File:The C(a)rd(i)nal Dancing-Master, Or Pl(a)ce-M(a)n in Leading-Strings (BM 1868,0808.3720).jpg

English: Satire on Robert Walpole's alleged subservience to the French with two scenes in cartouches. In the scene on the left is a room where Walpole dances "The Spanish Step" in front of Cardinal Fleury who points to a pile of coins on a table and says "Now ye French Caper"; a French fiddler says, "He'll dance soon, to another Tune"; Horatio Walpole and the Duke of Argyll (?) stand on the left the first saying, "By G-d Gilly he danced as well in 2" and the other, "I shall in 20Years Horry"; the king enters through a doorway beyond remarking, "Cardy brings him on finely", to which two courtiers respond, ""tis ye Gold, Sire" and "He earns it". In the scene on the right, Britannia is pushed towards a pit by a group of placemen, including a bishop and a lawyer, held on strings by Walpole who urges them, "Put her on my Lads"; he, in turn, is held on a string by Cardinal Fleury who says, "Me fear she scapes de snare"; a French monkey plays a horn, and a voice from the clouds warns, "Beware Feb 2"; an angel appears from the right, holding out the "Place Bill" and saying "A Majority at last", to which Britannia responds, "Welcome! after 20 years absence". Engraved title, inscriptions, speech-ballooms, and four lines of music in two columns; letterpress verses of two songs in four columns, "The Cardinal's dancing song", to be sung to the tune of "The Cardinal", and "The Placeman's Ballad" to be sung to the tune of "Wooden Shoes"; three vertical and one horizontal segment of type ornaments.1742
Etching and letterpress