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| James Gillray A Connoisseur examining a Cooper (George III examining Cooper's miniature of Oliver Cromwell) 1792 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray The Accommodating Spouse (Frederick Augustus, Duke of York climbing into bed with Lady Tyrconnel, as Lord Tyrconnel departs) 1789 hand-colored etching British Museum |
from Five Accounts of a Monogamous Man
V. Lines From His Guest-Book
Shelley's houses and walks were always a clutter of women,
and god knows what further arrangements he kept in his mind.
Drôle de menage, Rimbaud said of himself and Verlaine,
As if there were any other kind.
In Yeats' tower, in all that fakery of ghosts,
Some solid women came and slept as Mrs. Yeats' guests.
We are most our own strange selves when we are hosts.
Here those who have loved or befriended me came to a proof:
They must lodge in my head and in company under one roof.
Keeping house is the instinct of love; it is always a little ridiculous.
Yet it is with no light welcome we welcome the friends of the house.
– William Meredith (1919-2007)
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| James Gillray Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of York 1792 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray The York Minuet (Duchess of York dancing with her brother-in-law, the Prince of Wales) 1791 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray Le Baiser à la Wirtembourg (Charlotte, Princess Royal kissed by Frederick I, King of Württemberg) 1797 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray The Prince of Wales (rear view of squat figure, his coat thickly frosted with hair powder) 1802 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray Duke William's Ghost (Prince of Wales in drunken stupor admonished by corpulent ghost of his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland) 1799 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray The Dispute - To Be or Not To Be a Protestant (Princess of Wales (seated) harangued by Mrs Fitzherbert over the education of Princess Charlotte) 1805 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray The Guardian Angel (Mrs Fitzherbert flying upwards toward Catholic altar with Princess Charlotte) 1805 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray A Peep at Christie's (Miss Farren (an actress) with her fiance Lord Derby inspecting pictures) 1796 hand-colored etching and aquatint British Museum |
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| James Gillray Contemplations upon a Coronet (Miss Farren in her dressing room shortly before marriage to Lord Derby) 1797 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray The Marriage of Cupid & Psyche (travesty of the Marlborough Gem, with the wedding of tall Miss Farren and short nude Lord Derby) 1797 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| The Marlborough Gem Wedding of Cupid and Psyche 50-25 BC onyx cameo from Roman workshop Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
At the Wedding March
God with honour hang your head,
Groom, and grace you, bride, your bed
With lissome scions, sweet scions,
Out of hallowed bodies bred.
Each be other's kind:
Déep, déeper than divined,
Divine charity, dear charity,
Fast you ever, fast bind.
Then let the March tread our ears:
I to him turn with tears
Who to wedlock, his wonder wedlock,
Déals tríumph and immortal years.
– Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
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| James Gillray Characters in High Life - Sketch'd at the New Rooms, Opera House (Duchess of Rutland with one of her daughters) 1795 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray A Bouquet of the Last Century (Dowager Lady Dacre on her daily visit to her dead husband's tomb) 1802 hand-colored etching British Museum |
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| James Gillray Diana Return'd from the Chace (Mary Amelia Cecil, Marchioness of Salisbury, famous as a fox hunter) 1802 hand-colored etching British Museum |