Parodie

1834 · 57412 — <p>NO OTHER COPY LOCATED - SATIRICAL LITHOGRAPHED PRINTS ON AN OXFORD DRUNK WITH VERSE PARODY OF WOLFE'S POEM ON A FALLEN HERO<br />first edition folio 38.6 x 28.3 cms. 7 leaves of satirical lithographed drawings the lithographs on India paper sheets of ca. 23.5 x 19.5 cms. laid on the plain backing sheets as issued lithographed verse captions below the images buff coarse paper front wrapper with printed title as above inside a bold decorative printed border presumably lacks the rear blank wrapper slight foxing to the margins of the backing sheets four marginal splits no loss in edges of last backing sheet else very good. Lightly pencilled easily removable on each backing sheet and in places running on to the margins of the India paper are the original verses of Charles Wolfe's poem T'he Burial of Sir John Moore After Corunna' which are being parodied in the caption verses.<br /><br />Not located by Library Hub formerly COPAC. Library Hub does however locate a work reissue with the same title and imprint but dated 1836 in Oxford only and OCLC locates a copy in Yale of that same 1836 edition 7 plates. No other copy of this 1834 edition located. The title and date are taken from the cover.<br />This satirical series of prints and verses describes how a drunken Oxford university official apparently the Marshal or possibly a don staggered out a drinking establishment without paying his bill pursued by the landlady and was discovered later that night lying unconscious in the gutter "with his Marshall cloak around him". The two finders and narrators carried him home on an old door undressed him and got him into bed with the help of his wife and daughter who lamented that he had spent all his money. Throughout all this the drunk remained unconscious "and we left him alone in all his glory". The verses parody those of the Irish poet Charles Wolfe's celebrated poem 'The Burial of Sir John Moore'. Wolfe's poem on the laying to rest of the military hero was in 8 verses and the parody is likewise in 8 verses one for each plate except for plate 2 which has two verses. Wolfe's original verses are lightly pencilled on the prints apparently at an early date and would be very easily removable. It seems likely that the front page of buff paper with the title was the front leaf of a bifolium with the other half folded around to create a rear wrapper but there is however no definite trace that such was the case.<br />An interesting and very rare addition to the great corpus of British caricature in its golden age. At the lower left hand corner of each caricature is printed "Published by J. R. High St. Oxford". The title page states only "Published by J. R." without name of place. The publisher is almost certainly the printseller James Ryman who was established at 24 High Street Oxford from 1832 to 1865 or 1873. He published mezzotint portraits and views including one specially commissioned from Joseph Mallord William Turner. His coyness in not giving his full name on both prints and title page perhaps implies that the drunken figure depicted was a real and identifiable person in contemporary Oxford. The anonymity of the creator points in the same direction. The rarity may indicate that they were published only for the amusement of a small circle.</p> Published by J. R. [James Ryman?] paperback