Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego

accidental, and the amusement verges on peril of a terrible character. A temporary theatre, _Cockburn's Company_, is on fire, and the spectators are escaping as best they may. The entrance is from a balcony reached by a flight of steps, and the frightened spectators are pouring out of the building, which is burning furiously, and throwing themselves pellmell down the steps, at the bottom of which they are sprawling, kicking, and plunging in fright and confusion. Certain buxom damsels are climbing over the balustrade and dropping from the balcony, with the musicians, into the arms of those below. A bill on the booth announces the _Last Night, Pizarro_ and _Don Juan, A Shower of Real Fire_, and _A View of the Infernal Regions_. Crowds are scudding away in the distance, and the other attractions of the fair are at a standstill. _October 25, 1810._ _An Old Ewe Drest Lamb Fashion._ Published by T. Tegg. A deceptive old tabby, clad in a juvenile style, is dashing along in a high poke-bonnet; three or four Don Juans of eccentric exterior are hurrying after her to tender their attentions, an act of gallantry they are likely to regret on closer inspection. The quotation offered as _A Misery of Human Life_ runs thus: 'Walking fast and far to overtake a woman from whose shape and air as viewed _en derrière_ you have decided that her face is angelic, till, on eagerly turning round as you pass her, you are petrified by a Gorgon.' [Illustration: SPITFIRES.] _October 25, 1810._ _Spitfires._ Published by T. Tegg (44). _October 25, 1810._ _Dropsy Courting Consumption._ Published by T. Tegg (45).--Outside a building marked _Mausoleum_--a dwarf rotunda beside a slender column--kneels a round ball of a suitor, who, it would seem, is destined never to recover his perpendicular; he is suing at the feet of an attenuated nymph, of straight and bony proportions, who it appears is in the last stage of wasting away. In the grounds a corpulent lady and a declining-looking gentleman of the Laurence Sterne type are contemplating a statue of Hercules. _November 1, 1810._ _Doctor Gallipot placing his Fortune at the feet of his Mistress._ 'Throw physic to the dogs.' Republished. (See 1808.) _November 1, 1810._ _Kitchen Stuff._ Published by T. Tegg (43).--A scene of low life below stairs. A fire is roaring up the kitchen grate, and a fat old cook, slumbering in an armchair drawn up to the kitchen table, has her feet resting on the chimneypiece, and a glass of 'cherry bounce' held in her chubby hand, to refresh her after the exertions of the day. A younger and proportionately comely and comfortable-looking kitchen-maid is also stealing 'forty winks,' with her head resting against the chimneypiece; while a fat black footman, who completes this evidently easy-going household, is indulging in the luxury of repose and pillowing his slumbering woolly pate on the ample shoulders of his shapely neighbour. [Illustration: A HIT AT BACKGAMMON.] _November 19, 1810._ _A Hit at Backgammon._ Published by T. Tegg (No. 46). _November 20, 1810._ _Medical Despatch, or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One Stone._ Published by T. Tegg (47).--Reclining back in an armchair is an old invalid lady, evidently at the last gasp; her end is made still more certain by opium and composing draughts placed ready to her hand. On the armchair of the ghastly sufferer leans a pretty buxom girl in the flush of womanhood, who is wavering between grief and rapture--tears for her departing relative and regard for the caresses of the practitioner, who is dismissing his patient and courting a bride at the same moment. While one hand of the perfidious Doctor is carelessly holding the pulse of the sinking woman his arm is thrown round the neck of the blooming maiden, his fat features are expressive of maudlin tenderness, and his eyes are turned upwards in awkward admiration. _November 20, 1810._ _Bath Races._ Published by T. Tegg (49).--The race appropriately starts from 'Cripple's Corner;' the halt, the maimed, and the lame are the competitors; it is, in fact, a race of Bath chairs and crutches, all tearing and tumbling down hill and blowing in the wind; the gouty hangers behind being urged forward, pushed, whipped, and cheered on by the delighted spectators. The city of Bath is slightly indicated in the rear. _November 30, 1810._ _Doctor Drainbarrel conveyed Home in a Wheelbarrow, in order to take his Trial for Neglect of Family Duty._ Published by T. Tegg (23). [Illustration: DR. DRAINBARREL CONVEYED HOME IN A WHEELBARROW.] _November 30, 1810._ _After Sweet Meat comes Sour Sauce, or Corporal Cazey got into the Wrong Box._ Rowlandson del. Published by T. Tegg (24).--The Corporal has incautiously been paying a secret visit to a fine, plump and well-favoured damsel, on whose affections, it would seem, the man of war has no legitimate claim. The lady is snugly disposing her lover in a strong-box, with iron clamps, probably the sea-chest of the lawful proprietor of the chamber. Before closing the lid on the captive swain the buxom maid, at whose waist hangs the key of the chest, is favouring the suitor with a parting kiss. An old 'salt,' his few remaining hairs bristling with indignation and resentment, is looking in at the window and surveying the entire transaction before making his entrance on the scene. That the Corporal has fairly got into the 'wrong box' is further hinted by a trap at his side, in which an unfortunate rat is securely imprisoned.