by Stephen J. Gertz
Despite their wide popularity and broad distribution, and their
importance in the history of British caricature, the color-plate books
and albums of Mary Darly are now quite rare.
Who was Mary Darly?
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| The Paris Shoe Cleaner. |
"Although most well-known cartoonists have been men, one of the most
influential early figures in the field was a woman, Mary Darly. Though
often overlooked in histories of the subject, women have played a
significant part in the development of cartoons and caricature in
Britain from its beginnings in the days of Hogarth almost 300 years ago
right up to the present… However, the mother of them all, perhaps, was
the eighteenth-century artist, engraver, writer, printseller,
publisher and teacher, Mary Darly (fl.1756-79), who also wrote,
illustrated and published the first ever manual on how to draw
caricatures" (Bryant,
The Mother of Pictorial Satire).
Her husband, Matthew, had established a print publishing and retaiing
shop in 1756. The two immediately published a wealth of caricatures.
What remains significant about this burst of activity is that it was
the first time that caricature, which exaggerated facial features to
comic effect, was joined to political satire.
"During
the early 1770s, the rage for caricatures in London was fueled by the
activities of the print publishers, Matthew and Mary Darly, who
flooded the market with their wry visual commentaries on social life.
Among their productions were dozens of prints representing a group of
men labeled by contemporaries as 'macaronis,' allegedly because of
their affectation of foreign tastes and fashions. The macaronis were
an ephemeral phenomenon, as well as an extension of the fops and beaus
of the earlier part of the century. They were called, among other
epithets, 'noxious vermin,' 'that doubtful gender,' and 'amphibious
creatures,' and were compared variously to monsters, devils, reptiles,
women, monkeys, asses, and butterflies.
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| The French Marow-Bone Singer. |
“Their concern for elaborate clothing, including tight trousers, large
wigs, short coats, and small hats made them the ridicule of their
generation, who focused on their gender ambiguity and the dangers of
their conformity to foreign and effeminate fashion. A contemporary
pamphlet, The Vauxhall Affray, sums up this view: 'But Macaronies are a
sex Which do philosophers perplex; Tho' all the priests of Venus's
rites Agree they are Hermaphrodites. This gender ambiguity is the
aspect of the representational life...' (West, The Darly Macaroni Prints and the Politics of "Private Man." Eighteenth-Century Life 25.2 [2001] pp.170-182).
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| The Female Conoiseur. |
"…the marks that had been codified into the macaroni type [were]: fine
sprigged fabric, tight clothes, oversized sword, tasseled walking
stick, delicate shoes, and, most recognizably, an enormous wig. This
wig, combining a tall front with a fat queue or "club" of hair behind,
was the feature that epitomized the macaroni's extravagant artifice
during London's macaroni craze of the early 1770s. Named for the pasta
dish that rich young Grand Tourists brought back from their sojourns in
Rome, the macaroni was known in the 1760s as an elite figure marked by
the cultivation of European travel. But as The Macaroni and
Theatrical Magazine explained in its inaugural issue in 1772, 'the word
Macaroni then changed its meaning to that of a person who exceeded the
ordinary bounds of fashion; and is now justly used as a term of
reproach to all ranks of people, indifferently, who fall into this
absurdity.' Macaroni fashion was contagious, and as it spread beyond
its original cadre into the rising..." (Rauser, Hair, Authenticity, and the Self-Made Macaroni. Eighteenth-Century Studies 38.1 [2004] pp. 101-117).
The Surry Macaroni.
"In 1762 [Mary Darly] assumed responsibility for this aspect of their
business...She described herself as ‘Fun Merchant, at the Acorn in
Ryder's Court, Fleet Street’ (Clayton, 215)...When, in early 1762, a new
shop at the Acorn in Ryder's Court near Leicester Fields began to
advertise caricatures, it was Mary Darly who was named as publisher. Her
principal targets were the dowager princess of Wales, her alleged
paramour the earl of Bute, and his allegedly locust-like Scottish
friends and relations, of whom the Darlys promised prints ‘as fast as
their Needles will move, and Aqua fortis Bite’ (Public Advertiser, 28
Sept 1762).
