[Rarebooks] fa: CHARLES WILLIAMS - THE RIVAL QUEANS or A SCENE IN THE BEGGARS OPERA 1809 - Hand-Colored Satirical Etching

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, Monday, May 5. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/y5h7lppd

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Charles Williams:] The Rival Queans[sic] — or a Scene in the Beggars Opera. London: Walker, March 1809. Hand-colored etching; 362 x 255 mm (4 1/4 x 10 in). Minor soiling and fingering to the margins, else clean and fresh, very good.

A satire on the Duke of York's extramarital love life. "Mrs. Clarke (left) and Mrs. Carey (right) berate each other; both wear evening dress, with feathers in their hair, those of Mrs. Carey being the taller. The Duke, wearing regimentals, watches the quarrel, equally distant from both. Mrs. Clarke, arms akimbo, says: 'Why how now Madam Carey, although you are so Warey / In saveing of your cash, / John Bull and I we both will try, / And settle all your hash.' [The phrase dates from 1807 in U.S.A.; the earliest recorded instance in England is 1825, and Partridge, 'Slang Dict.', suggests that it was learnt by the English in the war of 1812.] Mrs. Carey retorts: 'Why how now Madam Clarke------ / Why since you thus can chatter------ /And thus betray your spark------ / I wonder whats the matter with, you, Madam Clarke!!' The Duke looks at Mrs. Clarke, stopping his ears, a leg raised in angry protest; he says: 'Zounds! the thunder of Valencienes was Music to this'. Behind Mrs. Clarke is a cockatoo on a high perch, screaming: 'go it! go it'; a chair has been overturned, and a mastiff, its collar inscribed 'John Bull', barks at the Duke. A small dog behind Mrs. Carey also barks. She stands with her back to the fire. On the chimney-piece a china Cupid aims his arrow at a heart on the trunk of a tree" (M. Dorothy George, Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum, VIII, 1947). BM Satires 11277.