POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ITS INFANCY.--THE REVERS DU JEU DES
SUYSSES.--CARICATURE IN FRANCE.--THE THREE ORDERS.--PERIOD OF THE
LEAGUE; CARICATURES AGAINST HENRI III.--CARICATURES AGAINST THE
LEAGUE.--CARICATURE IN FRANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--GENERAL
GALAS.--THE QUARREL OF AMBASSADORS.--CARICATURE AGAINST LOUIS
XIV.; WILLIAM OF FÜRSTEMBERG.
It has been already remarked that political caricature, in the modern
sense of the word, or even personal caricature, was inconsistent with
the state of things in the middle ages, until the arts of engraving
and printing became sufficiently developed, because it requires the
facility of quick and extensive circulation. The political or satirical
song was carried everywhere by the minstrel, but the satirical picture,
represented only in some solitary sculpture or illumination, could
hardly be finished before it had become useless even in the small
sphere of its influence, and then remained for ages a strange figure,
with no meaning that could be understood. No sooner, however, was
the art of printing introduced, than the importance of political
caricature was understood and turned to account. We have seen what a
powerful agent it became in the Reformation, which in spirit was no
less political than religious; but even before the great religious
movement had begun, this agent had been brought into activity. One
of the earliest engravings which can be called a caricature--perhaps
the oldest of our modern caricatures known--is represented in our
cut No. 171, is no doubt French, and belongs to the year 1499. It is
sufficiently explained by the history of the time.
[Illustration: _No. 171. The Political Game of Cards._]
At the date just mentioned, Louis XII. of France, who had been king
less than twelve months, was newly married to Anne of Britany, and
had resolved upon an expedition into Italy, to unite the crown of
Naples with that of France. Such an expedition affected many political
interests and Louis had to employ a certain amount of diplomacy with
his neighbours, several of whom were strongly opposed to his projects
of ambition, and among those who acted most openly were the Swiss,
who were believed to have been secretly supported by England and the
Netherlands. Louis, however, overcame their opposition, and obtained a
renewal of the alliance which had expired with his predecessor Charles
VIII. This temporary difficulty with the Swiss is the subject of our
caricature, the original of which bears the title "Le Revers du Jeu
des Suysses" (the defeat of the game of the Swiss). The princes most
interested are assembled round a card-table, at which are seated the
king of France to the right, opposite him the Swiss, and in front the
doge of Venice, who was in alliance with the French against Milan. At
the moment represented, the king of France is announcing that he has a
flush of cards, the Swiss acknowledges the weakness of his hand, and
the doge lays down his cards--in fact, Louis XII. has won the game.
But the point of the caricature lies principally in the group around.
To the extreme right the king of England, Henry VII., distinguished
by his three armorial lions, and the king of Spain, are engaged in
earnest conversation. Behind the former stands the infanta Margarita,
who is evidently winking at the Swiss to give him information of the
state of the cards of his opponents. At her side stands the duke of
Wirtemberg, and just before him the pope, the infamous Alexander VI.
(Borgia), who, though in alliance with Louis, is not able, with all his
efforts, to read the king's game, and looks on with evident anxiety.
Behind the doge of Venice stands the Italian refugee, Trivulci, an able
warrior, devoted to the interests of France; and at the doge's right
hand, the emperor, holding in his hands another pack of cards, and
apparently exulting in the belief that he has thrown confusion into
the king of France's game. In the background to the left are seen the
count Palatine and the marquis of Montserrat, who also look uncertain
about the result; and below the former appears the duke of Savoy, who
was giving assistance to the French designs. The duke of Lorraine is
serving drink to the gamblers, while the duke of Milan, who was at this
time playing rather a double part, is gathering up the cards which have
fallen to the ground, in order to make a game for himself. Louis XII.
carried his designs into execution; the duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza,
nick-named the Moor, played his cards badly, lost his duchy, and died
in prison.
