Satirical prints
Another significant type of print comprised broadside prints with a satirical intent,
either political or more general. Various of these are illustrated on ‘Print of the Month’, including All doe Ride the
Asse, a late 17th-century impression of a print that can be dated to 1607 and is
probably by Renold Elstrack,
which is a satire on human folly: everyone squabbles about their wish to mount the ass, as
is expounded by the verses at the bottom. Equally typical is Dr
Panurgus, an elaborate satire on fashionable folly and on the way in which doctors
exploited their patients, or a print of c.1630 entitled A New Year’s Gift
for Shrews, in which a nagging wife is ultimately chased off by the devil.
No less significant, however, are prints which comment on the political developments of the period, particularly in the Civil War years and the late Stuart period. Some of these again appear in ‘Print of the Month’, including one of the classic emanations of the reign of Charles II, The Committee, Sir Roger L’Estrange’s searing attack on what he saw as the subversive elements in late Stuart society. Earlier, there had been anti-Catholic satires in the 1620s, as well as ideologically-charged commentaries on the events of the Civil War and its aftermath, but it was in the period of the Popish Plot that this genre really got into its stride, and a number of striking political broadsides from these years are to be found on our database.