ENGLISH CARICATURE IN THE AGE OF GEORGE II.--ENGLISH
PRINTSELLERS.--ARTISTS EMPLOYED BY THEM.--SIR ROBERT
WALPOLE'S LONG MINISTRY.--THE WAR WITH FRANCE.--THE NEWCASTLE
ADMINISTRATION.--OPERA INTRIGUES.--ACCESSION OF GEORGE III., AND
LORD BUTE IN POWER.
With the accession of George II., the taste for political caricatures
increased greatly, and they had become almost a necessity of social
life. At this time, too, a distinct English school of political
caricature had been established, and the print-sellers became more
numerous, and took a higher position in the commerce of literature
and art. Among the earliest of these printsellers the name of Bowles
stands especially conspicuous. Hogarth's burlesque on the Beggar's
Opera, published in 1728, was "printed for John Bowles, at the Black
Horse, in Cornhill." Some copies of "King Henry the Eighth and Anna
Bullen," engraved by the same great artist in the following year,
bear the imprint of John Bowles; and others were "printed for Robert
Wilkinson, Cornhill, Carington Bowles, in St. Paul's Church Yard, and
R. Sayer, in Fleet Street." Hogarth's "Humours of Southwark Fair" was
also published, in 1733, by Carington and John Bowles. This Carington
Bowles was, perhaps, dead in 1755, for in that year the caricature
entitled "British Resentment" bears the imprint, "Printed for T.
Bowles, in St. Paul's Church Yard, and Jno. Bowles & Son, in Cornhill."
John Bowles appears to have been the brother of the first Carington
Bowles in St. Paul's Churchyard, and a son named Carington succeeded to
that business, which, under him and his son Carington, and then as the
establishment of Bowles and Carver, has continued to exist within the
memory of the present generation. Another very celebrated printshop was
established in Fleet Street by Thomas Overton, probably as far back
as the close of the seventeenth century. On his death his business was
purchased by Robert Sayers, a mezzotinto engraver of merit, whose name
appears as joint publisher of a print by Hogarth in 1729. Overton is
said to have been a personal friend of Hogarth. Sayers was succeeded in
the business by his pupil in mezzotinto engraving, named Laurie, from
whom it descended to his son, Robert H. Laurie, known in city politics,
and it became subsequently the firm of Laurie and Whittle. This
business still exists at 53, Fleet Street, the oldest establishment
in London for the publication of maps and prints. During the reign of
the second George, the number of publishers of caricatures increased
considerably, and among others, we meet with the names of J. Smith, "at
Hogarth's Head, Cheapside," attached to a caricature published August,
1756; Edwards and Darly, "at the Golden Acorn, facing Hungerford,
Strand," who also published caricatures during the years 1756-7;
caricatures and burlesque prints were published by G. Bickham, May's
Buildings, Covent Garden, and one, directed against the employment of
foreign troops, and entitled "A Nurse for the Hessians," is stated to
have been "sold in May's Buildings, Covent Garden, where is 50 more;"
"The Raree Show," published in 1762, was "sold at Sumpter's Political
Print-shop, Fleet Street," and many caricatures on contemporary
costume, especially on the Macaronis, about the year 1772, were
"published by T. Bowen, opposite the Haymarket, Piccadilly." Sledge,
"printseller, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden," is also met with about
the middle of the last century. Among other burlesque prints, Bickham,
of May's Buildings, issued a series of figures representing the various
trades, made up of the different tools, &c., used by each. The house
of Carington Bowles, in St. Paul's Churchyard, produced an immense
number of caricatures, during the last century and the present, and of
the most varied character, but they consisted more of comic scenes of
society than of political subjects, and many of them were engraved in
mezzotinto, and rather highly coloured. Among them were caricatures on
the fashions and foibles of the day, amusing accidents and incidents,
common occurrences of life, characters, &., and they are frequently
aimed at lawyers and priests, and especially at monks and friars,
for the anti-Catholic feeling was strong in the last century. J.
