Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego
1811. _Chesterfield Burlesqued._ Published by T. Tegg. 12mo. (See
2415 words | Chapter 123
_Chesterfield Travestie_, 1808.)
FOOTNOTES:
[23] It was here, in this same Westminster pit, that the celebrated
dog _Billy_ distinguished himself, and carried off the laurels of
vermin-killing, by despatching a hundred rats at a time.
[24] In his early career Chambers had visited China. He performed the
voyage as supercargo of some Swedish ships trading there.
[25] Bunbury died at Keswick, May 7, 1811, aged 61.
1812.
_January 10, 1812._ _A Portrait: Duke of Cumberland._ Published by H.
Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street.--The Duke, with his spyglass, dressed
in a blue coat with red facings (Windsor uniform); in the background is
shown Kew Gardens, with the Pagoda House. The drawing from which this
print was etched is entitled _Blood Royal_.
_January 10, 1812._ _A Portrait: Lord Petersham._ Published by H.
Humphrey, 27 St James's Street.--St. James's Palace at the back of the
subject.
_January 10, 1812._ _Wet under Foot._ Designed by an amateur. Published
by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street.--This small sketch represents a
pouring wet day; a lady on pattens, holding an umbrella over her head,
is endeavouring to pass the gutter without injury to her stockings. The
point of view is supposed to be taken from the junction of Petticoat
Lane with Smock Alley. Scavengers are shovelling mud into their carts;
and the general downpour is further aggravated by denizens of the
upper floors, who are discharging vessels over the soaked and dripping
passengers below.
_February 26, 1812._ _A Portrait: Lord Pomfret._ Published by H.
Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street.
_February 28, 1812._ _Plucking a Spooney._--A promising young
'spooney,' according to the artist's view, is entering on life's
dangers--represented pictorially in three subjects which are hanging
over the head of the victim: 'the fair sex--drinking--and gaming,'
being the evils set down to avoid. The novice is evidently well
advanced on the downward route, and has fallen among experienced
professors of the plucking process. A gaily-dressed lady by his side,
a 'decoy duck,' of captivating exterior, is beguiling the senses of
the self-satisfied dupe with various familiarities; while a smug stout
person, dressed like a parson, is discreetly keeping up the spirit of
the affair by filling the glasses and manufacturing fresh supplies of
punch, which the 'spooney' is imbibing freely and without regard to
the consequences. A pile of gold and notes has been laid on the table
by this very innocent pigeon, and opposite to him sits the crafty and
accomplished 'rook'--a captain, from his 'keeping'--who, by a skilful
manipulation of the cards, assisted by the carelessness of the simple
young _roué_, bids fair to succeed in leaving the pigeon 'without a
feather to fly with;' the plunder to be apportioned amongst the hopeful
triumvirate in whose company the youth has the misfortune to find
himself.
_March 1, 1812._ _Catching an Elephant._ Published by T. Tegg
(146).--Two attractive and winsome damsels, standing outside a portal
labelled 'Warm Baths,' have just succeeded in capturing an elderly
colossus of a man, whose bulk should fairly entitle him to take his
place amongst elephantine monsters; the expression of his senile
features is designed to carry out the resemblance.
_March, 1812._ _Description of a Boxing Match between Ward and Quirk
for 100 Guineas a side._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street,
Adelphi.
_March 2, 1812._ _Spanish Cloak._ Rowlandson del. Published by T. Tegg
(39).--A superior officer, going his midnight rounds of the sentries
posted on a line of fortifications, is amused at discovering the
phenomenon of two pairs of legs below one cloak. A trooper has taken
advantage of his ample garment to smuggle in a fair companion to share
his vigils. The lady seems to enjoy her situation.
_March 20, 1812._ _Fast Day._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James
Street, Adelphi.--Four learned Doctors, dressed in their clerical
vestments, are keeping in their own fashion a day set apart by the
Church for general mortification. The portly four are seated at a
well-furnished board, and trains of servants are, with respectful
attention, bringing in fresh supplies--poultry, dainty meats, and other
delicacies. The well-stocked collegiate cellars have been laid under
contribution; bottles of choice vintage are standing in wine-coolers
and in promising rows on the floor, beside a liberal jorum of punch in
a _Bowl for a Bishop_. The nature of the private meditations of these
epicurean worthies is thus made manifest, while the order of the repast
is further set forth in a lengthy _bill of fare_ irreverently written
on a _New Form of Prayer for the Fast Day_, by way of _menu_. The
walls are suggestively hung with _Lists of the Great Tithes_ and such
congenial paintings as _A Bench of Bishops_, represented regaling at a
roystering banquet, _Susannah and the Elders_, _Brasenose College_, &c.
