The flying bishop, or, Tale of a pope

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Isaac Cruikshank
1756?-1811?
The flying bishop, or, Tale of a pope
illustration (hand colored etching)
38 x 22 cm
Peel 1984
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Bibliography: 
Olson, Robert J.M. and Pasachoff, Jay M. "Fire in the sky: comets and meteors, the decisive centuries, in British art and science." Cambridge, England : Cambridge University Press, 1998, page 134.
Notes: 

Broadside verse with hand-colored etched illustration.
Lettered below text "Printed and Sold by J. Bailey, 116, Chancery-Lane. Price 6d."
Image signed "I. Cruikshank del."
Verse begins "It was the Bishop Athendius who once at Eventide" and ends "Aye, that is the mystery of this wonderful History, I wish that I could tell."
Reprint (with a few variations in spelling and wording) of a poem by Robert Southey published in 1802 under the title "A True Ballad of St. Antidius, the Pope, and the Devil."

Summary: 

Bishop Athendius reading a pamphlet while riding on the back of the Devil on his way to Rome, holding him by the horns, with his cross and beads flying behind him. The Devil holds a book in his hands, singes his beard on a comet, runs amuck of a shooting star and collides with a witch, knocking her off her broomstick.

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