Love in a coffin, James Gillray, 1784

A lady lies in a stone coffin, her charming feathered head resting on a skull. The coffin, a stone sarcophagus inscribed 'hic jacet stella caeta, \ in spec [sic] resurectionis carnis', is supported on stone masonry. A young man steps into the right end of the coffin, on which rests the lady's foot, his left foot poised on a stone on the ground, inscribed, 'sic iter ad astra'. He bends forward, raising her left hand to his lips. The grace and charm of the pair is in contrast with two macabre figures who stand on the extreme left and right: a man (left) stiffly erect, as if wearing grave-clothes, his fiercely staring eyeballs turned sideways upon the coffin; on the right a naked and emaciated figure holding a broken spear, with a skull-like head resembling that of death in bmsat 7083, but wreathed with roses and laughing broadly, holds his sides. On the left droop the branches of a weeping willow; on them stands a cupid aiming his bow at the lady. In the foreground (left) is a skull which looks up, saying, "alas, poor yorick". Beside it, and at the feet of the grim watcher, is a dilapidated tombstone decorated with a skull in profile and inscribed: 'to this complection we must come at last'. Behind are trees and the ruins of massive stone buildings, with a pyramid (right), the apex of which is broken away. 30 december 1784 etching. Date: 1784. Dimensions: Height: 250 mm; Width: 344 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum. Love in a coffin (BM 1868,0808.5405)