1796

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

COMPLIANCE

London: Published 1 Feb 1796 by Haines & Son, No. 19 Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane

A young man kneels at the feet of a young woman who stands before him as he grasps her hand beseechingly. She looks down at him with a slight smile. The text indicates the suit is successful: "Camille consents to the persuasion of her Lover." The impression had been published earlier by "I. Phillips N. 164 Piccadilly Decr. 1st 1786" under the title, PERSUASION, or the First Stage of Elopement.

32.5 x 24.8 cm.
New York Public Library (title only, MEZYRK), Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.790)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, New York Public Library

PREPARING to START

Printed and Sold by Bowles & Carver No. 69 St. Paul's Church Yard, Published as the Act directs 14 Feb 1796 London

A crowd scene at the start of a horserace. Several jockeys and gentlemen are mounted in a cluster to the right and another group enters from the left. In the center a large man and a thin jockey stand together as the first gives instructions. To the left a small boy marches ahead of a man with a drum toward a woman who appears to be hawking broadsides or betting sheets. Behind the crowd in the center is the starting booth with flags and the starter leaning on the front rail. The Bowles & Carver impression is a reissue of a print published by Carington Bowles nine years earlier, "14 Feb. 1787."

23 x 35.5 cm.
New York Public Library (MEZYRK BM8785A)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University

FORTUNE

Dighton pinxt.

London. Published 16 February 1796 by Haines & Son, No. 19 Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane

In an allegorical depiction among clouds, a smiling Dame Fortune holds her wheel and gestures toward four figures. The farthest is a thin man who sips a spoon from his bowl of broth. In front of him are two men back to back, the one a fat man with a foot wrapped for gout who howls with pain as he clasps his cane and scatters his paper. At his back may be another image of him looking portly and prosperous as he drinks from a goblet of wine. In the foreground is a happy cobler who holds a shoe in one hand and his purse in the other. Two banners run along the bottom. The one partially covering links of chain and a whip or cat-of-nine-tails reads: "Indolence brings Misery," the other beside a cornucopia and draped over a hive of plenty reads: "Industry produceth wealth." Dame Fortune is speaking:

Be such ye would ye Gentlefolks,
Dame Fortune's gift reveal,
I can at will turn all the spokes
That guides her fickle wheel.
Nor dregs of tea nor coffee grounds
That mystic apparatus,
Need I to shew life's ups and downs
To ev'ry Fortunatus.
The smiling road to human bliss,
Would you pursue, the mystery's this:
He that content hath Fortune found,
Cheerily for him her wheel goes round.//
Gluttons blame fortune for that Gout,
They from intemperance feel
While yonder Iron muscled lout
Enjoys his scanty meal.
The indolent poor fortune curse
To fill up life's hiatus,
While the industrious find the Purse
And Cap of Fortunatus.
The smiling road to human bliss,
Thus count your steps, the mystery's this,
He that content hath Fortune found,
Cheerily with him her wheel goes round.//
Then, custom's Idiots, do not say
Fortune can blindly err, If to her
Care you miss the way,
'Tis you are blind not her.
The even path before us lies
To where her gifts await us,
And he contentment hath made wise,
Is the true Fortunatus.
The smiling road to human bliss,
Come then and tread! the mystery's this,
He that content hath Fortune found,
Cheerily with him her wheel goes round.

29.6 x 25.1 cm.
Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.799)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

THE PILGRIMS OR THE PENANCE SOFTENED

London: Published 10th March 1796 by Haines & Son, No. 19 Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane

Two pilgrims appear with walking sticks. The one smiles as he holds out his shoe to the other to show the peas it contains to the other. The second pilgrim has one foot half out of his shoe with a hole in the stocking at the heel. He slumps as he peers into the first pilgrim's shoe and looks dismayed. The verse tells the story:

A Brace of sinners for no good,
Were order'd to the Virgin Mary's shrine,
Who at Loretta dwelt in wax, stone, wood,
And in a fair white wig look'd wond'rous fine.
Fifty long miles had these sad rogues to travel
With something in their shoes much worse than gravel:
In short, their toes so gentle to amuse,
The Priest had order'd Peas in their shoes.
A nostrum famous in old Popish times,
For purifying souls that stunk of crimes:
That Popish parsons for their powers exalt,
For keeping souls of sinners sweet,
Just as our kitchen keeps salt meat.//
The knaves set off on the same day,
Peas in their shoes to go and pray:
But very different was their speed I wot:
One of the sinners gallop'd on
Light as a bullet from a gun;
The other limp'd as if he had been shot.
One saw the Virgin soon--peccavi cried--
Had his soul whitewash'd all so clever,
Then home again he nimbly hied,
Made fit with saints above to live for ever.
In coming back, however, let me say,
He met his brother rogue, about half way--//
Hobbling with outstretch'd hand and bending knees,
Damning the souls and bodies of the Peas:
His eyes in tears, his cheeks and brows in sweat,
Deep sympathizing with his groaning feet.
How now, the light-toed, whitewash'd Pilgrim broke--
You lazy lubber! Ods curse it, cried the other, 'tis no joke--
My feet, once hard as any rock Are now as soft as blubber.
Excuse me, Virgin Mary, that I swear--
As for Loretto I shall not get there;
No! to the Devil my sinful soul must go,
For damme if I ha'nt lost ev'ry toe!//
But, brother sinner, do explain
How 'tis that you are not in pain?
What Pow'r has work's a wonder for our toes
Whilst I, just like a snail, am crawling,
Now swearing, now on the saints devoutly bawling,
Whilst not a rascal comes to ease my woes?
How is't that you can like a greyhound go,
Marry, as if that nought had happen'd, burn ye!
Why, cried the other, grinning, you must know,
That just before I ventur'd on my journey,
To walk a little more at ease,
I took the liberty to boil my Peas.

