98 
Gratejfque 
Hiflory of Caricature and 
the combat takes place between a monkey and a Rag, the latter having 
the claws of a griffin. They are mounted, too, on rather nondefcript 
animals-one having the head and body of a lion, with the forefeet of 
an eagle; the other having a head fomewhat like that of a lion, on a 
lion's body, with the hind parts of a bear. This fubject may, perhaps, be 
intended as a burlefque on the mediaeval romances, filled with combats 
between the Chriflians and the Saracens; for the ape-who, in the 
moralifations which accompany the Bqffiaries, is {aid to reprefent the devil 
-is here armed with what are evidently intended for the fabre and 
 ihield of a Saracen, while the Rag carries the lhield and lance of a 
Chriitian knight. 
The love of the mediaeval artifts for monftrous figures of animals, and 
for mixtures of animals and men,has been alluded to in a former chapter. 
The combatants in the accompanying cut (N0.  taken from the fame 
rnanufcript, prefent a fort of combination of the rider and the animal, and 
they again feem to be intended for a Saracen and a Chriftian. The 
figure to the right, which is compofed of the body of a fatyr, with the 
feet of a goofe and the wings of a dragon, is armed with a fimilar 
Saracenic fabre ; while that to the left, which is on the whole leis 
monftrous, wields a Norman fword. Both have human faces below the 
navel as well as above, which was a favourite idea in the grotefque of the 
middle