quote:
The period of the South Sea bubble is that in which
political caricatures began to be common in England ;
for they had before been published at rare intervals,
and partook so much of the character of emblems,
that they are not always very easy to be understood.
Read's Weekly Journal of November 1, 1718, gives a
caricature against the Tories, engraved on wood, which
is called "an hieroglyphic," so little was the real
nature of a caricature then appreciated. Another
fault under which these earlier caricatures labour is
that of being extremely elaborate. The earliest English
caricature on the South Sea Company is advertised in
the Post Boy of June 21, 1720, under the title of " The
Bubblers bubbled ; or, The Devil take the Hindmost."
It no doubt related to the great rush which
was made to subscribe to the numerous companies
afloat in that month. I have not met with a copy of it,
but in the advertisement it is stated to be represented
"by a great number of figures." In the advertisement
of another caricature, on the 29th of February in this
year, called " The World in Masquerade," it is set
forth, as one of its great recommendations, that it
was " represented in nigh eighty figures." In France
and in Holland, (where the bubble-mania had thrown
everything into the greatest confusion,) the number of
caricatures published during the year 1720 was very
considerable. In the latter country, a large number
of these caricatures, as well as many satirical plays
and songs, were collected together and published in
a folio volume, which is still not uncommon, under
the title, " Het groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid," (
The great Picture of Folly.) The greater portion of
these foreign caricatures relate to Law and his Mississippi
scheme. In one of these, a number of persons
of both sexes, and of all ages and conditions in society,
are represented acting the part of Atlas, each supporting
a globe on his shoulders. Law, the Atlas who
supported the world of paper, — F Atlas actieux de papier,
as he is termed in the French description of the plate, —
bears his globe but unsteadily, and is obliged to call
in Hercules to his aid.
http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view...tions,+Baker+Library,+Harvard+Business+School
Roi Atlas, he I pourquoi te fatiguer ainsi ?
Permets qu'Hercule vienne, et te donne assistance,
Et l'aide a soutenir ton charge d'importance.
Quoi qu'on dit c'est papier ou du vent, aujourd'hui,
II n'y a en ce temps d'espece si pesante ;
Plus qu'en troc et trafic il pese plus que d'or."
So little point is there often in these caricatures,
and so great appears to have been the call for them
in Holland, that people seem to have looked up old
engravings, designed originally for a totally different
purpose, and, adding new inscriptions and new explanations,
they were published as caricatures on the
bubbles...
...a
large plate, which seems originally to have been an
allegorical representation of the battle between Carnival
and Lent, (a rather popular subject at an earlier
period,) is here given under the new title of " The
Battle between the good-living Bubble-lords and approaching Poverty,"
...The best of these caricatures is a large engraving
by Picart, which appears in the Dutch volume, with
explanations in French and Dutch, and which was
re-engraved with English descriptions and applications
in London. It is a general satire on the madness
which characterised the memorable year 1720.
"Qui," says the inscription,— "
Qui le croira 1 qui 1'eiit jamais pense ?
Qu'en un siccle si sage un systems insense
Fit du commerce un jeu de la Fortune ?
Et se jeu pemicieux,
Ensorcelant jeunes et vieux,
Remplit tous les esprits d'une y vresse commune."
Fortune is here driven in her car by Folly, the car
being drawn by the personifications of the principal
companies who began the pernicious trade of stockjobbing,
as the Mississippi, represented with a wooden
leg ; the South Sea, with a sore leg, and the other
bound with a ligament ; the Bank, treading under foot
a serpent, &c. The agents of some of the larger
companies are turning the wheels of the car, and are
represented with foxes' tails, " to show their policy
and cunning." The spokes of the wheels are inscribed
with the names of different companies, which, as the
car moves forward, are alternately up and down ;
while books of merchandise, crushed and torn beneath
them, represent the destruction of trade and commerce.
In the clouds the Devil appears making bubbles
of soap, which mingle with the " actions" and
other things (good and bad) that Fortune is distributing
to the crowd."
...At the other extremity of the picture, the infatuated
crowd is hurrying forward to fill the three places
of its final destination, — the mad-house, the poor-
house, and the hospital. The latter is called, in the
English print, " The House of Fools ;" but, in several
particulars of this kind, as well as in artistical
execution, the original engraving of Picart is
much superior to the English copy. Folly is
represented with the spacious hoop-petticoat,
patches, and other extravagant fashions of the
day, — a true female exquisite of the year 1720.
Folly in 1720's garb.
England Under the House of Hanover by Thomas Wright, 1848
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...ig=YhjOF8JAiYiN8zDwmNPplwXq2DQ&hl=en#PPA69,M1