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SUPPRESSED PLATES
AGENTS
America . The Macmillan Company
64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New York
Canada . The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd.
27 Richmond Street West, Toronto
India . . Macmillan Sc Company, Ltd.
Macmillan Building, Bombay
309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta
THE TITI,E-PA(;E F(tl{ THK IXURITTEX " DEATH I.V I.ONDOX.
SUPPEESSED PLATES
WOOD ENGRAVINGS, &c
TOGETHER WITH OTHER CURIOSITIES
GERMANE THERETO
BEING
AN ACCOUNT OF CERTAIN MATTERS
PECULIARLY ALLURING TO
THE COLLECTOR
BY
GEORGE SOMES LAYARD
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1907
J » i •
• • • »
* ♦ * * •
a « « k * •
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t i > )J. J -^.t.A K
Published Nonjember 1907
i^5>^
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK
TO
MY TWO BOYS
JOHN AND PETER
WHO
I SINCERELY HOPE, WILL NOT HAVE SO MANY
USELESS HOBBIES
AS
THEIR AFFECTIONATE
FATHER
4S83S3
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
1. Introductory ........ 1
2. " The Marquis of Steyne " ..... 7
3. The Suppressed Portrait of Dickens, " Pickwick,"
"The Battle of Life," and "Grimaldi" . . 26
4. Dickens Cancelled Plates : " Oliver Twist," " Martin
Chuzzlewit," "The Strange Gentleman," "Pic-
tures from Italy," and "Sketches by Boz " . 43
5. On some further Suppressed Plates, Etchings, and
Wood Engravings by George Cruikshank . . 59
6. Hogarth's " Enthusiasm Delineated," " The Man of
Taste," and " Don Quixote " . . . .82
7. Cancelled Designs for " Punch " and " Once a Week "
BY Charles Keene and Frederick Sandys. . 127
8. Miscellaneous .....
9. The Suppressed Omar Khayyam Etching
10. Adapted or Palimpsest Plates .
11. Adapted or Palimpsest Plates (continued)
vii
149
179
192
226
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Printed Separately
The Title-page of the unwritten " Death in
London "......
The Third Marquis of Hertford. (Frojn the'
engraving hy W. Holt, of the painting by
Sir Thomas La?vrence) ....
The Fourth Marquis of Hertford. (From a
photograph) ......
The Third Marquis of Hertford when Lord
Yarmouth. (Froin the coloured caticatnre
by Richard Dighton) ....
The suppressed portrait of Charles Dickens .
The " Pickwick " suppressed plate : " The
Cricket Match." {By R. W. Buss).
The " Pickwick " suppressed plate : " Tupman
and Rachel." (By R. W. Buss) .
"Tupman and Rachel." (By H. K. Browne).
" The Last Song/' with the suppressed border
(By George Cruikslumk) ....
ix
Frontispiece
Between
pages 20 and 21
Facing page 24
)> })
28
30
Between
pages 32 and 33
Facing page 40
SUPPRESSED PLATES
The suppressed plate from " Oliver Twist " '
1. " The Fireside Scene "
2. "The Fireside Scene," as worked
upon by Cruikshank
The suppressed plate from "Sketches by
" A Financial Survey of Cumberland or'
the Beggar's Petition." (From the only
knonm uncoloured impression of the plate)
" A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the
Beggar's Petition." {From a coloured
impression oj" the plate, with the Jigiire of
the valet obliterated with lamp-black)
"Enthusiasm Delineated. (Humbly dedi-'
cated to his Gi-ace the Arch Bishop of
Canterbuiy by his Graces most obedi-
ent humble Servant J'V7n. Hogarth "
" Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism.
A Medley" ,
Portrait of Hogarth with his Dog Trump .
The plate reversed and in its last state, now
<?«i«7/erf " The Bruiser "
The Cancelled Cartoon. {By Charles Keene)
The Cancelled " Social." {By Charles Keene')
Suggestion by Joseph Crawhall for the
Cancelled " Social "
:)
" The Painted Chamber." (From A71tiquiti.es
of Westminster, 1807) .
Facing page 48
>j }>
56
Between
pages 64 a?id 65
Between
pages 88 and 89
Facing jidge 112
}} 5J
128
„ 136
}> }}
150
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
XI
The suppressed portrait of " John Jorrocks,
Esq., M.F.H., etc." {By Henry Aiken,
the younger) .....
The suppressed frontispiece for " Omar
Khayyam." {By Edwin Edwards)
" L'Europe alannee pour le Fils d'un'
Meunier. ' {The plate in itsjirst state) .
The plate in its second, state, norv entitled
" La Cour de Paix solitaire, entre les
Roses piquantes et les Lis"
Queen Anne presiding over the House of
Lords. {The plate in itsjirst state)
The plate in its second state, now representing
George I. presiding over the House of
Lords .
"The Races of the Europeans, with their'
Keys." {The plate in itsjirst state)
"A Skit on Britain." {The plate in its
second state) ....
The Headless Horseman. {The plate with
the head burnished out) ....
The plate with Cromwell's head . .\
The plate with Charles I.'s head ' . . j
Undescribed palimpsest plate. {First state
and second state) . . . . . ''
Undescribed palimpsest plate. {First state
and second state) .....
Facing page l60
188
}} ))
Between
pages 204 and 205
Between
pages 236 and 237
Between
pages 238 and 239
Faci?ig page 240
Between
pages 242 atid 243
Facing page 244
)3 })
246
Xll
SUPPRESSED PLATES
Printed in the Text
PAGE
1. The Suppressed Portrait of the Marquis of Steyne . 15
2. The Battle of Life. " Leech's Grave Mistake " . .35
3. Rose Mayhe and OHver at Agnes's Tomb. (The sub-
stituted plate in t7vo states) . . . . . .51
4. The Strange Gentleman ...... 55
5. " A Trifling Mistake "—Corrected— . . . .71
6. Philoprogenitiveness ....... 77
7. " Drop it ! " 79
8. Enlarged detail of Hogarth's " Enthusiasm Delineated " 85
9. The Chandelier in " Enthusiasm "
„ „ „ "Credulity" ....
10. The Man of Taste
11. Burlington Gate as it appeared prior to 1868
12. Don Quixote, No. 1. — The Innkeeper .
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
95
105
109
115
117
No. 2. — The Funeral of Chrysostom
No. 3. — The Innkeeper's Wife and
Daughter. . . .119
No. 4. — Don Quixote seizes the Barber's
Basin . . . .120
No. 5. — Don Quixote releases the Galley
Slaves . . . .122
No. 6. — The First Interview . . .123
No. 7. — The Curate and the Barber. . 125
19- Danae in the Brazen Chamber
143
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
PAGE
20. Suppressed Illustration from The Vicar of Wakefield . 172
21. Het beest van Babel, etc. {The plate in its Jirst state) . 218
22. „ „ „ „ {The plate in its second state) . 219
23. Aan der Meester Tonge-Slyper. {The plate in its Jirst
state) . . .229
„ „ „ „ „ „ {As adapted hy the
Anti-Jesuits) . 229
24. The Stature of a Great Man, or the English Colossus . 234<
25. „ „ „ „ „ or the Scotch Colossus . 235
26. Aan den Experten Hollandschen Hoofd-Smith. {The
plate in its Jirst state) ...... 245
}} »
27. „
adapted by the Anti- Jesuits)
28. An adapted Copperplate. {First state) .
29. „ „ „ „ {Second state)
30. A History of the New Plot. {First state)
31. „ „ ,, „ „ {Second state)
{As
. 245
. 247
. 247
. 249
. 249
SUPPRESSED PLATES, ETC.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
No one who has the itch for book-collecting will
deny that suppressed book illustrations are, what
the forbidden fruit was to our mother Eve,
irresistible. Whether such appetite represents the
very proper ambition to have at his elbow the
earliest states of beautiful or interesting books,
of which the subsequently suppressed plate or
wood engraving is in general a sort of guarantee,
or the less defensible desire to possess what our
neighbour does not, must be settled by the con-
science of each. The fact remains that such
rarities are peculiarly alluring to those whom
Wotton calls *' the lickerish chapmen of all such
ware."
2 SUPPRESSED PLATES
There are, of course, ridiculous^ people who
value such books as the first issue of the
first edition of Dickens's American Notes just
because there is a mistake in the pagination ; or
a first edition of Disraeli's Lothair because the
prototype of " JNIonsignor Catesby " is divulged by
misprinting the name " Capel " ; or Poems by
Robert Burns, first Edinburgh Edition, because in
the list of subscribers " The Duke of Roxborough "
appears as " The Duke of Boxborough" ; or
Barker's " Breeches " Bible of 1594, because on the
title-page of the New Testament the figures are
transposed to 1495 ; or the first edition in French
of Washington Irving's Sketch Book, because
the translator, maltreating the author's name, has
declared the book to be "traduit de I'Anglais de
M. Irwin Washington," and in the dedication has
labelled Sir Walter Scott, Barronnet ; or indeed a
book of my own, in which I described as " since
dead" a gifted and genial gentleman who I am
glad to think still gives the lie to my inexcusable
carelessness.
1 I am quite aware that " ridiculous" is a dangerous stone to throw,
when one lives in a glass house oneself.
INTRODUCTORY 3
But it is not because of such errors that a
true book-lover desires to own editiones principes
of famous works. That ambition is legitimate
enough, but its legitimate reason is otherwhere to
seek.
In the case of such a book as Rogers's Italy,
with the Turner eno;ravin2:s, the matter is verv
different. Here the fact that the plates on pp.
88 and 91 are transposed is a guarantee that
the impressions of the extraordinarily delicate en-
gravings are of the utmost brilliancy, for the error
was discovered before many impressions had been
taken. The same applies, though in lesser degree,
to such a book as Mr. Austin Dobson's Ballad of
Beau Brocade, illustrated by JNlr. Hugh Thomson,
in the earliest edition of which certain of the
illustrations are also misplaced.^ There is reason
in wishing to possess these. See what Ruskin
himself has said of the omission of the two en-
gravings which had appeared in the first edition
of The Two JPaths. He writes in the preface to
the 1878 reissue :
1 Compare also the early issues of the first edition of Ainsworth's
Tower of London, in which the plates at pp. 28 and 45 vary from
those in the later issues.
4 SUPPRESSED PLATES
" I own to a very enjoyable pride in making
the first editions of my books valuable to their
possessors, who found out, before other people,
that these writings and drawings were good for
something . . . and the two lovely engravings
by Messrs. Cuff and Armytage will, I hope, render
the old volume more or less classical among
collectors." From this we gather that "the
Professor " was of the right kidney.
It is hardly necessary to say that it is not my
intention to make this book a devil's directory to
illustrations which have been suppressed because
of indecency, and are referred to in the cata-
logues of second-hand booksellers, whose cupidity
is stronger than their self-respect, as " facetiae " or
" very curious." Indeed, this book would itself in
that case also very properly be put on the index
expurgatorius of every decent person. JNIy purpose
is to gather together, correct and amplify the float-
ing details concerning a legitimate class of rarities,
and to put the collector on his guard, where
necessary, against imposition.
By its very nature this treatise cannot be
complete, but I have included most of the
INTRODUCTORY 5
examples of any importance which, during many-
years of bibliomania, have come under my observa-
tion. To these I have added certain re-engraved
or palimpsest plates, which are germane to the
subject.
As to these last I find amongst my papers
a curious note from the pen of R. H. Cromek,
the engraver, who flourished at the end of the
eighteenth century.
" One of these vendors," he writes (publishers
of Family Bibles), "lately called to consult me
professionally about an engraving he brought
with him. It represented Mons. Buffon seated,
contemplating various groups of animals sur-
rounding him. He merely wished, he said, to
be informed whether, by engaging my services to
unclothe the naturalist, and giving him a rather
more resolute look, the plate could not, at a trifling
expense, be made to do duty for ''Daniel in the
lions den ' " !
That would be a palimpsest well worth possess-
ing, if ever it were carried into effect. It would
be as fascinating an object of contemplation as
the Stothard designs for Clai^issa Harlowe,
6 SUPPRESSED PLATES
which the same authority informs us were later
used to illustrate the Scriptures ! But the history
of the cliche, pure and simple, has yet to be
written. Our concern is with higher game than
that.
CHAPTER II
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE "
Perhaps the most celebrated of suppressed book
illustrations is the wood-eugraved portrait of the
" Marquis of Steyne," drawn by Thackeray as an
illustration to Vanity Fair, for which, if we are
to believe the statement of a well-known book-
seller's catalogue, " libellous proceedings (sic) were
threatened on account of its striking likeness to a
member of the aristocracy." With the accuracy
of this statement I shall deal in due course.
Before, however, proceeding to the consideration
of the suppressed illustration itself, it will be as
well to pause for a moment to consider what
antecedent probability there was that Thackeray
would pillory a well-known 7^oue of the period in
terms that would make the likeness undoubted and
undeniable. And in pointing out what the great
7
8 SUPPRESSED PLATES
novelist's practice was in this respect I would
guard myself against the charge of presuming to
censure one who is not here to answer for himself,
and whose nobility of character was sufficient
guarantee of good faith and honourable intention.
Let it always be remembered that, if Thackeray
flagellated others, he never hesitated to taste the
quality of his own whip first. Even in his book
illustrations, as I have pointed out elsewhere, he
was as unsparing of his own feelings as he was in
his writings. And, in using himself as a whipping-
boy for our sins, he probably believed that he was
making himself as despicable as a Rousseau. Hence
he came to the like treatment of other real
personages not with unclean hands.
Some of us may have seen, though very few of
us can possess, a very rare pamphlet, which was
sold for as much as £39 on one of its infrequent
appearances in the auction -rooms, entitled M7\
Thackeray, 3Ir. Yates, and the Garrick Club. In
it was published a never-sent reply to a letter
written by Thackeray remonstrating with Yates
on the contents of a "pen-and-ink" sketch published
by the latter in No. 6 of a periodical called Town
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE " 9
Talk, which resulted m Yates's expulsion from the
Garrick Club.
In this unsent letter he charged Thackeray with
having unjustifiably introduced portraits both in
his letterpress and illustrations. Mr. Stephen
Price appeared as Captain Shindy in the Book of
Snobs. In the same book Thackeray drew on a
wood block what was practically a portrait of
Wyndham Smith, a fellow-clubman. This appeared
amongst "Sporting Snobs," INIr. Smith being a
well-known sporting man. In Pendennis he made
a sketch of a former member of the Garrick Club,
Captain Granby Calcraft, under the name of
Captain Granby Tiptoff. In the same book,
under the transparent guise of the unforgettable
Foker, he reproduced every characteristic, both in
language, manner, and gesture, of Mr. Andrew
Arcedeckne, and even went so far as to give an
unmistakable portrait of him, to that gentleman's
great annoyance.
Besides the examples given by Yates, who was
himself recognisable as George Garbage in The
Vii^ginians, we know, too, that in the same novel
Theodore Hook appeared as Wagg, just as he did
10 SUPPRESSED PLATES
as Stanislaus Hoax in Disraeli's Vivian G-7^eij, and
that Alfred Bunn was the prototype of Mr.
Dolphin. Archdeacon Allen was the original of
Dobbin, Lady Langford of Lady Kew ; and last,
but not least, we have lately learned from INIrs.
Ritchie that the inimitable Becky had undoubtedly
her incarnation.
So we see that the antecedent improbability is
as the snakes in Iceland ; for the above examples,
which no doubt could be largely added to, prove
that Thackerav did not hesitate to draw direct
from the model when it suited his purpose.
So far so good. Let us now proceed to inquire
into the identity of the "JNlarquis of Steyne."
That his protoype was a JNIarquis of Hertford is
axiomatic with all those who have ever taken any
interest in the subject ; but when we come to
inquire which marquis we find that opinions are
astonishingly at variance. It would seem almost
as though any INIarquis of Hertford would serve,
whereas in point of fact the portrait Avould be the
grossest libel upon each of that noble line save
one ; and so incidentally we shall, by making the
matter clear, rescue from calumny an honourable
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE" 11
race, which has hitherto through heedlessness been
tarred with the same brush as its least honourable
representative.
To show that this is not a reckless charge of
inaccuracy, I quote from four letters in my
possession written by four persons most likely to
have special knowledge upon the subject.
The first, which is from a well-known printseller,
informs me "that the Marquis of Steyne in Vanity
Fair was Francis, second INIarquis of Hertford,
who died in 1822."
The second, which is from one more intimately
acquainted with the family than any other living
person, says, " Unquestionably Francis, third
Marquis of Hertford, the intimate friend of
George IV., was the prototype of the Marquis of
Steyne in Thackeray's Vanity Fair."''
The third letter, which is from a well-known
London editor, in general the best-informed man I
have ever met, says, " It was the fourth Lord, who
died in 1870."
The last of the four letters supports this view and
says : " It was the fourth, not the third, INIarquis
of Hertford who was supposed to be the prototype
12 SUPPRESSED PLATES
of Thackeray's Marquis of Steyne. . . . He was
Richard Seymour Conway, who was born in 1800
and died in 1870."^
Now, considering that these are the only
opinions for which I have asked, and that they
are so curiously divergent, it will, I think, be clear
that it is time an authoritative declaration were
forthcoming, based upon independent inquiries.
It may as well, then, be stated once for all that
no one who has taken the trouble to investigate
the lives of the three marquises above mentioned
can hesitate for a moment in identifying the
"Marquis of Steyne" with the third Marquis of
Hertford. To those who are curious to know
very full particulars about these noblemen I
would recommend the perusal of an interesting
article entitled "Two JNIarquises" in Lippincotfs
Magazine for February 1874. Nor should they
fail to read Disraeh's Conhigsby, and compare
*' Lord Monmouth " and his creature " Rigby,"
whose prototypes were the same Marquis of
Hertford and his creature Croker, with the
1 As I write, a great daily newspaper iuforms the world that it was
the first Marquis.
-THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE" 13
"Marquis of Steyne" and his managing man
" Wenham."
And, whilst we are identifying the third
Marquis in Coningsby and Vanity Fair, reference
may be made to another most unflattering
portrait of that notorious nobleman in a book
published anonymously in 1844, which was
immediately suppressed, but is now not infrequently
to be found in second-hand book catalogues. The
book was (I believe) written by John Mills, and
had ten clever etched plates by George Standfast
(probably a nom de plume). Copies in the parts as
published are excessively rare. The title of the
book is HHorsay ; or the Follies of the Day, by a
Man of Fashion} It dealt with the escapades,
vices, and adventures of well-known men of the day
under the following transparent pseudonyms :
Count d'Horsay, the INIarquis of Hereford, the
Earl of Chesterlane, Mr. Pelham, General Reel,
Lord George Eentick, ]Mr. George Robbins,
auctioneer, the Earl of Raspberry Hill, Benjamin
D i, Lord Hunting-Castle, and others. The
1 This scurrilous and poorly written book has lately been thought
worthy of resurrection and republication.
14 SUPPRESSED PLATES
account of the " closing scene in the life of the
greatest debauchee the world has ever seen, the
Marquis of Hereford," is too horrible to repeat.
So much for the identity of the "Marquis of
Steyne" as described in Thackeray's letterpress,
which need not be dwelt upon here at greater
length, seeing that the immediate object of this
chapter is to deal with the accompanying engraving
and its history. And in proceeding to this
examination it should not be forgotten, in fairness
to the novelist, that Thackeray has explained that
his characters were made up of little bits of various
persons. This is no doubt true enough. At the
same time, we cannot but be aware that, although
the details may have been gathered, the outline has
been drawn direct from the life.
Vanity Fair was issued originally in monthly
parts. Its first title was Vanity Fair: Pen and
Pencil Sketches of English Society. Its first
number was dated "January 1847," and had
"illustrations on steel and wood by the Author.'
On p. 336 of the earliest issue of this first edition
appeared the wood engraving of the Marquis of
Steyne, wanting which a first edition is, to the
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE " 15
bibliomaniac, Hamlet with Hamlet left out. In
the later issues, the engraving (which I here
reproduce) was omitted, as also was the " rustic
THE SUPPRESSED PORTRAIT OF THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE.
type " in which the title appeared on the first page.^
The publishers were INIessrs. Bradbury and Evans,
1 To the rabid bibliophile I here present another variation, which
has hitherto escaped the bookseller. In the first edition, on p. 453, will
be found the misprint " Mr." (for "Sir") Pitt and Lady Jane Crawley.
16 SUPPRESSED PLATES
as was natural, Thackeray being at this time on
the staff of Punch. In later editions of the novel,
published by Messrs. Smith, Elder and Co., the
engraving reappears — viz. on p. 22 of vol. ii. in the
standard edition, and on p. 158, vol. ii., of the
twenty-six- volume edition.^
What was the reason for its sudden removal
immediately after publication ? As I have said
above, it is commonly stated to have been in
consequence of a threatened action for libel, of
course on account of the undoubted likeness of the
" IMarquis of Steyne " to the third Marquis of
Hertford. But how does this tally with facts ?
Lord Hertford had died in 1842, whilst the first
number of Vanity Fair did not appear until 1847.
Now every lawyer knows that you cannot libel
a dead man. This was made clear some few
years ago (I think) in the case of the Duke
of Vallombrosa against a well-known English
journalist. Therefore it is quite certain that,
although legal proceedings might have been
threatened, they would certainly have collapsed.
1 It does not appear amongst the illustrations to the biographical
edition, which are restricted to the full-page plates.
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE" 17
Further than that, those who knew the fourth
Marquis are aware that he was the last man in the
world to embark upon a lawsuit or court publicity
in any way. And if any doubt upon the matter
should still remain, I am able to state positively
that no trace is to be discovered amongst the
Hertford family papers of any action threatened or
brought against Thackeray on any grounds what-
soever. I think, then, that we may dismiss once
for all this aspect of the case.
At the same time it is not impossible that some
hint may have reached the novelist's ears that the
illustration gave pain to persons then living, and
that he promptly had it removed. But against
this view there is a very strong presumption. If
we turn the leaves of our original issue of Vanity
Fair, we shall, on p. 421, find another wood
engraving, and opposite p. 458 a full-page steel
engraving, " The Triumph of Clytemnestra," both
containing portraits of "The Marquis of Steyne."
Now, considering that that nobleman's august
features are as recognisable in these as in the
suppressed engraving, it seems unreasonable to
suppose that the one would have been removed
18 SUPPRESSED PLATES
without the others, in consequence of family repre-
sentations.
Possibly the real truth of the matter is a very
much simpler one. It may have been either that
Thackeray was himself disgusted with the brutal
frankness of the picture when he saw it printed,
and insisted on its removal, or that the block met
with some accident. Indeed, I am inclined to
think, judging from my memory of the subject,
that the idea of an action for libel is one that has
only found expression in more modern book-
sellers' catalogues. If I am not mistaken, the
older booksellers used to speak of the engraving
not as " suppressed," but as " extremely rare," and
that it was supposed to have disappeared from
later issues because it was broken before many
impressions were taken. Of course, a threatened
action for libel, on account of its striking likeness
to a member of the aristocracy, added piquancy
to the affair, and so redounded to the benefit
of the vendor of the earliest issue of a first
edition ; and the identification of Lord Steyne's
prototype, in the letterpress, gave colour to the
idea. Once set going, we may be certain that
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE " 19
the legend would not be allowed to lapse for lack
of advertisement. To adapt what Dr. Johnson said
of the " Countess," " Sir," said he to Boswell, " in the
case of a (marquis) the imagination is more excited."
The accompanying portraits of the third and
fourth Marquises of Hertford give the reader an
opportunity of forming his own opinion in the
matter of identity. That of the third Marquis
is from the engraving by William Holl of the
painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and certainly
seems to suggest, in the prime of life, the features
and expression which Thackeray has portrayed in
old age. The bald head, and the arrangement of
the whiskers — which are allowed to approach the
corners of the mouth — are incontestable points of
resemblance; and if the old voluptuary is some-
what more battered than Lawrence's rather spruce
model, we must remember that his portrait was
painted by the courtly President of the Royal
Academy many years before the period of life
at which he is introduced to us by the novelist.
Certainly he is not an attractive object ; and I
was amused to receive a letter from a member
of the family to whom I first showed the wood
20 SUPPRESSED PLATES
ensravins: in which these words occur : " I find we
have no portrait whatever of the Lord Hertford in
question, and am not surprised at it if he at all
resembled that of the Marquis in Vanity Fair ! " ^
As regards the fourth Marquis, it is a curious
fact that, notwithstanding his vast wealth, and his
tastes as an artist and connoisseur, no painted
or engraved portrait of him is known. The
photograph here reproduced is the only counter-
feit presentment extant, and is enough, if further
evidence were needed, to dispose for ever of the
idea that he was the prototype of the Marquis of
Steyne. It is hardly necessary to remind the
reader that it is to him, through Sir Richard and
Lady Wallace, that the nation owes a debt of
gratitude for the splendid collection now housed
in perpetuity in Hertford House."
1 This is the description of the Marquis in Coningsby : " Lord
Monmouth was in height above the middle size, but somewhat portly
and corpulent ; his countenance was strongly marked : sagacity on the
brow, sensuality in the mouth and jaw ; his head was bald, but there
were remains of the rich brown hair on which he once prided himself.
His large, deep blue eye, madid, and yet piercing, showed that the
secretions of his brain were apportioned half to voluptuousness, half
to common sense." This might well pass as a description of the
Thackeray drawing.
- Just before Lady Wallace's death, an examination of the Hertford
House library failed to discover a first edition of Vanity Fair, in which
THE THIRn IMAUyl'IS OF Hf:RTFORI).
(FiYini the engraving by W. Holl, of the painting by Sir Thmiias Lawrence.)
THK KOI RTII iMAHQirS OF I1KT{TI(IHI).
(Fi'oiu a plioto^iapli.)
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE" 21
It will be noticed that in this photograph
Lord Hertford wears his Star of the Order of the
Garter, to obtain which he made the " tremendous
sacrifice " of which an amusing account is given in
the Lipiy'mcott article mentioned above. Of him
the Speaker wrote at the time of his death :
Living in Paris a quiet and rather solitary life — in habits
more a Frenchman than an Englishman ; in tastes an artist
and a connoisseur ; in purse and opportunity unlimited by
any niggard need of self-control — the fourth Marquis of
Hertford busied himself in gathering together from the
treasure-houses of Europe innumerable precious specimens
of the painter's, the goldsmith's, and the cabinetmaker's art.
Year after year, with tranquil perseverance, he heaped up
on every side of him all the beautiful objects on which he
could lay hands — pictures, miniatures, furniture, enamels,
china and plate, bronzes, and coats of armour — until his
storehouses were full to overflowing of treasures which,
except for the pleasure of procuring them, he could hardly
ever have enjoyed. In this congenial task he was assisted
by a young Englishman, the secret of whose connection with
the Hertford family, if any such there was, the public has
never penetrated yet. To this young Englishman, who was
well known and liked in Parisian society in the tawdry
splendour of the Second Empire, and whose active generosity
I fancied some note might possibly have been found. This was probably
due to the fact that a large number of the Hertford books were destroyed
in the Pantechnicon fire.
22 SUPPRESSED PLATES
won him wide esteem in that desolated capital amid the
terrible events of the winter of 1870-71, Lord Hertford
bequeathed the wonderful possessions which he had accumu-
lated in a lifetime of discriminating labour. When the
Franco- German War and the Commune were over, Richard
Wallace brought his spoils safely home, and exhibited them
for a time at the Bethnal Green Museum while he built the
great galleries to hold them in Manchester Square. But
even here they were not destined to bring much happiness
to their possessor. After a short time Sir Richard Wallace
was left heirless — like Lord Hertford — by a cruel stroke of
fate ; and now, by his widow's gift, the splendid inheritance,
which has passed so quickly from the keeping of the hands
that laid it up, goes to enrich a public which will not be
ungrateful for the donor's rare munificence, or unmindful of
the sad and curious story it recalls.^
To return again to the suppressed wood engrav-
ing itself, it is curious to notice that old "Lady
Kew " of The Newcomes was sister to Lord
Steyne. Now the name "Kew" at once suggests
1 A footnote on p. 229, vol. iv. of G. E. C.'s Complete Peerage
says : "[The fourth Marquis] is said never to have been in England.
He left his Irish estates (worth £'50,000 a year) and most of his
personalty (which included the well-known Hertford collection of
pictures) to Sir Richard Wallace, Bart, (so cr. 1866), who is supposed
to have been an illegit. son, either of himself (when aged 18), or of his
father, or even (not improbably) of his mother ; which Richard (/>. in
London, 26th July 1818) d. s.p. at Paris, 20th July 1890, in his 72nd
year, and was bur. in the family vault at Pcre-la-Chaise. Sir Richard's
' art treasures ' (derived as above stated) were valued at his death in
1890 at above two millions."
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE " 23
to those conversant with the early doings of the
century the nickname of the notorious Duke of
Queensberry, known to all and sundry as " Old Q,"
and sets us considering why the name should
suggest itself to Thackeray in connection with
Lord Hertford. And what do we find ?
When the third INIarquis was but twenty-one,
he married a young lady named Marie Fagniani.
She was believed to be the daughter of the Duke
of Queensberry and an opera dancer of that name.
Nothing would be more natural, therefore, than
that Thackeray, having saturated himself with the
surroundings of the prototypes of his characters,
should, probably half unconsciously, have seized
upon a capital name suggested to him in the
course of preparing for his novel, and so adapted
it to his requirements. This suggestion I only
make for what it is worth. It may, of course,
merely be that a search through the suburban
directory suggested the name, as was no doubt the
case in apportioning to her ladyship's husband his
second title of Lord Walham. At any rate, the
coincidence seems worth recording.
In conclusion, there can be no possible doubt
24 SUPPRESSED PLATES
that so far as Thackeray's letterpress is concerned,
the prototype of the Marquis of Steyne (Lord of
the Powder Closet, etc. etc.) was Francis Charles
Seymour Conway (third JMarquis of Hertford) of
his branch ; Earl of Hertford and Yarmouth,
Viscount Eeauchamp, Baron Conway, and Baron
of Ragley in England ; and Baron Conway and
Kilultagh in the peerage of Ireland ; and as
regards the suppressed wood engraving, there will,
I think, be little question that Thackeray the
artist dotted his is by an intentional representation
of the noble lord's not altogether attractive
features.
It is, however, only fair to state that Lord
Hertford was probably by no means the un-
mitigated scoundrel that those familiar with the
" Marquis of Steyne " might be led to suppose.
