CHAPTER XXIV.

No. 186. A Dangerous Confessor.

The period during which the Dutch school of caricature flourished, extended through the reign of Louis XIV., and into the regency in France, and two great events, the revolution of 1688 in England, and the wild money speculations of the year 1720, exercised especially the pencilsof its caricaturists. The first of these events belongs almost entirely to Romain de Hooghe. Very little is known of the personal history of this remarkable artist, but he is believed to have been born towards the middle of the seventeenth century, and to have died in the earlier years of the eighteenth century. The older French writers on art, who were prejudiced against Romain de Hooghe for his bitter hostility to Louis XIV., inform us that in his youth he employed his graver on obscene subjects, and led a life so openly licentious, that he was banished from his native town of Amsterdam, and went to live at Haerlem. He gained celebrity by the series of plates, executed in 1672, which represented the horrible atrocities committed in Holland by the French troops, and which raised against Louis XIV. the indignation of all Europe. It is said that the prince of Orange (William III. of England), appreciating the value of his satire as a political weapon, secured it in his own interests by liberally patronising the caricaturist; and we owe to Romain de Hooghe a succession of large prints in which the king of France, hisprotégéJames II., and the adherents of the latter, are covered with ridicule. One, published in 1688, and entitled“Les Monarches Tombants,”commemorates the flight of the royal family from England. Another, which appeared at the same date, is entitled, in French,“Arlequin fur l’hypogryphe à la croisade Loioliste,”and in Dutch,“Armeé van de Heylige League voor der Jesuiten Monarchy”(i.e.“the army of the holy league for establishing the monarchy of the Jesuits”). Louis XIV. and James II. were represented under the characters of Arlequin and Panurge, who are seated on the animal here called a “hypogryphe,” but which is really a wild ass. The two kings have their heads joined together under one Jesuit’s cap. Other figures, forming part of this army of Jesuitism, are distributed over the field, the most grotesque of which is that given in our cut No. 187. Two personages introduced in some ridiculous position or other, in most of these caricatures, are father Petre, the Jesuit, and the infant prince of Wales, afterwards the old Pretender. It was pretended that this infant was in fact the child of a miller, secretly introduced into the queen’s bed concealed in a warming-pan; and that this ingenious plot was contrived by father Petre. Hence the boy was popularly called Peterkin, orPerkin,i.e.little Peter, which was the name given afterwards to the Pretender in songs and satires at the time of his rebellion; and in the prints a windmill was usually given to the child as a sign of its father’s trade. In the group represented in our cut, father Petre, with the child in his arms, is seated on a rather singular steed, a lobster. The young prince here carries the windmill on his head. On the lobster’s back, behind the Jesuit, are carried the papal crown, surmounted by a fleur-de-lis, with a bundle of relics, indulgences, &c, and it has seized in one claw the English church service book, and in the other the book of the laws of England. In the Dutch description of this print, the child is called “the new born Antichrist.” Another of Romain de Hooghe’s prints, entitled“Panurge secondé par Arlequin Deodaat à la croisade d’Irlande, 1689,”is a satire on king James’s expedition to Ireland, which led to the memorable battle of the Boyne. James and his friends are proceeding to the place of embarkation, and, as represented in our cut No. 188, father Petre marches in front, carrying the infant prince in his arms.

No. 187. A Jesuit well Mounted.

The drawing of Romain de Hooghe is not always correct, especially in his larger subjects, which perhaps may be ascribed to his hasty and careless manner of working; but he displays great skill in grouping his figures, and great power in investing them with a large amount of satiricalhumour. Most of the other caricatures of the time are poor both in design and execution. Such is the case with a vulgar satirical print which was published in France in the autumn of 1690, on the arrival of a false rumour that king William had been killed in Ireland. In the field of the picture the corpse of the king is followed by a procession consisting of his queen and the principal supporters of his cause. The lower corner on the left hand is occupied by a view of the interior of the infernal regions, and king William introduced in the place allotted to him among the flames. In different parts of the picture there are several inscriptions, all breathing a spirit of very insolent exultation. One of them is the—

Billet d’Enterrement.Vous estes priez d’assister au convoy, service, et enterrement du tres haut, tres grand, et tres infame Prince infernal, grand stadouter, des Armés diaboliques de la ligue d’Ausbourg, et insigne usurpateur des Royaumes d’Angleterre, d’Eccosse, et d’Irlande, décédé dans l’Irlande au mois d’Aoust 1690, qui se fera le dit mois, dans sa paroisse infernale, ou assisteront Dame Proserpine, Radamonte, et les Ligueurs.Les Dames lui diront s’il leur plaist des injures.

Billet d’Enterrement.

Vous estes priez d’assister au convoy, service, et enterrement du tres haut, tres grand, et tres infame Prince infernal, grand stadouter, des Armés diaboliques de la ligue d’Ausbourg, et insigne usurpateur des Royaumes d’Angleterre, d’Eccosse, et d’Irlande, décédé dans l’Irlande au mois d’Aoust 1690, qui se fera le dit mois, dans sa paroisse infernale, ou assisteront Dame Proserpine, Radamonte, et les Ligueurs.

Les Dames lui diront s’il leur plaist des injures.

No. 188. Off to Ireland.

