DISCOVERY 



21 



An Eighteenth-Century 

 Character 



{Continued from p. 300, Vol. II. No. 2^, and 



concluded) 



By Rowlands Coldicott, M.C., B.Litt. 



Peter Pindar's Lyric Odes are difficult to quote ; their 

 merit lies in their originality. They read easily, are 

 full of clever similes and audacious criticisms. In 

 them for the first time one finds that mixture of tale, 

 fable, conversation in verse, and comic ode that for 

 maLiiy years to come Peter poured forth with such 

 facility. In this early pamphlet occurs the phrase 

 " brother of the brush " which ever since has been in 

 common use among artists. Ode VI contains his 

 rollicking tribute to Wilson the landscape painter — a 

 rare piece of discerning criticism, for Wilson's great- 

 ness has only lately been fully recognised. Wolcot 

 says : 



"... Till then old red-nos'd Wilson's art 

 Will hold its empire o'er mj' heart 

 By Britain left in poverty to pine. 



" But, honest Wilson, never mind ; 

 Immortal praises thou shalt find, 

 .\nd for a dinner have no cause to fear,^ — 

 Thou start'st at my prophetic rhymes : 

 Don't be impatient for those times 

 Wait till thou hast been dead a hundred year." 



But the pamphlet did not pay its way, and it was 

 not till 1785 that he knew success. Kersley — who a 

 quarter of a century earlier, when Wolcot was a young 

 medical student in London, had stood literary god- 

 father to Churchill — now came to him and made him 

 an offer. The price of the pamphlets increased, first 

 to a shilling, then to half a crown. He began to have 

 imitators. About the middle of the year he struck a 

 vein which was destined to bring him much gold. It 

 was a happ}' hour for him when he conceived the bold 

 idea of turning the king into a kind of comic figure. 

 BjTon came later to give the final damaging blow in 

 his Vision of Judgement ; it was Wolcot who prepared 

 the way. It is true that there were many others. The 

 wits of the RoUiad, Dr. French Laurence, General 

 Fitzpatrick, Tickell, Richardson, and others were not 

 too scrupulous in their Probationary Odes to point 

 out the private absurdities of George the Third — but 

 no one specialised in him like the man who laughed 

 behind the mask of Peter Pindar. 



All Wolcot's satires of the monarch can be found in 

 those five volumes of verse, mostly comic, published 

 in 1812 — the " works " of Peter Pindar. In fable, 

 tale, and ode, even in mock-heroic epic, the farmer- 

 king is systematically " rotted." Did Tom Warton 

 write a birthday ode to him, Peter Pindar was ready 



to hold it and its royal subject up to ridicule. Did 

 the king stir out of his palace, Peter Pindar would 

 scatter broadcast over the town his version of the 

 adventure. His best-known tale — one that found a 

 place in children's books of the last century — the story 

 of the apple-dumplings — relied for its humour on the 

 personal eccentricities of George. His best piece in 

 dialect describes the arrival of the king in Devonshire. 

 Another most amusing tale is the description of the 

 king's visit to Whitbread's Brewery. It occurs as an 

 elaborate piece of by-play in a pamphlet entitled 

 Instructions to a Celebrated Laureate. A short quotation 

 will show how extraordinarily clever he was in repro- 

 ducing the king's peculiarities : 



" How did his Majesty so gracious say 

 To Mister Whitbread, in his flying way. 



' Whitbread, d'ye nick th' Excisemen now and then ? 

 ' Hae, \\Tiitbread, when d'ye think to leave off trade ? 

 ' Hae. what ? Miss Whitbread's still a maid, a maid ? 



' Wha, what's the matter with the men ? 



■' ■ D'5'e hunt ? hae, hunt ? No, no, you are too old. 



' You'll be Lord May'r, Lord May'r one day ; 

 ■ Yes yes, Lve heard so ; yes, yes, so I'm told : 



' Don't don't the fine for Sheriff pay : 

 ' I'll prick vou every year, man, I declare. 

 ' Yes, WTiitbread, yes, yes ; you shall be Lord May'r. 



" ' Whitbread, d'ye keep a Coach, or job one, pray ? 



' Job, job, that's cheapest ; yes, that's best, that's best. 

 ' You put your liveries on the Draymen, hae ? 



' Hae, Whitbread, you have feather'd well your nest. 

 ' What, what's the price now, hae, of all your stock ? 

 ' But Whitbread, what's o'clock, pray, what's o'clock ? 



" Now WTiitbread inward said, ' May I be curst 

 ' If I know what to answer first.' " 



Wolcot is SO well known to students of the end of 

 the eighteenth century as a ribald rh^Tnester who made 

 a living out of being impudent to the king that no 

 one has yet perceived that his works are strewn with 

 vestiges of greatness. Side by side with low tales and 

 cheap knockabout tricks in comic dialogue, similes 

 and illustrations exist that show an immense capacity 

 for observation and a huge stock of varied knowledge. 

 If he described anything, he makes you certain that 

 he has seen it. These illustrations, popping up in his 

 imagination on the slenderest excuse, are worked out 

 with a care worthy of better pages, but appear — such 

 is his art — to have been dashed off with a light and 

 careless hand, as in this passage of the Whitbread 

 tale: 



" Reader, dids't ever see a Waterspout ? 



'Tis possible that thou wilt answer ' No.' 

 Well, then, he makes a most infernal rout ; 



Sucks, like an elephant, the waves below. 

 With huge proboscis reaching from the sky, 

 As if he meant to drink the Ocean dry. 

 At length, so full he can't hold one drop more. 

 He bursts : down rush the waters with a roar 

 On some poor boat " 



