"An illustration to the Oxford Magazine, July 1768: satire on unequal marriage, showing the interior of a church in which an old man and a much younger woman stand before the altar; a clergyman stands behind the communion rail holding open a large book and saying “Thy Wife shall be as the fruitful Vine” . The man says “With my Body I thee Worship”. The tops of two bottles protrude from his pocket, one labelled “T[incture] of Cantharides” and the other “Viper Drops”, both reputed aphrodisiacs. Behind the couple stand a woman holding up a bottle of “Mrs Gibson’s Blessed Medicine” and a lawyer carrying under one arm a “Deed of Settlement Provision for Younger Children”, behind him two young men snigger, one pointing towards the bottles in the bridegroom’s pocket. On the wall at the back of the church is a tablet lettered “Near this Place lies the Body of Thos Steril, Esq Aged 92, who died of a Broken Heart a few Days after his Marriage with a Young Lady”."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title from item., Publication place and date inferred from that of the magazine for which this plate was engraved., One of text below image: Last Saturday was married at Horn-church, Thos. Feeble, Esqr. aged 90, to Miss Frisky, aged 16. -- Daily adv., Plate from: The Oxford magazine, or, Universal museum ... London : Printed for the authors, v. 1 (1768), p. 37., and Watermark.
Publisher:
Oxford magazine
Subject (Topic):
Altars, Churches, Clergy, Couples, Lawyers, Marriage, and Medicines
