Last modified: 2009-05-24 by rob raeside
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located by David B. Lawrence, 23 July 2008
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This satirical drawing by George Cruikshank refers to the political situation
after the Napoleonic Wars when there was social unrest and agitation for
political reform in the United Kingdom. It was drawn to illustrate an anonymous
poem published by the radical humourist William Hone, called 'The Man in the Moon' which parodied
the nursery rhyme to satirise the Prince Regent and his government. He is
portrayed as the Regent of 'Lunitaria', a corrupt and oppressive state. The
drawing refers to the lines:
" And though the Radicals still
want food
A few STEEL LOZENGES will stop their pain
And set the Constitution right again."
I found it in ' The Laughter of Triumph ' by Ben Wilson, Faber & Faber 2005 (isbn
0571224709 ). Years later Cruikshank provided drawings for Dicken's novels (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cruikshank ).
David B. Lawrence,
23 July 2008