Social Media in the Olden Days

First, an apology

Though this is meant to be a quarterly blog, last December completely got away from me. Apologies!

I’m back this quarter to talk about political memes, and since I write historical fiction, the old style ones known as caricatures.

Making Fun of Famous People

Before there were social media platforms, there were print shops like the one depicted above. And before there were social media moguls, there were print shop owners like Samuel Fores and Hannah Humphrey.

This print depicts Hannah’s shop, and below is a caricature of Hannah herself:

Though she may look a like a staid spinster in this picture, people flocked to her Georgian era London shop to stand outside and view the latest caricature satirizing the follies of the British ruling class, the French revolutionaries, and later, Napoleon.

And what fodder they had! Skilled artists like Thomas Rowlandson, Isaac Cruikshank, and Hannah’s particular friend, James Gillray made fun of the high and mighty: the young prime minister, William Pitt, the frugal King George III and his German wife, and others.

Here are the king and queen “enjoying a frugal meal”:

This may not seem so frugal to our modern eyes. As with many of the caricatures, some explanation is required, and author Alice Loxton provides one in her fabulous and cheeky new book, Uproar, Satire, Scandal & Printmakers in Georgian London:

Hannah Humphrey’s clients would have adored Gillray’s trail of clues…”They haven’t even lit a fire! In deepest winter! And look at the figure in the fireplace!” Instead of a roaring fire, the grate is filled with foliage of the season: snowdrops, holly and mistletoe. It’s so chilly that the carved figure in the fireplace has sprung to life, warming his hands in a muff…

Born for the camera…

Or should I say, born for the artist’s pen or the engraver’s etching tool, the burin.

Charles James Fox was a Whig politician who supported both the American Revolution, and the French Revolution–at least until the revolutionaries’ atrocities became unsupportable. A, short, stout hairy fellow, he was a favorite of the caricaturists. Here he is with his frequent opponent, the young, tall, thin, William Pitt, “Billy Lackbeard and Charley Blackbeard playing at Football”:

Another favorite subject for satire was the fellow we Regency fans call “Prinny”, the Crown Prince George, who upon his father’s descent into madness was named Regent until he succeeded to the throne as George IV. A grossly fat libertine whose only thought was for his own convenience and consumption, he was generally despised, as depicted in “A Voluptuary under the horrors of Digestion”:

Revolution!

Feelings in England about the revolution in France were mixed, but as news leaked out about French atrocities, the caricaturists went to work expressing and helping to shape public opinion in images like this one by James Gillray, “A Family of Sans-Culotts refreshing after the fatigues of the day”:

Sans-culotte, meaning “without breeches” was the name given to the lower class revolutionary rabble who wore trousers instead of the silk breeches of the upper classes. Gillray depicts them as completely without lower garments, and the family is sitting on and feasting on the bodies and body parts of the aristocrats they’ve killed that day. There’s even an aristocratic child being roasted on the spit and spare body parts for the next meal stored in the rafters. A ghoulish image indeed!

News about Books

Alice Loxton’s book, mentioned above, was my source for this blog. I highly recommend it.

And I have other news! I have two preorders available for books that will publish next autumn:

Her Impeccable Scoundrel

Book 44 in the multi-author Wicked Widows League Series

Anxious to save a cherished inheritance, Blythe Blatchfield, widowed Countess of Chilcombe, knows she must repair her reputation with the beau monde in order to face the powerful marquess challenging her dissolute husband’s will. She vows to resist handsome rogues like her late husband, and to never again give her trust so blithely. But when the new earl, absent from England for many years, finally appears, new rumors swirl around Blythe. Facing the loss of everything, she finds herself needing the help of an old enemy, the man whose interference years earlier led to her unhappy marriage, the new Earl of Chilcombe.

Called back to England to take up his late cousin’s title, diplomat Graeme Blatchfield is eager to see his cousin’s widow and learn for himself whether the rumors about the woman he once held a childish infatuation for are true. Having plunged into marriage with the last earl—Graeme’s fault for revealing their tryst—she’s been tainted by her husband’s decadence.  Forced by matters of the estate to spend time together, he soon discovers the vulnerable and lonely woman underneath the society mask. Can he get her to forgive him—and more? 

Preorder link: https://books2read.com/HerImpeccableScoundrel

And… Love’s Perilous Road, A Bluestocking Belles Collection with Friends

Travel, houseparties, smugglers, spies–and a mysterious highwayman. Who is the infamous Captain Moonlight? And how many lives will he change–for good or for ill?

My contribution to this collection is called Sir Westcott Steals a Heart, a sequel to my story in the Belles’ Desperate Daughters collection from a couple of years ago.

Preorder Link: https://books2read.com/u/mqx0W6

If you’ve read this far, thank you! I’ll see you in June for my next Quarter Day’s post!