File:Keep within Compass and you shall be sure, to avoid many troubles which others endure (BM 1935,0522.3.63).jpg

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Keep within Compass and you shall be sure, to avoid many troubles which others endure   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

After: Robert Dighton

Published by: Bowles & Carver
Title
Keep within Compass and you shall be sure, to avoid many troubles which others endure
Description
English: A companion print to BMSat 6903. A young woman stands within a compass inscribed 'Fear God', holding an open book inscribed 'The Pleasures of Imagination Realized'. At her feet is an open chest full of guineas from which hang bank-notes and jewels; it is inscribed 'The Reward of Virtue'. A small dog stands beside her. In the background (right) is a country house, on the left farm-buildings and haystacks. The four corners are filled (as in BMSat 6903) with the disasters which beset the woman who does not 'keep within compass'. (1) A woman weeps dejectedly with cards and an empty purse on the ground at her feet. (2) A drunken woman lets an infant fall from her arms; on the wall is a torn print inscribed 'Domestic Happiness'. (3) A woman is being conducted to the watch-house by two watchmen, one with his lantern, the other with a rattle. (4) She beats hemp in Bridewell, a man standing behind her with a whip, as in Hogarth's 'Harlot's Progress'. The words round the circle are the same as in BMSat 6903. Beneath the circle is inscribed 'Prudence produceth esteem'. Below the design four verses are engraved, the first:



'Instead of Cards my Fair-one look,
(I beg you'll take it kind)
Into some learned Author's Book,
And cultivate your mind.' 1785


Mezzotint with hand-colouring
Date 1785
date QS:P571,+1785-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 350 millimetres
Width: 249 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1935,0522.3.63
Notes

This print entitled 'Keep within Compass' and its companion (see below) encouraged men and women to uphold traditional values. Wealth, in the form of gold coins and stock certificates, overflows the strongbox, inscribed the ‘Reward of Virtue’. It lies at the feet of the confident, well-dressed woman of ‘good-character’. In contrast to her own self-discipline, the corners of the image depict the perils and pitfalls of ‘fallen’ women, who have traded their integrity for idleness, drink and prostitution. Their fall, ultimately, leads to imprisonment in Bridewell Prison, where they spend their days beating hemp.

The accompanying male print (see P&D 1935,0522.3.62) substitutes industry for virtue, found in the woman’s print. Moralistic teachings played an increasingly dominant role in 18th century England, as metropolitan life offered a bewildering array of temptations. Contemporary conduct manuals, biographies and novels aimed at impressionable young people included similar themes.

It is an example of a ‘posture’ print, cheerfully coloured pictures accompanying a few lines of song, popular in the 1790s.

For a plate in the British Museum with the same image see BEP 1891,1211.1.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1935-0522-3-63
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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current07:18, 14 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 07:18, 14 May 20201,063 × 1,485 (507 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1785 #8,024/12,043

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