That he participated in all the amusements and
most of the follies of a notorious society there can
be little doubt. At the same time, we have it on
record (in the somewhat pompous diction of the
period) that he was extensively read in ancient and
modern literature, that his judgment was remark-
able for its solidity and sagacity, and that his
TIIK TMIHI) AlAinjI IS OK HKHTIOHII WIIKN I.OHl) \AH.M<tl Til
(Fidiii tile colf.iiri-'d I'liricatiiVf by Hicliaiil Diiilitciii.)
"THE MARQUIS OF STEYNE " 25
conversation Avas enlivened by much of that
refined and quaint pleasantry which distinguished
his near relative, Horace Walpole. He was a
distinguished patron of all the arts ; and those who
were more intimately acquainted with his private
life gave him the still higher praise of being a
warm, generous, and unalterable friend. " It is
but justice to add," to quote the final words of the
notice referred to, "that the writer has accident-
ally become acquainted with instances of his Lord-
ship's benevolence, the liberality of which was
equalled only by the delicacy with which it was
conferred, and the scrupulous care with which he
endeavoured to conceal it."
The caricature portrait of the third INIarquis
here reproduced was etched, as will be seen, by
Richard Dighton in 1818, when this Marquis's
father was alive, and he was only the Earl of
Yarmouth. The watermark on the paper is 1826,
which explains the inscription " Marquis of Hert-
ford," evidently a later addition — an ex ^Jost facto
puzzle which proved insoluble until it occurred to
me to hold the portrait up to the light.
CHAPTER III
(<
THE SUPPRESSED PORTRAIT OF DICKENS, " PICK-
WICK," "THE BATTLE OF LIFE," AND GRIMALDI
Having dealt in the last chapter with the
suppression of the well-known Thackeray wood-
cut of the " JNIarquis of Steyne," we naturally turn
next in order to the other great Victorian novelist,
Charles Dickens. Much, of course, has been
written about the Buss plates in Pickwick, and
much about the " Fireside Scene " in Oliver
Twist. All readers of Forster's Life of Charles
Dickens know something of the wood engraving
in The Battle of Life which ought to have been,
but never was, cancelled ; and some know what to
look for in the vignette title of Martin Chuzzlewit.
It is, however, time that the scattered details
should be grouped, that reproductions of the plates
themselves should make reference easy to those
26
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 27
who would identify their possessions, and that the
additional information which is in some cases
scattered about in various impermanent writings
of my own and others should be focussed for the
greater convenience of the collector.
In the first place, I shall present to the reader a
suppressed portrait of the great novelist, which has,
I believe, never since been reproduced. It was
published about the year 1837 by Churton, but
as to the name of the artist by whom it was etched
there is a mystery which yet awaits solution. The
plate is, as will be noticed, signed with the familiar
pen-name "Phiz," but was almost immediately
repudiated by the chartered bearer of that title,
H. K. Browne. It was promptly withdrawn from
publication, and is now, as a necessary con-
sequence, much souglit after by the collector.^
Of it the author of Charles Dickens, the Story
of his Life, writes :
A very remarkable [portrait] was etched about 1837
with the name " Phiz " at the foot. It represents Dickens
^ Since writing this, I have experienced a piece of scurvy luck.
Entering a shop in the outskirts of Birmingham, I saw an impression
of the etching lying on a table. I inquired its price and was met by the
answer that it had just been sold to a lady for eighteenpence !
28 SUPPRESSED PLATES
seated on a chair and holding a portfoHo. In the back-
ground a Punch-and-Judy performance is going on. The
face has none of that delicacy and softness about it which
are observable in the Maclise portrait. It looks, however,
more like the real young face of the older man, as revealed
in the photograph now publishing [i.e. just after Dickens's
death]. This portrait is very rare, and it is understood
that it was withdrawn from publication soon after it
appeared, Mr. Hablot K. Browne, the genuine "Phiz,'""
denies all knowledge of it.
The Hotten memoir thus whets the appetites
of its readers, but does not offer to satisfy them by
a reproduction. This obvious duty I therefore
here take the opportunity of discharging, and
would advise the book-hunter to make a mental
note of the etching in that pix of the brain where
is secreted the reagent which separates the rare
gold of the bookseller's threepenny box from its
too ordinary dross. The reproduction here given
is about the size of the original etching.
So much for the suppressed portrait. Now
let us take up our first edition of Picktvick\ and
say what has to be said about the much-discussed
Buss plates and their substitutes.
Pickwick^ as we all know, was first published
in parts, and only one number had appeared when
V.il I:
--'iSs^
^^
;:??§:-
THE SUPPRESSED PORTRAIT OF L HARI.ES J)I(;KEXS.
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 29
Robert Seymour, its illustrator, died by his own
hand. Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the publishers,
were at their wits' end to get the new number
illustrated in time for publication. Jackson, the
well-known wood-engraver, who was at the time
working for them, proposed for the task R. W.
Buss, a "gentleman already well known to the
public as a very humorous and talented artist."
The publishers gladly adopted the suggestion, and
the appointment was made.
All this we find very fully set out in Mr. Percy
Fitzgerald's History of Pickwick^ to which I
would refer the reader who is anxious to acquaint
himself with details of the transaction. The Buss
etchings, which we here reproduce, had for their
subjects " The Cricket INIatch " and *' Tupman and
Rachel," and are to be found respectively opposite
pp. 69 and 74 of the earliest issues of the first
edition of the immortal romance. They were, in
the words of the artist himself, ** abominably bad,"
and he was immediately superseded as illustrator
by H. K. Browne, who was destined to be insepar-
ably connected with the novelist's work for so long
a period.
30 SUPPRESSED PLATES
This episode has been so often dwelt upon, and
so exhaustively dealt with, that I shall not do
much more than point out how those who have
written on the subject have altogether missed
what is perhaps the most important link in the
whole chain of circumstances. So put to it, as I
have said, were the publishers to get the new
number out in time lest an expectant public should
be disappointed, that they were forced to fix upon
Seymour's substitute without consulting Dickeiis.
This was really the whole crucc of the situation.
The author only recognised the failure of the
plates. He knew nothing of the difficulties under
which Buss had laboured, and so naturally made
no allowances, and knew of no reason why sub-
sequent ones should be better. The plates un-
questionably were poor, but we find from Mr.
Buss's own private MS., to which, by his son's
kindness, I have had access, that this was not by
any means mainly the fault of the artist. He had
previously had no experience in etching, and only
undertook the work after much pressure, to
accommodate the publishers. To quote from his
own account : \
''•'^^Sfe^r-Si^
Tin: '• I'K KWK K " SI IM'UKSSKI) I'LATK : "TIIK I RI( KET MATdl.
(By II. \V. I'.nss.)
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 31
At Seymour's death, Hall engaged me to illustrate
Charles Dickens's Pickwick. I commenced practice, and
worked hard, I may say day and night, for at least a month
on etching, and I furnished the illustrations for Pickzoick.
Without any reason assigned. Hall broke his engagement
with me, in a manner at once unjust and unhandsome.
As a matter of fact, the plates, as they
appeared, were not etched by Buss at all, but by
a professional etcher after his designs. And it is
curious to note that each of the plates is, notwith-
standing, inscribed, " Drawn & Etch'd by R. W.
Buss."
The artist's bitterness against his employers was
not unnatural. At the same time, we must re-
member that the fact that they had on the spur
of the moment to decide upon an artist, without
consulting Dickens, puts the matter in a very
different light. The fortunes of the venture were
at stake. The author, at all hazards, must be
humoured. His will was paramount, and when
he insisted upon Buss's supersession by H. K.
Browne, there was practically an end of the
matter. Happily Buss's labour was not all
lost, and it was with much pleasure that I seized
the opportunity offered me by the editor of the
32 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Magazine of Ai't in June 1902, to point out in
that publication how perverse has been the fate
which has made the name of an artist of no mean
order more famihar by his few failures than by his
many successes. It is not generally known that
there are in existence two etched plates by Buss
showing that he contemplated a series of extra
illustrations to Pickwick. The one is a title-page
with INIr. Pickwick being crowned ; the other is
rather a poor rendering of " The Break-down."
But to return to the plates themselves : only
about seven hundred copies were published when
plates by Browne were substituted for them.
" The Cricket Match " was wholly suppressed, and
the subject of " Tupman and Rachel " was etched
over again, considerably altered, but evidently
founded upon the Buss plate. The latter is here
reproduced for the purpose of comparison.
That every Dickens collector desires to possess
one of the seven hundred copies of the first issue
of the first edition which contain the Buss plates,
is a matter of course, and enough has been said to
make clear the reason of such desire. Should
any of my readers fail to sympathise, he must take
THE "i'IC'KWICk" SUPPRESSED PLATE '•TIPMAX AM) RACHEL."
(i;y R. W. Buss.)
TUPHIAN AM) KA(HKL.
(By H. K. Browne.)
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 33
it as an incontrovertible sign that he is immune from
that most delightful of all diseases, bibliomania.
It need only be added that, in the beautiful
"Victorian Edition" of the novel, published in two
volumes by INIessrs. Chapman and Hall in 1887,
facsimiles may be seen of the original drawings
made for the suppressed plates, as well as two
unpublished drawings prepared by Mr. Buss, but
not used. The subjects of these are "Mr.
Pickwick at the Review," and " INIr. Wardle and
his Friends under the Influence of the Salmon."
The first is an excellent drawing, and goes far to
prove that, had Buss been given time, he would
have no more failed as illustrator of Pickidck
than he did as illustrator of various other most
successful publications. The same edition also
contains facsimiles of an unused drawing by
"Phiz," "Mr. Winkle's First Shot," and of a
water-colour drawing of " Tom Smart and the
Chair," sent in to the publishers by John Leech
as a specimen of his work. From which it will
be seen that the "Victorian Edition," limited to
two thousand copies, is also one which every
Dickens lover ought, if possible, to possess.
34 SUPrilESSED PLATES
The originals of the Buss drawings were in the
possession of the artist's daughter, Miss Frances
Mary Buss, tlie well-known founder of the North
London Collegiate and Camden Schools, until her
death a few years ago. They were then sold, and
I have been unable to discover into whose hands
they have passed.
So much for the Pickwick suppressed plates,
which, if strict chronology were to be observed,
should naturally be followed by an account of the
" Rose Maylie and Oliver " plates in Olive?^ Twist.
These, however, we shall hold over for another
chapter, as they will have to be considered at some
length. INIeanwhile, we will deal shortly with the
curious wood engraving in The Battle of Life,
and with the etching of " The Last Song " in
The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi. The former
is so far germane to our subject that it should
have been suppressed, but, out of consideration
for the artist, was not.
Every Dickens collector desires to possess the
complete set of the " Christmas Books " in their
dainty red cloth bindings, dated from 1843 to
1848. A really desirable set includes, of course,
^st
'•7,;T^ <> - :r- ^'.OAL ^ ic 1- •
THE BATTLE OP LIFE.
" Leech's grave mistake."
36 SUPrRESSED PLATES
the Christinas Car^ol,^ with coloured plates by
Leech, with the green end-papers and " stave 1 " ;
The Chimes, with the publishers' names within
the engraved part of the title-page ; and IVie
Battle of Life, with the ])ublishers' names on both
titles. But it is only the last of these that is
entitled to mention in a treatise on cancelled
illustrations, and that, as I have said, not because
it was suppressed, but because it should have been.
By those who are familiar with the story it
will be remembered that an early part of the plot
leads one to suppose that Marion Jeddler had
eloped with INIichael Warden, when, as a matter
of fact, she had merely escaped to her aunt.
Leech, who was engaged as illustrator, was
immensely busy, and only read so much of the
story as seemed necessary for his purpose. As a
result he was deceived, as Dickens intended his
readers should be, and designed the double illustra-
tion here reproduced, in which the festivities to
welcome the bridegroom at the top of the page
^ It may be mentioned that there are two or three copies of the
Christmas Carol known with the title-page and half-title printed in
green and red, instead of in red and blue. Much store is laid by this
variation amongst really moonstruck collectors.
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 37
contrast with the flight of the bride in company
with jMichael AVarden represented below. Thus
was Dickens curiously "hoist with his own
petard." And the curious thing is that, notwith-
standing the publicity given to the mistake in
Forster's Life of Dickens, this tragic woodcut,
which Avrongs poor JNIarion's innocence and makes
a hasli of the whole story, is reproduced in the
reprints up to this very day. The poor girl's
tragic figure remains, and seems likely to continue
to do so, a victim to the stereotype.
This episode is generally referred to as " Leech's
grave mistake," and grave undoubtedly it was ;
but the matter has its bright side, which redounds
to the credit of the great novelist. I take the
liberty of quoting from what has always seemed
to me a very noble letter when we remember that
Dickens was of all men most sensitive to any
shortcomings in the work of his collaborators.
He writes to Forster :
When I first saw it it was with a horror and agony not
to be expressed. Of course I need not tell you, my dear
fellow, Warden has no business in the elopement scene. He
was never there. In the first hot sweat of this surprise and
novelty I was going to implore the printing of that sheet to
438323
38 SUPPUESSED PLATES
be stopped, and the figure taken out of the block. But
when I thought of the pain that this might give to our kind-
hearted Leech, and that what is such a monstrous enormity
to me, as never having entered my brain, may not so present
itself to others, I became more composed, though the fact is
wonderful to me.
Of course, had it been in these days of hurried
publication, Dickens would hardly have given the
matter a second thouoht. The averao-e illustrator
of to-day is curiously superior to the requirements
of his author. He either does not read the episodes
that he is called upon to illustrate, or, if he reads
them, he does not grasp their meaning, or, if he
grasps their meaning, the meaning does not meet
with his approval. At any rate, he constantly
makes a hash of the whole thing. Take for
example Penelopes English Experiences, by JNIiss
Kate Wiggin, now lying before me. Look at the
illustration, opposite p. 58, of Lady de Wolfe's
butler, who struck terror into Penelope's soul
because he did not wear a liver ij, and try, if you
can, to recognise him in the shoulder-knotted,
stripe-waistcoated, plush-breeched, silk-stockinged
menial with an " unapproachable haughtiness of
demeanour," which the illustrator has portrayed.
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 39
Nor is this one of a few exceptional cases : their
number might be multiphed ad infinitum.
But to return to The Battle of Life. Curiously
enough, there is another little episode connected
with this book, never, I believe, noticed before,
which accentuates our impression of the generosity
of Dickens's character.
Three years after its publication a somewhat
scurrilous little volume (now excessively rare),
bearing the allusive title Tlie Battle of London
Life; or Boz and Ms Secreta7~y, issued from the
press. It was illustrated by six lithographs signed
with the name of George Augustus Sala. It was
a poor enough performance, but attracted attention
by its ad captaiidum title, and the portrait of " Boz
in his Study." It is an imaginary and far from
complimentary account of Dickens's employment
of a secretary, whose occupation it is to show him
round the haunts of vice in London, by way of
providing "local colour " for the novels. Eventually
the secretary turns out to be a detective, who has
been told off by the Government to discover
the nature of the novelist's intimacy with the
revolutionist, INIazzini. It is a vulgar little
40 SUPPRESSED PLATES
brochure, and, for all its futility, must have been
very distasteful to the idol of the day. It was
therefore the more magnanimous of Dickens to
ignore the part which Sala had in it, and to speak
so generously of him as we find him doing in the
Life, besides employing him and pushing him,
as he did largely later on, in his periodicals. A
smaller man would not have allowed himself to
forget such youthful indiscretions, for " memory
always obeys the commands of the heart."
Judged as a work of art. The Battle of Life is
perhaps the least successful of Dickens's "Christmas
Books." Edward FitzGerald's opinion of it was
shown in an autograph letter which came into the
market only the other day. "What a wretched
affair is Jlie Battle of Life ! " he writes ; " it scarce
even has the few good touches that generally
redeem Dickens."
Whilst we are on the subject of an illustration
which should have been suppressed but was not,
it should be pointed out that this was not the
only occasion upon which Leech misunderstood
Dickens's purport. This we learn from Mr.
r. G. Kitton's monumental work, Dickens and
~>^'
^3gT^
''/,! / - 'r*."^/,-'^ ,.
"tiik last t?0N(;" with thi: si im'rksski) isorder.
(By George Cruikshank.)
DICKENS, "PICKWICK," ETC. 41
his Illustrators. Here he tells us that in another
Christmas book. The Chimes, Leech delineated,
in place of Richard as described in the text, an
extremely ragged and dissipated-looking character,
with a battered hat upon his head. When the
novelist saw it the drawing had already been
engraved, but the woodcut was promptly sup-
pressed ; there still exists, however, an impression
of the cancelled engraving, which is bound up with
what is evidently a unique copy of The Chimes
(now the property of Mr. J. P. Dexter), where
blank spaces are left for some of the woodcuts.
This particular copy is probably the publishers'
" make-up," which had accidentally left their hands.
Let us now consider for a moment a very
remarkable etching which was, so far only as
regards an important portion of it, cancelled in
all but the very first issue of The 3Iemoirs of
Joseph Giimaldi. These were published in two
volumes in 1838. Besides writing the preface,
Dickens was only responsible for the editing of
Mr. Egerton Wilks's manuscript, which had been
prepared from autobiographical notes. A good
deal of fault was found with the work, particularly
42 SUPPRESSED PLATES
on the ground that Dickens himself could never
have seen Grimaldi. To this he very pertinently
replied, "I don't believe that Lord Braybrooke
had more than the very slightest acquaintance
with Mr. Pepys, whose memoirs he edited two
centuries after he died ! " ^
The volumes are now most valued for the
twelve etchings by George Cruikshank ; but the
important thing from the bibliolater's point of
view is to possess the earliest issue with "The Last
Song" sm^rounded by a grotesque border. This
border, which is here produced, was removed
from the plate after the first issue of the first
edition. I have just had offered to me a copy
of this edition containing " The Last Song " in the
two states, i.e. with and without the border, for
the modest sum of eight guineas !
^ My attention was lately called to a copy of the memoirs in which
the former owner had pasted the following amusingly irrelevant note :
— ''At the Beckford sale a copy of the famous Grimm — the Grimm
with the illustrations printed in bronze-coloured ink — fetched £64."
I have a very shrewd suspicion that the annotator had an unmethodical
brain^ and believed Grimm to be short for Grimaldi ! Eequiescat in
pace.
CHAPTER IV
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES: "OLIVER TWIST
" M A T>'1-<T~\.' rtTTTf '7I7T -Cf\'lrw^ "
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT, " THE STRANGE
GENTLEMAN," "PICTURES FROM ITALY," AND
"SKETCHES BY BOZ."
In dealing with the episode of the suppressed plate
in Olive?' Twist we must be careful to bear in mind
the fact that between the publication of Pickwick
and the later novel there was an essential difference.
The former was first published in self-contained
parts, whereas the latter was published serially in
Bentleys Miscellany. Hence, the first editions of
Pickwick in book form are to be met with bound
from the parts, whereas the first editions in book-
form of Oliver Tivist are only to be found as
issued by the publishers complete in three volumes.
And unless we grasp this distinction at the outset
we shall find it impossible to understand the
apparently erratic appearance and disappearance
43
44 SUPPRESSED PLATES
of the suppressed plate of " Rose INIaylie and
Oliver : the Fireside Scene " and its substitute.
The first instalment of the novel was published
in the second number of Bentleys Miscellany^
February 1837, and it continued to run for nearly
two years and a quarter. From this it will be
seen that the last instalment of the novel was not
published until three months of the year 1839 had
elapsed.
In the meantime, however, the novel and the
illustrations had been completed, and the whole
story was printed in book form and published in
three volumes in the second year of its serial issue,
the exact date being November 9, 1838.
As a consequence we shall find the following
curious result — namely, that the owners of the
very earliest issue of Oliver Tivist find themselves
not in the happy possession of the suppressed
plate, as would be naturally expected, but in the
melancholy possession of its exceedingly ugly
substitute.
This, to the uninitiated, would prove as great
a puzzle as to JNlacaulay's New Zealander would
appear the fact that in Truro Cathedral the older
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES 45
structure is of a later style than the new. But
this is comparing small things with great. For we
are fain to confess that, unlike the law, de minimis
curat helluo librorum.
Thus, then, we have to face this apparent
anomaly, that, to possess a copy of Oliver 2\dst
with brightest impressions of the etchings through-
out, we are under the necessity of combining the
early plates from Bentleys Miscellamj with the
later plates from the first edition published in
volume form. This not uninteresting fact I may,
I believe, claim to be the first to point out, and
it goes far to explain a very misleading note on
p. 151 of Reid's monumental Catalogue of George
Cruikshank's Works, which shows clearly that
the late Keeper of the Prints was greatly at sea
in the matter.
Referring to the " Fireside Scene," he says :
"The plate was used in 1838, when the work re-
appeared in three volumes, in lieu of the preceding
('Rose Maylie and Oliver at Agnes's Tomb'),
which was thought by the publisher to be of too
melancholy a nature for the conclusion of the
story." From which any casual reader would be
46 SUPPRESSED PLATES
led to the conclusion that "Rose Maylie and
Oliver at the Tomb " was the suppressed plate,
and that the "Fireside Scene" was substituted
for it, whereas exactly the opposite was the case.
The novel was ready for publication complete
in three volumes in the autumn of 1838. The
illustrations for the last volume had been some-
what hastily executed "in a lump." And Dickens,
who always was most solicitous about the work of
his collaborating artists, did not set eyes upon
them until the eve of publication. One of them,
" The Fireside Scene," he so strongly objected to
that it had to be cancelled, and he wrote to the
artist asking him to design " the plate afresh and
to do so at once, in order that as few impressions
as possible of the present one may go forth." ^
The publication of the book, however, could not
be delayed, and thus we have it that the earliest
issue of the first edition of Oliver Tidst in book-
form contains the " Fireside Scene " opposite p. 313,
vol. iii., which it is the desire of every Dickens
collector to possess, while the later issue of the
latter part of the novel in Bentleys Miscellany
1 Vide Forster, Life of Charles Dickens, vol. i. p. 101. (Library
Edition.)
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES 47
contains that which Cruikshank substituted for it
at the novelist's request.
Both the plates are here reproduced for the
convenience of the owner of this or that edition.
But this is not all that has to be said upon the
subject of the "Rose and Oliver" plates, and
again I claim to be the purveyor of a little ex-
clusive information.^
It has generally been supposed that Cruikshank,
although naturally put about by Dickens's dis-
approval, did immediately proceed to carry out his
author's suggestion. For example, we find Mr.
Francis Phillimore, in his introduction to the
Dickens 3Iemento, published by INIessrs. Field and
Tuer, saying : " The author was so disgusted with
the last plate that he politely but forcibly asked
Cruikshank to etch another. This was done at
once." I am, however, in a position to prove that
this was emphatically not the case. And it is
what one would naturally expect, for George was
the last person in the world to acquiesce calmly
and unhesitatingly in the condemnation of work
which he had himself deemed sufficiently good.
^ I first alluded to this in Temple Bar for September 1892.
48 SUPPRESSED PLATES
In the year 1892 I had the privilege of examin-
ing the splendid collection of Mr. H. W. Bruton,
of Gloucester, which has since been dispersed.
On that occasion he drew my attention to a
miique impression of the "Fireside" plate in his
possession, from which we (he was the first to see
the point) drew the necessary conclusion which
follows. The importance of the impression lies in
the fact that it shows that a large amount of
added work had been put into the plate, prin-
cipally of a stipply nature, after all the impressions
which had so displeased Dickens had been struck
off. By which it is evident that George tried
hard to improve the original plate instead of at
once falling in with the suggestion that the subject
should be designed afresh. This proof was prob-
ably submitted to Dickens and again rejected, for
no impressions of the plate with stippled addi-
tions are known to have been published.^ And
plainly it was only after considerable effort to
make the plate do, that the artist designed the
^ It need hardly be said that if any of my readers finds that his
copy contains "The Fireside Scene" differing from the first of those
here produced, he may congi-atulate himself on the possession of a
great rarity.
H .^
— ^
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES 49
far worse picture of "Rose Maylie and Oliver
before the Tomb of Agnes," which is a question-
able adornment to the later issues of the story.
And had it not been for the delay so caused, it is
more than probable that the suppressed plate
would have been even a greater rarity than it
actually is.
As I have said above, JNIr. Bruton's collection
was dispersed in 1897 at Sotheby's. No. 145 in
that sale was an unrivalled run of the Oliver Twist
illustrations, seeing that it consisted of a complete
set of proofs of the etchings, and included, with
other rarities, the unique proof just mentioned.
The lot sold for £32 : 10s. By the kindness of its
late owner, I am enabled to present to my readers
a reproduction of this unique impression of the
plate in its second state.
So much then for the story of the suppressed
plate. There is, however, something more to be
said of its substitute.
If we turn to our edition of Oliver Twist, so
long as it does not happen to be one pubHshed
subsequently to 1845, or one containing the sup-
pressed plate, we shall find Rose standing with her
50 SUPPRESSED PLATES
arm on Oliver's shoulder before a tablet put up to
his mother's memory, and we shall find that Rose's
dress is light in colour save for a dark shawl or
lace fichu, which is thrown across her shoulders
and bosom. In the 1846 edition of the book, the
plate has been largely touched up and shaded, and
Rose's dress turned into a black one.^ Now, it is
perfectly evident that it is the old plate altered
and used over again and not a new plate copied
from the old, for every line and every dot in the
illustration to the earlier editions reappears in this.
The perplexing matter that I have to draw your
attention to, however, is that, in the same lot (145)
at the Bruton sale mentioned above, there was
sold a proof of this plate with Rose JNIaylie in the
black dress, and this a proof before letters, an im-
possible nut for the amateur to crack who does not
know that the lettering of plates may be stopped -
out or burnished away or covered up for the strik-
ing off of misleading impressions ; from which the
moral may be drawn that it is better to believe in
proof impressions after letters where they are well
' The dress is also black in a reprint of the first edition published
by Messrs. Macmillan in 1892, and in the large edition with the
illustrations coloured, published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall in 1895.
s
a,
o
en
a
z
a
<
<
9.
-3
Q
<
<
H
CO
O
»
'^^^i';^^^*.!^^^'*^
52 SUPPRESSED PLATES
authenticated, than to presume that a proof is
before letters merely because those letters do not
appear. Verb, sat sap. The plate in this state is
here reproduced for the sake of comparison.
Before passing from Oliver Twist, it should
be pointed out that the first issue of 1838, which
contains the suppressed plate, is also differentiated
from the second issue of the same year by what
is sometimes alluded to as the " suppressed title-
page," which runs as follows : — '* Oliver Twist ; /
or, the / ' Parish Boy's Progress ; ' / by * Boz,' / in
three volumes,/ Vol. I (II. or III.)/ London:/
Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street./ /
1838."
The second issue, with the substituted plate,
has:— "Oliver Twist / By/ Charles Dickens,/
Author of 'The Pickwick Papers,'" the rest of
the title being as in the first. It is curious to
notice, further, that in a later edition the original
title is resumed.
So much for Oliver Twist. We must not,
however, quit Dickens without mentioning one or
two other items, which more or less of right find
their place in a treatise on " Suppressed Plates."
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES 53
There is, for example, the etched title-page to
the first issue of the first edition of Mcu'tiii
Chuzzlewit, where the reward on the direction post
appears as "100£" instead of "£lOO," which is
often wrongly labelled " suppressed." As a matter
of fact it was not suppressed at all. It is nothing
more than Vae first state of a plate which was after-
wards altered. However, the bait is so valuable
a one with which to entice the bibliomaniac, that
there is no prospect of the description being lightly
relinquished, and as it is one object of this treatise
to protect the unwary, allusion to it is not out of
place. The fact that it is the title-page issued
after the book had appeared serially with its forty
illustrations, disposes of any lingering idea that in
acquiring it we are assured of the possession of
early impressions of the other plates. But the
undiscriminating bibliomaniac requires no logical
justification, and the plate will still retain its
market value.
A like variation is to be found in a well-known
etching by George Cruikshank, entitled " The
Worship of Wealth." The head of Mammon is
represented by a small money-bag, and the
54 SUPPRESSED PLATES
features of the face by the letters GOLD. Of
this plate only one state was known until in a
happy moment one of our best-known collectors
discovered and secured a unique proof with all the
letters prhited in reverse, thus : —
— a triumph which only the true dilettante will
appreciate at its proper value.
Another variation of the same kind is to be
found in the first and second issues of Pine's
beautiful edition of Horace (1733), in Avhich the
text is engraved throughout. In the first there is
the misprint "Post est" on the medal of Caesar.
In the second "Potest" has been substituted.
Copies containing the mistake fetch twice as much
in the market as those containing the correction !
This is, however, justifiable, as the mistake con-
notes an early set of impressions.
Another Dickens plate demanding mention is
the exceedingly rare etched frontispiece by " Phiz,"
to be found in only a few copies of The Strange
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES 55
Gentleman, published in 1837 by INIessrs. Chapman
and Hall. This " Comic Burletta " was founded
==/
THK STRANGE GENTLFJIAN.
upon " The Great Winglebury Duel," in Sketches
by Boz, and was first performed at the St. James's
Theatre in September 1836. A second edition was
56 SUPPRESSED PLATES
published in 1860 with a coloured etching by Mr.
F. W. Pailthorpe, the last illustrator to carry on
the tradition of Cruikshank and H. K. Browne.
The " Phiz " etching is here reproduced. Even the
second edition is extremely rare, and readily sells
for between two and three pounds. The reason
for the disappearance of the "Phiz" plate is not
known, and I only give particulars of it here
because of its excessive rarity, and because it is
constantly referred to as "suppressed," though
with no strict justification. The British Museum
copy of the book only contains Mr. Pailthorpe's
frontispiece, but a copy with the " Phiz " plate
is to be found in the Forster Library, South
Kensington.
Then, again, we have Dickens's Pictures from
Italy, published by Messrs. Bradbury and Evans
in 1846, with the beautiful "vignette illustrations
on the wood," by that master engraver, Samuel
Palmer. For some reason or other that represent-
ing " The Street of the Tombs, Pompeii," on the
title-page, disappears after the exhaustion of the
first and second editions, both published in the
same year. It reappears, however, in the late
^Vric inaitf 1 tmtf
TIIK srPPKKSSKI) l'I,ATK 1 HOM "'SKKTCUKS IJV HdZ.
DICKENS CANCELLED PLATES 57
reprint of 1888, and is also only here alluded to
because sometimes referred to as "suppressed."
The last of the Dickens illustrations germane to
our subject is that much-desired etching of "The
Free and Easy," which should be found opposite
page 29 of the " second series " of Sketches by Boz.
Both the first and second series were originally
published in 1836. In 1839 another edition
appeared with all the etchings to the original
edition enlarged (except " The Free and Easy,"
which was cancelled), and with thirteen additional
plates. An edition on the lines of the first issue of
the second series, only with the illustrations in
lithography, was published in Calcutta in 1837.
