“Heading to a broadside printed in two columns. The King, a bloated and whiskered infant, sleeps in a cradle, rocked by Sidmouth (right), a lean old woman wearing a cap and bag-wig, who sits in a rocking-chair, his clyster-pipe (cf. British Museum Satires No. 9849) on the ground. The cradle is surmounted by a pagoda with bells, and ornamented by two large crocodiles, representing the Chinese dragons of the Pavilion, cf. British Museum Satires No. 12749. On it are also a sun, with a fool’s cap in its disk, between crescent moons. Round the cradle lie toys: soldiers, mounted lancers, &c., on wheels, a cannon, a sceptre, a crown with a toy windmill stuck in it. With these are papers: ‘Divorce’; ‘Protocal’ [sic]; ‘Send her to Hell’. The infant holds a coral and bells and a corkscrew. Castlereagh sits over the fire warming a napkin. Canning (see British Museum Satires No. 13737) walks off to the left, disgustedly carrying the pan of a commode decorated with a crown and ‘G.R.’ On the chimneypiece are pap-boat, bottle of ‘Dolby’s Carminative, &c’. (Dolby was a radical bookseller, ‘Dalby’s carminative’ a well-known remedy for infants). A large ‘Green Bag’ hangs on the wall. In a doorway behind Sidmouth, inscribed ‘French Dolls’, stand two young women, in evening dress, stiff and impassive.”–British Museum online catalogue.
- Printmaker: Cruikshank, Robert, 1789-1856, printmaker.
- Title: The cradle hymn [graphic] : new version / I.R. Cruikshank fecit.
- Publication: [London] : Published by T. Dolby, 299, Strand, and 34, Wardour Street, Soho, [ca. July 1820]
820.07.00.01
Acquired November 2021