[Illustration: _No. 172. The Three Orders of the State._]
Such is this earliest of political caricatures--and in this case it
was purely political--but the question of religion soon began not only
to mix itself up with the political question, but almost to absorb it,
as we have seen in the review of the history of caricature under the
Reformation. Before this period, indeed, political caricature was only
an affair between crowned heads, or between kings and their nobles, but
the religious agitation had originated a vast social movement, which
brought into play popular feelings and passions: these gave caricature
a totally new value. Its power was greatest on the middle and lower
classes of society, that is, on the people, the _tiers état_, which was
now thrown prominently forward. The new social theory is proclaimed
in a print, of which a fac-simile will be found in the "Musée de la
Caricature," by E. J. Jaime, and which, from the style and costume,
appears to be German. The three orders, the church, the lord of the
land, and the people, represented respectively by a bishop, a knight,
and a cultivator, stand upon the globe in an honourable equality, each
receiving direct from heaven the emblems or implements of his duties.
To the bishop is delivered his bible, to the husbandman his mattock,
and to the knight the sword with which he is to protect and defend the
others. This print--see cut No. 172--which bears the title, in Latin,
"Quis te prætulit?" (Who chose thee?) belongs probably to the earlier
half of the sixteenth century. A painting in the Hôtel de Ville of
Aix, in Provence, represents the same subject much more satirically,
intending to delineate the three orders as they were, and not as they
ought to be. The divine hand is letting down from heaven an immense
frame in the form of a heart, in which is a picture representing a king
kneeling before the cross, intimating that the civil power was to be
subordinate to the ecclesiastical. The three orders are represented
by a cardinal, a noble, and a peasant, the latter of whom is bending
under the burthen of the heart, the whole of which is thrown upon his
shoulders, while the cardinal and the noble, the latter dressed in
the fashionable attire of the court minions of the day, are placing
one hand to the heart on each side, in a manner which shows that they
support none of the weight.
Amid the fierce agitation which fell upon France in the sixteenth
century, for a while we find but few traces of the employment of
caricature by either party. The religious reformation there was rather
aristocratic than popular, and the reformers sought less to excite
the feelings of the multitude, which, indeed, went generally in the
contrary direction. There was, moreover, a character of gloom in the
religion of Calvin, which contracted strongly with the joyousness of
that of the followers of Luther; and the factions in France sought to
slaughter, rather than to laugh at, each other. The few caricatures
of this period which are known, are very bitter and coarse. As far as
I am aware, no early Huguenot caricatures are known, but there are a
few directed against the Huguenots. It was, however, with the rise of
the Ligue that the taste for political caricature may be said to have
taken root in France, and in that country it long continued to flourish
more than anywhere else. The first caricatures of the ligueurs were
directed against the person of the king, Henri de Valois, and possess
a brutality almost beyond description. It was now an object to keep up
the bitterness of spirit of the fanatical multitude. In one of these
caricatures a demon is represented waiting on the king to summon him
to a meeting of the "Estates" in hell; and in the distance we see
another demon flying away with him. Another relates to the murder of
the Guises, in 1588, which the ligueurs professed to ascribe to the
councils of M. d'Epernon, one of his favourites, on whom they looked
with great hatred. It is entitled, "Soufflement et Conseil diabolique
de d'Epernon à Henri de Valois pour faccager les Catholiques." In the
middle of the picture stands the king, and beside him D'Epernon, who
is blowing into his ear with a bellows. On the ground before them lie
the headless corpses of the _deux frères Catholiques_, the duke of
Guise, and his brother the cardinal, while the executioner of royal
vengeance is holding up their heads by the hair. In the distance is
seen the castle of Blois, in which this tragedy took place; and on the
left of the picture appear the cardinal de Bourbon, the archbishop of
Blois, and other friends of the Guises, expressing their horror at the
deed. Henri III. was himself murdered in the year following, and the
caricatures against him became still more brutal during the period in
which the ligueurs tried to set up a king of their own in his place. In
one caricature, which has more of an emblematical character than most
of the others, he is pictured as "Henri le Monstrueux;" and in others,
entitled "Les Hermaphrodites," he is exhibited under forms which point
at the infamous vices with which he was charged.
