Image: A visit to court, or "All the world's a stage, and men and woman merely players," Shakespeare (NYPL b12155767-5237607)

Description: * Lower left: Don Juan fecit. [i.e., Isaac Robert Cruikshank]. A satire on the social elevation of two theatrical celebrities through their husbands. A lord-in-waiting in court attire stands framed in a doorway. He says to two approaching ladies, "May I trouble you for your cards ladies?" Maria Mercandotti (Mrs. Hughes Ball), in costume, on right pointe. She holds up in one hand a golden ball, and in the other a card inscribed B. At left, the actress Harriot Mellon (Mrs. Coutts) advances, her train held up by the (future) Duke of St. Albans (a paper so inscribed hanging from his pocket). Mrs. Coutts, a corpulent woman, is much jeweled and feathered; her dress is bordered with cornucopias showering coins, a cross hangs from her neck. She proffers a card inscribed C.
Title: A visit to court, or "All the world's a stage, and men and woman merely players," Shakespeare (NYPL b12155767-5237607)
Credit: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/4b8a8d50-bb8a-0132-8963-58d385a7bbd0
Author: Scan by NYPL
Permission: This image is available from the New York Public Library's Digital Library under the digital ID e920a1e0-18c4-0131-2e61-58d385a7bbd0: digitalgallery.nypl.org → digitalcollections.nypl.org
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No