[Mary Anne Clarke; Duke of York] Handbill satire on the Duke of York, entitled 'Love a-la-mode, or, My Darling; A Duett, As Sung by An Overseer of the United Parishes of John Bull and St. George's, and Mrs. Clarke, late of Gloucester Place Theatre.'

Printed on one side of a piece of laid paper, watermarked with date 1808, roughly 34.5 x 21 cm. Very good. Illustration at head, coloured in red and green, roughly 6.5 x 10 cm. Shows a fashionably-dressed Clarke sitting amorously on the knee of a uniformed Duke, while one man in the doorway behind them says to another 'I say Jack which is our Cheat!!!' On the wall behind the sofa a picture of a woman singing the words 'O dear what can the matter be | Noodle is gone to the Fair.' An attractive production, with the title in a variety of point sizes and types, and the poem itself printed in two columns divided by a decorative rule. The poem runs to fourteen four line stanzas with alternating refrains of 'Doodle, doodle, doo.' and 'Doodle, doodle, noo.' First stanza reads 'My dearest, dearest dear, | My lovee, lovee, lovee, | My darling, darling, here, | And there, my dovee, dovee. | Noodle, noodle, noo.' The last stanza reads 'C. O stay with me my dear, | And go no more to wife-tee; | I'll cheer your spirits, here, | With kindness all my life-tee. | Doodle, doodle, doo.' The Duke's affair with Mary Anne Clarke ended in May 1806, but the subject of the poem, the scandal surrounding the sale by Clarke of Army promotions, with the Duke's consent, was raised in the House of Commons by Colonel Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle on 27 January 1809. One stanza reads 'C. When we retirer to bed, | Enchain'd in love's embraces, | A List is at the head, | Of numsculls wanting places.' Excessively scarce: no copy on COPAC.