"Courtenay (right), as the chairman of a tavern club, sits at the head of an oblong table, in profile to the left, smoking. He says to George Hanger, who faces him at the foot of the table: "I say, Georgey how do Things look now?" The words issue from his mouth in a cloud of smoke. Hanger answers: "Ax my Grandmother's Muff, pray do!" He holds a pipe, his wine-glass is overturned. His bludgeon is thrust in his top-boot. On Hanger's right sits Fox, leaning back in his chair, registering extravagant amusement and saying "O charming! - charming!" Opposite Fox sits Sheridan, clasping a decanter of 'Brandy' in one hand, a glass in the other. He says, with a sly smile, "Excellent! - damme Georgey, Excellent." Next him, and on Courtenay's right, sits M. A. Taylor, flourishing his pipe and saying, "Bravo! the best Thing I ever heard said, damme." On the table are decanters of 'Mum' and of 'Champaig[n]'. Above Courtenay's head is a picture of a simian creature in a cap of Liberty, squatting on the ground and smoking a pipe. The frame is inscribed 'Juvenal'. The floor is carpeted, the chairs are ornate."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Feast of reason and the flow of soul and Wits of the age setting the table in a roar
Pubd. Feby 4th, 1797, by H. Humphrey, New Bond Street
Subject (Name):
Hanger, George, 1751?-1824, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Taylor, Michael Angelo, 1757-1834, and Courtenay, John, 1738-1816
"Under the title, and from a separate plate, is etched in three columns: 'Description. - One French Soldier putting Hand-cuffs, and another Fetters on the Speaker, whose Mouth is gagged with a Drumstick. The rest of the Members [left], two & two, tied together by the Arms with cords, (Mr Pitt & Mr Dundas by the Leg with an Iron Chain, which has three Padlocks, but the Key-holes spiked up). They are all, dressed in the Uniform of the Convicts of Botany-Bay, to wit, Coats of two Colours, long Breeches [i.e. trousers], no Stockings, & their Heads close shaved; French Guards opposite to the Members, with their Hats on; one of whom carries an Axe, & a Blazon of a Death's Head on his Breast. Two Clerks near him with their Pens in their Ears, hanging their Heads [tied back to back]. Republicans in the Galleries waving their Hats, in which are triple-colour'd Cockades, & clapping their Hands. An English Blacksmith [right], in his Waistcoat & Cap of Liberty, breaking ye Mace in pieces with a fore Hammer, the Statutes tumbled on the Floor, the Cap of Liberty [inscribed 'Egalité'] raised high behind the Speaker's Chair, below which is painted in Capital Letters, " This House adjourned to Botany Bay - sine die." The Chaffers and burning Charcoal continuing to stand in their present places in the House, but filled with red-hot Irons, to sear One Cheek of the Members before they set off; & the Other, if they shall be found Guilty, by the Verdict of a French Jury, of returning to their own Country without Leave of the French Directory in Writing. An English Cobler in the Cap of Liberty, blowing with a Bellows one of the Chaffers the Fuel, the Journals of the House.' [Dalrymple, op. cit. inf., pp. 1-2.] The Speaker holds in his mouth a drum-stick, at each end of which is a bow of parti-coloured ribbon, adding a touch of burlesque. The table lies on its side on the ground and on the heavy cloth lie papers, ink-stand, books: 'Journals of the House' (torn), 'Declaration of Rights', 'Hanover Succession', 'Claim of Rights', 'Magna Charta'. The chained members are on the Ministerial side of the House only, the Opposition side is filled with fierce-looking French soldiers, cavalry (wearing plumed helmets) with drawn sabres, infantry (wearing cocked hats) with fixed bayonets. All have daggers in their belts, except their officer, apparently Bonaparte, who has two pistols in his sash, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. Pitt and Dundas, chained back to back, stand slightly apart from the other members, guarded by a ruffian with axe and 'blazon' of skull and cross-bones. Three members are chained together by the front bench (left to right): Wilberforce, [?] Lord Mulgrave, Windham. The cobbler and the blacksmith are Fox and Sheridan, much caricatured and scarcely recognizable. [See Dalrymple's prospectus: 'Consequences of the French Invasion', p. vi. He charged Gillray 'not to introduce a single Caricature, or indulge a single sally that could give pain to a British Subject. I had little Occasion to repeat the Advice, for he is a Man of Genius; and, like all such Men, is fair and human'. Dalrymple wrote to Gillray: 'I beg you will not impute what I am going to mention to any Breach of my promise not to interfere in any of the prints. But I confess I wish that the Gag was out of the Speaker's Mouth. It may hurt his feelings as a Gentleman . . .' (n.d.). B.M. Add. 27337, fo. 20. The gag was Dalrymple's idea.]