11.
- Creator:
- Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker
- Published / Created:
- [8 April 1793]
- Call Number:
- 793.04.08.01+
- Image Count:
- 1
- Resource Type:
- still image
- Abstract:
- "Pitt steers a small boat, 'The Constitution', with a single sail, a Union pennant flying from the mast, through huge waves between a high rock (left) and a whirlpool whose circumference is an inverted crown which merges in the swirling water. He is in profile to the right, gazing fixedly at a castle on a promontory (right) among still waters, which flies a flag inscribed 'Haven of Public Happiness'. Britannia, a buxom young woman, sits in the boat, her hands raised in alarm, her head turned towards the rock, on the summit of which is a large bonnet-rouge with a tricolour cockade on a post within a ramshackle fence. Spray dashes against Scylla; beside the rock and in the foreground (left) three sharks with human heads closely pursue Pitt's boat: Sheridan, Fox, and Priestley (good profile portraits), their eyes fixed menacingly on the boat. They are: 'Sharks'; 'Dogs of Scylla'."--British Museum online catalogue
- Alternative Title:
- Vessel of the Constitution steered clear of the Rock of Democracy and the Whirlpool of Arbitrary Power
- Description:
- Title etched below image., Caption below image, under the heads of Priestley, Fox and Sheridan: Sharks, dogs of Scylla., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on lower edge., and Temporary local subject terms: Flags: union pennant -- Constitution as a boat -- Boats -- Cap of liberty as bonnet rouge -- Allusion to the French Revolution -- Crowns: royal crown inverted as a whirlpool -- Cap of Liberty -- Symbols: tricolor cockades -- Allusion to Scylla abd Charybdis (Greek mythology) -- Literature: George Canning, 1770-1827, The Pilot that Weathered the Storm -- Waves -- Fortresses.
- Publisher:
- Pubd. April 8th, 1793 by H. Humphrey, N. 18 Old Bond Street
- Subject (Name):
- Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804, and Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
- Subject (Topic):
- Britannia (Symbolic character)
- Found in:
- Lewis Walpole Library > Britannia between Scylla and Charybdis, or, The vessel of the Constitution steered clear of the Rock of Democracy and the Whirlpool of Arbitrary-Power [graphic]