29.2 x 25.2 cm.
Lewis Walpole Library (796.3.10.1)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University

THE CHERRY GIRL

362
Publish'd 4th April 1796 by Laurie & Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London

The cherry girl addresses a woman and man and their small daughter, who may be sampling a cherry. She is holding a scale, alluded to in the poem for "full honest weight," and he points to his hat, possibly offering it to hold the cherries he will buy. Behind the girl is a donkey loaded with her goods with a cart beside him. A maid can be seen looking on from a doorway. The setting is a London street scene. The girl speaks or sings:

Sweet Cowslips I cry, and ground Ivy I sell,
And round about London am known mighty well,
But when my sweet cowslips no longer abound,
I cry my sweet cherries a penny a pound,
But when my sweet cowslips, &c.//
My green nonpareils thro the winter I cry,
With fine golden pippins for those who will buy
But when the warm season of summer comes round
I cry my sweet cherries a penny a pound,
But when the warm season, &c.//
I rise with the lark and to market repair,
And the choicest of fruit in my barrow I bear,
With full honest weight, & they're all round and sound
I cry my sweet cherries a penny a pound,
With full honest weight, &c.

As with other of the songs illustrated with mezzotints that Laurie & Whittle produced (The Nosegay Girl, The Sweet Little Gipsey), this remains open to an ironic reading that cuts against the surface innocence. Some of this is contextural, for instance, the implications that images of women selling on the streets carry over from the many prostitution or "engagement" drolls. In other respects, the word play or the double-entendre of cherry or "full honest weight & they're all round and sound" sets up sensuous alternative meanings, as does the gesture of the gentleman pointing into his hat.

Yale Center for British Art (B1970.3.809)

Courtesy of the Print Collection, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University

PADDY O'BLARNEY

A handsome young Irishman (r.) sells berries to two pretty young girls who stand by on a step. One girl, the taller, holds a cone shaped basket of berries, and the hawker seems to be offering his berries to the second who stands with her left hand in the arm of the first girl and carrying a purse and bouquet in her right. A large basket sits at the hawker's feet, half covered with a cloth but showing several cones of fruit. To the far right, a little boy puts his arm around a girl. The print at the Lewis Walpole Library has been trimmed but other impressions with the inscription, "Published 20th Sepr 1796 by Laurie & Whittle, 53 Fleet Street, London," include the long verse:

I'st my country you'd know?
I'm an Irishman born,
And they christened me Paddy O'Blarney,
In hay making time I slept over one morn,
All the way from the Lakes of Kilarney:
Turn'd my hand to just whatever came my way,
To be sure while the sun shin'd I did not make hay,
Well then you know the wives and daughters of the
farmers won't__well they won't
Have plenty of cause to remember the day,
When they first saw Paddy O'Blarney.//
Then what does I do the next call I seeks,
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilarney,
I cries mackeral alive that were caught for three weeks,
Ah! let alone Paddy O'Blarney.
Then fresh gathered strawberries, so sound and so sweet
With just half a dozen at the top fit to eat__
'Ah! madam, you need not examine them bless your two
good looking eyes, they are full to the bottom, paper & all,
"Well, I'll trust you__I dare say you won't cheat me.
So I coaxes her up, and herself makes her cheat,
Ah! fait let alone Paddy O'Blarney.
Next I turned to a Chairman, and got a good job,
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilarney,
I harangued at a famous election the mob,
Ah! let alone Paddy O'Blarney.
Then to see how his honour & I did cajole,
He knock'd down his slats with words, & I mine with my Pole.
Then you know when they came to Chair him,
I was no longer, you see, an odd man, there was a pair of Chairmen
And sure such a pair was ne'er seen by my foul,
As his honour & Paddy O'Blarney.//
But this notion of greatness was none of the worst,
Oh! The world for the Lakes of Kilarney
Having play'd second fiddle, I thought I'd play first,
Can't ye let alone Paddy O'Blarney.
So swearing to plunder, and never to squeak,
I my qualification took out and turn'd greek
Ah! to be sure we did not make a pretty dove-house
of our Pharoah Bank__Let me see we pidgeoned, aye
fait and pluck'd them completely too__
Four tradesmen & six bankers clerks in one week,
Will you let alone Paddy O'Blarney.//
A big man in all circle so gay and Polite,
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilarney,
I found one who larnt grown up to write.
Just to finish gay Paddy O'Blarney,
I first learnt my name, 'till so fond of it grown,
I'd don't say I'd better have it all alone__
But my soul & conscience it had like to have
finished me in good earnest, for you see, I just wrote
Another jolman's signature 'stead of my own,
What devil of a Paddy O'Blarney.//
But since fate did not chuse for to noose me that
Ah! the world for the Lakes of Kilarney,
With a Venus of ninety I next ran away,
What a fine dashing Paddy O'Blarney.
So marriage turn'd out the best noose of the two
The old soul's gone to heaven I'm as rich as a Jew__
So if any jolman has an occasion for a friend, or a Lady
for a lover, or in short, if any body should wish to be,
disencumbered of an uneasiness of a wife, or a daughter, or a
purse, or any such kind & civil service that can be performed
By a gentleman at large that has nothing to do,
Let me recommend Paddy O'Blarney.

Lewis Walpole Library (title only, 490.0.6)