print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.7618
- Title
- Object: St Stephens fair.
- Description
-
A companion print to BMSat 10763, representing Ministerial and Opposition leaders on platforms in front of their booths. On the extreme left. is Sheridan addressing the crowd below: 'Walk in Gentlemen and Ladies - here is no deception. Just going to begin.' He points to his back-cloth which hangs from a flagstaff: under a bottle and glass is the inscription 'Prime Sherry Gratis - The Comedy of A New Way to Pay Old Debts [Massinger] - with the Publicans Friend.' Harlequin, masked, with a blackened face, postures behind him. The flag is inscribed 'In vino Veritas'. On the adjacent booth Castlereagh stands with upraised arms, holding a tali long-bow with two strings. Beside him a pierrot bangs a salt-box. His back-cloth is inscribed 'The Genuine Booth - Two Strings to your Bow [a popular farce by R. Jephson, 1791] and a Trip to Down [see BMSat 10715]'. His flag is inscribed 'Down Down Hey Derry Down.' The centre booth has a tattered back-cloth inscribed 'The Old Broad Bottomd Booth rather out of repair But Excellent Entertainment.' Its flag, also tattered, is 'Catholic Emancipation'. On the platform Grenville bows very low, hat in hand. Beside him is a pierrot holding up a steaming bowl and a placard: 'Treasury Soup Hot at all Hours'. The next booth is 'The Only True Constitutional Booth Persevere & Company' the flag is 'No Popery'. On this Perceval, his back to Grenville, bows, saying, "Dont mind what the Broad Bottoms say good people - mine is the only treue constitutional Booth." He has two attendants, one holding 'Magna Charta' besides a man blowing a trumpet to which is attached a banner with the royal arms. On the extreme right., a little apart from Perceval's booth, is that of Canning. The back-cloth is inscribed: 'A Collection of Sky Rockets Just arrived from Denmark very Curious.' Rockets rising from behind the cloth descend in golden streams on the crowd below. Canning is in full armour and holds a tilting-lance; he says: "Don't be afraid they won't hurt you." His pennant is 'Necessity has no Law.' A man in the crowd, looking up at the rockets, says: "To tell you the truth I don't admire Sky."
On the ground-level are side-shows under two of the platforms. That of Grenville is the roof of a square stone building; its door is placarded 'Portland Stone moveable Kitchen, a great Curiosity' [cf. BMSat 10718]. No ladder ascends to the top, as with all the other booths, so that Grenville can descend only by stepping on to an adjacent platform. Beneath Perceval's platform is inscribed: 'Underneath to be seen the Bed of Roses' [see BMSat 10558, &c.]. Among the crowd of gaping spectators are men crying their wares. They hold out broadsides. One (l.) shouts: "Who buys my rotten Burrows if I'd as much money as I could tell I never would cry rotten Burrows to sell." A yokel in a smock asks him: "What do you ax Master for a good snug thing in your way." A man cries: "Who wants to buy any New Taxes"; a fat farmer says: "Dang it we have got enough of that Article". A Highlander in a kilt cries "Places and Pensions at half Price". A man offers a similar Highlander: "Snug Sinecures Dirt Cheap." A corpulent parson addresses a stout woman whose arm a much shorter man is holding: "Any more Church livings than you make use of I'll buy them of you." On the extreme right. a quack doctor offers money-bags: 'Delicate Consciences effectively cured - no cure no Pay.' After the title: 'O don't you think it a zoon-derfull Fair", Holcroft.' 8 February 1808
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1808
- Dimensions
-
Height: 244 millimetres
-
Width: 346 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
A comprehensive satire on the House of Commons, in which Grenville is included; for the dismissal of his Ministry see BMSat 10709, &c. Sheridan is satirized for his humiliation at Westminster to which angry creditors contributed, see BMSat 10620. Castlereagh's defeat for Down, see BMSat 10426, is recalled. Canning is attacked for the bombardment of Copenhagen and capture of the Danish fleet, see BMSat 10762, &c. Jobbery was much in the public eye on account of scandals about army commissions, see BMSat 10729, &c. For sinecures, &c, see BMSat 10745, and for the revival of the issue of Reform, BMSat 10742.
Also a later impression, the serial number altered to 255.
(Supplementary information)
With Tegg number '39'
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.7618