The prints executed in England at this time were, if possible, worse than those published in France. Almost the only contemporary caricature on the downfall of the Stuarts that I know, is an ill-executed print, published immediately after the accession of William III., under the title, “England’s Memorial of its wonderful deliverance from French Tyranny and Popish Oppression.” The middle of the picture is occupied by “the royal orange tree,” which flourishes in spite of all the attempts to destroy it. At the upper corner, on the left side, is a representation of the French king’s “council,” consisting of an equal number of Jesuits and devils, seated alternately at a round table.

The circumstance that the titles and inscriptions of nearly all these caricatures are in Dutch, seems to show that their influence was intended to be exercised in Holland rather than elsewhere. In two or three only of them these descriptions were accompanied with translations in English or French; and after a time, copies of them began to be made in England, accompanied with English descriptions. A curious example of this is given in the fourth volume of the “Poems on State Affairs,” printed in 1707. In the preface to this volume the editor takes occasion to inform the reader—“That having procur’d from beyond sea a Collection of Satyrical Prints done in Holland and elsewhere, by Rom. de Hoog, and other the best masters, relating to the French King and his Adherents, since he unjustly begun this war, I have persuaded the Bookseller to be at the expense of ingraving several of them; to each of which I have given the Explanation in English verse, they being in Dutch, French, or Latin in the originals.” Copies of seven of these caricatures are accordingly given at the end of the volume, which are certainly inferior in every respect to those of the best period of Romain de Hooghe. One of them commemorates the eclipse of the sun on the 12th of May, 1706. The sun, as it might be conjectured, is Louis XIV., eclipsed by queen Anne, whose face occupies the place of the moon. In the foreground of the picture, just under the eclipse, the queen is seated on her throne under a canopy, surrounded by her counsellors and generals. With her left arm she holds down the Gallic cock, while with the other hand she clips one of its wings (see our cut No. 189). In the upper corner on the right, is inserted a picture of the battle of Ramillies, and in the lower corner on the left, a sea-fight under admiral Leake, both victories gained in that year. Another of these copies of foreign prints is given in our cutNo. 190. We are told that “these figures represent a French trumpet and drum, sent by Louis le Grand to enquire news of several citys lost by the Mighty Monarch last campaign.” The trumpeter holds in his hand a list of lost towns, and another is pinned to the breast of the drummer; the former list is headed by the names of “Gaunt, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges,” the latter by “Barcelona.”

No. 189. Clipping the Cock’s Wings.

No. 190. Trumpet and Drum.

No. 191. The Three False Brethren.

The first remarkable outburst of caricatures in England was caused by the proceedings against the notorious Dr. Sacheverell in 1710. It is somewhat curious that Sacheverell’s partisans speak of caricatures as things brought recently from Holland, and new in England, and ascribe the use of them as peculiar to the Whig party. The writer of a pamphlet, entitled “The Picture of Malice, or a true Account of Dr. Sacheverell’s Enemies, and their behaviour with regard to him,” informs us that “the chief means by which all the lower order of that sort of men call’d Whigs, shall ever be found to act for the ruin of a potent adversary, are the following three—by the Print, the Canto or Doggrell Poem, and by the Libell, grave, calm, and cool, as the author of the ‘True Answer’ describes it. These are not all employed at the sametime, any more than the ban and arierban of a kingdom is raised, unless to make sure work, or in cases of great exigency and imminent danger.” “The Print,” he goes on to say, “is originally a Dutch talisman (bequeathed to the ancient Batavians by a certain Chinese necromancer and painter), with a virtue far exceeding that of the Palladium, not only of guarding their cities and provinces, but also of annoying their enemies, and preserving a due balance amongst the neighbouring powers around.” This writer warms up so much in his indignation against this new weapon of the Whigs, that he breaks out in blank verse to tell us how even the mysterious power of the magician did not destroy its victims—

Swifter than heretofore the Print effac’dThe pomp of mightiest monarchs, and dethron’dThe dread idea of royal majesty;Dwindling the prince below the pigmy size.Witness the once Great Louis in youthful pride,And Charles of happy days, who both confess’dThe magic power of mezzotinto[101]shade,And form grotesque, in manifestoes loudDenouncing death to boor and burgomaster.Witness, ye sacred popes with triple crown,Who likewise victims fell to hideous print,Spurn’d by the populace who whilome layProstrate, and ev’n adored before your thrones.

Swifter than heretofore the Print effac’d

The pomp of mightiest monarchs, and dethron’d

The dread idea of royal majesty;

Dwindling the prince below the pigmy size.

Witness the once Great Louis in youthful pride,

And Charles of happy days, who both confess’d

The magic power of mezzotinto[101]shade,

And form grotesque, in manifestoes loud

Denouncing death to boor and burgomaster.

Witness, ye sacred popes with triple crown,

Who likewise victims fell to hideous print,

Spurn’d by the populace who whilome lay

Prostrate, and ev’n adored before your thrones.

We are then told that “this, if not the first, has yet been the chief machine which his enemies have employ’d against the doctor; they have exposed him in the same piece with the pope and the devil, and who now could imagine that any simple priest should be able to stand before a power which had levelled popes and monarchs?” At least one copy of the caricature here alluded to is preserved, although a great rarity, and it is represented in our cut No. 191. Two of the party remained longassociated together in the popular outcry, and as the name of the third fell into contempt and oblivion, the doctor’s place in this association was taken by a new cause of alarm, the Pretender, the child whom we have just seen so joyously brandishing his windmill. It is evident, however, that this caricature greatly exasperated Sacheverell and the party which supported him.

