by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand. An exuberant rustic charmer has been
entertaining a fashionable visitor in a granary; a party of rustics,
mounting the ladder, have disturbed the interview. A powdered,
pig-tailed, and lace-ruffled dandy has sought concealment amidst the
sacks of grain; his head appears over the barrier in sheer dismay,
for a determined farm help, probably the legitimate swain of the
indignant damsel, armed with a formidable pitchfork, is making reckless
efforts to impale the trespasser; his fury is slightly restrained by
the stalwart exertions of the lady, who has buried her fingers in the
village Othello's shock head of hair; at his feet is a scroll with the
quotation 'I smell a rat, dead for a ducat.' A bill, pinned on the
wall, sets forth 'Rats, pole cats, and all sorts of vermin effectively
destroyed.'
_May 17, 1807._ _The Old Man of the Sea, sticking to the Shoulders
of Sindbad the Sailor._ Vide _The Arabian Nights Entertainments_.
Published by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside.--The dandified Sir Francis Burdett
is figured as a discontented Sindbad the Sailor; his preceptor John
Horne Tooke, in his clerical garments, is perched on his pupil's
shoulders, and he is driving him through _The Mire of Politics_, in
which he is wading knee-deep. In the distance is shown the baronet's
mansion, _Independence and a comfortable home_. From an upper window a
lady is waving back the traveller, who does not relish turning his back
on this prospect to encounter the _Ministerial Shoals_ and _Treasury
Rocks_ which are opposed to his progress on the other side. Horne Tooke
is urging on the career of his _protégé_: 'Persevere! persevere! you
are the only man to get through.' Burdett's confidence is wavering:
'This old man will be the end of me at last; what a miry place he has
brought me into!'
_May 25, 1807._ _A White Sergeant giving the Word of Command: 'Why
don't you come to bed, you drunken sot?'_ Published by R. Ackermann,
101 Strand.--A man, past the meridian of life, is calmly enjoying his
pipe before his fire, with an agreeable book in his hand, '_Rule a wife
and have a wife_.' The young wife is indignantly rating the easy-going
husband on his inclination to prefer the fireside to his conjugal couch.
_May 29, 1807._ _Comedy in the Country, Tragedy in London._ Published
by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside.--_Comedy in the Country_ is played in a
barnlike building to an audience of rustics, whose faces express the
most intense appreciation. _Tragedy in London_, as performed in a
fashionable theatre, has plunged a very select audience into the depths
of grief and misery: tears bedew every cheek, and even the members of
the orchestra are weeping profusely.
_May 30, 1807._ _Platonic Love._ '_None but the Brave deserve the
Fair._' Sir E. Bunbury del., Rowlandson sculp.--An illustration to
the lines in Othello wherein Desdemona's wooing is described. A
veteran commander, who has lost an arm and both legs, is acting on
the advice of his fair, who is tenderly embracing his wooden leg.
Although the name of Rowlandson is appended to this plate, the method
of its execution bears a closer resemblance to the handling of C. W.
(Williams).
_June 12, 1807._ _Miseries Personal._ Published by Ackermann, 101
Strand. 'After dinner, when the ladies retire with you from a party
of very pleasant men, having to entertain as you can half a score of
empty or formal females; then after a decent time has elapsed, and your
patience and topics are equally exhausted, ringing for the tea, &c.,
which you sit making in despair for above two hours, having three or
four times sent word to the gentlemen that it is ready, and overheard
your husband, at the last message, answer, "Very well, another bottle
of wine." By the time the tea and coffee are quite cold, they arrive,
continuing as they enter, and for an hour afterwards, their political
disputes, occasionally suspended by the master of the house by a
reasonable complaint to his lady at the coldness of the coffee; soon
after the carriages are announced and the company disperse.'
[Illustration: MISERIES PERSONAL.]
_June 15, 1807._ _Murphy Delaney._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
sculp. Published by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside.--This caricature is an
illustration to the song which is printed below it. It happened to the
hero, Murphy Delaney, to find himself, when 'fresh as a shamrock and
blind as a bull' from the effects of imbibing a 'skinful of whiskey,'
by the side of the quay, which he mistook for the floor of his shed,
'And the keel of a coal-barge he just tumbled over, and thought all
the while he was going to bed.' When his body was recovered from the
river an inquest was duly held to determine the cause of his end,
during which the subject of the deliberation revived, and appeared as a
witness; but his testimony being declined, on the ground of his recent
decease, the jury appealed to the doctor, who swore that, as Delaney
was 'something alive,' it 'must be his ghost. So they sent out of hand
for the clergy to lay him, but Pat laid the clergy, and then ran away.'
