Bawdy Bodies: Satires of Unruly Women
Royals
Despite the constraining protocols of monarchy, graphic satire increasingly targeted the celebrity or notoriety of royals, especially in response to the accession of the Hanoverian kings to the English throne. The royal consorts too fell victim to the satirists in their own right and in deflected attacks on male kings and princes. The Festival of the Golden Rump by an anonymous printmaker is an obscenely scatological representation of the English court in which the perceived power and influence of Queen Caroline (1683-1737) and her political alliance with Prime Minister Robert Walpole play a pivotal role in manipulating King George II, here portrayed as a flatulent satyr. Nor was Queen Charlotte (1744–1818), wife of George III, immune by her royal status from even more venomous attacks by the caricaturists. To the contrary, she was a favorite target of the often very rude James Gillray. Sin, Death and the Devil: Vide Milton is an especially brutal, even vulgar portrayal of her as a half-serpent, an aging hag with withered breasts and Medusa-like locks of writhing snakes. The queen is placed in the middle of a bitter conflict between Pitt and Lord Thurlow rendered here as a Miltonic struggle based on a scene from Paradise Lost. Pitt is cast as Death, Thurlow as the Devil, and the queen as Sin. Pitt’s influence on Charlotte and her protection of him are indicated by the bawdy gesture of her outstretched hand concealing, or perhaps grasping, the minister’s groin.
The scandals, dalliances, and affairs of the royals tempted the satirists and delighted their audiences. Fashionable Contrasts, or the Duchess's Little Shoe Yeilding [sic] to the Magnitude of the Duke's Foot is a disarmingly simple yet devastating commentary on the royal marriage of Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of George III, to Frederica, eldest daughter of the King of Prussia, in 1791. Gillray’s amusing allusion to royal intercourse is depicted as a pair of reclining feet: the large masculine buckled shoes of the duke, between the tiny ankles and feet of the duchess in jeweled slippers. William Dent too found ample material in the escapades of the royal dukes. Several maidservants gather to examine a cracked chamber pot in Dent’s A Jord-n for the Duke’s Chamber, which alludes to a liaison between the Duke of Clarence, the third son of George III, and Dorothy Jordan (1761–1816), a celebrated stage actress. As is often the case with satire, visual verbal puns carry much of the meaning. A “jordan” was a slang word for a chamber pot, lending scatological humor.
Anonymous
[Designed by the Author of Common sense]
The Festival of the Golden Rump: rumpatur quisquis rumpitur invidia
Etching and engraving
Published 1737
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
The increasing celebrity, or notoriety, of the early Hanoverian consorts coincided with the rise of graphic satire, and the power of that art was harnessed against them. The Festival of the Golden Rump is an obscenely scatological representation of the English court in which the perceived power and influence of Queen Caroline and her political alliance with Prime Minister Robert Walpole plays a pivotal role. The imagery derives from an anonymously written satirical text of the same title published in a new oppositional journal, Common Sense (hence the pseudonymous printmaker, “Author of Common sense”), in which a dream narrative parodies servile rituals of George II’s court. In the print the cloven footed, farting satyr represents George II, the high priestess administering the clyster at center stage is Queen Caroline, and the chief magician with large stomach is Walpole. Archbishop Gibson stands behind Caroline, and Robert Walpole’s brother Horatio holds the scales.
James Gillray (1756–1815)
Sin, Death and the Devil: vide Milton
Etching with hand coloring
Published June 9, 1792 by H. Humphrey
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
Queen Charlotte’s royal status did not make her immune from the attacks of caricaturists. In fact, she was a favorite target of the often very rude graphic satirist James Gillray, as in this especially brutal, even vulgar portrayal of her as a half-serpent, an aging hag with withered breasts and Medusa-like locks of writhing snakes.
The queen’s role in a bitter conflict between Pitt and Lord Thurlow is rendered here as a Miltonic struggle based on a passage in Paradise Lost in which Satan encounters his daughter, Sin, and their incestuous offspring, Death, guarding the gates of Hell. Pitt is cast as Death, Thurlow as the Devil, and the queen as Sin positioned in the middle. Pitt’s influence on Charlotte and her protection of him are indicated by the bawdy gesture of her outstretched hand concealing or perhaps grasping the minister’s groin.
James Gillray (1756–1815)
Fashionable Contrasts
Etching
Published January 24, 1792 by H. Humphrey
In “The Caricatures of James Gillray”
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
With this disarmingly simple and unsigned composition, Gillray has crafted a devastating commentary on the royal marriage of Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of George III, to Frederica, eldest daughter to the King of Prussia in 1791. When the occasion of Frederica’s birthday on January 18 prompted much attention in the press to the delicacy of her feet and her exquisite shoes, perhaps as a substitute for the noted lack of her personal charms, Gillray responded with this amusing allusion to royal intercourse depicted as a pair of reclining feet: the masculine large buckled shoes of the duke, between tiny ankles and feet of the duchess in jeweled slippers
William Dent (active 1783–1793)
A Jord-n for the Duke’s Chamber
Etching and drypoint
Published November 1, 1791 by W. Dent
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
The Georgian public developed a strong appetite for scandal including royal dalliances and the profligate ways of the Prince of Wales, and the royal dukes accordingly provided ample material for the production of bawdy graphic satires. In this print, William Dent alludes to a liaison between the Duke of Clarence, the third son of George III, and Dorothy Jordan, a celebrated stage actress. Several maidservants gather to examine a cracked chamber pot. As often the case with satire, visual verbal puns carry much of the meaning. A “jordan” was a slang word for a chamber pot, and thus rudely equated Dorothy Jordan with a scatological implement. The maids comment on the damaged state of the vessel and speculate that the licentious duke will soon be looking for another pot (or lover). Textual references that the chamber pot had lain at the side of a ford allude to Jordan’s previous affair with actor-manager Richard Ford.
John Milton (1608–1674)
Paradise Lost
Ninth edition
London: Jacob Tonson, 1711
The Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
This early illustrated edition of Milton’s classic epic includes an early instance of the compositional device of a female figure of Sin between Death and the Devil. This would become an archetype for many graphic satirists, including most famously William Hogarth and James Gillray. The latter’s Miltonic satire of Queen Charlotte is on display nearby.
This is Walpole’s own copy, once owned by his stepmother, Maria Skerrett, and subsequently by Frances Waldegrave.