République is stretched on her death-bed, the tricolour cockade is
worn on the side of her nightcap; by the side are bottles of _Purging
Mixture_ and _Laudanum_. _Vive la Liberté_ and _Vive la République_
are put out of sight; the Abbé Sièyes, as doctor, is holding the new
Emperor, an infant in long clothes, the crown is on his head, a sceptre
and orb are in either hand. John Bull, spectacles on nose, and with his
hand in his waistcoat pocket, has stepped in; he is much astonished at
the change of affairs: 'Pray Mr. Abbé Sièyes, what was the cause of the
poor Lady's death? She seemed at one time in a tolerable thriving way.'
'She died in childbed, Mr. Bull, after giving birth to this little
Emperor!'
1804. _A New French Phantasmagoria._ (The date 1805 in one
corner.)--Napoleon Buonaparte, with the Imperial crown, sceptre,
orb, and robes of state, is holding out his hand, with impertinent
condescension, crying, 'What! my old friend, Mr. Bull, don't you know
me?' John Bull is dressed in sailor fashion, as the 'champion of the
seas;' there is an air of satirical quizzing about his features,
and, in order that he may be able to distinguish his transmogrified
acquaintance, he has mounted a pair of huge magnifiers, 'Bless me,
what comes here, it's time to put on my large spectacles, and tuck up
my trousers! Why, surely, it can't be?--it is Boney too, for all that;
why, what game be'est thee at now? Acting a play mayhap? What hast thee
got on thy head there? Always at some new freak or other.'
1804. _A Compendious Treatise of Modern Education_, in which the
following interesting subjects are liberally discussed: The Nursery,
Private Schools, Public Schools, Universities, Gallantry, Duelling,
Gaming, and Suicide; to which are added coloured designs, both
characteristic and illustrative. By Joel M'Cringer, D.D., F.R.S., folio.
Letters from the hand of the caricaturist are scarce, and however
familiar collectors may be with Rowlandson's touch, and even his
caligraphy, on his numberless drawings in Indian ink, the productions
of his famous reed-pen, it is very seldom that samples of his familiar
correspondence are to be met with. We print one example, not as an
instance of his brilliancy in composition, or as representing any
valuable literary disclosure, but simply as illustrating that the
artist's circumstances were not too flourishing at the period under
consideration.
The original also contains a sketch, and is exhibited to the public in
one of the cases of the British Museum (Manuscript Department), among a
collection of interesting autographs of eminent men.
29,300 G. Ad^{1}. MSS. Purchased 6 June, 1871.
Letter to James Heath. Engraver.
Upper Charlotte Street Fitzroy Square.
This note is written in Indian ink, of the consistency mixed by
the Caricaturist for his outlines.
No. 1 James Street, Adelphi.
March 1st, 1804.
Friend Heath.
'Tis with sorrow I relate that my own finances and the little sway
I have with the long-pursed gentry--obliges me to retire before
the plays are ended. I hope you will not say, as they do at Drury
(No money returned after the curtain is drawn up).
The Bill sent in says Nine Numbers, Eight only have been received,
the Ninth mentioned in your letter as being delivered November the
First, since my return to Town, has, through some mistake, never
come to hand. I also possess a receipt from you for £2. 2. 0, and
as I hope you call me a tradesman and poor, you will make out a
fresh Bill, and that we shall verify the old proverb of Short
Reckonings make Long Friends.
I remain sincerely yours,
THO^S ROWLANDSON.
FOOTNOTE:
[4] 'My Lord Loggerhead spells physician with an F, hem! hem!'--Doctor
Pangloss, _Heir at Law_.
1805.
_February 3, 1805._ _Quarterly Duns, or Clamorous Tax-gatherers._
Published by Howitt, 73 Wardour Street, Soho.--Taxation in 1805 raised
a great deal of bad feeling; the satirists treated the increased
imposts, and the methods of collecting them, from their point of view,
and made the public smile at ills to which perforce they were compelled
to submit. The house of a quack practitioner in 'Rotten Row,' one Dr.
Humbug, at the sign of the Golden Pestle of Hippocrates, who advertises
'advice gratis' on his front door, is the scene of a general muster
of the inquisitors and collectors of taxes. _Window Tax_, _Income_,
_Property_, _House_, _Servants_, _Horses_, _Dogs_, _&c._, are among the
requisitions to be levied. _The Budget opened, or how to raise the wind
for the year 1805_ explains these visitations. The quack and his wife
are declining to admit their duns; they are surveying the besieging
party from an upper window, and the _goodwill_ of their house is,
according to a placard, _to be disposed of_. The prospect of 'Houses to
Let' and of windows 'Blocked up' shows that taxation was pressing with
over-severity, and had, in reality, been carried beyond a joke.
