EARLY POLITICAL CARICATURE IN ENGLAND.--THE SATIRICAL WRITINGS
AND PICTURES OF THE COMMONWEALTH PERIOD.--SATIRES AGAINST
THE BISHOPS; BISHOP WILLIAMS.--CARICATURES ON THE CAVALIERS;
SIR JOHN SUCKLING.--THE ROARING BOYS; VIOLENCE OF THE
ROYALIST SOLDIERS.--CONTEST BETWEEN THE PRESBYTERIANS AND
INDEPENDENTS.--GRINDING THE KING'S NOSE.--PLAYING-CARDS USED AS
THE MEDIUM FOR CARICATURE; HASELRIGGE AND LAMBERT.--SHROVETIDE.
During the sixteenth century caricature can hardly be said to have
existed in England, and it did not come much into fashion, until the
approach of the great struggle which convulsed our country in the
century following. The popular reformers have always been the first to
appreciate the value of pictorial satire as an offensive weapon. Such
was the case with the German reformers in the age of Luther; as it was
again with the English reformers in the days of Charles I., a period
which we may justly consider as that of the birth of English political
caricature. From 1640 to 1661 the press launched forth an absolute
deluge of political pamphlets, many of which were of a satirical
character, scurrilous in form and language, and, on whatever side
they were written, very unscrupulous in regard to the truth of their
statements. Among them appeared a not unfrequent engraving, seldom
well executed, whether on copper or wood, but displaying a coarse and
pungent wit that must have told with great effect on those for whom it
was intended. The first objects of attack in these caricatures were
the Episcopalian party in the church and the profaneness and insolence
of the cavaliers. The Puritans or Presbyterians who took the lead
in, and at first directed, the great political movement, looked upon
Episcopalianism as differing in little from popery, and, at all events,
as leading direct to it. Arminianism was with them only another name
for the same thing, and was equally detested. In a caricature published
in 1641, Arminius is represented supported on one side by Heresy,
wearing the triple crown, while on the other side Truth is turning away
from him, and carrying with her the Bible. It was the indiscreet zeal
of archbishop Laud which led to the triumph of the Puritan party, and
the downfall of the episcopal church government, and Laud became the
butt for attacks of all descriptions, in pamphlets, songs and satirical
prints, the latter usually figuring in the titles of the pamphlets.
Laud was especially obnoxious to the Puritans for the bitterness with
which he had persecuted them.
In 1640 Laud was committed to the Tower, an event which was hailed
as the first grand step towards the overthrow of the bishops. As an
example of the feeling of exultation displayed on this occasion by his
enemies, we may quote a few lines from a satirical song, published in
1641, and entitled "The Organs Eccho. To the Tune of the Cathedrall
Service." It is a general attack on the prelacy, and opens with a cry
of triumph over the fall of William Laud, of whom the song says--
_As he was in his braverie,
And thought to bring us all in slaverie,
The parliament found out his knaverie;
And so fell William.
Alas! poore William!_
_His pope-like domineering,
And some other tricks appearing,
Provok'd Sir Edward Deering
To blame the old prelate.
Alas! poore prelate!_
_Some say he was in hope
To bring England againe to th' pope;
But now he is in danger of an axe or a rope.
Farewell, old Canterbury.
Alas! poore Canterbury!_
Wren, bishop of Ely, was another of the more obnoxious of the prelates,
and there was hardly less joy among the popular party when he was
committed to the Tower in the course of the year 1641. Another song,
in verse similar to the last, contains a general review of the demerits
of the members of the prelacy, under the title of "The Bishops Last
Good-night." At the head of the broadside on which it is printed stand
two satirical woodcuts, but it must be confessed that the words of the
song are better than the engraving. The bishop of Ely, we are told, had
just gone to join his friend Laud in the Tower--
_Ely, thou hast alway to thy power
Left the church naked in a storme and showre,
And now for 't thou must to thy old friend i' th' Tower.
To the Tower must Ely;
Come away, Ely._
A third obnoxious prelate was bishop Williams. Williams was a Welshman
who had been high in favour with James I., but he had given offence
to the government of Charles I., and been imprisoned in the Tower
during the earlier part of that king's reign. He was released by the
parliament in 1640, and so far regained the favour of king Charles,
that he was raised to the archbishopric of York in the year following.
When the civil war began, he retired into Wales, and garrisoned Conway
for the king. Williams's warlike behaviour was the source of much mirth
among the Roundheads. In 1642 was published a large caricature on the
three classes to whom the parliamentarians were especially hostile--the
royalist judges, the prelates, and the ruffling cavaliers; represented
here, as we are told in writing in the copy among the king's pamphlets,
by judge Mallet, bishop Williams, and colonel Lunsford. These three
figures are placed in as many compartments with doggrel verses under
each. That of bishop Williams is copied in our cut No. 178. The bishop
is armed cap-à-pie, and in the distance behind him are seen on one
side his cathedral church, and on the other his war-horse. The verses
beneath it contain an allusion to this prelate's Welsh extraction in
the orthography of some of the words:--
_Oh, sir, I'me ready, did you never heere
How forward I have byn t'is many a yeare,
T'oppose the practice dat is now on foote,
Which plucks my brethren up both pranch and roote?
