A man is woken by the ghost of a friend calling to him: he crosses his bedroom in a nightshirt and holding a candle, and is annoyed to find it is a cat. Engraving, 1801.

Date:
24t jany. 1801
Reference:
36025i
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view A man is woken by the ghost of a friend calling to him: he crosses his bedroom in a nightshirt and holding a candle, and is annoyed to find it is a cat. Engraving, 1801.

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Credit

A man is woken by the ghost of a friend calling to him: he crosses his bedroom in a nightshirt and holding a candle, and is annoyed to find it is a cat. Engraving, 1801. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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About this work

Description

The concluding episode of "The ghost: a tale", a poem printed in 1799 in The European magazine and in The Scots magazine (loc. cit.) The tale refers to two tailors called Ned and Mayo who share a room in a garret. Mayo departs to sea. Ned is woken at night by a cat repeatedly saying "Miao" which Ned thinks is the ghost of his friend Mayo calling out his name. The setting is "near famed St Giles' towering fane": St Giles' cathedral in Edinburgh or church in London?

Publication/Creation

London (53 Fleet Street) : Laurie & Whittle, 24t jany. 1801.

Physical description

1 print : engraving, with etching and stipple ; image 16.2 x 22.9 cm

Lettering

The ghost - or poor Paddy and the black cat. Then gently stepping from his bed, / And peeping round o'erwhelmed with dread! / Behind the door, low couch'd he spies / A huge black cat, with saucer eyes!. / And now his heart no longer quails, / When this Grimalkin he assails: / "What devil put it in thy head, to take thy station near my bed: / I'll give thee something in a trice, / Not quite so good as catching mice! / Something not so sweet as amber," / Then thrusts him in the pot de chambre. Bears number: 257

References note

The European magazine, and London review, 1799, 35: 189-190
The Scots magazine, or, general repository of literature, 1799, 61: 328-329
Not found in: British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires

Reference

Wellcome Collection 36025i

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