- Museum number
- 1865,1111.907-920
- Description
-
Political pamphlet of 24 pages entitled, “A Parody on the Political House that Jack Built or the real house that Jack built.”
Lettered beneath the title: “A straw thrown up won’t show which way the wind blows. With Fourteen Cuts.”
1. BM Satires 13678. A pair of scales: one containing a small figure of Justice outweighs one containing three large books and ten writhing serpents with human heads. The books: [Paine's] 'Age of Reason' [see BM Satires No. 13274], 'Republic[an]', 'Calumny'. Some of the heads are not characterized, but five suggest Carlile, Burdett, Hobhouse, Gale Jones, and Cobbett. In the foreground lies a pen. Below: 'The greatest good may be converted into the greatest evil.'
The Publisher’s Line is at the foot of the page: “London: Published by G. Chapple, Pall-Mall, 1820. One Shilling.”
On the verso a seven line quotation commencing: -Many whose sequestered lot/ Demands domestic care, chew politics,/And wish perforce some dire event."
Lettered below: "Note: None of the Mottos are from Cowper's Task." and "J. Johnson, Printer, Brook Street, Holborn."
With the author's dedication "To the Friend of Doctor Slop," on the opening page.
The closest of the parodies of Hone's parody, see BM Satires No. 13292. Much of its effect derives from the Cato Street affair, see BM Satires No. 13707, &c. The woodcuts, see BM Satires Nos. 13679-90, appear to be by I. R. Cruikshank, one only is signed.
2. BM Satires 13679. “This is the house that Jack built.” Two designs; above: the Temple of the Constitution, as in BM Satires No. 13293, falls over, surrounded by clouds. Motto: "I sought it, and its place could no where be found." Below, a substantial modern house: 'A distant age will find the fabric good.'
3. BM Satires 13680. “This is the wealth that lays in the house...”The arc of a masonry arch supports a group of objects centred by 'Magna Charta', with a cap of 'Liberty' on an upright staff. Round them are 'Habeas Corpus', 'Bill of Rights'. 'Trial by jury', four volumes of 'Blackstone' [Commentaries], and money-bags.
4. BM Satires 13681. “These are the vermin that injure.” Hunt and Carlile walk together in the foreground, the former holding a flag inscribed 'Reform', the staff topped by a cap of 'Liberty' (as at Machester, &c.), the latter holding up a book: 'The Age of Reason' [see BM Satires No. 13678]. Behind is a mob running rapidly, headed by a dustman with a cloth inscribed 'Liberty' tied to a broom. There are two banners, both inscribed 'Equality'.
5. BM Satires 13682. “This is the thing that has called for new Acts.” A printing-press copied from BM Satires No. 13296. For the Acts see No. 13504, &c.
6. BM Satires 13683. “This is the public instructor, who, with two-penny trash, has abused that good thing.”
Cobbett walks left to right, carrying a coffin inscribed 'Paine’s bones' [see BM Satires No. 13525, &c.] on his back. In his pocket is a paper: 'Pol: Reg.' At each heel follows a rat, one inscribed 'Cuning' [sic], the other 'Dishonesty'. He replaces Gifford, 'the public informer'. For the two-penny trash, see BM Satires No. 13504.
7. BM Satires 13684. “These are the men who oppose lawless power.” Three soldiers and a jailor holding shackles and a key; the men of No. 13298, diferently posed and without a cannon. They stand on the alert. Cf. BM Satires No. 13712.
8. BM Satires 13685. “This is the man whose birthright's his own;.”Britannia, seated on a rock near the sea, holds in place of her shield an oval portrait of George IV. Beside her are a full cornucopia and oak-leaves; in the background, ships irradiated by a sun issuing from dark clouds. The text continues: “Who boasts not his orders, but treats them as HONE;/ The MONARCH OF SIXTY…” He is transformed from 'the dandy of sixty', see No. 13299.
9. BM Satires 13686. “These are the people whose case is forlorn.” A bedroom scene. A band of robbers, one with a dark-lantern, attack and plunder a man and his wife and two small children. Middle-class people replace the starving people of Manchester in No. 13300.
10. BM Satires 13687. “This is the deist of blasphemous fame, ...” Carlile (left) (see BM Satires No. 13274), holding up the 'Age of Reason', runs off to the left, tormented by four little demons, who dig their claws into him. Cobbett, with a coffin inscribed 'Paine's Bones', and with a rat nibbling each leg, as in No. 13683, walks to the left. On the right, as in BM Satires No. 13681, Hunt holds a banner inscribed 'Reform', with a cap of 'Liberty' under his foot. They are 'The Guilty Trio' (see No. 13301): Carlile, 'a Driv'ller, a Bigot, a Knave', replaces Sidmouth; Cobbett replaces 'Derry Down Triangle' (Castlereagh) as 'Derry Down Republican', while Hunt replaces Canning as 'The Spouter of Froth by the Hour'.
11. BM Satires 13688. “Their words are the watchwords, the conjuror's words;” The 'Reform' banner of No. 13302 is transformed into a flag fluttering from a slanting staff which supports a cap of 'Liberty'. The large letters of the inscription are partly concealed: on one side: 'Rebe[lli]on'; on the other 'Li[berty] or Deat[h]' [see BM Satires No. 13279]. The text continues: 'That the CATO STREET MEN bore in front of their hordes.' The only allusion in the text to Cato Street, see BM Satires No. 13707, &c.
12. BM Satires 13689. “The radical pulpit.” A heading to thirty-one lines of verse beginning 'A RADICAL MAN , who despises all Law', who takes the place of the 'Clerical Magistrate' of BM Satires No. 13303. The double pulpit is a box or rostrum supported on four straws. The Radical has two (profile) heads and bodies, joined at the back. On the left he holds an auctioneer's hammer, and has three scrolls: 'Law'; 'Justice'; 'Constitution'. On the right he holds a flag inscribed 'Reform', the staff topped by a cap of 'Liberty'. The left panel of his rostrum is ornamented with an irradiated wreath and the word 'Puff'; on the right panel is an irradiated cap of Liberty and the word 'Peace' in reversed characters. Comparison with a portrait confirms clues in the text pointing to Gale Jones, the orator of the Westminster Forum, see BM Satires No. 11538.
13. BM Satires 13690. [Tailpiece] A cap of 'Liberty', wreathed with olive and irradiated. A copy of No. 13304, with the motto altered: 'If liberty alone could give the flow'r...'
Lettered at the end of the pamphlet J. Johnson, Printer, Brook Street, Holborn.
February-March 1820
Wood-engraved illustrations to a letterpress pamphlet
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 216 millimetres (approx. page size)
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Width: 134 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)
Bound as part of "Political Tracts Volume 6”. Number 6 of 10 volumes of "Political Tracts" Published circa 1819-1822. The pro-government and anti-"radical" tone of this volume’s content contrasts with the pamphlets in the earlier volumes which often satirise George IV, his court and his ministers.
Although the title page states that the pamphlet contains "14 cuts" it has 13 illustrations.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: The Cato Street Conspiracy
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: A parody on the political house that Jack built: or the real house that Jack built.
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Associated Title: The Political House that Jack Built (A parody of Hone's famous pamphlet BM Satires 13292, 1865,1111.388-400.)
- Acquisition date
- 1865
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1865,1111.907-920