My posture and my hart toth well agree
To fight; now plud is up: come, follow mee._
[Illustration: _No. 178. The Church Militant._]
The country had now begun to experience the miseries of war, and to
smart under them; and the cavaliers were especially reproached for the
cruelty with which they plundered and ill-treated people whenever they
gained the mastery. Colonel Lunsford was especially notorious for the
barbarities committed by himself and his men--to such a degree that he
was popularly accused of eating children, a charge which is frequently
alluded to in the popular songs of the time. Thus one of these songs
couples him with two other obnoxious royalists:--
_From Fielding, and from Vavasour,
Both ill-affected men,
From Lunsford eke deliver us,
Who eateth up children._
[Illustration: _No. 179. The Sucklington Faction._]
In the third compartment of the caricature just mentioned, we see in
the background of the picture, behind colonel Lunsford, his soldiers
occupied in burning towns, and massacring women and children. The model
of the gay cavalier of the earlier period of this great revolution,
before the war had broken out in its intensity, was the courtly Sir
John Suckling, the poet of the drawing-room and tavern, the admired
of "roaring boys," and the hated of rigid Puritans. Sir John outdid
his companions in extravagance in everything which was fashionable,
and the display of his zeal in the cause of royalty was not calculated
to conciliate the reformers. When the king led an army against the
Scottish Covenanters in 1639, Suckling raised a troop of a hundred
horse at his own expense; but they gained more reputation by their
extraordinary dress than by their courage, and the whole affair was
made a subject of ridicule. From this time the name of Suckling became
identified with that gay and profligate class who, disgusted by the
outward show of sanctity which the Puritans affected, rushed into
the other extreme, and became notorious for their profaneness, their
libertinism, and their indulgence in vice, which threw a certain degree
of discredit upon the royalist party. There is a large broadside
among the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, entitled, "The
Sucklington Faction; or (Sucklings) Roaring Boys." It is one of those
satirical compositions which were then fashionable under the title
of "Characters," and is illustrated by an engraving, from which our
cut No. 179 is copied. This engraving, which from its superior style
is perhaps the work of a foreign artist, represents the interior of
a chamber, in which two of the Roaring Boys are engaged in drinking
and smoking, and forms a curious picture of contemporary manners.
Underneath the engraving we read the following lines:--
_Much meate doth gluttony produce,
And makes a man a swine;
But hee's a temperate man indeed
That with a leafe can dine._
_Hee needes no napkin for his handes,
His fingers for to wipe;
He hath his kitchin in a box,
His roast meate in a pipe._
When the war spread itself over the country, many of these Roaring
Boys became soldiers, and disgraced the profession by rapacity and
cruelty. The pamphlets of the parliamentarians abound with complaints
of the outrages perpetrated by the Cavaliers, and the evil appears to
have been increased by the ill-conduct of the auxiliaries brought over
from Ireland to serve the king, who were especially objects of hatred
to the Puritans. A broadside among the king's pamphlets is adorned
by a satirical picture of "The English Irish Souldier, with his new
discipline, new armes, old stomacke, and new taken pillage; who had
rather eat than fight." It was published in 1642. The English Irish
soldier is, as may be supposed, heavily laden with plunder. In 1646
appeared another caricature, which is copied in our cut No. 180. It
represents "England's Wolfe with Eagles clawes: the cruell impieties
of bloud-thirsty royalists and blasphemous anti-parliamentarians,
under the command of that inhumane prince Rupert, Digby, and the rest,
wherein the barbarous crueltie of our civill uncivill warres is briefly
discovered." England's wolf, as will be seen, is dressed in the high
fashion of the gay courtiers of the time.
[Illustration: _No. 180. "England's Wolf."_]
A few large caricatures, embodying satire of a more comprehensive
description, appeared from time to time, during this troubled age. Such
is a large emblematical picture, published on the 9th of November,
1642, and entitled "Heraclitus' Dream," for the scene is supposed to
be manifested to the philosopher in a vision. In the middle of the
picture the sheep are seen shearing their shepherd; while one cuts his
hair, another treats his beard in the same manner. Under the picture we
read the couplet--
_The flocke that was wont to be shorne by the herd,
Now polleth the shepherd in spight of his beard_.
