Untitled Caricature of Actors on Stage, c1830-1840

Mounted coloured lithograph, untitled, designed, lithographed and published by anon, around 1830-1840. This caricature depicts two actors performing on a stage in a theatre. One playing the role of Mercutio lies wounded on the stage. A concerned spectator in the audience leans forward out of his stage box, holding a Morison’s pill box in his hand, recommends Morison’s Pills, a popular cure-all, for his injury.

Lettered below the design: ‘Mercutio: “He has made worms meat of me – go for a surgeon”. Spectator: “Let me advise you to try these Morrison’s Pills No. 2 – take 10 the first Dose, repeat it every ten minutes”‘. At least 25 caricatures were published during the 1830s ridiculing Morison’s Pills. This caricature comments on the public’s gullibility in accepting Morison’s exaggerated claims.