- Museum number
- 1867,0112.32
- Title
- Object: Apollo in danger. Environd with an host of Foes. Dryden.
- Description
-
Plate from the 'Satirist', viii. 453. An assault on Apollo (left) is made by a force of Tartar horsemen, headed by a lady in quasi-medieval costume on an armoured charger: she rides at him, levelling her spear. He flinches back, with a broken bow in his left hand, his helmet and quiver on the ground. He is a classical figure, almost nude; his garlanded head is irradiated. He is also attacked from behind by a man wearing boxing-gloves. The amazon's horse fills the centre of the design. Kemble takes it by the tail, and is about to ginger it with a piece of 'Cocktail Ginger'. In his pocket is a paper: 'New Readings'. In the foreground (right) a plump man wearing spectacles lies on the ground firing a blunderbuss inscribed 'Hit or Miss' at Apollo. From its muzzle issue words and papers: 'Manager & Authors Duties'; 'Crit[iqu]e on the... tion'; 'Original Remarks on Light & Shade'; 'Plan of a New Tragedy'; 'Operas'; 'Poetry for an Oratorio, Lectures Odes lauret [sic] Verses'. The blunderbuss is supported on a pile of large books: 'Americans'; 'New Musical Pieces'; 'Invectives against the Italian Opera'; 'Shipwreck ...' The Tartar horsemen are shadowy figures wearing turbans with aigrettes, and holding scimitars; fifteen are drawn or indicated. Behind Apollo, a winged horse, Pegasus, lies on his back on the top of a mountain (Parnassus), snorting the words "Oh. Oh."
June 1811
Etching and aquatint
- Production date
- 1811
- Dimensions
-
Height: 198 millimetres
-
Width: 375 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
The print is not referred to in the text but is a satire on recent theatrical happenings, especially the performance of 'Timour the Tartar', a 'Grand Romantic Melo Drama' by M. G. Lewis at Covent Garden on 29 Apr. 1811. There was an organized opposition on the first night, hand-bills being thrown from the upper boxes to denounce equestrian performances at a regular theatre; but these were torn to pieces by an audience delighted at the spectacle. Mrs. H. Johnston as Zorilde rode a white horse which performed admirably: 'he kneels, leaps, tumbles, dances, fights, dashes into water and up precipices, in a very superior style of acting' (see No. 11773, &c.). Sixteen Tartars were mounted on horses which 'lived, died, climbed up walls perpendicularly, and scampered longitudinally'. 'Europ. Mag.' lix. 377-8; Genest, viii. 236-7. The boxer appears to be Oxberry as young Contract in 'The Boarding-house; or, Five Hours at Brighton', by Beazley (his first play), satirizing the mania for pugilism, a musical farce played by the English Opera Company at the Lyceum on 26 Aug. Ibid., p. 211. The man with the blunderbuss is evidently S. J. Arnold, who in 1809 obtained a licence to open an English Opera House (cf. No. 11766) at the Lyceum during the summer season; he was also closely connected with the Drury Lane Company during its three seasons at the Lyceum. He wrote many musical pieces, including 'The Americans', produced at the Lyceum 27 Apr. 1811. For 'Hit or Miss' by Pocock, see No. 11700. It was a very profitable piece for the Drury Lane Company in 1810. Arnold sometimes collaborated with Pye, the Poet Laureate, his father-in-law. Other allusions include the conversation between an Author and a Manager in Colman's 'Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh' (Haymarket, 26 July 1811). 'Europ. Mag.' lx. 130. The theme that managers neglect the great dramatists is perennial, cf. No. 11773. See No. 11762. The 'Satirist' seems to have had an animus against Drury Lane, cf. Nos. 11079, 11438.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1867
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1867,0112.32