_June 18, 1807._ _A View on the Banks of the Thames._ (No. 177.)
Published by T. Tegg. (See illustration, p. 77.)
[Illustration: A VIEW ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES.]
_July 1, 1807._ _More Scotchmen, or Johnny Maccree Opening his New
Budget._--Lord Melville, on the strength of his re-instalment, has
extended his patronage to a swarm of his countrymen; he is dressed in
Highland garb, and is opening the mouth of his sack, from whence is
issuing an interminable stream of Scotchmen, who are trooping steadily
on the road to fortune, through the portals of St. Stephens. 'There
ye are, my bonny lads, mak the best o' your way, the door is open,
and leave a Scotsman alaine to stick in a place gin he once gains an
entrance.' John Bull, who is standing aside, quite overpowered by the
spectacle of this Caledonian incursion, is exclaiming: 'Dang it, what
a swarm of them there be--enough to cause a famine in any Christian
country!'
_July 9, 1807._ _A Cure for Lying and a Bad Memory._ Woodward del.,
Rowlandson sculp. Published by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside.--A wag at one
of the universities has applied to an empiric, on a visit to the
neighbourhood, for a cure, as a proof of his skill, for a propensity
to tell lies, and a memory which retained no recollection of what
its possessor had stated last. In the picture the quack has just
administered his _Pillula Memoria_ and _Anti Fibbibus_; the incautious
would-be waggish student is very uncomfortable, and declares he has
taken _Asafoetida_. 'You speak the truth,' says the doctor, 'you are
perfectly cured; and as to your memory, that cure follows of course,
for I am sure you will never forget the medicine!'
_July 10, 1807._ _The Double Disaster, or New Cure for Love._
Rowlandson del. et sculp. Published by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside.--This
sketch, which is characterised by the artist's usual spirit when
dealing with kindred subjects, represents the situation of a rustic
swain, whose philanderings have landed him in the midst of the
perplexities of a double dilemma. It is seemingly 'washing day,' and
the gallant intruder has effected his admission to court the graces
of a pretty maiden, who is thrown into consternation at the risk to
which her suitor, by an awkward _contretemps_, is suddenly exposed. The
pair have evidently been disturbed at the moment the lady was engaged
in drawing a mug of ale for the refreshment of her admirer; in the
confusion, the tap of the beer barrel is still left running, and all
the maid's solicitude is centred in the position of her swain, who has
incautiously taken refuge in the copper. A very disagreeable-looking
old beldame is kindling a blazing fire in the stove, while a buxom
wench is working away at the pump, which is pouring gallons of water
into the unlucky Lothario's place of concealment. The youth is
hesitating midway between the ordeals of fire or water, and he is
struggling to effect his escape from both, at the risk of exposure and
its consequences.
_July 14, 1807._ _Easter Hunt._ _Clearing a Fence._ (_Easter Monday, or
the Cockney Hunt._)
1807. _Miseries of the Country._ 'While on a visit to the hundreds of
Essex, being under the necessity of getting dead drunk every day to
save your life.'
Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas....
The hundreds of Essex, it appears from the print, which represents a
bacchanalian sporting revel, were doubtless attractive to fox-hunters;
but the hospitalities exercised therein were rather excessive. The
usual accompaniments of a drunken bout of the period are set forth
with Rowlandson's graphic skill; an old toper is draining a punch-bowl
and capsizing himself simultaneously; an ambitious young reveller is
tipsily trying to mount the table, and over-balancing himself in the
attempt; a stout divine is indisposed in a corner; heavy drinkers laid
low are on the floor, whence they are dragged off by their heels, and
carried to bed in an incapable and collapsed condition. Furniture is
knocked over, and chimney ornaments sent to grief. It is an anniversary
meeting of choice spirits.
_October 5, 1807._ _A Mistake at Newmarket, or Sport and Piety._
Woodward del., Rowlandson sculp. Published by T. Tegg, 111
Cheapside.--A good pious old soul, wearing a hood, red cloak, clean
apron, and pattens, and carrying Wesley's hymns in her hand, is
interrogating certain sporting characters, who are lounging at the door
of the _Ram Inn_. 'Pray, young man,' she enquires of a smart young
jockey, 'are there any _meetings_ in this town?' To which the jockey
replies, 'Yes, ma'am, two a year--Spring and October!'