_March 25, 1812._ _Sea Stores._--A bevy of females consisting of a
negress and other beauties from the purlieus of the port, 'waiting for
Jack,' are sportively accosted by a dapper young midshipman who has
been sent on shore to procure supplies for his ship, which is lying
off. (Companion print to _Land Stores_.)
_March, 1812._ _Land Stores._--A dark beauty, of colossal proportions,
is embraced by an officer whose figure is dwarfed by comparison
with the monster negress. A placard posted on the walls of the
fortification, where these extraordinary _Land Stores_ are supposed to
be lodged, announces 'Voluntary subscription for a soldier's widow; the
smallest donations will be gratefully received,' &c.
_April 2, 1812._ _The Chamber of Genius._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1
James Street.
Want is the scorn of every wealthy fool,
And genius in rags is turned to ridicule.--_Vide 'Satirist.'_
The apartment of an enthusiastic genius, whose ambitions seem to
have taken various forms of expression. Music, painting, sculpture,
literature, chemistry, and other arts and sciences seem to have
occupied his attention by turns, and instruments suggestive of the
respective pursuits are muddled up with domestic details incidental to
the confinement of a wife and family to one solitary chamber, together
with the utensils of cookery, besides the food itself. The genius
has left his rest under the impulse of an inspiration; he has an old
nightcap worn over his wig, and is still in his night-shirt, with
down-at-heel slipper on one foot, and a ragged stocking on the other.
He is seated, in an attitude expressive of sudden exaltation before
an easel which bears the canvas he is filling out with rapid energy;
his left hand grasps a pen, and a black cat in demanding attention has
fixed her claws in his unclad limbs; but the artist is so absorbed in
his subject as to be unconscious of pain; miscellaneous litter, a bust,
a palette, and a sheaf of brushes, paint-pots, a still and furnace,
books, scales, syringes, a fiddle, and a post horn are scattered
behind the easel. The female companion of this genius is tranquilly
sleeping in an easy attitude through all the confusion; on the table
by the bedstead (on which her husband's garments are displayed) is
a coffee-pot and some suggestions of breakfast; an unclad infant is
leaning over the table, and pouring gin into a wineglass. Another
semiclad child is seated on a tub before a blazing fire, amusing
herself with the bellows, and is in danger from a steaming kettle and
a red-hot poker. Food, knives, forks, plates, and a pewter quart-pot
are at the artist's feet; he has just kicked over a large porringer of
milk, and is heedless of the mischief. Lamps, caudle-boats, strings of
candles, and bunches of onions are the decorations of the chimneypiece;
ragged clothes and unmended stockings are hanging over a rope stretched
across the chamber; on the wall is hung a smart three-cornered hat and
a sword by the side of pictures of 'Aerostation' and the portraits of a
ballet-dancer and 'Peter Tester.'
Rowlandson has put his own name to the print as the 'inventor;' the
satire is very unsparing, and the squalor he has attributed to his
professional brother is of the direst and most ludicrous description,
but the figure of the painter is marked with vigorous characteristics,
and the outline of the face which he has bestowed on his erratic
genius, designedly or not, bears a suggestive resemblance to his own
strongly-defined features.
_April 4, 1812._ _In the Dog Days._ Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James
Street, Adelphi.
Now the weather's sultry grown,
Sweating late and early.
Better far to lay alone--
Oh! we swelter rarely!
The representation of an extravagantly corpulent couple, whose rest
is apparently fitful; the lines attached to the plate, which is not
remarkable for refinement, form its best description.
_April 12, 1812._ _The Ducking Stool._ Republished. (See April 12,
1803.)
[Illustration: ITALIAN PICTURE-DEALERS HUMBUGGING MY LORD ANGLAISE.]
_May 30, 1812._ _Italian Picture Dealers Humbugging my Lord Anglaise._
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.--'Milord'
is a very dandified young sprig of nobility, who is an evident
_macaroni_, with the ambition to shine as a man of taste. A 'foreign
nobleman'--that is to say, according to English views at the period--a
'speculative Count,' who is very splendid in exterior, is evidently
a confederate of his countryman, the _Italian picture dealer_, and
has accompanied the noble incipient collector as a decoy to puff
the wares, and if need be to offer fictitious sums in opposition
to 'Milord' and spur his enthusiasm for the fine arts, which are
respectably represented around, as far as good names go. A sensuous
Magdalen, attributed to Guido, is exciting the admiration of the party
and employing the wily dealer's eloquence. Around are supposititious
examples of Rubens, Carracci, Titian, Teniers, Salvator Rosa, and other
'undoubted originals,' the major part of which in all probability owe
their well-disguised paternity to the versatile 'Van Daub.'
[Illustration: A BRACE OF BLACKGUARDS.]
