A gentleman presenting an IOU, tapping on our hero's shoulder. A blue devil offering a razor, for throat cutting. Also: A blue devil blowing his brains out. Clearly, the subject of the illustration is up the River Tick, as he might say. “Pray remember the poor debtors”-reference to a window at debtors' prison where prisoners begged for money to pay their prison expenses. I do strongly urge you to click on the links, so that you can view the images enlarged, and note the many, clever little details. Unfortunately, it’s difficult if not impossible to get all the jokes and references in 19th-century satirical prints, but I’ll offer clues where I can. The Cruikshank images Ashmont has in his dressing room must have been quite popular, because they were reprinted at later dates, sometimes as late as a decade or more after the original. This is the first post about the Cruikshank prints mentioned in the book, with some notes about the imagery.
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