English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century.: How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times.Everitt, Graham
History
English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century.: How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times.
Everitt, Graham
Caricature -- Great Britain; Illustration of books -- Great Britain -- 19th century
"supply," are pouring into a huge vat labelled "The Treasury of J.
Bull's Vital Spirits." Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is
carefully drawing off what he requires into a small bucket for the
"Public Service." "You see," he says to Mr. Bull, who looks admiringly
on, "I am not a quibbling pettifogger, I am a man of my word; for you
see I have thrown away the great _war_ spiggot, and have substituted a
small _peace_ one in its stead, which will cause an unknown saving to
you." This is all very well; but the gouty Regent has also tapped the
vat on the other side, and draws off the supplies in a copious stream
into a receptacle labelled, "Deficiencies of the Civil List." His
friends and boon companions are bringing up a fresh supply of empty
vessels to be filled in their turn; one carries a barrel marked, "For
household troops and standing army"; another is labelled, "Sinecures,
places, and pensions"; a third, "For cottages and pavilions"; and a
fourth, "L60,000 for fun." "Come, my friends," says the prince, "make
haste and fill your buckets, whilst Van is keeping noisy Johnny quiet
with fine speeches and promises of economy, which I am determined not to
practise as long as I can get anything to expend; and while he is saving
at the spiggot, we will have it out of the bunghole."[73]
_Preparing for the Match, or the 2nd of May, 1816_, has reference to the
marriage of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, who, as we have already
seen, was on that day united to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. It had
been preceded by a well-designed but most indelicate satire, labelled
_Royal Nuptials_, published by J. Johnstone on the 1st of April, in
which the prince is seen landing on our shores in a state of
destitution, with a pitiable lack of certain necessary articles of
clothing, which are being handed to him by John Bull in the guise of a
countryman. The _dramatis personae_ are seven in number: Prince Leopold,
John Bull, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the gouty Regent, the
Princess Charlotte, old Queen Charlotte, with her snuff-box, and, behind
her, an old woman intended, I believe, for the poor old king himself.
The same year we find two other indelicate subjects: _A Bazaar_, a skit
upon the immorality and costume of the period, comprising thirty
figures; and another, in allusion to the marriage of the Princess Mary
with her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, on the 22nd of July, 1816. To
those who have asserted that George Cruikshank "never pandered to
sensuality ... or raised a laugh at the expense of decency," that
"satire in his hands never degenerated into savagery or scurrility," I
would commend the serious consideration of the three satires I have last
named.
THE ELGIN MARBLES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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