Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego
1808. _British Sailor._ _Frenchman._ _Spaniard._ _Dutchman._ Four
2940 words | Chapter 42
characters on a sheet, published by T. Tegg.--The same etchings are
given, under similar descriptions, in the 'Lecture on Heads,' by G.
A. Stevens, with illustrations by G. M. Woodward, engraved by T.
Rowlandson.
_December 1, 1808._ _Miseries of Human Life_ (Plates issued in previous
years and collected in 1808). Designed and etched by T. Rowlandson, and
published by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand.--Frontispiece: The title in a
frame; below it a gouty old miser, wrapped in flannel, is being dragged
off in his chair by Death, in spite of his crutch and his struggles to
get back to his riches, spread in the strong box, over which he has
lost all control; his heirs in the meantime are helping themselves,
making light of his hoarded savings, and taunting the impotent
money-grubber, who has accumulated riches for them to fling away.
_Miseries of Human Life._--Introductory dialogue: 'Sickness befriends
temperance by the simplicity of diet which it introduces; it wards off
the varied injuries of the open air by requiring the party to inhale
a thousand times over, the cherishing, equable, and safely treasured
atmosphere of a chamber.'
The picture treats all these fanciful advantages from a burlesque
point of view: a sufferer is on his pallet surrounded by all the
inconveniences of washing, cooking, and other domestic arrangements,
limited to _one apartment_, to serve him as 'kitchen, parlour, and
bed-room, and all.'
_Miseries of the Country._--Following on horseback a slow cart, through
an endless narrow lane, at sunset, when you are already too late, and
want all the help of your own eyes, as well as your horse's feet to
carry you safe through the rest of your unknown way.
_More Miseries._--'Being overpersuaded to stand up in a country dance,
when you know, or, what is equally bad, conceive that a bear would
eclipse you in grace and agility.' (_April 1, 1807._)
_Fabricious's Description of the Poets._ Vide 'Gil Blas.'--'People
think that we often dine with Democritus, and there they are mistaken.
There is not one of my fraternity, not even excepting the makers of
Almanacs, who is not welcome to some good table. As for my own part,
there are two families where I am received with pleasure. I have two
covers laid for me every day, one at the house of a fat director of the
farms, to whom I have dedicated a romance, and the other at the house
of a rich citizen, who has the disease of being thought to entertain
wits every day at his table; luckily he is not very delicate in his
choice, and the city furnishes him with great plenty.' (1807.)
_Miseries of Human Life._--Struggling through the curse of trying to
disentangle your hair, when by poking curiously about on board of ship
it has become clammed and matted with pitch or tar, far beyond all the
powers of the comb. (1807.)
_More Miseries._--Having so flaccid a cheek that the parish barber, who
shaves you, is obliged to introduce his thumb into your mouth to give
it a proper projection, cutting his thumb in this position with the
razor. (1807.)
_Miseries of Social Life._--Escorting four or five country cousins,
on their first importation into London from the _Terra Incognita_ of
England, to the lions, the waxworks, the monuments, &c. &c.
_Miseries Miscellaneous._--Stepping out of a boat at low water on a
slippery causeway, upon a stone which slides under you, and you descend
in the mud up to the chin. (1807.)
_A Stag at Bay, or Conjugal Felicity._ _A Romance._--A matrimonial
dispute; the wife is attacking her spouse incontinently, and he is
protecting himself, and keeping the aggressor at arm's length with a
dirty mop.
_The Shaver and the Shavee._ H. Bunbury del., Rowlandson sc.
_Showing off._--A pair of horsemen are endeavouring to put on
a sportsmanlike appearance, which is somewhat disturbed by the
restiveness of their steeds; one rider is slipping off, and the other,
while his horse is going down on his knees in a reverential posture, is
flung over the animal's head.
_The Production of a Post-House._--The stable-door of a post-house is
opened, and a sorry broken-kneed ramshackle horse is trotted out, to
the amusement of the people standing about, and to the horror of a
gentleman who has evidently come for a mount.
