The self tormenter. Anonymous drawing, England, 18th century.

Artist: Unknown
Date: Undated (paper: first half of 18th-century laid; see watermark note)
Place: England
Medium: Pen and grey ink with grey wash on laid paper, bearing a watermark of a post horn in a crowned shield on crossed strap; a cross beneath the shield (cf. Churchill post-horn group 317–321; closest to 318 “L. V. Gerrevink,” 1724, or 321 “Van der Ley,” 1740)
Dimensions: 170 × 262 mm (sheet)

Inscriptions (as written):
Above line (left): Esqr ….… (Esqᵣ = Esquire)
Below line (left & centre): So Drunk of his Money Stol’n (Esqᵣ = “Esquire,”. — The Self Tormenter
Pointing man (speech): All the Water in St. Dunstans Pump will not Wash these things from my Memory.
Devil (speech): fear nothing for I am allways With Thee.
Slip on bench: Contract for Wood.

Description:
Interior is divided vertically. At left, a man sleeps in an armchair before a sloped desk; through the window, a fenced landscape shows a gallows with a hanged figure. At right, a gentleman seated on a bench points toward the sleeper while a horned, tailed devil grips his shoulder and whispers. A dog lies curled on the floor between the two halves. St. Dunstan’s Pump refers to the public pump at St. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street—invoked proverbially for “washing” that cannot cleanse a guilty memory.