Tom Paine's nightly pest

Tom Paine's nightly pest

Item Information

Title:
Tom Paine's nightly pest
Description:
Paine lies asleep on straw on a ramshackle wooden bedstead, covered by his coat. He wears a cap and lies diagonally from left to right, facing the spectator. On the head of his bed are drawn the profile heads, with wings, of his Guardian Angels: Priestley (left) and Fox (right). His head rests on a bundle of straw round which is a striped and torn (?) flag. His arm lies across an open book. From his coat-pocket protrudes a pamphlet. On a table by his side (right) are a rat with its head caught in a trap, writing materials, and a paper. His dream appears surrounded with clouds on the right of the design. Three judges are represented by their empty wigs. Before each hangs a long scroll. Behind is the stone wall of a dungeon with a closely barred window, on each side of which hang heavy shackles. A gibbet and a pillory also emerge from the clouds (BM). / In December of 1792, Paine, who was in France, and therefore out of the reach of the law, was prosecuted and found guilty of a libel contained in the second part of his "Rights of Man." He is here represented on his couch of poverty, dreaming of the punishments which awaited his political crimes. At the time when this print was published, the prosecution had been made known, but the trial and condemnation only took place on the 18th of December (Wright/Evans).
Artist:
Gillray, James, 1756-1815
Name on Item:
Js. Gy. design et fect.
Date:
December 10, 1792
Format:
Prints
Genre:
Etchings
Caricatures
Satires (Visual works)
Location:
Boston Public Library
Arts Department
Collection (local):
James Gillray (1756-1815). Prints and Drawings
Subjects:
Politicians
Authors
Revolutionaries
Clergy
Sleeping
Angels
Dreaming
Paine, Thomas, 1737-1809
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806
Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804
Extent:
1 print : etching ; sheet 30 x 37 cm
Permalink:
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/2z111j53r
Terms of Use:
No Copyright - United States icon No Copyright - United States
No known copyright restrictions.
No known restrictions on use.
Publisher:
N. 18 Old Bond Street : Pubd. by H. Humphrey
Language:
English
Notes:
Title from item.
BM Satires 8132; Wright/Evans 91
Notes (date):
Date from item.
Notes (citation):
Stephens, Frederic George, George, Mary Dorothy. "Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum." British Museum Press, 1870, London.
Wright, Thomas, R. H. Evans. "Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures of James Gillray." Benjamin Blom, 1968, New York.
Identifier:
18_17_000124
Barcode:
36666000241170