Pidgeon hole a Convent [sic] Garden contrivance to coop up the gods / [graphic]

"A close-up view of one of the 'pigeon holes' which flanked the upper gallery at Covent Garden. Heads closely packed together are framed in the lunette opening, six or seven rows receding one above the other in the centre. Most seem suffering from heat or discomfort, and except for one or two pretty young women are grotesquely caricatured. The centre figure in the front row, leaning on the parapet and apparently asleep, is a fat coachman in livery. An old man leans over, bleeding copiously at the nose. In the spaces left by the curve of the lunette in the upper corners of the design are groups symbolizing Comedy (left) and Tragedy (right): comic mask, pan-pipes, &c."--British Museum online catalogue, description of an earlier state