Kemble (left) seizes a young woman round the waist, she struggles to free herself; he holds her left hand in his right, the fingers interlaced. He wears a cloak, slashed doublet, and hose. Behind him (left) is an overturned chair, on the right a table from which slide the ink-stand and a paper: '[Arti] cles of Agreement.. . Del Campo Mr Bombast She must have no objection to take any Male Part whatever in either Tragedy Comedy or Farces thats offerd to Her'. Kemble tramples on an open book (left): 'Rules for good acting serving to shew the late Davd Garricks mode of playing Erronious a Drawling delivery Justifiable' [cf. BMSat 7590]. A woman, probably Mrs. Kemble, enters by a door (right), her left hand raised in astonishment. A man looks over her shoulder.
<p><br>On the handsome chimney-piece is a statuette of Shakespeare, a burlesque of Kent's monument in Westminster Abbey, his right forefinger pointing down at the struggle. He wears a grotesque mask which smiles sardonically. On the wall (right) is a picture of a woman wearing weeds and holding a little boy by the hand (probably Kemble's wife, the widow of William Brereton). After the title:
<br><br>'Ill plunge into a Sea of my Desires
<br>I ll tear up pleasures by the Roots
<br>And Quench my Fires tho I Drown my Fame
<br>Rochesters Valentinian Tragedy'  15 February 1795
</p>
<br>Etching
1795<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1795-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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