The latest fashionable complaint

The latest fashionable complaint

Edward G. Dalziel

Fun Almanac 32 (9 June 1880): 6

Lady Amateur: — “Can you tell me if any ladies have been sketching down here. I saw some easels in a garden I passed just now.”

Agreeable Peasant: — “Measles, Miss! Yes, Miss, two ladies down ’ere they’s ketched it; and real pleased, I ’ear about it too — cos it’s so fashionable with the hup-grown hupper crust now. I dare say there’s a chance for yer, Miss.”

Like much late-Victorian humor, this especially obnoxious cartoon relies upon a pun or other play on words, class differences, lower-class speech, and a misunderstanding.

Click on image to enlarge it

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Digital Library Trust and the Princeton University library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]