."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Publisher's name and publication date in imprint are scored through with lightly etched lines., "Price, 6 d. Colourd. 1 sh. 3 d.", Smaller plate consists entirely of etched text and is printed below title of plate with image., Three columns of text on lower plate begins: Description. One French soldier putting hand-cuffs, and another fetters on the Speaker, whose mouth is gagged ..., Temporary local subject terms: Literature: Allusion to Consequences of the French invasion, by Sir John Dalrymple -- Uniforms: Convicts of Botany Bay -- Musical instruments: Drumstick as a gag -- Interior of House of Commons -- Threat of French invasion -- Propaganda -- Declaration of rights -- Hanover succession -- Journals of the House -- Blazons: Death's head -- Branding irons -- Allusion to Botany Bay -- Clerks -- Cap of Liberty -- Blacksmiths -- Bellows -- Chafers -- Maces -- Magna Charta -- Fore hammers -- Statutes -- Cobblers -- French Republicans -- Speaker of the House -- Military: French soldiers., With: Gillray, J. "We come to recover your long lost liberties": scene, the House of Commons. London: Pubd. March 1st, 1798, by Js. Gillray, 27 St. James's Street, [1 March 1798]., and Watermark: 1794.
Publisher:
Pubd. March 1st, 1798, by Js. Gillray, 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Dundas, Henry, 1742-1811, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821, Wilberforce, William, 1759-1833, Mulgrave, Henry Phipps, Earl of, 1755-1831, Windham, William, 1750-1810, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, and Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
"Six men, seated and standing behind a table on which are decanters, punch-bowl, &c, drink a treasonous toast. This is given by Priestley (left) who stands in profile to the right, holding up an empty Communion dish and a brimming chalice, saying, "The------ [King's] Head, here!" Fox sits in the centre, raising his glass, his right hand on his heart; he looks up ecstatically, saying, "My Soul & Body, both, upon this Toast!!!" On his right. sits Sir Cecil Wray, saying, "O Heav'ns! why I would empty a Chelsea Pensioners small-beer barrel in such a cause!!" On the extreme left Sheridan bends forward, avidly filling his glass from a decanter of Sherry; he says, "Damn my Eyes! but I'll pledge you that Toast tho Hell gapes for me." On Fox's left sits Horne Tooke, saying, "I have not drank so glorious a Toast since I was Parson of Brentford, & kept it up with Balf & McQuirk!" (He had tried to secure the execution of these two 'bludgeon men' for murder at the Middlesex Election of 1768; though convicted they were pardoned,) He grasps a decanter of 'Holland[s]' (perhaps indicating attachment to Fox, after previous hostility. On the extreme right sits Dr. Lindsey, with (like Sheridan) a drink-blotched face; he drinks, saying, "Amen! Amen!" Before him are two decanters of 'Brandy'. Behind Horne Tooke and Lindsey stands a group of sanctimonious dissenters, with lank hair, much caricatured; three say respectively: "Hear our Prayers: & preserve us from Kings & Whores of Babylon!!!"; "Put enmity between us & the ungodly and bring down the Heads of all Tyrants & usurpers quickly good Lord - Hear us good Lord". and "O! grant the Wishes of thine inheritance""--British Museum catalogue
Description:
Title inscribed in brown ink below image., Date based on published Gillray print., Description of published Gillray print in Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6, no. 7894., Description of published Gillray print in Works of James Gillray, the caricaturist with the history of his life and times / edited by Thomas Wright. London : Chatto and Windus, [1873?], p. 130., Description of published Gillray print in Historical and descriptive account of the caricatures by James Gillray ... / by Thomas Wright, 1851, no. 58., and A 'counterprint' or transfer in brown ink from another print on verso: A Birmingham toast, as given on the 14th of July by the Revolution Society.
