This image was created as an illustration to ‘Procrastination’, a poem by George Crabbe. The poem tells the story of Dinah and Rupert, two young lovers whose marriage is delayed by Dinah’s wealthy but sickly aunt who has promised to make Dinah her heir. Rupert is sent into service overseas and, in his absence, Dinah’s affection for her lover is slowly replaced by the thought of her inheritance. Many years later Rupert returns to find Dinah living as a pious but wealthy spinster. She rejects Rupert who finds her cold and hard-hearted.

This print illustrates the last part of the poem in which the former lovers pass on the street. A visual contrast is created between the simply-dressed seated figure of Rupert and the spectacle of the sour-faced, overdressed Dinah attended by a young black servant. Black servants were a less common feature of the visual culture of the 19th century than they had been in the 18th when they were used to reflect the wealth and fashionable taste of their ‘owners’.