_February 25, 1805._ _The Famous Coal Heaver, Black Charley, looking
into the Mouth of the Wonderful Coal Pit._ Published by Ackermann.
Described by an English Yeoman. (Here follows a long description
turning on 'the fundamental deficiency.')--Fox, in blue and buff, on
his hands and knees, is staring with a look of astonishment into the
mouth of a large head of Pitt, beside which flourishes a Scotch thistle
(for Dundas), and around is a thicket of _scrubs_, which are interlaced
over a bench, with T.B. (Treasury Bench) cut on it.
_April 23, 1805._ _The Modern Hercules cleansing the Augean
Stable._--'Augeas, a king of Elis, had a stable which was not cleansed
for thirty years, yet Hercules cleansed it in one day.'--_Heathen
Mythology._ The modern Hercules, wrapped round with his lion's skin,
is making use of a monster measure, _Whitbread's Entire_, with the
contents of which he is freely deluging the St. Stephen's stables. The
abbot of St. Stephen's, with mitre and crozier, ensconced in his niche,
is in consternation at the work going on. The horses are all standing
with their heads turned to their stalls, and their hoofs to the
purifier. Dundas (Lord Melville) is kicking with energy, crying 'What
the Deel is the man aboot?' Wilberforce's 'Broom for the suppression
of Vice' is between his legs, and before him is a huge private chest
for stray provender, with money bags outside. Trotter stands next; he
cries, 'Attack the Gallopers! I am only a poor Trotter.' Pitt, a very
bony steed, is crying, 'I am afraid we shall all be drenched in turn;'
and a crowd of others are thrown into confusion at their prospects,
saying, 'Who could have expected this?' Against the wall are stalls
stored with money-bags from end to end: 'Navy Stall,' 'Army Stall,'
'Treasury Stall,' &c.
_April 23, 1805._ _The Fifth Clause, or Effect of Example._ Published
by T. Rowlandson.
_April 28, 1805._ _A Scotch Sarcophagus._ Published by T. Rowlandson,
Adelphi.--The Sarcophagus is of handsome design; two cherubims, in
Scotch bonnets, surmount the lid; two devils, evidently much shocked,
appear on the sides. Two Highlanders, in full kilt and tartan dresses,
are standing as mourners, one is leaning weeping with his elbow on the
urn, the other is seeking comfort in his snuff mull.
_Stop, Traveller, and read._
Within this
Sarcophagus,
composed of Scotch pebbles,
are deposited the political remains of
JOHNNY MAC-CREE
and his faithful servant
JOHN TROTT.
In respect to the former, suffice it to say
that he was a strenuous friend to all Reports that
reverberated to his advantage, whether proceeding
from a first rate or a Catamaran Explosion.
At length a Tenth Report, aided by an obstruction
in the Thorax from the fifth clause, finished his
Political Career.
Mourn, Scotsmen, Mourn!
For though he was a swift galloper on the high
road of Peculation, yet his friend John, who
lies beside him, was only his inferior in being
but a simple Trotter, in the grand and
Sublime scale marked out by his
Worthy Preceptor.
They took their departure on Monday, April 8, 1805.
Peace to their Political Manes!
_May 15, 1805._ _John Bull's Turnpike Gate._--On a hill is an abbey
church, lighted up with the glory of 'King, Church, and Constitution.'
John Bull, standing before his turnpike, is guarding the pathway; on a
ledge beside the post is placed a formidable work, the _Test Oath_. The
Pope, with mitre, crozier, and hood, is mounted on his pontifical ass.
'Mr. Bull,' he says, 'I have been to Paris and seen all the fine sights
there. I now want to have a peep at that little church on the hill,
therefore let me pass the turnpike.' J. B. replies: 'If you want to go
through pay the toll; what the devil do you think I keep a turnpike
gate for?'
A crowd of dissenters, quakers, &c., in the Pope's rear, are anxious
to enjoy the opportunity: 'Though I boast not gaudy trappings,' says a
quaker, 'nor am I mounted on ass-back, yet if he goeth through, verily
I should like to go through also!' 'Verily so should I!' 'We should all
like to go through!'
_May 25, 1805._ _A Sailor's Will._ Woodward inv., Rowlandson sculp.
