Dropsy Courting Consumption October 25, 1810 Thomas Rowlandson British Rowlandson here contrasts fatness and thinness to weave a broad social parody. Two courting couples, embodying four extremes of age and body type, demonstrate the maxim that opposites attract. In the foreground a short obese man has fallen to his knees to declare his devotion to a tall, ematicated woman. The title hints that the two also suffer from opposing ailments, since consumption (tuberculosis) is a wasting disease and dropsy (edema) causes swelling. In the garden behind, the equation is reversed, with an elderly thin man in an old-fashioned suit escorting a plump young girl. The foreground mausoleum, with its heavy rotunda surrounded by slender columns, contributes to the visual game. Finally, a distant statue of Hercules on a pedestal represents the classical ideal that all those present spectacularly fail to attain.. Dropsy Courting Consumption 392773