File:Florizel and Perdita (BM J,1.157).jpg

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Florizel and Perdita   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
Florizel and Perdita
Description
English: Perdita (Mary Robinson, 1758-1800) stands in profile to the right in the centre of a circle holding a wand which rests on her shoulder. In her left hand she holds out a book, 'Essay on Man', to 'Florizel', the Prince of Wales (1762-1830), who looks at her with admiration, both hands raised as if dazzled by her beauty. She wears a high-crowned Welsh hat on the top of a pyramid of hair with its head-dress of lace and ribbons. He wears a loose tunic over Roman armour, a long furred cloak, and the insignia of the Garter. His coronet, decorated with two ostrich feathers and a leek, emblem of Wales, is falling from his head. Behind Perdita stands a man who points at her with his right hand. His head is decorated with stag's horns, and in his left hand is a paper inscribed "Sr Peter Pimp": he is Thomas Robinson, her husband. The scene is probably the Green Room at Drury Lane. At Perdita's feet are rectangular and arched-top boxes inscribed "Whitewash, Carmine, Dentrifice, Perfume, Pomatum"; on the last is a paper inscribed "To Florizel". Behind her is an elaborately carved sofa with satyr's legs, its head ornamented with a cupid and two birds. The wall behind is draped with a large looped curtain. Against it stand two ornate pedestals each surmounted by a tazza. On the wall are two medallions: the larger represents a nymph and goat-herd with two goats (?) and is surmounted by a cupid with a bow and arrow who wears a high-crowned Welsh hat decorated with a leek. The other is the profile-head of a satyr (?). 10 November 1780
Hand-coloured etching with engraving, and letterpress
Depicted people Representation of: George IV, King of the United Kingdom
Date 1780
date QS:P571,+1780-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 141 millimetres (plate)
Height: 319 millimetres (sheet)
Width: 199 millimetres (plate)
Width: 236 millimetres (sheet)
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
J,1.157
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935) Mrs. Robinson played Perdita in Garrick's adaptation of the 'Winter's Tale' in her last season at Drury Lane, 1779-80, and attracted the admiration of the Prince of Wales who sent her a letter signed 'FlorizeF, thus beginning a correspondence between Florizel and Perdita which led to her short-lived establishment as the prince's mistress. The first meeting in the Green Room at Drury Lane is said to have occurred on 3 Dec. 1780, after the date of this print, Genest, vi. 136-7. For the liaison see also 'Corr. of George III', vol. v. 269; Walpole, 'Last Journals', 1910, ii. 350; Tom Taylor, 'Life of Reynolds', i. 345-6. The song, 'Florizel and Perdita', is to the tune of 'O Polly is a sad slut! &c.' The second of eight verses is:

"A tender Prince, oh well-a-day! Of Years not yet a Score, Had late his poor Heart stol'n away, By one of's many more;"

The first of many satires associating the Prince and Mrs. Robinson. See BMSat 5865, 6115, 6116, 6117, 6221, 6263, 6266, 6318, 6319, 6320.

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)

Song printed underneath
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_J-1-157
Permission
(Reusing this file)
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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current00:14, 12 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 00:14, 12 May 20201,183 × 1,600 (492 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1780 #5,520/12,043

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