Subject (Name):
Tooke, John Horne, 1736-1812, Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804, George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, Wray, Cecil, Sir, 1734-1805, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Lindsey, Theophilus, 1723-1808, and Constitutional Society (London, England)
"Six men, seated and standing behind a table on which are decanters, punch-bowl, &c, drink a treasonous toast. This is given by Priestley (left) who stands in profile to the right, holding up an empty Communion dish and a brimming chalice, saying, "The------ [King's] Head, here!" Fox sits in the centre, raising his glass, his right hand on his heart; he looks up ecstatically, saying, "My Soul & Body, both, upon this Toast!!!" On his right. sits Sir Cecil Wray, saying, "O Heav'ns! why I would empty a Chelsea Pensioners small-beer barrel in such a cause!!" [see BMSat 7892]. On the extreme left Sheridan bends forward, avidly filling his glass from a decanter of Sherry; he says, "Damn my Eyes! but I'll pledge you that Toast tho Hell gapes for me." On Fox's left sits Horne Tooke, saying, "I have not drank so glorious a Toast since I was Parson of Brentford, & kept it up with Balf & McQuirk!" (He had tried to secure the execution of these two 'bludgeon men' for murder at the Middlesex Election of 1768; though convicted they were pardoned, see BMSats 4223-4226.) He grasps a decanter of 'Holland[s]' (perhaps indicating attachment to Fox, after previous hostility, cf. BMSat 7652). On the extreme right sits Dr. Lindsey, with (like Sheridan) a drink-blotched face; he drinks, saying, "Amen! Amen!" Before him are two decanters of 'Brandy'. Behind Horne Tooke and Lindsey stands a group of sanctimonious dissenters, with lank hair, much caricatured; three say respectively: "Hear our Prayers: & preserve us from Kings & Whores of Babylon!!!"; "Put enmity between us & the ungodly and bring down the Heads of all Tyrants & usurpers quickly good Lord - Hear us good Lord". and "O! grant the Wishes of thine inheritance". On the wall above Foxs head is a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral; from the façade emerge the heads of three pigs feeding from a trough. This is 'A Pig's-Stye \ a View from Hackney' (an allusion to Priestley's congregation at the Gravel Pit chapel. Hackney, where he had succeeded Price)."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on three edges., 1 print : etching, hand-colored, on laid paper ; sheet 280 x 496 mm., Sheet trimmed within plate mark on three edges, and two holes have been cut from sheet and repaired., Added in contemporary hand in lower right of sheet: These are the Friends of the Constitution., and Watermark.
Publisher:
Pubd. July 23d, 1791, by S.W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Tooke, John Horne, 1736-1812, Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804, Wray, Cecil, Sir, 1734-1805, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, and Lindsey, Theophilus, 1723-1808
"Six men, seated and standing behind a table on which are decanters, punch-bowl, &c, drink a treasonous toast. This is given by Priestley (left) who stands in profile to the right, holding up an empty Communion dish and a brimming chalice, saying, "The------ [King's] Head, here!" Fox sits in the centre, raising his glass, his right hand on his heart; he looks up ecstatically, saying, "My Soul & Body, both, upon this Toast!!!" On his right. sits Sir Cecil Wray, saying, "O Heav'ns! why I would empty a Chelsea Pensioners small-beer barrel in such a cause!!" [see BMSat 7892]. On the extreme left Sheridan bends forward, avidly filling his glass from a decanter of Sherry; he says, "Damn my Eyes! but I'll pledge you that Toast tho Hell gapes for me." On Fox's left sits Horne Tooke, saying, "I have not drank so glorious a Toast since I was Parson of Brentford, & kept it up with Balf & McQuirk!" (He had tried to secure the execution of these two 'bludgeon men' for murder at the Middlesex Election of 1768; though convicted they were pardoned, see BMSats 4223-4226.) He grasps a decanter of 'Holland[s]' (perhaps indicating attachment to Fox, after previous hostility, cf. BMSat 7652). On the extreme right sits Dr. Lindsey, with (like Sheridan) a drink-blotched face; he drinks, saying, "Amen! Amen!" Before him are two decanters of 'Brandy'. Behind Horne Tooke and Lindsey stands a group of sanctimonious dissenters, with lank hair, much caricatured; three say respectively: "Hear our Prayers: & preserve us from Kings & Whores of Babylon!!!"; "Put enmity between us & the ungodly and bring down the Heads of all Tyrants & usurpers quickly good Lord - Hear us good Lord". and "O! grant the Wishes of thine inheritance". On the wall above Foxs head is a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral; from the façade emerge the heads of three pigs feeding from a trough. This is 'A Pig's-Stye \ a View from Hackney' (an allusion to Priestley's congregation at the Gravel Pit chapel. Hackney, where he had succeeded Price)."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., and Sheet trimmed within plate mark on three edges.
