A hunchbacked jester to the sultan of Kashgar, invited to dinner with a tailor and his wife, dies through choking on a fish bone. Etching, 1787, by S. Watts after H.W. Bunbury.

  • Bunbury, Henry William, 1750-1811.
Date:
Feby. 1st. 1787
Reference:
2477173i
Part of:
Arabian nights.
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

An episode in Galland's version of the Arabian nights: Jonathan Scott, The Arabian nights entertainments, vol. 2, London: Longman, 1811, pp. 205-220, nights 123-128. A hunchbacked jester to the sultan of Casgar (Kashgar, China) is invited to dinner with a tailor but dies through choking on a fishbone. The tailor takes the body to the house of a Jewish physician and tries to implicate him in the man's death. The Jewish physician takes the body and lowers it down the chimney of a Muslim grocer who thinks he is a robber, beats him, and thinks he has killed him. The grocer takes the body and places it outside a shop where it is encountered by a drunk Christian who in turn thinks he himself is responsible for the man's death. Eventually each of the participants confesses his role

Publication/Creation

London (No. 50 opposite Old Round Court, Strand) : S. Watts, Feby. 1st. 1787.

Physical description

1 print : stipple engraving ; image 23.4 x 29.4 cm

Lettering

The little hunchback, dining with the taylor is choak'd with a fish bone. Arabian nights entertainment. Le petit bossu en dinant avec le tailleur s'etoufe en avalant une arrête. Les contes arabs. H. Bunbury Esqr. delt. S. Watts sculpt.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 2477173i

Creator/production credits

"Sketches for The Arabian Nights [by H.W. Bunbury] were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785, and issued in sepia and coloured stipple etchings"--Oxford dictionary of national biography, s.v. Bunbury, Henry William

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