1787

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

JEMMY'S RETURN

202
London. Printed for R. Sayer, Map, Chart & Printseller, No. 53 Fleet Street, 6th March 1787

In a farmyard, a young sailor with a troubled expression clasps the left hand of a young woman who turns from him and weeps into the handkerchief she holds to her eye with her free hand. A walking stick lies before them in the grass. A cat lies at the base of a large tree directly behind her and further back is her cottage with spinning wheel and chair in the doorway. The shoreline is visible behind the sailor and his ship stands offshore far in the distance.

This is the third of a series of prints that follow the narrative of a popular ballad, Auld Robin Grey. In the first, Jemmy's Farewell, the young sailor leaves for the wars to make his fortune, leaving his beloved Jenny behind. In the second, The Introduction of Auld Robin Grey to Jenny, the old Scotsman appeals to her mother, who gives him Jenny's hand. In this third, Jemmy returns to find Jenny married. Larger impressions of this reduced print include the verse:

I had na been a wife, but weeks only four,
When sitting so mournfully at my own door,
I saw my Jemmy's wrath, for I could na think it he
Till he said, I'm come back, for to marry thee.//
O fair did we greet; and muckle did we say,
We took but a kiss, and we tore ourselves away,
I wish I were dead, but I'm no like to die,
And why did I live to say, wa is me.

Another print titled Jemmy's Farewell, published by Carington Bowles in 1782 has Jemmy taking his leave and returning to the sea after learning that Jenny is wed.

The posture size impression from which this print is a reduction was originally published by Sayer and Bennett "16 December 1784." Sayer reissued the posture print in 1786.

Reproduced in C.N. Robinson's The British Tar in Fact and Fiction, p. 372.

14 x 11 cm.
New York Public Library (title and inscription, no verse, Satyr p.191)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

You are clean Fair Lady but our Ways and Means are Dirty

127
London, Printed for Robert Sayer, Map & Printseller, no. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 9 April 1787

A chimney sweep (r.) with his swab turns back to a well-dressed woman and speaks the title. His allusion to "our Ways and Means" may be exclusive to chimney sweeps but if the lady is of ill-repute, it may embrace her. On both sides of the street, four story buildings converge in the background.

32.6 x 25.1 cm.
Metropolitan Museum, Lewis Walpole Library (#146, dated "16 August 1791," 791.8.16.1)

© The Metropolitan Museum of Art

THE FAIR QUAKER

187
London. Printed for Robert Sayer, Chart, Map & Printseller, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 11 July 1787

A young woman in a bonnet stands holding a bouquet. Her small dog prances in front of her. The background is a woodland with a stile and haystack behind her (r.). The verse reads:

She came like some bright Angel from above,
In every Gesture, Dignity, and Love,//
With concious Virtue, gracefully arrayed,
She's all perfection, 'tis the blue eyed Maid.

33 x 25 cm.
Metropolitan Museum (63.533.2)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

SHOP-LIFTER DETECTED

89
From an Original Picture Painted by Mr. John Collett. London, Printed for Robert Sayer, Map & Printseller, No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs Augt 10 1787

A young woman tries to hold down her petticoat as a kneeling shop boy draws out a long ribbon of lace trim from beneath it and stares at her with an accusing look. Another shorter length of lace trim with a ribbon roll nearby lies at her feet. Behind the shop boy who extracts the trim, another customer bends over him from behind and raises her hands aghast. The older shopkeeper holds the thief by the shoulders to restrain her, and behind him holding a club stands the stern, dark figure, possibly the watch. A small dog barks at him. Beside him, a shopgirl pointing to the thief tells a distressed customer what is happening. In the background stands a statuette of Mercury or Hermes, the god of thieves as well as a messenger for the gods.

The impression is a reissue from a plate inscribed to Sayer & Bennett, "25 April 1778."

32.3 x 24.3 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (colour, 787.8.10.1; also 11 x 14.2 cm., numbered 147), Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

And JOSEPH Protested he had no intention upon her honour

143
London, Printed for R. Sayer Printseller No. 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 13 Sept 1787 V. I Jos. Andrews

A boyish Joseph Andrews stands right, eyes down, and smiles shyly as the older, buxom Lady Booby seated on a sofa seizes his hand, and looks up at him pleadingly. Her lap dog sits scratching its ear in front of her. On the far left, a man and woman look on through the door, the woman winking knowingly at the man. The scene is from Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews, Book One, Chapter 8.

13.9 x 11.2 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (954.5.4.15)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

END of the HONEY MOON, or TIRED HUSBAND

205
Publish'd 10 Octr 1787 by Robt Sayer, 53 Fleet Street, London.

A fashionably dress young woman stands before a couch as she appeals to her husband who reclines before her. Though not unattractive, she has a rather large nose and her features are not as fine as her husband's, which may suggest this marraige is less than a love match. He appears to be speaking as he looks up to her and crosses his arms tightly to his chest, burying one hand under his lapel.

14 x 11.3 cm.
New York Public Library (Satyr p. 68)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

THE CHARMS of a RED COAT

211
London, Publishd 1 Novr 1787 by Robt. Sayer, 53 Fleet Street

A pretty girl in riding garb and a large feathered hat sits on a black horse and turns her head coyly as she flirts with the young officer. Two tents of the military encampment can be seen behind (l.), in the first of which three women sit around a table with punchbowl and glasses. The back of a cannon protrudes into the foreground left.

14.4 x 11.2 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (787.11.1.1)