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
character. A trunk maker in the same street displayed the following new
reading from Genesis: "And God said, It is not good the King should
reign alone." A publican at the corner of Half Moon Street exhibited a
flag whereon, in reference to the unpopular witness Teodoro Majoochi,
was depicted a gallows with the following inscription:--
"_Q._ What's that for?
_A._ Non Mi Ricordo."
An enthusiastic cheesemonger at the top of Great Queen Street displayed
a transparency on which he had inscribed the following verses:--
"Some friends of the devil
With mischief and evil
Filled a green bag of no worth;
But in spite of the host,
It gave up the ghost
And died 53 days after birth."
The caricaturists of course were not idle, and the trial of Queen
Caroline provoked a perfect legion of pictorial satires. The queen's
victory is celebrated in one of the contemporary caricatures (published
by John Marshall, junior) under the title of _The Queen Caroline Running
down the Royal George_; while on the ministerial side it is recorded
(among others) by a far more elaborate and valuable performance
(published by G. Humphrey), called, _The Steward's Court of the Manor of
Torre Devon_, which contains an immense number of figures, and wherein
the queen is seated on a black ram[46] in the midst of one of the
popular processions, the members of which carry poles bearing pictorial
records of the various events brought out in evidence against her.
It is one of the peculiarities of our "Glorious Constitution," that
while the ministers who acted under his direction incurred all the
blame, the prime instigator of all these exposures was enabled to
shelter himself behind the backs of his "advisers." The ministers were
unpopular,--they deserved to be so, for, whatever might have been the
consequences to themselves so far as loss of office was concerned, they
should have refused from the first to lend themselves to the publication
of a scandal so utterly grievous. The king himself at this time was far
from unpopular; the odium he had incurred the previous year by the
thanks he had caused to be conveyed to Major Trafford, "and the
officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates" of the yeomanry who
had signalized themselves in the massacre at Manchester (an outrage
which, by the way, led to a number of pictorial satires), seemed to have
wholly passed away. He was at Ascot only two days before the queen's
arrival, and "was always cheered by the mob as he went away. One day
only a man in the crowd called out "Where's the Queen?"[47] Again, we
find on the same authority, that on the night of the 6th of February,
1821: "The king went to the play (Drury Lane) for the first time, the
Dukes of York and Clarence and a great suite with him. He was received
with immense acclamations, the whole pit standing up, hurrahing and
waving their hats. The boxes were very empty at first, for the mob
occupied the avenues to the theatre, and those who had engaged boxes
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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