The
Man in the Moon
The Man in the Moon (late 1819-early 1820) presents one of Hone's responses to the Peterloo massacre and its contentious aftermath. In late November of 1819, responding to a kind of panic among the ruling classes, the Prince Regent convened a special session of Parliament called for the express purpose of passing measures intended to stem the perceived threat of domestic unrest. These draconian measures came collectively to be known as the "Six Acts." They included an increase in the size of the standing army, restrictions on public meetings, and—most important in Hone's case—tight restrictions on the freedom of the press. All of the measures were passed between 23 November, when the extraordinary session began, and 29 December, when it adjourned.
Hone's publication contains a satirical poem depicting a parallel series of events transposed, by virute of a dream narrative, to a lunar landscape. The wondering spectator/dreamer describes a special session of the Parliament during which a rather portly "Prince of Lunataria" addresses his assembled legislators. The address, of course, is a parody of the concerns of the English Prince Regent. He begins with an inspired description of the current domestic situation:
Reform, Reform, the swinish rabble cry—
Meaning, of course, rebellion, blood, and riot—
Audacious rascals! you, my Lords, and I,
Know 'tis their duty to be starved in quiet[.]Then, as the Regent swells to his theme, he advocates in turn an increase in the taxation on "Johnny Moon-calf" (the lunar equivalent of John Bull), the increased use of the military ("steel lozenges") for the violent repression of the lower orders, and greater vigilance in stopping the "circulation of little books." The "little books" are a particular danger, argues the Prince, because "they are full of blasphemies and libels, / And people read them oftener than their bibles." The commotion ensuing after the Prince's speech jostles the narrator awake once again and thus dispels the satirical lunar vision. Since the bulk of Hone's publication consists of a parody of the Prince Regent's speech of 23 November, the BioText includes a transcription of the that speech.
Although The Man in the Moon is almost always associated with his name, Hone claims that he did not write the satire. He apparently served chiefly as its publisher. Still, judging by such internal evidence as the very "Hone-ian" dedication and the use of George Cruikshank's engravings, it would seem that Hone was very closely involved with the production of this "little book"—whether or not he actually wrote the poem.
This electronic edition of The Man in the Moon consists of two sets of interlinked pages. One set is made up simply of full page scans of the complete text. Readers unfamiliar with Hone's and Cruikshank's illustrated pamphlets would likely want to begin by skimming through these facsimile pages. (The full text, including the front matter, is only about sixteen pages long.) A second set of pages consists of somewhat larger and more clearly legible transcriptions of the facsimile pages. These are included to facilitate reading—which can be difficult on the scanned facsimiles—and to enable "cut and paste" excerpting. Both the facsimile and the transcription sets are fully interlinked, and both also have links to high-resolution "close-ups" of Cruikshank's engravings and to a few explanatory notes that should appear in little javascript windows at the click of the appropriate link. A set of navigation aids is available at the bottom of each page.
Title page facsimile (to begin reading facsimiles) | Title page transcription (for clearer reading text)