[Illustration: _No. 181. Folly Uppermost._]
On the 19th of January, 1647, a caricature appeared under the title
"An Embleme of the Times." On one side War, represented as a giant in
armour, is seen standing upon a heap of dead and mutilated bodies,
while Hypocrisy, in the form of a woman with two faces, is flying
towards a distant city. "Libertines," "anti-sabbatarians," and others,
are hastening in the same direction; and the angel of pestilence,
hovering over the city, is ready to pounce upon it.
The party of the parliament was now triumphant, and the question of
religion again became the subject of dispute. The Presbyterians had
been establishing a sort of tyranny over men's minds, and sought to
proscribe all other sects, till their intolerance gradually raised up
a strong and general feeling of resistance. Since 1643 a brisk war of
political pamphlets had been carried on between the Presbyterians and
their opponents, when, in 1647, the Independents, whose cause had been
espoused by the army, gained the mastery. "Sir John Presbyter" or to
use the more familiar phrase, "Jack Presbyter," furnished a subject
for frequent satire, and the Presbyterians were not slow in returning
the blow. In the collection in the British Museum we find a caricature
which must have come from the Presbyterian party, entitled "Reall
Persecution, or the Foundation of a general Toleration, displaied
and portrayed by a proper emblem, and adorned with the same flowers
wherewith the scoffers of this last age have strowed their libellous
pamphlets." The group which occupies the middle part of this broadside,
is copied in our cut No. 181. It has its separate title, "The Picture
of an English Persecutor, or a foole-ridden ante-Presbeterian sectary."
(I give the spelling as in the original.) Folly is riding on the
sectarian, whom he holds with a bridle, the sectarian having the ears
of an ass. The following homely rhymes are placed in the mouth of
Folly,--
_Behould my habit, like my witt,
Equalls his on whom sitt._
Anti-Presbyterian is, as will be seen, dressed in the height of the
fashion, and says--
_My cursed speeches against Presbetry
Declares unto the world my foolery._
The mortification of the Presbyterians led in Scotland to the
proclamation of Charles II. as king, and to the ill-fated expedition
which ended in the battle of Worcester in 1651, when satirical
pamphlets, ballads, and caricatures against the Scottish Presbyterians
became for a while very popular. One of the best of the latter
is represented in our cut No. 182. Its object is to ridicule the
conditions which the Presbyterians exacted from the young prince
before they offered him the crown. It is printed in the middle of the
broadside, in prose, published on the 14th of July, 1651, with the
general title, "Old Sayings and Predictions verified and fulfilled,
touching the young King of Scotland and his gude subjects." The
picture has its separate title, "The Scots holding their young kinges
nose to the grinstone." followed by the lines--
_Come to the grinstone, Charles, 'tis now to late
To recolect, 'tis presbiterian fate,
You covinant pretenders, must I bee
The subject of youer tradgie-comedie?_
[Illustration: _No. 182. Conditions of Royalty._]
In fact, the picture represents Presbyterianism--Jack
Presbyter--holding the young king's nose to the grindstone, which is
turned by the Scots, personified as Jockey. The following lines are put
into the mouths of the three actors in this scene:--
_Jockey._--I, Jockey, turne the stone of all your plots,
For none turnes faster than the turne-coat Scots.
_Presbyter._--We for our ends did make thee king, be sure,
Not to rule us, we will not that endure.
_King._--You deep dissemblers, I kow what you doe,
And, for revenges sake, I will dissemble too.
Charles's defeat and flight from Worcester furnished materials for a
much more elaborate caricature than most of the similar productions
of this period, and of a somewhat singular design. It was published
on the 6th of November, 1651, and bears the title "A Mad Designe; or
a Description of the king of Scots marching in his disguise, after
the Rout at Worcester." A long, and not unnecessary, explanation of
the several groups forming this picture, enables us to understand it.
On the left Charles is seated on the globe "in a melancholy posture."
A little to the right, and nearly in front, the bishop of Clogher is
performing mass, at which lords Ormond and Inchquin, in the shapes of
strange animals, hold torches, and the lord Taaf, in the form of a
monkey, holds up the bishop's train. The Scottish army is seen marching
up, consisting, according to the description, of papists, prelatical
malignants, Presbyterians, and old cavaliers; the latter of whom are
represented by the "fooles head upon a pole in the rear." The next
group consists of two monkeys, one with a fiddle, the other carrying
a long staff with a torch at the end, concerning which we learn that
"The two ridiculous anticks, one with a fiddle, and the other with
a torch, set forth the ridiculousness of their condition when they
marched into England, carried up with high thoughts, yet altogether
in the darke, having onely a fooles bawble to be their light to walke
by, mirth of their own whimsies to keep up their spirits, and a
sheathed sword to truste in." Next come a troop of women, children,
and papists, lamenting over their defeat. Two monkeys on foot, and one
on horseback, follow, the latter riding with his face turned to the
horse's tail, and carrying in his hand a spit with provisions on it.
