A barber playing the tragic role of Alexander the Great in the acting style of David Garrick. Mezzotint after R. Dighton.

"The interior of a barber's shop. The barber, ranting and gesticulating wildly, holds up the open tragedy of Alexander the Great; in his right hand is a pair of tongs. His hair hangs loose and on his head is his barber's basin. He is fashionably dressed, but wears an apron, which, blowing aside in his violent action, displays a large hole in his breeches. A stool, jug, &c, have been overturned, hair-pins lie on the ground, a cat flees in alarm. His little apprentice (left), holding a wig and a tress of hair, looks on with amusement, as do a man and woman (right) who look over a flight of stairs which ascends from the room. The room is a poor one, with plaster coming from the wall, a broken candle on the chimney-piece, over which is a torn print of a tragedy-king reclining on a couch. Two wig-boxes stand on the floor, one inscribed 'Tragedy wigs', the other 'Comedy wigs'. The design is a parody of the famous composition by Hogarth of Garrick as Richard III, which is shown hanging on the back wall; the barber echoes his pose"--British Museum online catalogue, accessed March 2020