The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder, A National Toy, With Fourteen Step Scenes; And Illustrations buying In Verse, With Eighteen Other Cuts. 1820

The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder, A National Toy, With Fourteen Step Scenes; And Illustrations In Verse, With Eighteen Other Cuts. By The Author Of 'The Political House That Jack Built.' London: printed by and for William Hone, 1820. 8vo.; 22 pp. of verse and caricature, the rest of the pages blank. Illustrated with vignettes by George Cruikshank to accompany the short poems. Half leather with marbled covered boards and gilt title to spine. Slight loss of leather to header and footer of spine and corners. Mylar covered boards. Marbled endpapers, same as boards. Penciled inscription to FFEP.

"This satire in verse and caricature was published at the height of the Queen Caroline Affair, estranged wife of George IV, who had just succeeded his father. It tells the story of their marriage, his treatment of her, her exile and return to popular acclaim ('And the shouts of the nation salute her at Dover!') and final rejection and humiliation by her husband. The King tried unsuccessfully to divorce her on the grounds of her adultery and strip her of her titles, but the bill was passed buying only in the House of Lords. The following year Caroline attempted to attend the coronation but was turned away by slammed doors and point of bayonet. She died a few weeks later. The satire is notable for its vituperative treatment of the much despised monarch, shown here being trundled off in a wheelbarrow as 'Cat's Meat.' One of the most successful political satires of the writer and bookseller, William Hone (1780-1842), who frequently collaborated with the illustrator, George Cruikshank, the title appeared in forty-four editions in its year of publication."