The noble sans-culotte : a ballad, occasioned by a certain Earl's styling himself a sans culotte citizen in the House of Lords / [Gillray].

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The noble sans-culotte : a ballad, occasioned by a certain Earl's styling himself a sans culotte citizen in the House of Lords / [Gillray].
engraving
image: 19.8 x 23.3 cm; plate: 20.8 x 25.8 cm; sheet: 44.6 x 26.6 cm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2836
Published: 
[London] : H. Humphrey, No.18 Old Bond Street, May 3rd, 1794
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Without music.
Printed above image: "--off, off, ye lendings."
A heading to thirteen printed verses: 'A Ballad, Occasioned by a Certain Earl's styling himself a Sans Culotte Citizen in the House of Lords.' First verse: 'Rank character, distinction, fame, / And noble birth forgot, / Hear St****pe, modest Earl, proclaim / Himself a Sans Culotte!

Summary: 

Stanhope, wearing a bonnet-rouge inscribed 'Liberty', tramples on a scroll inscribed 'A Deo et Rege', beside which lies his (overturned) earl's coronet. He capers bare-legged, his breeches flutter to the ground from his left hand. In his right is a tricolour flag inscribed 'Vive l Egalite'; the flagstaff is surmounted by an ass's head, which looks down at Stanhope, who looks ecstatically up at it, his head turned in profile to the left. Above the design: "---off, off, ye lendings." Stanhope, his coronet, breeches, and flag, are in full light, the rest of the design is in shadow, clouds forming a background. On the left three members of the House of Lords flee, their backs towards him: the Lord Chancellor (Loughborough), in hat, wig, and robes, as the Speaker of the Lords, carrying a document: 'Vote of the House of Lords One Dissentient Stan[hope]'. Next him is a judge carrying 'Magna Charta'; the third is a bishop with a 'Bible' under his arm. On the right four ladies, one elderly, the others young (presumably his wife and daughters), hasten in alarm away from Stanhope.

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