This is the first in Hogarth’s series of six paintings titled Marriage A-la-Mode which satirise the upper classes. They were painted to be engraved and then sold after the engravings were finished.
The Earl of Squander is receiving guests in the bedroom of his town house; his canopied bed with a coronet on top is in the corner. He is negotiating the marriage of his son to the daughter of a rich Alderman of the City of London. In the centre of the scene is the marriage settlement – a large parchment document in the Alderman’s hands. The Alderman’s family will acquire an aristocratic title through the marriage; the Earl will get his hands on ready cash, which has already been emptied out from the money bags onto the table.
The unfinished house seen through the window – of a preposterous design that breaks all architectural rules – suggests that the Earl’s resources are strained. However, he seems to suggest that money is nothing compared to what he has to offer: he points to his family tree going back to William the Conqueror with one hand while resting the other on his heart, which pumps with noble blood. The Earl’s eagerness to display the coronet that decorates his bed, crutches, footstool and his picture frames suggests that his family is not really of the old aristocracy. He is self-interested and vain and rests his gouty foot on the footstool.
Meanwhile the bride’s father peers through his spectacles at the contract. He is dressed respectably but not fashionably and is clearly ill at ease. He wears his gold chain of office as an Alderman of the City of London and a sword, which sticks out from between his legs in an ungainly fashion. He is presumably well aware of what it will cost him to marry his daughter to the Earl’s son. An inkstand, quill pen, sealing wax and a candle are on the table ready for signing and sealing the settlement.
The Earl’s son, Viscount Squanderfield, and the Alderman’s daughter have no interest in each other or the marriage. The foppish and foolish Viscount regards himself in the mirror and takes a pinch of snuff while his bride shuttles her ring up and down her veil. Her father’s lawyer, Silvertongue, sharpens his quill and whispers in her ear. A foxhound and bitch are at the bride and groom’s feet, chained together round the neck, anticipating the bonds of matrimony that will soon tie the the couple together. Gloomy old master paintings line the walls, while a screaming Medusa hanging over the bride gives vent to the rage she can't express.
The large black spot on the groom’s neck indicates that he is suffering from the venereal disease syphilis. Hogarth based his figure of the Viscount on John Wootton’s illustration to one of Gay’s Fables, The Monkey who had seen the World. The Viscount’s fashionable French dress suggests that he too has travelled, probably around Europe on the Grand Tour. He may have picked up syphilis, known as the French disease, while abroad.
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