Revolution and Bonaparte. Coloured aquatint, 1799.

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