"An intricate design with small inset scenes, the background being walls of a room covered with free copies of caricatures against George IV, chiefly relating to the Queen. On the extreme left is an open door, showing Napoleon as a tiny colossus on the summit of St. Helena (see British Museum Satires No. 12611, &c.), a steep rock. In the centre George IV, his forehead inscribed '0', stands in deep dejection, looking down; he has ass's ears, and from his fob, in place of seals, hang bottle, corkscrew (cf. British Museum Satires No. 13299), pie, &c. Loops of rope hang from his pockets. He stands on thorn-branches, as do his Ministers and brother-sovereigns, orientals excepted. No. '1' (a small scene in the background). Six Ministers dance round Britannia who is chained to the ground: Castlereagh, Sidmouth, Liverpool, Bathurst, Melville, and Wellington (names from initials); they say: "We have put him in a pretty Situation." Answer: "Laugh & Rejoice I have New Years Gifts for you in my Pockets." (He threatens them with dismissal for their failure to obtain his divorce.)The next are '2, K--g of Pru--a', a very tall officer wearing a mortar-board cap (see British Museum Satires No. 12283) who points derisively at George IV, saying: "Stupid Ass he is right enough to be ashamed of himself"; '3. Em--r of R--a', adapted from British Museum Satires No. 13010, and laughing as in that plate, but wearing a barber's bowl (Mambrino's helmet) inscribed 'New Don' [Quixote]; he says: "It is enough to set one mad"; '4. Em--r of A--a', thin and shrivelled, with his grandson, '18, Napoleon 2', a tiny figure in his pocket who says: "I wish I could move this bowl"; Francis says: "What a face." George IV's answer to the three sovereigns is "Go to School before you laugh at me Small Heads upon Tall Bodies had it not been for me you would have been on the Parish, a long time ago [an allusion to British subsidies, cf. British Museum Satires No. 12875]. Come Come you are as black as myself or our Infernal Brother." He answers 'Napoleon 2': "Be comforted, in a little time you will roll it." '5' and '6', seated together cross-legged in the foreground, are 'Great T--k' and 'Em--r of P--a', who say "Turn Turk then since thy wife no longer pleases thee" and "Prends garde qu'on ne te mette en perce." The King answers them: "For a long time I have had a great mind to do it" and "That is what I Dread." Nos. '7' to '12' are sovereigns standing in a row behind '2' and' 3'. '7 The K--g of S--n' says: "For this long year I pity but cannot help laughing in seeing you"; answer: "We shall see who will laugh the last" (Ferdinand VII since early in 1820 was in the power of revolutionaries); '6. K--g of Na--s', his head a block of 'Naples Soap', says: "My brother in misfortune speeks [sic] the truth." (There was revolution in the Two Sicilies, cf. British Museum Satires No. 14132.) Answer: "Nay all the little Dogs will Bark look at this Cake ['cake' (slang) = fool, gull, or blockhead, cf. British Museum Satires No. 10750] of Naples soap you would do better to eat your Macaroni and come and Drink with me to comfort us." '9. K--g of B--a', "It would have been better to have said nothing"; answer: "I confess it would have been better." '10. K--g of W--g'. "Clamour in such cases is wore [sic] than silence"; answer: "Experience has taught it me." '11. K--g of S--x--y.' "I in your case would have taken my wife and lived politically with her"; answer: "It would have been the most advisable Plan." '12. K--g of N--ds.' "Gratitude compels me to pity you" [see British Museum Satires No. 12102, &c.]; answer: "Think rather to preserve the Administration of thy Cheeses" [a remark borne out by the Belgian revolution of 1830]. Even bulkier than George IV is '14. L--s. tout de Suite [XVIII]', who sits on thorns, and has cloven hooves for feet and hands, animal's ears, and a small black cap or tonsure; from his shoulders hangs a long rosary with a dangling cross. Looking up at George IV with a cynical smile he says: "Poor fool"; answer: "At last comes the Kick of the Ass, But I have a Dish ready forhim." Behind Louis is '13. Em--r of Ch--na', saying: "You look a thousand times more like a Chinese than myself in your B--s pavillion"; answer: "Thou art the only one I could not deceive." Standing in the doorway are three well-dressed young men who are 'People', they are 15-17, and look at the King with smiling contempt; the third points to Napoleon. '15.' "You are the laughing stock of your faithful brothers who are no better than yourself"; answer: "It is true when too late I have open'd my eyes, but look at my pockets and you will find Ropes for my M--n--st--rs and my Brothers." '16' "We have found you out at length in spite of your mask do us justice or we shall give you your deserts Whitehall is not gone and there is room for you all" [an allusion to Charles I's fate, cf. British Museum Satires No. 13269]; answer: "Do it yourselves, it will be the shortest way." '17.' "Boney Boney you alone deserve our tears your fall has been as fatal to them as to ourselves your return would save us all." Answer: "He is a Man I must allow it." (For 18 see under 4.) '19' is "Green Bag [see British Museum Satires No. 13735], inscribed Milan Commission [see British Museum Satires No. 13755]; it says: / am cruelly thrown aside and fallen into very bad hands" [see British Museum Satires No. 13986]; answer: "However all my hopes are in the [sic]." Prints (uncoloured), or ad hoc designs, completely cover the walls; only a few can be identified. The lunette under the domed ceiling contains apotheoses of Queen Caroline; these are flanked by designs, both on the vaulted ceiling, depicting the joy of John Bull (left) and Britannia (right) on her return to England, cf. British Museum Satires No. 13743. Below, on the three walls, are thirty-one prints copied or adapted regardless of the size of the originals. The two largest, in the upper left corner, are from British Museum Satires No. 13843 (simplified and perhaps combined with British Museum Satires No. 13764) and British Museum Satires No. 13786. Others are British Museum Satires No. 13210, reversed and simplified; British Museum Satires No. 13998, reversed and altered, or a similar plate; British Museum Satires No. 13830, simplified, or a similar plate; British Museum Satires Nos. 13851, 13901, 14012; the King from British Museum Satires No. 13848 (throwing mud, the Queen not depicted, the right of the plate hidden by George IV). British Museum Satires No. 13508, a small woodcut, appears as a full-sized print; British Museum Satires No. 14029 is simplified and the domes of the Pavilion are introduced. The origins of twenty others have not been traced. On the floor behind Louis XVIII (left) are partly rolled caricatures, and on the right is a print (coloured) of Castlereagh standing behind a huge pie from which he carves portions for four supplicants, evidently the King of Prussia, the Tsar, the Emperor of Austria, and (?) Bernadotte (cf. British Museum Satires No. 13619). As a pendant to this is a battle scene: the statue of Napoleon presides over an empty throne; beside it stands a woman who offers crown and sceptre to a little boy (his son) who runs to take it, holding the hand of a Grenadier, beside whom is another soldier (cf. British Museum Satires No. 12707)."--British Museum online catalogue and "A Bonapartist satire in which the King's unpopularity and failure in the Queen's affair is related to the revolutionary state of Europe in 1820 (of which little specific knowledge is shown; cf. British Museum Satires No. 14113), and Louis XVIII is depicted as a priest-ridden fool. Cf. British Museum Satires No. 14050."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Dialogue between King Naughty and his Brothers Consorts, Caracature of all caracatures presenting the joke of the day, and To every one his due
Description:
Title etched below image., Manuscript imprint "Pubd. by John Milleville, Hampstead" added in ink in lower right portion of image. Impression at the British Museum has an identical imprint written in the same spot., Date of publication from the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., "Below the title is the 'Dialogue' in parallel columns: (left) speeches of persons numbered '1-19'; (right) answers from George IV headed 'Answers of No. 0 (K--G Naughty)'"--British Museum online catalogue., Mounted to 58 x 39 cm., Mounted on leaf 52 in volume 1 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair.", and Date "1820" written in ink in lower right corner. Two typed extracts (comprising twenty-four lines total) from the British Museum catalogue description are pasted above and below print.
Publisher:
Pubd. by John Milleville, Hampstead
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Caroline, Queen, consort of George IV, King of Great Britain, 1768-1821, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821, Sidmouth, Henry Addington, Viscount, 1757-1844, Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822, Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of, 1770-1828, Melville, Robert Saunders Dundas, Viscount, 1771-1851, Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852, Bathurst, Henry Bathurst, Earl, 1762-1834, Frederick William II, King of Prussia, 1744-1797, Francis I, Emperor of Austria, 1768-1835, Mahmud II, Sultan of the Turks, 1784-1839, Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, 1751-1825, Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, 1756-1825, Friedrich August I, King of Saxony, 1750-1827, William I, King of the Netherlands, 1772-1843, Louis XVIII, King of France, 1755-1824, and Jiaqing, Emperor of China, 1760-1820
Subject (Topic):
Britannia (Symbolic character), Politicians, Corkscrews, Dance, Military officers, Heads of state, Ethnic stereotypes, Prints, and Bottles
