The Quiet Husband, 1768

A satire on marriage and indolent clergy set in a domestic interior. The husband, a portly middle-aged clergyman, is fast asleep with a pipe in his hand and a glass, a large jug and a snuff-box on the table beside him; his walking stick rests against the wall. His pretty young wife is seated on the other side of the table and is caressed by a young offier. Her small daughter sits beside her playing with a doll dressed as a soldier and ignoring a smaller doll dressed as a parson which she has pushed aside. The child sits on a book lettered "on ye lawfulness of pluralities"; two other books lie beside another pitcher, one of which is lettered, "the first lesson for the evening service"; on the floor beside the parson is a book of "select sermons", open at "discourse the 1st on the duty of watchfulness". A dog lies asleep beside the parson and in front of the fire; on the mantelpiece are more pipes, lemons, a punch bowl, a bottle labelled "brandy". Behind is a screen over which the officer has thrown his greatcoat and on which he has hung his hat; a large bird, released from a cage that hangs over the table, pecks at the cockade on the hat. On the left, a violin hangs on the wall, and a cupboad is open to show two more books and a wine bottle. 20 november 1768 engraving. Date: 1768. Dimensions: Height: 257 mm; Width: 365 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum.