This is one of the twenty-two engravings on wood that was published by The Art Journal in 1850 (12:10) in a series entitled "Passages from the Poets." Franklin's original drawing was engraved by G. P. Nicholls. This passage from King Lear (V.iii) accompanies the picture:

Howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stones.
Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever.
I know when one is dead, and when one lives.
She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass.
If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
Why then she lives.