- Museum number
- 1935,0522.11.203
- Title
- Object: Equipt for a northern visit
- Description
-
George IV (left), in full Highland uniform, stands legs apart, right hand on his hip, left on the hilt of a broadsword, looking quizzically at Sir William Curtis, similarly dressed, but with his plaid absurdly bunched and more voluminous than the King's. The King wears buckled shoes, Curtis tied shoes unsuited to his short tartan stockings. The latter (right) bends forward in profile, with a huge bottle-nose, holding his feathered bonnet. The King wears epaulets, which broaden his shoulders; his bonnet has a towering crest of ostrich feathers. He says: What my Knight of the Calipash, have you got into the Highland Costume? Poh doff that mate it don't become you, You are to Old for such freaks. I am every inch a Scot—
"Leave those to trifle with more grace and ease,
"Whom Folly pleases, or whose Follies please.
Curtis: As a Loyal Subject I follow your— ['Majesty's' has been erased, traces remain.] Example! by Gole tho we must take care of the Lasses, for this dress is but little better than Achilles's fig leaf, if I don't take care I shall lose the little I have got speedy and soon! After the title:
"Folly as it grows in Years,
"The more extravagant appears.
7 August 1822
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1822
- Dimensions
-
Height: 245 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', X, 1952)
The King embarked at Greenwich for his visit to Scotland; Curtis had preceded him to Edinburgh, where he was conspicuous in frock-coat, white trousers, and forage cap. He and the King both wore Highland dress (Stuart tartan) at the levée on 19 August, Curtis a hideous caricature of the King. Unless ante-dated the print prophetically anticipates the absurd situation. Curtis was the only blot on the successful pageantry. Scott writes (12 Sept.): 'there did [not] arise a single whisper or misrepresentation on which a sneer could be hung . . . [the peoples'] delight was extreme at seeing a portly handsome man looking and moving every inch a king . . .'. See Lockhart, Life of Scott, 1837, v. 203-5 (who quotes Byron, Age of Bronze on Curtis as 'Vich Ian Alderman'); Scott, Letters, vii, 1934, pp. 213 ff.; Letters of George IV, 1938, ii. 539; Gent. Mag., 1822, ii. 172-4, 267-8; R. Mudie, Modern Athens, 1824. 'Speedy and soon' is a gibe at Curtis, often repeated; it derives from a reputed solecism in one of his much-ridiculed speeches, see No. 11306, &c. (1809). For Achilles see No. 14376, &c. See also Nos. 14384, 14385, 14386, 14387, 14388, 14389, 14390, 14392, 14394, 14395, 14396, 14398.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.11.203