Lewis Walpole Library Images

A Ballad Singer. A Match Woman. A Dealer in Greens

"And then She wend Sighing Heigho - Heigho! She wanted a husband, Heigho!"
"Is she not a delightful creature - to speak in confidence would not your Mr Green & her make a sweet match. I really think the young people have a Penchant for each other."
"Very likely Madam, but as I am Guardian to the Green family & have the care of thier fortunes with the selecting them Wives & Husbands, they don't marry but upon very particular Con_si_de_ra_tions."

Title: Matrimonial comforts, sketch 3 - Rowlandson - 1799
"You can't deny the letter you false man - I shall find out all your Vicked Women - I shall you abominable Seducer"
"Indeed Lovey I know no more who sent the letter than the Man in the Moon"

Courtship and Marriage
Courtship - When Two Fond Fools together meet / each look gives Joy, each Kiss so sweet / Pleasures the Burden of the Song / Joying and Playing, all day long - When Wed, how cold, and cross they'll be, Turn up side down and then you'll see.
Marriage - That form once o'er with Angry Brows / The Married Pair both Peevish Grow /All night and day, they scold, and growl / She calls him Ass, he calls her fool / Thus oft we see in real life / Love ends, When once you're Man and Wife.

Title: Matrimonial comforts, sketch 5 - Rowlandson - 1799
Killing with Kindness
"You must have some Apricots my love"
"wont eat any thing more I tell you - I shall be choaked - got an eye to the Estate I suppose"
"Just taste these Grapes Brother in Law you never eat finer"

Modern Marriage a la Mode. Sweet Fruits of the Third Honeymoon.
MY NOTE: Second marriage was called "the triumph of hope over experience" by 18th-century essayist Samuel Johnson.

Six weeks after marriage J.P. fecit.1790 Smith, Charles Loraine, 1751-1835, artist.

Six weeks after marriage. Printed for Carington Bowles, at his Map & Print Warehouse, No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, London, published as the Act directs [25th June, 1777]

The [Prince's] Nursery or Nine Months After [Marriage]. TEXT: Published 9th May 1786 by S.W. Fores at the Caracature Warehouse No 3 Picadilly

TItle: Matrimonial Comforts Sketch 8 - A Curtail Lecture! 1799
A man lies on his back in bed, his face set in grim resignation, as his wife leans over him lecturing him, "Yes you base man --you dont you eat drink and sleep comfortably at home and still you must be jaunting abroad every night. I'll find out your intrigues-- you may depend upon it." A small dog sits at the foot of the bed yelping at the couple while a larger dog sleeps on the floor, his eyes squeezed shut.

Title: Polygamy Display'd OR Doctor Madman restored to his senses. 1780
About Rev. Martin Madan (1726-1790)
An older man, representing Rev. Madan, is attacked by two women, one of them pulling on his coat and indicating a crying boy standing next to her, the other grasping his wig with her left hand and ready to strike him with a small stool she is holding in her right. Her right foot is propped on a volume entitled "Thelyphthora," his treatise advocating polygamy. Behind her, a third woman is picking his pocket. On the left two women are engaged in a fight; on the right a couple is kissing behind a screen on which is displayed an image of a duel, above it is an image of a prisoner in chains and next to it a body hanging from the gibbet.

TItle: Six Weeks After Marriage. 1777 date estimated by George
A well-dressed young couple are shown in an argument. The woman, seated on a couch, has just overturned her tea table. Cups and saucers litter the floor and the woman's small dog jumps up on her husband who turns away from the scene. A reduced version of George 4549.

The Constant Couple. [London] : Publish'd Feb 24, 1786 by J. Phillips, No. 164 Piccadilly, [1786]
Temporary local subject terms: William Mansell, 1750-1820, engraver -- King George III as farmer -- Queen Charlotte as farmer's wife -- Allusion to George Farquhar's Constant Couple -- Signposts -- Windsor Castle -- Horses -- Dogs -- Dog colllar stamped: G R -- Allusion to Slough on signpost -- Milestones -- Allusion to St. James's on milestone.

Title: The Jelly-House Maccaroni. 1772. A fashionably dressed young couple embrace. From the man's waistcoat hangs a small pomander.

The modern paradise, or, Adam and Eve_,_ regenerated. 1780
A nude couple in enormous wigs stands under the "Tree of Life." A sheet of paper covering the man's hips is inscribed "Mr. Rock." In his left hand he holds a ticket to a masquerade at Pantheon, in the right a walking stick. A serpent, inscribed "Modern gap of honour" glides between his legs and next to a saddle, whip and a riding hat inscribed "Furniture for saddling an estate." Next to the woman who holds a fan in front of her thighs, with a dog climbing up her knee, lie on the ground a staff and a comedy mask, a ticket and a letter addressed "To Belinda." Behind the woman a monkey is holding a mirror. Playing cards and dice fall off the tree which is hung with cards advertising fashionable places in London such as the Carlisle House, Pantheon, White's Club, Ranelagh and Almack's, among others. On the left a devil is walking away from her toward a roaring fire saying "I'll even back to Hell again, for these must be too knowing for me by the Size of their Heads." On the right in the background two men, identified as "Cain and Abel" are dueling. Another man lies on the ground having fallen off a galloping horse. The explanation below reads "For the benefit of the next heir."