No. 187. A Jesuit well Mounted.
The drawing of Romain de Hooghe is not always correct, especially in his larger subjects, which perhaps may be ascribed to his hasty and careless manner of working; but he displays great skill in grouping his figures, and great power in investing them with a large amount of satirical humour. Most of the other caricatures of the time are poor both in design and execution. Such is the case with a vulgar satirical print which was published in France in the autumn of 1690, on the arrival of a false rumour that king William had been killed in Ireland. In the field of the picture the corpse of the king is followed by a procession consisting of his queen and the principal supporters of his cause. The lower corner on the left hand is occupied by a view of the interior of the infernal regions, and king William introduced in the place allotted to him among the flames. In different parts of the picture there are several inscriptions, all breathing a spirit of very insolent exultation. One of them is the—
Billet d’Enterrement.
Vous estes priez d’assister au convoy, service, et enterrement du tres haut, tres grand, et tres infame Prince infernal, grand stadouter, des Armés diaboliques de la ligue d’Ausbourg, et insigne usurpateur des Royaumes d’Angleterre, d’Eccosse, et d’Irlande, décédé dans l’Irlande au mois d’Aoust 1690, qui se fera le dit mois, dans sa paroisse infernale, ou assisteront Dame Proserpine, Radamonte, et les Ligueurs.
Les Dames lui diront s’il leur plaist des injures.
No. 188. Off to Ireland.
The prints executed in England at this time were, if possible, worse than those published in France. Almost the only contemporary caricature on the downfall of the Stuarts that I know, is an ill-executed print, published immediately after the accession of William III., under the title, “England’s Memorial of its wonderful deliverance from French Tyranny and Popish Oppression.” The middle of the picture is occupied by “the royal orange tree,” which flourishes in spite of all the attempts to destroy it. At the upper corner, on the left side, is a representation of the French king’s “council,” consisting of an equal number of Jesuits and devils, seated alternately at a round table.
The circumstance that the titles and inscriptions of nearly all these caricatures are in Dutch, seems to show that their influence was intended to be exercised in Holland rather than elsewhere. In two or three only of them these descriptions were accompanied with translations in English or French; and after a time, copies of them began to be made in England, accompanied with English descriptions. A curious example of this is given in the fourth volume of the “Poems on State Affairs,” printed in 1707. In the preface to this volume the editor takes occasion to inform the reader—“That having procur’d from beyond sea a Collection of Satyrical Prints done in Holland and elsewhere, by Rom. de Hoog, and other the best masters, relating to the French King and his Adherents, since he unjustly begun this war, I have persuaded the Bookseller to be at the expense of ingraving several of them; to each of which I have given the Explanation in English verse, they being in Dutch, French, or Latin in the originals.” Copies of seven of these caricatures are accordingly given at the end of the volume, which are certainly inferior in every respect to those of the best period of Romain de Hooghe. One of them commemorates the eclipse of the sun on the 12th of May, 1706. The sun, as it might be conjectured, is Louis XIV., eclipsed by queen Anne, whose face occupies the place of the moon. In the foreground of the picture, just under the eclipse, the queen is seated on her throne under a canopy, surrounded by her counsellors and generals. With her left arm she holds down the Gallic cock, while with the other hand she clips one of its wings (see our cut No. 189). In the upper corner on the right, is inserted a picture of the battle of Ramillies, and in the lower corner on the left, a sea-fight under admiral Leake, both victories gained in that year. Another of these copies of foreign prints is given in our cut No. 190. We are told that “these figures represent a French trumpet and drum, sent by Louis le Grand to enquire news of several citys lost by the Mighty Monarch last campaign.” The trumpeter holds in his hand a list of lost towns, and another is pinned to the breast of the drummer; the former list is headed by the names of “Gaunt, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges,” the latter by “Barcelona.”