Refin’d Taste

This cartoon casts a negative light on homosexuality. Using a small spyglass, the man on the right is peering at a very tall British Army grenadier. Below the cartoon is a homophobic verse taken from British author Tobias Smollett’s The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748): “Eternal infamy, that wretch confound / Who planted first this vice on English ground! / A crime that spite of sense & nature reigns / And poisons genial love & manhood stains.” St. George seems to mock gentlemen, like the one on the right, whose foppish manners and style suggest their homosexuality.

Refin'd Taste 
Drawn by Richard Mansergh St. George; Published by Matthew and Mary Darly
ca. 1773
Etching
Courtesy of The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University