"Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me"

"Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me"

Edwin Austin Abbey

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of a series that Abbey drew for Harper's to illustrate the anonymous seventeenth century English poem "Phillada Flouts Me." In the verse, the narrator grows increasingly depressed as the young woman he desires ignores him. Here we see the young man entering a tavern where a more successful and sophisticated rival raises a glass. The related stanza reads: I woo'd her for to dine, But could not get her; Will had her to the wine– He might entreat her. With Daniel she did dance, On me she look'd askance: Oh, thrice unhappy chance! Phillada flouts me. A wood engraving after Abbey's drawing appeared in Harper's "New Monthly Magazine," vol. 75 (July 1887), p. 165 and in the book "Old Songs, with drawings by Edwin A. Abbey & Alfred Parsons," 1889 (see MMA 21.36.112).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

"Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me""Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me""Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me""Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me""Will had her to the wine," illustration to "Phillada Flouts Me"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.