Published by R. Ackermann.
_July 8, 1805._ _The Scotch Ostrich seeking Cover._--'In the natural
history of the ostrich it has been observed that when the bird is
closely pursued he runs his head and neck into a hole, leaving his
hinder parts exposed; concluding no doubt that, as he sees no one, no
one sees him!'
Dundas has thrust his head through a hole in the wall labelled
_Parliamentary Recess_, he cries, 'Ah! ah! nae one sees me now!'
John Bull with his blunderbuss, and his brother Pat by his side, are
watching the Scotchman's manoeuvre. 'Be asy, brother Pat, I see him
as plain as ever. I have plenty of ammunition left, but I shan't fire
just at present.' This print is founded on the inquiries into Lord
Melville's conduct when Treasurer of the Navy.
_July 14, 1805._ _Recovery of a Dormant Title, or a Breeches-Maker
become a Lord._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.
Republished July 14, 1812.--The features of a sudden rise in life form
humorous materials in the hands of the caricaturist. The lately created
nobleman, a coarse and common clothier, is swaggering in all his new
finery, to give his past associates a taste of his new-found honours.
His showy court dress is assumed with awkward pretension; he wears a
ribbon and star and a dress sword; none of these decorations harmonise
with the wearer, who is so evidently out of place in his fine feathers,
that the journeymen tailors and cobblers, his neighbours and recent
comrades, are jeering at his burlesque dignity; his lady dressed in
unbecoming finery, and carrying a large plume of feathers on her head,
looks no less 'out of character' than does her tailoring spouse. The
shop, over which appears, _Stitchall, Whitechapel, Breeches cleaned and
repaired_, once the pride of the pair, is now closed. A placard states:
'The goodwill of this shop to be sold, removed to Grosvenor Square;'
while an old Jewess, part of the establishment, probably the ancestress
of one of the pair, is trying her hardest, on the top of some steps, to
wipe out the offensive name of the ex-proprietor.
_July 14, 1805._ _Antiquarians à la Grecque._ Published by R.
Ackermann.
_October 1, 1805._ _The Departure from the Coast, or the end of
the Farce of Invasion._ Published by Ackermann.--On the heights of
the English coast stands the British Lion, contemptuously pouring
a broadside into the retreating invader; the British cruisers are
sweeping the seas. The Emperor, seated on a donkey, is limping off,
to the delight of some French monkeys. The national prototype's
contributions, in the shape of a shower of shot, have capsized the
iron crown of Milan. 'Bless me, what a shower! I shall be wet through
before I reach the Rhine.' The Emperor and his steed are overloaded
with sacks of _Excuses for non-performance_. _The Boulogne Encampment_
and _The Army of England_ fill his pockets, while files of soldiers are
indicated above.
_October 2, 1805._ _John Bull at the Opera._ Published by T.
Rowlandson.--It is a matter of no surprise to find Rowlandson, who,
in spite of his acquaintance with the Continent, was as thoroughly
confirmed a John Bull as his illustrious predecessor Hogarth,
ridiculing the tastes of the fashionable public, who patronised and
petted exotic artists, to the neglect of native talent. Like the rest
of the caricaturists, he traded on the national spirit, and held up
foreigners to contempt and ridicule; with a happy faculty for seizing
their grotesque points, their loose ways of life, and their love of
finery and display, which has not, we will venture to believe, been
excelled in any day. It is natural the school-fellow, fellow-student
at the Academy, and familiar intimate through life, of such a talented
English performer as Bannister, should have resented the artificial
taste which heaped wealth on comparatively obscure aliens, with whose
art plain John Bull could have slight sympathy, while the most rarely
gifted of his countrymen were left to struggle through life without a
due acknowledgment, in a pecuniary sense, proportioned to the extent of
their merits, as contrasted with the abilities of their foreign rivals,
and the fabulous salaries they received. The designer has accordingly
displayed the signor from a whimsical point of view; the face of the
performer is suggestive of that of the good-looking youth, the leading
figure in the eccentric humours of an _Italian Family_ (1792); it was
probably a portrait recognisable at the period. Certainly John Bull, in
the artist's view, does not appear much at home at the Italian Opera;
the spectators are divided between gigglers and gapers, and on the
whole it is doubtful if their imported entertainer affords his audience
the unequivocal enjoyment they would have been able to secure at the
hands of 'honest Jack Bannister,' and native performers of his stamp.