It is important, in collating the first editions of
the Sketches, to bear in mind the fact that the
first series was in two volumes and the second in
one. Otherwise it is impossible to understand
why " Vol. III." is engraved on each of the plates
in the second series. As showing how eagerly
these volumes in fine condition, and of course
uncut and in the original cloth binding, are sought
after, it may be mentioned that thirty pounds is by
no means an unheard-of price.
58 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Unfortunately the plates will in most cases be
found to be badly foxed. The tissue of the paper
itself has in many cases been attacked by damp
and rotted right through.
In such cases any remedy except the drastic
one of punching is of course out of the question.
Hence the rarity of a really " desirable " set of the
plates, — a rarity which is largely due to the hoard-
ing away of books in glass cases ; for books require
fresh, dry air, with the rest of God's creatures.
It may not be out of place here, whilst on the
subject of foxing, to warn the collector that every
plate in a book should be carefully examined
before any extravagant price is given for what is
called a fine copy. No doubt we are much
indebted to the clever " doctors " of prints who
punch the fatal spots out and pulp them in, who
fill up the worm-holes and vamp up the cleaned
prints with green-wood smoke and coffee infusions
to a respectable appearance of age. At the same
time we must never allow ourselves to forget
that there are such occupations as vamping and
" improving," and that it is not for vamped and
improved copies that we should pay excessive prices.
CHAPTER V
ON SOME FURTHER SUPPRESSED PLATES, ETCHINGS,
AND WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
In Chapter III. we have incidentally considered
the suppressed grotesque border to the etching of
"The Last Song" by George Cruikshank in the
Memoirs of Joseph Giimaldi. In this chapter
we shall treat of certain other suppressions to
which the "inimitable" George's work was sub-
jected.
The first to which I shall direct your attention
has a curious and romantic history attaching to it,
instinct with the rough and brutal methods of our
immediate ancestors. It is a highly-coloured etched
broadside published in 1815, the very year of the
tragic death of the gifted and ill-fated Gillray,
whose mantle, as political caricaturist, was now
fallen upon his brilliant young contemporary.
59
60 SUPPRESSED PLATES
These were the days of hard hitting, of reckless
charges, of imprisonment for libel, of dramatic
political episodes, and the wonder is that George
Cruikshank escaped the fates of the Burdetts, the
Hones, and the Hobhouses of the period. The fact
is that George was a very shrewd young man and
had a very shrewd idea of how far it was safe to
go. Indeed, in this partially suppressed cartoon
we find him upon the very verge of recklessness
and only drawing back from danger just in the nick
of time.
I have spoken of the partial suppression of this
broadside, and in this ixirtial cancellation it is
differentiated from all others with which we have
hitherto dealt. Brutal enough as is the satire as
we see it, there is a brutality curiously hidden
within, which, unsuspected by the uninitiated,
proves to what astounding lengths satire of that
period was sometimes ready to go.
Before dealing in detail with this "Financial
Survey of Cumberland or the Beggar's Petition"
it will be as well to relate the circumstances which
led up to its perpetration.
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, born
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 61
1771, was perhaps the best hated of all the royal
personages of the period then in England, and this
notwithstanding the fact that he was a man of
conspicuous bravery. He was, for a few years
after Queen Victoria's accession, next heir to the
throne of England. Later he ascended the throne
of Hanover under the regulations of the Sahc law,
and gained the affection of his people, proving
himself a wise and beneficent ruler. Probably
William IV. put his character into a nutshell
when he said : " Ernest is not such a bad fellow,
but if any one has a corn he is sure to tread on it."
However that may be, there is no doubt that
there is hardly a crime in the whole decalogue
which was not at one time or another laid at his
door, and not the least among these was the crime
of murder.
To quote the succinct account of this affair
given in the Dictionary of National Biography : —
"On the night of 31st ]May 1810 the duke was
found in his apartments in St. James's Palace with
a terrible wound in his head, which would have
been mortal had not the assassin's weapon struck
against the duke's sword. Shortly afterwards his
62 SUPPRESSED PLATES
valet, Sellis/ was found dead in his bed with his
throat cut. On hearing the evidence of the
surgeons and other witnesses, the coroner's jury
returned a verdict that Sellis had committed suicide
after attempting to assassinate the duke. The
absence of any reasonable motive . . . caused this
event to be greatly discussed, and democratic
journalists did not hesitate to hint that he really
murdered Sellis." One of these, Henry White,
was sentenced in 1815 to fifteen months' imprison-
ment and a fine of £200 for publishing the rumour.
The story again cropped up in 1832, when the
duke had made himself particularly obnoxious to
the radical press, and was exploited by a pamphleteer
named Phillips. The duke prosecuted him, and he
was promptly found guilty and sentenced to six
months' imprisonment.
Notwithstanding this, there was little abatement
in the persecution of the duke. Even Lord
Brougham in the House of Lords sneeringly called
^ Not Serres, as Reid has it in his descriptive account of Cruik-
shank's works. The keeper of the prints evidently confused the name
of the valet with that of Mrs. Olive Serres, who later on called herself
Princess Olive of Cumberland, and claimed to be the duke's legitimate
daughter.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 63
him to his face "the illustrious duke — illustrious
only by courtesy." I take up a few consecutive
numbers of that venomous little contemporary
paper, Figaro in London, and find week by week
some very plain speaking. Here are a few
examples : —
" That he's ne'er known to change his mind
Is surely nothing strange ;
For no one ever yet could find
He'd any niind to change."
Again : —
" He boasts about the truths I've heardj
And vows he'd never break it ;
Why zounds a man must keep his word
When nobody will take it."
Again, referring to a youth dressed a la Prince
de Cumberland, who had been brought up at Bow
Street charged with being an expert pickpocket,
Figaro says : " A similarity to the Duke of
Cumberland is a very serious matter, and in the
opinion of Mr. Halls (the police magistrate) quite
sufficient to entitle any one to a couple of months'
imprisonment, as a common thief or an incorrigible
vagabond."
Again : —
64 SUPPRESSED PLATES
" INQUEST EXTRAORDINARY
Found dead of fright, a child, (how sad a case I)
Verdict — Saw Cumberland's mustachioed face."
Again ; — " The new piece announced at Druiy
Lane under the title of JVie Dcevion Duke or The
3Iystic Branch has no reference whatever to his
Royal Highness of Cumberland."
But these might be multiplied almost to infinity.
The examples quoted make it sufficiently plain
why it was that the Whig Cabinet of the day felt
it advisable to hurry on our late Queen's marriage.
So much for a general review of the duke's
career. We will now return to the year 1815 and
the publication of the broadside with which we are
more particularly concerned.
The duke had just announced his intention of
marrying the Princess of Salm, who had been
twice a widow. The Prince Regent had raised no
objection, but the Queen, who had a rooted
aversion to second marriages, made no secret of
her disapproval. The country, too, was indignant,
because another royal marriage spelt, in accordance
with what was now the ordinary usage, a further
burden upon the exchequer.
m\r.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 65
On July 3 the proposal was made in the
Commons to increase the duke's pension of
£18,000 a year, which he held in addition to his
salary of £3000 a year as Colonel of the 1st
Hussars, by £6000. The House was equally
divided on the vote, when a dramatic incident
occurred. Lord Cochrane, heir to the Dundonald
peerage, and a member of the House of Commons,
had, in the previous year, been wrongfully found
guilty of participation in a Stock Exchange fraud
and had been imprisoned. On this very 3rd day
of July he was released from prison, and im-
mediately repaired to Westminster. The House
was at that moment going to a division. His
lordship entered just in time to record his casting
vote against the increase of the duke's pension, and
thus by an extraordinary coincidence the duke was
the poorer and the country the richer by £6000 a
year.
This is the moment seized by Cruikshank in the
broadside here reproduced. Before the half-open
door of " St. Stephen's," behind which is seen a
crowd of members, Lord Cochrane fires, from a
mortar decorated with a full-bottomed wig, a
66 SUPPRESSED PLATES
cannon-ball labelled " casting vote." This, striking
the duke full in the rear, drives him towards a
bank on which stand three grenadiers, the Princess
of Salm (recognisable by the flag which she
carries, labelled " Psalms ") and her little boy, who
sings —
My daddy is a grenadier
And he's pleas'd my Mammy O,
With his long swoard and hroadswoard
And his bayonet so handy O.
The duke, from whose hand falls his petition,
and whose head is adorned with a cuckold's horns,
cries aloud, " Pity the sorrow of a poor young
man " ; whilst Cochrane thunders out, " No, no,
we'll have no petitions here. Do you thint {sic)
w^e are not up to your hoaxing, cadging tricks ?
You vagrant, do you think we'll believe all you
say or swear ? Do you think that your services
or your merits will do you any good here ? If
you do, I can tell you from experience that you
are cursedly mistaken. So set off and don't show
your ugly face here again. If you do, shiver my
timbers if I don't send you to Ellenborough
Castle : aye, aye, my boy, I'll clap you in the
grated chamber^ where there's neither door, window,
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 67
onr (sic) fireplace. I'll put you in the Stocks I I'll
put you in the Pillory ! I'll fine you. I'll, I'll
play hell with you ! D me, I think I have
just come in time to give you a shot between wind
and water."
On the ground below the flying duke lie docu-
ments recording his pensions and salaries.
No wonder, you will say, that such a scandalous
attack upon a personage so near the throne should
be suppressed with a high hand. The marvel is
that artist and publisher should have escaped the
fate of Henry White and the pamphleteer Phillips.
But you will be more surprised than ever when
you learn that not only did artist and publisher go
scot-free, but that the plate, so far from being
suppressed, was published and scattered broadcast
amongst the people without protest.
AVhy, then, it will be asked, does it take its
place in a treatise on suppressed plates ? I will
tell you.
Do you not notice in the darker impression of
the plate here reproduced — darker because the
original has been painted — that such perspective as
the picture has is destroyed by a great black blot
68 SUPPRESSED PLATES
which reaches from the feet of the three soldiers
right down to the path in the right-hand lower
corner of the design ? Well, that great black blot
covers what would have inevitably landed George
Cruikshank and Mr. W. N. Jones of 5 Newgate
Street, publisher, in a larger building higher up
the same street, if it had not been for a happy
afterthought of Mr. W. N. Jones, which took
shape in a liberal use of lamp-black.^
On the space so covered the reckless George,
unmindful of the fate of Henry White, had etched
the scantily clothed figure of the unhappy valet
Sellis, with bleeding throat, crying aloud, " Is
this a razor that I see before me ? Thou canst
not say I did it."
After but one or two proofs had been pulled,
George and his publisher would seem to have
become appalled at their temerity, and the plate
was only issued coloured and with the peccant
^ This use of lamp-black has its parallel in the case of one of
the tailpieces to Bewick's Birds, in the first edition of which an
apprentice was employed to veil cei"tain indelicacies with a coat of
ink. Unfortunately, from want of density, the colouring rather serves
to accentuate than hide the offending details. In the next edition a
plug was inserted in the block and two bars of wood engraved in the
interests of decency.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK GO
figure blotted out. For many years I hoped and
hoped in vain to come across an uncoloured proof
displaying the hidden figure. But it was not until
1905 that I was fortunate enough to light upon
the probably unique proof here reproduced, which
had passed out of the Bruton collection into that of
the omnivorous collector, the late Edwin Truman.
For the sake of those who have preserved the
valuable catalogue of the sale in 1897 of the Bruton
collection of the works of George Cruikshank, it
should be observed that Reid's misnomer of the
valet to which I have drawn attention above has
been there repeated.
So much, then, for the partially suppressed
broadside of 1815, which incidentally may be
looked upon as the forerunner of the blottesque
censorship of Russian newspapers. We will now
pass on to another broadside which was not only
suppressed in full, but of which the copies that had
already been sold were assiduously bought up.
Tlie circumstances surrounding this plate are
by no means so dramatic as those with which we
have last dealt. At the same time, by means of it
we obtain one of those sharp contrasts in political
70 SUPPRESSED PLATES
moods and tenses which pleasurably tickle the
imagination. We learn how little is absolute in
life, how much is relative. We realise how the
reactionary of to-day may have been the reformer
of yesterday. In a word, we see in this most
conservative member of the Russell administration
of 1846-1852 and of the Coalition of 1853, in
this complacent recipient of the peerage of
Broughton de Gyfford and the Grand Cross of
the Bath, in this happy husband of a Marquis's
daughter, — we see, I say, in this Tory nobleman of
the 'fifties the irreconcilable John Cam Hobhouse
of the early years of the century, committed to
Newgate for breach of privilege, the author of
the subversive Letters to an Englishman, and the
representative for Parliament of the Westminster
mobocracy.
In Cruikshank's broadside here reproduced the
future President of the Board of Control is
represented twirling his thumbs in enforced retire-
ment and with full leisure to repent of his indiscre-
tions. Above the mantelpiece representations of
St. Stephen's and Newgate are placed in sharp
contrast. Below the last a former occupant of the
72 SUPPRESSED PLATES
cell has scratched a rude gibbet. The grate is
empty. On the table stand an empty pewter pot
and pipe. On the wall is seen a long quotation
from his anonymous pamphlet A Trifling Mistake,
for which he has been committed to prison. This,
with a barbed addition, gives the title to the
broadside itself. The quotation runs : —
" What prevents ye people from walking down to ye house
and pulling out ye members by ye ears, locking up their
doors and flinging ye key into ye Thames ? Is it any
majesty which lodges in the members of that assembly ? Do
we love them ? Not at all : we have an instinctive horror
and disgust at the very abstract idea of ye boroughmonger.
Do we respect them ? Not in the least. Do we regard
them as endowed with any superior qualities ? On the
contrary, there is scarcely a poorer creature than your mere
member of Parliament ; though, in his corporate capacity,
ye earth furnishes not so absolute a bully. Their true
practical protectors, then — the real efficient anti -reformers,
— are to be found at ye Horse Guards and ye Knightsbridge
Barracks. As long as the House of Commons majorities
are backed by the regimental muster roll, so long may those
who have got the tax power keep it and hang those who
resist " ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Vide Trifling Mistake.
Below this hangs a bill headed " Little Hob in
the Well."
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 73
The reproduction of the etching here given is
from a very interesting touched proof in the
British JNIuseum. Upon it the artist's work in
pencil can be plainly traced. To the right of
the picture of Newgate another roughly drawn
gibbet can be distinguished. On the bill the
words have been added, "A New Song in
Defence of the People, corrected," etc. The
profile of the prisoner has been carefully reduced,
and a punning sub-title to the whole added, " How
Cam you to be in that Hobble ? "
The date on the margin is January 1, 1819
(obviously a mistake for 1820), and its publication,
no doubt, went some way towards Hobhouse's
election as member for Westminster, which took
place immediately after his release on the 20th
day of the month in the year 1820.
After his elevation to the peerage Hobhouse
took no active part in public affairs. He died as
lately as 1869, leaving no issue. Probably the plate
was suppressed on the ground that it contained
the long quotation given above from the lawless
pamphlet for which he was imprisoned.
As I have said in an earlier chapter, it is not my
10
74 SUPPRESSED PLATES
intention to make this treatise in any way a devil's
directory for those in search of salacious curiosities.
I shall therefore not dwell upon the suppressed
woodcut, which is rather coarse than loose, of
"The Dead Rider" in the Italian Tales of 1823.
I merely mention it for the sake of those who
may be collating the book, and would find them-
selves misled by Reid's note on the subject. He
speaks of the "Elopement" woodcut being "wanting
in two or three copies consulted of the first edition,"
as though this were a matter for surprise. He fails
to draw the very obvious conclusion that "The
Elopement" was substituted for "The Dead Rider,"
so that the number of illustrations might continue
to tally with the announcement on the title-page,
" Sixteen illustrative drawings by George Cruik-
shank." He has apparently been confused by the
fact, which I notice confuses a good many second-
hand booksellers, that every copy has a woodcut
entitled "The Dead Rider," but that it is only
the first issue that has ttvo woodcuts with the
same title.
And, whilst touching on the subject of Cruik-
shank's early indiscretions, it will, I think, be only
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 75
fair to repeat a story of pretty and spontaneous
atonement which I have told elsewhere, and which
deals with another suppressed broadside.
No. 887 in Reid's catalogue is "Accidents
in High Life, or Royal Hobbys broke down.
Dedicated to the Society for the Suppression of
Vice." Its companion picture is " Royal Hobbys
of the Hertfordshire Cock Horse," which was
suppressed as being too suggestive even for so
latitudinarian an age as that of the Regency. In
the former the artist portrays the discomfiture
of the Prince and the JNIarchioness of Hertford
through the pole of the hobby-horse, upon which
they have been riding, breaking and throwing both
of them to the ground. The lady is cursing her
folly in trusting herself to "such an old stick,"
while her admirer is exclaiming that he shall try
the Richmond Road in the future, the Hertford
one being so unsatisfactory. The Duke of York
is suffering from a similar disaster, and congratulat-
ing himself upon the softness of the cushion by
which his fall has been broken, in allusion to his
income of £10,000 for having charge of his father.
Now ]\Ir. Bruton, who, like the late JNIr. Truman,
76 SUPPRESSED PLATES
had the advantage of George Cruikshank's friend-
ship in later years, was able to obtain authentication
or repudiation of doubtful unsigned work from the
artist himself, and, amongst others, this plate was
submitted to him for judgment. The man's honesty
forced him to acknowledge himself to be the author
of this piece of full-blooded vulgarity, but his regret
has altered the usual laconic record of *' Not by me,
G. Ck.," or "By my brother, I. R. C," pencilled on
the plate, to " Sorry to say this is by me, G. C."
The old man was, when he came to look back upon
a long life of good and evil mixed, somewhat more
human than that terribly pious hero of Pope's —
Who calmly looked on eithei* life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to bear ;
From nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd,
Thank'd heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd.
He looked back with genuine remorse upon
youthful extravagances, and, though doubtless
inclined by nature to be something of a poseur,
and though he attitudinised somewhat too much
over his virtuous fads at last, was not going to
bolster up his reputation by an easy forgetfulness
of early indiscretions.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
77
Only a few words need be said of the other
Cruikshank suppressions here reproduced. The
3^ixdi(AYro6crLViiYc.\vt{B
first is the well-known plate " Philoprogenitive-
ness," which was published in the earliest separate
edition of that noble Essay on the Genius of George
Cruikshank, written by Thackeray for, and reprinted
78 SUPPRESSED PLATES
from, The Westm'mster Revieiv in 1840. And surely
it was a prurient and unnatural squeamishness
which condemned this illustration to exclusion
in the subsequent editions. It is from the
Phrenological Illustrations^ published in 1826, one
of the most famous of Cruikshank's publications.
I shall follow Thackeray's excellent example of
refraining from any description, and just leave the
design to speak for itself, for it is a ridiculous task
"to translate his designs into words, and go to the
printer's box for a description of all that fun and
humour which the artist can produce by a few
skilful turns of his needle."
The second is the cancelled wood engraving
entitled "Drop it," which appears on page 18 of
the first edition of Talpa ; or the Chronicle of
a Clay Farm, an Agricultm^al Fragment, by
C. M. H(oskyns), published in 1853. For some
unknown reason it disappears from subsequent
editions, and is only of importance to those who
pride themselves on being the possessors of Cruik-
shank editiones p?incipes.
There is another Cruikshank suppression which
might, were we hard up for material, be dragged
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
79
into a treatise on suppressed illustrations. I refer
to a wood engraving of the redoubtable George
himself taking his publisher, Brooks, by the nose
with a pair of tongs, which resulted in the
suppression of the pamphlet entitled A Pop-gun
fired off bij George Cruikshank^ etc., in which it
•'Drop It I"
appeared. But if we were to open these pages
to the consideration of suppressed books and
pamphlets, I should soon find my publishers
remonstrating, and the volume too big to handle.
Further, it affords me the gratifying opportunity
of referring the reader to a small book of mine,
published in 1897, by Mr. AV. P. Spencer, of
27 New Oxford Street, and entitled George
80 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Ci'uikshank' s Portraits of Himself, which I, as
the author, of course consider has not attained
the circulation it deserves. There will be found
a full account of the suppressed pamphlet,
together with a reproduction of the offending
design.
Let me close this chapter with " A Cruikshank
Outrage," which I originally contributed to The
Gentleman s Maga::;ine. It is, I think, sufficiently
apropos, and will, I hope, appeal to all good
Cruikshankians.
This is the bookcase, this the key ;
None may open this lock but me ;
And only those of the cult may come
Into my sanctum satic-to-rimi.
Swear " by George " on his " Omnibus "
You are assuredly one of us.
Swear " by George " on his " Almanack "
You will return each volume back.
Swear by " Grimm ' ' in the earliest state
Theft and pillage you reprobate.
Yes, that's bound by Riviere, but
Here's the original cloth, uncut.
The " Bee and the Wasp " on India, tilt,
Zaehnsdorf binder, morocco, gilt.
But all my " Scourges " plain bound shall bide —
Plenty of " guilt " may be found inside.
GEORGE CRUIKSHANK 81
Here's my " Omnibus," worth a fief
Because I've the unpaged preface-leaf.
" London Characters," set complete,
Sjn. 8vo, in hlf. elf. neat.
Here a set of gigantic frauds
In the original labelled hoards.
" Oliver Twist," as you will have guessed.
The " Rose and Oliver " plate suppressed :
Not with the stipphng over- writ —
Only Bruton ^ can show you it.
And here '' The Bottle " coloured, date
Eighteen-hundred-and-forty-eight.
Yes, no doubt, 'twas among the first
Thrusts that the Master launched at Thirst.
! George, you say, was at best, you think,
As a Temperance man denouncing drink !
!! You dare tell me you interlope
In quest of books for your " Band of Hope " !!
!!! You swore ''by George " on his "Omnibus "
You were assuredly one of us !!!
!!!! Avaunt, I prithee, aroynt, vacate
This orthodox shrine to George the Great !!!!
For only those of the cult may come
Into my sanctum sanc-to-rum.
^ Since the Bruton sale in 1897 this, alas, is no longer true.
11
CHAPTER VI
HOGARTH S "ENTHUSIASM DELINEATED, "THE
MAN OF TASTE, AND "DON QUIXOTE
5»
In Mr. Austin Dobson's Hogarth, to which all
students of that master are so deeply indebted,
the following sentence concludes the list of
" Prints of an Uncertain Date " : " It has been
thought unnecessary to include two or three
designs, the grossness of which neither the in-
genuity of the artist nor the coarse taste of his
time can reasonably be held to excuse." And in
this book I have made it a cardinal point to
emulate Mr. Dobson's excellent example.
We remember in one of INIr. G. Russell's amus-
ing books the story of the erstwhile Member of
Parliament who had accepted a peerage, not-
withstanding his profession of democratic senti-
ments. Thereupon one of his late supporters,
82
HOGARTH 83
with excellent, though somewhat brutal, metaphor,
remarked, " Mr. says as how he's going to the
House of Lords to leaven it. I tell you he can't
no more leaven the House of Lords than you can
sweeten a cart-load of muck with a pot of
marmalade." Per contra, let us always bear in
mind, that were the cart full of marmalade, and
the pot of muck, the latter would be fully
sufficient to render the whole an abomination.
Fortunately for us, the Hogarth " Suppressed
Plates " which are befitting are of exceptional
interest. And it may as well be pointed out here
that those peculiarly gross ones which are often
alluringly alluded to as "suppressed" are nothing
of the sort. So far from being indeed effectively
withdrawn from observation, they have had, as a
matter of fact, particular attention drawn to them
by the fussy ingenuity with which their conceal-
ment has been emphasised.
The first of the Hogarth plates which we here
reproduce — " Enthusiasm Delineated " — is of far
greater intrinsic importance than any of those
with which we have already dealt in the preceding
chapters. It differs essentially from them not
84 SUPPRESSED PLATES
only in the fact that here the artist himself is the
fount and origin of the suppression but also in the
fact that it is a fine example of those palimpsest
plates of which more particular description will be
found in later chapters of this book. Peculiar
interest, too, attaches to the circumstance that,
superb as it was in execution, and elaborate to a
degree though it was in conception, it was no
sooner finished than the artist deliberately decided
against its publication, and destroyed the engrav-
ing after only two impressions had been taken
from the copper. Fortunately for us, one of these
is now in the possession of the British Museum.
It will be interesting to those who are the
happy possessors of Hogarth Illustrated and
the Anecdotes to compare this with the re-
duced copy (a very different matter) made by
Mills and published in these volumes. For it
must always be remembered that Hogarth's auto-
graph engravings are infinitely more interesting
than the copies, however eminent the journeyman
engraver may have been.
Another plate was engraved by Mills of the size
of the original, and published separately by Ireland
Jlf/erences fo the Hgures in
HoGARTirs Enthusiasm Delineated.
KACtci Rctfthael. )^.AfurRuhens. C^fUr RemJirandt X>.'L.¥XiY\.JreJmzu.itu?nsr'f<'UurP<iint,TS.
*rrom SktJcJifJ hy Ht'tforth. on the niarqms ofUte Onyjinal lYuus
86 SUPPRESSED PLATES
in 1795. The date of the original plate is given
in the British Museum Catalogue as 1739, but how
that date is arrived at I am at a loss to under-
stand.
It will be noticed that there are upon the
margin of our reproduction some curious re-
marques inscribed "the windmill," "the scales,"
and others. These were drawn in pen-and-ink by
Hogarth on the margins of the two original im-
pressions. They also appear engraved in facsimile
on the second state of Mills's full-sized plate. It
will therefore be well for owners of this last not
to jump to the hasty conclusion that they are the
fortunate possessors of one of the two impressions
mentioned above ! It should be added that the
MS. inscription on the British Museum copy
differs considerably from that engraved by Mills.
The method by which the suppression of this
plate came about is exceedingly curious.
It is probable that, after the design was com-
pleted, Hogarth came to the conclusion that the
intention of the satire might be mistaken, and
that, instead of bringing ridicule upon "the
superstitious absurdities of popery and ridiculous
HOGARTH 87
personification delineated by ancient painters," it
might be considered that his objective was rehgion
itself.
If this were so, the episode redounds greatly
to the artist's credit, and throws an effective lisrht
upon a little-known side of his character. It was
an act of great nobleness to suppress what was the
result of long toil, nay, more than that, what was
perhaps his highest mental, though by no means
his highest artistic, achievement, from what some
might consider hyper-conscientious motives.
It must be remembered that Hogarth lived in
a gross and irreligious age, and that what appears
to us exceedingly profane was largely the result of
the outspokenness of the times.
Ireland says that he altered and altered this
plate piecemeal until its final suppression. This,
however, I venture to doubt, for reasons given
below. At all events, in the end he had beaten
out and re-engraved every figure save one, and
changed, as Mr. Dobson says, what "was a com-
pact satire" into "a desultory work — a work of
genius for a lesser man, but scarcely worthy
of Hogarth." The final design was entitled
88 SUPPRESSED PLATES
" Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism : a
Medley," and was published in March 1762.
Let us now compare the two designs.
Hogarth's general purpose in the first was, in his
own words, to give " a lineal representation of the
strange effects of literal and low conceptions of
Sacred Beings, as also of the idolatrous tendency
of Pictures in Churches and Prints in Religious
Books." In the second his text was, " Believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are
of God, because many false Prophets are gone out
into the world."
Before comparing the designs in detail, I should
like to say that, besides carefully examining the
plates for myself, I have collated the various
descriptions of Ireland, Nichols, Mr. Austin
Dobson, and Mr. F. G. Stephens, whose con-
clusions I have not hesitated to adopt, add to,
discard or modify, as the circumstances have
seemed to require.
Let us now particularise the incidents portrayed
on the two states of the plate, both of which are
here reproduced for purposes of comparison.
Beginning with the preacher, we notice that
PLATE I.
i Illlllblv 'fell' ii' .1 li, hi , ' ir i.v ll,.' \f, ;
i: I ' Jl'.il-f"; III ' ' 1 I ■'! : II' 1' I IjiMi •!■(■■,
HI I ■ ■il>,IW\' I'V
PLATE II.
CUE/. r, S UPERS TI TI ON. aud FAN A TICISM.
HOGARTH 89
his is the only figure practically unaltered and
common to both engravings. By his " bull-roar "
{vide the "scale of Vociferation" hanging on
the wall to his left) he has apparently succeeded
in cracking the sounding-board above his head.
Notice his shaven crown, exposed by the fallen
wig, which intimates that he is a Papist in dis-
guise ; and the harlequin jacket underneath his
gown, which suggests that he is a religious merry-
andrew. A point worth remarking is that the
halo surrounds his wig, and not his head !
From his right hand (Plate I.) he suspends a
puppet (caricatured from a picture of Raphael's)
supporting the sacred triangle, which, in attempt-
ing to personify the Trinity, was considered by
some to be a profane materialisation of a mystical
idea. This he has ingeniously turned into a grid-
iron or trivet of the Inquisition by the simple
addition of three legs. In Plate II. this puppet
has been removed and its place taken by a witch,
riding on a broom-handle, who is suckling what
appears to be a huge rat. Beyond the preacher's
hand we find a further addition in the shape of a
cherub, hunting-cap on head, bearing in its mouth
12
90 SUPPRESSED PLATES
a letter directed " To St. Moneytrap." The
sermon paper, too, has been turned about so as to
bring the words " I speak as a fool " into greater
prominence. In which connection it may be
noticed that in " Enthusiasm Delineated " all the
lettering would seem to be from the burin of
Hogarth, whilst that in the "Medley" has been
put in by a writing engraver, with considerable
weakening of the general effect. Dangling from
the preacher's left hand is a devil with a gridiron
(after Rubens), practically identical in both plates,
though obviously re-engraved.
Further puppets hang ready for use on the
panels of the pulpit. In Plate I. they are
caricature representations, from pictures of the
Old Masters, of Adam and Eve (suggested by
Albert Diirer), of Peter with his Key, and Paul
in a black periwig armed with two swords and
elevated by high-heeled shoes (travestied from
Rembrandt), and of Moses and Aaron. In Plate
II. these scriptural puppets are exchanged for the
superstitious images of Mrs. Veal's ghost (see the
writing on the book), who, according to Defoe,
appeared the day after her death to Mrs. Bargrave
HOGARTH 91
of Canterbury, September 8, 1705 ; of Julius
Caesar's apparition, starting at its own appearance
in the looking-glass ; and of that of Sir George
Villers (sic), not " Villiers " as Ireland has it, whose
appearance to an officer at Windsor, charging him
to warn his son, the Duke of Buckingham, of his
approaching assassination, is recorded by Lord
Clarendon and Lilly the astrologer.
