Midas with new readings as altered by the managers. [graphic]

"George IV as Midas in O'Hara's burletta dances a pas seul, holding up his hands. He wears old-fashioned dress, with long flowered waistcoat and a large wig which falls back, revealing his own curled toupet. He sings, the words adapted from Midas's song (II. i), as in British Museum Satires No. 14241: 'Oh! what pleasures will abound, Now my Wife is laid in ground, Strange Earth does cover her. I can't dance over her. Never mind, she's laid in Ground! Oh! how happy I shall be When a young Nisy pigs with me, How I'll mumble her; Touze and tumble her; Sixty is not sixty three!!' In the middle distance (right) Eldon, in wig and gown, and Sidmouth as Pan dance together, the latter holding up a frothing tankard. Sidmouth has a bare torso, goat-skin breeches, and cloven-hoof shoes, but not the wreath of vine-leaves and grapes of Pan in the play. Eldon has dropped the mace and the purse of the Great Seal; he sings: 'Oh! how happy I should be Was but this the case with me Oh what prancery! I'd cut Chancery! What comfort then at home for me. How gloriously you then shall dine, Fish, Flesh, Fowl, wash'd down with Wine No more thinking, But keep drinking, Peace to her Soul with 9 times 9.' In the background (left) Castlereagh (Londonderry) and Sidmouth sit at a table outside a rustic Irish inn, with the sign of the Crown and the word Whisky on the lintel. The hostess brings a bowl of punch, saying to Liverpool: You have got the Old Gentleman in good humour at last. He answers: Yes and now we must get him a young wife to keep him so. Castlereagh holds a scourge, cf. British Museum Satires No. 14135."--British Museum online catalogue