[Illustration: JOHN BULL AT THE ITALIAN OPERA.]
_October 30, 1805._ _Raising the Wind._
_November 13, 1805._ _Napoleon Buonaparte in a Fever, on Receiving the
extraordinary Gazette of Nelson's Victory over the Combined Fleets._
Published by Ackermann.--The Emperor, in his huge cocked hat, is
seriously indisposed, after reading the extraordinary gazette: '19
sail of the line taken by Lord Nelson.' Beside the Corsican is a group
of court physicians in consternation: 'My dear Doctors! those sacré
Anglois have played the devil with my constitution; pray tell me what
is the matter with me. I felt the first symptoms when I told General
Mack I wanted ships, colonies, and commerce. Oh dear! oh dear! I
shall want more ships now; this is a cursed sensation. Oh, I am very
qualmish!' 'Be-gar,' cries the first physician, 'I have found it out.
Your heart be in your breeches!' Another doctor is observing that 'the
case is desperate;' another recommends 'letting blood;' while others
have, after a consultation, arrived at the conclusion--'Irrevocable.'
[Illustration: A BOARDING SCHOOL.]
1805. _A Boarding School._--The droll scene our artist has
imagined,--for it is to be hoped, in the interests of educational
establishments and social decorum, that he was not in the situation
to draw the incidents from actual observation,--is transpiring on the
outside of a Young Ladies' Seminary, where maidens are 'boarded and
educated,' and their minds trained. According to the notice-board,
there seems no reason to question this being a 'finishing school'
in the fullest acceptation of the expression. 'The young ideas' are
shooting in a precocious fashion which is setting the restraint of the
governesses at defiance. Certain well-favoured young house painters
are inciting the mischievous hoydens to disregard the injunctions of
their preceptresses. A daring scamp is stealing a kiss from a buxom
belle, over the eaves of the adjoining house, and three terrible young
flirts are exchanging pleasantries with a youth on a ladder, who is
stopping the torrent of menace, poured forth by the mistress, by
bedaubing his whitewash brush in the learned features of the infuriated
old lady. It is evidently early morning, before the customary studies
have commenced.
1805. _Glowworms._ (See July, 1812.)
1805. _Muckworms._
1805. Illustrations to _Tom Jones, or the History of a Foundling_.
Book 7, chap. 14.--'The clock had now struck twelve, and every one in
the house were in their beds, except the sentinel who stood to guard
Northerton, when Jones softly opening his door, issued forth in pursuit
of his enemy, of whose place of confinement he had received a perfect
description from the drawer. It is not easy to conceive a much more
tremendous figure than he now exhibited. He had on, as we have said,
a light coloured coat, covered with streams of blood. His face, which
missed that very blood, as well as twenty ounces more drawn from him by
the surgeon, was pallid. Round his head was a quantity of bandages, not
unlike a turban. In the right hand he carried a sword, and in the left
a candle. So that the bloody Banquo was not worthy to be compared to
him. In fact, I believe a more dreadful apparition was never raised in
a churchyard, nor in the imagination of any good people met in a winter
evening over a Christmas fire in Somersetshire.
'When the sentinel first saw our hero approach, his hair began gently
to lift up his grenadier cap, and in the same instant his knees fell to
blows with each other. Presently his whole body was seized with worse
than an ague fit. He then fired his piece, and fell flat on his face.
'Whether fear or courage was the occasion of his firing, or whether he
took aim at the object of his terror, I cannot say. If he did, however,
he had the good fortune to miss his man.
'Jones seeing the fellow fall, guessed the cause of his fright, at
which he could not forbear smiling, not in the least reflecting on the
danger from which he had just escaped. He then passed by the fellow,
who still continued in the posture in which he fell.... The report of
the firelock alarmed the whole house....
'Before Jones could reach the door of his chamber, the hall where the
sentinel had been posted was half full of people, some in their shirts,
and others not half dressed, all very earnestly inquiring of each other
what was the matter.
'The soldier was now found lying in the same place and posture in which
we just now left him. Several immediately applied themselves to raise
him, and some concluded him dead; but they presently saw their mistake,
for he not only struggled with those who laid their hands on him, but
fell a roaring like a bull. In reality he imagined so many spirits or
devils were handling him; for his imagination, being possessed with the
horror of an apparition, converted every object he saw or felt into
nothing but ghosts and spectres.
