Part 11 (1/2)
”NO. 111, RUE DU FAUBOURG ST. HONORe, a PARIS.
Sir,--People are buying themselves so fast out of my book, ...[55]
that I have no time to attend to them; should be sorry not to give each _a chance_, if they _chuse to be out_. You are quizzed most _unmercifully_. Two n.o.ble dukes have lately taken my word, and I have never named them. I am sure ---- would say you might trust me never to publish, or _cause_ to be published, aught about you, if you like to forward 200 directly to me, else it will be too late, as the last volume, in which you _s.h.i.+ne_, will be the property of the editor, and in his hands. Lord ---- says he will answer for aught I agree to; so will my husband. Do _just as you like_--consult only yourself. I get as much by a small _book_ as you will give me for taking you out, or more. I attack no poor men, because they cannot help themselves.
”Adieu. Mind, I have no time to write again, as what with writing books, and then altering them for those who _buy out_, I am done up--_frappe en mort_.
”Don't trust to bag[56] with your answer.”
That this extraordinary communication was no idle threat was proved by the fact that a respectable statuary, carrying on business in Piccadilly, who had refused to pay _black-mail_, brought an action for libel in the King's Bench on the 1st of July against a man named Stockdale, publisher of the infamous production referred to, and recovered 300 damages. The same year Popple, the printer, brought his action against this fellow; but Mr. Justice Best directed him to be nonsuited, on the ground that he was not ent.i.tled to remuneration for printing a work of such a character.
The Catholic Relief Bill, which was thrown out this year, is the subject of several of Robert's satires, bearing the t.i.tles of _John Bull versus Pope Bull_; _Defenders of the Faith_; _The Hare Presumptuous, or a Catholic Game Trap_; _A Political Shaver, or the Crown in Danger_. _The Catholic a.s.sociation, or Paddy Coming it too Strong_, has reference to Mr. Goulburn's motion to suppress the Catholic a.s.sociation of Ireland, which was carried by 278 to 123, and the third reading by a majority of 130. The language used by Mr. O'Connell on the occasion was so strong that an indictment was subsequently preferred against him, which, however, was thrown out by the grand jury. _Matheworama_ for 1825 depicts that celebrated impersonator in thirteen of his characters.
_Duelling_ deserves particular mention by reason of the admirably designed landscape and figures. It represents one of the princ.i.p.als (who looks very far from comfortable) waiting, with his second and a doctor, the advent of the other parties. _The Bubble Burst, or the Ghost of an old Act of Parliament_, has reference to the speculation mania of 1825.
Others of his satires for the year are labelled respectively, _Frank and Free, or Clerical Characters in 1825_; _A Beau Clerk for a Banking Concern_; _The Flat Catcher and the Rat Catcher_; and _A Pair of Spectacles, or the London Stage in 1824-5_, which, although unsigned and bearing no initials, I have no hesitation in a.s.signing to Robert Cruikshank.
I am unable to indicate the dates of the following: _Football_, very clever, and probably earlier than any of those already mentioned; _Waltzing_, ”dedicated with propriety to the lord chamberlain,” a very coa.r.s.e and severe satire upon the immoralities of the Prince Regent.
Besides those we have already mentioned, we have others with which the volume miscalled ”Cruikshankiana” (so often republished) has made the general public probably more familiar, such as the _Monstrosities of 1827_; _A Dandy Fainting, or an Exquisite in Fits_; _The Broom Sold_ (Lord Brougham); _Household Troops_ (a skit on domestic servants); and _A Tea-party, or English Manners and French Politeness_, all of which may be dismissed with the remark that they are the worst specimens of Robert's work which could probably have been selected.
SCARCITY OF ROBERT'S SATIRES.
With the year 1825, our record of Isaac Robert Cruikshank's caricature work somewhat abruptly terminates. We cannot a.s.sert that after that date it wholly ceased, but, inasmuch as we have selected those we have named from a ma.s.s of some of the rarest pictorial satires published between the years 1800 and 1830, I think we are fairly justified in a.s.suming that after this period his contributions to this branch of comic art became fewer. If this be the fact, it confirms the conclusion at which we have arrived, that at this time caricature had begun its somewhat hasty decline. Those I have named comprise over seventy examples; and their value, which is great on account of their scarcity, will be increased by the possibility that in the conception and execution of some of them the mind and hand of Robert might have been a.s.sisted by those of the more celebrated brother. ”When my dear brother Robert,”
says George in writing to the compiler of the famous catalogue of his own works, ”when my dear brother Robert (who in his latter days omitted the Isaac) left off portrait painting, and took almost entirely to designing and etching, I a.s.sisted him at first to a great extent in some of his drawings on wood and his etchings.” If this be the case, it is at least possible that he lent the a.s.sistance of his cunning hand and original fancy to the preparation of some of these contributions to pictorial satire. It appears to us, therefore, that a just idea of George's own work as an artist can scarcely be arrived at (especially his share of the famous ”Life in London”) until we have first considered the early work of himself and his brother Robert as graphic satirists and caricaturists. They were closely a.s.sociated in artistic work during their early career; and it was not until both had given up social and political satire, and devoted themselves to the then comparatively new field of book ill.u.s.tration and etching on copper, that the superiority, originality, and genius of the younger brother became so manifest and incontrovertible.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] The name given him by Bernard Blackmantle.
[51] Further particulars of them will be found in the ”Memoirs of the d.u.c.h.ess d'Abrantes” (Madame Junot). The fas.h.i.+ons of the years which immediately preceded the Revolution appear to have been almost as funny. I have somewhere seen a French semi-caricature depicting fas.h.i.+onables of the Palais Royal in 1786, and the people who had their heads cut off in '93 were almost as queer as the dandies of the Directory and the Consulate.
[52] The treadmill was the invention of Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Cubitt, of Ipswich. It was erected at Brixton gaol in 1817, and was afterwards gradually introduced into other prisons.
[53] The Marquis of Londonderry.
[54] What became of Seurat we do not know, but we lately came across the following: ”the Siamese twins married; the _living skeleton_ was crossed in love, but afterwards consoled himself with a corpulent widow.” The authority is George Augustus Sala in ”Twice Round the Clock.” We strongly suspect that the wit extracted the information out of his own ”inner consciousness.”
[55] We purposely omit the t.i.tle.
[56] Presumably post ”bag.”
CHAPTER VI.
_ROBERT CRUIKSHANK_ (_Continued_).
_”LIFE IN LONDON” AND OTHER BOOK WORK._