Jack in his Element

In this print, a sailor speaks to a woman at a cottage door. She clutches her head in distress, while another woman looks on.

Published by Robert Sayer in 1793, this print originally included an inscription of Charles Dibdin’s ballad ‘Jack in his Element’ but this impression has been cut down, removing the text below the title. In the ballad, a sailor called Jack brags about his romantic and sexual conquests, declaring that he has ‘in every port a wife’. Racialised language is used to describe the women he has seduced in different locations around the world. The print illustrates the fourth stanza of the ballad, in which one of Jack’s shipmates is killed and Jack is sent to inform the dead man’s widow, Poll. Jack then pursues Poll himself and eventually convinces her to become his wife. While the illustration depicts the grief of a bereaved widow, the overall tone of the ballad makes light of the lascivious sailor persona.