This 18th century satirist mocked the absurdities of human behavior

The Passions, by Tim Bobbin

In 18th-century Lancashire, a poor schoolteacher named John Collier reinvented himself as "Tim Bobbin," a cartoonist whose illustrations mocked the absurdities of society.

Collier died in 1786 with only £50. His gravestone epitaph, written by himself, reads: "Jack of all trades… left to lie i'th dark."

Here, examples from 1810 p…