Ecce homo / B-b-y., British Cartoon Print

Print shows an enraged, wild-eyed and possibly demented man, identified (in the British Museum CPPS) as William Austin, violently reviling "Damn your foolish caricatures" posted in the window of Matthew Darly's print-shop. He mimics the print "A Bethlemhite" in the upper left corner of the window, beneath which are two prints showing persons (lunatics?) in confinement, one in manacles, the other behind bars. In his right hand he holds a walking stick, as though to strike a blow. A portfolio, emblazoned with a broken anchor, hangs over his left arm like a shield, and from which papers fall, among them a prescription for an ounce of "Black Hellebore" (for treating nervous disorders and hysteria) signed by a "Dr. Monrow." A dog in the right foreground registers an opinion by urinating on a paper "Proposals for open[ing] a museum of dra[wings] at 2 Gns. each...." Down the street is a disabled carriage bearing a similar anchor device as appears on the portfolio, which may also be part of the "D" of the publisher Demoniae, further linking the publisher to Austin.

Includes lengthy inscription (quoted in part): "Be it known to all Men, that I ... Declare & Pronounce War with and against all and every Printshop and Printseller within and without the City of London.... [M]y purpose, which was to open a Museum of Drawings by the best Masters, had it not been for the most malicious wicked and Diabolical combinations consultations and insinuations of that most unfeeling set of Men cald printsellers so being overwhelmed with disopointments and Poverty takes this despairate method to rebuke their insolence."
Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 5, no. 5318
Forms part of: British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress).