A satire on Madame Mara: She sits in an armchair decorated with Masonic symbols which is in the center of a concert room, with a boarded floor and low platform along the back for the performers. She sings the lines "Oh, Oh, de roasta beef-a de charmante pudding O"; in her hands is an open music book titled "Oh the road beed of Old England, Fieldings popular song. The plebeian audience sit or stand along the right and left foreground. On the left a lady asks her neioghbor, "Did she sing this sogn at the Abbey?" He responds, "She never sung so well as the Abbey in her life." In the center foreground sits a dog who watches the vocalist. The wall is decorated with candle-sconces and a placard with the "Rules to be observed in this meeting" which jabs at the plebeian audience. One man performs on a salt-box, another with marrow-bone and cleaver while yet another puts a Jew's harp in his mouth; a fourth plays a bladder bridge. See British Museum catalogue for further discussion
Description:
Title etched below image., Seven lines of descriptive prose inscribed below title., Possibly engraved by Henry Wigstead (d. 1793). See attribution in British Museum catalogue to Mr. Hawkins., and Watermark in center of sheet: J Whatman.
Publisher:
Publish'd Feby. 28th, 1786, by S.W. Fores, at the Caracature Warehouse, No. 3, Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
Wapping (London, England)
Subject (Name):
Mara, Gertrud Elisabeth, 1749-1833
Subject (Topic):
Social life and customs, Masons, Audiences, Concerts, Dogs, Etiquette, Harps, Musical instruments, and Musicians
