Balaam, or, The majesty of the people : the Lord opened the mouth of the ass &c.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Balaam, or, The majesty of the people : the Lord opened the mouth of the ass &c.
etching
image: 228 x 318 mm, oval; plate mark: 251 x 352 mm, sheet: 248 x 326 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2307
Published: 
[London] : Pub'd April 10th, 1783, by W. Humphrey No. 227 Strand, [1783]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Printmaker from BM Satires.
A satire on tithes and the clergy.
Library's copy is trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Oval design shows a tall, thin military officer, wearing a hat, gorget, and sword, carrying on his shoulders an enormously fat parson dressed in gown and bands. The officer, who walks from left to right, his head in profile to the right, is saying, "I am an Independent Country Gentleman & Coll. of Militia". The parson, with a complacent expression, holds over his right shoulder a scourge with three lashes, one, ending in a snake's head, is inscribed "Pious Fraud", the second is "English Statutes", the third, ending in beads and a cross, is "Popish Canons". Under his left arm he holds a basket labelled "Tithes", in it are visible chickens and a sucking-pig. Behind the parson walks a dejected-looking farmer in a smock-frock, holding his hat in one hand, a branch in the other; he says, "We farmers have our Bodys Eat up, for the good of our Souls". Behind the farmer (left) are sheaves of corn, in one of which is a branch similar to that which he holds. The landscape background is mountainous. Cf. BM Satires.

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