A laughing well-dressed man looks through a large round glass, his left hand in his pocket. A bailiff, standing to his left, puts his hand on the man's left arm while presenting him with a writ. In the background is a large, four-story building in front of which stands a sedan chair. From a building across the street hangs a large sign with Shakespeare's likeness, signed 'Shakespear.'
Description:
Title from item., Four lines of verse in two columns below image: Sir Fopling Flutter through his glass inspects the ladies as they pass ..., Lewis Walpole Library 769.00.00.08.1+: Subject identified in a later ms. note below plate as Charles Fleetwood, Manager of Drury Lane Theatre., and Temporary local subject terms: Eye-glasses: quizzing glass - Slang: 'fopling' -- Bailiffs -- Signboards -- Allusion to William Shakespeare -- Documents: writs -- Vehicles: sedan chair -- Literature: reference to The man of mode, or, Sr. Fopling Flutter by Sir George Etherege. 1635?-1691.
Publisher:
Published according to act in 1769, by John Bowles, at No. 13 in Cornhill, London
