A satire on burke's resignation after the death of rockingham. Burke, as an irish jesuit, seated at a table eating potatoes. While he wears a monkish robe, a rosary hanging from his rope and girdle, and bare feet with sandals, he wears a wig and under his robe, which is open at the neck, a cravat, shirt frill, and coat-collar are visible. He wears spectacles, and is seated on a three-legged stool, facing left, and peeling with his long fingers a steaming potato taken from a chamber-pot on the table in front of him which is filled with potatoes, in which is stuck a two-pronged fork. The pot is inscribed "relick n° i. Used by st peter". On the table are also a wine-glass, a plate with a bare bone on it, a steaming saucepan, a birch-rod, two candles stuck in bottles, one of which hangs down broken and guttering. At the opposite end of the table from burke is a crucifix standing on a small cask inscribed "whiskey". The figure on the cross is mutilated, the head and one leg from the knee are broken off. Beneath the table, which is oblong, plain and solid, three imps or demons dance, holding hands, naked quasi-human figures of revolting appearance. Two walls of the room are visible; on the right behind burke is a large open fire-place, with wood burning on the hearth, a fender and firearms. Over the fire-place is an oval bust portrait (caricature) of a monk inscribed "bonniface". On the back wall, over burke's head, is a framed picture of a monk standing on the shore, preaching to fishes, among which a dolphin is conspicuous. Bricks showing in irregular patches on the plastered wall heighten the impression of squalor. Beneath the title is engraved, "falsely supposed to represent jesuit-pad driven back to his native potatoes. See romish commonwealth. " 23 august 1782
etching. Date: 1782. Dimensions: Height: 258 mm; Width: 350 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Edmund Burke. Collection: British Museum. Cincinnatus in retirement. (BM J,3.99)
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