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

_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.'