Astronomy: the astronomer Sidrophel, using a telescope, misidentifies a kite as a comet. Etching by W. Hogarth, ca. 1721.

"It happen'd as a boy, one night, / Did fly his tarsel of a kite, / The strangest long-wing'd hawk that flies, / That, like a bird of Paradise, / Or herald's martlet, has no legs, / Nor hatches young ones, nor lays eggs; / His train was six yards long, milk-white, / At th' end of which there hung a light, / Inclos'd in lanthorn, made of paper, / That far off like a star did appear. / This Sidrophel by chance espy'd, / And with amazement staring wide, / Bless us! quoth he, what dreadful wonder / Is that appears in heaven yonder? / A comet, and without a beard! / Or star that ne'er before appear'd! / I'm certain 'tis not in the scrowl / Of all those beasts, and fish, and fowl, / With which, like Indian plantations, / The learned stock the constellations / Nor those that draw for signs have bin / To th' houses where the planets inn."--Butler, op. cit., canto III, vv. 413-434

Sidrophel, in his capacity as a savant or virtuoso, uses an obelisk inscribed with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs as the mount for his telescope

[London]

1 print : etching

W. Hogarth inv. et sculp. Bears numbers "P: 200" and "10"

R. Paulson, Hogarth's graphic works, 3 ed., London 1989, no. 15 [95], p. 41

Wellcome Collection 46336i