| Summary: | Lettered with title beneath image 'The Managers' last Kick! or a view of the new Riding House in Crow Street'; beginning of publication line cropped only 'L [Lower] Sackville St' extant. The scene is the interior of the Theatre Royal Crow Street (also known as the Crow Street Theatre), Dublin, depicting a performance of the play 'Timour the Tartar' on stage (this was first performed in Dublin in October 1811 see pp. 3877-3878 of 'Theatre in Dublin, 1745–1820: A Calendar of Performances' by John C. Greene, published by Lehigh University Press, 2011). At top left, three men standing in a theatre box observe the stage. A playbill hangs over the edge of the box that has “Timour / the / Tartar / Real Horses...” printed on it; adjacent to this is a document that has "Road to Ruin" inscribed on it. A man [possibly Richard Daly, (1758-1813)] standing at the extreme left remarks (in a speech bubble) “I’m afraid these horses won’t do / I don’t think they are able to run down Peter Street” [a reference to The Royal Hibernian Theatre, on nearby Peter Street, previously known as Astley's Theatre, Dublin] while a man wearing a fitted jacket of blue coloured material, who stands with his right hand on his hip, says “Daly, we are Crampt-on, all sides to produce Novelty, therefore we bring horses to trample on Shakespeare & Convert our Thespian temple into a riding house!!” [a reference to John Crampton, who with Edward Tuite Dalton, purchased a one-eighth share of Crow Street Theatre in late 1808 and for the season 1808-1809, assumed management of Crow Street but F.E. Jones was proprietor; for the season 1810-1811, Jones resumed personal management of the theatre]. In the orchestra pit, a violinist, watching the melee on stage says “O Lord! I’d rather be in a Cooke Shop than sit in this place”, [a reference to the theatre in Peter Street, Dublin and to Thomas Potter Cooke, (1786-1864), an English actor who briefly joined the company of Henry Erskine Johnston, who opened the theatre in Peter Street, Dublin] while a disgruntled looking man, seated in the audience and seen in side profile remarks “Watch ‘em!”. 'Timour the Tartar', based on the life of the Central Asian emperor Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas [known as Tamburlaine] was adapted from the 1811 play of the same name by Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), [also known as Monk Lewis], who was specifically commissioned to do so by the manager of Convent Garden, John Philip Kemble, (1757-1823). A romantic melodrama in two acts with music by Matthew Peter King, the character of Timour was topical - from an impoverished background, he usurps the throne and raises his relatives to affluence and princely dignity - it was a caricature of Napoleon. [A reviewer in the 'Examiner' described the play as a “most awful, but at the same time insidious attack on the reputation of Buonaparte” - see Jane Moody, ‘Illegitimate Theatre in London, 1770-1840’ published by Cambridge University Press, 2000]. The play features the use of horses as an integral part of the plot and this caused a sensation when live circus horses were introduced during the first production in Covent Garden, London on 29 April, 1811.
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