A village celebration degenerates into drunkenness, brawling and lechery – a man hangs a note by the door to the inn saying ‘dit huis is te huer’ (‘this house is for hire’) referring not to the house itself but to the women in it. Steen creates an image of universal folly and vice, from which a single sour-faced soldier stands aloof. He holds a lantern, an allusion to the story of Diogenes searching in vain for an honest man. Acquired by George IV in 1811 Cat. 26