A man of occult learning arrives at the house of a cobbler and his wife: the cobbler insults him, the wife defends him. Coloured engraving by L. Truchy after F. Hayman.

  • Hayman, Francis, 1708-1776.
Date:
[1743?]
Reference:
22165i
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view A man of occult learning arrives at the house of a cobbler and his wife: the cobbler insults him, the wife defends him. Coloured engraving by L. Truchy after F. Hayman.

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Credit

A man of occult learning arrives at the house of a cobbler and his wife: the cobbler insults him, the wife defends him. Coloured engraving by L. Truchy after F. Hayman. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

Episode in: C. Coffey, The devil to pay, or the wives metamorphos'd, 1731, scene III., which was based on Thomas Jevons's The devil of a wife, or, a comical transformation (1686). In Coffey's play (play with music, opera) The devil to pay, or the wives metamorphos'd, the man on the right is described as "a doctor that lives ten miles off [from a country village]; he practises physic and is an astrologer ... he is a cunning man, makes almanacks, and can help people to their goods again." He is insulted as "you lewd conjurer! you magician!" (scene II). In scene III he offers to tell the fortune of the cobbler's wife from the lines on her face. He is insulted by the cobbler as "You hangdog, you juggler, you cheating bamboozling villain", and one of the class of "mackmaticians and almanack-makers!". By magic and occult spirits he transposes two wives (the cobblers's wife and a lady) into the appearance and household of the other. In the print he wears a Geneva gown with preaching bands and carries a wand

Publication/Creation

London (53 Fleet Street) : Robt. Sayer map & printseller, [1743?]

Physical description

1 print : line engraving, with watercolour ; platemark 25.8 x 36.5 cm

Lettering

Jobson, Nell and the doctor. Scene 3d in The wives metamorphosed. F. Hayman pinxt. Truchy sculpt. The lettering is repeated in French

References note

B. Allen, Francis Hayman, New Haven & London, 1987, pp. 62-70

Reference

Wellcome Collection 22165i

Reproduction note

"From the original painting in Vaux-hall gardens."

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