Satirical Print criticizing the Proclamation fo the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue

Satirical Print criticizing the Proclamation fo the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue

Digital Exhibits

This satirical print, titled "Reformation- or the Wonderful Effects of a Proclamation!!!" mocks King George III's 1787 Royal Proclamation for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue. The proclamation aimed to restore public morality and suppress vice by urging citizens to uphold decency and avoid profane entertainment. The act censors and supports laws against blasphemy, lewdness, and drunkenness. The print used caricature and inversion to reveal the failures of censorship and moral control. This is an etched, older document that has yellowed with age. The page has several people in a theater, spectating and arguing. There is a figure in the corner with a sign that says “playing cards on the Lord’s day.”

Frederick George Byron

The British Museum

William Holland

Circa 1787

Kennesaw State University, Magdaline Marks

© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.

Dimensions
Height: Height: 269 millimetres
Width: Width: 392 millimetres

English

Physical Object

Registration number
J,4.101

Europe 18th Century

Dimensions
Height: Height: 269 millimetres
Width: Width: 392 millimetres

Etching on paper

Etched work on paper