Fashion before Ease; or, a Good Constitution sacrificed, for a Fantastick Form
James Gillray (1757–1815)
Colored engraving, published in London, January 2, 1793
Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
A besotted Thomas Paine—sporting the tricolor cockade and the bonnet rouge of the French Revolution—is here forcing an unhappy Britannica into a new shape. On the tape measure dangling from his coat pocket is written “Rights of Man.” In a dig at Paine’s early occupation, the thatched cottage in the background is labeled “Thomas Pain, Stay Maker from Thetford, Paris Modes by express.”
