The bosky magistrate. (BM 2004,U.83)

The interior of a well-furnished room with an open door (right) through which a dove-cote and trees are visible.
By the fire (left) in an arm-chair is a gouty magistrate, tipsily somnolent, with twisted features. In his left hand is a glass spilling its contents, in his right a smoking tobacco-pipe; his right foot is supported on a cushioned stool. Beside him (right) is a table with books and writing-materials behind which sits his clerk, pen in mouth, spectacles on forehead, scrutinizing a group of three: a constable with a long staff between a fashionably dressed and drunken reveller and a young woman, whose dress hangs from just below her bare breasts. The constable, looking at the clerk, points to the woman. In the doorway a dog looks out and a sow looks in.
On the wall over the clerk's head is a picture of an ass kicking over a statue of Justice (a 'Justass', cf. BMSat 8187); in the background St. Paul's and the Monument with other buildings indicate London. On the table by the justice a punch-bowl stands on 'Burn's Justice'. The chimney-piece is supported by two carved satyrs. Above it is a framed (?) almanack. A cat sleeps by the fire. A patterned carpet completes the design. Beneath the title: 'Custos. Nemo. Comes. Testis. Sus. Bosque. Canisque. rules for the Gender of Nouns.
Custos. the Constable. Nemo. [cf. BMSat 5570] alluding to the Lady having no Waist [cf. BMSat 8569]. Comes, her Companion. Sus. a Sow Worried by a Dog. Testis, described by the Constable as Witness against the two Delinquents. Bosque, the Magistrate half Drunk or Bosky. Canisque, the Dog, referring to the Guardian of the Night in the Act of making a Seizure.' 25 November 1796

Hand-coloured etching