_September 27, 1809._ _This is the House that Jack Built._ (_Old
Price Row at Drury Lane._) Published by T. Tegg.--This cartoon, in
six compartments, is aimed at Kemble's new house, which, from certain
arrangements of the boxes, and other innovations, became the cause of
considerable turbulence--
These are the Boxes let to the great
That visit the House that Jack built.
The curtain of the theatre bears the advertisement: 'Grand theatrical
Bagnio, fitted up in the Italian style;' 'Lodgings to let for
the season, or a single night;' 'Roomy pit for parsons, poets,
Presbyterians, Quakers, grumblers,' &c.; 'Boxes for the Cyprian corps,
with snug lobby to ditto;' 'Private accommodations for the Members of
both Houses of Parliament;' '_Boudoirs pour la Noblesse_;' 'Rabbit
hutches, seven shillings each;' 'Humbug gallery, _two shillings_;'
and, chief cause of dissatisfaction, 'Pigeon-holes for the swinish
multitude':--
These are the pigeon-holes over the Boxes,
Let to the great that visit the House that Jack built.
This is the Cat engaged to squall to the poor in the
pidgeon-holes over the Boxes, let to the great
that visit the House that Jack built.
Madame Catalini is endeavouring to sing; but the audience, armed with
rattles, post-horns, and other noisy instruments, are raising a regular
uproar:--
This is John Bull with a bugle-horn,
That hissed the Cat engaged to squall to the poor, &c.
This is the Thief-taker,[21] shaven and shorn,
That took up John Bull, with his bugle-horn, &c.--
The rioters are having a regular stand-up fight outside the theatre, as
well as within. The last verse--
This is the Manager, full of scorn,
Who rais'd the price to the people forlorn, &c.,
And directed the Thief-taker, shaven and shorn, &c.--
introduces the great John Kemble at the foot-lights, haranguing
his unruly audience; the house is represented much as it actually
appeared; the rioters, provided with squirts, bellows, marrow-bones,
cleavers, rattles, cow-horns, and all sorts of rough music, in
short, every instrument of noise that ingenuity could suggest, with
huge streamers, banners, and placards, held out on long poles, &c.,
containing such announcements as 'No theatrical taxation,' 'No
intriguing shop,' 'No annual boxes,' 'No Italian singers,' 'None of
your Jesuitical tricks, you black monk,' 'Be silent, Mr. Kemble's head
_aitches_,' 'Kemble, remember the Dublin tin-man,' 'Dickons for ever,
no Catalini.'
_September 30, 1809._ _A Lump of Impertinence._ Woodward del.,
Rowlandson sc. Published by T. Tegg.--'Who the devil do you stare at?
Get along about your business.'
1809(?). _A Lump of Innocence._ Woodward del., Rowlandson sc.--A florid
beauty, of the fat, fair, forty, and full-blown type, is 'affecting a
modesty, though she has it not;' her eyes are downcast, and a blush
suffuses all over, her cheeks being about the colour of a bumper of
rubicund cognac brandy which she is imbibing, probably with a view to
hide her sensibility: 'Really, gentlemen, if you gaze at me in this
manner you will put me quite to the blush!'
_October 9, 1809._ _Miseries of Human Life._ Published by T. Tegg (257).