IIIF for Educators

Man Bites Dog

click to copy lesson html Students are introduced to the practice of "Ekphrasis" to practice "reading" an image/photograph.

Man Bites Dog

💡 Concept

Stephen Colledge was a man of many talents.  Called "the joiner," Colledge was best known for his scurrilous graphics, in printed broadsides and playing cards in a form we now categorize as political cartoon, a genre inextricably entwined in the American tradition with the First Amendment to The Constitution, which safeguards free speech.

17th-century England did not have freedom of the press as we know it. But for a brief period beginning in 1679, at the outbreak of an anti-Catholic hysteria and misinformation campaign known as the Popish Plot, London censorship mechanisms were overwhelmed by an explosion in print culture and rapid postal communication and allowed to lapse. Colledge drew, printed and secretly distributed a series of broadsides critical of King Charles II, whom he suspected of harboring pro-Catholic sentiments, if not intentions to convert. Colledge lampooned, as well, the King's attack dog propagandist and former censor, Roger L'Estrange, nicknamed "Towser."

L'Estrange had the last laugh. Colledge was tried for and found guilty of high treason, then hanged, drawn, and quartered on August 31, 1681. The charge was conspiracy to seize the King during a session of Parliament in Oxford, but the real offense was likely his politically-charged broadsides. According to historian Stephanie Koscak,

This is a remarkable instance in the history of antigovernment and antimonarchic satire: Colledge is the only individual to have been executed in part for drawing a nasty picture of an English ruler, either before or since. 

We are interested in him for yet another reason: his speech bubbles. Graphically, they present as scrolls, but they are meant to be understood as words spoken. In this sense, the lone martyr of English free "speech" helped introduce a form of political participation that continues to inform and bedevil popular governance to this day. 

🖥️ Activity

Our job for this activity is to collectively annotate the visual graphic languages of "free" speech at its infancy. As a starting point, we will consider first the simplified, cartoonish linearity of Colledge's images. For reference, below on the left is a formal portrait of King Charles II, painted in 1683-4, roughly the same time that Colledge was executed. On the right is Colledge's caricatured depiction of Charles. Given the advancements in technique, materials, and optics during the European Enlightenment, court-approved artists such as John Riley could represent the middle-aged king with near photographic quality. What function, then, did linear simplification, crudity, and other qualities of Colledge's imagery serve to express political sentiments visually? Further, we will consider the verbal and visual symbols communicated to the various audiences of Colledge's works. These would be viewed and discussed, typically, in London's many coffee houses at the time, so individual readers could draw upon their friends, associates, or fellow conspirators to help decode the meanings. We will not be able to determine all the references, but some are suggested in the British Museum site. 

Portrait of King Charles II by John Riley. Painted about 1683-4, this photo-realistic image depicts a middle-aged king with long curly hair, dressed in a suit of armor   Cartoon image of King Charles II depicted as a carnival character with a "ra-ree show" (peep show) box on his back, and with two faces pointing in opposite directions

🪜 Steps

Below you will find 4 examples of Colledge's work, made available in deep-zooming interactive viewers called Storiiies. We will use those viewers to add our own interpretive comments about the broadsides. 

  1. View historian Stephanie Koscak's interpretation of Colledge's "A Ra-Ree Show" in the Exhibit.so viewer below to learn a little more about Stephen Colledge's work and its historical context. You are welcome, but not required to read her chapter from which the text was excerpted.
  2. Please add at least 3 total annotations on at least 2 broadsides. Any observation is ok, even if it is speculative or just a question, whether it is simply a curious detail, or something you didn't expect. If you think you understand or have figured out the significance of a person, object, animal, etc. please leave a comment to that effect. 
  3. Submit a brief (3-4 sentence) comment in the discussion forum below about your observations

👓 Example

Click the advance arrow to read Koscak's text and view the image details as she proceeds with her analysis. Hint: You can zoom in at any point to see details for yourself, and also click the - button on the left to close the caption for a better view of the item. Click here to view full screen

🧱 Materials

Below are 4 of Stephen Colledge's broadsides. Zoom in to view details. Then add annotations, using the Storiiies editing tool in the expanding sections below each viewer. Tip: you can click the eyeball to remove captions, click again to return them. As annotations are added by yourself and your peers, you can refresh this screen to view them.