'At length he was overpowered by numbers, and got upon his legs; when
candles being brought, and seeing two or three of his comrades present,
he came a little to himself; but when they asked him what was the
matter, he answered, "I am a dead man, that's all; I am a dead man; I
can't recover it; I have seen him."'
'"What hast thou seen, Jack?" says one of the soldiers. "Why, I have
seen the young volunteer that was killed yesterday."'
[Illustration: THE SENTINEL MISTAKES TOM JONES FOR AN APPARITION.]
Illustrations to Fielding's _Tom Jones_ (See 1791). 1791-93. Published
by J. Siebbald, Edinburgh. 1805. Republished by Longman & Co., London.
Illustrations to Smollett's _Peregrine Pickle_. 1791-93. Published by
J. Siebbald, Edinburgh. 1805. Republished by Longman & Co., London.
Etched by Rowlandson.
_Clearing a Wreck on the North Coast of Cornwall._ Sketched in 1805.
Rowlandson del.
_View on Sir John Moreshead's Estate at Blisland near Bodmin,
Cornwall._ Rowlandson del.
_View near Bridport, Dorsetshire._ 1805.
_Rouler Moor, Cornwall._
_Coast of Cornwall_, &c. (A series of views in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset,
&c.)
1806.
[Illustration: THE GERMAN WALTZ.]
'_The Sorrows of Werther._' _Letter X._ _The Waltz with
Charlotte._--'We began; and at first amused ourselves with making every
possible turn with our arms. How graceful and animated all her motions!
When the waltz commenced, all the couples which were turning round at
first jostled against each other. We very judiciously kept aloof till
the awkward and clumsy had withdrawn; when we joined in there were but
two couples left. I never in my life was so active; I was more than
mortal. To fly with her like the wind, and lose sight of every other
object! But I own to you I then determined, that the woman I loved,
and to whom I had pretensions, should never do the waltz with any other
man. You will understand this.'
_April 3, 1806._ _An Evergreen._--An extravagantly elongated figure,
treated so as to suggest a trimmed shrub, and coloured green. There
is much in the execution of this folio strip to suggest the hand of
Rowlandson. Published by Fores.
_April 20, 1806._ _A Cake in Danger._
Careful observers, studious of the Town,
Shun the misfortunes that disgrace the clown.--GAY'S _Trivia_.
It is night, or rather early morning, and the watchman, staff in hand,
leaning forward in his box, in a state of semi-consciousness, more
asleep than awake, does not observe that under the shelter of his house
a deed of spoliation is proceeding. A simple countryman has fallen into
the clutches of two fair members of the 'Hundreds of Drury,' and, while
they are tenderly embracing the yokel, the contents of his pockets are
being transferred to their own keeping.
1806 (?). _A Select Vestry._
1806 (?). _A Country Club._
_April 16, 1806._ _The Political Hydra._ (Wigstead.) Originally
published December 26, 1788. See description (1788). Reissued with
fresh date.
_April 18, 1806._ _Falstaff and his Followers Vindicating the Property
Tax._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi. Fox is
travestied under the portly figure of Falstaff; Sheridan, Petty, and
other Ministers do duty as his followers. The unwieldy knight is
standing in the presence of John Bull, and pointing to a huge pack,
'Ten per cent, on John Bull's property,' which is to be fitted to the
national back. 'Mercy on us, how you must be all changed in your way of
thinking! When Billy proposed the same thing, one of you said it was
a most flagrant instance of injustice and inequality; another that it
was abominable in principle and in its operation, not only cruel but
intolerable; and another went so far as to say that if I sanctioned it
I was not a person for any honest man to be acquainted with. What have
you to say for yourselves?'
Falstaff has a plausible explanation at the service of his employer:
'You cannot blame us, Master Bull, we did not make it, or steal it; it
lay in our way, and we found it!'
_May 1, 1806._ _A Maiden Aunt smelling Fire._ Published by T.
Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.
Old Maids are doomed to lead Apes in Hell.
An old Tabitha, who is appropriately surrounded by her feline friends,
has been disturbed from her slumbers by various suspicious nocturnal
sounds, and has appeared, candle in hand, and in a very incomplete
toilette, to fathom the mystery, of the source of which she has
evidently some shrewd suspicion; since she is hastening to the first
floor to her niece's apartment. Above the balustrade stands the guilty
damsel, who has had sufficient warning, as her lover, carrying his
garments in his hand, for expedition, is making his way from the
niece's room under the cover of an ambuscade; while the lady is leaning
over the staircase railings, with an air of startled innocence assumed
to carry off the _contretemps_.