Brotherton, at No. 132, New Bond Street, published many of Bunbury's
caricatures; while the house of Laurie and Whittle gave employment
especially to the Cruikshanks. But perhaps the most extensive publisher
of caricatures of them all was S. W. Fores, who dwelt first at No. 3,
Piccadilly, but afterwards established himself at No. 50, the corner
of Sackville Street, where the name still remains. Fores seems to have
been most fertile in ingenious expedients for the extension of his
business. He formed a sort of library of caricatures and other prints,
and charged for admission to look at them; and he afterwards adopted a
system of lending them out in portfolios for evening parties, at which
these portfolios of caricatures became a very fashionable amusement
in the latter part of the last century. At times, some remarkable
curiosity was employed to add to the attractions of his shop. Thus, on
caricatures published in 1790, we find the statement that, "In Fores'
Caricature Museum is the completest collection in the kingdom. Also
_the head and hand of Count Struenzee_. Admittance, 1_s._" Caricatures
against the French revolutionists, published in 1793, bear imprints
stating that they were "published by S. W. Fores, No. 3, Piccadilly,
where may be seen _a complete Model of the Guillotine_--admittance, one
shilling." In some this model is said to be six feet high.
Among the artists employed by the print-publishers of the age of
George II., we still find a certain number of foreigners. Coypel, who
caricatured the opera in the days of Farinelli, and pirated Hogarth,
belonged to a distinguished family of French painters. Goupy, who
also caricatured the _artistes_ of the opera (in 1727), and Boitard,
who worked actively for Carington Bowles from 1750 to 1770, were also
Frenchmen. Liotard, another caricaturist of the time of George II.,
was a native of Geneva. The names of two others, Vandergucht and
Vanderbank, proclaim them Dutchmen. Among the English caricaturists who
worked for the house of Bowles, were George Bickham, the brother of
the printseller, John Collet, and Robert Dighton, with others of less
repute. R. Attwold, who published caricatures against admiral Byng in
1750, was an imitator of Hogarth. Among the more obscure caricaturists
of the latter part of the half-century, were MacArdell--whose print
of "The Park Shower," representing the confusion raised among the
fashionable company in the Mall in St. James's Park by a sudden fall
of rain, is so well known--and Darley. Paul Sandby, who was patronised
by the duke of Cumberland, executed caricatures upon Hogarth. Many of
these artists of the earlier period of the English school of caricature
appear to have been very ill paid--the first of the family of Bowles is
said to have boasted that he bought many of the plates for little more
than their value as metal. The growing taste for caricature had also
brought forward a number of amateurs, among whom were the countess of
Burlington, and general, afterwards marquis, Townshend. The former, who
was the lady of that earl who built Burlington House, in Piccadilly,
was the leader of one of the factions in the opera disputes at the
close of the reign of George I., and is understood to have designed the
well-known caricature upon Cuzzoni, Farinelli, and Heidegger, which was
etched by Goupy, whom she patronised. It must not be forgotten that
Bunbury himself, as well as Sayers, were amateurs; and among other
amateurs I may name captain Minthull, captain Baillie, and John Nixon.
The first of these published caricatures against the Macaronis (as the
dandies of the earlier part of the reign of George III. were called),
one of which, entitled "The Macaroni Dressing-Room," was especially
popular.
[Illustration: _No. 195. A Party of Mourners._]
English political caricature came into its full activity with the
ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, which, beginning in 1721, lasted
through the long period of twenty years. In the previous period
the Whigs were accused of having invented caricature, but now the
Tories certainly took the utmost advantage of the invention, for,
during several years, the greater number of the caricatures which
were published were aimed against the Whig ministry. It is also a
rather remarkable characteristic of society at this period, that the
ladies took so great an interest in politics, that the caricatures
were largely introduced upon fans, as well as upon other objects of
an equally personal character. Moreover, the popular notion of what
constituted a caricature was still so little fixed, that they were
usually called _hieroglyphics_, a term, indeed, which was not ill
applied, for they were so elaborate, and so filled with mystical
allusions, that now it is by no means easy to understand or appreciate
them. Towards the year 1739, there was a marked improvement in the
political caricatures--they were better designed, and displayed more
talent, but still they required rather long descriptions to render them
intelligible. One of the most celebrated was produced by the motion in
the House of Commons, Feb. 13, 1741, against the minister Walpole. It
was entitled "The Motion," and was a Whig satire upon the opposition,
who are represented as driving so hurriedly and inconsiderately to
obtain places, that they are overthrown before they reach their object.
