English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century Part 15

'He caught Sir William Curtis in a kilt-- While throng'd the chiefs of every Highland clan To hail their brother, Vich Ian Alderman.'[80]

In truth this portentous apparition cast an air of ridicule and caricature over the whole of Sir Walter's celtified pageantry. A sharp little bailie from Aberdeen, who had previously made acquaintance with the worthy Guildhall baronet, and tasted the turtle soup of his voluptuous yacht, tortured him as he sailed down the long gallery of Holyrood, by suggesting that after all his costume was not quite perfect. Sir William, who had been rigged out, as the auctioneer's advertis.e.m.e.nts say, 'regardless of expense,' exclaimed that he must be mistaken, begged he would explain his criticism, and, as he spoke, threw a glance of admiration on his _skene dhu_ (black knife), which, like a true 'warrior and hunter of deer,' he wore stuck into one of his garters. 'Oo ay! Oo ay!' quoth the Aberdonian; 'the knife's a' right, mon--but faar's your speen?' (where's your spoon?) Such was Scott's story; but whether he 'gave it a c.o.c.ked hat and walking cane,' in the hope of restoring the king's good humour, so grievously shaken by this heroical _doppel ganger_, it is not very necessary to inquire."[81]

Which indeed of the absurd pair looked the most ridiculous it would be hard to say: a great-grandson of George the Second in the Highland garb of "Bonnie Prince Charlie," was perhaps as absurd an anachronism as a fat c.o.c.kney alderman in the same fancy costume. Our friends the caricaturists were fully alive to these puerilities. An anonymous caricature of the day celebrates the ludicrous event in a satire ent.i.tled, _Equipt for a Northern Visit_, which represents the fat king and the fat alderman in kilts, the point of the pictorial epigram lying in the fact that the corpulent king recommends his corpulent subject to lay aside the costume as unbecoming to a man of _his_ proportions.

George has several pictorial satires on the same fertile theme; one of these, _Bonnie Willie_, depicts the huge man in Highland garb. A rare and most amusing caricature shows us the supposed unfortunate _Results of this Northern Excursion_. The fat king and his fat subject have caught the northern complaint vulgarly termed the "Scottish fiddle," and are vigorously going through the traditionary process of rubbing themselves against the post, blessing the while his grace the Duke of Argyle. An English acquaintance, not unnaturally afraid of infection, refuses the alderman's proffered hand.

A caricature of altogether another kind commemorates a raid made by the Bow Street officers on the numerous gaming establishments of 1822. It is called, _Cribbage, Shuffling, Whist, and a Round Game_, is divided into six compartments, and is most humorously and admirably treated. The princ.i.p.al performers are the knaves of cards. One of the compartments shows us the knaves on the treadmill, which is marked "Fortune's Wheel;"

while in another a knave is undergoing the discipline of the "cat," and calling out at every stroke "E. O.! E. O.! E. O.!"[82]

STATUE OF ACHILLES.

Sir Richard Westmacott's statue of Achilles was executed in 1822. The nude, undraped colossal figure, which was subscribed for by the ladies of England in honour of the Duke of Wellington and his soldiers, was the occasion of numerous contemporary satires--most of them (in those plain-spoken days) of the broadest possible character. One of the most indelicate (*) (drawn by the artist from the sketch or suggestion of another) gives a burlesque front and back view of the figure, which is surrounded by a number of people (princ.i.p.ally ladies), among whom we recognise a caricature likeness of the "Dook." The inscription runs as follows: "To Arthur a Bradley, and his jolly companions every one, this brazen image of Patrick O'Killus, Esq., is inscribed by their countrywomen."[83] Besides the foregoing, we meet this year with _A Lollipop-Ally Campagne and Brandy Ball_ (*); _Premium, Par, and Discount_; _Showing-off--Bang up--Prime_ (*); and _A Sailor's description of a Chase and Capture_ (*).

1823.

