The title, inscribed by Rossetti lower right, is a reference to Morris's nickname of Topsy' and to the 'Rupes Tarpeia' (the Tarpeian Rock) on the Capitoline Hill in Rome, one side of which was a precipice from which condemned criminals were thrown to their deaths. Morris's spectacles are falling with him, together with a copy of 'The Earthly Paradise' and a knife and fork (presumably in allusion to his love of food: see 1939,0513.14 and 1939,0513.15). At the top of the hill is a ruinous temple having on the broken entablature the end of an inscription ". . . & Co." In front sit a row of six figures, among them Rossetti, Burne Jones, Madox Brown and the architect Philip Webb, all partners in the firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co.; the other two are presumably their fellow-partners Paul Marshall and C.J.Faulkner. Between them they hold a banner inscribed "WE ARE STARVING". Mrs Morris in the crescent moon looks down on the scene; below her, framed by the sun, are the heads of two bearded men, one wearing spectacles and the other an eyeglass, and a dove apparently cocking a snook at Morris with its claw. In 1874 Morris proposed to take entire control of the firm by buying out his partners, a proposal much resented by some of them, especially Rossetti and Madox Brown. In this drawing Rossetti's annoyance is humorously expressed, but Morris's action ultimately led to a permanent breach between them. The drawing cannot be fully elucidated until the two bearded heads in the sun are identified. Virginia Surtees ingeniously suggested that they might be Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, but it was not until the 1880s that Morris became seriously involved in socialist politics.