The party of the opposition retaliated by a counter-caricature,
entitled, "The Reason," which was in some respects a parody upon the
other, to which it was inferior in point and spirit. At the same time
appeared another caricature against the ministry, under the title of
"The Motive." These provoked another, entitled, "A Consequence of the
Motion;" which was followed the day after its publication by another
caricature upon the opposition, entitled, "The Political Libertines;
or, Motion upon Motion;" while the opponents of the government also
brought out a caricature, entitled, "The Grounds," a violent and rather
gross attack upon the Whigs. Among other caricatures published on this
occasion, one of the best was entitled, "The Funeral of Faction,"
and bears the date of March 26, 1741. Beneath it are the words,
"Funerals performed by Squire S----s," alluding to Sandys, who was the
motion-maker in the House of Commons, and who thus brought on his party
a signal defeat. Among the chief mourners on this occasion are seen the
opposition journals, _The Craftsman_, the creation of Bolingbroke and
Pulteney, the still more scurrilous _Champion_, _The Daily Post_, _The
London and Evening Post_, and _The Common Sense Journal_. This mournful
group is reproduced in our cut No. 195.
[Illustration: _No. 196. British Resentment._]
[Illustration: _No. 197. Britannia in a New Dress._]
[Illustration: _No. 198. Caught by a Bait._]
From this time there was no falling off in the supply of caricatures,
which, on the contrary, seemed to increase every year, until
the activity of the pictorial satirists was roused anew by the
hostilities with France in 1755, and the ministerial intrigues of
the two following years. The war, accepted by the English government
reluctantly, and ill prepared for, was the subject of much discontent,
although at first hopes were given of great success. One of the
caricatures, published in the middle of these early hopes, at a time
when an English fleet lay before Louisbourg, in Canada, is entitled,
"British Resentment, or the French fairly coop'd at Louisbourg,"
and came from the pencil of the French artist Boitard. One of its
groups, representing the courageous English sailor and the despairing
Frenchman, is given in our cut No. 196, and may serve as an example
of Boitard's style of drawing. It became now the fashion to print
political caricatures, in a diminished form, on cards, and seventy-five
of these were formed into a small volume, under the title of "A
Political and Satirical History of the years 1756 and 1757. In a
series of seventy-five humorous and entertaining Prints, containing
all the most remarkable Transactions, Characters, and Caricaturas of
those two memorable years.... London: printed for E. Morris, near St.
Paul's." The imprints of the plates, which bear the dates of their
several publications, inform us that they came from the well-known
shop of "Darly and Edwards, at the Acorn, facing Hungerford, Strand."
These caricatures begin with our foreign relations, and express the
belief that the ministers were sacrificing English interests to French
influence. In one of them (our cut No. 197), entitled, "England made
odious, or the French Dressers," the minister, Newcastle, in the garb
of a woman, and his colleague, Fox, have dressed Britannia in a new
French robe, which does not fit her. She exclaims, "Let me have my own
cloathes. I cannot stir my arms in these; besides, everybody laughs at
me." Newcastle replies, rather imperiously, "Hussy, be quiet, you have
no need to stir your arms--why, sure! what's here to do?" While Fox, in
a more insinuating tone, offers her a fleur-de-lis, and says, "Here,
madam, stick this in your bosom, next your heart." The two pictures
which adorn the walls of the room represent an axe and a halter; and
underneath we read the lines,--
_And shall the substitutes of power
Our genius thus bedeck?
Let them remember there's an hour
Of quittance--then, ware neck._
In another print of this series, this last idea is illustrated more
fully. It is aimed at the ministers, who were believed to be enriching
themselves at the expense of the nation, and is entitled, "The Devil
turned Bird-catcher." On one side, while Fox is greedily scrambling
for the gold, the fiend has caught him in a halter suspended to the
gallows; on the other side another demon is letting down the fatal
axe on Newcastle, who is similarly employed. The latter (see our cut
No. 198) is described as a "Noddy catching at the bait, while the
bird-catcher lets drop an axe." This implement of execution is a
perfect picture of a guillotine, long before it was so notoriously in
use in France.
