William Hogarth illustrated the story of a sad-sack adventurer named Hudibras in twelve engravings. His source was Samuel Butler’s satirical, mock-heroic poem written in the vein of Cervantes and Rabelais. Ridiculing the puritan party’s attempts to overthrow the British monarchy during the Great Civil War of 1640, Butler’s poem exposes the hypocrisy and pretensions of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Zealots who hoped to establish themselves as leaders.
Here, Hudibras appears in this large crowd scene as a masked dummy about to burnt. A row of London butcher shops is the setting for a protest against the “Rump Parliament,” a political body that had replaced much of the previous government during the English Civil War. Protester at this historical event in 1659 did in fact burn beef rumps in the streets as well as political effigies.