In the foreground, on the right, we have in
both plates a most remarkable mental thermometer,
the bulb of which is inserted in a Methodist's
brain. In Plate I. the mercury stands at "low-
spirits"; in Plate II. at "lukewarm." In the
first a dove surmounts the whole ; in the second
the Methodist's brain rests upon " Wesley's
Sermons," and " Glanvid " (an evident misprint
for "Glanvil") on "Witches." The lettering, too,
is altered, and, in place of the inscription in the
top division, is a picture of the Cock Lane Ghost,
of which Walpole wrote — " Elizabeth Canning and
the Rabbit Women were modest impostors in
comparison of this." The whole is surmounted by
a figure of the Tedwortli drummer immortalised
by Addison.
92 SUPPRESSED PLATES
In the adjoining pew a nobleman, as can be
seen by the decoration half concealed by his coat,
makes love to a girl, who discards a heavenly for
a very earthly affection, point to which is given
by the quotation from Whitfield's hymn which
can be read on the paper hanging over the adjacent
clerk's desk. The "mixed expression of religious
hypocrisy and amorous desire" on the girl's face
is marvellously expressed. The other occupant of
the pew is a repentant thief, as may be seen from
the " T " branded on his cheek.
In the first account of the plate given in the
Catalogue of Prints and Dj'awings in the British
3Iuseuin, the suggestion that the felon sniffs at
a bottle of spirits held in the hands of the image
is obviously incorrect. He is dropping his tears
into the bottle. In Plate II. a less aristocratic
and somewhat more decently behaved pair of
lovers occupy the pew. The puppet held by the
man is clearly a repetition of the Cock Lane Ghost,
only bearing in its hand a lighted candle in place
of a hammer. What the meaning of this is I fail
to understand. Of the two other occupants of
the pew one is weeping and the other asleep.
HOGARTH 93
A winged devil whispers evil thoughts into the
sleeper's ear.
In both plates, on a bracket attached to the
side of the pew and inscribed " The Poor's Box,"
rests a wire rat-trap in place of the proper re-
ceptacle.
Turning now to the clerk's desk, which in Plate
I. has the inscription " Cherubim and Seraph [ — ]
do cry," and in Plate II. " Continually do cry,"
we find a hideous and brutal-looking clerk singing;
lustily from a book which he half supports in his
claw-like fingers. Supporting him are two winged
cherubs, the ridiculous nothingness of whose
bodies (so envied by Thackeray in his days of
pupilage) is accentuated by the significant addition
of ducks' feet. Their pitiful faces accord with the
punning inscription on the edge of the desk. In
Plate II. the ducks' feet have been removed, but
to make up for the loss we have the clerk himself,
now a lean and hungry-looking individual, also
decorated with a pair of wings.
Below the desk in Plate I. howls a dog, his
collar engraved with Whitfield's name, whilst,
below the hassock on which he sits, a ragged
94 SUPPRESSED PLATES
figure squats embracing an image. In Plate II.
a book entitled Demonology^ by K. James Ist.y
surmounted by a shoeblack's basket in which
WhltjielcTs Journal is stuck, takes the place of the
dog, whilst the boy of Bilston, vomiting forth
nails, displaces the ragged figure. From the neck
of the bottle in his hand a figure, similar to that
held by the man in the pew, rises expelling the
cork, which falls to the ground.
In the forefront of Plate I. lies the bloated
figure of Mother Douglas, who, after a most
licentious life, was said to have become a rigid
devotee. Hogarth, who has portrayed her in
other of his plates, here ridicules her conversion.
A hand belonging to a figure outside the plate
holds a bottle of salts to her nose. In Plate II.
Mary Tofts, "ye Godliman woman," takes her
place. Her well-known imposture, which it would
be out of place to particularise here, gave rise to a
voluminous literature, and a sheaf of remarkable
caricatures. In place of the salts a glass of cordial
is applied as a restorative.
In Plate I., behind the prostrate woman a
bearded Jew regards the preacher with mock
a
a
s
■A
nj
M
cn
H
H
S
u
a
H
96 SUPPRESSED PLATES
devotion, what time he kills a flea between his
thumb-nails. Before him lies a book open at a
picture of Abraham offering up Isaac. In Plate
II. the figure of the Jew is much weakened, whilst
a knife inscribed " Bloody " is laid across a picture
of an altar on the page of the open book.
In the background of both plates a motley
collection of devotees assists at these religious
orgies. To the extreme left of Plate II., which,
by the addition of several persons in the congrega-
tion, has become greatly overcrowded, a minister
directs the attention of a terrified wretch, whose
hair bristles with fear, to the extraordinary double-
globed chandelier above their heads.
Final emphasis is given to the whole satire by
the figure of a Turk (slightly varied in the two
plates), who regards with amusement through the
window the idolatry of those "dogs of Christians."
So much for the details of the plates. As
regards the general effect of the whole, the
superiority of the suppressed design will be evident
at a glance. In lighting, balance, and composition,
the substituted design is immeasurably removed
from the original. Nor would this be wonderful if,.
HOGARTH 97
as Ireland surmised, "the alterations were made
by degrees."
With this view, however, I find it, as I have
said above, impossible to concur. If, as he sug-
gests, the figures were beaten out one by one, their
substitutes would occupy practically identical
spaces on the plate ; but a little measurement
demonstrates the fact that, with the exception of
the figure of the preacher, which has been left
where it was, and of the mental thermometer,
which has been raised, almost the whole of the
design has been shifted downwards.
1 am therefore inclined to think that from the
first Hogarth, from one cause or another, made up
his mind to change the direction of his satire, and
at once beat out all the figures on the plate save
one. That the arrangement of the new design
should coincide generally with that of the first is,
I think, no more than one would naturally expect,
and does not in any way weaken the argument.
In conclusion, it should be pointed out, for the
sake of those who would study the matter further,
that the accounts of the impressions of the several
plates in the Catalogue of Prints and Drawings
13
98 SUPPRESSED PLATES
in the British Museum are not easily found, being
somewhat arbitrarily placed at pages 301-307, vol.
iii., part i., and pages 644-648, vol. ii., respectively.
So far we have seen Hogarth in his character of
general iconoclast and antipapist. It is now our
business to deal with him in what was a more
personal polemic.
In the year 1731 Pope first published his
notorious attack upon the Duke of Chandos in his
satire Of Taste: An Epistle to the Right Hon.
Richard, Earl of Rurlington,
Hogarth forthwith entered the lists, and de-
signed and published a well - deserved pictorial
counterblast, allusively entitled " The Man of
Taste," or "Burlington Gate." This was im-
mediately " suppressed " on a prosecution being
threatened because of what was deemed its
scurrilous and defamatory character.
Notwithstanding this prompt suppression, how-
ever, the design reappeared the following year,
reduced in size, as frontispiece to a pirated edition
of Pope's "Epistle," which was included in a
pamphlet entitled A Miscellany on Taste; by
HOGARTH 99
31r. Pope, etc., published by Lawton and others.
Its contents were (1) Of Taste m Architecture,
an Epistle to the Earl of Burlington, with Notes
Vaiiorum, and a complete Key ; (2) Of Mr. Pope's
Taste in Divinity : viz., the Fall of Man, and the
First Psalm, translated for the use of a Young
Lady ; (3) Of INIr. Pope's Taste of Shakespeare ;
(4) His Satire on Mr. P y; and (5) INIr.
Congreve's fine Epistle on Retirement and Taste,
addressed to Lord Cobham. In this copy of the
plate Pope, who is shown in the original by means
of the back of his head and figure, and as wearing
a full-bottomed wig, is more distinctly satirised,
his face being displayed in profile, and his head
enclosed by a linen cap instead of a wig. Amongst
a few other minor alterations, it may be noticed
that the palette held by Kent is transferred from
one hand to the other.
Referring to the republication of Hogarth's
cartoon in this form, Mr. Dobson seems some-
what inclined to argue against the story of
its "suppression," or, at any rate, its effectual
suppression ; but he does not allude to the im-
portant fact that the publisher of this pamphlet
100 SUPPRESSED PLATES
was also promptly prosecuted, and the sale strictly-
prohibited. From which it is clear that the
suppression was as unqualified and as prompt as
could reasonably be expected.
Steevens indeed mentions a copy upon which
the following inscription had been made : —
" Bot. this book of Mr. Wayte, at the Fountain Tavern,
in the Strand, in the presence of Mr. Draper, who told me
he had it of the Printer, Mr. W. Rayner. urn •>■•
J. L/OSINS.
The signatory was an Attorney, and the wording of
the memorandum suggests the intended prosecution.
To return to Pope's poem. In it he passes
the most scathing criticism upon the splendid
but tasteless surroundings of "Timon" at his
stupendous villa.
" Greatness, with Timon, dwells in such a draught
As brings all Brobdingnag before your thought.
To compass this, his building is a town.
His pond an ocean, his parterre a down :
Who but must laugh, the master when he sees,
A puny insect, shivering at the breeze !
Lo, what huge heaps of littleness around !
The whole, a labour'd quarry above ground.
Two cupids squirt before : a lake behind
Improves the keenness of the northern wind.
His gardens next your admiration call.
On eveiy side you look, behold the wall !
HOGARTH 101
No pleasing intricacies intervene^
No artful wildness to perplex the scene ;
Grove nods at grove^ each valley has a brother.
And half the platform just reflects the other."
And then, at the end of it all, he proceeds to
justify Providence, in giving riches to those who
squander them, in a way that will hardly commend
itself to the student of the dismal science. A bad
taste, he says in effect, employs more hands, and
diffuses wealth more usefully than a good one !
One would like to have heard John Stuart Mill on
the subject of " Pope."
The " Epistle " was addressed to Pope's patron,
the Earl of Burlington, who was one of the noble-
men who had helped to screen him a few years
before on his publication of the Dunciad.
"Timon" (mainly though not entirely) referred to
the Duke of Chandos, who was, Johnson says, a man
perhaps too much delighted with pomp and show,
but of a temper kind and beneficent, and who had
consequently the voice of the public in his favour.^
' Bowles says, " As Pope was the first to deal in personalities, the
following severe retaliation was published in the papers of the time :
'' Let Pope no more what Chandos builds deride,
Because he takes not Nature for his guide ;
Since, wond'rous critic ! in thy form we see
'lliat Nature may mistake, as well as he."
102 SUPPRESSED PLATES
A violent outcry was therefore raised against
the ingratitude and treachery of Pope, who was
said to have been indebted to the patronage of
Chandos for a present of a thousand pounds, and
who gained the opportunity of insulting him by
the kindness of his invitation to "Canons," the
Duke's seat near Edgware.
In a pamphlet entitled Ingratitude published
in 1733, of which only a portion of the frontispiece
is in the British Museum,^ the matter is thus alluded
to. "A certain animal of diminutive size, who
had translated a book into English metre (or at
least had it translated for him), addressed himself
to a nobleman of the first rank, and in the style of
a gentleman-beggar requested him to subscribe a
guinea for one of his books. The nobleman
entertained him at dinner in a sumptuous manner,
and continued so to do as often as the insignificant
mortal came to his house. After dinner this
generous man of quality, taking him aside, put a
bank-note for five hundred pounds into his hands,
and desired he might have but one book. But
^ Vide Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum,
Division I., Satires, vol. n.. No. 1935.
HOGARTH 103
what was the consequence of this ? Why, truly,
the wretch, who is a composition of peevishness,
spleen and envy, having no regard to the benefits
he had received, in a few years after, and without
any manner of provocation, or the least foundation
for truth, publishes a satire, as he terms it, but in
reality it is an infamous and calumnious libel,
calculated, with all the malice and virulency
imaginable, to defame and render odious the
character of his best benefactor."
From which it will be seen that Hogarth was
not out of the fashion in retaliating upon Pope's
devoted head with the cartoon which we here
reproduce.
Let us examine it in detail. The gate, which
is the main feature in the picture, is a travesty
of that which is familiar to old frequenters of
Piccadilly. Until as lately as 1868, it formed the
frontage to Burlington House. It was the joint
design of Lord Burlington and Colin Campbell,
and, although well-proportioned and inoffensive,
hardly justifies the fulsome praise which has been
bestowed upon it. Kent, originally a coach-painter,
with whose statue Hogarth has surmounted the
104 SUPPRESSED PLATES
structure, was patronised by, and brought his
practical knowledge to the assistance of, Lord
Burlington, himself undoubtedly a man of en-
lightened taste. The alteration and reconstruction
of the original Burlington House, which had been
built by his great-grandfather, the first Earl, was
the first of his many architectural projects. It
was eventually taken down to make way for the
existing Royal Academy and Science Buildings.
Lord Hervey laughed at its inconvenience in the
following couplet : —
" Possessed of one great hall of state,
Without a room to sleep or eat."
The best of Lord Burlington's and Kent's joint
work is to be found in the northern park front of
the Treasury Buildings in Whitehall, " which," says
Fergusson, " if completed, would be more worthy
of Inigo Jones than anything that has been done
there since his time."
Flanking the ex-coach-painter, Hogarth has
placed reclining figures of Raphael and Michael
Angelo, who regard the modern architect with
respectful admiration ! On the platform is Pope
rough - casting the front of the structure, and
THE Man of Taste
B . <xntf bodu thai c^rmAT tn his ti'/u/.
C.Scl a l)tiA>'^ C?niH as appear\f h^ dw crcscatl at onf ccrrur
E . A ftnnd np procft
Y a Lah»iirrr.
14
106 SUPPRESSED PLATES
incidentally bespattering the passers-by with white-
wash from his huge brush. Chief amongst these
is the Duke of Chandos, who vainly strives to
protect himself with his hat. Ascending the
ladder is Lord Burlington, who carries up more
whitening for the beautifying of his own gate and
the defilement of his neighbours' clothes. Over
the gate Hogarth has sarcastically inscribed the
solitary word "Taste." The double distribution
of flattery and satire is an excellent pictorial
burlesque of the Epistle to Lord Burlington^
and who can say that it was not richly deserved ?
At any rate, stroke and counterstroke were fierce
and unhesitating in those days, and, although
Pope's and his patrons' influence was sufficient to
get Hogarth's witty plate suppressed, it is a tribute
to the wholesome respect which the poet had for
the artist, that, pugnacious and irrepressible as his
pen generally was. Pope never ventured to make
any written retaliation upon the libeller.
It should be mentioned that this was not the
first occasion upon which Hogarth had attacked the
charlatanry of Kent. In the first plate published
on his own account, in 1724 — " Masquerades and
HOGARTH 107
Operas" — he had mckided him m his ridicule of
what Mr. Dobson calls "foreign favourites and
dubious exotics." In that plate, also, he had
ridiculed " Burlington Gate," and, curiously
prompted by the spirit of prophecy, had labelled
it *' Accademy (mc) of Arts ! " He had also, in
the following year, burlesqued Kent's scandalous
altarpiece at St. Clement Danes, which had lately
been taken down in response to the outcry against
its sacrilegious impudence.
By the kindness of the publisher of T/ie Buildei^
I am enabled to reproduce a wood engraving of
Burlington Gate as it actually was, which appeared
in that journal on October 28, 1854. Comparing
this with the cartoon, it will be seen that Hogarth
did not scruple to heighten the effect of his satire
by depriving Lord Burlington's edifice of such
merits as it undoubtedly possessed.
So much for Hogarth in his polemic with Pope.
We will now turn for a moment to Hogarth and
his quarrel with Wilkes and Churchill, in which we
shall find him working over an old plate as in the
case of " Enthusiasm Delineated," but with a very
different object in view. Here he adopts a method
108 SUPPRESSED PLATES
of retaliation which, as we shall learn from later
chapters of this book, had become already customary
amongst the producers of political broadsides in
the seventeenth century. Hitherto Hogarth had
kept clear of politics, but now, in his sixty-fifth
year, he threw himself into the fray. John Wilkes
had started a paper called IVie NortJi Briton in
opposition to The Briton, the organ of the Tory
party of which Lord Bute was the leader. Hogarth
had long enjoyed Bute's favour. He had also
until now been on friendly terms with Wilkes and
his henchman Charles Churchill, the poet. On
September 7, 1762, taking sides with his patron,
he published Jlie Times (Plate I.). This so enraged
Wilkes that he retaliated on the Saturday following,
in the seventeenth number of The NortJi Briton,
with a violent attack on Hogarth both as man and
artist. In the May following Hogarth retorted
by publishing a portrait of John Wilkes which,
professing to be a likeness, cleverly exhibited his
most repulsive characteristics. Wilkes being now
on his trial for libel, Churchill came to the rescue
with his savage and slashing Epistle to William
Hogarth. This was published on August 1.
BURUNGTON GATE AS IT APPEARKO PRIOR TO 1868.
110 SUPPRESSED PLATES
With a promptitude astonishing in those days of
tardy copper-plate engraving, Hogarth, by a clever
expedient, retaliated within a month with his
exceedingly venomous print of "The Bruiser." The
plate from which this was printed had already done
duty as a portrait of Hogarth himself with his dog
Trump, engraved from the well-known painting
now in the National Gallery.
Pressed for time, in ill-health, and apprehensive
lest the public might attribute delay in replying to
inability to do so, he took the old plate, burnished
out his own portrait, and substituted in its place
the head of a bear, with torn and soiled clerical
bands about its neck, ruffles on its wrists, and
clasping against its chest a foaming pot of beer,
in allusion to the personal habits of the poet and
ci-devant parson. With his left paw the beast
clasps a huge club, the knots of which are labelled
"Lye 1," "Lye 2," referring to the falsities of
The North Briton. There are other minor altera-
tions which may be seen at a glance. The whole
was entitled "The Bruiser, Charles Churchill
(once the Rev*^. ! ) In the character of a Russian
Hercules, regaling himself after having killed
HOGARTH 111
the Monster Caricature, that so sorely gall'd
his vh'tuous friend, the Heaven-born Wilkes."
The plate thus altered is to be found in five states,
particulars of which may be found on p. 286 of
Mr. Austin Dobson's William Hogarth, 1891.
That here reproduced is from a copy of the last
state engraved by Dent for John Ireland.^ It is
only in the last two states that the clever little
engraving in front of the palette is to be found.
So far we have dealt with work done by Hogarth
in his individual capacity. Let us now turn to such
of his collaborative work as suffered cancellation.
In dealing with the series of suppressed Quixote
plates we shall be brought into touch with two not
uninteresting and accessory episodes in the artist's
career. In the first of these Hogarth made a
great success, where a rival artist had made a
signal failure. In the second, by way of righting
the balance of things, fate ordained it that this
same artist should badly best Hogarth, and that in
a manner peculiarly galUng to the latter's vanity.
Hogarth's father-in-law was Sir James Thornhill,
1 lu copying, the design, as will be seen, has been turned from left
to right.
112 SUPPRESSED PLATES
whose drawing academy in Covent Garden had
not proved as valuable an institution as had been
anticipated. Johan Van der Banck, the rival
artist above alluded to, had been one of Sir
James's pupils. By heading a secession and
establishing a rival school he had undoubtedly
largely contributed to the failure of his master's
venture. However, in due time, his school too
proved to be lacking in the elements of success,
and came to an untimely end.
On Sir James's death tlie "neglected apparatus"
of his father-in-law passed into Hogarth's hands,
and he set to work to establish the academy on a
different footing. The result was that it became
a successful educational centre, which only ceased to
exist many years afterwards on the establishment
of the Royal Academy. A picture by Hogarth of
the interior of the school with the students drawing
from life is to be seen on the staircase leading; to
the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House.
In this case Hogarth had the laugh on his side.
In the other, which is immediately relevant to our
subject, the laugh was with Van der Banck.
In 1738 Lord Carteret's Spanish edition of Don
1^ S
" P5
1^
8
5i
HOGARTH 113
Qidxote was published. For this Hogarth had
been commissioned to design a series of illustra-
tions. Eight of these were executed, but, on
being submitted to Lord Carteret, did not meet
with his approval. The commission was con-
sequently transferred to Johan van der Banck,
who thus succeeded in revenging himself for his
former failure, and at the same time unconsciously
provided us with matter for consideration in these
papers. His sixty- eight designs were engraved by '^
Van der Gucht and republished in the English
edition of 1756, of which Charles Jarvis was the
translator. Of Hogarth's unsuccessful venture
John Ireland writes with some indignation, "As
they are etched in a bold and masterly style, I
suppose the noble peer did not think them pretty
enough to embellish his volume and therefore laid
them aside for Vandergucht's engravings from
Vanderbank's designs." It is a slight satisfaction
to know that Hogarth's completed etchings were
paid for !
One curious fact about Jarvis's edition demands
our attention. The plate representing the Don's
first sally in quest of adventure is without any
15
114 SUPPRESSED PLATES
signature, but the *' style of the etchmg and the
air of the figures" indisputably determine for us
the fact that it is from the pencil and burin of
Hogarth, so that it is open to any one who has
access to this edition to judge for themselves
of the justice of Ireland's strictures upon Lord
Carteret.
For those who have not access to Jarvis's
edition it may be mentioned that a copy engraved
by J. Mills appears in Ireland's Hogarth Illustrated
and in the Aiiecdotes of William Hogarth, published
by Nichols in 1833. Of Hogarth's eight designs
we are therefore left with only seven, which were
"suppressed." Of these six were published from
Hogarth's own plates in Baldwin, Cradock and
Joy's splendid collection of the Works in 1822 ;
whilst previously, in 1798, John Ireland had
published small copies of them together with an
unfinished design of "The Innkeeper" in his
possession, engraved by J. 31 ills. These plates
were used over again in the Anecdotes of 1833
with altered lettering and the etchings considerably
worn.
The accompanying reproductions are, save for
?'>ON OmXOTE.
OJ fli'iwrUi iv'
NO. I. — THK INXKEEPKK.
116 SUPPRESSED PLATES
No. I., not made from any of the foregoing, but
from the early states of the plates, never before
published, to be found in the British Museum.
Thus they will prove not only of interest to the
casual reader but also valuable, for purposes of
comparison, to the possessors of any of the three
editions of Hogarth's Woi^ks mentioned above.
The full descriptions of the plates may be found in
Ireland and Nichols, but for the convenience of the
reader I append a short commentary.
No. I. The InnJxeeper is from an unfinished
etching and is of particular interest. By some its
authenticity is doubted, but John Ireland believed
in it, and I, for one, see no reason to call his
judgment into question, more particularly as this
figure bears a more than chance resemblance to
that of "The Innkeeper" in the undoubted Hogarth
referred to above published in Jar vis's edition.
In the Van der Banck plate, which represents the
knighting of the Don by the Innkeeper, it is also
evident that Hogarth's rival has done him the
compUment of adopting his model.
No. II. The Funeral of Chrijsostom, Marcella
vindicating herself. Tliis scene was also taken
118 SUPPRESSED PLATES
by Van der Banck for illustration, and a com-
parison of the two plates is not favourable to
Hogarth.
No. III. TJie Innkeepers JVif'e and Daughter
taking care of the Don after lie had been beaten.
" JNIuch superior to the same scene designed by
^^an der Banck."
No. IV. Don Quixote seizes the Barbers Basin
for Mambrinos Helmet. On the whole inferior to
Van der Banck's. The barb of the Don's weapon
is different from that in the Hogarth design pub-
lished by Jarvis. The stirrups and saddling of the
horse too are different. These points have not
been referred to before, but I mention them by
way of argument against the authenticity of the
Jarvis plate. As I have said before, personally I
have no doubt that it is from Hogarth's burin.
No. V. Don Quixote releases the Galley Slaves.
Here the Don is found wearing the barber's basin
as his helmet. By a not unusual oversight it will
be noticed Hogarth has made his figures left-
handed, forgetful of the reversing process due to
printing from a plate. A superior design to that
of Van der Banck, who, as Ireland says, " has
NO. III. — THE INNKEEPER S WIFE AND DAUGHTER.
NO. IV. DON QUIXOTK SEIZES THE BARBERS BASIN.
HOGARTH 121
given to two or three of the thieves the counten-
ances of apostles."
No. A^I. The First Intei'view of the Valoroiis
Knight of La Mancha with the Unfortunate Knight
of the Rock. Distinctly superior to Van der Banck.
No. VII. The Curate and Barber disguising
tliemselves to convey Don Quixote home. An ex-
cellent representation of the curate assuming the
dress of a distressed virgin who, by his tale of
having been wronged by a naughty knight, hopes
to induce the Don to return to his home.
Whilst on the subject of Don Quixote it may
be mentioned that, much earlier in his career,
Hogarth had designed and engraved a plate deal-
ing with " Sancho's feast," but this must not be
in any way identified or confused with the series
begun for Lord Carteret, although Ireland groups
them all together.
So much for Hogarth's suppressed illustrations,
and it is, it must be confessed, something of a
relief to turn again from his cognate art to that
which is individual and typical. For we do not
much value Hogarth as an illustrator. In this
character he rarely does more than repeat for us
16
NO. V. DON QUIXOTE RELEASES THE GAIXEY SLAVES.
Y/ /fajartA ,7nv 'tl/rii'/:'
NO. VI. — THE FIRST INTERVIEW.
124 SUPPRESSED PLATES
in another medium the obvious matters already
dealt with in the letterpress. *' Illustration," as
Mr. Laurence Housman has well said, " should
be something in the nature of a brilliant com-
mentary throwing out new light upon the subject,
an exquisite parenthesis of things better said in
this medium than could be said in any other : in a
word, the result of another creative faculty at
work on the same theme." And this in no way
describes Hogarth's work as an illustrator. It is
as a great original painter working out consum-
mately the homeliest of morals that he appeals to
us. Those morals which, to quote Thackeray, are
" as easy as Goody Twoshoes," the moral of
*' Tommy was a naughty boy and the master
flogged him, and Jacky was a good boy and had
plum-cake." For it is in " Marriage a la Mode,"
" A Rake's Progress," " Industry and Idleness,"
that he succeeds inimitably, carrying out the
motto beneath " Time Smoking a Picture " : —
" To Nature and your Self appeal
Nor learn of others what to feel."
But this only in passing, for our subject
debars us from lingering over Hogarth's best.
WMffrM fn.''c//ai/^
NO. Vir. THE CURATE AND THE BARBER.
126 SUPPRESSED PLATES
From the nature of our theme we are confined to
the examination in the majority of cases of that
which verges upon failure either from artistic or
social considerations.
CHAPTER VII
CANCELLED DESIGNS
FOR PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK
[Charles Keene and Frederick Sandys]
In the present chapter I propose to deal with
three masterly drawings prepared for the publica-
tions of Messrs. Bradbury and Evans (the pre-
decessors of Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew) which
were suppressed for various reasons. Two of
them are drawings by Charles Keene done for
Punch, which were never even "brought to the
block." The third is by Frederick Sandys,
designed for Once a Week, and actually engraved,
but cancelled before publication for reasons which
shall appear.
For leave to reproduce the first — one of the
rare cartoons (in this case a double -page one)
drawn by Keene for Punch — I am indebted to
127
128 SUPPRESSED PLATES
the generosity of INIessrs. Bradbury and Agnew,
to whom the original drawing now belongs. For
years it has hung amongst other well-nigh price-
less treasures in the dining hall in Bouverie Street,
Whitefriars, and, until reproduced by me in the
Pall Mall Magazine in 1899, was only knoAvn
to the privileged few whose good fortune it has
been to penetrate into that Temple of the Comic
Muse. It is therefore with the greater satis-
faction that it is here reproduced for the delight
of that surely increasing public which recognises
in Charles Keene the greatest master of pen-and-
ink drawing that England has produced. But
this is not the place to linger over the qualities
of artists. At the same time we cannot but
congratulate ourselves that, by good fortune, our
chosen subject brings us into contact not only
wdth work to which adventitious interest attaches,
but also with artistic work evidencing a technical
mastery hard indeed to surpass.
The only public mention before the year 1899
made of this splendid pen-and-ink drawing is to be
found on page 60 of Mr. Spielmann's monumental
work. The History of Punch. There, in his most
^'WMi
l^^?^)'
V--
a^
^-^
?^
7y A^.
I '
^
z "
«■ >"
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 129
interesting description of The ^^ Punch'''' Dining
Hall, it is described as "a masterly drawing,
2 feet long, by Keene, bought by the late Mr.
Bradbury at a sale — the (unused) cartoon of
Disraeli leading the principal financiers of the day
in hats and frock-coats across the Red Sea.
(' Come along, it's getting shallower !') "
Now, since this was written, further inquiries
have been made upon the subject, and two theories
present themselves for consideration. The first
of them in its general outline supports Mr.
Spielmann's account, and maintains that the
picture was bought direct from Keene himself by
the late Mr. Agnew (not Mr. Bradbury), as a
solatium on account of its not being used, and
that the reason for suppressing it was the anti-
Jewish feeling by which it was inspired.
In support of this view it should be remembered
that Keene all along refused to accept a fixed
salary for his Punch work, and was always paid
by the piece. Considering, too, that the subject
of the weekly cartoons was (and still is) a matter
of general discussion at the Wednesday Punch
dinners, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the
17
130 SUPPRESSED PLATES
subject was embarked upon with the authority of
the editor, and that other counsels only prevailed
after the drawing had reached the stage at which
it now appears.^ This being so, it seems not
unlikely that a generous employer would feel
himself in some degree answerable for the futile
labour to which the artist had been put, and would
offer to buy the picture as it stood rather than
that the artist should in any way be prejudiced.
If this were the case (which does not sound
improbable) it throws an interesting and edifying
side-light upon the relations existing between the
artists and publishers of our great comic paper.
Against this theory, however, I have the opinion
of Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Linley Sambourne
that the drawing was done on Keene's own initia-
tive by way of frontispiece to one of the Punch
pocket-books. But this view of the matter I am,
with submission, not myself inclined to accept,
and for two reasons. First and foremost, the
drawing differs in shape from the pocket-book
folding frontispieces ; and secondly, it was the
* Of course Sir John Tenniel was cartoonist in chief, but sometimes
the cartoon was duplicated, and on very rare occasions Sir John took
a holiday.
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 131
practice in these yearly productions rather to
satirise some social folly or fashion of the period
than to deal with matters political or international.
In addition to which it does tally in shape with
the double-page cartoons of Punch itself, and, as a
matter of fact, Keene's few cartoons were mostly
done during the years 1875, 1876, and 1877, when
the matter of the Suez Canal was making a new
departure in politics — a fact which, as will appear,
has some bearing upon the matter before us.
So much for the circumstances connected with
the production and proposed destination of the
picture. Let us now consider its subject and the
probable reason of its suppression.
