A social satire with an image of the two dancers, full-length with a Bologna in a dress and hat on the left and a Grimaldi in clown make-up on the right. Both are in costume holding hands as they raise their opposite arms and legs
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires.
Publisher:
Published March 15, 1807 at R. Ackermanns, No. 101 Strand, London
Subject (Name):
Bologna, John Peter, 1775-1846. and Grimaldi, Joseph, 1779-1837.
"Kean, in the costume of Sir Giles Overreach, stands on the stage, indicated by a boarded floor surrounded by flame and smoke from the jaws of a semicircle of ferocious monsters, serpentine, scaly, and fanged, and with glaring eyeballs. The largest and most menacing is the Old Times, emitting Gall, Spite Venon [sic] Hypocricy. Towards this Kean directs his levelled rapier, saying, By the powers of Shakspeare, I defy ye all. He holds above his head a large open book: Shakspeare, which is irradiated. Almost as large as the 'Times' is the pendant to it: New Times, vomiting Hypocricy. The other monsters are not specified, they spit flames inscribed respectively: Spleen; Cant; Malignity; Slander; Spite; Envy; Malice; Nonsence; Oblique."--British Museum catalogue and A comment on the backlash in the press regarding the Cox vs. Kean trial, in which Kean was accused of adultery with Robert Albion Cox's wife, Charlotte Cox. Kean gave a speech at Drury Lane, Jan. 28 1825, in which he offered himself up to the audience: "If it [the backlash] is done by a hostile Press, I shall endeavour to withstand it -- if it is your verdict, I shall bow to your decision, remember with gratitude your former favours, and leave you" (quotation from the British Museum catalogue).
Alternative Title:
Shakspeare in danger and Shakespeare in danger
Description:
Title etched below image., George Cruikshank might have collaborated with Robert Cruikshank in the production of this print; see British Museum catalogue., Quoted text following title: "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow - thou shalt not escape calumny" - Hamlet., and Matted to 37 x 49 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 1825 by J. Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate Hill
Subject (Name):
Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833,, Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833, and Kean, Edmund, 1787-1833.
Subject (Topic):
Performances, Actors, British, Stages (Platforms), and Monsters