A large proportion of his satires for 1823 are aimed at Louis the Eighteenth's Spanish expedition, the object of which we have already related. One of these shows us _France the great Nation driven by the North into the South_; in another, Ferdinand the Seventh and the Duc d'Angouleme figure respectively as a _Spanish Mule and a French Jacka.s.s_; _A French Hilt on a Spanish Rapier_, is likewise dedicated to the Duc d'Angouleme; another shows us _Old b.u.mblehead the 18th trying on Napoleon's Boots_; a fifth is ent.i.tled, _A Hint to the Blind and Foolish, or the Bourbon Dynasty in Danger_; while a sixth shows us _Louis the Fat troubled with Nightmare and Dreams of Terror_. In all these caricatures, the figure of Napoleon, already sleeping his last sleep at St. Helena--the place of his exile and of his grave--is represented by way of contrast to the unwieldly and incompetent Bourbon.

Another caricature, the point of which I fail to see, bears the t.i.tle of _The Tables Turn'd, or the Devil Outwitted and Cruelly Punished,--a Scene on the Portsmouth Treadmill_; this last, though said to be "designed by an amateur," and "etched by G. Ck.," is unquestionably all his own.

1824.

_Drilling One-tenth of the Military in the Manual Exercise_, and _Saint Shela_ (two subjects), have reference to the Tenth Hussars and Battier scandal, mentioned in a previous chapter;[84] other subjects of 1824 are: _Parisian Luxury_ (a man being shaved in a bath); _Preparing for a Duel_; and _The Ostend Packet in a Squall_; all etched by George from the designs of other artists. The mania for joint-stock companies in 1825, was scarcely equalled by the speculation mania which inaugurated the pa.s.sing in our own time of the "Limited Liability Act." In 1824 and the beginning of 1825, two hundred and seventy-six companies had been projected, of which the aggregate capital (on paper only) represented 174,114,050. Thirty-three of these were established for the construction of ca.n.a.ls and docks, forty-eight of railroads, forty-two for the supply of gas, six of milk, and eight of water, four for the working of coal, and thirty-four of metal mines; twenty new insurance companies were started, twenty-three banks, twelve navigation and packet companies, three fisheries, two for boring tunnels under the Thames, three for the embellishment and improvement of the metropolis, two for sea-water baths, and the rest for miscellaneous purposes; it is a somewhat significant fact that two only had for their object the establishment of newspapers. Notwithstanding the manifest absurdity of many of these projects, the shares of several--especially of the mining adventurers in South America--rose to enormous premiums. Among the last may be mentioned those of the Real del Monte, the price of which, between the 10th of December and the 11th of January, rose from 550 to 1350, and the United Mexican during the same period from 35 to 1550.

On these last shares only 10 had been paid, and on the former only 70.

Speaking of this mania, the Rev. T. F. Dibdin (in his "Reminiscences") says, "If it did not partake of the name, it had certainly all the wild characteristics of the South Sea Bubble. To-day you had only to put your name down to a share or shares in the Rio de la Plata or other South American mines, and to-morrow a supplicant purchaser would give you fifty per cent. for every share taken. The old were bewitched ... the young were in ecstasies. Everybody made a rush for the city. A new world of wealth had been discovered. It was only to ask and have." George Cruikshank refers to this state of things in a caricature called, _A Scene in the Farce of Lofty Projects, as Performed with great success for the benefit and amus.e.m.e.nt of John Bull_. Besides these, he gives us _The Four Mr. Prices_ (High Price, Low Price, Full Price, and Half Price).

I can a.s.sign no date to _Waiting on the Ladies_; _The Death of the Property Tax, or Thirty-seven Mortal Wounds for Ministers and the Inquisitorial Commissioners_; or to _The Court at Brighton, a la Chinese_, one of the most admirable of the whole series. In this last, the fat prince habited as a mandarin, is seated on a sofa between the Princess Charlotte and an enormously fat woman, probably intended for the Marchioness of Conyngham. He is handing to a Chinese official a paper inscribed "Instructions for Lord Amhurst, to get fresh patterns of Chinese deformities to finish the decorations of Pavilion G. P. R." A specimen of regency taste and sympathies stands on a pedestal in the form of the Hottentot Venus, while a statuette of the fat prince himself, habited in a red coat, white waistcoat, yellow inexpressibles, and silk stockings, is labelled the "British Adonis." The princess recommends her papa to order the officer to bring her over "a Chinaman, instead of getting her a husband among our German cousins." A variety of miscellaneous articles are strewn about the floor, among them a box containing the Regent's wigs and whiskers, a treatise on "The Art of making Punch," the indispensable hamper of champagne, and a pair of curling irons; while no one will fail to recognise the interior of the Brighton Pavilion as the scene where this admirable satire is laid.