[Illustration: _No. 173. The Assembly of Apes._]
The tide of caricature, however, soon turned in the contrary direction,
and the coarse, unprincipled abuse employed by the ligueurs found a
favourable contrast in the powerful wit and talent of the satirists
and caricaturists who now took up pen and pencil in the cause of
Henri IV. The former was, on the whole, the more formidable weapon,
but the latter represented to some eyes more vividly in picture what
had already been done in type. This was the case on both sides; the
caricature last mentioned was founded upon a very libellous satirical
pamphlet against Henri III., entitled "L'Isle des Hermaphrodites." It
is the case also with the first caricatures against the ligueurs, which
I have to mention. The Estates held in Paris by the duke of Mayenne
and the ligueurs for the purpose of electing a new king in opposition
to Henri of Navarre, were made the subject of the celebrated "Satyre
Ménippée," in which the proceedings of these Estates were turned to
ridicule in the most admirable manner. Four large editions were sold
in less than as many months. Several caricatures arose out of or
accompanied this remarkable book. One of these is a rather large print,
entitled "La Singerie des Estats de la Ligue, l'an 1593," in which the
members of the Estates and the ligueurs are pictured with the heads
of monkeys. The central part represents the meeting of the Estates,
at which the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, the duke of Mayenne,
seated on the throne, presides. Above him is suspended a large portrait
of the infanta of Spain, _L'Espousée de la Ligue_, as she is called
in the satire, ready to marry any one whom the Estates shall declare
king of France. In chairs, on each side of Mayenne, are the two "ladies
of honour" of the said future spouse. To the left are seated in a row
the celebrated council of sixteen (_les seize_), reduced at this time
to twelve, because the duke of Mayenne, to check their turbulence,
had caused four of them to be hanged. They wear the favours of the
future spouse. Opposite to them are the representatives of the three
orders, all, we are told, devoted to the service of "the said lady."
Before the throne are the two musicians of the Ligue, one described as
Phelipottin, the blind performer on the viel, or hurdy-gurdy, to the
Ligue, and his subordinate, the player on the triangle, "kept at the
expense of the future spouse." These were to entertain the assembly
during the pauses between the orations of the various speakers. All
this is a satire on the efforts of the king of Spain to establish a
monarch of his own choice. On the bench behind the musicians sit the
deputies from Lyons, Poitiers, Orleans, and Rheims, cities where the
influence of the Ligue was strong, discussing the question as to who
should be king. Thus much of this picture is represented in our cut
No. 173. There are other groups of figures in the representation of
the assembly of the Estates; and there are two side compartments--that
on the left representing a forge, on which the fragments of a broken
king are laid to be refounded, and a multitude of apes, with hammers
and an anvil, ready to work him into a new king; the other side of
the picture represents the circumstances of a then well-known act of
tyranny perpetrated by the Estates of the Ligue. Another large and
well-executed engraving, published at Paris in 1594, immediately after
Henri IV. had obtained possession of his capital, also represents the
grand procession of the Ligue as described at the commencement of the
"Satyre Ménippée," and was intended to hold up to ridicule the warlike
temper of the French Catholic clergy. It is entitled, "La Procession de
la Ligue."
Henri's triumph over the Ligue was made the subject of a series of
three caricatures, or perhaps, more correctly, of a caricature in three
divisions. The first is entitled the "Naissance de la Ligue," and
represents it under the form of a monster with three heads, severally
those of a wolf, a fox, and a serpent, issuing from hell-mouth. Under
it are the following lines:--
_L'enfer, pour asservir soubs ses loix tout le monde,
Vomit ce monstre hideux, fait d'un loup ravisseur,
D'un renard enveilly, et d'un serpent immonde,
Affublé d'un manteau propre à toute couleur._
The second division, the "Declin de la Ligue," representing its
downfall, is copied in our cut No. 174. Henri of Navarre, in the form
of a lion, has pounced fiercely upon it, and not too soon, for it had
already seized the crown and sceptre. In the distance, the sun of
national prosperity is seen rising over the country. The third picture,
the "Effets de la Ligue," represents the destruction of the kingdom and
the slaughter of the people, of which the Ligue had been the cause.