It will have been noticed that the writer just quoted, in using the term “print,” ignores altogether that of caricature, which, however, was about this time beginning to come into use, although it is not found in the dictionaries, I believe, until the appearance of that of Dr. Johnson, in 1755.Caricatureis, of course, an Italian word, derived from the verbcaricare, to charge or load; and therefore, it means a picture which is charged, or exaggerated (the old French dictionaries say, “c’est la même chose que charge en peinture”). The word appears not to have come into use in Italy until the latter half of the seventeenth century, and the earliest instance I know of its employment by an English writer is that quoted by Johnson from the “Christian Morals” of Sir Thomas Brown, who died in 1682, but it was one of his latest writings, and was not printed till long after his death:—“Expose not thyself by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts (i.e.drawings) andcaricaturarepresentations.” This very quaint writer, who had passed some time in Italy, evidently uses it as an exotic word. We find it next employed by the writer of the Essay No. 537, of the “Spectator,” who, speaking of the way in which different people were led by feelings of jealousy and prejudice to detract from the characters of others, goes on to say, “From all these hands we have such draughts of mankind as are represented in those burlesque pictures which the Italians callcaricaturas, where the art consists in preserving, amidst distorted proportions and aggravated features, some distinguishing likeness of the person, but in such a manner as to transform the most agreeable beauty into the most odious monster.” The word was not fully established in our language in its English form ofcaricatureuntil late in the last century.

No. 192. Atlas.

The subject of agitation which produced a greater number of caricatures than any previous event was the wild financial scheme introducedinto France by the Scottish adventurer, Law, and imitated in England in the great South Sea Bubble. It would be impossible here, within our necessary limits, to attempt to trace the history of these bubbles, which all burst in the course of the year 1720; and, in fact, it is a history of which few are ignorant. On this, as on former occasions, the great mass of the caricatures, especially those against the Mississippi scheme, were executed in Holland, but they are much inferior to the works of Romain de Hooghe. In fact, so great was the demand for these caricatures, that the publishers, in their eagerness for gain, not only deluged the world with plates by artists of no talent, which were without point or interest, but they took old plates of any subject in which there was a multitude of figures, put new titles to them, and published them as satires on the Mississippi scheme; for people were ready to take anything which represented a crowd as a satire on the eagerness with which Frenchmen rushed into theshare-market. One or two curious instances of this deception might be pointed out. Thus, an old picture, evidently intended to represent the meeting of a king and a nobleman, in the court of a palace, surrounded by a crowd of courtiers, in the costume probably of the time of Henri IV., was republished as a picture of people crowding to the grand scene of stock-jobbing in Paris, the Rue Quinquenpoix; and the old picture of the battle between Carnival and Lent came out again, a little re-touched, under the Dutch title,“Stryd tuszen de smullende Bubbel-Heeren en de aanstaande Armoede,”i.e., “The battle between the good-living bubble-lords and approaching poverty.”

Besides being issued singly, a considerable number of these prints were collected and published in a volume, which is still met with not unfrequently, under the title“Het groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid,”“The great picture of folly.” One of this set of prints represents a multitude of persons, of all ages and sexes, acting the part of Atlas in supporting on their backs globes, which, though made only of paper, had become, through the agitation of the stock exchange, heavier than gold. Law himself (see our cut No. 192) stands foremost, and requires the assistance of Hercules to support his enormous burthen. In the French verses accompanying this print, the writer says—

Ami Atlas, on voit (sans conter vous et moi)Faire l’Atlas partout des divers personnages,Riche, pauvre, homme, femme, et sot et quasi-sage,Valet, et paisan, le gueux s’eleve en roi.

Ami Atlas, on voit (sans conter vous et moi)

Faire l’Atlas partout des divers personnages,

Riche, pauvre, homme, femme, et sot et quasi-sage,

Valet, et paisan, le gueux s’eleve en roi.

Another of these caricatures represents Law in the character of Don Quixote, riding upon Sancho’s donkey. He is hastening to his Dulcinia, who waits for him in theactie huis(action or share-house), towards which people are dragging the animal on which he is seated. The devil (see our cut No. 193), sits behind Law, and holds up the ass’s tail, while a shower of paper, in the form of shares in companies, is scattered around, and scrambled for by the eageractionnaires. In front, the animal is laden with the money into which this paper has been turned,—the box bears the inscription,“Bombarioos Geldkist, 1720,”“Bombario’s (Law’s) gold chest;” and the flag bears the inscription, “Ik koom, ik koom, Dulcinia,” “I come, I come, Dulcinia.” The best, perhaps, of this lot of caricatures is a large engraving by the well-known Picart, inserted among the Dutch collection with explanations in Dutch and French, and which was re-engraved in London, with English descriptions and applications. It is a general satire on the madness of the memorable year 1720. Folly appears as the charioteer of Fortune, whose car is drawn by the representatives of the numerous companies which had sprung up at this time, most of which appear to be more or less unsound. Many of these agents have the tails of foxes, “to show their policy and cunning,” as the explanation informs us. The devil is seen in the clouds above, blowing bubbles of soap, which mix with the paper which Fortune is distributing to the crowd. The picture is crowded with figures, scattered in groups, who are employed in a variety of occupations connected with the great folly of the day, one of which, as an example, is given in our cut No. 194. It is a transfer of stock, made through the medium of a Jew broker.

