Democratic levelling; - alliance a la Francoise, or, The union of the coronet and clysterpipe / [Gillray].

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James Gillray
Democratic levelling; - alliance a la Francoise, or, The union of the coronet and clysterpipe / [Gillray].
hand colored etching
image: 34.3 x 24.5 cm; plate: 36.3 x 26 cm; sheet: 37.8 x 27.3 cm
Peel 2929
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Summary: 

Fox and Sheridan officiate at the wedding of Lady Lucy Stanhope and an apothecary who is made up of medical implements. The bride is a pretty girl wearing a feathered hat from which a transparent veil falls over her face. Stanhope (left), without breeches, and wearing a bonnet-rouge, stooping in profile to the right, pushes her towards the bridegroom who is placing a ring on her finger; from his coat-pocket protrudes a three-masted vessel flying a tricolour flag. The bridegroom, Taylor, is also a sansculotte; his posteriors are formed of a syringe, his body is a mortar, from which issues a pestle supporting a bonnet-rouge. His arm is made of two medicine-phials. Fox stands full-face behind the altar balustrade holding open Paine's 'Rights of Man'. Sheridan stands (right) in profile to the left, reading from 'Thelwal's Lectures', he wears a lay coat with bands; both wear bonnets-rouges.

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