Item 1: "Strange's Case, Strangly Altered"

  1. View the item at the British Museum site: inspect item details, and be sure to read the Description and Curator's comments sections in the sidebar.
  2. Add your detail comment to the collaborative Storiiies project below.
Click here to add your annotation (click again to close).

Edit

  1. Click the  Edit story  button [please do not edit the title card information!] 
  2. Zoom to any detail of the image you would like to annotate. Whatever is in the frame when you save your annotation is what will display when readers click to your annotation!
  3. Click  Add new (+) 
  4. Type in your annotation in the following format [with ALL of these elements]:
    • Title [make sure to capitalize]
    • [hit return twice for a line space]
    • observation [describe what  you see]
    • interpretation [what do you think it means?]
    • [hit return once for a line break]
    • -Your Name [use a dash, and add your name as you would like it to appear]

 

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Item 2: "Prospect of a Popish Successor..."

  1. View the item at the British Museum site: inspect item details, and be sure to read the Description and Curator's comments sections in the sidebar.
  2. Add your detail comment to the collaborative Storiiies project below.
Click here to add your annotation (click again to close).

Edit

  1. Click the  Edit story  button [please do not edit the title card information!] 
  2. Zoom to any detail of the image you would like to annotate. Whatever is in the frame when you save your annotation is what will display when readers click to your annotation!
  3. Click  Add new (+) 
  4. Type in your annotation in the following format [with ALL of these elements]:
    • Title [make sure to capitalize]
    • [hit return twice for a line space]
    • observation [describe what  you see]
    • interpretation [what do you think it means?]
    • [hit return once for a line break]
    • -Your Name [use a dash, and add your name as you would like it to appear]

 

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Item 3: "The Solemn Mock Procession"

  1. View the item at the British Museum site: inspect item details, and be sure to read the Description and Curator's comments sections in the sidebar.
  2. Add your detail comment to the collaborative Storiiies project below.
Click here to add your annotation (click again to close).

Edit

  1. Click the  Edit story  button [please do not edit the title card information!] 
  2. Zoom to any detail of the image you would like to annotate. Whatever is in the frame when you save your annotation is what will display when readers click to your annotation!
  3. Click  Add new (+) 
  4. Type in your annotation in the following format [with ALL of these elements]:
    • Title [make sure to capitalize]
    • [hit return twice for a line space]
    • observation [describe what  you see]
    • interpretation [what do you think it means?]
    • [hit return once for a line break]
    • -Your Name [use a dash, and add your name as you would like it to appear]

 

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Item 4: "The Catholick Gamesters..."

  1. View the item at the British Museum site: inspect item details, and be sure to read the Description and Curator's comments sections in the sidebar.
  2. Add your detail comment to the collaborative Storiiies project below.
Click here to add your annotation (click again to close).

Edit

  1. Click the  Edit story  button [please do not edit the title card information!] 
  2. Zoom to any detail of the image you would like to annotate. Whatever is in the frame when you save your annotation is what will display when readers click to your annotation!
  3. Click  Add new (+) 
  4. Type in your annotation in the following format [with ALL of these elements]:
    • Title [make sure to capitalize]
    • [hit return twice for a line space]
    • observation [describe what  you see]
    • interpretation [what do you think it means?]
    • [hit return once for a line break]
    • -Your Name [use a dash, and add your name as you would like it to appear]

 

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✉️ Share

Once you have viewed the content and completed your zoom-annotations in Storiiies, please post a brief (3-4 sentences) reflective statement about any aspect of Stephen Colledge's "political speech" as you have viewed it in his broadsides, and the historical context in which he exercised it. Please feel free to make reference to the annotations you made and/or any observations you saw by your peers.

Post by Wednesday, Nov.  22, 11:59pm

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