No. 193. The Don Quixote of Finance.

No. 194. Transfer of Stock.

It was in this bubble agitation that the English school of caricature began, and a few specimens are preserved, though others which are advertised in the newspapers of that day, seem to be entirely lost. In fact, a very considerable portion of the caricature literature of a period so comparatively recent as the first half of the last century, appears to have perished; for the interest of these prints was in general so entirely temporary that few people took any care to preserve them, and few of them were very attractive as pictures. As yet, indeed, these English prints are but poor imitations of the works of Picart and other continental artists. A pair of English prints, entitled “The Bubbler’s Mirrour,” represents, one a head joyful at the rise in the value of stock, the other, a similar head sorrowful at its fall, surrounded in each case with lists of companies and epigrams upon them. They are engraved in mezzotinto, a style of art supposed to have been invented in England—its invention was ascribed to Prince Rupert—and at this time very popular. In the imprint of these last-mentioned plates, we are informed that they were “Printed for Carington Bowles, next yeChapter House, in St. Paul’s Ch. Yard, London,” a well-known name in former years, and even now one quite familiar to collectors, of this class of prints, especially. Of Carington Bowles we shall have more to say in the next chapter. With him begins the long list of celebrated English printsellers.

ENGLISH CARICATURE IN THE AGE OF GEORGE II.—ENGLISH PRINTSELLERS.—ARTISTS EMPLOYED BY THEM.—SIR ROBERT WALPOLE’S LONG MINISTRY.—THE WAR WITH FRANCE.—THE NEWCASTLE ADMINISTRATION.—OPERA INTRIGUES.—ACCESSION OF GEORGE III., AND LORD BUTE IN POWER.

With the accession of George II., the taste for political caricatures increased greatly, and they had become almost a necessity of social life. At this time, too, a distinct English school of political caricature had been established, and the print-sellers became more numerous, and took a higher position in the commerce of literature and art. Among the earliest of these printsellers the name of Bowles stands especially conspicuous. Hogarth’s burlesque on the Beggar’s Opera, published in 1728, was “printed for John Bowles, at the Black Horse, in Cornhill.” Some copies of “King Henry the Eighth and Anna Bullen,” engraved by the same great artist in the following year, bear the imprint of John Bowles; and others were “printed for Robert Wilkinson, Cornhill, Carington Bowles, in St. Paul’s Church Yard, and R. Sayer, in Fleet Street.” Hogarth’s “Humours of Southwark Fair” was also published, in 1733, by Carington and John Bowles. This Carington Bowles was, perhaps, dead in 1755, for in that year the caricature entitled “British Resentment” bears the imprint, “Printed for T. Bowles, in St. Paul’s Church Yard, and Jno. Bowles & Son, in Cornhill.” John Bowles appears to have been the brother of the first Carington Bowles in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and a son named Carington succeeded to that business, which, under him and his son Carington, and then as the establishment of Bowles and Carver, has continued to exist within the memory of the present generation. Another very celebrated printshop was established in Fleet Street by ThomasOverton, probably as far back as the close of the seventeenth century. On his death his business was purchased by Robert Sayers, a mezzotinto engraver of merit, whose name appears as joint publisher of a print by Hogarth in 1729. Overton is said to have been a personal friend of Hogarth. Sayers was succeeded in the business by his pupil in mezzotinto engraving, named Laurie, from whom it descended to his son, Robert H. Laurie, known in city politics, and it became subsequently the firm of Laurie and Whittle. This business still exists at 53, Fleet Street, the oldest establishment in London for the publication of maps and prints. During the reign of the second George, the number of publishers of caricatures increased considerably, and among others, we meet with the names of J. Smith, “at Hogarth’s Head, Cheapside,” attached to a caricature published August, 1756; Edwards and Darly, “at the Golden Acorn, facing Hungerford, Strand,” who also published caricatures during the years 1756-7; caricatures and burlesque prints were published by G. Bickham, May’s Buildings, Covent Garden, and one, directed against the employment of foreign troops, and entitled “A Nurse for the Hessians,” is stated to have been “sold in May’s Buildings, Covent Garden, where is 50 more;” “The Raree Show,” published in 1762, was “sold at Sumpter’s Political Print-shop, Fleet Street,” and many caricatures on contemporary costume, especially on the Macaronis, about the year 1772, were “published by T. Bowen, opposite the Haymarket, Piccadilly.” Sledge, “printseller, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden,” is also met with about the middle of the last century. Among other burlesque prints, Bickham, of May’s Buildings, issued a series of figures representing the various trades, made up of the different tools, &c, used by each. The house of Carington Bowles, in St. Paul’s Churchyard, produced an immense number of caricatures, during the last century and the present, and of the most varied character, but they consisted more of comic scenes of society than of political subjects, and many of them were engraved in mezzotinto, and rather highly coloured. Among them were caricatures on the fashions and foibles of the day, amusing accidents and incidents, common occurrences of life, characters, &c., and they are frequently aimed at lawyers and priests, and especially at monks andfriars, for the anti-Catholic feeling was strong in the last century. J. Brotherton, at No. 132, New Bond Street, published many of Bunbury’s caricatures; while the house of Laurie and Whittle gave employment especially to the Cruikshanks. But perhaps the most extensive publisher of caricatures of them all was S. W. Fores, who dwelt first at No. 3, Piccadilly, but afterwards established himself at No. 50, the corner of Sackville Street, where the name still remains. Fores seems to have been most fertile in ingenious expedients for the extension of his business. He formed a sort of library of caricatures and other prints, and charged for admission to look at them; and he afterwards adopted a system of lending them out in portfolios for evening parties, at which these portfolios of caricatures became a very fashionable amusement in the latter part of the last century. At times, some remarkable curiosity was employed to add to the attractions of his shop. Thus, on caricatures published in 1790, we find the statement that, “In Fores’ Caricature Museum is the completest collection in the kingdom. Alsothe head and hand of Count Struenzee. Admittance, 1s.” Caricatures against the French revolutionists, published in 1793, bear imprints stating that they were “published by S. W. Fores, No. 3, Piccadilly, where may be seena complete Model of the Guillotine—admittance, one shilling.” In some this model is said to be six feet high.