[Illustration: _No. 199. British Idolatry._]
The third example of these caricatures which I shall quote is entitled
"The Idol," and has for its subject the extravagancies and personal
jealousies connected with the Italian opera. The rivalry between
Mingotti and Vanneschi was now making as much noise there as that of
Cuzzoni and Faustina some years before. The former acted arbitrarily
and capriciously, and could with difficulty be bound to sing a few
times during the season for a high salary: it is said, £2,000 for the
season. In the caricature to which I allude, this lady appears raised
upon a stool, inscribed "£2,000 per annum," and is receiving the
worship of her admirers. Immediately before her an ecclesiastic is seen
on his knees, exclaiming, "Unto thee be praise now and for evermore!"
In the background a lady appears, holding up her pug-dog, then the
fashionable pet, and addressing the opera favourite, "'Tis only pug and
you I love." Other men are on their knees behind the ecclesiastic, all
persons of distinction; and last comes a nobleman and his lady, the
former holding in his hand an order for £2,000, his subscription to the
opera, and remarking, "We shall have but twelve songs for all this
money." The lady replies, with an air of contempt, "Well, and enough
too, for the paltry trifle." The idol, in return for all this homage,
sings rather contemptuously--
_Ra, ru, ra, rot ye,
My name is Mingotti,
If you worship me notti,
You shall all go to potti._
The closing years of the reign of George II., under the vigorous
administration of the first William Pitt, witnessed a calm in the
domestic politics of the country, which presented a strange contrast
to the agitation of the previous period. Faction seemed to have hidden
its head, and there was comparatively little employment for the
caricaturist. But this calm lasted only a short time after that king's
death, and the new reign was ushered in by indications of approaching
political agitation of the most violent description, in which satirists
who had hitherto contented themselves with other subjects were tempted
to embark in the strife of politics. Among these was Hogarth, whose
discomforts as a political caricaturist we shall have to describe in
our next chapter.
[Illustration: _No. 200. Fox on Boots._]
Perhaps no name ever provoked a greater amount of caricature and
satirical abuse than that of Lord Bute, who, through the favour of
the Princess of Wales, ruled supreme at court during the first period
of the reign of George III. Bute had taken into the ministry, as his
confidential colleague, Fox--the Henry Fox who became subsequently
the first Lord Holland, a man who had enriched himself enormously
with the money of the nation, and these two appeared to be aiming at
the establishment of arbitrary power in the place of constitutional
government. Fox was usually represented in the caricatures with the
head and tail of the animal represented by his name rather strongly
developed; while Bute was drawn, as a very bad pun upon his name, in
the garb of a Scotchman, wearing two large boots, or sometimes a single
boot of still greater magnitude. In these caricatures Bute and Fox are
generally coupled together. Thus, a little before the resignation of
the duke of Newcastle in 1762, there appeared a caricature entitled
"The State Nursery," in which the various members of the ministry, as
it was then formed under Lord Bute's influence, are represented as
engaged in childish games. Fox, as the whipper-in of parliamentary
majorities, is riding, armed with his whip, on Bute's shoulders (see
our cut No. 200), while the duke of Newcastle performs the more menial
service of rocking the cradle. In the rhymes which accompany this
caricature, the first of these groups is described as follows (Fox was
commonly spoken of in satire by the title of Volpone)--
_First you see old sly Volpone-y,
Riding on the shoulders brawny
Of the muckle favourite Sawny;
Doodle, doodle, doo._
[Illustration: _No. 201. Fanaticism in another Shape._]
The number of caricatures published at this period was very great, and
they were almost all aimed in one direction, against Bute and Fox,
the Princess of Wales, and the government they directed. Caricature,
at this time, ran into the least disguised licence, and the coarsest
allusions were made to the supposed secret intercourse between the
minister and the Princess of Wales, of which perhaps the most harmless
was the addition of a petticoat to the boot, as a symbol of the
influence under which the country was governed. In mock processions
and ceremonies a Scotchman was generally introduced carrying the
standard of the boot and petticoat. Lord Bute, frightened at the amount
of odium which was thus heaped upon him, fought to stem the torrent
by employing satirists to defend the government, and it is hardly
necessary to state that among these mercenary auxiliaries was the great
Hogarth himself, who accepted a pension, and published his caricature
entitled, "The Times, Nov. 1," in the month of September, 1762. Hogarth
did not excel in political caricature, and there was little in this
print to distinguish it above the ordinary publications of a similar
character. It was the moment of negotiations for Lord Bute's unpopular
peace, and Hogarth's satire is directed against the foreign policy of
the great ex-minister Pitt. It represents Europe in a state of general
conflagration, and the flames already communicating to Great Britain.