And, if we take down our volume of collected
Punch cartoons and turn to those deahng with
Disraeli, we shall be disinclined to think that it
was out of any consideration for "Benjamin
Bombastes" himself that this splendid drawing
was withheld from publication. But thinly
disguised contempt is the attitude almost in-
variably- maintained towards him, whilst but
thinly disguised personal admiration for his great
rival discounts even the bitterest political taunts
132 SUPPRESSED PLATES
flung at that devoted head. No ! I am mcHned
to thmk that events at this time, to which this
cartoon referred, were wringing unwilling approba-
tion even from "The Asiatic Mystery's" most
bitter enemies, and that Bouverie Street could
not but acknowledge that here at least "Ben-
Dizzy " deserved well of his country. For surely
the cartoon has reference to nothing less than
that crowning act of wisdom, the purchase of
nearly half the shares in the Suez Canal for four
millions sterling. Here we have Disraeli with
his umbrella pointing the way, not across the Red
Sea as Mr. Spielmann imagines, but up the Canal
towards the Red Sea. He calls out, "Don't be
afraid ! it's getting shallower," thus possibly refer-
ring to the original notion (afterwards disproved)
that the level of the Mediterranean was 30 feet
below that of the Red Sea. On the right-hand,
and Egyptian, side of the water, if we look
carefully, we discover the shadowy outline of the
Sphinx and the Pyramids, which latter rise dimly
to the margin of the drawing. On the bank
indistinct forms of the Liberal " Opposition " wave
their arms, hurl stones and shout " Yah " at the
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 133
wading financiers. Such was the hardly con-
gratulatory attitude assumed towards this masterly
move by Charles Keene.
But when we turn to the cartoons dealing with
this subject by Sir John Tenniel,^ which did
appear, what do we find ? The first is " Mose in
Egitto"!!! published on December 11, 1875, to
which, in the collected cartoons, the following
note is appended : — " Mr. Disraeli extorted the
admiration of the country by purchasing for
£4,000,000, on behalf of the Government, the
shares in the Suez Canal held by the Khedive of
Egypt." The second is entitled " The Lion's
Share — Gave a qui la touche,'' on February 26,
1896, to which the note appended runs : " The
acquisition of the Suez Canal shares was accepted
by the country as securing the safety of 'The
Key to India.' " These, as will be seen, frankly
recognise the wisdom of the purchase. Hence
it is not surprising if the feeling against the
suggestion contained in Keene's cartoon — that
the financiers of the day were being put into a
* It may be mentioned as au interesting fact that no engraved
cartoon after Sir John Tenniel has ever failed to find its place in the
number for which it was designed.
134 SUPPRESSED PLATES
ridiculous position by the Conservative Leader —
was strong enough to result in its rejection. Its
inclusion would have gone far to stultify the eiFect
of the congratulatory attitude taken up by PmicKs
chartered cartoonist. At any rate, this view of
the case appears to be most reasonable, and I give
it for what it is worth.
The drawing is a fine example of Keene's
power of endowing his models with the quaUties
requisite to his design. Not a man of these seven-
teen financiers suggests a model posing, and yet
all, for this was Keene's invariable custom, were
drawn from the life. Not one of them but is
balanced as though he were wading in water up
to his knees ; and yet not one of them, we may
be sure, was' wading against a stream when, prob-
ably unconsciously, he was forced into the service
of the artist's pencil. The pose of one and all is
as inevitable as is the expression on the face of
each. I would ask all my readers who are seekers
after consummate draughtsmanship to give more
particular attention to this beautiful drawing than
its mere subject would demand, remembering that
Keene's achievements in black-and-white are un-
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 135
surpassed, and, I am inclined to think, unsurpass-
able.
We will now turn to the consideration of the
other suppressed Keene drawing. This, we shall
find, owed its rejection not to political but
to social considerations. And it is of peculiar
interest, not only as showing the scrupulous care
taken by the then editor of Punch to avoid the
risk of offending the susceptibilities of his readers,
but also as an example of the extensive collabora-
tion which existed between Keene and the late
Mr. Joseph Crawhall in the supply of " socials "
to that paper week by week.
Let us pause for a moment, then, to recall the
particulars of this remarkable co-operation. Early
in the 'seventies, Keene, who was often gravelled
for humorous subjects on which to exercise his
pencil, was by good fortune introduced to the
author of Border Notes and Mixty-Maxty, and
many other droll books of a like character. This
gentleman, always a lover of things quaint,
grotesque and jocular, had been for years in the
habit of jotting down any telling incident that
came in his way, illustrating it at leisure for his
136 SUPPRESSED PLATES
own amusement. He was no great artist ; but,
like Thackeray, his inadequate pencil was so com-
pelled and inspired by the appreciation of his
subjects that he was able to set them down
pictorially in a manner so naive and at the same
time so intelligent that they are a joy to the
beholder. These suggestive drawings, by the
time the introduction had taken place, filled
several volumes.
Keene's delight, then, may be well imagined
when he was given carte blanche to cull the best
of the subjects for use in Punch. He wrote : —
"I can't tell you how strongly I have felt your rare
generosity and unselfishness in letting me browse so freely
in your pastures."
And again : —
" Many thanks for the loan of the sketch-books. I enjoyed
them again and again, with renewed chucklings ; but what
a mouth-watering larder to lay open to a ravenous joke-
seeker ! ""
Fortunately Mr. Crawhall was as delighted to
be of service to the great artist as Keene was to
avail himself of his opportunity. Hence we have
that delightful partnership of which full particulars
r <
r(....z^ K.r^. t Jc-! ^^<r^u- 1^1< ■M^^4,Jc.it
o
^ W
:1 K
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 137
may be found in my Life and Lettei^s of Charles
Keene of " Punch.''''
It is necessary to say so much for the pur-
pose of introducing the subject of the second
of Keene's cancelled drawings. By a great piece
of good fortune I have in my possession Mr.
Crawhall's pictorial suggestion for the rejected
picture itself, presented to me by the artist. I
reproduce it here alongside Keene's drawing for
the purpose of comparison. The humour of it is
certainly rather brutal, and one is not surprised
to find that the editor considered that it would
"jar upon feelings." Keene, on the other hand,
was naturally disgusted at his labour being thrown
away, and vented his wrath somewhat unreason-
ably upon the " Philistine editor."
For the sake of those who would like to gahi
some idea of the personality of the artist's friend
who acted, as Boswell did to Johnson, in the
capacity of a "starter of mawkins," it may be
mentioned that an excellent back view of Mr.
Crawhall, drawn by Keene, appears in Punch,
March 11, 1882, over the following delicious
" legend " : —
18
138 SUPPRESSED PLATES
LAPSUS LIN GUM
Pater : " Now, look here, my boy, I can't have these
late hours. When I was your age my father wouldn't let
me stay out after dark."
FiLius : " Humph ! nice sort o' father you must have had,
I should say."
Pater {waxing) : " Deuced sight better than you have,
you young " {Checks himself, and exit.)
The original of the Punch drawing here repro-
duced was presented to Mr. Crawhall by Charles
Keene. This was the latter's method of repaying
the former for his unqualified generosity. Mr.
Crawhall was, however, somewhat embarrassed by
what he considered to be excessive payment for
services which he held required no other recom-
pense than the honour thus conferred on his poor
drawings. The result was a generous contest
which resulted in his finally refusing to accept
them, " For," said he, " you don't know the value
of your work. The reward is too great, and our
happy connection must cease if you put me under
these obligations."
Keene, nevertheless, always afterwards made a
colourable excuse to send them when he could
think of one, although by this time he was well
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 139
aware that he was as great a magician as the
Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, and could by
a few strokes of his pen make the back of an
old envelope rival the value of one of her crisp
bank-notes.
But we must not linger over the cancelled
drawings of an artist who, had he been as great in
imagination as he was in originality of method
and mastery over his pencil, would have been as
great as the greatest in Art. It is now our
delightful task to turn to another of the men of
the 'sixties, whose imagination and sympathy with
high romance has rarely been surpassed, and
whose technical mastery, though not the equal of
his great contemporary, was yet so distinguished
that, even divorced from his other qualities, it
would give him a niche in the Temple of Fame.
Frederick Sandys has but lately left us, and
how few there are who recognise the greatness
of his work ! For years it has been a matter of
astonishment to me that his name was not on
every tongue. Keene, alive, was practically un-
known. Keene, dead, occupies an unassailable
position. Sandys is known and esteemed only by
140 SUPPRESSED PLATES
the few. The time will come when his pictures
will be a fashionable craze, and every woodcut
after him, w^iether it be in Oiice a Week, T/te
Cornhill, Good Words, London Society, The
Churchnans Family Magazine, The Shilling
Magazine, The Quiver, The Argosy, or what not,
will be eagerly appropriated by those w^ho wish
to pass as discerning dilettanti.
But we must not generalise, for our concern is
here with one particular design, and enthusiasm
must not be allowed to run. Done for Once a
Week, and cut exquisitely on the wood by Swain,
that with which we have to do was at the last
moment cancelled by a timidly fastidious editor.
If we turn to page 672 of vol. iv. of Once
a Week (new series), 1867, we shall find the
following set of verses, signed "W.," the origin
and authorship of which I am now able to make
public : —
Danae
The hour of noonday sleep was o'er.
And Danae dreamt her dream no more ;
Yet still its image lingered on her loom ;
For there in woven colours bright,
And touched to life by purpling light,
Smiled the one godhead of the captive's room. •
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 141
She raised her from the TjTian sheet.
And clasped her sandals on her feet,
And lightly drew around her virgin zone ;
And sighed — and knew not why she sighed ;
And murmured, while her work she plied,
" The World may leave my love and me alone."
Thus sang the maiden of the brazen tower.
And longed, unconscious, for the golden shower.
" The days and months have grown to years.
And I have dried my childish tears,
And half forgotten why they ever ran ;
My soul is plighted to the sky.
And we, — my wrinkled nurse and I, —
What matter if we see no more of man ?
She wearies me with omens dire,
My son foredoomed to kill my sire, —
But sire and son are empty names to me.
My love ! I only rest awhile,
To dream the beauty of thy smile.
And only wake again to picture thee."
Thus sang the maiden of the brazen tower,
And longed, unconscious, for the golden shower.
She ceased : for now began to fade
The figure of that mighty shade,
With loins and shoulders meet to sway the world ;
And awful through the gloom appeared
His massive locks of hair and beard.
Like clouds in lurid light of thunder curled.
Yet, long as twilight glimmered there.
She gazed upon a vision fair ;
His brow more beautiful than Parian stone.
And nestling nearer like a dove.
Soft on his lips she breathed her love,
142 SUPPRESSED PLATES
And lit his eyes with lustre of her own.
Then passion stung the maiden of the tower,
And fast she panted for the golden shower.
She stood, with white arm fixed in air,
And head thrown back, and streaming hair,
" Oh, Lord of Dreams ! " she cried, " dost thou behold ? "
Then thunderous music shook the cell.
And, sliding through the rafters, fell
On Danae's burning breast, three drops of gold.
Her bosom thrilled — but not with pain : —
Faster and brighter flowed the rain.
And starred with light the chamber of the bride :
Her cheek sank blushing on her hand.
Her eyelids drooped, her silken band
Unloosed itself, — and Jove was at her side.
Black loured the earth around the captive's tower.
But Heaven embraced her in the golden shower.
I insert the poem here, as it constitutes the
only trace in the pages of 07ice a Week of the
matter with which we have to deal.
Before proceeding to detail the circumstances
connected with the production and final suppres-
sion of the engraving, which prompted this pass-
able set of verses, I shall endeavour to correct
certain statements regarding it which have gained
currency. In the Artist monograph on " The Art
of Frederick Sandys," in 1896, we find a few lines
only given to the consideration of the wood-
DANAE IN THE BRAZEN CHAMBKR.
144 SUPPRESSED PLATES
eiiffravinff of " Danae in the Brazen Chamber " ;
but m these few Imes we have one undoubtedly
incorrect statement, and another which is open
to the gravest suspicion. The first is that the
" Danae " was engraved for IVie Hobby Horse in
1888 ; the second that it was drawn for Once a
Week in 1860.
As regards its engraving, this was done by
Swain for Once a Week, when the drawing was
sent in. That it was first published in The Hobby
Horse as an illustration to an article by the late
J. M. Gray is another matter altogether. As
regards the date of its design, 1860 is almost
certainly some years too early. Indeed, I had
it from Sandys himself that the probable date of
the first sketch of the subject was as late as 1865,
and that it was not till after he had traced it on
a panel ^ (the figure some two feet high) for a
never-completed oil-painting, and later had made
a chalk-drawing of it for a Yorkshire gentleman,
that he decided to make a drawing on the wood
at all. This being done, its beauty prompted two
poems by two of his personal friends, the one
^ This is now, I believe, in the possession of Mr. Ashby-Sterry.
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 145
given above by Mr. Ward, the other, so far as
I can gather never published, by Colonel Alfred
Richards. Now, the fact that Mr. Ward's poem
did not appear in Once a Week till 1867 lends
such overwhelming weight to Mr. Sandys's re-
collection of the matter that we may, I think,
unhesitatingly reject the date of 1860 given by
the author of the Artist monograph and adopt a
date at least five years later. Further evidence,
too, is to be found in the fact that Mr. Sandys
continued to draw on the wood certainly as late
as 1866, and his recollection is clear as to " Danae "
being his last essay in that medium.
I have been thus particular to correct this
matter because it will, I believe, prove of import-
ance, when Sandys's artistic career comes finally
to be described, to get his different productions
into chronological order for a proper understanding
of his artistic development.
So far, then, we have arrived, at any rate
approximately, at the date when Sandys did what
proved to be not only his one "suppressed"
drawing, but, as I have said, the very last drawing-
done by him on the wood.
19
146 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Let us now consider the circumstances under
which it was produced for, but in the event sup-
pressed by, the editor of Once a Week. And that
this periodical is the poorer for its loss will be
obvious to all who love beautiful drawing, "splendid
paganism," and fine wood-engraving.
Sandys began to draw for Once a Week in 1861,
his initial effort being that splendid design, "Yet
once more on the Organ play," which is fit to rank
with Rethel's " Der Tod als Freund," with which
there is a certain similarity of sentiment. This
was followed by eleven drawings within the five
succeeding years, all breathing the spirit of Diirer,
and carrying on the effort which Rethel, who had
only died in 1859, had made to renew the life put
into wood-engraving by the old German master.
In either 1865 or 1866 Sandys projected an oil
picture on the subject of " Danae in the Brazen
Chamber." He had conceived a new version of
the Danae legend. Instead of Jove appearing
to the imprisoned maiden in the form of a golden
shower, he adopted the belief in Jove as the God
of Dreams and adapted it to the legend.^ Danae,
^ (cat yap r ovap f/c Ai6s {(Ttlv, — Homer^ Iliad i. 63.
PUNCH AND ONCE A WEEK 147
who has never seen a man, is haunted by the
appearance of Jove as he has presented himself
in her sleeping hours. To comfort herself and
satisfy her passionate longing she has spent her
days in weaving the image so vouchsafed to her
in tapestry. For the moment her work is dis-
carded. The ball of wool with which she has
been working lies at her feet, and she stands,
"with white arm fixed in air," calling upon the
" Lord of Dreams " to come to her in very sooth.
Frankly sensuous as is the picture, one cannot
but admit that the theme is treated with all
necessary restraint. This, however, does not
appear to have been the opinion of Walford, the
then editor of Once a Week. He wrote to Sandys
requiring a modification of the design. This the
artist flatly refused. The design must appear
as it was or not at all. In this refusal he was
gallantly supported by the proprietors of the
periodical, Messrs. Bradbury and Evans. The
editor, however, would not give way, and the
result was a deadlock. The block was actually
engraved by Mr. Swain, and in his best manner,
but the editor's will was paramount, and it never
148 SUPPRESSED PLATES
adorned the pages for which it was intended. It
was reserved to the Century Guild Hobby Horse,
in 1888, to rescue it from the oblivion into which
it had passed.
I am indebted to Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew
for permission to reproduce the design. Of it
Mr. J. M. Gray says in his article on " Frederick
Sandys and the Woodcut Designers of Thirty
Years Ago " : — " It ranks among the very finest
of Sandys's woodcuts," and the artist, who had
not been uniformly satisfied with the engraved
versions of his work, himself wrote to me : " It
was engraved for Once a Week. Perfectly cut by
Swain. From my point of view the best piece
of woodcutting of our time."
And all who love this beautiful but fast dis-
appearing handmaiden of the arts will heartily
endorse Mr. Sandys's opinion.
CHAPTER VIII
MISCELLANEOUS
I PROPOSE in this chapter to group together
certain sporadic suppressions in hthography, etch-
ing, wood-engraving, and process work. They are
not sufficiently important each to demand a
chapter to itself, nor do they fall into any
particular categories as do the "Dickens,"
" Hogarth," and " Cruikshank " plates. At the
same time each has an interest of its own, and
is a footprint upon the byway of art with
which we are concerned.
Fortunately for us the first of these cancelled
illustrations is, at a time when we have but lately
been celebrating the centenary of Senefelder's
great invention, lithography, of extraordinary
interest, for it was one of the earliest book illustra-
tions produced in England by this method. The
149
150 SUPPRESSED PLATES
volume in which it appears (if we are lucky enough
to possess one of the first three hundred copies
issued) is the Antiquities of Westminster, with
two hundred and forty-six engravings by J. T.
Smith.
The date of the volume is 1807 — a fact which
would at first siffht seem to tell against our claim
to be dealing with a pioneer English lithograph.
We must, however, remember that a book of this
kind took many years to produce, and that the
publication of the illustrations was, in many cases,
of necessity years later than their execution.
Lowndes oddly refers to the lithograph as the
first ''stone-plate'' ever attempted, but in this he
claims for it too great a distinction. To name
no others, there was, we know, as early as 1803 a
portfolio containing drawings by West, Fuseli,
Barry, and Stothard issued as Specimens of
Poly autography, by which term lithography was
for a few years described, which contains litho-
graphs dated 1801 and 1802.
The subject of the design here reproduced in
facsimile is the inside of the Painted Chamber
which was part of the Old Palace of Westminster.
i^^^;^ks^>^x4^^5?S
■;?-
" Tin: I'AINTKI) ( I1A.A115KH.
(Fi'diii Aiifi'jiiitii'i' of yVeKtiiri lister, 1S07.)
MISCELLANEOUS 151
The mural paintings which were discovered at
the beginning of this century, after the removal
of the tapestry hangings which are to be seen in
the lithograph, were, it will scarcely be credited,
promptly ordered by the authorities of the day
to be "improved" away by a coat of whitewash
because of their untidiness ! And this although
they were known to have been in existence since
1322, and although there were strong reasons for
the belief even at that time that they were
executed as early as the reign of Henry III. !
Such an act of vandalism would be inconceivable
were it not that we have learnt to look upon its
like as so lamentably common.
The account of the preparation of the litho-
graph, and of the stone's untimely fate, is fully set
forth on pages 49 and 50 of the Antiquities.
It is too long to quote in this place, but is well
worth looking up by those who are interested in
the history of this method. It is sufficient for our
purpose to say that after three hundred im-
pressions had been taken off, the stone was laid
by for the night without care having been taken
to keep it properly moist. The result was that
152 SUPPRESSED PLATES
on the application of the ink balls in the morning
they proved too tenacious, and on their removal
were found to have torn up portions of the draw-
ing from the stone. Consequently we have it
that impressions of this, one of the first English
lithographs, are exceedingly scarce, and are only
to be found in the first three hundred copies of
the book issued. This fact connotes the further
result that the impressions of the etchings through-
out the book in their earliest states are to be found
in the copies containing the lithograph.
Before quitting this subject it should be stated
that in "collating" this book we must bear in
mind a very pretty quarrel which took place
between the artist and J. S. Hawkins, who was
largely responsible for the letterpress. As has
been pointed out, the first 300 copies contained the
"stone-plate." But in only a very few copies is
to be found the suppressed title-page bearing the
name of John Sidney Hawkins, and the dedication
to George IH., signed "The Author." These
few copies contain the very earliest impressions
of the plates. In the later copies the dedication
is signed "John Thomas Smith," and bound up
MISCELLANEOUS 153
in most of these is found a "Vindication" by
J. T. Smith in answer to "A Correct Statement
and Vindication of the conduct of John Sidney
Hawkins, Esq., F.A.S., towards Mr. John Thomas
Smith, drawn up and published by Mr. Hawkins
himself." Lond. 1807, 8vo, p. 87. J. T. Smith's
answer was further replied to in another pamphlet
by Hawkins dated 1808.
We will now turn from this specimen of
lithography to a very remarkable example of the
sister art of wood-engraving. {Vide Frontispiece.)
In the April number 1896 of Good Wo7'ds, I
dealt with some bibliographical curiosities, one of
which was the remarkable suppressed title-page
in my possession here reproduced. My object on
that occasion was to verify the fact of which I
felt practically certain, that the book for which it
was prepared had never come into being, and that
therefore we had the curious anomaly of an
elaborately engraved title-page wanting a book.
Books wanting their engraved title-page are
unfortunately common enough, owing to the
barbarism of certain ruthless collectors. But a
title-page not only wanting a book, but which
20
154 SUPPRESSED PLATES
never had one, was as extraordinary as the grin of
the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, whicli
was left behind after its author had disappeared.
" Well ! I've often seen a cat without a
grin," thought Alice, " but a grin without a cat !
It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my
life."
But then Alice had never seen this title-page
of a book by " Sholto Percy " which was never
written, and of which Death in London was to
have been the title. The wood-block is a very
beautiful one, cut by Mason, no doubt Abraham
John, who engraved Cruikshank's illustrations to
Tales of Humour and Gallantri).
" Sholto Percy " was the pen-name of Joseph
Clinton Robertson, who, with Thomas Byerley,
published the Percij Anecdotes, 1821-23. Their
full pseudonyms were "Sholto and Reuben Percy,
Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery, Mount
Benger." The anecdotes were published in forty-
one parts, at half-a-crown a-piece, before the close
of the year 1823, and, of these, two hundred and
sixty thousand copies were sold during the four
years of issue ! What number subsequent editions
MISCELLANEOUS 155
have run to it is impossible to conjecture. The
title of the book had its origin from the Percy
Coffee-House in Rathbone Place, which the
collaborators frequented. They also compiled
London, or Interesting Memorials of its Rise,
Progress, and Present State. 3 vols. 1823.
In the dedication of this last work to George
IV. we find facsimile signatures of the two
"Brothers." That of "Sholto Percy," the author
of the book which was evidently projected but
never published, tallies with that on the title-page
here reproduced. From the fact that Reuben's
signature is absent we gather that, for some
reason or other, the collaboration had come to an
end. At any rate nothing more is heard of the
partnership, nor indeed was anything else published
under one or other of these noms-de-plume. And
although I received various communications from
strangers upon the subject of the bibliographical
curiosities dealt with in the Good Words article,
no light was thrown upon this perplexing title-
page. Suppressed, therefore, it doubtless was,
because it had no reason to be anything else, and
remains a rather pathetic memorial of the gifted
156 SUPPRESSED PLATES
artist and the author whose projected enterprise
was perchance cut short by one of the forms of
the Dread Enemy here portrayed.
The block is worthy of careful scrutiny. The
only impression in existence (as I believe it to be)
and in my possession is beautifully printed on
India paper. In it we find Bewick's white line
used with excellent effect. Behind the main panel
the colossal form of Death is just visible, holding
in either hand " Death in the Cup " and " Death
in the Dish." At the lower corners his skeleton
feet are just visible, fixed on the Arctic and
Antarctic portions of the Globe. At the top of
the panel Death drags a wheel off the chariot
which is making a dash from London to Gretna
Green. Immediately below this is a nail-studded
coffin from which hangs a pall inscribed with the
words "Death in London." This overhangs the
central group, in which Death spectacled and
seated on a tombstone at a desk supported by
human thighs, with a human skull as footstool,
receives despatches and directs his myrmidons.
Supporting this central panel two skeletons hurl
death -dealing darts, whilst below one skeleton
MISCELLANEOUS 157
starves in prison, and another, crowned with straw,
rages as a maniac.
On the right-hand border a skeleton highway-
man, pistol in hand, awaits his victim, ignoring, the
gallows which is seen under the moon in the back-
ground, and ignorant of the noose already round
his neck, manipulated by a skeleton hangman in
the division above. On the left-hand border a
somewhat cryptic design represents a skeleton
toper surmounting a skeleton quack physician who
sucks a cane and, with medicine bottle in hand,
goes forth on his death-dealing mission.
At the base Death, in a deluge of wind and
rain, overturns a sailing boat, and incidentally
presses down a struggling victim with his foot.
The whole effect is finely decorative, and far
surpasses anything else of Seymour's of which I
have knowledge.
But we must not linger too long over each item
of our promiscuous collection of cancelled illustra-
tions.
I shall now bring to your notice a very rare
coloured plate by Henry Aiken, which, though
not suppressed in the strictest sense, is yet
158 SUPPRESSED PLATES
sufficiently relevant to the subject to admit of its
inclusion in these papers. It was undoubtedly
prepared for a book of which Aiken was the
illustrator, but, for some reason or other, although
engraved, it was not included among the published
plates.
During the years 1831-39 there appeared in
The New Sjjorting Magazine, edited by R. Surtees,
a series of sporting sketches of which " Mr. John
Jorrocks " was the hero. These papers were
collected and published in 1838 under the
alliterative title of Jorrocks s Jaunts and Jollities,
illustrated by "Phiz." This volume was brought
to the notice of Lockhart, who thereupon advised
Surtees to try his hand at a sporting novel. The
immediate result was Handley Cross. In 1843 a
third edition of Jorrocks s Jaunts and Jollities
appeared, with sixteen coloured plates after Henry
Aiken. The novels in the meantime were being;
issued with illustrations by Leech and "Phiz."
That the former has at this distance of time lost
nothing of its popularity (rather, of course, on
account of the illustrations than for the letterpress,
which reads poorly enough now) is evidenced by
MISCELLANEOUS 159
the fact that only the other day a copy fetched at
public auction the remarkable sum of £20. One
wonders what the bidding would have reached had
the book been extra-illustrated with the unused
illustration of which it is here my purpose to treat.
Now we must be careful, in considering any
work signed " Aiken," to bear in mind the fact
mentioned by INIr. R. E. Graves in the Dictionary
of National Biographij, that although the fertility
of Aiken's pencil was amazing, the idea of it might
be fictitiously enhanced if the fact were not grasped
that he left two or three sons — one of whom was
also named Henry — all artists and all sporting
artists, who have, since their father's time, been
incessantly painting, lithographing, aquatinting
and etching for the sporting publishers and for
private patrons of the turf.
But the original Henry Aiken did his work
between 1816 and 1831 ; hence it is clear that the
illustrations to Jori'ocks were the work of Henry
the younger. And this is a point which should be em-
phasised for the guidance of the bibliomaniac, for
it is the practice of many second-hand booksellers
to lump all work by " Aiken " under one head, from
160 SUPPRESSED PLATES
ignorance possibly — in some cases I fear from
unworthy motives. For it is the work of Henry
Aiken, the founder of the line, which is of greatest
rarity and greatest merit, and to palm off work
done by a namesake as work done by him is
plain cheating. We remember the parallel case
of George Cruikshank, who exposed a certain
publisher, in a somewhat intemperate pamphlet
afterwards suppressed, entitled A Popgun fired
off by George Cruikshank, etc., etc. In that
case the publisher had been guilty of the more
than questionable proceeding of advertising certain
"story-books" as "illustrated by Cruikshank,"
which were in reality the work of George's
nephew, Percy, who, I fancy, would have been
the last to concur in what was an undoubted
attempt to mislead the public.^
Let it be clearly understood, then, that the
plate which we here reproduce was the work of
Henry Aiken the younger. Though of little
artistic merit, it is yet not unworthy of those
which were published, and the reason of its
1 The woodcut of the irascible George suspending the uuliappy
Brooks by the nose from a pair of tongs is reproduced in my little
book on Cruikshank' s Portraits of Himself.
THE SUPPRESSED PORTRAIT OF JOHN .lORROCKS, ESQ., -M.!. II., ET( .
(By Heniy Aiken, the ymiiisei.)
MISCELLANEOUS 161
suppression is difficult to fathom. The plate
should be undoubtedly annexed, on its very rare
appearance, by him who values his Jorrocks.
This would make his copy, in the words of the
second-hand booksellers, a " really desirable " one.
Our reproduction is not quite the size of the
original, which exactly tallies in size and shape
with the published plates. The line of publication
runs : " London, Published by R. Ackermann at
his Eclipse Sporting Gallery, 191 Regent St.
1843." The method employed in its production
is a mixture of etching and aquatinting, and this
impression has been coloured by hand with the
brilliant tints which appealed to our sporting-
forebears. There need be no complaint about its
lowness of tone. It would put to the blush the
most versi-coloured of kaleidoscopes ! To parody
Dr. Johnson's animadversion upon a certain ode,
it would be just from the strict artistic standpoint
to say, "Bolder colour and more timorous meaning,
I think, were rarely brought together."
So much for some unattached suppressions of
the first half of the century. We will conclude
21
162 SUPPRESSED PLATES
this chapter with certain cancelled plates of only
yesterday.
To those who have not yet grasped the fact
(cried aloud in the wilderness by Mr. Kipling)
that our age is as romantic as any other if we
only know how to regard matters, the fact will
probably come as something of a surprise that the
last decade of the nineteenth century has as surely
its crop of " suppressed plates," as have those ages
which were, we choose to flatter ourselves, more
brutal than our own. Less unmannerly in some
respects doubtless we tend to become, and that
perhaps is the very reason (paradoxical though it
may sound) why we do not have to search in
vain for "modern instances." For now that Mrs.
Grundy is sharper-eyed than she was (notwith-
standing her age), and the libel laws are more
closely knit by precedents, slips which would have
been treated as passing peccadilloes by our less
squeamish forebears rise to the dignity of " copy "
for the pressman, and form staple conversation for
the insatiate tea-table.
And when we mention the late most five-o'clock
and kind-hearted of artists, Mr. du ISIaurier, and
MISCELLANEOUS 163
the still living most dainty limner of hoops and
patches, Mr. Hugh Thomson, as the providers
of century-end " cancelled illustrations," we may
be sure that the details will not be very scandalous,
nor the outrages very shocking.
Not but that I was forced to go somewhat warily
when originally recording the famous incident of
du Maurier and the peccant illustration of the
"Two Apprentices" in Trilhy, for was I not thereby
involving myself with another, and greater, artist
(very much alive indeed !), whose pen was only not
mightier than his pencil because the latter was
unsurpassable, but who might in turn pillory me
in his gallery of artfully constructed Enemies ?
It was indeed a topsy-turvy world which found
the "Butterfly," which is popularly supposed to
end its life wriggling upon the pin of the " soaring
human boy," revenging itself upon humanity with
epigrams that " stick for ever."
