The amateur actor Robert Coates dreaming about his success on the stage in the role of Romeo. Aquatint attributed to "The Caricaturist General", 1812.

According to the British Museum catalogue, Coates, "a wealthy West Indian [owner of a plantation in the West Indies], who called himself an "Amateur of Fashion", appeared as Romeo in Bath on 9 Feb. 1810 ... He was stage-mad, and played (atrociously) for charities and benefits without fee, forcing his services on the management"

In the top right corner a cock with the head of Coates addresses the apothecary in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, act V, scene 1. On the right stand Tragedy and Comedy as two cocks. Shakespeare rises up on the left

[London] : [Published for The satirist], [1 January 1812]

1 print : aquatint, with etching ; image 17.3 x 31.4 cm

An amateurs dream.

Attribution to the Caricaturist General from the British Museum catalogue

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1949, vol. 9, no. 11934

Wellcome Collection 38478i