1807(?) _Englishman at Paris._ H. Bunbury invt., Rowlandson sculp.--Our
old friend John Bull is shown, with his travelling accompaniments,
philosophically pursuing his quiet way in the land of the 'Monsieurs.'
He is the centre of curiosity, though, according to the artist's
picture, he is the least remarkable object in the group. A corpulent
friar is observing the well-rounded person of the stranger with an
appreciative eye; while a lean cook, in wooden shoes, is staring with
astonishment at the goodly proportions of the Englishman. A French
_petit-maître_ is driving a ramshackle contrivance, and his queerly
clad servant is perched on the springs behind. A female luggage porter
is plodding along, and an adventitious shower, directed from a balcony
above, is descending on the umbrella of a dandified pedestrian,
daintily mincing along on tiptoe, who, at first glance, might be taken
for a live Marquis, if, on inspection, his apron and the professional
implements peeping out of his coat-tail, did not proclaim him a barber.
John Bull's substantially built dog is eyeing a sniffing French hound
with threatening suspicion.
[Illustration: ENGLISHMAN AT PARIS.]
1807(?) _Symptoms of Restiveness._ H. Bunbury del., Rowlandson
sculp.--Henry Bunbury, it will be observed, was remarkably fond of
drawing disasters in the saddle; his brother, the respected Sir Charles
Bunbury, was, for many years, president of the Jockey Club, in which
difficult position he rigorously upheld the integrity of the turf; and
there is no doubt that the originator of 'Geoffrey Gambado, Esq.,' and
of those invaluable precepts on equitation published and illustrated as
alleged by the eminent _Riding Master of the Horse and Grand Equerry
to the Doge of Venice_ (about the only potentate who could not find
a turnpike-road within his capital), must have had 'a good eye for a
horse.'
The Symptoms of Restiveness are of a somewhat marked and unmistakable
character: while one sportsman's steed is kneeling down on his
forelegs, and turning the huntsman heels over head, another cavalier's
animal is standing rigidly on his forelegs, and perseveringly
attempting to dislodge his mount by kicking out wildly behind. A
third rider is no less fortunate in his hack, which has 'no mouth,'
and is moreover a 'bolter'; the animal is steadily plunging through
everything in its way, apparently unconscious of the desperate efforts
his master is making to hold him in. An old woman, with her barrow
and its contents, are tumbled over, without attracting the attention
of the wrong-headed brute, whose mind is absorbed in his own private
speculations.
[Illustration: SYMPTOMS OF RESTIVENESS.]
1807 (?) _A Calf's Pluck._ Designed by H. Bunbury. Etched by T.
Rowlandson.
[Illustration: A CALF'S PLUCK.]
1807 (?) _Rusty Bacon._ Designed by H. Bunbury. Etched by T. Rowlandson.
[Illustration: RUSTY BACON.]
1807 (?) _A Tour to the Lakes._--
Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round,
Through all its various paths hath been,
Must oft have wondered to have found
His warmest welcome at an Inn.
A clerical traveller has arrived, late at night, at an hostel; a
pretty chamber-maid is showing the reverend visitor to his room,
bearing a lighted candle, a warming-pan, and the saddle-bags of the
guest, who appears well pleased with his conductress, and is imparting
his admiration. As it appears that this gentleman is inclined to be
less respectable than his venerated calling should suggest, it is
less scandalising to observe that various practical jokes of a rough
character are besetting his path; consequently, it is highly probable
that he will receive an active moral lesson before he reaches his
chamber.
_November 9, 1807._ _Thomas Simmons, drawn from Life by Mr. Angelo._
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi. 'The horrid and
inhuman murderer of Mrs. Hammerstone and Mrs. Warner at the house of
Mr. Boreham, a Quaker at Hoddesdon, in Herts, on Tuesday evening,
October 20, 1807.'--The barbarous murderer does not rejoice in a
very formidable exterior. His weakly person has been sketched by the
hand of Henry Angelo, the well-known fencing-master, a firm friend
of Rowlandson through life. His amusing _Memoirs_ have supplied us
with many circumstances relating to the caricaturist. It appears that
Angelo, Bannister, and Rowlandson were schoolfellows at an early period
of life, and they were all as youths excessively fond of their pencils;
although it was reserved for Rowlandson alone to attain proficiency in
the fine arts. Angelo, like George Selwyn, Colonel Hanger, and some
few notorieties, was fond of attending executions, visiting jails,
and similar lugubrious exhibitions. Among his visits to prisons he
encountered some curious characters. Thomas Simmons, the subject of
the present plate, was one of the unfortunates with whom he became
acquainted on one of these eccentric excursions.