_May 30, 1812._ _A Brace of Blackguards._ Published by T. Rowlandson,
St. James Street, Adelphi.--It has been mentioned in respect to this
eccentric production that the figures of the two gentlemen to whom
this dubious compliment is rendered are intended to represent those of
Rowlandson, the caricaturist, in the boxing attitude, and his friend
George Morland, the painter, seated in the chair.
[Illustration: RACING.]
_June 4, 1812._ _Broad Grins, or a Black Joke._ Published by T.
Tegg.--A clerical-looking gentleman is thrown into consternation at
the interesting condition of a rustic female, who is standing beneath
a board announcing 'Man-traps laid in these grounds.' The head of a
black footman peering through a hole in the garden-wall indicates the
true source of the 'Black Joke.'
_July 14, 1812._ _Miseries of London. Watermen. Oars? Sculls?_
Published by T. Rowlandson, 1 James Street, Adelphi.--Entering upon any
of the bridges of London or any of the passages leading to the Thames,
being assailed by a group of watermen, holding up their hands and
bawling out 'Oars? Sculls, sculls? Oars, oars?'
[Illustration: MISERIES OF LONDON. 'Oars? Sculls, sculls? Oars, oars?']
1812 (?). _Racing._ Published by T. Tegg (158).
_July 14, 1812_ (?). _Glow Worms._ (See 1805.) Published by T.
Rowlandson, 1 St. James Street, Adelphi.
_July 14, 1812_ (?). _Muck Worms._ (See 1800.)
_July 14, 1812_ (?). _The Rivals._
_July 15, 1812._ _A Seaman's Wife's Reckoning._ Published by T. Tegg
(275), Woodward delin., Rowlandson sculp.--An old salt, with his dog
at his elbow, is seated beside his blooming daughter-in-law, a pretty
young mother, dandling a fine infant; the lady is using her eloquence
and trying to flatter this obdurate relative into confidence in her
story. The experienced mariner is declaring, 'Why, d'ye see, I am
an old seaman, and not easily imposed upon. I say that can't be my
son Jack's child. Why, he has not been married but three months, and
during that time he has been at sea--the thing is impossible! You may
as well tell me that my ship Nancy goes nine knots an hour in a dead
calm. And now I look again it's the very picture of Peter Wilkins, the
soap-boiler.'
The fair object of suspicion is by no means confounded at this logical
deduction. 'My dear father-in-law, I'll make it out very easily--Jack
has been married to me three months,--very well,--I have been with
child three months,--which makes _six_,--then he has been at sea three
months, has not he?--and that just makes up the _nine_!'
The fortunate husband, who sports a new rig-out--with a bright bandanna
round his neck, and his pipe stuck in the band of his hat--is lurching
into the apartment with a sea-roll. He is quite satisfied with his
wife's arithmetic, and is arguing on the side of his tender partner:
'Father, father, don't be too hard upon Poll; I know something about
the logbook myself, and dash me but she has kept her reckoning like a
true seaman's wife!'
_July 15, 1812._ _The Secret History of Crim Con._ Plate 1. Published
by T. Tegg (161).
_July 15, 1812._ _The Secret History of Crim Con._ Plate 2. Published
by T. Tegg (161).
_August 29, 1812._ _Setting out for Margate._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
sculp. Published by T. Tegg (166).--A stout citizen, smartly clad,
with his wife, whose apparel is still more festive, are setting out
upon a holiday excursion. The heads of two geese are hanging over the
coat-tails of the cockney traveller: 'Why, my dove, I am loaded with
provisions, like a tilt-cart on a fair-day, and my pockets stick out
just as if I was just returned from a City feast.' The correct partner
of his joys is responding, 'Don't be so _wulgar_, Mr. Dripping; you
are now going among genteel folks, and must behave yourself. We shall
want all the _wickalls_ on the _woyage_, depend upon it. Bless me, how
_varm_ it is! I am all over in a muck!' To them enters their foreman:
'An' please you, master and missis, the sailor-man has sent word as how
the _wessel_ is ready to swim!'
_August 30, 1812._ _The Sweet Pea._ Published by H. Humphrey, 27 St.
James's Street.
_October 1, 1812._ _Refinement of Language._ Woodward del., Rowlandson
sculp. Published by T. Tegg (171).--Six subjects, illustrating the
results of the advance of genteel ideas and the introduction of a
new-fashioned system of refining on everything. A ragged match-seller
is elevated into a 'timber merchant.' A postman becomes a 'man of
letters.' A gardener is raised to a 'Master of the Mint.' A Jew hawker,
who cries, 'Any old clothes to shell?' is changed to a 'merchant
tailor.' A sexton, pressing down the mould on a grave, is translated
into 'a banker;' and a poulterer easily becomes a 'Turkey merchant.'
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