Baron Donderdronkdickdorff and Miss Quoltz: after their wedding, they quarrel and are surprised by a servant. Etching, 1810, attributed to I. Cruikshank and/or G. Cruikshank.

The characters and the episode occur not in the plot of the play 'The Free Knights, or the Edict of Charlemagne' by Frederic Reynolds but in a comic song sung by one of the characters of the play, Christopher, in Act III, scene III. In the song, Baron Donderdronkdickdorff, who has a long name but is very short, marries Miss Quoltz, who has a short name but is very tall. They quarrel, and she sticks her husband on the mantelpiece. He is embarrassed when the servant comes in and sees him there, singing "Not a word when the guests come to sup. I have only been giving my wife a set down, And she giving me a set-up." The Oxford English Dictionary (consulted in 2020) records no use of the noun "set-down", though as a verb it has been used in the sense "To lower (a person's pride, etc.); to take down, snub.", nor any use of the noun "set-up" before 1841, though as a verb it has been used in the sense "To place in a high or lofty position; to raise to an elevated situation"

Originally published as heading to printed verses described as "Sung by Mr. Fawcett, with unbounded applause, in the popular drama, called 'The Free Knights, or the Edict of Charlemagne'". The 'operatic drama' by F. Reynolds was first played 8 Feb. 1810, Fawcett being Christopher. The play was set in Westphalia in the fourteenth century. See the British Museum catalogue of ... satires, loc. cit.

London (53 Fleet Street) : Laurie & Whittle, 20 March 1810.

1 print : etching ; platemark 17.1 x 23.1 cm

Bears number "513" top right corner

Attributed to I. and/or G. Cruikshank by M.D. George in the British Museum catalogue, loc. cit.

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 8, London 1947, no. 11699

Wellcome Collection 262i