"In a squalid room Johnson and Boswell lie in two short truckle beds. Boswell (right) is in the foreground, his face contorted with horror, his hands before his mouth as if to stifle a scream, his bare feet drawn up, but projecting over the end of his bed. A gigantic spider descends towards his head, insects are spotted over the bedclothes and pillow, from which projects Ogden (see BMSat 7031). Johnson lies on his back (left) under a casement window, his eyes closed, his hands clasped as if in prayer, his knees drawn up to accommodate the shortness of the bed. A woman's dress hangs as an improvised curtain between the two beds. Under Johnson's bed two rats gnaw Boswell's wig."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., One in a series of twenty plates by Rowlandson after S. Collings. See British Museum catalogue, v. 6, page 345., Plate from: Picturesque beauties of Boswell, Part the Second. [London] : [E. Jackson], [1786], Five lines of verse below title: "There were two beds in the room, and a woman's gown was hung on a rope to make a curtain of seperation [sic] between them ..." Vide Journal p. 153., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and In mss. in lower left corner: E-155.
Publisher:
Pubd. 20 June 1786, by E. Jackson No. 14, Mary bone [sic] Street, Golden Square
Subject (Name):
Johnson, Samuel, 1709-1784, Boswell, James, 1740-1795, and Boswell, James, 1740-1795.
Subject (Topic):
Atttics, Bedroooms, Nightmares, Sleepwear, and Spiders
"Boswell (left) rises in terror from his bed, at the sight of a headless man in Highland dress, the head replaced by a headsman's axe surmounted by a Scots cap. This spectre, irradiated, advances from the right and draws aside the curtain of the bed. Boswell's nightcap flies upwards from his head ..."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., One in a series of twenty plates by Rowlandson after S. Collings. See: Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 6, page 345., Plate from: Picturesque beauties of Boswell, Part the Second. [London] : [E. Jackson], [1786], Sheet trimmed within plate mark, Three lines of verse below title: "I had the most elegant room, by there was a fire in it that blazed, And the sea to which my windows looked roared, & the pillows were made of sea fowls feathers ..." Vide Journal p. 110., and Temporary local subject terms: Highland dress -- Scots cap -- Bed curtains -- Headless spectre.
Publisher:
Publish'd May 15th, 1786, by E. Jackson, No. 14 Mary-le-bone Street, Golden Square
Subject (Name):
Boswell, James, 1740-1795 and Boswell, James, 1740-1795.
