R-l advice [graphic]

"Queen Charlotte, an ugly old woman, sits enthroned on a dais (right), facing the Regent, who stands, wearing a royal robe over fantastic dress, with a turban-coronet surmounted by tall feathers. Three lean and ugly ladies-in-waiting stand round the dais, one proffering a huge box of 'Royal Snuff' [cf. British Museum Satires No. 12066], into which the Queen avidly dips her hand. The Regent asks: "Madam I am at a loss what to tell the allied-soveriegns, if they should make bold to ask how and where is my R--l Wife?" She answers, holding snuff to her nose, "I/ advise you my Son, to say as little as convenient, or d--n it; say I am your R--l Wife." The arms of her throne are formed of fanged snakes, and the dais is polygonal, with concave sides; the shape perhaps signifying the Queen's crabbedness. Behind the Regent stands McMahon, burlesqued and obsequious, but grinning slyly. Behind him and on the extreme left stands Lord Yarmouth, much amused, who asks: "Mc What say you to all this." McMahon: "The least I say my Lord the better"."--British Museum online catalogue