A poet seeing in his mind's eye the subject of his imagination, as described by Shakespeare. Etching by J.H. Mortimer, 1775.
- Mortimer, John Hamilton, 1740-1779.
- Date:
- May 20, 1775
- Reference:
- 3063654i
- Pictures
About this work
Description
He wears a laurel wreath on his head, an ear-ring and a sixteenth-century costume, perhaps intended to suggest a poet contemporary with Shakespeare. He clutches a quill pen in his hand as he looks upwards at his inner vision
Publication/Creation
[London] (Norfolk Street, Strand) : Published by J. Mortimer, May 20, 1775.
Physical description
1 print : etching, in circle on rectangular plate
Contributors
Lettering
Poet. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rowling, / Doth glance from heav'n to earth, from earth to heav'n; / And as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen / Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name. Midsummer night's dream act V scene I
References note
Timothy Clayton, The English print 1688-1802, New Haven and London 1997, p. 237 ("The twelve Shakespeare heads etched and published by Mortimer in 1775-6 were outstanding. Funded by a subscription guided by Garrick and Elizabeth Montagu, they demonstrated the value of Shakespeare as a source of expressive character for the artist.")
Reference
Wellcome Collection 3063654i
Type/Technique
Languages
Subjects
Where to find it
- impression trimmed to the image
Location Status Access Closed stores