Bawdy Bodies: Satires of Unruly Women
Scandalous Women and Domestic Transgressions
An especially effective type of female ridicule took the form of attacks on breaches of domestic propriety and the obligations of motherhood. The tumultuous marriages and family life of Lady Strathmore were the subject of much gossip, intensified by a trial against her second husband, Andrew Robinson Stoney-Bowes. Gillray’s The Injured Count S[trathmore] depicts the lady drunk while her young son, whom she reputedly disliked, is neglected in favor of her well-publicized fondness for cats. The imagery of this scene recalls Rowlandson’s attack on the Duchess of Devonshire. Those who squandered time and money at gambling were equally condemned, such as in Gillray’s amusing satire of Lady Archer and Lady Buckinghamshire (1738–1816) in the pillory for their excesses at faro.
James Gillray (1756–1815)
The Injured Count S[trathmore]
Etching with hand coloring
Published 1786 or ca. May 1788 by C. Morgan
In The Caricatures of James Gillray
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
In this particularly cruel satiric caricature, Mary Eleanor Lyon, Countess of Strathmore, is shown suckling her two pet cats while neglecting the cries of her son, who wails: “I wish I was a cat / my mama would love me then.” The countess leans back in her chair and drunkenly sloshes a glass of wine toward her motley company while also managing to gaze lasciviously at her servant who invites her to bed. In the background her husband, Andrew Robinson Stoney-Bowes, inspects a map of his wife’s estate.
Gillray was engaged by Stoney-Bowes to create caricatures that would subject the countess to public humiliation and ruin her reputation. Here Gillray mobilizes two hefty charges against the countess: she is an unnatural and perverse mother and has been unfaithful to her husband. Such charges would be especially helpful in countering the divorce proceedings that the countess brought against the count, who was by many accounts a cruel and abusive man and a fortune seeker. The countess won her divorce, an unusual victory for a woman at this time.
Anonymous
Cocking the Greeks
Etching with hand coloring
Published May 16, 1796 by S.W. Fores
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
In this satire by an unknown hand, two of the leading society hostesses—and notorious gamblers—are clamped into a public pillory. Lady Sarah Archer, left, and Albinia Hobart, Lady Buckinghamshire, right, are humiliated for their crimes as read by Lloyd Kenyon, Keeper of the Rolls. Kenyon, who rings a bell calling the viewer’s attention, announces that the women are guilty of having caused much “Distress & uneasiness in Family by Keeping bad Houses late hours, & by Shuffling & cutting have Obtain'd divers valuabl Articles.” Thus, their encouragement of gaming within their social circle has led to the dissolution of domestic order and the loss of valuable property.
This satire perpetuates the critique against Archer and Hobart for wielding social power by holding popular gaming parties. No longer young and attractive, the women were frequently accused of taking their advantage by fleecing their guests. The satirist exaggerates the physiques of the two women to demonstrate how their grotesquery contributes to their depravity: Lady Archer’s needle-thin frame and her sharp features are comically juxtaposed with Mrs. Hobart’s rotund form and her equally pneumatic breasts, here cruelly exposed. Further, their heavily rouged cheeks and the enormous ostrich feathers that bob above their heads indicate their vanity and conceit.
James Gillray (1756–1815)
Lady Godina’s Rout
Etching and stipple engraving with hand coloring
Published March 12, 1796 by H. Humphrey
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
The dual follies of fashionable clothing and gaming are combined in this satire by James Gillray. Women wearing enormous feathered headdresses crowd gaming tables; their attention is entirely consumed by the card game, called Pope Joan, allowing the gentlemen present to admire the latest fashions in dress. The diaphanous gown worn by the elegant woman in the center of the composition exemplifies the Neoclassical style of dress that featured plunging necklines and layers of clinging drapery that revealed the body’s contours. Just as this young lady is about to win the game with the nine of diamonds, a leering man clumsily attempts to snuff the candle out. Gillray humorously uses the flaming candle to indicate the gentleman’s ardor but ultimately shows that the young lady, a contemporary Lady Godiva, holds all the right cards.