Exeter Election, 1868, "Shakespeare illustrated." No. 5, Which is the working man's candidate?

Exeter Election, 1868, "Shakespeare illustrated." No. 5, Which is the working man's candidate?

A black and white lithograph illustrating three middle-aged white men in conversation on plain floorboards. A larger and taller man with a bushy white beard is stood between the other two men engaging in debate. He is dressed in a dark coat and trousers with buttons tightly done up against his stomach. The man on the left is much smaller by comparison, appearing child-like, with thin weakly looking legs poking out from dress shorts in striped stockings. He wears a rounded black hat and spectacles on a chain, with dark facial hair. His hands hold an open tool box behind his back, with a label that reads ‘TOOLS FOR CANDIDATES TO PLAY WITH’. The man on the right is of middle height, positioned in an open-leg stance aggressively pointing at the man on the left. He wears checked trousers, a cropped jacket and a white wig. Text above the image reads ‘EXETER ELECTION, 1868. “SHAKESPEARE ILLUSTRATED.” – NO. 5. “THE EARTH HATH BUBBLES AS THE WATER HAS, AND THESE ARE OF THEM.” MACBETH, Act 1, Scene 3.’ Bold underlined text below the image reads ‘WHICH IS THE WORKING MAN’S CANDIDATE?’ with smaller text reading ‘MASTER COLERIDGE – Please Sir, Master Bowring has taken the tool-box you gave us, and won’t let me play with them, because, he says, I am too big and don’t want them. MASTER BOWRING – Well, no more he don’t! he calls himself a big boy, and belongs to the upper class, and, of course, he don’t want playthings like this. SCHOOLMASTER – Now, boys, don’t quarrel! Divide the box fairly. You, Johnny, have the hammering and chopping part; and you, Edgar, take the chiseling and borring things and such like.’ A quote beneath states ‘ “Strange! That such difference should be “Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Swift.’

This satirical poster is one in a series of ten illustrated by the artist G Palmer, published by the Devon and Somerset Steam Printing Company, created by the Tories inspired by lines from various works of Shakespeare (though with characters, scenarios and quotations coming from an additional mixture of literary sources – for example, this piece cites both Shakespeare and Jonathan Swift.) The illustration depicts the electoral Liberal candidates Edgar Bowring and John Coleridge behaving as if children, unable to work harmoniously together, pitting them against one another and mocking their presentation of being the “Working Man’s Candidate” – Coleridge’s aristocratic background was thought to be less enticing to working-class voters. The man stood between them, portrayed as the ‘Schoolmaster’, is Thomas Latimer, the editor of the Liberal leaning Western Times.

Commentary of the series of caricatures was reported in local newspapers: “There is a good deal of squibbing going on in this election, but the spirit of the affair has been more pictorial than pungent…As for the caricatures themselves they are regarded as very funny by the stoopid [sic] party, and therefore they are successful enough. We can only say that they are quite endurable by the Liberals, who are rather amused at seeing what trifles engage the attention of people who plunge into a great contest without an atom of principle to guide them.” (Western Times, 6 November 1868). Alongside the caricature propaganda, Conservatives also deployed other tactics to interfere with the election: “Several of the Tory employers of labour are plotting to find pretences to send those of their employés [sic] who happen to be Liberals out of town on Tuesday.” (Exeter Express and Echo 14 November 1868).

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