Among the artists employed by the print-publishers of the age of George II., we still find a certain number of foreigners. Coypel, who caricatured the opera in the days of Farinelli, and pirated Hogarth, belonged to a distinguished family of French painters. Goupy, who also caricatured theartistesof the opera (in 1727), and Boitard, who worked actively for Carington Bowles from 1750 to 1770, were also Frenchmen. Liotard, another caricaturist of the time of George II., was a native of Geneva. The names of two others, Vandergucht and Vanderbank, proclaim them Dutchmen. Among the English caricaturists who worked for the house of Bowles, were George Bickham, the brother of the printseller, John Collet, and Robert Dighton, with others of less repute. R. Attwold, who published caricatures against admiral Byng in 1750, was an imitator of Hogarth. Among the more obscure caricaturists of thelatter part of the half-century, were MacArdell—whose print of “The Park Shower,” representing the confusion raised among the fashionable company in the Mall in St. James’s Park by a sudden fall of rain, is so well known—and Darley. Paul Sandby, who was patronised by the duke of Cumberland, executed caricatures upon Hogarth. Many of these artists of the earlier period of the English school of caricature appear to have been very ill paid—the first of the family of Bowles is said to have boasted that he bought many of the plates for little more than their value as metal. The growing taste for caricature had also brought forward a number of amateurs, among whom were the countess of Burlington, and general, afterwards marquis, Townshend. The former, who was the lady of that earl who built Burlington House, in Piccadilly, was the leader of one of the factions in the opera disputes at the close of the reign of George I., and is understood to have designed the well-known caricature upon Cuzzoni, Farinelli, and Heidegger, which was etched by Goupy, whom she patronised. It must not be forgotten that Bunbury himself, as well as Sayers, were amateurs; and among other amateurs I may name captain Minthull, captain Baillie, and John Nixon. The first of these published caricatures against the Macaronis (as the dandies of the earlier part of the reign of George III. were called), one of which, entitled “The Macaroni Dressing-Room,” was especially popular.

No. 195. A Party of Mourners.

English political caricature came into its full activity with the ministry of Sir Robert Walpole, which, beginning in 1721, lasted through the long period of twenty years. In the previous period the Whigs were accused of having invented caricature, but now the Tories certainly took the utmost advantage of the invention, for, during several years, the greater number of the caricatures which were published were aimed against the Whig ministry. It is also a rather remarkable characteristic of society at this period, that the ladies took so great an interest in politics, that the caricatures were largely introduced upon fans, as well as upon other objects of an equally personal character. Moreover, the popular notion of what constituted a caricature was still so little fixed, that they were usually calledhieroglyphics, a term, indeed, which was not ill applied, for they were so elaborate, and so filled with mystical allusions, that now it is byno means easy to understand or appreciate them. Towards the year 1739, there was a marked improvement in the political caricatures—they were better designed, and displayed more talent, but still they required rather long descriptions to render them intelligible. One of the most celebrated was produced by the motion in the House of Commons, Feb. 13, 1741, against the minister Walpole. It was entitled “The Motion,” and was a Whig satire upon the opposition, who are represented as driving so hurriedly and inconsiderately to obtain places, that they are overthrown before they reach their object. The party of the opposition retaliated by a counter-caricature, entitled, “The Reason,” which was in some respects a parody upon the other, to which it was inferior in point and spirit. At the same time appeared another caricature against the ministry, under the title of “The Motive.” These provoked another,entitled, “A Consequence of the Motion;” which was followed the day after its publication by another caricature upon the opposition, entitled, “The Political Libertines; or, Motion upon Motion;” while the opponents of the government also brought out a caricature, entitled, “The Grounds,” a violent and rather gross attack upon the Whigs. Among other caricatures published on this occasion, one of the best was entitled, “The Funeral of Faction,” and bears the date of March 26, 1741. Beneath it are the words, “Funerals performed by Squire S——s,” alluding to Sandys, who was the motion-maker in the House of Commons, and who thus brought on his party a signal defeat. Among the chief mourners on this occasion are seen the opposition journals,The Craftsman, the creation of Bolingbroke and Pulteney, the still more scurrilousChampion,The Daily Post,The London and Evening Post, andThe Common Sense Journal. This mournful group is reproduced in our cut No. 195.

No. 196. British Resentment.

No. 197. Britannia in a New Dress.

No. 198. Caught by a Bait.