_Symptoms of Choking._--A corpulent individual has suddenly left the
dinner-table, under an impulse to choke; the rest of the company are
thrown into such alarm at his critical situation, that the table-cloth,
soup-turreens, wine, decanters, plates, glasses, and all the service
are dragged on to the floor in universal destruction. (1806.)
_The Enraged Vicar._--A smaller version of this subject (see March 1,
1807).
To see them rattle, howl, and tear,
By Jove, 'twould make a parson swear.
_Symptoms of Restiveness._--The restiveness referred to appears to be
nothing more than a tendency to rest in one spot; a sailor, probably
at Portsmouth, from the view of the sea and shipping, is mounted on
a steed which he is vainly belabouring with a cudgel, while an old
hag is banging away at the poor brute with a long and heavy broom,
to the delight of a convivial party, assembled to drink outside a
public-house, within view of the dilemma. (1808.)
_Pall Mall._
O bear me to the paths of fair Pall Mall,
Safe are thy pavements, grateful is thy smell;
At distance rolls along the gilded coach,
Nor sturdy carmen on thy walks encroach. (1807.)
_Miseries of Public Places._--After the play, on a raw, wet night, with
a party of ladies, fretting and freezing in the outer lobbies and at
the street-doors of the theatre, among chairmen, barrow-women, yelling
linkboys, and other human refuse, in endless attempts to find out your
servant or carriage, which, when found out at last, cannot be drawn up
nearer than a furlong from the door. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries Miscellaneous._--The necessity of sending a verbal message
of the utmost consequence by an ass, who, you plainly perceive, will
forget (or rather has already forgotten) every word you have been
saying. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of Reading and Writing._--As you are writing drowsily by
the fire, on rousing and recollecting yourself, find your guardian in
possession of your secret thoughts, which he never ceases to upbraid
you with. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries Personal._--When in the gout receiving the ruinous salutation
of a muscular friend (a sea captain), who, seizing your hand in the
first transports of a sudden meeting, affectionately crumbles your
chalky knuckles with the gripe of a grasping-iron, and then further
confirms his regard for you by greeting your tenderest toe with the
stamp of a charger. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of the Country._--While you are out with a walking party,
after heavy rains, one shoe suddenly sucked off by the boggy clay,
and then, in making a long and desperate stretch (which fails), with
the hope of recovering it, the other is left in the same predicament.
The second stage of ruin is that of standing, or rather tottering in
blank despair, with both bare feet planted ankle-deep in the quagmire.
(_January 1, 1806._)
_Miseries of London._--Chasing your hat (just blown off in a high wind)
through a muddy street--a fresh gust always whisking it away at the
moment of seizing it; when you have at last caught it deliberately
putting it on, with all its sins upon your head, amidst the jeers of
the populace. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of Travelling._ '_O Miserabile mihi._' Published by T.
Rowlandson, Adelphi.--A restive horse in a gig backing into the
windows of a potter's shop; alarmed at the terrific crash, you become
panic-struck, with the perspiration starting from every pore. (_April
12, 1807._)
_Miseries of Travelling._--Being mounted on a beast who, as soon as you
have watered him on the road, proceeds very coolly to repose himself in
the middle of the pond, without taking you at all into his counsel or
paying the slightest attention to your remonstrances. (1807.)
_Miseries of Social Life._--Sitting for hours before a smoky chimney,
like a Hottentot in a kraal; then, just as your sufferings seem at last
to be at an end, puff, puff, whiff, whiff, again, far more furious than
ever. Add to this a scolding wife. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of Social Life._--Walking in a wind that cuts to the bone,
with a narrating companion, whose mind and body cannot move at the
same time; or, in other words, who, as he gets on with his stories,
thinks it necessary, at every other sentence, to stand stock-still,
face about, and make you do the same; then, totally regardless of your
shivering impatience to push on, refuses to stir an inch till the whole
of his endless thread is fairly wound out. 'Dixit et adversi stetit
ora.' (1807.)
