A satire on the struggle between pitt and thurlow travestied as a scene from 'paradise lost'. Pitt (left) is death, wearing the king's crown and using a long sceptre as a weapon. Thurlow (right) is satan; he raises the (breaking) mace to smite, and holds out an oval shield decorated with the bag of the great seal and a tiny woolsack. The queen, as sin, naked, with snaky locks, and two writhing serpents for legs, interposes with outstretched arms, looking with terrified face at thurlow in her desire to protect pitt. She is a hideous hag with pendent breasts; from her snaky hair hangs a large key inscribed 'the instrument of all our woe', and evidently symbolizing secret influence, cf. Bmsat6564, &c. Pitt s naked body is emaciated and corpse-like; from his shoulders hangs a long ermine-trimmed cloak; his sceptre radiates darts of lightning. His face expresses alarm and determination. Behind him, and guarding the gate of hell which is indicated by a stone arch, is cerberus, with the profile heads of dundas, grenville, and richmond, looking up at thurlow; their body terminates in a large serpent with a barbed tail. Thurlow has wings, and is naked except for a quasi-roman kilt. He wears his chancellor's wig, his profile and eyebrow are of a terrifying fierceness; serpents twine round his shield, and spit fire at pitt and the queen; a serpent entwined in pitt's crown, and others in the queen's snaky locks, retaliate. On the right are the flames of hell in which demons are flying; smoke fills the background. Beneath the design is etched: 'nb: the above performance containing portraits of the devil & his relatives, drawn from the life, is recommended to messrs boydell, fuselli & the rest of the proprietors of the three hundred & sixty five editions of milton now publishing, as necessary to be adopted, in their classick embellishments. ' above and below the design are etched lines from 'paradise lost' beginning:
'------------black it stood as night,
fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
and shook a dreadfull dart: what seemd his head
the likeness of a kingly crown had on;'
and ending:
'"had not the snaky-sorceress that sat,
"fast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key,
"ris'n, and with hideous outcry rushd between. ' 9 june 1792
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1792. Dimensions: Height: 318 mm; Width: 403 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: John Boydell. Collection: British Museum. Sin, death, and the devil. vide Milton (BM 1851,0901.610)
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