1808 and 1809. _An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting._
Illustrated with five prints. From designs by G. M. Woodward, Esq.
(author of 'Eccentric Excursions'). Rowlandson, sc. 12mo. London.
Printed for Thomas Tegg.
I will be more jealous of thee than a Barbary cock-pigeon over his
hen;
More clamorous than a parrot against rain;
More new-fangled than an ape;
And more giddy in my desires than a monkey.--SHAKESPEARE.
Folding frontispiece.--A Savoyard with a barrel-organ and a troupe
of dancing dogs; a Frenchman with a dancing bear; a showman dragging
about a dromedary, with a monkey perched on its hump, and pulling
the animal's ears. A bird made to fire off a gun, in the rear of a
half-starved individual who is lost in hungry longing outside the
window of an eating-house; while the proprietor is taunting the
famished gazer with a huge round of beef. A cat is torturing a mouse.
A woman is eavesdropping. Another cat is getting a bird out of a cage.
A woman is emptying a vessel over the heads of a crowd gathered round
a tussle. A cat is launched in the air on bladders. A pair of ruffians
are racing on donkeys, and flogging the beasts unmercifully. All these
episodes set forth various phases of the fine art of Tormenting.