Hung, Drawn & Quartered

If an egg inhabited the corpulent body of man, would a case of food poisoning be grounds for attempted regicide? Alas, poor Humpty has found himself in such a circumstance; once merely a riddle for children to glean the answer – an egg – dear old Humpty Dumpty now finds himself in the unfortunate position of being guilty of treason. And it is a doubly unfortunate circumstance that he should suffer such a fate, for he was once especially proud of the little rod shaped, gram negative enterobacteria he had created.

Across three prints we see Humpty’s fate played out. From the initial fostering of the bacteria that has caused such violent misbehaviour in the king’s guts, to Humpty’s subsequent capture, this egg suffers the fate of all those who should threaten the king: to be dragged on a hurdle, hung by the neck (they managed), disembowelled and finally beheaded, with the body divided into four parts of equal measure. No doubt these parts were distributed across the land to serve as a warning to those who would wish to inflict any other such food borne illness upon the king.