The ghost

Image not available
Charles Williams
active 1797-1830
The ghost
etching, hand colored
image: 280 x 402 mm; sheet: 301 x 422 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2270
Published: 
[London] : Pubd May 15 1799 by SW Fores 50 Piccadilly, [1799]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Tentatively attributed to Charles Williams in the British Museum online catalog; formerly attributed to Charles Ansell by George; the design is either the inspiration for or a reworking of a caricature print by Isaac Cruikshank, also published in May of 1799.
Trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Print shows the Prince and Miss Gubbins (later Honor Dutton) lying in a four poster bed; they are confronted by the ghost of the Duke of Cumberland, who stands at the foot of the bed at left, wearing a shirt and boots with no pants; he points at them with his Marshal's staff, saying "most noble youth, I am thy Uncles Ghost, Doom'd for a certain time to walk at night, and win the Fates; shake off the Traitorous Crew that lurk around thy Table; expose thier treacherous schemes, inform the ruling powers what plots and treasons deep they meditae [sic] against the State; and thus by one bold patriotic deed restore Brittania's darling Son; then shall the sentence be revers'd and------shall live again"; the Miss Gubbins hides her head under the bedclothes, as she says "Oh' Dear what's the Matter if this is the Amusements of high Life I wish I was in the Crescent again", the Prince sits up with a goblet of wine in one hand as he brandishes a bottle at the ghost in the other, saying "Hush Gub dont be alarmed the Old Boy is only come for some more Burgundy".

Artist page: 
Classification: 
Department: