"George IV, dressed as Henry VIII and with cavalry boots decorated with rosettes, sits on the throne (right), shrinking angrily from oxen wearing civic gowns who bow, presenting petitions. All the horns of the oxen are tipped with tiny caps resembling caps of Liberty; a slightly larger pair protects the prongs of a fork held up on the extreme left above the massed heads of the beasts. On this a placard is speared: 'Petitions from every Part of the World--(Hole's and Corner's excepted) to Dismiss the Ministers-- signed by upwards of 999,999--Millions of the Brute Creation.' The petitions of the four beasts in the front row are headed: 'Petition of Lord Mayor & Citizens of London to Dismiss Ministers'; 'Petitions from every part of England & Wales to Dismiss Ministers &c &c &c'; '. . . ions from every Part of Scotland to Dismiss Ministers &c &c &c'; 'Petitions from every part of Ireland . . . [ut supra]'. Hooves rise from cattle behind holding more petitions: 'from Europe'; 'From Asia'; 'from Africa'; 'from America'; 'from every Honest Man'. The canopied throne is raised on a dais of three steps, the footstool is a cushion supported on a (carved) elephant; but the King's feet are drawn back. His right hand is on his hip; he holds an oddly shaped sceptre in the left hand. The back of the throne is framed by carved mannikins with shackled hands and feet; a large crown rests on the heads of the two uppermost. The back of the canopy has a pattern of writhing serpents. Ministers, much caricatured, stand on the right and left of the dais. In the foreground (right) and on the King's left, Wellington, with the apron and steel of a butcher (as in British Museum Satires No. 13288), with gauntlet gloves and with a star on his tunic, holds a blood-stained battle-axe. Sidmouth, as Court-fool, sits in profile to the left on an apothecary's mortar, wearing a double-peaked fool's cap and a star, and holding a bladder which is his clyster-pipe. Behind is Eldon, scowling savagely and holding the mace and the Purse of the Great Seal. A bishop holding a crosier stands on either side of the throne, behind the Ministers. A staff supports an emblematical cask which a naked Bacchus bestrides. On the King's right is Liverpool, holding a tall staff to which a green bag is tied (see British Museum Satires No. 13735). Next him is Castlereagh, blandly sinister, holding a scourge, and with a bunch of keys hanging from his belt; he stares at the petitioners. A tiny Vansittart is beside him, in his Chancellor of the Exchequer's gown, with an 'X' on his breast above a chequered pattern, hung diamond-wise. Immensely fat and absurd beefeaters stand along the back of the room under quasi-Gothic windows of stained glass. All hold tridents and turn their eyes towards the petitioners, grinning grotesquely. Each window is centred by an escutcheon on which a decanter is the chief object. The upper part of each is filled by a design of three large peacock's feathers (see British Museum Satires No. 13299). The Gothic roof, caricaturing that at Carlton House (cf. British Museum Satires No. 11727), is filled with tracery in the form of antlers."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched above image., Text below image: Historical fact, King Henry VIII, being petitioned to dismiss his ministers & council, by the citizens of London & many boroughs, to releive [sic] his oppressed subjects, made the citizens this sagacious reply: "We, with all our cabinet, think it strange that ye, who be but brutes, & inexpert folk, shd. tell us who be & who be not fit for our council." Vide La Belle Assemblée for October 1820, p. 151., and Mounted on page 33 of: George Humphrey shop album.
Publisher:
Pubd. by G. Humphrey, Feby. 14, 1821, 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Geographic):
England.
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Eldon, John Scott, Earl of, 1751-1838, Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852, Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of, 1770-1828, Sidmouth, Henry Addington, Viscount, 1757-1844, Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822, Vansittart, Nicholas, 1766-1851, Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547., and Dionysus (Greek deity)
Subject (Topic):
Politicians, Boots, Thrones, Oxen, Bowing, Petitions, Liberty cap, Pitchforks, Podiums, Crowns, Scepters, Butchers, Fools & jesters, Mortars & pestles, Medical equipment & supplies, Ceremonial maces, Bishops, Bags, Whips, Honor guards, and Windows
"George IV as Midas in O'Hara's burletta dances a pas seul, holding up his hands. He wears old-fashioned dress, with long flowered waistcoat and a large wig which falls back, revealing his own curled toupet. He sings, the words adapted from Midas's song (II. i), as in British Museum Satires No. 14241: 'Oh! what pleasures will abound, Now my Wife is laid in ground, Strange Earth does cover her. I can't dance over her. Never mind, she's laid in Ground! Oh! how happy I shall be When a young Nisy pigs with me, How I'll mumble her; Touze and tumble her; Sixty is not sixty three!!' In the middle distance (right) Eldon, in wig and gown, and Sidmouth as Pan dance together, the latter holding up a frothing tankard. Sidmouth has a bare torso, goat-skin breeches, and cloven-hoof shoes, but not the wreath of vine-leaves and grapes of Pan in the play. Eldon has dropped the mace and the purse of the Great Seal; he sings: 'Oh! how happy I should be Was but this the case with me Oh what prancery! I'd cut Chancery! What comfort then at home for me. How gloriously you then shall dine, Fish, Flesh, Fowl, wash'd down with Wine No more thinking, But keep drinking, Peace to her Soul with 9 times 9.' In the background (left) Castlereagh (Londonderry) and Sidmouth sit at a table outside a rustic Irish inn, with the sign of the Crown and the word Whisky on the lintel. The hostess brings a bowl of punch, saying to Liverpool: You have got the Old Gentleman in good humour at last. He answers: Yes and now we must get him a young wife to keep him so. Castlereagh holds a scourge, cf. British Museum Satires No. 14135."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Attribution to Charles Williams and approximate date of publication from the British Museum catalogue., Mounted to 58 x 39 cm., Mounted on leaf 103 in volume 2 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair.", and Figures of "George IV" and "Sidmouth" identified in pencil below image; date "21 Aug. 1821" written in ink in lower right corner. Typed extract of eleven lines from the British Museum catalogue description is pasted beneath print.
Publisher:
Pubd. by J. Johnston, 98 Cheapside, London
Subject (Name):
George IV, King of Great Britain, 1762-1830, Caroline, Queen, consort of George IV, King of Great Britain, 1768-1821, Eldon, John Scott, Earl of, 1751-1838, Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of, 1770-1828, Sidmouth, Henry Addington, Viscount, 1757-1844, Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822, O'Hara, Kane, 1714?-1782., and Pan (Greek deity)
Subject (Topic):
Death and burial, Dance, Wigs, Drinking vessels, Ceremonial maces, Taverns (Inns), and Whips