From the sketch, Thomas Simmons appears a mere dwarf of a man, a
harmless-looking and apparently half-witted individual, realising the
traditional idea of _Simple Simon_. This murderer has heavy manacles
round his puny limbs. Groups of miserable prisoners, and hard-featured
jailors are in the rear, and the heavy iron doors of Newgate afford an
appropriate background.
_November 10, 1807._ _Directions to Footmen._ Rowlandson del. Published
by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside (273).--'Take off the largest dishes, and
set them on with one hand, to show the ladies your vigour and strength
of back, but always do it between two ladies, that if the dish happens
to slip, the soup or sauce may fall on their clothes, and not daub the
floor; by this practice, two of our brethren, my worthy friends, got
considerable fortunes.'--A stalwart awkward-looking yokel, in a showy
livery, is carrying out these useful directions to the letter. While
grinning at his horrified mistress, he is upsetting a tureen held
loosely in his right hand, over a handsome damsel, and is flooding the
table-cloth, to the horror of the company, and the delight of a poodle,
which is revelling in the stream. In the clumsy footman's left hand is
held a dish, from which he is calmly allowing the joint, gravy, &c.,
to glide over the back of another dog who is less pleased than his
companion.
_November 10, 1807._ _John Bull making Observations on the Coast._
Woodward del., Rowlandson sculp. Published by T. Tegg, 111
Cheapside.--The head of George the Third, as the sun, is throwing its
brilliant rays across the Channel, and shining on the British Fleet
which lines the waters. The head of Napoleon Buonaparte, with his
cocked hat and feather, is represented as a comet with a fiery train,
which is making vicious exertions to dash itself across the orb of day.
John Bull has planted his telescope on the shores of the Channel, and
his eye is following the course of the erratic meteor: 'Ay, ay, Master
Comet, you may attempt your peri-heliums, or your devil-heliums for
what I care, but take the word of an old man, you'll never reach the
sun, depend upon it.'
_November 20, 1807._ _A Couple of Antiquities._ Published by R.
Ackermann.
_November 20, 1807._ _My Aunt and My Uncle._ Published by R. Ackermann.
_November 21, 1807._ _The Dog and the Devil._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
sculp. Published by T. Tegg, 111 Cheapside.--The interior of a
conjurer's chamber, decorated with the usual paraphernalia of bats,
stuffed crocodiles, &c. The empiric wears his learned robes and fur
cap; in the centre of a magic circle stands the pretended enchanter's
assistant, dressed in a bullock's hide, with the horns and tail left
on, to personate the Father of Evil; a butcher, in his working dress,
has called to consult the oracle concerning a missing sheep; he has
brought his bull-dog with him, unobserved by the demonstrator, and
the animal, true to his instincts, has pinned the mock demon-bull by
the nose; 'the pretended devil roar'd most tremendously; but the dog
kept a firm hold. The conjurer, rising in a passion, exclaimed, "You
scoundrel, take off your dog!" The butcher, however, perceiving the
cheat, cried out, "Not I, doctor, I know he is of as good a breed as
ever bolted, so let 'em fight fair; if you are not afraid of your
devil, I am not afraid of my dog; so dog against devil for what sum you
please!"' The fictitious demon is in bad case.
1807 (?). _More Miseries, or the Bottom of Mr. Figg's Old Whiskey
broke through._--A serio-comic scene that befel the 'grocer's wife at
Norwich, owing to the bottom of Mr. Figg's whiskey breaking through.'
The flooring of a vehicle something like a phaeton has proved too
slight for a ponderous occupant: the lady's ample proportions are
framed in the chaise, to the alarm of her husband, who is seizing the
prancing horse. Certain gazers, hugely delighted, are hastening up not
to lose the spectacle of the lady's awkward situation.
1807 (?). _The Man of Feeling._--The scene takes place in a
sky-parlour, and the principal performer is a son of the Church.
1807 (?). _Miseries of Bathing._ 'After bathing in the river, on
returning to the bank for your clothes, finding that a passing thief
has taken a sudden fancy to the cut of every article of your dress.'
1807 (?). _The Pleasures of Human Life._ By Hilari Benevolus & Co.