Sad to relate, AVhistler could never be brought
to see du Maurier's rather caustic "retaliation,"
particulars of which are given below, in its proper
proportions. Indeed, when I asked him to allow
me to reproduce, as a pictorial curiosity, the
164 SUPPRESSED PLATES
suppressed print of the " Two Apprentices," which
only the owners of Trilhy, as it appeared in
serial form, are now destined to possess, he in-
formed me in the politest manner possible that
my doing so would involve me in an expen-
sive and uncomfortable correspondence with his
solicitors. And what could not be done then
cannot be done now, for reasons into which I need
not enter. Nevertheless, to treat seriously a hyper-
bolical and exaggerated caricature as anything more
than a legitimate response to a not altogether
kindly sarcasm on the part of Mr. Whistler him-
self, appears to me now, as it appeared to me
then, well-nigh incredible. No one looked upon
"Joe Sibley" as a true likeness, either pictorially or
verbally. It was written and read as a joke, part
true, but mostly false, and so would have stood
had it not been given undue importance by the
correspondence in the Pall Mall Gazette. As a
result, in book form "Joe Sibley" is wanting in
that delightful gallery which contains "Durier,"
Pygmahon to Trilby's Galatea — a Galatea whose
marble heart would never beat for him; "Vincent,"
the great American oculist, " whose daughters are
MISCELLANEOUS 165
so beautiful and accomplished that they spend
their autumn holiday in refusing the matrimonial
offers of the British aristocracy " ; " The Greek,"
who was christened Poluphoisboiospaleapologos
Petrilopetrolicoconose "because his real name
was thought much too long " ; " Carnegie,"
who "is now only a rural dean, and speaks the
worst French I know, and speaks it wherever
and whenever he can " ; " Antony, the Swiss "
(substituted for "Joe Sibley"); " Lorrimer," who
was so thoroughgoing in his worship of the
immortals, Veronese, Tintoret and Co., and was
"so persistent in voicing it, that he made them
quite unpopular in the Place St. Anatole des
Arts " ; not to speak of " Dodor " and " I'Zouzou,"
who were distinguished for being ''les plus mauvais
garniments of their respective regiments," and the
rest of Trilby's delightful adorers. Why, it seems
to me that to have obtained a niche in that pillory
(forgive the mixing of metaphors), and to see the
fun of a little exaggerated banter, and perchance
learn a little lesson from it, would not be so
very bad a fate after all. But I suppose it all
depends on the ])oint of view.
1G6 SUPPRESSED PLATES
As I say, I have by me a delightfully ironic
missive from the late president of the Society of the
Butterfly himself, acknowledging " the exceedingly
amiable and flattering form of the playful request "
contained in my letter, with a hint at the end that
lawyers might look upon any reproduction of the
forbidden matter as less than tolerable.
Alas ! that it is so, and all I can do is to refer
my readers to the columns of the Pall Mall
Gazette for May 15 and 25, 1894, in which
appeared Whistler's two letters, and quote here
the interview with du Maurier upon the matter.
They form a curious commentary upon the
" Gentle Art of Losing — Friends."
Extract from Pall Mall Gazette, May 19, 1894.^
Mr. Whistler and Mr, du Maurier the "Punch" Artist's
Attitude
Mr. George du Maurier, " hidden in Hampstead "" as Mr.
Whistler put it in his letter to us a day or two ago, was
discovered by a Pall Mall Gazette reporter without the aid
of any exploring party yesterday, when that representative
called to see what the famous Punch artist had to say in
reply to Mr. Whistler. Mr. du Maurier was not disposed
at first to vouchsafe any answer. " If a bargee insults one
' By kind permission of the Proprietor.
MISCELLANEOUS 167
in the street," he said, " one can only pass on. One cannot
stop and argue it out." But on second thoughts Mr. du
Maurier added a few words. "I should," he said, "have
avoided all reference to Mr. Whistler, or anything which
could have been construed into reference to him, if I had
imagined it would have pained him. I should have written
privately to him to say so, if his letter had been less violent
and less brutal. Certainly, in the character of Sibley, in
my serial story Trilby I have drawn certain lines with Mr.
Whistler in my mind. I thought that the reference to
those matters would have recalled some of the good times
we used to have in Paris in the old days. I thought that
both with Mr. Whistler and with other acquaintances I
have similarly treated, pleasurable recollections would have
been awakened. But he has taken the matter so terribly
seriously. It is so unlike him.
" You know of no reason why he should not have taken
it all good-naturedly .? " — " No. I thought it might have
drawn from him something funny, something droll, to which
I could have replied in kind. But, of course, a letter like
his puts a reply out of the question. I think he must have
been quite out of sorts to have allowed himself to get so
angered." " I believe Mr. Whistler has himself said things
which the objects of them have not particularly relished ! "
*' Why, he has gone about all his life in England making
unkind remarks and publishing them. Here is a little book
of his. The Gentle Art of making Enemies, and I am one of
his victims. It is not very terrible what he says. It is
rather droll. Listen ! ' Mr. du Maurier and Mr. Wilde,
happening to meet in the rooms where Mr. Whistler was
108 SUPPRESSED PLATES
holding his first exhibition of Venice jottings, the latter
brought the two face to face, and, taking each by the arm,
inquired, " I say, which one of you two invented the other,
eh ? " ' The obvious retort to that on my part would have
been that if he did not take care I would invent him, but
he had slipped away before either of us could get a word
out. This is really too small a matter to refer to ; but the
explanation of this bit of drollery of ]\Ir. Whistler''s is that
it suggested that I was unknown until I began to draw
Postlethwaite, the aesthetic character, out of whom I got
some fun. Postlethwaite was said to be Mr. Oscar Wilde,
but the character was founded, not on one person at all,
but a whole school. As a matter of fact, I had been drawing
for Punch twenty years before the invention of Postlethwaite.
However, that was Mr. Whistler's little joke, and one would
have thought that if he made jokes about me, he might
have expected me to play the same game upon him without
anticipating that I should hurt his feelings. Then Mr.
Whistler implies that I am a foul friend, stating that I
have thought a foul friend a finer fellow than an open enemy.
I am neither his friend nor his enemy. I am a great admirer
of his genius and his wit ; but I cannot say that I could call
myself his friend for thirty years past. We were intimate in
the old days, but that is all. No, his whole letter is incom-
prehensible to me. Of course, he has been embittered
through life, by reason of his genius not being recognised at
its full value by the wide public, and it certainly has not.
This circumstance, and possibly illness, may account for the
leave he has taken of good manners. He talks of my pent-
up envy and malice. I must ask you to believe that I am not
MISCELLANEOUS 169
such a beast as that. I have no occasion either for mahce
or for envy, and, as I say, I should never have written even
what I have, had I imagined it would give ]\Ir. Whistler pain."
" Do you contemplate deleting the character of Sibley
when you publish in volume form ? " " If I had a word or
sign of regret from Mr. "Whistler for the savage things he
says in his letter I might consider that. I did what I did in
a playful spirit of retaliation for this little gibe about me in
his book. A man so sensitive as Mr. Whistler now seems to
be should beware how he goes about joking of others. I
had no idea of taking any notice of Mr. W^histler's letter,
but since you have come and asked me I say that if 1 had
known it would have given pain and brought such a torrent
of abuse upon me, I should have denied myself the little
luxury of the playful retaliation in which I indulged." ^
Let me then here put it on record that Trilby
in book form is not only innocent of " Joe Sibley "
and the "cut" of the "Two Apprentices" but is in
other respects far inferior to its serial issue. The
illustrations have been greatly reduced, and in the
process have lost much of their charm. There
was, however, a large-paper edition of the novel
published in 1895, containing the same number of
^ After reading Mr. Menpes's Whistler o-s- I knew Him, one discovers
that extraordinary plieuomeuon, a man who would ratlier destroy a
friendship hy what he considered a brilliant phrase than sacrifice the
brilliant phrase and preserve the friendship. It is not wonderful that
all ^Vhistler's friends did not prove so complaisant and generous as
Mr. Menpes.
22
170 SUPPRESSED PLATES
illustrations as the small - paper, together with
"facsimiles of the pencil studies." This is the
most desirable edition outside Ha7ye?'''s. The
ideal form is, of course, the serial issue extracted
from the ]Magazine and bound up, "Joe Sibley,"
the suppressed " cut " and all.
This, then, is all that must be said about the
" suppressed plate," which is so rigidly put under
hatches that it must not even be paraded, on this
occasion only, with its fellows. "When the
sleeper wakes," perchance, and copyright is out, a
cheap edition of this present volume, with the
suppressed block inserted, will be published, and
our children's children will marvel.^
The whole episode is a nice commentary upon
Mr. George Meredith's distinction between Irony
and Humour. " If," says he, " instead of faUing
foul of the ridiculous person with a satiric rod, to
make him writhe and shriek aloud, you prefer to
sting him under a semi-caress, by which he shall in
his anguish be rendered dubious whether indeed
anything has hurt him, you are an engine of
1 The curious should refer to a delightful open Letter entitled
Trilhy from Mr. AMiistler's pen, which appeared in the initial number
of Mr. Harry Fu miss's late lamented Lika Joko.
MISCELLANEOUS 171
Irony." But " if you laugh all round him, tumble
him, roll him about, deal him a smack, and drop a
tear on him, own his likeness to you and yours to
your neighbour, spare him as little as you shun
him, pity him as much as you expose, it is a spirit
of Humour that is moving you."
In conclusion, it may be interesting to record
the fact that no communication passed between
du Maurier and Whistler upon the subject, other
than that which appeared in print.
So much for the episode of the suppressed
Trilby illustration, which, as we have seen, was
complicated by personal considerations.
Let us now turn our attention for a moment
to a charming little tailpiece which has fallen a
victim, not to the susceptibilities of an individual,
but to an undue consideration for the feelings of
that most living of Tom JNIorton's creations, INIrs.
Grundy. It is to be found in the first edition of
the immortal Vicar of Wakefield as pictured by
iNIr. Hugh Thomson. And in ^ entering our
protest against the deference w^iich has in this
instance been shown to prudishness, we must at
the same time admiringly recognise the spirit by
172
SUPPRESSED PLATES
which the action has been prompted. The
"young person" no doubt succeeds on occasion
in rendering us a httle ridiculous. At the same
time we must not forget that to her we largely
owe our immunity from what would often shock
even the moral olfactories of her elders.
Surely, however, the tender morals which could
bear to read of Thornhill's attempted seduction of
Olivia could not logically find offence in the
MISCELLANEOUS 173
charming little conceit, which by its suppression
has rendered a first edition of the Vicar, as illus-
trated by JVIr. Hugh Thomson, an allurement to
the modern Maecenas.
Unlike Coaching Days and Coaching JVays,
illustrated by the same artist, after the first edition
of which certain drawings also disappeared, but
without others being substituted in the later
editions, the first edition of the Thomson Vicar of
Wakefield, dated 1890, which was published both
on small and large paper, contains the same
number of illustrations as those which succeeded
it. This, of course, is because in this instance
the type was not reset, and so it was obligatory
to substitute an illustration for that which was
suppressed.
The tailpiece, here reproduced by the kind per-
mission of Mr. Thomson and Messrs. Macmillan,
only appears on page 95 of the issues of 1890.
After that date we have a drawing which,
though a pretty enough little picture of Lady
Blarney and Miss Carolina Wilhelmina Amelia
Skeggs (I love, like the Vicar himself, to give the
whole name), is to my mind far inferior to that
174 SUPPRESSED PLATES
which seems to have given offence to some extra-
ordinarily constructed purists.
Mr. Austin Dobson, to whom we are indebted
for the enlightening Prefatory account, in this
volume, of the more important illustrated editions
of the Ficm% tells me that he has an impression
that the immediate cause of the disappearance
of the peccant tailpiece was a certain objection
raised by a reviewer in the Sjjectator. In justice,
however, to that organ I must at once put it on
record that I can find no trace of its having so
demeaned itself.
As a matter of fact I have reason to believe
that suggestions were made by certain persons who
arrogate to themselves a sort of private proprietor-
ship in the "fine old English novel" and the "fine
old English caricature " that the little tailpiece was
in rather bad taste, and that the artist, rather than
allow the slightest grounds for such an imputation
to exist, hastened to remove the offender, and sub-
stituted one that was irreproachable. Personally
I grieve to think that there should be any one in
existence with a moral digestion so dyspeptic as
to discover the least coarseness or ill-flavour in
MISCELLANEOUS 175
this dainty little fancy, And though the artist,
we may be sure, has not troubled himself unduly
about the insinuation, I cannot but feel indignant
that even a hint of indecorousness should be made
against one who, above all others, has kept his
pencil free from any taint of unworthiness. How-
ever, it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good,
and we are fain to congratulate ourselves upon
thus being enabled to enrol Mr. Hugh Thomson
in a brotherhood which he certainly will not
repudiate.
Passing allusion has been made above to
certain illustrations which also disappeared from
Mr. Outram Tristram's very readable book
Coaching Days and CoacJmig Ways, illustrated by
Mr. Hugh Thomson and Mr. Herbert Railton,
after the first edition of that very charming volume
was exhausted. It had been my intention to re-
produce these cancelled drawings here, but I have
since come to the conclusion that it would be
little short of an outrage to perpetuate what
would be cruelly unrepresentative of Mr. Hugh
Thomson's work. So far as the artist himself
is concerned no obstacle is raised, for he writes
176 SUPPRESSED PLATES
to me in the most generous way, " ' Calling
for the Squire's Mailbag ' was withdrawn for the
same reason as ' Wild Darrell ' (viz. because it was
not considered sufficiently good). / should like to
withdraw scores of other drawings. However, one
cannot help oneself. It is not very pleasant to
have these reproduced again, but I quite under-
stand the motive of your book, and should be very
churlish indeed to put any obstacle in your way."
This seems to me so nobly altruistic an attitude
that I feel I should be lacking in mannerliness
were I to take advantage of it.
It will be enough merely to draw attention
to facts which will be of interest to those who
possess one or other of the editions of this book.
First and foremost then, take down your copy
and note whether the number of the illustrations is
216 or 219. Happy as you are if you possess the
latter, twice happy will you be if the former be
yours, for in this case you will be the owner,
not only of a first edition, not only of an edition
containing the cancelled illustrations, but also of
the edition from which the best idea of the beauty
of the original drawings may be got. And for this
MISCELLANEOUS 177
reason, that in all but this, the 1888 edition, the
reproductions have been greatly reduced in size.
Of course we are here concerned with the can-
celled pictures, " Wild Darrell " on page 43 and
"Calling for the Squire's Mailbag " on page 311,
but we must remember that their chief value lies
in their being the guarantees of our having an
editio princeps. So we have it that in this instance
as in the case of Trilby the earliest issues have the
double charm of satisfying at the same time our
taste for the beautiful and our appetite for the
curious. Unlike the case of Trilby, however, we
have here no romantic circumstances such as
appeal to the true bibliomaniac. The cancellation
is merely the result of a laudable determination on
the part of the artist and his publisher to eliminate
such illustrations as they do not consider altogether
exemplary. Incidentally of course their action
enhances, in the eyes of the bibliomaniac, the value
of those copies which they rightly consider marred
by their inclusion. But this is no business of
theirs. They are not concerned with diseased
humanity but with the poor sane public for whom
they cater.
23
178 SUPPRESSED PLATES
The above remarks apply of course to many
minor suppressions of the same kind. There is,
to take one example, the well-known case of
Curmer's 1838 edition of Paul et Virginie and
La Cliaumicre Indienne superbly illustrated by
Meissonier, Tony Johannot, Huet, and others.
This book is a standing compliment to British
wood-engraving of the day, for, though published
in Paris by a French publisher, by far the larger
number of the blocks were entrusted to Samuel
Williams, Orrin Smith, and other British hands.
In the earliest issue appears on page 418 the
wood-engraving of "La Bonne Femme." En-
graved by Lavoignat after Meissonier it was
suppressed in later issues probably because of its
ugliness, whether the fault of artist or engraver
I know not. At any rate the engraver was not
one of the British contingent.
CHAPTER IX
THE SUPPRESSED OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING
When the iconography of Edward FitzGerald's
Rubdiyat of Omar Khayyam comes to be com-
piled, there will be one item which will be found
to be well-nigh unattainable by the enthusiastic
collector. That item is not unnaturally dismissed
in a very few words by Colonel W. F. Prideaux
in his " Notes for a Bibliography of Edward Fitz-
Gerald." He is dealing with the third edition,
published by Quaritch in the year 1872. " It
may be added," he writes, " that a weird frontis-
piece to this edition was designed and etched by
Mr. Edwin Edwards, the artist friend to whom
FitzGerald lent his house at the beginning of
1871, and whose death in 1879 was a source
of sorrow to him. A few copies of the etching
were struck off, but it did not meet with the
179
180 SUPPRESSED PLATES
approval of FitzGerald, and was consequently
never used."
Now, I am inclined to think that this, as I
believe, the only published reference to an
interesting rarity, will hardly satisfy the craving
of the FitzGerald enthusiast. I shall therefore
give the fullest information on the subject,
whereby the modern Maecenas will be afforded
full particulars of what only a few of the cult of
Omar can ever hope to possess.
Those who know their Rubdiyat as they
should will remember that there are several
allusions made by the philosopher to the amuse-
ments of his countrymen.
Take the FitzGerald quatrain : —
" When you and I behind the veil are passed.
Oh, but the long, long while the world shall last,
Which of our Coming and Departure heeds
As the Sea's self should heed a pebble cast."
Here, in the last line, we have what is probably
an allusion to the game of " Ducks and Drakes,"
"which," says Mr. Edward Heron-Allen in the
notes to his admirable translation, " was known to
the Egyptians and also to the Greeks under the
OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING 181
name of iTroarpaKta-fio^. It was played with oyster-
shells. The curious are referred to Minutius Felix
(A.D. 207), who describes the game in his preface."
This last is a gentleman with whose name I am
free to confess I have hitherto been unfamiliar,
and to whose writings I have no access. I must
therefore leave the enthusiastic reader to follow
up the clue for himself. However, with the aid
of Liddell and Scott, I find myself able to go
one better than Mr. Heron- Allen, and would refer
the reader to Archajologus Pollux, the author of
Onomcuitikoji, whose date is prior to Felix by
twenty-nine years !
Another game which we find Omar Khayyam
alluding to is that of chequers, which is familiar
to us in FitzGerald's oft-quoted quatrain : —
" But helpless pieces of the game he plays
Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days ;
Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays.
And one by one back in the Closet lays " ;
altered in the later edition to : —
" 'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days,
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays ;
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays
And one by one back in the Closet lays.''
182 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Again we have allusion to what is probably
some form of the game of tennis in the following: —
" The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes
But Right or Left as strikes the Player goes.
And He that tossed Thee down into the Field
He knows about it all — He knows — HE knows."
Other passages might be quoted, but these are
enough for our purpose, for the form of amuse-
ment with which we have immediately to concern
ourselves is rather a toy than a game — a toy indeed
which would seem to have been the forerunner of
a somewhat elaborate apparatus which, being used
at first for more frivolous purposes, has now been
largely adapted to educational ends.
The INlagic Lantern of modern times is generally
referred back to Athanasius Kircher, who died in
1680, although, according to some, it was known
four centuries earlier to Roger Bacon. This may
be true enough so far as the "projecting lantern"
is concerned, but it can hardly be doubted that it
had in the line of its earlier ancestors the Persian
Fanus i Khiyal or Lantern of Fancy, which
is used with such effect by the Philosopher of
Naishapur, and which instigated the design of the
OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING 183
rare suppressed etching of which I here propose
to treat with some particularity.
As literally translated by Mr. Heron- Allen, the
quatrain referring thereto runs as follows : —
" This vault of heaven, beneath which we stand bewildered.
We know to be a sort of magic-lantern ;
Know thou that the sun is the lamp flame and the universe is
the lamp,
We are like figures that revolve in it."
As literally translated by ]Mr. John Payne it
runs : — " This sphere of the firmament, wherein
we are amazed, The Chinese lantern I think a
likeness of it ; The sun the lamp-stand and the
world the lantern ; We like the figures are that
in it revolve."
As metrically translated by him into a throw-
back quatrain it runs : —
" The Sphere and mankind, who therein in amaze are,
Chinese-lantern hke, well it may seem, to our gaze are ;
See, the sun is the lamp and the world is the lantern
And the figures ourselves, that revolve round the blaze are."
As rendered by FitzGerald more literally than is
his wont it ran in its first state as follows : —
" For, in and out, above, below,
'Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show,
Play'd in a box whose Candle is the Sun
Round which we Phantom Figures come and go."
184 SUPPRESSED PLATES
A.s altered later, it assumed the following more
familiar form : —
" We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic-Shadow shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumin'd Lantern held
In Midnight by the Master of the Show."
All who have read the published letters of
Edward FitzGerald will have been struck by the
infinite pains which he took to make this highest
effort of his genius, the translation of Omar, as
perfect as possible. His correspondence with his
friend Professor Cowell teems with allusions to,
and innumerable discussions on, minute points of
meaning in the Persian.
Therefore it will not surprise us to find that the
figure of the Fanus i Khiyal (literally the lanthorn ^
of fancy), here made use of in so masterly a manner,
had its characteristics and peculiarities carefully
considered.
By the kindness of Mrs. Edwin Edwards and
the late Professor Cowell, I am enabled to give
extracts from an unpublished letter written by the
1 It is a not uninteresting fact that the old English spelling of the
word " lantern " used above is due to the mistaken association of the
word with the plates of transparent horn formerly used in place of glass.
OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING 185
latter to FitzGerald in the year 1868, dealing some-
what exhaustively with the matter. This letter
appears to have been forwarded by FitzGerald to
Edwin Edwards, the artist, by way of inspiration for
an etched frontispiece to the edition of The Huhaiyat
which was to be published by Quaritch in 1871,
not, I think, in 1872, as Colonel Prideaux has it.
From Professor Coicell to Edzvard FitzGerald.
My dear E. F. G. — I have sent oft' one letter to you
to-day, but I did not answer a question of yours in it, after
all, which you remind nie of in your letter just received by
this evening's post.
First as to the famous Fanus i Khiyal — you will find it
explained in a note by the editor at the end of my Calcutta
Review Paper. I have often seen them in Calcutta. The
lantern is about a foot and a half high — and nearly a foot
in diameter, and it moves round with a slow and slightly
vibratory motion. The candle is placed inside, and the
draught sends it round. The editor in his note explains
how the draught is produced : — They are made of a talc ^
cylinder with figures of men and animals cut out of paper
and pasted on it. The cylinder, which is very light, is
suspended on an axis, round which it easily tui'ns. A hole
' This word is curiously enough misprinted " tall " in both Nichols'
and Quaritch's editions of Mr. Heron-Allen's book, whilst in the
note to Professor Lowell's article it is printed "tale." It is some-
thing of a record, I should think, to find so many compositors and
readers all at fault.
24
186 SUPPRESSED PLATES
is cut near the bottom, and the part cut out is fixed at an
angle to the cylinder so as to form a vane. "\\'Tien a small
lamp or candle is placed inside, a current of air is produced
which keeps the cylinder slowly revolving. (Here is a
small drawing.)
I cannot recollect how it was suspended, the reviewer
says, " on an axis.'' I think it was hung by a string from
the top over a candle. I remember seeing it go round one
evening in our dining-room — the Khansamah brought one
to show me. . . .
Nicolas's Fanus ^ is more elaborate than our Calcutta one,
but on the same principle. He says the figures move round
from right to left or vice versa — as may be. His Janal^ is
like mine, only it has a metal top and bottom — the
cylindrical sides being of waxed cloth and painted ; it has a
handle fixed on the top which the man holds ; the candle is
placed inside on the metal floor. . . .
(Here is another small drawing.) . . .
Yours affectionately,
Edw. B. Cowell.
Cambridge,
Jamiary l6, 1868.
^ Professor Cowell here refers to J. B. Nicolas, author of a
Freuch translation of Omar, published at Paris, 1867. In a note
to Les quatrains de Khtyam traduit du Person, he says : " In
Persia the lantern is made of two copper basins, separated by a
shade of waxed calico about a yard high. The lower one contains
the candle, and the upper one has a handle for the arm of the ferrash
who carries it. The shade is folded like the familiar ' Chinese lantern.'
Ornaments are painted on the cloth, and it is to the vacillation of these,
as the carrier shifts it from one hand to another, that Omar refers."
2 Qy. : Has this French word for lantern the same root as Fanus?
OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING 187
The letter was illustrated with two rough
drawings of the Fanus for FitzGerald's guidance.
The last of them represented the toy held out by
a truncated arm. Edwin Edwards, to whom the
letter was forwarded, at once with true artistic
instinct caught at the suggestion unintentionally
conveyed, and, as will be seen from the etching
here reproduced, accentuated the hidden presence
of the "Master of the Show," by making the
arm which holds suspended this " Sun-illumined
Lantern" of a world issue from the impenetrable
darkness which hides its mysterious lord. Un-
fortunately, the Fanus is not etched with great
success, although the artist made a special visit
to the old India JNluseum, now dispersed, to study
an example there on exhibition. Had the etching
equalled the conception, the design could hardly
have failed to satisfy even FitzGerald's fastidious
requirements. As it was, only a limited number ^ of
proofs (from twenty to twenty-five) were printed
by that cleverest printer of etchings, Mrs. Edwin
Edwards, and the plate destroyed. Hence their
rarity.
^ At least six of these have lately ^oiie to America where they were
feverishly bought up by enthusiastic Omariaus.
188 SUPPRESSED PLATES
The conception is a really fine one, and might
well have proved an illustration of the text in the
best sense of that much-abused term, being, as it
is, a very different thing from a mere translation
of the words into pictorial form. It is far more
than this. It is an illuminator of the meaning,
and accentuates its spiritual significance. This
is what illustration should do, but rarely does
do, in these days of rapid and perfunctory
production.
Of Edwin Edwards the artist I should like to
take this opportunity of saying a word. His
name is little known outside artistic circles, and
it would be somewhat unfair to advertise it in
connection with an etched plate which failed to
give satisfaction without at the same time
making allusion to pictorial work which was
successful and meritorious. That he did produce
work of real value is evident from the fact that
one of his oil pictures of the Thames hangs at
the Luxembourg in the Salle des Etrangers (for he
was always more appreciated in France than in
England), and that two years ago another canvas,
and that hardly one of the best examples of his
THK SUPPRESSED FRONTISI'Ii:( K IdH '"OMAIl KIIA^ NA II. "
(I'.y Edwin Kdwjirds.)
OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING! 189
work, was chosen by Sir Edward Poynter to be
well hung in the Tate Gallery.
It may also be mentioned that high apprecia-
tion of his talents has been shown across the
Channel by eulogistic articles in the Gazette des
Beaux Arts, Les Beaux Arts Illustrcs, La Vie
Moderne, UArt, etc., etc.
It is, however, on his work as an etcher that his
reputation must chiefly rest, and it would be more
than unjust to allow the artist who produced such
a tour de force as the great etching of " London
from the Greenwich Observatory," to mention
only one of his three hundred and seventy-one
works in this medium, to be advertised by an
etching, finely conceived it is true, but unsatis-
factorily carried to an issue.
Not that these facts will in any way affect the
thoroughgoing rarity -hunter in his estimate of
the suppressed plate here described. It will be
enough for him to know that not more than a
quarter of a hundred of his rivals can own a proof
of the etching to make him ready to sell his last
shirt for its acquisition. He will continue to value
a print for its rarity rather than for its beauty.
190 SUPPRESSED PLATES
a book for its height in millimetres rather than
for its depth in thought.
No doubt these be hard words. Then why, it
will be asked, pander to so foolish a passion ?
Shall I confess ? Yes, indeed, and glory in the
confession that I, too, am of the gentle brother-
hood, that I, too, am a subscriber to The
Connoisseui' (or *' The Connoyzer," as one of my
friends at Mr. W. H. Smith's bookstall used to
call that delightful publication), that I, too, — in
fine, that I am, by the favour of Fortune, the
happy possessor of two proofs of the suppressed
etching to the Omar of 1872 !
And now just one word with that gentle hunter,
Mr. Thomas B. Mosher of Portland, Maine, U.S.A.,
who did me the honour of transferring a large
portion of the above, originally written for The
Bookman^ to the pages of his beautiful 1902 edition
of The Rubaiyat. Of that I make no complaint,
for I think it very probable that he asked and
obtained my permission. What I do complain of
is that, in a footnote, he falls foul of me for being
" ungracious " to Colonel Prideaux in suggesting
the date 1871 as the year of publication of the
OMAR KHAYYAM ETCHING 191
third edition, instead of the year 1872, as Colonel
Prideaux has it in his most valuable little
" Notes for a Bibliography of Edward FitzGerald "
1901. Mr. Mosher says "no manner of doubt
exists as to the date." Let me tell him that I
have it on the authority of one who was on
intimate terms both with FitzGerald and Edwin
Edwards at the time when this third edition was
published that, though the book bore the date
1872 on the title, as a matter of fact it was
published in the autumn of 1871 and post-dated. If
it be " ungracious " to give Colonel Prideaux a piece
of information which he had not the opportunity
of obtaining for himself, then I sincerely hope that
all who read this volume, and find themselves
better informed, as well they may, than I am, will
be equally " ungracious " to me. La plupart des
hommes nont pas le courage de corrigei^ les autres,
parcequih nont pas le courage de souffrir quon
les corrige.
CHAPTER X
ADAPTED OR PALIMPSEST PLATES
" God bless the King, I mean the faith's defender,
God bless — no harm in blessing — the Pretender.
Who that Pretender is, and who is King —
God bless us all! — that's quite another thing."
So sang the old Jacobite John Byrom, and, taking
my cue from him, I do not propose to enter here
into the vexed question of James Francis Edward
Stuart's claim to this or that title. ^ It is merely a
happy accident that lends me so picturesque a
figure round which to group certain pictorial
rarities, germane to our subject, of which little is
known, and of which the petit-rnaitrc will be there-
fore grateful for some particulars.
The history of the engraved copperplate is full
of that kind of romance which peculiarly com-
^ It may be mentioned that Jesse, in his Memoirs of the
Pretenders, always calls him James Frederick.
192
ADAPTED PLATES 193
mends itself to the lover of what is quaint and
curious in the byways of art, and perhaps the most
romantic phase of its history is that with which
I am about to deal. It is the sort of romance
which was inseparable from what may be called
the pre-machinery days, and is as foreign to the
spirit of this age as are the slashed doublets of
our forefathers or the starched irrelevances of
their wives.
