Jokeby: Burlesque on Rokeby

This hand-colored etching mocks the Romantic poetry craze, specifically Walter Scott's Rokeby. A disheveled figure reclines in exaggerated languor—the very image of fashionable poetic excess—while another gestures in mock-heroic despair. The composition parodies the sentimental aesthetics dominating early 19th-century literature through grotesque physical comedy. The print belongs to a robust tradition of literary satire descended from Hogarth and perfected by Gillray and Rowlandson: using caricature, distorted anatomy, and theatrical staging to expose pretension and absurdity. Such prints circulated widely, shaping public opinion of cultural trends through visual wit. Here, the target is not individuals but an entire artistic movement—the inflation of feeling, the cult of sensibility—rendered ridiculous through bodily excess and undignified posture.