After Henry Bunbury
Pistol eating Fluellens Leak, Vide, Henry Vth
London, Ca. 1811
Etching
Original hand colouring
250 350 mm
£150
A crude copy in line of a plate in the set of stipple illustrations to Shakespeare, after Bunbury, published by Macklin. The original is the serious illustration of a comic subject; the copy has the character of caricature. Pistol sits on the ground clutching his sword in both hands, his mouth distended by a large leek; he scowls towards Fluellen (right) who threatens him with raised cudgel. Behind the latter stands a grinning man at arms holding a spear. The scene is open country with a large camp in the middle distance. The costume is quasi-Elizabethan, but Pistol has a long pigtail queue, and beside him is a large cocked hat.