Mr. Burke's pair of spectacles for short sighted politicians / J Sayer fect.

Image not available
James Sayers
1748-1823
Mr. Burke's pair of spectacles for short sighted politicians / J Sayer fect.
line etching & aquatint
image: 322 x 246 mm; plate mark: 356 x 252 mm; sheet: 377 x 268 mm
Peel 3391
Published: 
[London] : Publd. by Thos. Cornell, Bruton Street, 12th May 1791.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Two lines of verse from Shakespeare below title: ... nought shall make us rue. If England to itself do rest but true.

Summary: 

Print show an allegorical representation of the thesis of Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution as seen through Burke's spectacles. Fox dressed as Cromwell stands ready to strike a tree with an axe, the blade of which is labelled "Rights of man". In the tree are many emblems: a crown, a star of the Garter, a snuffer, the Holy Bible with mitre and chalice, escutcheons representing hereditary nobility and the arms of the Portland and Cavendish families. Priestley (left), mounted on a flying monster with webbed wings, tilts with a lance at these objects. Winged demons prepare to cut down some of the emblems with scissors and a scythe and a large star of the Garter is being extinguished by Sheridan who holds up an extinguisher at the end of a pole. The Duke of Portland (left) sits in profile to the right astride a cylinder inscribed: "Part of the Subscription Whig Pillar of Portland Stone intended to have been erected in Runnimede". He gazes in horror, at a demon with webbed wings and serpents for hair. The demon holds out to Portland a picture of a tree growing in a pot inscribed "Republi[ca]nism". He sits on two volumes, "Treasonable \ Seditious Serm[ons]" on which is an open book: "Rights of Man by M P. [Paine]". In front of him is a circular aperture in the ground from which rise a skull wearing a wig (and resembling Price) and the two hands of a skeleton, one holding an open book inscribed "Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace... mine Eyes ... [s]een thy Salvation" (a quotation from Price's famous sermon on 4 Nov. 1789). Cf. George.

Artist page: 
Classification: 
Department: