Bozzy Madame Piozzi. [graphic]

"Mrs. Thrale (Piozzi) and Boswell are in heated argument: she (left) advances upon Boswell with her hands on her hips; he stamps violently and clenches his fists. An elderly man seated in an armchair looks at them in alarm, raising his hand in admonition. He is Sir John Hawkins: the 'rival wits' have agreed to let him 'Declare the prop'rest pen to write Sam's Life.' Beside him a 'cello leans against the wall, emblem perhaps of Sir John's interest in music, perhaps of Mrs. Thrale's marriage to Piozzi. Three shelves of books are above his head; the highest is filled with large volumes covered with a cobweb, one inscribed 'History of Musi[c]' ... Behind the two disputants is a draped sash-window. Beneath each part of the title a quotation from the verses is engraved: '[1] Who, madning with an Anecdotic Itch, Hath said that Johnson call'd his Mother, B-tch?' Boswell taunts Mrs. Thrale with her anecdote of Johnson's answer to his mother when she called him a puppy. '[2] Who, from Macdonald's Rage, to save his snout, Cut twenty lines of defamation, out?' She retorts with the slander which Boswell denied."--British Museum online catalogue