_Miseries of the Country._--Losing your way on foot at night in a storm
of wind and rain, and this immediately after leaving a merry fireside.
(1806.)
_More Miseries._--Being nervous and cross-examined by Mr. Garrow (in a
Law Court). (_April 1, 1807._)
_More Miseries._--Endeavouring to make violent love under the table and
pressing the wrong foot. (_April 1, 1807._)
_More Miseries._--Sitting on a chair which a servant has fractured and
put together the preceding morning, and upon attempting to lean back
falling to the ground before a large party; a country servant bursting
into a roar of laughter. (_April 1, 1807._)
_More Miseries._--Being obliged to kiss a remarkably plain woman at
forfeits, when you engaged in the pastime only with the hope of being
able to salute a lovely young lady, to whom you are particularly
attached. (_April 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of Travelling._--Starting for a long ride, on a dinner
engagement, without a great-coat, in a mist, a mizzle, a drizzle, a
rain, a torrent. On arriving at the house at last, completely drenched,
you have to beg the favour of making yourself look like a full or empty
sack, by wearing your host's clothes, he being either a dwarf or a
giant, and you the contrary. (_January 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of Games, Sports, &c._--In skating, slipping in such a manner
that your legs start off in this unaccommodating posture; from which,
however, you are soon relieved by tumbling forwards on your nose, or
backwards on your skull. Also learning to cut the outside edge on
skates that have no edge to cut with--ice very rugged. (_January 1,
1807._)
_More Miseries._--In the country, going to a party to dinner, getting
very tipsy, quitting the house in a dark night, and getting upon your
horse with your face towards the tail, and wondering during the few
minutes that you are able to keep your seat, amidst the jeers of your
companions, what freak can have entered the brain of the beast to go
backwards. (_April 1, 1807._)
_Miseries of the Table._--Inviting a friend, whom you know to be
particularly fond of the dish, to partake of a fine hare, haunch, &c.,
which you have endeavoured to keep exactly to the critical moment, but
which is no sooner brought in than the whole party, with one nose,
order it to be taken out. (1807.)
_More Miseries._--At an inn, going into a bed too short, with a wooden
leg, which you were too fatigued to unstrap, drawing up the living one,
going to sleep with the other sticking out at the bottom, which, when
the chambermaid comes in for the candle, she conceives to be the handle
of the warming-pan, which she has carelessly left in the bed. (_April
1, 1807._)
_More Miseries._--Sending a challenge, requesting a timid friend to
attend you to the field, who, you think, will not fail to acquaint the
magistrate of it; going with honour to the appointed spot, anxiously
looking back at every step to see if the Bow Street officers are
coming, without seeing a soul but your antagonist and the seconds.
(_April 1, 1807._)
_Miseries Domestic._--Squatting plump on an unsuspected cat in your
chair. (_January 1, 1807._)
_More Miseries._--Being persuaded to put your finger into the cage
of a parrot and to rub its poll, upon an assurance, from its doating
mistress, that it is the most gentle bird in the universe, suddenly
feeling the sanguinary effects of its beak. (_April 1, 1807._)
_More Miseries._--Having a newly-rolled gravel walk, finding some
friends whom you had asked to dine with you amusing themselves before
dinner by drawing each other in your child's chaise, which disastrously
stood at the bottom of the garden, within sight; seeing the narrow
wheels cut up the walk most unmercifully, and being deterred by a false
notion of politeness from giving them a hint to desist. (_April 1,
1807._)
_Cold Broth and Calamity._--A smaller edition of this subject, the
disasters of various parties on the ice, but treated with perfect
originality as regards the various incidents.
