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I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. THE COMEDY OF VICE 8

III. THE COMEDY OF SOCIETY 29

IV. THE COMEDY OF POLITICS 54

V. THE COMEDY OF LIFE 74

ILLUSTRATIONS

RECRUITS. _By Henry William Bunbury_ _Frontispiece_

SHRIMPERS (Tail-piece). _By Thomas Rowlandson_ _Page_ 7

MORNING. _By William Hogarth_ _Facing page_ 10

THE DISTREST POET. _By William Hogarth_ " 12

MARRIAGE A LA MODE. _By William Hogarth_ " 20

THE FAMILY PIECE. _By H. W. Bunbury_ " 42

A FASHIONABLE SALUTATION. _By H. W. Bunbury_ " 48

LUMPS OF PUDDING. _By H. W. Bunbury_ _Page_ 53

BRITANNIA BETWEEN DEATH AND THE DOCTORS.
_By James Gillray_ _Facing page_ 64

ARMED HEROES. _By James Gillray_ " 66

BUONAPARTE AS KING-MAKER. _By James Gillray_ " 68

NELSON RECRUITING WITH HIS BRAVE TARS AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE NILE.
_By Thomas Rowlandson_ " 82

FILIAL AFFECTION(Colour-print).
_By Thomas Rowlandson_ " 86

A BALL AT THE HACKNEY ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
_By Thomas Rowlandson_ " 90

A THEATRICAL CANDIDATE. _By Thomas Rowlandson_ " 92

OLD JOSEPH NOLLEKENS AND HIS VENUS.
_By Thomas Rowlandson_ " 94

I

INTRODUCTORY

The word Caricature does not lend itself easily to precise definition.
Etymologically it connects itself with the Italian _caricare_, to load
or charge, thus corresponding precisely in derivation with its French
equivalent _Charge_; and--save a yet earlier reference in Sir Thomas
Browne--it first appears, as far as I am aware, in that phrase of No.
537 of the _Spectator_, "Those burlesque pictures which the Italians
call _caracaturas_."

Putting the dry bones of etymology from our thought the essence, the
life-blood of the thing itself, is surely this--the human creature's
amusement with itself and its environment, and its expression of that
amusement through the medium of the plastic arts. So that our
_cara