File:The incubus, 1784 (BM 1851,0901.236).jpg

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The incubus, 1784   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
The incubus, 1784
Description
English: Fox, as Belial, seated in a depression in the centre of a large mass resembling a balloon in process of deflation, which is inscribed 'Publica Fides'. Four vertical posts marked with figures seem intended to measure the (rapidly decreasing) degree of 'Publica Fides' on which Fox can still count. These posts are headed '4', 'B' [? Boreas], 'Ind', and '3' respectively.


Fox is a fat, almost-naked creature, with horns and talons; a fox's head is tattooed on his arm; with one talon he clutches the post marked 'Ind', [ ? Independent], with the other and his foot he tears at a paper inscribed 'charters', indicating the chartered rights which his India Bill was supposed to attack, see BMSat 6369.
The deflating mass rests on a rock inscribed in large letters 'ROCK', and in italics, 'Land Tax', 'Customs', 'Excise', 'Malt', 'Trade', 'Agriculture', 'Windows', 'Houses', 'Salt', indicating the burden of taxation. Against it leans (left) a spear, and Britannia's shield inscribed 'Defender of the Faith'. Other emblematic objects are a large cap of Liberty on a pole projecting from the mass (right), a large cannon inscribed 'Defender of the Faith', a ship whose rigging only is visible behind the cannon, a heap of cannon balls (right), and a waning moon (left).
Beneath the design is engraved [lines from King Lear] :
'St Withold footed thrice the Wold
She met the Night Mare & her nine Foal,
Aroynt thee Witch aroynt
To every Independant Man in Great Britain this Plate is dedicated.' 1784


Hand-coloured etching
Depicted people Representation of: Charles James Fox
Date 1784
date QS:P571,+1784-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 225 millimetres
Width: 310 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1851,0901.236
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938) An attack on the Coalition: 'Defender of the Faith' implies approval of the king's action against the India Bill, see BMSat 6283. Cf. BMSat 6361. For the parliamentary struggle and Fox's dwindling majority see BMSat 6373, &c. An illustration of the lines: 'Belial,. .. The fleshliest Incubus', 'Paradise Regained', Bk. II, 11. 150-2.

Additional information:

One of many satires inspired by Fuseli's painting 'The Nightmare' (1782). The monogrammist 'TP' is not known. Hawkins, the collector of another impression in the BM (1868,0808.5087), annotated his impression with an attribution to Gillray, which is difficult to verify or dismiss, also the date 1 Jan 1784.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1851-0901-236
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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current04:21, 11 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 04:21, 11 May 20201,600 × 1,146 (515 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1784 #4,715/12,043

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