The Devil to pay, the wife metamorphos'd, or, Neptune reposing, after Fording the Jordan

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James Gillray
1756-1815
The Devil to pay, the wife metamorphos'd, or, Neptune reposing, after Fording the Jordan
etching, hand colored
image: 243 x 345 mm; plate: 246 x 350 mm; sheet: 268 x 375 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2747
Published: 
[London] : Pubd. Octr. 24th 1791 by H. Humphrey, No. 18 Old Bond Street, [1791]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

By James Gillray.
Below caption title: "Ten Thousand Transports wait "To crown my happy State ... "Then Jobson, now adieu, "Thy Cobbling still pursue, "For hence I will not, cannot, no, nor must not buckle to.

Summary: 

Print shows a large bed where the Duke of Clarence lies asleep with Mrs. Jordan, who sits up with a rapt air, saying, "What pleasant Dreams I have "had To-night! methought I was in Paradise, upon a bed of Violets & Roses, "and the sweetest Husband by my side! . . ." [&c. & c] a quotation from Coffey's play 'The Devil to pay, or, the Wives metamorphosed'. On a chair (left) are the Duke's naval coat and a pair of breeches; on a stool (right) a petticoat and pair of stays. Under the bed is a chamber-pot inscribed 'Public Jord[an] open to all Parties'.

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