Published by Longmans, 1807. Crown 8vo. _Pleasures of Human Life_, in
a dozen dissertations, interspersed with various anecdotes, _Pleasures
of Fashion_, _Fashionable People_, _Market of Love_, _Greeks_,
_Literature_, _Hints to Print Collectors_, _Puffing_, etc., coloured by
Rowlandson.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] Francisco Caracci, and General Guise's collection (_Somerset-House
Gazette_), from a note to Mr. Ephraim Hardcastle (Editor):--'Francisco
Caracci was the younger brother of Augustino and Annibale; and
Antonio, called from his deformity Il Gobbo, was the natural son of
Augustino. These were the individuals who formed that celebrated
family of painters. The father of Ludovico Caracci was a butcher
(_era macelago_), and the father of Annibale and Augustino a tailor.
Annibale resolved to mortify the pride of Ludovico, who despised him
on account of his frequently reminding him of their low origin. He
therefore privately painted the portraits of the Caracci, as large as
life, in a butcher's shop, and showed his picture for the first time to
Ludovico, when in company with Cardinal Farnese. It is now in the Guise
collection, at Christ Church College, Oxford. Annibale is the butcher
weighing the meat, which a soldier (Ludovico) is purchasing. Augustino
stands near them. Antonio is lifting down a carcase, which conceals his
deformity; and the old woman represents their mother. General Guise is
said to have given 1,100_l._ for this picture, which was purchased for
him at Venice. Talking of Oxford, did you ever see this collection? If
the old General Guise had no more taste for fighting than for painting,
I would have met him and his legions with wooden cannon. Yet I have
heard certain _bigwigs_ of the University crack up the Guise Gallery!
They are nice social fellows at Christ Church for all this, and men of
taste; a conversation on painting is brought to table in hall there,
like the wine--devilishly well iced.'
1808.
SOCIAL AND GENERAL CARICATURES.
_January, 1808._ _The Discovery._
_January, 1808._ _Wild Irish, or Paddy from Cork with his Coat Buttoned
Behind._
_February 16, 1808._ _Scenes at Brighton, or the Miseries of Human
Life._
_Plate 3._ 'A Blackleg detected secreting cards &c., after drawing upon
your purse on former occasions, is the properest of men to run the
gauntlet, as he but too often produces substantial Miseries for Human
Life.'
_Plate 4._ 'Suffering under the last symptoms of a dangerous malady,
you naturally hope relief from medical skill and practice; but flying
periwigs, brandished canes, and clysters, the fear of random cuffs,
&c., intrude and produce a climax in the Miseries of Human Life.'
_March 1, 1808._ _Miseries of High Life._--'Briskly stooping to pick
up a lady's fan, at the same moment when two other gentlemen are doing
the same thing, and so making a cannon with your head against both of
theirs, and this without being the happy man after all.'
[Illustration: MISERIES OF HIGH LIFE.]
_March 1, 1808._ _The Green Dragon._ Rowlandson del. Published by R.
Ackermann, 101 Strand.--A clerical-looking and corpulent reprobate is
receiving the upbraidings of his infuriated spouse, to whom the artist
has playfully given some resemblance to a veritable dragon, with teeth,
claws, and venom. The position of affairs is further explained by a
spirited representation of 'Socrates and Zantippe,' which hangs on
the wall. A pretty servant-maid, who is making a somewhat hasty exit,
is supposed to have aroused the jealousy of the virago, whose vials
of wrath have brought her stout helpmate to a state of stupefaction
and terror. The picture is accompanied by the lines of Gay, from the
_Beggars' Opera_:--
With rage I redden like scarlet, that my dear inconstant varlet,
Stark blind to my charms, is lost in the arms of that jilt,
that inveigling harlot!
_March 1, 1808._ _Description of a Boxing Match._ June 9, 1806.
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.
_April 1, 1808._ _Soldiers on a March._ 'To pack up her tatters and
follow the drum.' Designed and published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James
Street, Adelphi.--The progress of the regiment is much impeded by
camp-followers. A stream happening to cross the route, the marching
party are wading through; the soldiers bearing in addition to their
knapsack the fairer burden of a wife, and in some cases two infants,
with kettles, gridirons, and other culinary appliances, the latter
swinging on the end of their muskets. The officer commanding the party
has the advantage of securing a mount on the plump shoulders of a
pretty damsel, whose skirts are tucked up as a preparation towards
wading across the water, with the feathered hero on her back.
_May 12, 1808._ _The Consultation, or Last Hope._ Published by R.
Ackermann, 101 Strand.--'So when the Doctors shake their heads, and bid
their patient think of Heaven--all's over, good night!'