 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
January 20-April 21 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The
Battle of the Cataplasm,
from Tristram Shandy Book 6.3, 1773
A Kick-Up at a Hazard Table, 1790
The
Fashionable Mamma, or,
The Convenience of Modern Dress, 1796
The
Overthrow of Dr. Slop,
from Tristram Shandy Book 2. 9, 1773
The
Damnation of Obadiah,
from Tristram Shandy Book 3.11, 1773
The
Siege of Namur,
from Tristram Shandy Book 6.22, 1773
after HENRY WILLIAM BUNBURY, British, 1756-1811
The Battle of the Cataplasm,
from Tristram Shandy Book 6, Chapter 3
etching, hand-colored, 1773
Gift of Hugh D. Griffith of
Dr. Philip M. Griffith Estate, 99.6.7
In
delivering the baby Tristram, Dr. Slop crushes the child’s nose.
Here Susannah, young Tristram’s nurse, argues with the diminutive
doctor over preparing a poultice to heal the wound. Susannah accidentally
sets fire to Dr. Slop’s wig:
“
--you impudent whore! cried Slop,
getting upright, with the cataplasm in his hand;
--I never was the destruction of anybody’s nose,
said Susannah, --which is more than you can say:
--Is it? cried Slop, throwing the cataplasm in her face;
--Yes, it is, cried Susannah, returning the compliment
with what was left in the pan.”
Bunbury has combined two incidents from the novel in this print (the cataplasm was actually made for a later injury). But he was clearly aware of the text in his rendering of the characters. Sterne invites the reader to “imagine yourself a little, squat, uncourtly figure of a Doctor Slop, of about four feet and a half perpendicular height, with the breadth of back, and a sesquipedality [foot and a half] of belly, which might have done honor to a Serjeant in the Horse Guards.” His language provides a perfect description for the comic artist to render.