While Pitt is blowing the fire, Bute, with a party of soldiers and
sailors zealously assisted by his favourite Scotchmen, is labouring
to extinguish it. In this he is impeded by the interference of the
duke of Newcastle, who brings a wheelbarrow full of _Monitors_ and
_North Britons,_ the violent opposition journals, to feed the flames.
The advocacy of Bute's mercenaries, whether literary or artistic, did
little service to the government, for they only provoked increased
activity among its opponents. Hogarth's caricature of "The Times," drew
several answers, one of the best of which was a large print entitled
"The Raree Show: a political contrast to the print of 'The Times,' by
William Hogarth." It is the house of John Bull which is here on fire,
and the Scots are dancing and exulting at it. In the centre of the
picture appears a great actors' barn, from an upper window of which
Fox thrusts out his head and points to the sign, representing Æneas
and Dido entering the cave together, as the performance which was
acting within. It is an allusion to the scandal in general circulation
relating to Bute and the princess, who, of course, were the Æneas and
Dido of the piece, and appear in those characters on the scaffold in
front, with two of Bute's mercenary writers, Smollett, who edited the
_Briton_, and Murphy, who wrote in the _Auditor_, one blowing the
trumpet and the other beating the drum. Among the different groups
which fill the picture, one, behind the actors' barn (see our cut No.
201), is evidently intended for a satire on the spirit of religious
fanaticism which was at this time spreading through the country.
An open-air preacher, mounted on a stool, is addressing a not very
intellectual-looking audience, while his inspiration is conveyed to him
in a rather vulgar manner by the spirit, not of good, but of evil.
The violence of this political warfare at length drove Lord Bute from
at least ostensible power. He resigned on the 6th of April, 1763. One
of the popular favourites at this time was the duke of Cumberland, the
hero of Culloden, who was regarded as the leader of the opposition
in the House of Lords. People now believed that it was the duke of
Cumberland who had overthrown "the boot," and his popularity increased
on a sudden. The triumph was commemorated in several caricatures. One
of these is entitled, "The Jack-Boot kick'd down, or English Will
triumphant: a Dream." The duke of Cumberland, whip in hand, has kicked
the boot out of the house, exclaiming to a young man in tailor's
garb who follows him, "Let me alone, Ned; I know how to deal with
Scotsmen. Remember Culloden." The youth replies, "Kick hard, uncle,
keep him down. Let me have a kick too." Nearly the same group, using
similar language, is introduced into a caricature of the same date,
entitled, "The Boot and the Blockhead." The youthful personage is no
doubt intended for Cumberland's nephew, Edward, duke of York, who was
a sailor, and was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, and who appears
to have joined his uncle in his opposition to Lord Bute. The "boot," as
seen in our cut No. 202, is encircled with Hogarth's celebrated "line
of beauty," of which I shall have to speak more at length in the next
chapter.
[Illustration: _No. 202. The Overthrow of the Boot._]
With the overthrow of Bute's ministry, we may consider the English
school of caricature as completely formed and fully established. From
this time the names of the caricaturists are better known, and we shall
have to consider them in their individual characters. One of these,
William Hogarth, had risen in fame far above the group of the ordinary
men by whom he was surrounded.