Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2Grego, Joseph
History
Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2
Grego, Joseph
English wit and humor, Pictorial; Rowlandson, Thomas, 1756-1827
_January 15, 1801._ _Undertakers Regaling._ John Nixon, Esq., del.,
Rowlandson sculp. Published by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand.--This large
plate, which is designed with a due appreciation of grim humour and
tipsy jocularity, introduces the traditional relaxations of the funeral
furnishers, whose jollifications are supposed to offer the most ghastly
contrast to their sober professional duties. On a convenient plot of
grass mutes, wandsmen, hearse-drivers, and all the other melancholy
functionaries of the last rites of unconscious humanity, are picnicking
with a true zest and appreciation of rural freedom. A substantial
pie, and other suggestive 'funeral baked meats,' are being disposed
of to the best advantage; but, excellent trenchermen though the
undertakers may prove themselves, their main distinction must rest on
their bibulous qualities; the members of the fraternity are applying
themselves with hearty goodwill to the fluids, far on the road to
becoming 'glorious,' while some of the party have already reached their
congenial stage 'of half seas over.' These festivities, of course, take
place in the vicinity of a 'house of call for funerals,' at the sign
of 'The Owl,' in the neighbourhood of a burial-ground, the hospitable
hostelry being kept by 'Robert Death,' whose inn is a resting-place
for all returning hearses on that particular road. Groups of gentlemen
engaged in the 'black business' are seated at tables, enjoying their
long clay pipes, or otherwise diverting themselves with romping and
horse-play; the members of another party, preparing to resume their
route back to the metropolis, are on the roof of their hearse, their
legs hanging over the side with pastoral-like simplicity, smoking their
'church-wardens' and hobnobbing their pewter quart pots with true
bacchanalian appreciation of the enjoyments of the hour. The results
of too indiscriminate indulgence are noticeable in the dangerous
situation of those coaches which are attempting to 'homeward wend their
melancholy way,' and are being overturned in the process by their tipsy
drivers.
[Illustration: SYMPTOMS OF SANCTITY.]
_January 20, 1801._ _Symptoms of Sanctity._ Published by S. W. Fores,
50 Piccadilly.--This subject--which, to say the least of it, is
suggestively bold, though by no means, in our opinion, coming under the
enumeration of 'risky _equivoque_'--might be fittingly described as
Superstition and Sensuality; the pious belief, amounting to fanaticism,
of the conventual 'Sister' contrasting strongly with the licentious
impiety of the gross priest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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