The Swearing Quaker. Vide Norwich Meeting

(Charles Williams)

The Swearing Quaker. Vide Norwich Meeting

(London ? c. 1816)

Etching

Original hand-colouring

230x360mm

£120

Possibly a privately published plate. A small smartly dressed man stands in the middle of a group of soberly dressed Quakers, telling a group of horrified elders that one of their number, a plump, sanctimonious young man, who stands anxiously on tiptoes, had been heard to swear in a stagecoach. On the right two Quaker ladies exclaim in horror to each other. The group on the left ask: Friend inform us what thou knowes of the ungodly words spoken by Obediah in that vehicle of the Wicked One called the stage coach which verily has brought scandal on the Society of Friends. The small man replies: He said “They are all a set of rascals – damn me if they are not”. To which the accused young man says unconvincingly: Friend thou art quite mistaken in the words thou puttest into my mouth – I was never a prophane swearer – but the truth being spoken I have a very foolish habit of saying DUMMY which thee mistake for swearing. Not in BM Cat.