“Two women …, the Duchess of Gordon and her daughter, weep beside an ornate coffin on trestles decorated with ducal coronets and the arms and crest, ‘Che Sara Sara’, of the Duke of Bedford. The Duchess, grossly fat and much caricatured, her hands on her hips, stands on the left, saying, “You intended to ha’a him my dear if you cauld thats certain or ony of the Family, but ne’er heed it Chiel I’ll take You down to the Abbey [Woburn] and try again.” She wears a Scots cap on a wig with short curls. Lady Georgiana (right) stands with both arms extended, staggering backwards, in uncontrolled despair. A miniature on a velvet ribbon has fallen from one wrist, another is about to fall. She exclaims: “Ah me, a luckless Maid, thus crossed in hope & expectation too. quite lost in both Attempts, the one for ever gone the other far too Cold, to feel the genial warmth of mine and Mothers Love. I’ll take me to my Weeds & shew the World the ne’er was Love like mine.” Her hat and necklace lie on the coffin; her curled wig, flung off by her extravagant gestures, is about to fall on it. Broadside ballads lie on the ground; beside the Duchess: ‘There’s Nae luck about the House’ and ‘We’ll tuck up our petticoats under our arm and over . . .’ Beside her daughter: ‘Wither my Love ah Wither art thou gone’ [cf. British Museum Satires No. 9311] and ‘Mad Bessy of Bedl[am]’.”–British Museum online catalogue.
- Printmaker: Williams, Charles, active 1797-1830, printmaker.
- Title: The Gord-ian knot still untied, or, The disapointed [sic] Dido still in despair [graphic].
- Publication: [London] : Pubd. May 9th, 1802, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly, [9 May 1802]
802.05.09.01+
Acquired June 2024
