Alecto and her train at the gate of Pandoemonium - or - the recruiting sarjeant enlisting John Bull into the revolution service
Alecto and her train at the gate of Pandoemonium - or - the recruiting sarjeant enlisting John Bull into the revolution service
Item Information
Title:
Alecto and her train at the gate of Pandoemonium - or - the recruiting sarjeant enlisting John Bull into the revolution service
Title (alt.):
Alecto and her train at the gate of Pandemonium. Or, the recruiting sarjeant enlisting John Bull into the revolution service
Description:
Alecto, a fantastic hag, stands outside the Crown and Anchor tavern between a diminutive Sheridan (left), playing a fife, and Fox (right), a burly drummer, both wearing regimentals. She towers above them, holding a long pike surmounted by a cap of 'Liberty' and holding out to John Bull, a yokel, a handful of 'Assignats.' Hissing serpents form her hair and serpents suck at the pendent breasts that her ragged garments do not cover. She has webbed wings, and wears a French cocked hat with a tricolour cockade. John Bull stands on the left, scratching his head with a puzzled grin. He wears a smock and very wrinkled gaiters and his hat and a pitchfork are in his left hand. Sheridan stands between Alecto and John Bull. From his fife issues a label. Fox is much larger than Sheridan, both wear French Grenadier's caps. On his drum is the head of a Medusa (Discord) with snaky locks. He smiles, watching John Bull with a stare of eager calculation. Behind him and on the extreme right, Stanhope runs off to the right, stooping as if to conceal himself. In his right hand is a letter from W. Pitt. The door of the Crown & Anchor Tavern is immediately behind Fox and Alecto. From it issue flames and smoke in which imps and demons are flying (BM). / On the supposed design of the party headed by Fox and Sheridan to enlist the people of England in the same revolutionary cause which now flourished in France. The Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, was the grand place of meeting of the Revolution Society. Lord Stanhope, who rendered himself remarkable by his strong democratic principles, was supposed at this moment to be hesitating in the part he was to take in politics. Lord Stanhope married Lady Hester Pitt, daughter of the first Lord Chatham, and sister to William Pitt, the Minister (Wright/Evans).
Title from item.
Alternative title from Wright/Evans.
BM Satires 7889; Wright/Evans 56
On item: 51.
Notes (acquisition):
The Albert H. Wiggin Collection, 1941
Notes (date):
Date from British Museum.
Reproduction. Date indicated is Gillray's original publication date.
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.
Notes (object):
Bound in "The Caricature Magazine or Hudibrastic Mirror Vol. 4," the fourth volume in a set of five published under this title by Thomas Tegg. The five volumes contained 251 prints in all.
IIIF Manifest