The Unfortunate Macaroni.
“To this end Mary welcomed contributions from the general public:
‘Gentlemen and Ladies may have any Sketch or Fancy of their own,
engraved, etched &c. with the utmost Despatch and Secrecy’ (ibid.).
That she herself was the etcher of these designs was established by her
offer to ‘have them either Engrav'd, etched, or Dry-Needled, by their
humble Servant’ (ibid.). In October she published the first part of
Principles of Caricatura (1762) which according to the title-page
provided guidance in drawing caricatures and which reinforced her offer
to give exposure in the capital to the ideas of provincial amateurs:
‘any carrick will be etched and published that the Authoress shall be
favoured with, Post paid’...Mary Darly fostered enthusiasm for graphic
satire, cultivated a polite audience, and increased sensitivity to
caricature as an artistic convention.
The Fortunate Macaroni.
"In the early 1770s...the Darlys
relinquished political satire and instead published satires of fashion,
manners, and well-known individuals. Inviting sketches and ideas, they
warned that ‘illiberal and indelicate Hints, such as one marked A. Z.
[were] not admissible’ and that ‘low or political Subjects will not be
noticed’ (Public Advertiser, 15 and 22 Oct 1) Contributions were
received from a variety of amateurs, including the talented William
Henry Bunbury, Edward Topham, and Richard St George Mansergh. Prints
mocking affected macaronis and extremes of dress and coiffure were
characteristic. In 1773 they held an exhibition of 233 original
drawings for prints. Collected sets were offered from 1772 with a
portrait of Matthew Darly dated 1771 as frontispiece (BM 4632).
(Timothy Clayton, Matthew Darly. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004).
I’m writing as I ride a pony into town, a feather in my hat. Suddenly, I have an urge for pasta. Why? Where is
Mario Batali when you need him?
The Martial Macaroni.
The Macaroni character plays a role in the American Revolution.
"Singing a song in Revolutionary America was not necessarily an
innocent act...One of these songs [Yankee Doodle], which told the story
of a poorly dressed Yankee simpleton, or 'doodle,' was so popular with
British troops that they played it as they marched to battle on the
first day of the Revolutionary War. The rebels quickly claimed the song
as their own, though, and created dozens of new verses that mocked the
British" (
Yankee Doodle - Lyrical Legacy at the Library of Congress).
"Why did yankee doodle stick a feather in his hat and call it macaroni?
Back in Pre-Revolutionary America when the song 'Yankee Doodle' was
first popular, the singer was not referring to the pasta 'macaroni' in
the line that reads 'stuck a feather in his hat and called it
macaroni.' 'Macaroni' was a fancy ('dandy') style of Italian dress
widely imitated in England at the time. So by just sticking a feather
in his cap and calling himself a 'Macaroni' (a 'dandy'), Yankee Doodle
was proudly proclaiming himself to be a country bumpkin, because that
was how the English regarded most colonials at that time" (
United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences).
Well, there you have it. Is it too much of a stretch to wonder if the
culture wars in America began when colonial hayseeds internalized their
status as an elite class of Revolutionary War citizens to proudly
distain intellectualism and urbanity?
I don’t know. But my parrot has just dropped a flight feather into my bowl of penne bolognese,
which I shall now proudly place upside down upon my head as a
pasta-hat in tribute to the Yankee-yokels who threw the Brits’ scorn
back at them with wit. I am, as ever, the soul of patriotic dignity.
American humor: It’s straight line from Yankee-Doodle to Hee-Haw, despite the detour through the Borscht Belt.
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Images from
24 Caricatures by Several Ladies, Gentlemen, Artists, &c. and volume ll of
Caricatures, Macaronies & Characters by Sundry Ladies, Gentle.n, Artists, &c. [London]: M Darly, No. 39 Strand, 1771-1772, and courtesy of
David Brass.
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