in 
Literature 
and Art. 
351 
 
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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