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High life at five in the morning
Title
High life at five in the morning [graphic].
Publication
[London] : [publisher not identified], publish'd according to act of Parliament, May 1st, 1769.
Physical Description
1 print : engraving and etching ; plate mark 23 x 35 cm, on sheet 29.8 x 41.5 cm
Medium
wove paper.
Notes
Title engraved below image.
Text preceding publication statement: A recent transaction.
"Price 1s. but given gratis to the purchasers of the Court Miscellany."--Following imprint.
Eight lines of verse beneath image, four on either side of title: Persons in exalted station, Should patterns be of imitation; But if a duke must have his punk, And from the bagnio ride home drunk. What wonder if her wanton grace, Invites another in his place? He draws his sword raps out his oaths, But what redress? his rival's cloaths.
Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum.
The reference to the duke is probably Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, 1745-90.
Provenance
With the armorial bookplates of "Fraser, of Ledeclune, baronet" and "Herbert Henry Raphael" in volume. Sold at Sotheby's, 22 April 1901, to Sotheran.
Summary
Print shows an interior view of a room; a duke has arrived home drunk at 5 a.m. (as shown on the longcase clock beside the door) accompanied by two attendants and watchman only to find his bedchamber occupied by another man. Through the open curtains around the bed can be seen a bare-breasted duchess. On the floor near the bed is an open book, "Memoirs of a woman of pleasure" (a reference to John Cleland's Fanny Hill ...) beside the chamber pot. As the duke with sword drawn, staggers forward, his rival climbs through a window in the background, leaving his clothes behind on a chair. A monkey dashes onto the table near the window on the heels of the husband's rival but pulls down the tablecloth causing the items on the table to be strewn across the floor in the foreground; a book opened to pages “Chastity in the nobility a farce. Dedicated to their Graces the Duke & Dutchess xxx”, breaking a broken mirror, and sending the bottles and jars onto the floor. The bottles have labels "Viper drops" and "Surfeit water" and the jar is labeled "Lip salve".
Format
Images
Language
English
Added to Catalog
February 18, 2022
Subjects
Subjects (Local Yale)
Genre/Form
Cartoons (Commentary) - British - 1760-1770.
Satires (Visual works) - England - 1769.
Engravings - England - London - 1769.
Etchings - England - London - 1769.
Bookmark As
Citation
