Transcriber's Note:
This book contain a copy of the index to both thisvolume and to "Rowlandson the Caricaturist, Volume 2",which can alsobe found in the Project Gutenberg collection. (In the index, pagesnumbered ii. ###-### refer to Project Gutenberg e-book 45980, and inthe html version, are linked to it. Although we verify the correctnessof these links at the time of posting, these links will not work in allformats or while reading offline.)
ROWLANDSON THE CARICATURIST
FIRST VOLUME
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
ROWLANDSON THE CARICATURIST
A SELECTION FROM HIS WORKS
WITH ANECDOTAL DESCRIPTIONS OF HISFAMOUS CARICATURES
AND
A Sketch of his Life, Times, and Contemporaries
BY
JOSEPH GREGO
AUTHOR OF 'JAMES GILLRAY, THE CARICATURIST; HIS LIFE, WORKS, AND TIMES'
WITH ABOUT FOUR HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS
IN TWO VOLUMES—VOL. I.
London
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1880
[The right of translation is reserved]
DEDICATED
TO
ALL LOVERS OF HUMOUR
PREFACE.
We have need of your favour.
The Editor recognises that the admirers of Rowlandson's peculiar graphicproductions, and those fortunate amateurs who are able to indulge their tastefor collecting caricatures and works embellished with humorous illustrations, willnot expect any excuse for the preparation and appearance of the present work:he anticipates that—in spite of much that he would improve—the two volumesdevoted to a résumé of the great Caricaturist, with the multifarious, ludicrous,and grotesque creations which emanated from his fertile fancy, will be acceptedas, in some degree, supplying that which, without being absolutely indispensable,has frequently been instanced as a compilation likely to be acceptable to theappreciators of graphic and literal satire.
To the initiated few this sketch of a famous delineator of whimsicalities, withthe review of his works, times, and contemporaries, is offered with the convictionthat the intentions of the Author are not liable to be misconstrued bythem; nor has he any grounds to dread that the subjects represented run therisk of being questioned at their hands on the grounds of propriety.
Fuller consideration is due to the many to whom the name of Rowlandsonconveys no more than a perception of 'oddity' or of license of treatment whichapproaches vulgarity, to whom the innumerable inventions of the artist representforeign ground—a novel, strange land, populated with daring absurdities, accordingto their theories....