A priest in a frock coat and cravat sits at a writing desk with a quill in his hand about to compose a sonnet. Aquatint after G.M. Woodward.

London (50 Oxford St.) : W. Holland, Dec.1 1790.

1 print : aquatint, with etching ; platemark 36.3 x 25.5 cm

The priest. Then the smart priest / Writing extempore (forsooth!) a sonnet / Quaint to his mistress' shoe string.

One of six aquatints in a set showing six of the seven clergymen described by Richard Graves in The spiritual Quixote: The curate, The pedagogue, The priest, The vicar, The rector, The old incumbent, and The Welch parson. Five of the aquatints are listed in British Museum, loc. cit. The present print is mentioned on p. 748 n. 2 as missing from the impressions in the British Museum set; a print of the "old incumbent" is also absent and may not exist at all

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. VI, London 1938, pp. 748-749, no. 7779 ("A slim, fashionably dressed man, wearing a curiously striped coat with a high collar, and very closely fitting breeches, sits at a small writing-desk on which is a large sheet of paper. He gazes meditatively in profile to the r. His r. arm is thrown over the back of his chair; he holds a pen; his l. hand rests on the paper, displaying tapering fingers with a large ring on the fourth finger. A curtain festooned above his head and dark shadows in the foreground suggest the theatre. … He has some resemblance to Charles Este, see No. 7697")

Wellcome Collection 29456i