From this time there was no falling off in the supply of caricatures, which, on the contrary, seemed to increase every year, until the activity of the pictorial satirists was roused anew by the hostilities with France in1755, and the ministerial intrigues of the two following years. The war, accepted by the English government reluctantly, and ill prepared for, was the subject of much discontent, although at first hopes were given of great success. One of the caricatures, published in the middle of these early hopes, at a time when an English fleet lay before Louisbourg, in Canada, is entitled, “British Resentment, or the French fairly coop’d at Louisbourg,” and came from the pencil of the French artist Boitard. One of its groups, representing the courageous English sailor and the despairing Frenchman, is given in our cut No. 196, and may serve as an example of Boitard’s style of drawing. It became now the fashion to print political caricatures, in a diminished form, on cards, and seventy-five of these were formed into a small volume, under the title of “A Political and Satirical History of the years 1756 and 1757. In a series of seventy-five humorous and entertaining Prints, containing all the most remarkable Transactions, Characters, and Caricaturas of those two memorable years.... London: printed for E. Morris, near St. Paul’s.” The imprints of the plates, which bear the dates of their several publications, inform us that they came from the well-known shop of “Darly and Edwards, at the Acorn, facing Hungerford, Strand.” These caricatures begin with our foreign relations, and express the belief that the ministers were sacrificing English interests to French influence. In one of them(our cut No. 197), entitled, “England made odious, or the French Dressers,” the minister, Newcastle, in the garb of a woman, and his colleague, Fox, have dressed Britannia in a new French robe, which does not fit her. She exclaims, “Let me have my own cloathes. I cannot stir my arms in these; besides, everybody laughs at me.” Newcastle replies, rather imperiously, “Hussy, be quiet, you have no need to stir your arms—why, sure! what’s here to do?” While Fox, in a more insinuating tone, offers her a fleur-de-lis, and says, “Here, madam, stick this in your bosom, next your heart.” The two pictures which adorn the walls of the room represent an axe and a halter; and underneath we read the lines,—

And shall the substitutes of powerOur genius thus bedeck?Let them remember there’s an hourOf quittance—then, ware neck.

And shall the substitutes of power

Our genius thus bedeck?

Let them remember there’s an hour

Of quittance—then, ware neck.

In another print of this series, this last idea is illustrated more fully. It is aimed at the ministers, who were believed to be enriching themselves at the expense of the nation, and is entitled, “The Devil turned Bird-catcher.” On one side, while Fox is greedily scrambling for the gold, the fiend has caught him in a halter suspended to the gallows; on the other side another demon is letting down the fatal axe on Newcastle, who is similarly employed. The latter (see our cut No. 198) is describedas a “Noddy catching at the bait, while the bird-catcher lets drop an axe.” This implement of execution is a perfect picture of a guillotine, long before it was so notoriously in use in France.

No. 199. British Idolatry.

The third example of these caricatures which I shall quote is entitled “The Idol,” and has for its subject the extravagancies and personal jealousies connected with the Italian opera. The rivalry between Mingotti and Vanneschi was now making as much noise there as that of Cuzzoni and Faustina some years before. The former acted arbitrarily and capriciously, and could with difficulty be bound to sing a few times during the season for a high salary: it is said, £2,000 for the season. In the caricature to which I allude, this lady appears raised upon a stool, inscribed “£2,000 per annum,” and is receiving the worship of her admirers. Immediately before her an ecclesiastic is seen on his knees, exclaiming, “Unto thee be praise now and for evermore!” In the background a lady appears, holding up her pug-dog, then the fashionable pet, and addressing the opera favourite, “’Tis only pug and you I love.” Other men are on their knees behind the ecclesiastic, all persons of distinction; and last comes a nobleman and his lady, the former holding in his hand an order for £2,000, his subscription to the opera, and remarking, “We shall have buttwelve songs for all this money.” The lady replies, with an air of contempt, “Well, and enough too, for the paltry trifle.” The idol, in return for all this homage, sings rather contemptuously—

Ra, ru, ra, rot ye,My name is Mingotti,If you worship me notti,You shall all go to potti.

Ra, ru, ra, rot ye,

My name is Mingotti,

If you worship me notti,

You shall all go to potti.

The closing years of the reign of George II., under the vigorous administration of the first William Pitt, witnessed a calm in the domestic politics of the country, which presented a strange contrast to the agitation of the previous period. Faction seemed to have hidden its head, and there was comparatively little employment for the caricaturist. But this calm lasted only a short time after that king’s death, and the new reign was ushered in by indications of approaching political agitation of the most violent description, in which satirists who had hitherto contented themselves with other subjects were tempted to embark in the strife of politics. Among these was Hogarth, whose discomforts as a political caricaturist we shall have to describe in our next chapter.

No. 200. Fox on Boots.

Perhaps no name ever provoked a greater amount of caricature and satirical abuse than that of Lord Bute, who, through the favour of the Princess of Wales, ruled supreme at court during the first period of the reign of George III. Bute had taken into the ministry, as his confidential colleague, Fox—the Henry Fox who became subsequently the first Lord Holland, a man who had enriched himself enormously with the money of the nation, and these two appeared to be aiming at the establishment of arbitrary power in the place of constitutional government. Fox was usually represented inthe caricatures with the head and tail of the animal represented by his name rather strongly developed; while Bute was drawn, as a very bad pun upon his name, in the garb of a Scotchman, wearing two large boots, or sometimes a single boot of still greater magnitude. In these caricatures Bute and Fox are generally coupled together. Thus, a little before the resignation of the duke of Newcastle in 1762, there appeared a caricature entitled “The State Nursery,” in which the various members of the ministry, as it was then formed under Lord Bute’s influence, are represented as engaged in childish games. Fox, as the whipper-in of parliamentary majorities, is riding, armed with his whip, on Bute’s shoulders (see our cut No. 200), while the duke of Newcastle performs the more menial service of rocking the cradle. In the rhymes which accompany this caricature, the first of these groups is described as follows (Fox was commonly spoken of in satire by the title of Volpone)—

First you see old sly Volpone-y,Riding on the shoulders brawnyOf the muckle favourite Sawny;Doodle, doodle, doo.