Another undated satire remains to be noticed: it represents a young man in a boat with three young women, one of them of considerable personal attractions, that is to say from a Cruikshankian point of view, and evidently a likeness. On the sh.o.r.e stands another young woman and her child, whom the young spark has evidently left behind him. In the stern of the boat is a hamper of wine and a goblet fas.h.i.+oned out of a skull; a noseless man rows the boat, while three sailors in an adjoining vessel make ribald observations in reference to the young man's female companions. By the star on his coat, the turned-down collar, profile, and the arrangement of the hair, we take it that the person thus satirized is Lord Byron. Any doubts we may have on the subject seem removed by the words of the song he is supposed to be singing while waving his hat to the disconsolate woman on the sh.o.r.e:--

"All my faults perchance thou knowest, All my _madness_ none can know."

And the concluding stanza:--

"Fare thee well! thus disunited, Torn from every nearer tie, Seared in heart, and lone, and blighted, More than this I scarce can die"!!

The foregoing contains a list and description of some of George Cruikshank's graphic satires, many of which we have reason to believe will be entirely new to the great majority of our readers. They support the description given of him by Lockhart at the opening of our chapter: "People consider him as a clever, sharp caricaturist, and nothing more--a free-handed, comical young fellow, who will do anything he is paid for, and who is quite content to dine off the proceeds of a 'George IV.' to-day, and those of a 'Hone,' or a 'Cobbett,' to-morrow." It must be remembered that these represent but a branch of his work; and that while content to design a satire as elaborate and as admirable as any which owe their origin to the hand of Gillray, or to dash off a rough and carelessly executed caricature, he was equally ready to etch the work of an inferior artist, or even of an amateur; to execute a drawing on wood for a ballad, or for one of the numerous political hits of the day, whether on the loyal or the popular side mattered but little to him; to do anything, in fact (to use the words of Lockhart), that "was suggested or thrown in his way." It is barely possible that the very imperfect series we have given may astonish those who have hitherto regarded George Cruikshank only as an ill.u.s.trator of books, and supposed that, with the exception of the woodcuts for Hone's various _jeux d'esprits_, and the rough work which appears in "The Satirist," "The Scourge," and publications of a similar character, he executed but few pictorial satires. A perfect set of impressions from his caricatures probably does not exist; if it did it would command a high price indeed.

We have seen a set of about seventy plates advertised by one enterprising bookseller at the price of seventy pounds. The specimens we have cited (exclusive of two from "The Scourge") 128 in number, were published between the years 1808 and 1825, by G. and H. Humphrey, S.

Fairburn, Thomas Tegg, Ackermann, M. Jones, J. Fairburn, J. Dolby, W.

Hone, S. W. Fores, A. Bengo, J. Sidebotham, S. Knight, and J. Johnstone.

If to the foregoing we add the plates in "Cruikshankiana"--twenty-six in number, thirty in "The Scourge," six in "Fas.h.i.+on," nine in "The Satirist," and eight in the "Loyalists' Magazine," we get seventy-nine more, making a sum total of over two hundred in all. How many more have escaped notice--how many have disappeared for ever from public notice without a chance of recovery or revival--it would be, perhaps, impossible to say; for even George himself was sometimes at fault, when the long-forgotten work of his early years was presented to him for recognition or acknowledgment.

FOOTNOTES:

[66] Alluding to the "Life in London."

[67] This certainly was not true; both Gillray and Rowlandson were draughtsmen and artists of exceptionable ability.

[68] The article from which this is quoted is variously a.s.signed to Professor Wilson and Lockhart; it matters little which. Meanwhile, we must have a name, let it be Lockhart's.