_Miseries Domestic._--Waking in the middle of the night in a state
of raging thirst, eagerly blundering to the washing-stand, and there
finding the broad-mouthed pitcher, which you lift to your lips, so
full that, besides amply satisfying your thirst, it keeps cooling your
heated body, and purifying your linen with the overplus. (_1806._)
_Miseries of the Country._ Published by T. Rowlandson,
Adelphi.--Passing the worst part of a rainy winter in a country so
inveterately miry as to imprison you within your own premises; so that
by way of exercise, and to keep yourself alive, you take to rolling
your gravel walks (though already quite smooth), cutting wood (though
you have more logs than enough), working the dumb-bells, or such other
irrational exercise. (_April 12, 1807._)
_Miseries of the Country._--While deeply, delightfully, and, as you
hope, safely engaged at home in the morning, after peremptory orders
of denial to all comers whomsoever, to be suddenly surprised, through
the treachery or folly of your servant, by an inroad from a party of
the starched, stupid, cold, idle natives of a country town, who lay a
formal siege (by sap) to your leisure. (_1807._)
_Miseries of London._--Being a compulsory spectator and auditor of a
brawling and scratching match between two drunken drabs, in consequence
of the sudden influx of company, by whom you are hemmed in a hundred
yards deep in every direction, leaving you no chance of escape till the
difference of sentiment between the ladies is adjusted. Where you stand
you are (that is, I was) closely bounded in front by a barrow of cat's
meat, the unutterable contents of which employ your eyes and nose,
while your ear is no less fully engaged by the Tartarean yell of its
driver. (_1807._)
_Miseries of Travelling._--On packing up your clothes for a journey,
because your servant is a fool, the burning fever into which you are
thrown when, after all your standing, stamping, kneeling, tugging, and
kicking, the lid of your trunk refuses to approach within a yard of the
lock. (_1807._)
_More Miseries._ Published by R. Ackermann.--Being pinned up to a door,
round the neck, by the horns of an enraged overdriven ox. (_April 1,
1807._)
_Miseries of the Country._--While on a visit in the Hundred of Essex
being under the necessity of getting dead-drunk every day to save your
life. (See 1807, p. 78.)
Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas....
_Miseries of Social Life._--Dining and passing the whole evening with
a party of fox-hunters, after they have had what they call 'glorious
sport;' and, while you execrate the very name of a hound, being gorged
with the _crambe recocta_ of one chase after another, till you wish the
country was underground. (_January 1, 1807._)
THE MICROCOSM OF LONDON,
OR
LONDON IN MINIATURE.
_With Illustrations by Pugin and Rowlandson._
PUBLISHED BY R. ACKERMANN, REPOSITORY OF ARTS, 101 STRAND.
With reference to the illustrations, which form the principal feature
of this work, we borrow a paragraph from the 'Introduction':--
'The great objection that men fond of the fine arts have hitherto made
to engravings on architectural subjects has been that the buildings and
figures have almost invariably been designed by the same artists. In
consequence of this the figures have been generally neglected, or are
of a very inferior cast, and totally unconnected with the other part
of the print; so that we may sometimes see men and women in English
dresses delineated in an English view of an Italian palace, and Spanish
grandees in long cloaks and ladies in veils seated in one of our own
cathedrals.
The dress, we know, is neither new nor rare;
But how the powers came it there?
'To remove these glaring incongruities from the publication, a strict
attention has been paid, not only to the country of the figures
introduced in the different buildings, but to the general air and
peculiar carriage, habits, &c., of such characters as are likely to
make up the majority in particular places.
'The architectural part of the subjects that are contained in this work
will be delineated, with the utmost precision and care, by Mr. Pugin,
whose uncommon accuracy and elegant taste have been displayed in former
productions. With respect to the figures, they are from the pencil of
Mr. Rowlandson, with whose professional talents the public are already
so well acquainted that it is not necessary to expatiate on them here.
As the following list comprises almost every variety of character that
is found in this great metropolis, there will be ample scope for the
exertion of his abilities; and it will be found that his powers are not
confined to the ludicrous, but that he can vary with his subject, and,
wherever it is necessary, descend
From grave to gay, from lively to severe.'
Rowlandson and Pugin del. et sc.
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