Theatrical mendicants relieved, James Gillray

Kemble, followed by his brother Charles, and his sister, Mrs. Siddons, holds out his hat, bowing, to the Duke of Northumberland who stands at the gate of Northumberland House in the Strand (right). The great double gate is closed, an inset door opened, scarcely wide enough for the obese and clumsy Duke, who stands with one foot outside it, putting into Kemble's feathered hat a 'Draft for 10,000 Pounds [signed] Northumberland.' Kemble wears tattered theatrical dress, with cloak and vandyked collar and cuffs. A cross hangs from his neck on a chain of beads. In his right hand is a paper. Kemble registers melancholy and eager greed, the other two have similar expressions but are weeping; all are in profile to the right. Mrs. Siddons wears black draperies hanging from her hair and her white dress is voluminous and high-waisted. From her arm hangs a large reticule stuffed with papers. Letters project from it and fall to the ground. Charles Kemble wears fashionable modern dress. Behind, the front of Northumberland House is partly obscured by thick clouds of smoke from the fire of Covent Garden Theatre. These frame fierce flames and broken walls behind which appear the stage-curtain and a few boxes next the stage. In front of the smoke, and in shadow, Harlequin postures, followed by a fool, or zany, both delighted at the success of the begging expedition. Above the design: New Dramatic Resource - a Begging we will go! - a Scene from Covent Garden Theatre after the Conflagration. After the title: "have Pity Upon all our Aches & Wantes!" (BM). / When Covent Garden had been destroyed by fire, John Kemble, who had a great stake in it, solicited subscriptions for rebuilding it. The Duke of Northumberland, whose son Kemble had instructed in elocution, gave him the munificent present of ten thousand pounds, Kemble, as it is well known, insisted on pronouncing the word aches as though it were written aitches, which is ridiculed in the inscription underneath this picture (Wright/Evans).
Courtesy of Boston Public Library