DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61480#0201
MARRIAGE A-LA-MODE.
FIRST PICTURE.-THE CONTRACT.
There is always a something wanting to make men happy. The great think them-
selves not sufficiently rich, and the rich believe themselves not enough distinguished.
This is the case of the alderman of London, and the motive which makes him covet for
his daughter the alliance of a great lord ; who, on his part, does not consent thereto but
on condition of enriching his son : and this is what the painter calls Marriage a-la-Mode.
The portly nobleman, with the conscious dignity of high birth, displays his genealo-
gical tree, the root of which is William, duke of Normandy, and conqueror of England.
The valour of his great progenitor, and the various merits of the collateral branches
whicli dignify his pedigree, he considers as united in his own person, and therefore
looks upon an alliance with his son as the acme of honour, the apex of exaltation.
While he is thus glorying in the dust of which his ancestors were once compounded,
the prudent citizen, who, in return for it, has parted with dust of a much more weighty
and useful description, paying no regard to this heraldic blazonry, devotes all his atten-
tion to the marriage settlement. The haughty and supercilious peer is absorbed in the
contemplation of his illustrious ancestry, while the worshipful alderman, regardless of
the past, and considering the present as merely preparatory for the future, calculates
what provision there will be for a young family. Engrossed by their favourite reflec-
tions, neither of these sagacious personages regard the want of attachment in those who
are to be united as worthy a moment's consideration. To do the viscount justice, he
seems equally indifferent; for, though evidently in love,—it is with himself. Gazing in
the mirror with delight, and, in an affected style, displaying his gold snuff-box and
glittering ring, he is quite a husband a la mode. The lady, very well disposed to re-
taliate, plays with her wedding-ring, and repays this chilling coldness with sullen con-
tempt; her heart is not worth the viscount's attention, and she determines to bestow it
on the first suitor. An insidious lawyer, like an evil spirit, ever ready to move or second
a temptation, appears beside her. That he is an eloquent pleader is intimated by his
49
FIRST PICTURE.-THE CONTRACT.
There is always a something wanting to make men happy. The great think them-
selves not sufficiently rich, and the rich believe themselves not enough distinguished.
This is the case of the alderman of London, and the motive which makes him covet for
his daughter the alliance of a great lord ; who, on his part, does not consent thereto but
on condition of enriching his son : and this is what the painter calls Marriage a-la-Mode.
The portly nobleman, with the conscious dignity of high birth, displays his genealo-
gical tree, the root of which is William, duke of Normandy, and conqueror of England.
The valour of his great progenitor, and the various merits of the collateral branches
whicli dignify his pedigree, he considers as united in his own person, and therefore
looks upon an alliance with his son as the acme of honour, the apex of exaltation.
While he is thus glorying in the dust of which his ancestors were once compounded,
the prudent citizen, who, in return for it, has parted with dust of a much more weighty
and useful description, paying no regard to this heraldic blazonry, devotes all his atten-
tion to the marriage settlement. The haughty and supercilious peer is absorbed in the
contemplation of his illustrious ancestry, while the worshipful alderman, regardless of
the past, and considering the present as merely preparatory for the future, calculates
what provision there will be for a young family. Engrossed by their favourite reflec-
tions, neither of these sagacious personages regard the want of attachment in those who
are to be united as worthy a moment's consideration. To do the viscount justice, he
seems equally indifferent; for, though evidently in love,—it is with himself. Gazing in
the mirror with delight, and, in an affected style, displaying his gold snuff-box and
glittering ring, he is quite a husband a la mode. The lady, very well disposed to re-
taliate, plays with her wedding-ring, and repays this chilling coldness with sullen con-
tempt; her heart is not worth the viscount's attention, and she determines to bestow it
on the first suitor. An insidious lawyer, like an evil spirit, ever ready to move or second
a temptation, appears beside her. That he is an eloquent pleader is intimated by his
49