A School for Girls (No title)

Date1739

Engraver John Faber Jr. (1684 - 1756)

After work by Philippe Mercier (1689 - 1760)

OriginEngland, London

MediumMezzotint with line engraving

DimensionsOverall: 10 7/8 × 12 7/8in. (27.6 × 32.7cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1952-91

DescriptionLower margin reads: "Ph. Mercier inv.t et pinx.t/ See with what warmth the am'rous Dotard grins / Admires, instructs, and in Instructing sins! / Nature's too prompt to kindle up Desire, / Without the Masters Touch to Stir the Fire. / Parents, beware what Guides for youth you chuse / Least where They should admonish, They abuse. / Girls thus, indeed may sooner learn What's What; / But some Instruction's better lost than got." Publish'd according to Act of Parliament, 1739."
Label TextThis print was later republished after 1766 by Robert Sayer (it appears in Sayer's 1766 and 1774 catalogues) as a pair with "A School of Boys." Sold for 1s. See 1946-99 to see "A School for Boys."

Verse reads:
See with what warmth the am'rous Dotard grins
Admires, instructs, and in Instructing sins!
Nature's too prompt to kindle up Desire,
Without the Masters Touch to Stir the Fire.
Parents, beware what Guides for youth you chuse
Least where They should admonish, They abuse.
Girls thus, indeed may sooner learn What's What;
But some Instruction's better lost than got.