Hungry rats in an empty barn [graphic].

[London] : Pubd. March, 1806 by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly, [March 1806]

1 print : etching ; plate mark 25.1 x 35.2 cm, on sheet 28 x 39 cm

laid paper

"Ministerial rats with human heads scamper about a barn, searching for food. John Bull, a yokel in a smock and holding a pitchfork, holds open one leaf of the door facing the spectator, to watch their antics with amusement. George III, in profile to the right., puts a hand his shoulder, and says: "What! What! looking for Grain, eh! looking for grain; it's all gone, all gone all gone, quite Empty." John answers: "Why, these Hungry Rats thought to have had some fine pickings, I warrant, but egad they'll he woundedly mistaken, tho'f they seem to want it nationly; but that dom'd Scotchman [Melville] carried off a rare lot of it & as to poor Billy the Butler [Pitt] why he was so fond of a drop of Black Snap, [Perjorative for thick, sweet port. Partridge, 'Slang Dict.', 1938.] that when he and his friends, not at it, d'ye see, the rest of the Servants did as they pleased, poor Rogues I'se afraid they'll Undermine the Barn they're so main Hungry." The rats are on a smaller scale. On the extreme left., Lord Derby peeps from a bin inscribed 'Treasury', saying, "Why I suppose the Old Rat Died because there was nothing to feed upon." Moira climbs down a tilted sieve, Grenville sniffs at an upturned '[T]reasury' tub on which Lord Ellenborough sulkily reposes. Grey scampers towards an empty lantern but Windham has dragged out its candle and is nibbling at it. Sheridan races towards the candle from the r. Behind him is Erskine, looking sly. A bulky animal wearing a garter ribbon, probably the Marquis of Buckingham, lies with its head inside an empty '[T]reasury' sack. Fox and Bedford nibble at a pile of tattered and folded sacks on which is Lord Spencer, looking down at them. In the background are three other rightats, whose heads are less characterized: those on the left may be Sidmouth and Lauderdale; one nibbling a bundle of straw (r.) resembles Burdett."--British Museum online catalogue.

English

January 22, 2009

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8, no. 10542