Melpomene [graphic].

"Mrs. Siddons stands on the stage, her head turned in profile to the left, her left hand outstretched to take a heavy purse which hangs on a pitchfork emerging from clouds. To take it she has dropped a dagger which falls to the ground. In her left hand is a cup whose contents she is pouring on the ground. The panniers of her dress fly backwards revealing two bulging pockets, one full of guineas, the other of notes or cheques inscribed '£1000, £300', &c. She is saying: "Famish'd & spent relieving others woe, Your poor devoted Suppliant only begs, This morsel for to buy a bit of Bread." The black clouds of smoke from which the pitchfork projects rise in a pillar of cloud from the pit of the theatre where flames are indicated, from which come the words 'Encore! Encore!' In the background a temple of Fame on a mountain-top is collapsing, the pillars shattered; the figure of Fame falls backward, dropping his trumpet."--British Museum online catalogue.