File:The Irish Audience, and Joe Surface, Manager, Author, Actor, Prompter and Machinist all himself, exhibition, for the first time, a very curious Speaking Figure ... (BM J,4.81).jpg

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The Irish Audience, and Joe Surface, Manager, Author, Actor, Prompter and Machinist all himself, exhibition, for the first time, a very curious Speaking Figure ...   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: William Dent

Published by: William Moore
Title
The Irish Audience, and Joe Surface, Manager, Author, Actor, Prompter and Machinist all himself, exhibition, for the first time, a very curious Speaking Figure ...
Description
English: The Prince of Wales (left) rises from his chair to receive the six Commissioners from Ireland, who are headless asses, on their hind legs and very erect, wearing coats and breeches. Sheridan kneels behind the Prince's chair, speaking to him through a speaking-trumpet inscribed 'Answer' which rests on the back of his head. Above Sheridan's head is a placard: 'The Art of Writing and Speaking taught by J. Surface [cf. BMSat 7510] from Drury Lane, Preceptor General at the Pillars [Carlton House] & Successor to the Celebrated Reynard'. Beneath


him is the inscription:

'"When House and Land are gone and spent"
"Then learning is most excellent."'

The two asses who head the delegation wear, one a ducal coronet (Leinster), the other an earl's coronet (Charlemont); each is supported on a stick. Leinster, who wears a ribbon and star, holds a thread attached to a document inscribed 'Address' supported on a pair of wings and flying towards the Prince. The wings are inscribed 'Arrived just soon enough be too late'. Leinster's leg is inscribed 'Six Extraordinary Irish Bulb or in plain English Amazing Asses'. He is labelled 'Paddy the Regent Maker'. The four commoners (see BMSat 7511) stand behind them in a row; behind their backs and on the extreme right appears the profile of Weltje (cf. BMSat 7509), saying, "By Cot de Ambassadors vos carry vid de high head dere disappointment - pity ve vos have noting for dem". On the wall is a picture of Gilpin on horseback: 'Gilpin's Journey to Ware and back again' (see BMSat 6886, &c). The Prince's chair is on a dais, on its back are the feathers and motto 'Ich dien'. Below the title is etched:
'And Joe Surface, Manager, Author, Actor, Prompter and Machinist all himself, exhibiting, for the first time, a very curious
SPEAKING FIGURE,
to a select party of his own dear Countrymen, which, worked-up with a surprising exertion of Art, is so simple that it may be easily managed by Professional Men, in conveying the Voice through the 'medium of a trumpet to a copious cavity in the Head, so as to deceive the Public.------It was intended for Show at a Crown exhibition, and would have proved a valuable acquisition to the Manager and his Company, but being thought, at present, a Thing too wonderful & extraordinary for general performance, as it might excite & encourage Idleness & Extravagance, a Licence was refused for the Purpose------ God save the King------send him Health and Prosperity------Amen----' 2 March 1789


Etching with hand-colouring
Depicted people Associated with: James Caulfield, 1st Earl of Charlemont
Date 1789
date QS:P571,+1789-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 245 millimetres
Width: 350 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
J,4.81
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938) For the Irish Commissioners appointed to offer the Prince an unrestricted regency see BMSat 7511, &c. They presented the address on 27 Feb., the day the King was declared 'free from complaint'. Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, v. 327. The transaction was regarded, according to Grenville, as 'the most absurd and ridiculous farce. It is impossible to describe how much and how universally their Excellencies are laughed at'. Buckingham, 'Courts and Cabinets of George III.' The Prince's tactful answer to the deputation (see BMSat 7511, &c.) was attributed by the 'Morning Herald', 2 March, to Loughborough and Thurlow; by the 'World', 2 March (satirically), to Sheridan in party conclave. Buckingham wrote 28 March: 'I know that the answer given by . . . the Prince of Wales, and the addresses in answer, were drawn by your Mr Sheridan. . . .' 'Hist. MSS. Comm., Dropmore Papers', 1892, i. 439. For the Prince as Sheridan's mouthpiece see also BMSat 7493.


Pasted on the verso by Sarah Banks are three cuttings from contemporary newspapers relating to the event. They have been given the register numbers J.4-237,8,9, but have not been entered on computer.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_J-4-81
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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