Jonathan Swift … on Politicks

Swift

The wily Shafts of State, those Juggler’s Tricks
Which we call deep Design and Politicks
(As in a Theatre the Ignorant Fry,
Because the Cords escape their Eye
Wonder to see the Motions fly)
Methinks, when you expose the Scene,
Down the ill-organ’d Engines fall;
Off fly the Vizards and discover all,
How plain I see thro’ the Deceit!
How shallow! and how gross the Cheat!. . .
Look where the Pulley’s ty’d above!
Great God! (said I) what have I seen!
On what poor Engines move
The Thoughts of Monarchs, and Design of States!
What pretty Motives rule their Fates!
How the mouse makes the mighty mountains shake!
Away the frighten’d Peasants fly,
Scar’d at th’ unheard-of Prodigy,
Expect some gigantic son of Earth;
Lo, it appears!
See, how they tremble! How they quake!
Out starts the little beast, and mocks their idle fears.

from Jonathan Swift‘s Ode to the Honourable Sir William Temple (Section VII)
written at Moor-Park, June 1689

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was Secretary to Sir William Temple (statesman, diplomat and author: 1628-1699) at Moor Park 1689-94 and 1696-99. Dr Swift was a cleric, later famed as an political pamphleteer, satirist and Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin). His best known work is Gulliver’s Travels - see Wikipedia synopsis .

The Company of Undertakers

Hogarth's The Company of Undertakers

From the article - The Company of Undertakers: Satire and the Medical Profession

In the 18^th century, some of the most notable satirical portrayals of the medical profession came in the form of artistic renderings. William Hogarth skewered the profession, mockingly portraying physicians in “The Company of Undertakers” in 1737. The painting, framed with a black sash signifying a recent death, shows twelve portly physicians deep in thought, studying a flask of urine. Presiding over the consultation are three figures who turn out to be “Crazy Sally” Mapp (center), a well-known bonesetter, and two notorious quacks of the day, Joshua “Spot” Ward (left) and “Chevalier” John Taylor (right).

By lumping professional physicians with the quacks and the bonesetter, Hogarth challenges the presumptions and pretensions that set the professionals and the quacks apart. Physicians in the 18^th century were distinguished by their walking canes and stylish wigs—an appearance clearly appropriated by the quacks in the portrait. It is also not clear that any sort of superior education or training sets the professionals apart from the quacks—indeed in the eighteenth century, quack therapeutics were often less harmful to patients than professional therapeutics. The observer is left to conclude that consultation with either group will result in a request for the undertaker’s services.