All the talents [graphic]

"Frontispiece to 'All the Talents', 18th edition, satirical verses by 'Polypus', i.e. E. S. Barrett, attacking the late Ministry. The print (Hogarthian in manner) has little relation to the verses, and is probably adapted from an earlier satire, perhaps on Bute. A creature with the body of a man and the face of an ape, with a tail, tramples on burning papers. It wears spectacles, a large wig, bands, old-fashioned laced coat (with a star), and tattered breeches. On one foot is a shoe; the left. leg is in a large jack-boot (? originally an emblem of Bute). In the right hand is a crozier with which he pulls down two books from a shelf: 'Magna Charter' and 'Coronation Oath'. Behind him a musket inscribed 'Army', the barrel pointing upwards, is firing a blast at the falling books. His left hand rests on a book or ledger, open on a book-stand, in which he writes with the feathered end of his pen. The page is headed 'Finance'; from the book hangs a paper: 'Country Dances'. The burning papers are inscribed 'Negotiation' [bis], 'Sinecures'. He is smoking a pipe from which thick clouds of smoke rise and obscure a profile bust portrait of Pitt. Below the design: 'Monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum.'."--British Museum online catalogue

British Museum curator's comments: The monster symbolizes the blind and reckless politician. The verses, though published after the fall of the Ministry ... were written before it, and do not allude to the Catholic question, here indicated by the treatment of the 'Coronation Oath'. Nor are the peace negotiations, ... directly referred to. They contain a tribute to Pitt, and gibes at Petty, ... here illustrated. They went through nineteen editions in 1807 ....