The Tiger Macaroni, or Twenty More, Kill 'Em
Date1771
Publisher
Matthew Darly
(ca. 1720 - 1780)
Publisher
Mary Darly
(1760 - 1781)
Publisher
M. Darly
OriginEngland, London
MediumHand-colored etching with line engraving
DimensionsOverall: 8 1/4 × 5 5/8in. (21 × 14.3cm)
Other (Plate): 6 1/2 × 4 1/4in. (16.5 × 10.8cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1955-62,28
DescriptionUpper right corner reads: "2"Lower margin reads: "THE TIGER MACARONI./ OR TWENTY MORE KILL 'EM. / Pub.d by MDarly accor..g to Act Dec.r 1..st, 1771(39 Strand)"
Label TextThe print is plate 2 from volume II of six volumes of Mary and Matthew Darly's "Caricatures Macaronies & Characters by Sundry Ladies and Gentleman Artists &c.." This caricature might represent Lieutenant Alexander Murray, one of three soldiers involved in the Massacre of St. George Fields on May 10, 1768. Murray and three other soldiers were accused of murdering an innocent man named William Allen during the incident. Troops were called in to quell the large crowd, which is thought to have numbered around 15,000, who gathered at St. George's Fields in Lambeth, London to protest the imprisonment of political radical and MP John Wilkes, who was charged with seditious libel against the King and prime minister, the Earl of Bute. Though there were other casualties that day, Allen’s death, and the resulting trial, in which Murray and the other two soldiers were acquitted, further angered Wilkes' followers who viewed the government as oppressive and corrupt. The event was still very much a divisive issue in 1772 when this print was published.
The Darly's were a husband-and-wife team who capitalized on the craze for caricatures -- the practice of making a likeness with exaggerated mannerisms or features to create a comic effect. This form was brought back by aristocratic Britons who visited Italy on the Grand Tour. The Darly’s catered to this audience by publishing a prolific assortment of caricature prints during the 1770s. Many of the Darly's satirized the manners and fashions of the macaroni, a term used to describe a sub-culture of fashionably dressed men during the period, and subsequently, regardless of subject, the Darly's prints were known as "macaroni prints."
Their most famous work was their encyclopedic "Caricatures" which included prints of macaroni’s as well as other interesting characters, such as macaronis, all based on their own drawings and those submitted to them by amateur artists lambasting their friends, artists, and other figures in London life. The front page of Volume I describes them as “…a Series of Drol[l] Prints consisting of Heads, Figures, Conversations and Satires upon the follies of the Age…” These prints were published in groups of 24, in six volumes that were published between 1771 and 1773. Colonial Williamsburg owns volumes 1-3.
1771
