- Museum number
- 1865,1111.761-764
- Description
-
Political pamphlet of 30 pages entitled “Half-a-crown lost! Examination extraordinaire of the Vice R-y of B-d-y Boro! Alias the handsome gentleman. By John Bull.” The satire imagines a cross-examination of George IV regarding the Queen Caroline affair, evidently as a contrast to the Queen’s “trial.”
1. BM Satires 13939. The vignette illustration on the title-page represents John Bull, dressed as a countryman in smock and gaiters, but with legal wig and bands, scowling interrogatively at George IV; he holds a stout cudgel, and under his arm a number of documents with a 'Plan of the Source of the Milan Springs and the Famous—Po—Well' [see BM Satires No. 13755]. He asks: "Who are you?" The King, drooping guiltily, answers: "The Vice Roy of Brandy Boro!" Below are three lines from the 'Cock of Cotton Walk', see BM Satires No. 13865, beginning "Truth will come out'. Illustration to a scurrilous dialogue: the King undergoes an examination by John Bull, answering 'non mi ricordo' (see BM Satires No. 13827, &c.) to many questions. The cut relates to the examination (13 Oct.) of Powell, a solicitor to the agents for the (technically private) Bill against the Queen, on the absence of Rastelli, see BM Satires No. 13903. For half-a-crown cf. BM Satires No. 13826.
Lettered beneath the quotation: "London, Printed for and Published by C.E. Pritchard, Islington Green, and sold by all other booksellers," 1820, Price One Shilling plain and 1s 6d coloured.
2. BM Satires 13940, 'Confirmation.' Lady Jersey, much caricatured, wearing a coronet, sits at a tea-table, pointing slyly to the (handsome) Princess of Wales, who looks down in modest distress. She says: "Rely on me I'll instruct you in all things!" Behind her head is a picture of a fanged serpent wearing a coronet. The King is examined on his appointment of Lady Jersey to escort the Princess to England, see BM Satires No. 13793.
3. BM Satires 13941,'Imputation.' The King flinches in guilty horror from John Bull, a barrister wearing top-boots, who sternly points to a letter, saying: "Look at this." The King is accused of writing to the captain of the ship the Princess was in, bribing him to seduce her. He answers 'non mi ricordo' (see BM Satires No. 13827).
4. Prevarication, BM Satires 13943, 'Prevarication', Sidmouth and a judge enter a pawnshop, the latter carrying on his head a basket containing a service of plate. The judge, who holds a jug, says: "We'll not trouble a Courier (tho we are a little exposed) but we shall soon be in a Buy [altered to] bye Street." The King is accused, baselessly see BM Satires No.13768, of refusing to return the Princess a service of plate (presented to her by George III as a mark of approbation), having given it 'to Mr. St-t [Stuart], the late editor of the Co-r-r.
Lettered at the end of the pamphlet W.N. Jones, Printer, Old Bailey.
c. October-November 1820
Wood-engraving, vignette on titlepage to a letterpress pamphlet
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 217 millimetres (approx. page size)
-
Width: 138 millimetres (approx. page size)
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
The illustrations BM Satires Nos. 13940-42 woodcuts, resemble cuts after I. R. Cruikshank and the subtitles are indebted to "The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder" BM Satires 13790-13808.1865,1111,417-435.
Bound as part of 'Political Tracts Volume 5.' Number 5 of 10 volumes of political pamphlets, published circa 1819-1822.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1865
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1865,1111.761-764