A Dog’s Elegy

A familiar image from a parliament pamphlet from 1644 which is worth a closer look. Following the royalist defeat at Marston Moor, Prince Rupert’s lost his dog in the ensuing chaos. The dog Boye, a poodle was widely held to be his familiar, the witchcraft implied presumably explaining his military prowess in the war. Notice the musketeer on the right hand side, a rare picture of an English soldier from this period, though oddly he seems to be firing left handed and has his bandolier of charges hanging where a right handed soldier would hang his sword. Good evidence of a coat though and some understated lace decoration down his left leg. The woman on the left, presumably meant to be a witch dressed in bodice (or possibly a waistcoat) and petticoat with an untied coif.

3 Comments to “A Dog’s Elegy”

  1. Note the stylized plants of the beanfield, where Rupert was said to have been hiding.

  2. This is not the first image I have seen of things being done the wrong way. Just goes to show that you can’t always trust period images.
    Keith.
    A Woodsrunner’s Diary.

  3. I guess the wood cut is made in reverse, and the correctness of the image is something that might not have been too important at the time, the emphasis being on the dog and witch. – or the publisher was cutting costs and employed a 2nd rate carver!!

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