First you see old sly Volpone-y,

Riding on the shoulders brawny

Of the muckle favourite Sawny;

Doodle, doodle, doo.

No. 201. Fanaticism in another Shape.

The number of caricatures published at this period was very great, and they were almost all aimed in one direction, against Bute and Fox, the Princess of Wales, and the government they directed. Caricature, at this time, ran into the least disguised licence, and the coarsest allusions were made to the supposed secret intercourse between the minister and the Princess of Wales, of which perhaps the most harmless was the addition of a petticoat to the boot, as a symbol of the influence under which the country was governed. In mock processions and ceremonies a Scotchman was generally introduced carrying the standard of the boot and petticoat. Lord Bute, frightened at the amount of odium which was thus heaped upon him, fought to stem the torrent by employing satirists to defend the government, and it is hardly necessary to state that among these mercenary auxiliaries was the great Hogarth himself, who accepted a pension, and published his caricature entitled, “The Times, Nov. 1,” in the month of September, 1762. Hogarth did not excel in political caricature, and there was little in this print to distinguish it abovethe ordinary publications of a similar character. It was the moment of negotiations for Lord Bute’s unpopular peace, and Hogarth’s satire is directed against the foreign policy of the great ex-minister Pitt. It represents Europe in a state of general conflagration, and the flames already communicating to Great Britain. While Pitt is blowing the fire, Bute, with a party of soldiers and sailors zealously assisted by his favourite Scotchmen, is labouring to extinguish it. In this he is impeded by the interference of the duke of Newcastle, who brings a wheelbarrow full ofMonitorsandNorth Britons,the violent opposition journals, to feed the flames. The advocacy of Bute’s mercenaries, whether literary or artistic, did little service to the government, for they only provoked increased activity among its opponents. Hogarth’s caricature of “The Times,” drew several answers, one of the best of which was a large print entitled “The Raree Show: a political contrast to the print of ‘The Times,’ by William Hogarth.” It is the house of John Bull which is here on fire, and the Scots are dancing and exulting at it. In the centre of the picture appears a great actors’ barn, from an upper window of which Fox thrusts out his head and points to the sign, representing Æneas and Didoentering the cave together, as the performance which was acting within. It is an allusion to the scandal in general circulation relating to Bute and the princess, who, of course, were the Æneas and Dido of the piece, and appear in those characters on the scaffold in front, with two of Bute’s mercenary writers, Smollett, who edited theBriton, and Murphy, who wrote in theAuditor, one blowing the trumpet and the other beating the drum. Among the different groups which fill the picture, one, behind the actors’ barn (see our cut No. 201), is evidently intended for a satire on the spirit of religious fanaticism which was at this time spreading through the country. An open-air preacher, mounted on a stool, is addressing a not very intellectual-looking audience, while his inspiration is conveyed to him in a rather vulgar manner by the spirit, not of good, but of evil.

The violence of this political warfare at length drove Lord Bute from at least ostensible power. He resigned on the 6th of April, 1763. One of the popular favourites at this time was the duke of Cumberland, the hero of Culloden, who was regarded as the leader of the opposition in the House of Lords. People now believed that it was the duke of Cumberland who had overthrown “the boot,” and his popularity increased on a sudden. The triumph was commemorated in several caricatures. One of these is entitled, “The Jack-Boot kick’d down, or English Will triumphant: a Dream.” The duke of Cumberland, whip in hand, has kicked the boot out of the house, exclaiming to a young man in tailor’s garb who follows him, “Let me alone, Ned; I know how to deal with Scotsmen. Remember Culloden.” The youth replies, “Kick hard, uncle, keep him down. Let me have a kick too.” Nearly the same group, using similar language, is introduced into a caricature of the same date, entitled, “The Boot and the Blockhead.” The youthful personage is no doubt intended for Cumberland’s nephew, Edward, duke of York, who was a sailor, and was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, and who appears to have joined his uncle in his opposition to Lord Bute. The “boot,” as seen in our cut No. 202, is encircled with Hogarth’s celebrated “line of beauty,” of which I shall have to speak more at length in the next chapter.

No. 202. The Overthrow of the Boot.

With the overthrow of Bute’s ministry, we may consider the English school of caricature as completely formed and fully established. From this time the names of the caricaturists are better known, and we shall have to consider them in their individual characters. One of these, William Hogarth, had risen in fame far above the group of the ordinary men by whom he was surrounded.

HOGARTH.—HIS EARLY HISTORY.—HIS SETS OF PICTURES.—THE HARLOT’S PROGRESS.—THE RAKE’S PROGRESS.—THE MARRIAGE A LA MODE.—HIS OTHER PRINTS.—THE ANALYSIS OF BEAUTY, AND THE PERSECUTION ARISING OUT OF IT.—HIS PATRONAGE BY LORD BUTE.—CARICATURE OF THE TIMES.—ATTACKS TO WHICH HE WAS EXPOSED BY IT, AND WHICH HASTENED HIS DEATH.

