The Devil to Pay; The Wife Metamorphos'd, or, Neptune reposing after Fording the Jordan

James Gillray
1791

Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University Library, 791.10.24.01.1+ 

Caricature of Dorothea Jordan with the Duke of Clarence (subsequently William IV); "ford" is an allusion to Jordan's husband Richard Ford (ca. 1759–1806).

Jordan's speech is a quotation from The Devil to Pay, or, The Wives Metamorphosed by Charles Coffey (d. 1745) :

What pleasant Dreams I have had To-night! Methought I was in Paradise, upon a Bed of Violets & Roses, and the sweetest Husband by my Side! Ha! bless me, where am I now? What Sweets are these? No Garden in the Spring can equal them; Am I on a Bed? The Sheet are Sarsanet sure, no Linen ever was so fine. What a gay, silken Robe have I got? O Heav'n! I dream! Yet if this be a Dream, I would not wish to wake again. Sure I died last Night, and went to Heav'n, & this is it.

The writing on the jordan, or bedpan, is an offensive joke punning on Jordan's surname: "Public Jord[an] Open to all Parties." Text below the image reads:

Ten Thousand Transports wait,
To crown my happy State,
Thus kiss'd, and press'd,
And doubly bless'd.

In all this Pomp & State:
New scenes of Joy arise,
Which fill me with Surprise
That Husband I despise:

Then Jobson, now adieu,
Thy Cobbling still pursue,
For hence I will not, cannot, no, nor must not buckle to
The Devil to Pay; The Wife Metamorphos'd, or, Neptune reposing after Fording the Jordan.

Nell Jobson is a reference to the cobbler's wife in the ballad farce The Devil to Pay or, The Wives Metamorphos'd.

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