The cutter cut up, or, the monster at full length, William Dent, 1790

Thicknesse stands full face, a rope round his neck, nude except for short breeches. He frowns, his eyes looking to the right, as in gillray's portrait, see bmsat 7722. His person is covered with defamatory inscriptions. His chest is cut open vertically to reveal ribs and organs, similarly inscribed. In his right hand is a pen, in his left three papers inscribed: 'paragraph', 'pamphlets', 'letters', all characterized as 'extortion'. His forehead is inscribed 'libel', 'ignorance', 'illnature'; his nose 'plagiarism'; his cheeks, 'letchery' and 'austerity'; his mouth 'falsehood' and 'vulgarality' [sic]; his protruding tongue, 'scandal'. The rope round his neck is 'merit'. His shoulders are inscribed 'inhumanity' and 'apprehension'; his ribs, 'seven deadly sin'. And 'bastardy'. His organs: 'cowardice', 'gallstones', 'treachery', 'spleen', 'disease', 'defamation', 'cruelty', 'reservoir for friends'. His sides: 'quackery' and 'buffoonery'; his right arm, 'belzebub', 'insinuation', 'assassination'. His left arm, 'flattery', 'damnation', 'affidavit'. One breeches pocket bulging with guineas is 'plunder', the other, hanging inside out, is 'poverty'; between them is the word 'genius'. On the right thigh is etched a cocked pistol inscribed 'memoirs', with the head of thicknesse saying "death of characters is life to me; this is faith". On the left thigh the devil kicks thicknesse away from the flames of hell, saying, "i wont be troubled with you - your [sic] are too bad for me; this is hope". His bare knees, legs and (right) foot are inscribed 'hypocrisy', 'imposition', 'prostitution', 'deceit', 'desertion'. He tramples on two torn papers: 'moral duties' and 'religious duties'. Beneath the title is etched: 'most heartily addressed, (without permission) to phil. Thicknesse, esq. Formerly a lieutenant governor and lately doer of the st. James's chronicle, but now nobody at his hut in kent "oh! gravel heart! unfit to live! unfit to die!" shakespere' 15 december 1790 hand-coloured etching. Date: 1790. Dimensions: Height: 475 mm; Width: 302 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Philip Thicknesse. Collection: British Museum. The cutter cut up, or, the monster at full length (BM 1868,0808.5982)