Geoffery Gambado Read online

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  Geoffery Gambado;

  OR,

  A SIMPLE REMEDY FORHYPOCHONDRIACISM

  AND

  MELANCHOLY SPLENETIC HUMOURS.

  BY A HUMORIST PHYSICIAN.

  _Honi soit qui mal y pense._

  PRINTED, FOR THE AUTHOR, BY DEAN & SON, LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.

  GEOFFERY GAMBADO]

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PREFACE. 3THE FRONTISPIECE. 8CHAPTER I. 11CHAPTER II. 21CHAPTER III. 30CHAPTER IV. 34CHAPTER V. 40CHAPTER VI. 51CHAPTER VII. 56CHAPTER VIII. 60CHAPTER IX. 62CHAPTER X. 66CHAPTER XI. 70CHAPTER XII. 72CHAPTER XIII. 79CHAPTER XIV. 88CHAPTER XV. 108

  Preface.

  Some years ago, sixteen original sketches by Henry Bunbury, Esq. weregiven to the Author of this Book. This celebrated sketcher andcaricaturist was a gentleman well known in the county of Suffolk for hispublic and private virtues, as well as for his superior talents. He wasa lineal descendant of the Rev. Sir William Bunbury, whose baronetcy wascreated in 1681. Of a cheerful and lively temper, he sought to infusethe same spirit through all ranks of society. If we mistake not, his sonbecame Sir Henry Bunbury, and represented the county of Suffolk, as hisuncle, Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, had done before him.

  His descendants still occupy the mansion and estates in Suffolk, wherethey have been, and are still, the great benefactors to the poor, andthe parish of Great Barton near Bury St. Edmund's.

  But we have to speak more particularly of Henry Bunbury, Esq. and histalents. To this day, his accurate delineations of the political andsocial customs of the age he lived in, and of the characters who cameunder his observation, are remarkable for their truthful force. It isvery seldom that men of high life and good education, possess theartistic power of graphic delineation: at least, we have but few amateurdelineators who can stand the test of the invidious sneers and jeers ofthose empty possessors of wealth and station, who consider themselvesdegraded even by the acquaintance of an artist, a poet, or a literarycharacter. Now, if a man is not a degraded man, but lives himself afterthe law of God, he need never mind the scoffs or ridicule of any man;but may say, as Henry Bunbury did to those who ridiculed him,--"Evil beto him who evil thinks."

  In the Sketches contained in this work, the difficulty was to make outwhat kind of story they told; for though some persons might see in themnothing more than ridicule upon the _Annals of Complete Horsemanship_,yet those who knew the man, and knew the disposition he alwaysentertained, namely, a desire to do evil to no man, but good to all,thought that his intention was to cure some over-sensitive minds ofmorbid and melancholy feelings, which ought not, unreasonably andunseasonably, to overwhelm them, and destroy their energies.

  It was not that he ridiculed real affliction, or ever, in any one of hisdrawings, sought to give a pang to the real mourner; but he really loveda cheerful disposition; and could not bear that man should be afflictinghimself with imaginary diseases, when a little self-exertion, ordiversion, would restore his right tone of bodily health, and be themeans of doing him good.

  We have adopted these views of our celebrated talented Suffolkgentleman, and have endeavoured to turn his pictures to this profitableaccount. They represent horses, and costume of fashion or fiction, longsince exploded; but they represented real persons, whom he knew, andmany were reckoned inimitable likenesses. Caricature is itself a speciesof broad, or excessive resemblance of fact; let it be represented byShakspeare's Falstaff,--Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode,--Dickens' PickwickPapers,--Macaulay's Stories of Historical Persons, (introduced into hispopular History of England),--or of Punch,--or of that greatest of allpowerful pencil delineators of character, George Cruikshank. We leaveout the popular novelists, or poets, who have written funny as well asserious things;--all, more or less, have taken advantage of caricatureskill, to prove their acquaintance with the ridiculous.

  Cowper is generally looked upon as a serious poet, yet he wrote "JohnnyGilpin." But we will make no more excuses for our present work. We willonly add that it was originally conceived for a charitable purpose, andis now made use of as such.

  The Author of the Illustrations has long since departed this mortallife; and the Author of the Narrative, not seeking the reputation ofhis own name, does not give it to the world; but, apologizing for hisinterpretation of the sketches, desires only to do good. If any shouldbe entertained, and will kindly send any mark of their favour to thePublisher, for the Author, the word of a Gentleman is given, that,whatever it may be, it shall be strictly devoted to public good.