It is explained as "The Scots Kings flight from Worcester, represented
by the foole on horseback, riding backward, turning his face every way
in feares, ushered by duke Hambleton and the lord Wilmot." Lastly,
a crowd of women with flags bring up the rear. It cannot be said
that the wit displayed in this satire is of the very highest order.
After this period we meet with comparatively few caricatures until the
death of Cromwell, and the eve of the Restoration, when there came
a new and fierce struggle of political parties. The Dutch were the
subject of some satirical prints and pamphlets in 1652; and we find a
small number of caricatures on the social evils, such as drunkenness
and gluttony, and on one or two subjects of minor agitation. With the
close of the Commonwealth a new form of caricature came in. Playing
cards had, during this seventeenth century, been employed for various
purposes which were quite alien to their original character. In France
they were made the means of conveying instruction to children. In
England, at the time of which we are speaking, they were adopted as
the medium for spreading political caricature. The earliest of these
packs of cards known is one which appears to have been published at the
very moment of the restoration of Charles II., and which was, perhaps,
engraved in Holland. It contains a series of caricatures on the
principal acts of the Commonwealth, and on the parliamentary leaders.
Among other cards of a similar character which have been preserved is
a pack relating to the popish plot, another relating to the Rye House
conspiracy, one on the Mississippi scheme, published in Holland, and
one on the South Sea bubble.
[Illustration: _No. 183. Arthur Haselrigg._]
[Illustration: _No. 184. General Lambert_.]
The earliest of these packs of satirical cards, that on the
Commonwealth, belonged a few years ago to a lady of the name of Prest,
and is very fully described in a paper by Mr. Pettigrew, printed in
the "Journal of the British Archæological Association." Each of the
fifty-two cards presents a picture with a satirical title. Thus the
ace of diamonds represents "The High Court of Justice, or Oliver's
Slaughter House." The eight of diamonds is represented in our cut No.
183; its subject is "Don Haselrigg, Knight of the Codled Braine." It
is hardly necesiary to say that Sir Arthur Haselrigg acted a very
prominent and remarkable part during the whole of the Commonwealth
period, and that his manners were impetuous and authoritative, which
was probably the meaning of the epithet here given to him. The card
of the king of diamonds represents rather unequivocally the subject
indicated by its title, "Sir H. Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for
which his owne corrects him." It is an allusion to one of the petty
scandals of the republican period. The eight of hearts is a satire on
major-general Lambert. This able and distinguished man was remarkably
fond of flowers, took great pleasure in cultivating them, and was
skilful in drawing them, which was one of his favourite amusements.
He withdrew to Amsterdam during the Protectorate, and there gave
full indulgence to this love of flowers, and I need hardly say that
it was the age of the great tulip mania in Holland. When, after the
Restoration, he was involved in the fate of the regicides, but had
his sentence commuted for thirty years of imprisonment, he alleviated
the dulness of his long confinement in the isle of Guernsey by the
same amusement. In the card we have engraved, Lambert is represented
in his garden, holding a large tulip in his hand; and it is no doubt
in allusion to this innocent taste that he is here entitled "Lambert,
Knight of the Golden Tulip."
[Illustration: _No. 185. Shrovetide._]
The Restoration furnished better songs than prints, and many years
passed before any caricatures worthy of notice appeared in England.
Even burlesque subjects of any merit occur but rarely, and I hardly
know of one which is worth describing here. Among the best of those I
have met with, is a pair of plates, published in 1660, representing
Lent and Shrovetide, and these, I believe, are copied or imitated from
foreign prints. Lent is come as a thin miserable-looking knight-errant,
appropriately armed and mounted, ready to give battle to Shrovetide,
whose good living is pernicious to the whole community, and he abuses
his opponent in good round terms. In the companion print, of which our
cut No. 185 is a copy, Shrovetide appears as a jolly champion, quite
ready to meet his enemy. He is best described in the following lines,
extracted from the verses which accompany the prints:--
_Fatt Shrovetyde, mounted on a good fatt oxe,
Supposd that Lent was mad, or caught a foxe,[99]
Armed cap-a-pea from head unto the heel,
A spit his long sword, somewhat worse than steale,
(Sheath'd in a fatt pigge and a peece of porke),
His bottles fild with wine, well stopt with corke;
The two plump capons fluttering at his crupper;
And 's shoulders lac'd with sawsages for supper;
The gridir'n (like a well strung instrument)
Hung at his backe, and for the turnament
His helmet is a brasse pott, and his flagge
A cookes foule apron, which the wind doth wagg,
Fixd to a broome: thus bravely he did ride,
And boldly to his foe he thus replied._
[99] _i.e._, was drunk.