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Comfort's of a Bed of Roses, 21 April 1806

 Item — Box: LF104/8 Box 1
Reference code: LF104/8/70

Scope and Contents

Artist: James Gillray. Published: Hannah Humphrey. After the title: 'vide Charley's elucidation of Lord C-stl-r-gh's Speech! - A Nightly Scene near Cleveland Row'. Fox and his wife, facing the spectator, sleep in a magnificent , ducal bed, whose head and curtains form a background to the design. They disturbed by nightmares. Fox extends both arms in gloomy terror as Naooleon springs on his bed (right) and seizes the collar of his night-shirt, the other side of which is tugged at by the ghost of Pitt (left) who floats towards him dressed in a shroud, and supporting the curtain with his left. arm. Pitt exclaims: "Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n!" Fox's head is jerked forward, his hair rises, and his (bonnet-rouge) night-cap falls off. Napoleon leaps from a cannon on which his left. toe rests. It is inscribed 'Pour Subjuguer le Monde'. Behind it, and forming a background to the right. of the design, are clouds of fiery smoke, from which emerge a forest of spears with an imperial eagle topping a banner inscribed: 'Horrors of Invasion'. Napoleon wears his feathered bicorne with spurred jack-boots and raises his sword fiercely. An eagle whose (tricolour) collar is inscribed 'Prussia hovers menacingly over Fox'. The fringed bed-cover is covered with a pattern of roses; from under it (left) project heavy jagged thorn-branches with a few roses; the branches are inscribed: 'India Roses', 'Emancipation Roses', 'French Roses', 'Coalition Roses', 'Volunteer Roses'. A ghastly creature, Death, crawls from under the coverlet, which rests on the carpeted floor: a grinning skull-like jaw appears; a corpse-like arm holds up an hour-glass whose sands are almost run out. Round the arm is twined a tricolour ribbon inscribed 'Intemperance', 'Drosy [sic]', 'Dissolution'; its right hand clutches a spear. A bull-dog, its collar inscribed 'John Bull', snarls savagely at Napoleon, resting its fore-paws on the foot of the bed: it befouls a paper: 'List of the N[ew] Broad-Bottom Administr[ation], 'Citizen Volp[one]', 'Lord Pogy' [Grenville's nickname] ' - Bett Armstead' [Mrs. Fox], 'Doctor Clysterpipe' [Sidmouth], 'Miss Petty' [Lord H. Petty]. On the head of the bed are the arms of the Duke of Bedford, with his motto, 'Che Sara Sara' (Mr. and Mrs. Fox were in Bedford's house in Arlington Street). A patterned carpet covers the floor. Description from the British Museum.

Dates

  • Creation: 21 April 1806

Conditions Governing Access

Available by appointment in our Reading Room

Extent

1 Item(s)

Language of Materials

English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
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