“Sentiment at Margate” from an 1880 issue of “Fun”

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Sentiment at Margate

Signed “Phil E”

Wood Engraving

Fun (24 August 1887): 83

Mr. Creseus Candlewick: — “Now, to come to the point, Miss Spangle. Here on this spot — this breezy spot — I hoffer you my ’and and my ’eart!”

Miss Spangle: But you’ve only been a Widower some six months, Mr. Candlewick; how can you possibly think of Marrying again so soon?”

Mr. C. C.: Lor bless you, Miss Spangle, if I may draw a similes, A Fvst Marriage ain't nothink more than a light Love-lunch, as sort of paves the way for the solid, lastin’ and substantial Three-and-a-sixpenny Dinner of the Second. I won’t ask for your answer stright off, as it’s gettin’ just about time for the TABLE DE HOTTE!

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The cartoon juxtaposes the portly, wealthy-as-Creseus Mr. Candlewick to a young, beautiful, stylishly dressed young woman. He’s undoubtedly uneducated and more than a little vulgar but in his own way very witty as, like Fielding’s Tom Jones, he compares marriage and its pleasures to eating a good meal. Of course, many such marriages between wealthy, elderly self-made men and younger women of higher social classes did take place. Now was the young woman put off by his lack of French, or did she want to share his “solid, lastin’ and substantial” dinner? Everything visually suggests she has to reject him: he’s older and shorter than she is, and nothing he wears suggests elegance, but . . . — George P. Landow

Related material

Compare another proposal in A Handy Arrangement from the same magazine

Last modified 9 December 2017