Publisher:
Pubd. July 23d, 1791, by S.W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Tooke, John Horne, 1736-1812, Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804, Wray, Cecil, Sir, 1734-1805, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, and Lindsey, Theophilus, 1723-1808
"George III, in back view, seated at a writing-table, tries to fend off members of the new Ministry who beset him with conflicting plans and proposals. He exclaims "What, What, What! [his habitual phrase] all Wrong! all Wrong." On his right Fox is seated, but falls back dismayed, his chair collapsing; he holds 'Proposals for a General Peace', saying, "I am certain John Bull will like my plan better than any of them, sign mine." Next him is Ellenborough, in wig and gown, his left hand on the back of Fox's chair, which (perhaps) he is causing to fall; he proffers a 'Plan of a New Mode of Justice', and says: "The only specimen among them of a knowledge of the Subject, Sign this." (The inclusion of the Lord Chief Justice in the Cabinet was much objected to, on constitutional grounds, see 'Ann. Reg.', 1806, pp. 28-33, and BMSat 10563.) Moira, in regimentals, kneeling on a chair on the extreme right., leans forward, one hand on Ellenborough's shoulder, to present a 'Project for improveing of Ordinance'; he says: "By St Patrick now, if you was to put the whole of them together you would not be able to make a bit of sense out of them, this is the only one for John Bull." Windham, next Ellenborough, faces the King, presenting a paper inscribed 'War on the Continent', and saying, "I say nothing more or less than that they are all bad but this". Behind him Tierney stands, profferring a blank paper; he says: "Only look at mine & you'll be convinced its quite the thing." The others are on the King's l. Sheridan, a pendent to Fox, leans forward with his paper: 'Manager of the Finan[ces]'; he says: "Here sign this, this is the only good plan of management, all complete nonsense compared with this" [the hopeless confusion and debt in which the finances of Drury Lane were involved by Sheridan's management are satirized]. He wears, under his laced coat, the chequered waistcoat and breeches of Harlequin, see BMSat 9916. Behind him is Grenville, his partly obscured paper inscribed on the; he says: "This is the only well digested plan pro bona [sic] Publico, you may depend upon it." Petty's paper is blank; he says: "This petty effusion of Ideas you'll find full of weighty argument on every subject I assure you." Erskine (the arch-egotist, see BMSat 9246, &c), in wig and gown, and with the Purse of the Great Seal, leans forward with a blank paper to say: "This is the only learned plan among them, which I have arranged, I' I' I." Sidmouth stands on the extreme left., clutching, but not proffering, a paper; he flinches from we clamouring Ministers, saying, "If this is the Union of Parties, I'll be disunited.""--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Principles of democracy too prevalent
Description:
Title from item., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Printseller's announcement following imprint: Folios of caricatures lent out for the evening., Sheet trimmed to edge of plate mark on two sides., and Watermark: Strasburg Lily.
