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Literature
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not as they ought to be. The divine hand is letting down from heaven
an immenfe frame in the form of a heart, in which is a pifture repre-
fenting a king kneeling before the crofs, intimating that the civil power
was to be fubordinate to the ecclefiaftical. The three orders are repre-
lented by a cardinal, a noble, and a peafant, the latter of whom is bending
under the burthen of the heart, the whole of which is thrown upon his
ihoulders, while the cardinal and the noble, the latter dreffed in the
faihionable attire of the court minions of the day, are placing one hand
to the heart on each fide, in a manner which {hows that they fupport
none of the weight.
Amid the fierce agitation which fell upon France in the fixteenth
century, for a while we find but few traces of the employment of
caricature by either party. The religious reformation there was rather
ariftocratic than popular, and the reformers fought lefs to excite the
feelings of the multitude, which, indeed, went generally in the contrary
direction. There was, moreover, a character of gloom in the religion of
Calvin, which contrafled flrongly with the joyoufnefs of that of the
followers of Luther; and the factions in France fought to tlaughter,
rather than to laugh at, each other. The few caricatures of this period
which are known, are very bitter and coarfe. As far as I am aware, no
early Huguenot caricatures are known, but there are a few dire-("led againft
the Huguenots. It was, however, with the rife of the Ligue that the
taite for political caricature may be faid to have taken root in France, and
in that country it long continued to ilourifh more than anywhere elie.
The firit caricatures of the ligueurs were directed againft the perfon of the
king, Henri de Valois, and poffefs a brutality almofl beyond defcription.
It was now an objeet to keep up the bitternefs of fpirit of the fanatical
multitude. In one of thefe caricatures a demon is reprefented waiting
on the king to fummon him to a meeting of the " Ettates " in hell; and
in the ditlance we fee another demon flying away with him. Another
relates to the murder of the Guifes, in 1588, which the ligueurs profeffed
to afcrihe to the councils of M. d'Epernon, one of his favourites, on Whom
they looked with great hatred. It is entitled, " Souillement et Confeil
diabolique de d'Epernon it Henri de Valois pour faccager les Catholiques."
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