It may be, of course, that the Process block of
to-day will be found to be as full of romance
to-morrow. Indeed we have already found some
indications of this in a former chapter, and it
is probably true that romance is as all-pervading
in the mental as ether is in the physical world,
and that it is only lack of the proper intellectual
reagent that makes the discovery of it difficult.
However that may be, one thing is certain, that
most of us find it easier to come at the " poetry
of circumstance" when centuries or decades have
left it behind than when it is at our immediate
threshold.
In these days of lightning pictorial satire, when
Monday's political move is on Tuesday served up
25
194 SUPPRESSED PLATES
in genial topsy-turvy by " F. C. G." in the TVest-
minster or " G. R. H." in the Pall Mall, and when
PuncJis weekly cartoon is voted seven days late
by the Man in the Street, it is difficult for us
to realise the shifts to which political satire was
put when the laborious engraved or etched broad-
side was the quickest method of getting at the
picture-loving masses. Just imagine the agony
of impatience of the political satirist who had
designed his broadside and had to await the tardy
engraving of the copperplate, to be followed by
the deliberate hand-printing and hand-painting of
the impressions before they could be published,
perhaps only to find in the end that the nine-days'
wonder was past, or that events had blunted his
most telling points.
So, too, when satirist was employed against
satirist, how hopeless it seemed for retaliation to
follow swiftly enough upon the occasion to make
any retort in kind worth while at all.
Then it was that the wit of man, quickened
by necessity, conceived the clever stratagem of
the adapted copperplate, of which it is here my
purpose to give some remarkable examples.
ADAPTED PLATES 195
I fancy I see the victim of some shrewder libel
than usual, with which the town has been flooded,
pricking ofl* in hot haste to the pictorial satirist
in his pay, and demanding the production of a
trenchant and immediate reply, so that the retort
may be in the printsellers' windows before the
attack has had time to do its deadly work.
The satirist names a month as the earliest
possible date. His employer curses him for a
blundering slowcoach. Before a month is out the
mischief will be done beyond repairing. And he
is flinging himself out of the workshop when a
happy thought comes with a flash into his head.
How about the copperplate of that broadside
which fell so flat a year ago because of its tardi-
ness ? It was meant to be a counter-thrust to
just such another attack as this, but it was a
month too late. Is there no way of fitting a new
barb on to the old arrow ? Is there no way of
adapting the year -old weapon to the present
necessity ?
And then there follows anxious discussion and
careful examination. The head of A. burnished
out here can be re-engraved in the similitude of B.
196 SUPPRESSED PLATES
C. will stand as he is and do duty, with a new
index number and altered footnote, for D. Here
an inappropriate object can be replaced by a panel
of appropriate verse. The inscriptions on the
banderoles issuing from the characters' mouths
must be altered. And, hey presto ! in the
twinkling of a bedpost we have our answer ready
for a not too critical public.
The original lampooner, who counted on a good
month's start, will be confronted with a retort
before he has time to turn round. The whole
town will be set buzzing about the successful ruse,
and the laugh will be turned upon the aggressor.
Of course it would be comparatively rarely that
the adapted plate could be wholly aprojws, but
such capital ingenuity was exercised, once the
stratagem had been imagined, that the practice
was not so uncommon nor so unsuccessful as
might be naturally expected. In this chapter I
am only treating of those dealing with one
particular episode, but I have in my possession
at least thirty of these remarkable productions.
From them we find that it was not always the
engraver of a plate who re-adjusted his own handi-
ADAPTED PLATES 197
work, but piratical hands were sometimes laid
upon the work of a master by mere journeymen
engravers who did not scruple to leave the original
artist's name for the better selling of the plate,
although it had ceased to represent even in the
remotest degree his sentiments or intentions.
Indeed, I could tell of at least one remarkable
plate originally prepared in honour of a certain
great personage, which, being thievishly appro-
priated by his opponents, was by them so
judiciously metamorphosed as to cover him with
as much confusion as it had originally panoplied
him with honour.^
This is, I believe, the first time that any
attempt has been made to bring this fascinating
subject before the public. Incidentally it has
' Mozley, in his entertaining Reminiscences, tells the foUomng
story of the latter days of the Oxford Movement^ which is somewhat
parallel: " Isaac AVilliams published a volume of poetry called The
Baptistry, upon a series of curious and very beautiful engravings,
by Boetius a Bolswert, in an old Latin work, entitled Via Vitce
^£terncp. In these pictures, besides other things peculiar to the
Roman Church, there frequently occurs the figure of the Virgin
Mother, crowned and in glory, the object of worship, and distributing
the gifts of Heaven. For this figure ^Villiams substituted the Church,
and tliereby incurred a protest from Newman for adopting a Roman
Catholic work just so far as suited his own purpose, without caring for
the further responsibilities."
198 SUPPRESSED PLATES
been touched upon once or twice in publications
of my own as it affected other byways in art, and
has been alluded to in the Introductions to the
Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British
Museum {Satij^es), prepared under the direction
of the late Keeper of the Prints and Drawings,
George William Reid, by F. G. Stephens, to
which monumental work all students of such
subjects are profoundly indebted. But it has
never been treated with anything approaching the
completeness that it deserves. It is practically an
un worked phase of print- collecting — a new craze
in which the dilettante may specialise.
As I have said, we are fortunate in having in
this place so picturesque a figure as that of the
Old Pretender, or the Chevalier de St. George, as
some like to call him, round whom to group our
first batch of these pictorial palimpsests.
James Francis Edward Stuart was, as all who
know their history will remember, the son of
James II. by his second wife, Mary of Modena.
He was born on June 10, 1688, at St James's
Palace.
James II. was then in his fifty-fifth year. By
ADAPTED PLATES 199
his cruelties after Monmouth's rebellion, by his
attack on the Universities, by the Trial of the
Seven Bishops, by his Court of Commissioners of
Ecclesiastical Causes, and by his misuse of the
Dispensing Power he had alienated the whole
nation, with the exception of a few Roman
Catholics and hangers-on of the Court, and his
throne was tottering.
The only element of strength in his position
was the certainty that sooner or later the crown
was bound to pass to one of the Protestant
daughters of his first marriage ; for though the
present Queen had borne him four or five children
they had all died young. It was now six years
since there had been any hint of a royal birth.
What were probably grossly exaggerated accounts
of the King's early irregularities were matter of
common gossip, and the Queen's health was far
from robust. Suddenly, at a most opportune
moment for the Roman Catholics — so opportune
a moment indeed that intrigue at once suggested
itself — it was announced to the world that Mary
was with child, and a day of thanksgiving was
appointed five months before the Queen's delivery.
200 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Now was the occasion for reviving a report
which had been sedulously spread by the enemies
of the Court from the very earliest days of the
Queen's marriage — tliat the King, in order to
transmit his dominions and his bigotry to a Roman
Catholic heir, had determined to impose a sur-
reptitious offspring on his Protestant subjects.
In due course came her Majesty's lying-in at St.
James's, and although the King took every pre-
caution, by the solemn depositions of forty-two
persons of rank who were present, against questions
arising as to the child's identity, the celebrated
" warming-pan " story was hatched, which con-
tinued to gahi credence for more than half a
century. Nor were circumstantial details of the
most intimate nature in support of the lie wanting.
During the labour, it was maintained, the curtains
of the bed were drawn more closely than usual on
such occasions ; neither the Princess of Orange,
the nearest Protestant heir to the throne, nor her
immediate adherents were asked to be in attend-
ance ; an apartment had been selected for the
Queen's accommodation in which there was a door
near the head of the bed which opened on a back
ADAPTED PLATES 201
staircase. Though the weather was hot, and the
room heated by the great crowd of persons
present, a warming-pan was introduced into the
bed ; and finally the pan contained a new-born
child, which was immediately afterwards presented
to the bystanders as the offspring of the Queen !
The following song, sung by two gentlemen
at the Maypole in the Strand, is sufficiently
explanatory :
" As I went by St. James's I heard a bird sing,
That the Queen had for certain a boy for a King ;
But one of the soldiers did laugh and did say,
, It was horn overnight and brought forth the next day.
This bantling was heard at St. James's to squall.
Which made the Queen make so much haste from Whitehall."
The last line referred to the fact that the Queen
had played at cards at Whitehall Palace till
eleven o'clock on Saturday, June 9, whence she
was carried in a chair to St. James's Palace, and
on the Sunday, June 10, between the hours of
nine and ten in the morning, "was brought to
bed of a prince."
It is a remarkable fact [says Jesse] that as early as 1682
(six years before this), when the Queen, then Duchess of
York, was declared to be pregnant, the same rumours were
26
202 SUPPRESSED PLATES
propagated as on the present occasion — that an imposture
was intended to be obtruded upon the nation. Fortunately
on that occasion the infant proved to be a female, or doubt-
less some improbable fiction would have been invented
similar to that which obtained credit in 1688.
Undoubtedly the whole thing was a lie, but it
did its deadly work/ The whole nation was
prepared to accept the flimsiest evidence, and
within six months father, mother, and child had
fled to France.
So much for the story that inspired the re-
markable broadsides with which it is here our
purpose to deal. It will be noticed that these
broadsides are all Dutch in their origin, a fact
that is not surprising when we remember that they
formed part of the propagandum which was soon
to land William of Orange, the husband of James's
eldest daughter, on the throne of England.
The first that we reproduce is entitled
" L'Europe Alarmee pour le Fils d'un Meunier."
The artist is that remarkably clever Dutchman,
^ Certain imprudent Roman Catholics gave colour to the popular
belief by loudly expressing their opinion that a miracle had been
wrought. One fanatic had even gone so far as to prophesy that the
Queen would give birth to twins, of whom the elder would be King of
England and the younger Pope of Rome !
ADAPTED PLATES 203
Romeyn de Hooghe, whose delicate and facile
handling of the point is well exemplified in the
seascape at the back of the picture.
Let us examine in detail the most important
features of this elaborate broadside.
The centre of attraction is, of course, the sur-
reptitious infant Prince of Wales, who lies in his
cradle to the left of the picture. Those assembled
about him are discussing the possibility of the plot
having been discovered. On his coverlet are
various playthings, amongst which is conspicuous
a toy mill, emphasising, of course, the generally
accepted belief that he was the son of a miller,
for, in their lying, James's enemies were nothing
if not circumstantial. This allusive toy figures
in almost all the satiric prints dealing with the
Old Pretender.
At the foot of the cradle, which is decorated
with an owl, an owlet, and a snake (emblems of
evil), is a pap-bowl and spoon, half concealed by
the arm of "the first mother"^ (1) who seems to
* It is not easy to decide which of the female figures is intended to
represent Mary of Modena and which the miller's wife. At first sight
one would expect the Queen to be represented by the central figure 3,
but, on the other hand, I have in my possession a very rare mezzotint
204 SUPPRESSED PLATES
be pointing out to Father Petre (2), the instigator
of the plot, that the child has been born too old.
The Father, whose intimacy with the lady is
suggested by a tender fondling of her right hand
with his left, fingers his rosary with the other, and
gazes fixedly into her eyes.
Edward Petre was one of the best-hated men
in the country, and was popularly looked upon as
James's evil genius. The King would have made
him Archbishop of York, but the Pope refused his
dispensation. In the year preceding the produc-
tion of this satire he had been made a Privy
Councillor.
In the middle of the picture sits the "second
mother " (3) in a highly-wrought chair, round the
legs of which twine carved serpents. Tears
course down her cheeks. With her right hand
she points to the cradle as she listens to the
counsels of the papal nuncio Count Ferdinand
d'Adda (4), who, with armour peeping from under
of the period which represents Fatlier Petre and the Queen in almost
identical attitudes as figures 1 and 2 in the present plate. This view
of the matter is supported by the following scandalous verse of the day :
Some priests, they say, crept nigh her honour.
And sprinkled some good holy water upon her.
Which made her conceive of what has undone her.
z
tJ
K
a,
o
(S
ADAPTED PLATES 205
his robes and with his armoured foot treading on
his naked weapon, recommends submission of the
whole matter to the arbitrament of the sword.
Immediately beyond the Cardinal stands Louis
XIV. (5), James's faithful ally. In one hand he
carries a bag of money, referring, doubtless, to his
offer of five hundred thousand livres for the equip-
ment of an English fleet to oppose the Prince of
Orange's threatened invasion ; with the other he
exposes to view a list of his army.
Behind, and to the right of Cardinal d'Adda,
Louis' son, the Dauphin of France, makes as
though he would draw his sword, whilst the Pope
(Innocent XI.), in shadow at the extreme right
of the picture (7, the number is very indistinctly
seen on the dark clothing) grasps the keys of
St. Peter, and would seem to be sarcastically
doubtful of the whole affair. "The Pope,"
says Voltaire, "founded very little hopes on the
proceedings of James, and constantly refused
Petre a cardinal's hat."
Beyond the Pope is seen the armoured figure
of Leopold I. (8), with the German eagle on his
helmet. With his right hand he grasps his sword-
206 SUPPRESSED PLATES
hilt ; with his left he gesticulates as though re-
minding the war party that he also has to be
reckoned with. No. 9 I cannot identify.
Behind Mary of Modena's chair stands (13, the
figure is on her breast) Catherine of Braganza, the
childless wife of Charles II. She is doubtless
lamenting that, when residing at Whitehall, she
had not herself manufactured a prince on the
Modena plan. Next to her (11, the figure is on
the pillar) a doctor of the Sorbonne promises them
all dispensations — a hit at James's well-known
misuse of the dispensing powers. Next to him,
with his right hand convulsively grasping a roll of
charters, stands James himself (10). In his left
he carries parliamentary and corporation papers.
With despairing eyes he gazes at the baby who,
so far from giving, as he had fondly hoped, the
finishing touch to the Roman Catholic triumph
in England, is likely to prove the most damning
count in the country's indictment of his iniquities
and treasons. To the left the midwife (12) en-
courages him to proceed with the imposture.
Below her two monks (14 and 15), greatly
alarmed, pray aloud at the head of the cradle.
ADAPTED PLATES 207
Immediately behind them two heralds, one
mounted on an ass, blow on trumpets to call
attention to the Dutch fleet, which is seen
approaching through the right-hand arch, whilst
through the left a fort is seen belching forth
smoke and resisting the landing of the longboats.
In the left corner of the picture certain
Quakers (17, 18, 19), whose curious friendship with
James must not be forgotten, deprecate the priests'
blasphemies, whilst beyond them a crowd of Irish
papists is suggested by their waving symbols and a
torn flag embroidered with the sacred monogram.
Behind the Quakers an oriental -looking person
scans the heavens through a telescope.
The colonnade beneath which all this takes
place has its pillars surmounted by owls and a
demoniacal bat. The arches are inscribed with the
words " Het word hier nacht," and other in-
scriptions are seen on the walls. On the extreme
right of the picture is reared a banner bearing
what appear to be the words " In utrumque
Turgam," of which it is difficult to imagine the
meaning. "In utramque Furcam," which would
be intelligible, has been suggested to me as an
208 SUPPRESSED PLATES
alternative reading, but cannot, I think, be
accepted. Another friend hazards " In utrumque
(modum) resurgam," which may be freely trans-
lated, " I shall be ' dormy ' either way," and would
certainly make sense. Farther than that I cannot
go with him.
So much for the first state of this elaborate
copperplate which did its part in propagating the
lie which went far to lose for James II. the crown
of England.
After having served this purpose the plate
was laid aside for nearly a quarter of a century.
During this period the throne of England had
been occupied by James II.'s two daughters, Mary
and Anne, to the exclusion of their father, who
died in exile in 1701, and of the Chevalier de St.
George, whose proclamation by Louis of France
as James III. of England^ had been followed by
the war of the Spanish Succession.
In 1713, just twenty-four years after the plate
had been engraved, the Peace of Utrecht, so
vitally important as marking the beginning of
* In the Stuart Room at Madresfield Court Lord Beauchamp lately
showed me a portrait of the Chevalier, labelled ''James III." !
ADAPTED PLATES 209
England's commercial prosperity, was signed
between England and France. Amongst other
thinffs it secured the Protestant Succession to
the throne of England through the House of
Hanover, and the dismissal of the Chevalier from
France. The suspension of arms between the
English and the French which preceded the
signing of the treaty was seized upon as the
opportunity for resuscitating the plate and adapt-
ing it to the altered circumstances. Now did some
pictorial vandal wrench and twist the figures to
new and undreamt-of uses and turn the Council
of War of 1688 into the Court of Peace between
the Roses and Lilies of 1712 ! The plate now
professes to be published in London, though,
from the fact that the publication line runs. " A
Londres chez Turner," and from sundry mis-
spellings, it would appear certain that the altera-
tions on the plate were effected abroad.
In this second state the plate has been reduced
at the top as far as the capitals of the pillars, and
at the bottom as far as the left foot of the figure
which represented Father Petre in the original.
The index figures have also been changed.
27
210 SUPPRESSED PLATES
The explanation of the design as it now stands is
contained in eighty-tln-ee lines of doggerel French
verse. Taking the alterations one by one we find
in the first place that the infant and cradle have
been bodily removed, and (1) the "Plan de Paix"
substituted. It bears the legend "Vrede tussen
het Lelien en Roosen hof. Paix entre les Lis et
les Roses picantes."
The central figure (2) of the picture is now
changed into an allegorical personage labelled
"Pax," who holds in her left hand a paper
inscribed "Juste Protestation des Allies," whilst
with her riffht she indicates the " Plan de Paix."
In this way the new artist, with some ingenuity,
suggests that the spirit of peace is in sympathy with
the dissatisfaction of the Allies at the negotiations
which are proceeding between England and France.
Her remonstrances are addressed to the figure on
her left (3), which formerly represented Cardinal
d'Adda, but is now labelled " Pole." (the Abbe
Melchior de Polignac), who tries to allay her
forebodings. The difficulty of the Cardinal's hat,
which is of course out of place on an Abbe, is
ingeniously got over by the writer of the French
ADAPTED PLATES 211
libretto, who refers to him as a Cardinal in petto.
As a matter of fact the writer proved a good
prophet, for, on the conclusion of the peace, for
whicli Polignac was largely I'esponsible, he ivas,
on the nomination of the Chevalier de St.
George, created and appointed Cardinal Maitre
de la Chapelle du Roi. He was at the time of
the publication of the altered plate plenipotentiary
in Holland for the French. It will be noticed
that the pince-7iez and moustache have now been
dispensed with.
The figure behind Polignac (4), which originally
stood for the Dauphin, who, by the way, was but
lately dead, is now labelled at the foot " Mont-or "
(the Duke of Ormond's name reversed), and at the
head " Tori." By an ingenious turn of thought,
the Dauphin's warlike action of drawing his sword
is now metamorphosed into the Duke's conciliatory
action of slieathing his. This refers, of course, to
the instructions which lie had received from the
English Government, on taking over the command
of the troops in the Low Countries from the Duke
of Marlborough, to do all in his power to bring
about a peaceful issue.
•212 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Beyond Polignac the figure (5) which formerly
represented Louis XIV. is now put to humbler
uses, and merely represents a French herald. The
paper in his left hand, which originally enumerated
Louis' forces, now bears the gratifying legend :
Bonne Paix
De I'Anglois
Me rend guai.
The lady in front of him (6), who formerly stood
for Catherine of Braganza, now represents Maria
Louisa of Savoy, the first wife of Philip V. of
Spain (fortunately for him not such a fireband
as his second wife proved !to be). She turns to
her handsome young husband (7) (here some-
what libellously represented by the whilom " Old
Hatchet Face") who has just renounced for
himself and descendants all claims of succession
to the crown of France, His right hand rests
on the scroll of " charters " as before, but the
document in his left now bears the legend : " Leli
afstand onder Conditie" (The lily to surrender
under conditions).
Passing almost to the extreme right of the
picture, the eagle - helmeted figure (8) which
ADAPTED PLATES 213
before represented the Emperor Leopold I. now
represents his son Charles VI., " Le Seigneur
juste de la Cour d'Orient et Occident." Clutch-
ing his huge sword, he expresses the anger of the
Imperialists at the project for peace between
England and France. In the end he refused to
concur in the peace of Utrecht, and continued at
war with France until 1714.
On either side of him are two figures numbered
alike (9, 9). That on his right, which bears the
word ** Wigh " engraved on his hat, represents the
Duke of INIarlborough, the deposed military leader
of the AVhigs. That on his left is one of the
Duke's followers, who, by his drawn sword, points
the allusion of the librettist to the " Pacificateur
par le fer."
To the extreme right of the picture (10) the
Pope, now Clement XI. in place of Innocent XI.,
encourages Polignac in his efforts for peace, and
promises him " La Pourpre " as his reward.
Returning to the middle background of the
crowd we find (11, 11) two Jesuits. The one
who looks over the left shoulder of No. 7 was
in the first state of the plate a doctor of the
214 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Sorbonne. The index number of this figure is
now on his hat. Originally it was on the pillar
above him. This the adapter has apparently
attempted to turn into a rough ornamentation
by the addition of parallel strokes. Becoming
dissatisfied, he has crossed out the whole by
irregular horizontal lines. To the left of figure
7 is seen (12) the Pretender, the surreptitious
infant of the original, now grown to manhood,
whispering in Philip of Spain's ear that though
he claims as a Protestant the throne of his father,
he is in his heart of the Romish faith. This figure
originally represented the midwife, but has been
metamorphosed by the addition of a man's hat,
wig, and ruffles.
To the extreme left of the foreground of the
picture the erstwhile Father Petre is now trans-
formed (13) into a Jesuit confessor, who amorously
converses with (14) " La Courtisane de Bourbon,"
Madame de Maintenon. This cruel aspersion on
the character of one who was really, though
secretly, Louis XIV.'s wife, and whose noble-
ness of character is now fully established, was
characteristic of the times. The Plan de Paix,
ADAPTED PLATES 215
which was so obnoxious to the author of the
satire, would seem to have just fallen from her
fingers, and doubtless he is right in recognising
that she had a hand in its consummation.
Beyond the table sit a monk and friar (15, 15),
as formerly, except that the removal of the cradle
has necessitated an extension of their figures. In
the background, against the left-hand pillar, is (16)
the " Harlequin de France." In front of him the
three figures (17, 18, 19), originally Quakers, are
now referred to as "Esprits Libres." The man
with the telescope (20) is "The Observer of Foreign
Countries." The other subordinate figures are the
same as before, save for the addition, in some cases,
of index numbers.
It is interesting to notice that this plate was
so successful in its adapted state that it was made
the basis of a design engraved for a German broad-
side of the following year entitled " Der Fridens-
Hoffzwischen der Rose und der versohnten LiUe,"
with which it has many points in common.
I have treated of this plate at considerable
length because it is the most important of the
palimpsest plates of this period. I shall close
216 SUPPRESSED PLATES
this chapter by reproducmg one other remarkable
example designed in its first state to expose the
same supposed wicked plot. In the next chapter
I shall give another dealing with the birth of the
Old Pretender, from which we shall gain some idea
of the extent to which this clever stratagem of the
adapted copperplate was made use of in the deliber-
ate days of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
For the present I must pass over two elaborate
broadsides engraved by Jean Bollard, and entitled
respectively "Aan den Experten HoUandschen
Hoofd-Smith" (To the Expert Dutch Head-
Smith), and "Aan der Meester Tonge - Slyper "
(To the Master Tongue-Grinder). These, as we
shall see later, after doing their work against
James II. and the Old Pretender, were seized upon
many years afterwards by the piratical publisher
of a remarkable Jansenist tract, called " Roma
Perturbata, Ofte't Eeroerde Romen, etc.," and
adapted to the uses of the anti- Jesuit pro-
pagandum, in the same way as "L'Europe
Alarmee pour le Fils d'un Meunier," described
above, was adapted after twenty-five years of
idleness as a satire upon the Peace of Utrecht.
ADAPTED PLATES 217
It was this same piratical tractarian who seized
upon the elaborate plate which I am here reproduc-
ing, divorced it from its letterpress, cut the plate
down to the size of his tract, and appropriated it
in its second state to the purposes of "Roma
Perturbata."
In its first state, which I give here, together
with its accompanying letterpress, the line of
publication runs: "Gisling, Geneve, exc." and
the title :
Het beest van Babel is aan't vlucsten
Die Godsdienst heeft niet meer te duckten.
(The beast of Babel is flying,
Religion has nothing more to fear.)
The design is very elaborate and crowded with
figures, those in the foreground being executed
with considerable spirit. The Dutch Lion (1)
carries a sword in its right front claws, as does
that on the Persian flag of to-day. On its back
rides William of Orange (7) with lance in rest
and bearing a shield upon which St. Michael
is represented combating sin in the shape of
a dragon. William is supported by mounted
soldiers, one of whom bears a flag inscribed with
28
"3.
220 SUPPRESSED PLATES
the words " Prot religion and libe " — (For religion
and liberty). Over his head flies a winged Revenge
(3) carrying a shield in one hand and the lightnings
of God's wrath in the other. Before him flies the
seven-headed Beast of Babel (2), shorn of two of
his heads, which lie bleeding on the ground beneath
the lion. The monster, which "utters horrible
shrieks," bears upon its back between its wings
Father Petre (6), who holds on his lap the infant
Pretender (5), to whom his "brains have so
infamously given birth." The too -old infant
carries in his hand the ever-present toy wind-
mill. Blood pours from the decapitated necks of
the Beast as he plunges with his accompanying
rabble into the "pool of horrors." Priests and
other Romish officials, some mounted on goats,
asses, and wolves, flee (4) or are trampled under
foot (8).
In the mid background William of Orange (9),
by a poetic licence able to be in two places at
once, a fairly common convention even in serious
pictures of that and an earlier date,^ is being
^ See, for example, Tintoret's great picture of "Adam and Eve" in
the Accademia at Venice.
ADAPTED PLATES 221
greeted by the English nobles as their saviour.
To the left, through an archway, James II. (10) is
seen fleeing by boat with his wife and infant,
though, as a matter of fact, he remained in
England some months after the latter were safely
abroad. To the right, through another arch,
Louis XIV. (11) is seen "embracing the child and
taking pity on his mother," and putting two of
the curious, hearse-like carriages of the period at
their disposal. Here we not only find Mary of
Modena duplicated, but the infant Pretender
triplicated in the same picture ! So much for the
plate in its first state.
In its second and adapted state it takes its
place in the armoury of the anti-Jesuits. The
.Tansenist controversy was at its height in the year
of grace 1705, and Jansenism, although nominally
subject to Rome, was regarded favourably by the
Protestant Dutch as being a reforming movement
within the Roman Catholic Church against the
theological casuistry of the Jesuits.
This is not the place to go into the anti-
Jansenist polemics of the Jesuits since the pubh-
cation of the " Augustinus" of 1640, though the
222 SUPPRESSED PLATES
interest of the matter is sufficiently tempting.
We must content ourselves with remembering that
now at the beginning of a new century a supreme
effort was being made by the Jesuits in France
to destroy completely the pious community of
Port Royal ; that within four years they were to
succeed in dispersing the nuns ; within another
year the cloister itself was to be pulled down ;
that in 1711 the very bodies of the departed
members of the community were destined to be
disinterred from the burial ground with the
greatest brutalities and indecencies ; and in 1713
the church itself demolished.
But, though Port Royal itself was doomed,
Jansenism was finding freedom under the Protest-
ant Government of Holland.
In 1689 Archbishop Codde had been appointed
by the Pope Vicar Apostolic in Holland. Soon,
however, it was discovered by the Jesuits that he
favoured the Jansenists.
By the machinations of the Jesuits he was
therefore invited to Rome, and treacherously
detained there for three lyeai's, in defiance of all
canonical regulations. In the meantime the Pope
ADAPTED PLATES 223
appointed Theodore de Cock in his place, with the
intention of crushing the Jansenists in Holland.
Codde thereupon made his escape from Rome,
and the well-known struggle of the Jansenists of
Utrecht and Haarlem for a legitimate episcopal
succession began.
This was the juncture at which our copper-
plate was to do duty a second time, and for such
different ends.
It has been divorced from its letterpress, altered
in certain details and slightly cut away at the top
and bottom. Like those dealing with the Head
Smith and Tongue Sharpener, as will be seen in
the next chapter, it has been appropriated to the
uses of "Roma Perturbata." It is now entitled
on the panel which has been inserted at the spring
of the arches " Door Munnike-Jagt, Word Babel
Verkracht " (By chasing monks. Babel is assailed),
and the piratical publisher has made many
ingenious alterations. The possibly punning
publication line runs : " Benedictus Antisolitarius
excudit Rom." Above this appears the chrono-
graph : " Hos HEROS MonaChos apprenDe
bataVe rebeLLes."
224 SUPPRESSED PLATES
The Lion (1) still represents Holland and hunts
the Beast of Babel (2) assisted by the winged
Revenge (3), whose lightnings have now been
increased to seven to represent the heraldic arrows
of the Seven United Provinces. This device also
now appears on the shield of Holland's Knight
(7) in place of that of St. Michael and the
Dragon. The banner of his followers is now
inscribed "Pro Secularibus." As champion of
the Jansenists the Knight puts to rout "all the
bald heads (4, 4, 4, 4), together with 'their
protector Kok ' " (6), who " in disguise " rides
between the wings of the Beast with an ille-
gitimate child (5) on his lap, from whose right
hand the toy windmill of the infant Pretender
has been removed. In the background to the
left, others, in the quaint words of the Dutch
letterpress (10), "escape quickly from the town
by water, while they are clothed like gentlemen
in order not to be known as monks." In the
background to the right, others flee "like great
gentlemen in carriages," a fairly ingenious adapta-
tion of James II. 's flight and Louis' welcome of
the fugitives.
ADAPTED PLATES 225
The group in the middle background is now
made to represent Codde (8.B), who has escaped
from Rome and is being welcomed back by the
representatives of the State (9, 9).
29
CHAPTER XI
ADAPTED OR PALIMPSEST PLATES {contlUUed).
In the last chapter I claim to have introduced the
reader to a phase of print -collecting which has
in it a sporting element of a peculiarly enticing
character. The pursuit of what I have called
palimpsest copperplates offers entertainment of
the very best to one who would make it a
speciality, and, perhaps, the most alluring thing
about this curious quarry is that the hunter will
never be satisfied after running it to earth until
he has secured and coupled it in his portfolio with
its necessary and enchanting fellow.
I propose in this chapter to give a few more
specimens of these curious adapted plates.