[Illustration: _No. 174. The Destruction of the Ligue._]
[Illustration: _No. 175. General Galas._]
The caricatures in France became more numerous during the seventeenth
century, but they are either so elaborate or so obscure, that each
requires almost a dissertation to explain it, and they often relate to
questions or events which have little interest for us at the present
day. Several rather spirited ones appeared at the time of the disgrace
of the mareschal d'Ancre and his wife; and the inglorious war with
the Netherlands, in 1635, furnished the occasion for others, for
the French, as usual, could make merry in their reverses as well as
in their successes. The imperialist general Galas inflicted serious
defeat on the French armies, and compelled them to a very disastrous
retreat from the countries they had invaded, and they tried to amuse
themselves at the expense of their conqueror. Galas was rather
remarkable for obesity, and the French caricaturists of the day made
this circumstance a subject for their satire. Our cut No. 175 is copied
from a print in which the magnitude of the stomach of General Galas
is certainly somewhat exaggerated. He is represented, not apparently
with any good reason, as puffed up with his own importance, which is
evaporating in smoke; and along with the smoke thus issuing from his
mouth, he is made to proclaim his greatness in the following rather
doggrel verses:--
_Je suis ce grand Galas, autrefois dans l'armée
La gloire de l'Espagne et de mes compagnons;
Maintenant je ne suis qu'un corps plein de fumée,
Pour avoir trop mangé de raves et d'oignons.
Gargantua jamais n'eut une telle panse, &c._
[Illustration: _No. 176. Batteville Humiliated._]
Caricatures in France began to be tolerably abundant during the middle
of the seventeenth century, but under the crushing tyranny of Louis
XIV., the freedom of the press, in all its forms, ceased to exist, and
caricatures relating to France, unless they came from the court party,
had to be published in other countries, especially in Holland. It will
be sufficient to give two examples from the reign of Louis XIV. In the
year 1661, a dispute arose in London between the ambassador of France,
M. D'Estrades, and the Spanish ambassador, the baron de Batteville,
on the question of precedence, which was carried so far as to give
rise to a tumult in the streets of the English capital. At this very
moment, a new Spanish ambassador, the marquis de Fuentes, was on his
way to Paris, but Louis, indignant at Batteville's behaviour in London,
sent orders to stop Fuentes on the frontier, and forbid his further
advance into his kingdom. The king of Spain disavowed the act of his
ambassador in England, who was recalled, and Fuentes received orders
to make an apology to king Louis. This event was made the subject of
a rather boasting caricature, the greater portion of which is given in
our cut No. 176. It is entitled "Batteville vient adorer le Soliel"
(Batteville comes to worship the sun). In the original the sun is seen
shining in the upper corner of the picture to the right, and presenting
the juvenile face of Louis XIV., but the caricaturist appears to have
substituted Batteville in the place of Fuentes. Beneath the whole are
the following boastful lines:--
_On ne va plus à Rome, on vient de Rome en France,
Mériter le pardon de quelque grande offence.
L'Italie tout entière est soumise à ces loix;
Un Espagnol s'oppose à ce droit de nos rois.
Mais un Français puissant joua des bastonnades,
Et punit l'insolent de ses rodomontades._
From this time there sprung up many caricatures against the Spaniards;
but the most ferocious caricature, or rather book of caricatures, of
the reign of Louis XIV., came from without, and was directed against
the king and his ministers and courtiers. The revocation of the edict
of Nantes took place in October, 1685, and was preceded and followed
by frightful persecutions of the Protestants, which drove away in
thousands the earnest, intelligent, and industrious part of the
population of France. They carried with them a deep hatred to their
oppressors, and sought refuge especially in the countries most hostile
to Louis XIV.--England and Holland. The latter country, where they
then enjoyed the greatest freedom of action, soon sent forth numerous
satirical books and prints against the French king and his ministers,
of which the book just alluded to was one of the most remarkable. It
is entitled "Les Heros de la Ligue, ou la Procession Monacale conduite
par Louis XIV. pour la Conversion des Protestans de son Royaume," and
consists of a series of twenty-four most grotesque faces, intended to
represent the ministers and courtiers of the "grand roi" most odious
to the Calvinists. It must have provoked their wrath exceedingly. I
give one example, and as it is difficult to select, I take the first in
the list, which represents William of Fürstemberg, one of the German
princes devoted to Louis XIV., who, by his intrigues, had forced him
into the archbishopric of Cologne, by which he became an elector
of the empire. For many reasons William of Fürstemberg was hated by
the French Protestants, but it is not quite clear why he is here
represented in the character of one of the low merchants of the Halles.
Over the picture, in the original, we read, _Guillaume de Furstemberg,
crie, ite, missa est_, and beneath are the four lines:--
_J'ay quitté mon pais pour servir à la France,
Soit par ma trahison, soit par ma lacheté;
J'ay troublé les états par ma méchanceté,
Une abbaye est ma recompense._
[Illustration: _No. 177. William of Fürstemberg._]