[69] The editor of "The Scourge" was one Jack Mitford. He received a cla.s.sical education, was originally in the navy, and fought under Hood and Nelson. Besides "The Scourge," he edited "The Bon Ton"

magazine, and "Quizzical Gazette," and was author of a sea song once popular, "The King is a true British Sailor." He was an irreclaimable drunkard, thought only of the necessities of the hour, and slept in the fields when his finances would not admit of payment of a twopenny lodging in St. Giles's. His largest work was "Johnny Newcome in the Navy," for which the publisher gave him the generous remuneration of a s.h.i.+lling a day till he finished it. He died in St. Giles's workhouse in 1831.

[70] The reader may remember that Napoleon once contracted a skin disease from taking up a weapon which had been wielded by a dead artilleryman, which gave him trouble at various periods of his life.

It may be that this suggested the subject.

[71] See the "Declaration of the Powers," from which we have already quoted.

[72] "Narrative of Captain Maitland," p. 109.

[73] The Regent's selfish nature and expensive habits may be judged by the following extract from the Greville Memoirs. Under date of 1830, Mr. Greville writes: "Sefton gave me an account of the dinner in St. George's Hall on the King's [William IV.] birthday, which was magnificent, excellent, and well served. Bridge came down with the plate, and was hid during the dinner behind the great wine-cooler, which weighs 7,000 ounces, and he told Sefton afterwards that the plate in the room was worth 200,000. There is another service of plate which was not used at all. The king has made it all over to the crown. _All this plate was ordered by the late king, and never used; his delight was ordering what the public had to pay for._"--_Greville Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 42.

[74] See Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Earl of Elgin's Collection ... of Marbles ("Annual Reg.," 1816, p. 447).

[75] See Chapter III. (1817).

[76] The idea of the letterpress description (a very long one), from which the above is an extract, is borrowed of course from Dr.

Arbuthnot.

[77] See Chapter III. (1817).

[78] See Chapter III. (1817).

[79] She was fond of adopting children, and it was proved that she had adopted a daughter of the man Bergami.

[80] Byron's "Age of Bronze."

[81] Lockhart's "Life of Scott," vol. v. p. 203.

[82] "E. O." was another name for roulette, and forms the subject of one of Rowlandson's early and best caricatures.

[83] The following are the words of the original inscription: "To Arthur, Duke of Wellington, and his brave companions in arms, this statue of Achilles, cast from cannon taken in the battles of Salamanca, Vitoria, Toulouse, and Waterloo, is inscribed by their countrywomen."

[84] See Chapter IV.

CHAPTER VIII.

_GEORGE CRUIKSHANK AT HIS PRIME._

ALTERATIONS IN CRUIKSHANK'S STYLE.

Those who have studied the work of George Cruikshank from its commencement to its close (and those only can be said to have done so who are familiar with the satires described in the previous chapter), cannot fail to be struck with the alterations which took place in his style at different periods of the career we have already been considering. George Cruikshank's peculiar style and manner, which enable us to recognise his work at a glance, was the outcome of a very slow and gradual process of development. In the first instance he closely copied Gillray, but soon acquired a manner of his own, blending the two styles after a fas.h.i.+on which is both interesting and amusing to follow. Soon, however, the style of the master was discontinued, and gradually the artist began to discover that the bent of his genius lay in altogether another direction. Unlike Thomas Rowlandson, the moment Cruikshank became an ill.u.s.trator of books, he realized the fact that the style adapted to graphic satire was unsuitable for the purposes of this branch of art, and thenceforth he adopted a style differing from anything which had gone before. The revolution thus accomplished (a singular proof of the genius of the man) was effected without effort, and is strikingly manifest in an early book ill.u.s.tration representing the execution of Madame Tiquet and her accomplice, in 1699. The design to which we refer, which we believe is rare and little known, was engraved by H. R. Cook, from a design by the artist for the frontispiece to a collection of narratives by Cecil, "printed for Hone," in 1819, and stands by virtue of its force and character apart from most of the book ill.u.s.trations of the period. From the moment that the new style was adopted, the artist's services were brought into requisition for the purposes of book ill.u.s.tration; and from the time work of this kind began to come in, he relaxed and afterwards discontinued the practice of caricature. It is as an etcher and designer of book ill.u.s.trations we shall henceforth have to consider him, and in this character one of his famous ill.u.s.trations to "Greenwich Hospital" will be found superior to the whole series of Rowlandson's careless overdrawn designs to the three "Tours" of Syntax put together.