Many examples of reheaded statues and adapted
portraits lie around us. Mr. Augustus Hare tells
of a representation of Lady Georgina Fane in
Brympton Church, which consists of the head of
226
ADAPTED PLATES 227
that ready-witted lady "added to the body of an
ancestress who was headless," whilst any visitor to
Yarmouth Church, Isle of Wight, may see the
imposing marble effigy of Admiral Sir Robert
Holmes, which consists of the head of that
gallant sailor surmounting the body of Louis
XIV. It appears that Sir Robert, having
captured the vessel in which the Italian -made
torso of the Grand Monarque was being conveyed
to France for the modelling of the head, retained
the unfinished work and crowned it with his own
august features — a good example of the resource-
fulness of the English character.
Again, Macaulay, enlarging upon the popularity
of Frederick the Great in England, tells how at
one time enthusiasm reached such a height that
the sign-painters were everywhere employed in
touching up the portraits of Admiral Vernon,
which hung outside innumerable public -houses,
into the likeness of the King of Prussia, a curious
commentary, by the way, on the family motto,
" Ver non semper virit." ' Further, it is on record
^ ITie following- extract from a recent newspaper shows that the
practice has not yet altogether died out : —
" In the action of Tussaud v. Stiff, heard in the Chancery Division by
228 SUPPRESSED PLATES
that after Trafalgar such was Nelson's popularity,
that Daniel Orme, engraver to George III., bought
a plate of Napoleon at the sale of a Ludgate Hill
printseller's effects, and altered it into a portrait
of our national hero.
Examples such as these might be multiplied, but
here are enough for our purpose. They show that
the systematic practice of copperplate adaptation
has its counterpart in other departments of art.
We will now consider a curious broadside
Mr. Justice Buckley yesterday, the plaiiitiiF, Mr. Louis Tussaud, sought
to restrain defendant by injunction from carrying on his business of
exhibiting models in such a way as to induce the public to believe that
the models he showed were the work of the plaintiff. It was stated by
the plaintiff's counsel that, in consequence of an injunction granted
some years ago, it became necessary for the plaintiff to carry on his
exhibition as Louis Tussaud's New Exhibition in Regent Street. It
was afterwards turned into a limited liability company, and removed
to the Alexandra Palace. Some of the models were sold to the
defendant, but no goodwill of the business was sold. The defendant
had since opened several exhibitions of waxworks, other models bad
been added to those sold by the plaintiff, and the models of the plaintiff
had been split into a considerable number of pieces, while models made
by other persons than the plaintiff' were exhibited as Louis Tussaud's
waxworks. Counsel informed the Court that in one case the head of the
Archbishop of Canterbury had been put on the body of Charles Peace, and
in another instance Napoleon was represented as taking part in the execution
of Mary Queen of Scots. The defendant's present exhibition was a penny
show in the Edgware Road. In another instance the head of Mr. Ritchie,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was put upon a dying soldier."
The Mr. Louis Tussaud here mentioned must not be confused with
Mr. John Tussaud of the Marylebone Road Exhibition.
AAN DER MKKSTKR TOXGE-SLYPER.
i^he letterpress is not reproduced.)
. . ,^-r3*--*J l^-.^-'A.'Tv'* £«.*.«- »^^M<Zu.' '>*-'♦ i>Tr-,-v- «-■ >^i t— At-^^T-
r/*^ ptotf rt« adapted h}f the aati-Jeintita.
230 SUPPRESSED PLATES
published about the year 1688, the copperplate
heading of which was destined to be seized upon
and adapted to other purposes nearly twenty years
later by the piratical publisher referred to inHhe
last chapter.
As will be seen from our reproduction, its letter-
press is addressed, "Aan der Meester Tonge-
Slyper" ("To the Master Tongue Grinder").
The engraver's name does not appear, but the
work is easily distinguished as that of Jean
Bollard, by comparing it with other signed en-
gravings of the same series of pictorial satires.
Two men at a grindstone sharpen a tongue.
Another tongue lies on the anvil. Two labourers
empty a large hamper of tongues into a basket,
which is steadied by a woman. Point is given to
the picture by the gossiping groups seen through
the door and window, and especially by the two
Xantippes who, with arms akimbo, are slanging
each other in good earnest.
The doggerel letterpress refers to the birth of
the Old Pretender, and the mendacious tongues of
the conspirators are being delivered to the smith
to be coerced into speaking the truth. ,
ADAPTED PLATES 231
Here is a free translation of the passage,
beginning " Heden zyn my over London " : —
" To-day I received from London a cargo of those goods
which you have to take in hand ; I have some of the biggest
size, The Admiral of the First Flag, which has been used so
much and has become black from lying, and which, after all
appearances, seems to have had his end bitten off; scrape
thoroughly his thick skin or he will be up to anything ;
swearing oaths, breaking bonds, falsely protecting the
Church is his daily work/
"»
n
And so on, until it ends with the moral : —
" Nothing more useful than whetting the tongue
When its aim is to speak the truth.
But when it is given to lying,
It must be pierced, flayed, and scraped."
So much for the plate in its first state. In its
second we find it published seventeen years later,
and somewhat ingeniously adapted to the new
exigencies. It now takes its place in the armoury
of the anti- Jesuits, and is published without any
acknowledgment in the pamphlet, entitled Roma
Pertubata Oftet Beroerde Romen, etc., etc.,
referred to in the last chapter. This pamphlet,
which is a very warren of palimpsest plates (it has
at least four, and possibly there are others), may
232 SUPPRESSED PLATES
be seen in the print-room of the British INIuseum.
It may, too, as I have myself proved, be discovered
at rare intervals in the shops of the old printsellers
in Holland. JNIine is in a parti-coloured paper
wrapper, whether as issued or added later I
cannot say. It consists of title-page, table of
contents, and eleven full-page copperplate engrav-
ings of extraordinary interest. Curiously enough,
the table of contents makes no reference to the
eleventh and last. Our palimpsest is number 9.^
In its new surroundings it has {vide reproduc-
tion) been divorced from its letterpress, and been
cut away at the bottom. A descriptive panel has
been engraved over the doorway, and other letter-
ing added here and there. The publication line,
*'tot Tongeren by J : la Langue," apparently a
bogus one, playing on the words of the original,
"a Langres chez Tongelel," now appears within
the border of the design.
The tongue which lies on the anvil is now
pierced by the seven heraldic arrows of the Dutch
Provinces, and words are engraved below to the
1 Grateful acknowledgments are here due to the splendid Catalogue
of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, 5 vols., which should be
in the library of every collector of satirical prints.
ADAPTED PLATES 233
effect that "There is no worse evil than that a
Pope's tongue dares slander the State," and on
the base of the anvil, "He has given way to
slander. You must forge him before you grind
him."
Below the quarrelling women are the words r
"These maids are quarrelling for de Kok," refer-
ring to scandals which were afloat concerning the
morality of the Pope's vicar-general, and a Latin
chronograph appears at the feet of the chief smith.
The inscription over the door gives directions
to " The Romish Dutch Grinder of Tongues,"
and, amongst other things, says of the tongue on
the anvil, " That is de Kok's tongue, wounded by
seven arrows, because he has slandered the State
by his speech," which statement hardly tallies with
the inscription on the anvil, unless the vicar-
general may be regarded as the very mouthpiece
of the Pope.
This is no place, as I have said, to enlarge upon
the Jansenist propagandum, but it will well repay
the enthusiastic historian to follow out the above
allusions to their original source.
So much for our adapted broadside.
30
^ Dclcnpbon.
i«i/B y ^ffrt (■tfri'iat Menu t7t rva^ l^y/fe9/ui*t> a- rrutAtUuf. ^c^/t^OO'^/alttt^ (/^'Mk/mni/tiZ/rtt 4 J TfcriA^ 22 Fni*u/^ 1$
/jjf, ».^//«».
236 SUPPRESSED PLATES
I would ask you now to look at the two prints
entitled respectively "The Stature of a Great
]\Ian, or the English Colossus," and " The Stature
of a Great Man, or the SCOTCH Colossus."
The first, dated 1740, represents Sir Robert
Walpole, then in the plenitude of his power. He
stands on two woolpaeks. Between his legs is
seen the British fleet lying inactive. He is
flanked by Marines on the left crying "Let us
fight," and sailors with drawn swords on the right
declaring their readiness to die " Pro Patria." The
plate teems with allusions to his reluctance to
go to war, by which he was subjecting his
country to the insults and aggressions of Spain
and France.
Twenty-two years later the plate was resur-
rected and altered to its second state, in which it
is made to represent Lord Bute. The lower part
of the plate, bearing the quotation from Shake-
speare and the "Description," has been now cut
away, and " Scotch " inserted in the place of
" English " in the title. The chief alterations are
the reduction of the full-bottomed wig and the
addition of a wig-tie of black ribbon, the addition
r-
a ;=
C
o
ADAPTED PLATES 237
of a star on the breast, and a new and abusive
inscription on the right-hand document. In this
case the adapter has shown but little ingenuity.
We will now turn to a far more elaborate
example, which, in its first state, as will be seen
in the reproduction, represents Queen Anne pre-
siding in state over the House of Lords. The
plate is etched by Romeyn de Hooghe.
At the top of the picture, between female
figures representing Plenty and War, is suspended
a cloth, on which the Queen is shown presiding
over the House of Commons. At her side sits
Prince George of Denmark. The whole is sur-
mounted by the words, " Het Hoog en Lager
Huys van Engeland." Left and right of the cloth
are scrolls bearing the legends, " Hinc gloria
regni " and " Hinc felicitas publica."
At the base of the plate are two small self-
contained etchings. That on the left shows the
heralds proclaiming the Queen ; that on the right
shows Her INIajesty sitting in Council. Between
these are inscribed the following words : —
" Annae D. G.
Magnae Britanniae Reginae/' etc., etc.
238 SUPPRESSED PLATES
The main design is crowded with details and
figures of the utmost interest, any description of
which is forbidden by the space at my disposal.
The artist's signature is to be seen on the floor of
the Hall.
Thirteen years were now to elapse before it was
transformed into the glorification of George I.
The King now takes the place of the late Queen
in the House of Lords. The throne in the House
of Commons is vacant. The inscription on the
cloth has been re -engraved, and '* Engeland "
changed to " Engelandt." The title and the
panels at the bottom of the plate have been cut
away, and the index numbers on the main design
and the index letters on the cloth have been
altered. The designer's name has been removed
from the floor of the House, and engraved on the
right-hand corner of the plate.
These are the main differences. The curious
reader may occupy himself in discovering others.
The next example here reproduced I give
because of the peculiarly drastic changes which
have been made by the pirate into whose hands
the plate has fallen.
ADAPTED PLATES 239
In its original state it bears the punning title,
" The Races of the Europeans with their Keys."
The line of publication runs : — " Geo. Bickham,
jun'"' inv*- et sculp. According to the late Act,
1740. Price Is. Sold at ye Black Moors Head
against Surry Street in y*" Strand." The com-
posite design is made up of variorum copies of four
separate prints recently published. These are
enclosed in the four quarters of an elaborate
design, surmounted by a crouching wolf. At the
point where the four corners meet is a grotesque
horned head. At the foot are a mask and a
poniard. Each panel is differently dated, and
surmounts its own set of explanatory notes. The
allusions to contemporary politics are most in-
geniously conceived, but are so numerous that
space forbids even their barest description.
In its second state the plate is entitled " A Skit
on Britain." The line of publication runs the same
as before, saving the name of the artist, which has
been changed into "Ged Bilchham." A line of
script has also been added on this copy, which
states that "This plate is upon the same copper
as ' The Races of the Europeans,' much of the
240 SUPPRESSED PLATES
allusions not having been obliterated," which seems
considerably to understate the case. The enclosing
design is certainly much the same as before, though
in this there are many alterations in detail, but of
the four engravings by far the greater portion has
been removed. The aerial parts are practically
untouched, but of the crowds of figures only a
few unimportant groups remain. All the tables
of reference have been burnished out, and are
replaced by doggerel verses. The dates have been
removed from the four compartments, and in the
places of three of them appear " Porto Bello, Nov.
1739," "Cartagena," and "The Havana," while the
fourth is left blank. The main part of the satire
is directed against the policy of Sir Robert
Walpole, but is of too elaborate a nature to
be entered upon here.
Before concluding this account of palimpsest
plates I shall reproduce three very curious prints
in which the substitution of one head for another
is more than usually outrageous.^ The original
^ The earliest example of the artist as Headsman that I have come
across is a very rare portrait of Queen Elizabeth, full lengthy seated
on a throne, dressed in a robe of state, lidding globe and sceptre,
engraved about 1590. The Queen's figure was subsequently burnished
Tin: IM.ATK WITH TIIK IIKAl) IMIJMSIIKI) (II T.
ADAPTED PLATES 241
engraving was by Pierre Lombart after a made-up
portrait of Charles I., on horseback, professing to
be by Vandyck.
The plate was executed before the execution
(save the mark ! ) of the Martyr King. After his
death the head of Cromwell was substituted, no
doubt for commercial purposes. Finally, Charles
the First's head was restored (again save the
mark!) after the Restoration. Our reproductions
are from what would seem to be the second, third,
and fourth states of the plate though a first state
is not known. It will be observed that, in the
earliest — namelv, that in which the head has been
removed altogether — the scarf is brought across
the left shoulder, and tied under the right arm.
whilst the page-boy has bands and frills to his
breeches. In the next, or third state, in which
Cromwell's head has been inserted, the scarf has
been removed from the shoulder, and is tied round
the waist, whilst the bands and frills have been
removed from the page-boy's nether garments. In
the next, or fourth stage of the plate, in which
out, and that of James I. substituted. This^ unfortunately, I do not
possess.
31
242 SUPPRESSED PLATES
Charles's head has been re-inserted, there are,
besides the substitution of one head for the other,
a few minor alterations, such as the addition of the
Cavalier moustache to the face of the page-boy,
the restoration of the frills to his breeches, the
alteration of the pattern of the rider's collar, the
addition of the order of St. George to the rider's
breast, and the substitution of the royal coat of
arms for those of the Protector at the bottom of
the engraving. There are also other known states
of the plate, reproductions of which may be seen
in Mr. Alfred Whitman's Print-Collectors Hand-
book. These were unknown to me when I wrote
the above description.^
So much for historical instances of putting new
heads on old shoulders. But, if I am not mistaken,
the very modern restoration of the west front of
one of our great cathedrals shows a late Dean's
head surmounting the body of a saint or king,
1 Since writing this I paid a visit to the Hall of the Middle Temple,
when the very intelligent custodian told me that Cromwell ordered
the great Vandyck, which hangs over the high table, to be taken down,
and his own somewhat repellent countenance painted in in the place of
that of Charles I. Fortunately for posterity this outrageous order was
not carried out. The whole affair reminds one of the unconsciously
grim entry in a certain bookseller's catalogue which ran, " Memoirs of
Charles the First with a head capitally executed."
H.\N :
THK PLATK WITH ( ROAIWHrj, S IIKAI).
Magna Uritanni.t . Fi;
!.■*: KT HlBKRNH. R F. X
TIIK I'lATi; WITH CIlARr.KS 1. S IIKAI).
ADAPTED PLATES 243
which had been mutilated by Cromwell. It would
be cruel, perhaps, to be more specific, as vanity
is not the most pleasing of the Christian virtues.
Again, there was lately a good deal of laughter
caused by one of the whims of the German
Emperor. It appears that his artistic eye had
been offended by the incompleteness of a fine
headless torso which was brought to the father-
land some years since. Everything, he was aware,
could be made in Germany, so what more natural
than to offer a prize for the best completion of the
work of a Phidias or a Praxiteles ? Finis coronat
opus, and the sculptors of Germany were called
upon to compete. None of the results, however,
satisfied His Imperial Majesty, and two of the
artists have been commissioned to try again.
Would it be lese-majestie to suggest that there is
only one head in Germany that would prove quite
acceptable ? I present the idea to the competitors.
Enough has been written to show that the
pursuit of the palimpsest plate is sport of the
very finest for the collector, for it is a sport
which does not cease with the running of the
quarry to earth.
244 SUPPRESSED PLATES
I have reproduced, without comment, opposite
pages 244 and 246, and on pages 24.5, 247, and 249,
a few more of these adapted copperplates for the
sake of any one who may be fortunate enough to
possess either the original or the palimpsest. He
will find it no bad sport to go hunting for its
fellow.
i
S
9.
?
a
2
o
HI
c
Aan den Expencn Hollandtchen Hoofd- Smith.
t[//v^iaK> Mi^^-<f'juif nifl7n.t/\'
The plate as adapted.
a,
§-
e
£
•2
a.
A Hiftory of the New PLOT: Or, A Profpea of
Confp.rators, theirOengns Da.nnable, Ends Miferable, Deaths Exemplary.
Plate as originally published.
Romdhaid! k. Whioj
tUf Cjfffani
Htran'/ie Rgmid/i/adi 0icl(mi/?'j/i!i/ r.ta
/^^mlAe R^dkadj fUpifAeli^Uj prr^e ^
ButU'^ in Jm t/utr &icefian oiUi^ J
Tho/i /:i£dtktr/(m,icjlunderdCkrci kn^ihtfn cj
Buttii/c J/i^ad. li/ (jpDoJ-'ouT. Jaba/um \
Tkrefh-c t/uji die w^ Jlimt k^Mj/xra(wn J
I'lnte adapted to other useb:
32
INDEX
" Aan den Experteu Hollandsclien
Hoofd-Smith," 216, 243
"Aan der Meester Tonge-Slyper,"
216 230-233
ADAPTED COPPER PLATES,
192-247
Ainsworth, Harrison, 3
Aiken, Henry, 157-160
Allen, Archdeacon, 10
American Notes, 2
Anne, Queen, 237, 238
Antiquities of Westminster, loO-
153
A Pop -Gun fired off hy George
Cruikshank, 7!)
" A Skit on Britoin," 239, 240
"A Trifling Mistake," 70-73
Ballad of Beau Brocade, The, 3
" Becky Sharp," 10
Bentley's Miscellany, 43-52
Bewick's Birds, 68
Book of Snobs, 9
" Breeches " Bihle, Barker's, 2
Brougham, Lord, 62
Browne, H. K., 27, 28, 29, 31,
33, 54-56
Bruton, Mr. H. W., 48, 49, 69,
75,81
Buffon, M., 5
Bunn, Alfred, 10
Burlington, Earl of, 98-107
" Burlington (Jate," 108
Burns, Robert, 2
Buss, Miss F. M,, 34
Buss, R. W., 29, 30, 31, 32, 33,
34
Bute, Lord, 235, 236
Calcraft, Captain Granby, 9
Capel, Monsiguor, 2
"Captain Granby Tiptoff," 9
" Captain Shindy," 9
Carteret, Lord, 112 et seq.
Catalogue of Prints and Drawings
in the British Museum, 92 et
passim, 198 et passim
Chandos, Duke of, 101
Chapman and Hall, Messrs., 33, 55
Charles L, 241-242
Charles Dickens, The Story of his
Life, 27
Churchill, Charles, 107-111
Clarissa Ilarlowe, 5
Coaching Days and Coaching Wai/s,
175-178
Cochrane, Lord, 65
Coningsby, 12, 13, 20
Cowell, Professor, 184-186
Crawhall, Joseph, 135-138
" Credulity, Superstition, and
Fanaticism : a Medley," 88
et seq
Croker, J. W., 12
Cromek, 11. H., 5
Cromwell, Oliver, 241, 242
Cruikshank, George, 42, 4.5-54,
59-81, 161
251
252
SUPPRESSED PLATES
Cruikshank' i< Portraits of Himself,
80
Cumberland, Duke of, 60-69
Cumberland, Princess Olive of,
62
" Danai? in tbe Brazen Chamber,"
140-148
Death in London, 154-158
Dexter, Mr. J. P., 41
D'Horsay ; or the Follies of the
Day, by a Man of Fashion, 13
Dickens and his Illustrators, 40,
41
Dickens, Charles, 2, 26 et seq.
his American Notes, 2
his suppressed portrait, 27, 28
Dickens Memento, 47
Dictionary of National Biography,
61, 62
Di^liton, Richard, 25
Disraeli, Benjamin, 2, 10, 12,
131-134
Dobson, Mr. Austin, 3, 82 et
passim, 174
Don Quixote, 113 et seq.
" Don Quixote releases the Galley
Slaves," 118, 122
" Don Quixote seizes the Barber's
Basin," 118, 120
"Drop it!" 78
Du Maurier, George, 162-173
Edwards, Edwin, 179-191
Elizabeth, Queen, 240
"Enthusiasm Delineated," 83 et
seq.
Essay on the Genius of George
Cruikshank, 77
Fane, Lady Georgina, 226
Fanus i Khiyal, 185-191
Figaro in London, 63, 64
" Financial Survey of Cumberland
or the Beggar's Petition," 60
FitzGerald, Edward, 40, 179-
191
Frederick the Great, 227
Garrick Club, The, 8, 9
George I., 238
George IV., 11
" George Garbage," 9
Gray, J. M., 148
Grimm's Fairy Tales, 42
" Harry Foker," 9
Hertford, Marchioness of, 75
Hertford, Marquis of, 10 et seq.
History of Pickwick, 29
Hobhouse, John Cam, 70-73
Hogarth Illustrated, 84
Hogarth, William, 82 et seq.
Holmes, Sir Robert, 227
Hook, Theodore, 9, 10
Ireland, John, 84 et seq., 113 et seq.
Irving, Washington, 2
Italian Tales, 74
Italy, 3
James I., 241
Jansenists, the, 221 et seq.
Jesuits, The, 221 et .seq.
"Joe Sibley," 163-173
Jones, W. iV., 68
Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities, 158
Keene, Charles, 127-139
Kitton, F. G., 40
" Lady Kew," 10, 22
Langford, Lady, 10
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 19
Leech, John, 33, 36-38, 40, 41
" L'Europe alarme'e pour le Fils
d'un Meunier," 202-216
Life of Dickens, 37, 46
Lippincott's Magazine, 10
" Lord \A^alham," 23
Lothair, 2
" Marquis of Hereford," 14
Martin Chuz:xlewit, 26, 53
"Monsignor Catesby," 2
" Mr. Dolphin," 10
"Mr. John Jorrocks," 158-161
INDEX
253
" iMr. Pickwick at tlie Review/' 33
" Mr." Pitt Crawley, 15
Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Yates, and the
Garrick Club, 8
"Mr. VFardle and his Friends
under the Influence of the
Salmon," 33
" Mr. Winkle's First Shot/' 33
Napoleon, Emperor, 228
Nelson, Lord, 228
Oliver Twist, 26, 43-52
Once a Week, 127, 140-148
Orange, William of, 217 et seq.
Pailthorpe, Mr. F. W., 56
Pall Mall Gazette, 166-169
Palmer, Samuel, 56
Fendennis, 9
Penelope's English Experiences, 38
Phillimore, Mr. F., 47
" Philoprofijeuitiveness," 77, 78
Pickwick, 26, 28 et seq., 43
Pictures from Italy, 56
Pine's Horace, 54
Poems, Burns' s, 2
Pope, Alexander, 98-107
Price, Stephen, 9
Prideaux, Colonel, 190-191
Punch, VII et seq.
Queensberry, Duke of, 23
Reid's Catalogue of George Cruik-
shank's Works, 45, 62, 69
Ritchie, Mrs., 10
Robertson, J. C, 154-158
Rogers, Samuel, 3
"Roma Perturl)ata, Ofte't Ber-
oerde Romen, etc.," 216 et
seq.
" Rose Maylie and Oliver at
Ag-nes's Tomb," 45 et seq.
Roxborough, Duke of, 2
" Royal Hobbys of the Hertford-
shire Cock Horse," 75
Ruskin, John, 3, 4
Sala, G. A., 39, 40
Sandys, Fiederick, 127, 139-148
Scott, Sir Walter, 2
Seymour, Robert, 29, 31
" Sholto Percy/' 154-158
Sketch Book, Washington Irving's, 2
Sketches by Boz, 55, 57, 58
Smith, J. T., 150
Smith, Wyndham, 9
Spielmaun, Mr. M. H., 128 et
passim
Sporting Snobs, 9
Stanislaus Hoax, 10
Stephens, F. G., 88
Stothard, T., 5
Stuart, James Francis Edward,
198 et seq.
SUPPRESSED PLATES, 1-191
Surtees, R., 158
Swain, Mr. Joseph, 140-148
Talpa, 78
Tenniel, Sir John, 133
Thackeray, W. M., 7 et seq.
The Artist, 145
The Battle of Life, 26, 34-40
The Battle of London Life ; or Boz
and his Secretary, .39
"The Bruiser/' 110, 111
The Builder, 107
The Chimes, 36, 41
The Christinas Carol, 36
"The Cricket Match/' 29, 32
"The Curate and the Barber/'
121, 125
" The Dead Rider," 74
"The Fireside Scene," 26, 44 et seq.
" The First Interview," 121, 123
" The Free and Easy," 57
" The Funeral of Chrysostom,"
116
The History of Punch, 128 et seq.
The Hobby Horse, 144
"The Innkeeper," 114
" The Innkeeper's Wife and
Daughter/' 118
" 'Ilie Last Song," 42
"The Man of Taste," 98-107
254
SUPPRESSED PLATES
"The Marquis of Steyiie," 7 et
seq.
The Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, 41,
42
The Newcomes, 22
"The Painted Chamber/' 150-153
" Tlie Races of tlie Europeans with
their Keys," 239
The Rubaiyut of Omar Khayyam,
179-191
The Speaker, 21
'^The Stature of a Great Man,
or The Eng-lish Colossus,"
23G
"The Stature of a Great Man, or
Tlie Scotch Colossus," 23G
The Strange Gentleman, 54, 65
The Street of the Tombs,
Pompeii," 56
The Times, 109
The Tower of London, 3
" The Two Apprentices," 1G3-173
The Two Paths, 3
The Vicar of Wakefield, 171-175
The Virginians, 9
"The Worship of Wealth," 53,
54
Thomson, Mr. Hugh, 3, 171-178
Thornhill, Sir James, 111, 112
"Tom Smart and the Chair," 33
Toum Talk, 8, 9
Trilhy, 162-173
Tristram, Mr. Outram, 175
Truman, Edwin, 69
"Tupnian and Rachel," 29, 32
Van der Banck, Johan, 112, 113
Vanity Fair, 7 et seq.
Vernon, Admiral, 227
Vivian Grey, 10
Wallace, Sir Richard, 20, 22
Walpole, Horace, 25
Walpole, Sir Robert, 234, 236
Westminster Review, 78
Whistler, James M'N., 163-173
Wilde, Oscar, 168
Wilkes, John, 109-111
Yates, Edmund, 8, 9
THE END
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.
KATE GREENAWAY
BY
M. H. SPIELMANN and G. S. LAYARD.
Containing upwards of 8o full-page illustrations (53 in
colour, reproduced from original water-colour drawings by
Kate Greenaway.) Square demy 8vo, cloth, gilt top, with
Kate Greenaway end-papers, price 20s. net.
SOME PRESS OPINIONS
" This delightful volume, with its scores of illustrated letters, and
sketches and charming pictures, will be very widely welcomed. No one
could wish for a more satisfactory memorial of the artist and her work." —
Daily Graphic.
"Whether as regards its subject, its letterpress, or its illustrations,
this is one of the most delightful, as it is likely to become one of the most
popular volumes of the series to which it belongs." — Aberdeen Journal.
" Certainly one of the most beautiful monuments that could be erected
to the memory of a modest artist." — Daily Mail.
" By reason of its sympathetic treatment of an intensely interesting
subject, of the charm, the quality, and the profusion of its illustrations, and
of the faultless taste of its get-up, should rank among the favourite gift-
books of the approaching Christmas season." — Observer.
" A book which will delight young and old by its engaging charm." —
Jewish World.
" The volume, magnificent to behold, is a deeply interesting one to
read, and should be peculiarly attractive to our readers." — Gentlewovian.
" This delightful book should prove a capital present to give to young
folks at Christmas time. The pictures in it are very beautiful, while the
story of Kate Greenavvay's fight for fame is sympathetically told." — Scottish
Review. '
" The book is admirably done, thorough, sympathetic, and accurate." —
Outlook.
A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
BIRKET FOSTER
Bv H. M. CUNDALL, F.S.A.
Containing 91 full-page illustrations (73 in colour) and
NUMEROUS thumbnail SKETCHES IN THE TEXT. SQUARE DEMY 8V0,
CLOTH, GILT TOP, PRICE 20S. NET.
It may safely be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that the dainty water-colour
drawings executed by Birket Foster appeal to the majority of the British public more
than the works of any other artist. He produced scenes from nature with such exact-
ness and minuteness of detail that the most uninitiated in art are able to understand
and appreciate them, but the chief features in his paintings are the poetic feeling with
which he endued them, and the care with which his compositions were selected. He
revelled in sunny landscapes with roaming sheep and with rustic children playing in
the foreground, and in the peaceful red-bricked cottages with thatched roofs ; it is,
perhaps, by these scenes of rural England that Birket Foster is best known. He, how-
ever, was an indefatigable painter, and produced works selected from all parts of
England, Wales, and Scotland ; he travelled frequently on the Continent ; Venice, as
well as the Rhine, had its charms for him, and the picturesque scenery of Brittany has
also been portrayed b}- his brush.
The collection of Birket Foster's drawings reproduced in this volume is thoroughly
representative, and is sufficiently extensive to include all phases of his work. The
accompanying biographical text by Mr. H. M. Cundall will be found to be most
sympathetic, intimate, and interesting^.
GEORGE MORLAND
By Sir WALTER GILBEY, Bart.
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF GEORGE STUBBS, R. A. "
Containing 60 full-page reproductions in colour of the
artist's best work. Square demy 8vo, cloth, gilt top, price
20s. NET.
There will also be an Edition de Luxe, with letterpress printed on
handmade paper, containing the earliest impressions of the illustrations,
and limited to 250 signed and numbered copies, price £2 :2s. net.
There is plenty of room for another Morland book, especially when written by the
greatest living authority upon the works of the artist, and where the illustrations are
reproduced, with most excellent results, from masterpieces loaned from private collections
hitherto mostly unknown to the artistic public, and of which only a few have either been
engraved or gravured — at all events, not before reproduced in colour.
George Morland's work is characterised by its great strength and beauty of colouring.
To reproduce so many of his choicest pictures, and bring the book into this series, is no easy
matter, but to ensure success the publishers have spared no efforts to make their reproduc-
tions worthy of the artist's work and entirely satisfying to the collector and student.
The collection of pictures reproduced in this volume is thoroughly representative, and
each illustration is a gem ; they show the several phases of Morland's charming scenes
of English life in the renowned Academician's time.
The student and all collectors and admirers of Morland will also rejoice to have the
appreciative text by Sir Walter Gilbev.
A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
I * * ^~"- v>^i.*-.A J. v^*vi.^ir\, i-,\j:d /\iNkjrr,JL,i;a
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
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