Dandies at the opera, one of them swooning, overcome with emotion. Coloured etching by I.R. Cruikshank, 1818.

[London] (27 St. James's St) : Ge[orge] Humphrey, 11 December 1818.

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 24.9 x 35.2 cm

A dandy fainting or - an exquisite in fits. Scene a private opera box -. I R Cruikshank invt. & fecit The figure on the left says "I must draw the curtain or his screams will alarm the house. You have no fello feeling my dear fellos, pray unlace the dear loves stays, and lay him on the couch." The two figures in the middle say "I am so frighten'd I can hardly stand!" and "Mind you dont soil the dear's linnen". The right figure holds a phial of "Eau de Cologne" to the nostrils of the swooning figure and says "I dread the consequence! that last air of Signeur Nonballenas has thrown him in such raptures, we must call in Doctor ----- immediately!". The name of the doctor has been deleted on the plate, but can be read from its remains as "Clysterpipe"

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. IX, London 1949, no. 13069

Wellcome Collection 12030i

Reissued in 1835 by a a different publisher in series Cruikshankiana: see Wellcome Library catalogue no. 35497i