Dame rat, and her poor little ones

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James Gillray
1756-1815
Dame rat, and her poor little ones
etching
image: 193 x 275 mm; sheet: 230 x 297 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2376
Published: 
[London] : Publish'd March 26th 1782 by J. Browning, Oxford Street, [1782]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

By James Gillray.
Library's copy partially trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Print shows Lord Hertford, Lord Chamberlain since 1766, with his wife, five sons and two daughters, who are making obsequious overtures to Charles Fox, the central figure of the design. Hertford stands stiffly in profile to the left, his staff of office in his hand. His wife and children all have rat's heads. Fox, with a fox's head, strolls past the family ignoring their advances, and turning his back on Lady Hertford. She has her right hand on her husband's arm, and turns to her left to address Fox, saying "Happy to see you on Monday Mr. Reynard". The scene is an open rectangular space with buildings on the right and at the back, perhaps a free rendering of one of the courts of St. James's Palace.

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