On the 10th of November, 1697, William Hogarth was born in the city of London. His father, Richard Hogarth, was a London schoolmaster, who laboured to increase the income derived from his scholars by compiling books, but with no great success. From his childhood, as he tells us in his “Anecdotes” of himself, the young Hogarth displayed a taste for drawing, and especially for caricature; and, out of school, he appears to have been seldom without a pencil in his hand. The limited means of Richard Hogarth compelled him to take the boy from school at an early age, and bind him apprentice to a steel-plate engraver. But this occupation proved little to the taste of one whose ambition rose much higher; and when the term of his apprenticeship had expired, he applied himself to engraving on copper; and, setting up on his own account, did considerable amount of work, first in engraving arms and shop-bills, and afterwards in designing and engraving book illustrations, none of which displayed any superiority over the ordinary run of such productions. Towards 1728 Hogarth began to practice as a painter, and he subsequently attended the academy of sir James Thornhill, in Covent Garden, where he became acquainted with that painter’s only daughter, Jane. The result was a clandestine marriage in 1730, which met the disapproval and provoked the anger of the lady’s father. Subsequently, however, sir James became convinced of the genius of his son-in-law, and a reconciliation was effected through the medium of lady Thornhill.

At this time Hogarth had already commenced that new style of design which was destined to raise him soon to a degree of fame as an artist few men have ever attained. In his “Anecdotes” of himself, the painter has given us an interesting account of the motives by which he was guided. “The reasons,” he says, “which induced me to adopt this mode of designing were, that I thought both writers and painters had, in the historical style, totally overlooked that intermediate species of subjects which may be placed between the sublime and the grotesque. I therefore wished to compose pictures on canvas similar to representations on the stage; and further hope that they will be tried by the same test, and criticised by the same criterion. Let it be observed, that I mean to speak only of those scenes where the human species are actors, and these, I think, have not often been delineated in a way of which they are worthy and capable. In these compositions, those subjects that will both entertain and improve the mind bid fair to be of the greatest public utility, and must therefore be entitled to rank in the highest class. If the execution is difficult (though that is but a secondary merit), the author has claim to a higher degree of praise. If this be admitted, comedy, in painting as well as writing, ought to be allotted the first place, thoughthe sublime, as it is called, has been opposed to it. Ocular demonstration will carry more conviction to the mind of a sensible man than all he would find in a thousand volumes, and this has been attempted in the prints I have composed. Let the decision be left to every unprejudiced eye; let the figures in either pictures or prints be considered as players dressed either for the sublime, for genteel comedy or farce, for high or low life. I have endeavoured to treat my subjects as a dramatic writer: my picture is my stage, and men and women my players, who, by means of certain actions and gestures, are to exhibita dumb-show.”

The great series of pictures, indeed, which form the principal foundation of Hogarth’s fame, are comedies rather than caricatures, and noble comedies they are. Like comedies, they are arranged, by a series of successive plates, in acts and scenes; and they represent contemporary society pictorially, just as it had been and was represented on the stage in English comedy. It is not by delicacy or excellence of drawing that Hogarthexcels, for he often draws incorrectly; but it is by his extraordinary and minute delineation of character, and by his wonderful skill in telling a story thoroughly. In each of his plates we see a whole act of a play, in which nothing is lost, nothing glossed over, and, I may add, nothing exaggerated. The most trifling object introduced into the picture is made to have such an intimate relationship with the whole, that it seems as if it would be imperfect without it. The art of producing this effect was that in which Hogarth excelled. The first of Hogarth’s greatsuitesof prints was “The Harlot’s Progress,” which was the work of the years 1733 and 1734. It tells a story which was then common in London, and was acted more openly in the broad face of society than at the present day; and therefore the effect and consequent success were almost instantaneous. It had novelty, as well as excellence, to recommend it. This series of plates was followed, in 1735, by another, under the title of “The Rake’s Progress.” In the former, Hogarth depicted the shame and ruin which attended a life of prostitution; in this, he represented the similar consequences which a life of profligacy entailed on the other sex. In many respects it is superior to the “Harlot’s Progress,” and its details come more home to the feelings of people in general, because those of the prostitute’s history are more veiled from the public gaze. The progress of the spendthrift in dissipation and riot, from the moment he becomes possessed of the fruits of paternal avarice, until his career ends in prison and madness, forms a marvellous drama, in which every incident presents itself, and every agent performs his part, so naturally, that it seems almost beyond the power of acting. Perhaps no one ever pictured despair with greater perfection than it is shown in the face and bearing of the unhappy hero of this history, in the last plate but one of the series, where, thrown into prison for debt, he receives from the manager of a theatre the announcement that the play which he had written in the hope of retrieving somewhat of his position—his last resource—has been refused. The returned manuscript and the manager’s letter lie on the wretched table (cut No. 203); while on the one side his wife reproaches him heartlessly with the deprivations and sufferings which he has brought upon her, and on the other the jailer is reminding him of the fact thatthe fees exacted for the slight indulgence he has obtained in prison are unpaid, and even the pot-boy refuses to deliver him his beer without first receiving his money. It is but a step further to Bedlam, which, in the next plate, closes his unblessed career.

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