J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Architectural and Other Subjects c.1797 ... > Swans Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Inscription by Turner: Song Lyrics 1798-9

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Inscription by Turner: Song Lyrics’ 1798-9
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Verso:
Inscription by Turner: Song Lyrics 1798–9
D01803
Turner Bequest XLII 128
Pen and ink on buff laid paper, 174 x 125 mm
Inscribed by Turner in ink with lines of verse (see main catalogue entry)
Stamped in black ‘XLII – 128’ top right, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, lines of verse are inscribed in pen and ink at the top of the page:
A  Eating quaffing at past labours laughing
S  Better far by half in [?spirits] than before
A  Oh how merry then the rested traveller
      Seem [sic] while siting [sic] at the Goatherds door
These lines are the conclusion of the duet, from Samuel Arnold’s 1793 musical play The Mountaineers, beginning ‘Faint and wearily the wayworn traveller’, copied out on the recto (D01804; Turner Bequest XLII 129).
For other pages of lyrics towards the end of this sketchbook, see the entry for the inside of the back cover (D41426).

Andrew Wilton
March 2013

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Inscription by Turner: Song Lyrics 1798–9 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-inscription-by-turner-song-lyrics-r1173999, accessed 20 April 2024.