Publisher:
Pubd. March, 1806 by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Ellenborough, Edward Law, Baron, 1750-1818, Hastings, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of, 1754-1826, Windham, William, 1750-1810, Tierney, George, 1761-1830, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Erskine, Thomas Erskine, Baron, 1750-1823, and Sidmouth, Henry Addington, Viscount, 1757-1844
"Sheridan (l.) sits in an arm-chair at his writing-table, pen in hand. He slouches forward, peering at a large playbill in his left hand. 'Tom Hickathrift \ and the \ Giants \ a new Growlo Drama \ with \ Wittington \ and his \ Cat \ a Pur-letta \ in which a real \ Cat and Mice \ will be Introduced \ - Due Notice will be given \ of Mr Carlo's next \ Performance.' He says: "Now I have got my head down Water I am determined to go on Swimmingly." The Newfoundland dog 'Carlo' (his massive padlocked collar so inscribed) who played in 'The Caravan', faces Sheridan holding in his mouth a basket labelled 'Raw Materials for New Subjects'; these are rolled MSS. inscribed: 'Dog-Matical Essays', 'Bark-shire Poems', 'Bones to Pick'. Fox (r.), immensely fat stands beside Carlo, in profile to the left., r. hand on the dog's head, l. in his coat-pocket. He says: "You are a very good Dog Namesake - a very good Dog indeed - I wish you would Spin me a little Money thes hard times - it would be very acceptable." Behind Sheridan are book-shelves; from a shelf inscribed 'Glass Slippers as good as New' two slippers dangle. The titles of the (bulky) books are: 'Jack the Giant Killer', 'Goody Two Shoes', 'little Red Riding Hood', 'Tom Thumb', 'Seven Champions [of Christendom]'; actually these tales were best known in penny chap-books"--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Preparations for next season
Description:
Title from item., Sheet trimmed to plate mark on two sides., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Printseller's announcement following imprint: Folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening., and Mounted to 29 x 40 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 6th, 1804 by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806 and Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
A torrent of taxes gushes from the mouth of Lord Henry Petty, chancellor of the exchequer, emptying into the "Unfathomable Sea of Taxation" in which John Bull is drowning in full view of greedy cormorants representing members of the Grenville ministry which was formed after the death of William Pitt
Alternative Title:
John Bull swamped in the flood of new taxes
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to Williams in the British Museum catalogue., A copy of a print by Gillray. Cf. No. 10564 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 8., and With stamp of S.W. Fores in the lower right corner.
Publisher:
Pubd. May 1806 by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
England
Subject (Name):
Lansdowne, Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, Marquess of, 1780-1863, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Hastings, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of, 1754-1826, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Sidmouth, Henry Addington, Viscount, 1757-1844, Grey, Charles Grey, Earl, 1764-1845, Windham, William, 1750-1810, Bedford, John Russell, Duke of, 1766-1839, Tooke, John Horne, 1736-1812, Burdett, Francis, 1770-1844, Ellenborough, Edward Law, Baron, 1750-1818, Buckingham, George Nugent Temple Grenville, Marquess of, 1753-1813, Lauderdale, James Maitland, Earl of, 1759-1839, Smith-Stanley, Edward, 1752-1834, and Adair, Robert, Sir, 1763-1855
Subject (Topic):
Taxes, John Bull (Symbolic character), Fountains, Cormorants, and Rowboats
George III stands before his throne, face hidden behind a pillar, his sceptre raised over head ready to strike Grenville as his kicks him. Other members of the ministry flee in confusion and terror, some rubbing their posteriors to show that they too have been kicked. A label floats from the King: What! What! bring in the Papists! O you cunning Jesuits you! What you thought I was like little Boney & would turn Turk or anything? ... Grenville has lost hold of a scroll on which can be read: Catholic Bill for bringing the Papists into power & supporting the Broad bottom Jesuits in their places for securing the Papists in commanding of the Army & Navy & all the Public offices ...
Alternative Title:
Emancipation of all the talents
Description:
Title from item. and Text following title: Vide the fate of yr Catholic Bill.
Publisher:
Pubd. March 23 by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain. and Great Britain
Subject (Name):
George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820, Buckingham, George Nugent Temple Grenville, Marquess of, 1753-1813, Ellenborough, Edward Law, Baron, 1750-1818, Erskine, James Francis, 1743-1806, Grey, Charles Grey, Earl, 1764-1845, Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville, Baron, 1759-1834, Hastings, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of, 1754-1826, and Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816
Subject (Topic):
Anti-Catholicism, Catholic emancipation, Politics and government, Fools & jesters, and Thrones