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| St. Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon December, 1888 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
This colored lithograph is entitled “St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon December 22nd 1888,” It was both engraved and drawn by one Tom Merry and depicts a stage on which a group of puppets perform an elaborately choreographed dance routine. The puppets resemble key figures of the day, dressed in vibrant costumes, most of whom are depicted as characters from the Punch and Judy tradition (the policeman, Mr. Punch and Judy). Some of the others are stock theatrical figures.
The
identities of the performers are shown on name plates which are attached to a
set of strings being manipulated by two black-suited figures seated under the
stage. One of the puppeteers wears a black half mask and is shown next to a
dagger and pistol (both discarded on the ground beside him). Two additional puppets
wait in a box beside the mysterious puppeteers whose names are marked as O'Shea
and O'Donnell. The names of the puppets appear to be Labby, Granville,
Trevelyan, Gladstone, Harcourt, Herbert, Sir W Lawson, Bradlaugh and Morley—contemporary
Members of Parliament.
The
caption below the image, “Parnell's Puppets,” is best explained as a reference
to Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), an Irish Protestant landowner,
nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader
of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
The piece was published on
December 22nd 1888 and now resides in the George Speaight Punch & Judy Collection.
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