The World Turned Upside Down
Piece originally published at Public Domain Review.
A series of woodcuts from an 18th century chapbook entitled The World Turned Upside Down or The Folly of Man, Exemplified in Twelve Comical Relations upon Uncommon Subjects. As well as the amusing woodcuts showing various reversals (many revolving around the inversion of animal and human relations) there is also included a poem on the topic. The chapbook is reproduced in the wonderful Chapbooks of the Eighteenth Century (1882) edited by John Ashton, which brings together hundreds of facsimiles of 18th century chapbooks upon a huge range of subjects.
No title (children caring for their parents)
No title (not sure what is happening here, perhaps two fools carrying a nobleman in stocks?)
The ox turned farmer
Old soldier turned nurse
The reward of roguery – or the roasted cook
The duel of the palfries
The mad squire and his fatal hunting
The ox turned butcher
Gallantry – a la mode – or the lovers catched by the bird
The honest ass and miller
The horse turned groom
The water wonder or the fishes lords of the creation
The sun, moon, stars and earth transposed
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