Dropsy courting consumption

Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827 · October 25, 1810

Outside a building marked Mausoleum a dwarf rotunda beside a slender column kneels a round ball of a suitor, who, it would seem, is destined never to recover his perpendicular ; he is suing at the feet of an attenuated nymph, of straight and bony proportions, who it appears is in the last stage of wasting away. In the grounds a corpulent lady and a declining-looking gentleman of the Laurence Sterne type arc contemplating a statue of Hercules.