50The name given him by Bernard Blackmantle.51Further particulars of them will be found in the “Memoirs of the Duchess d’Abrantes” (Madame Junot). The fashions of the years which immediately preceded the Revolution appear to have been almost as funny. I have somewhere seen a French semi-caricature depicting fashionables of the Palais Royal in 1786, and the people who had their heads cut off in ’93 were almost as queer as the dandies of the Directory and the Consulate.52The treadmill was the invention of Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Cubitt, of Ipswich. It was erected at Brixton gaol in 1817, and was afterwards gradually introduced into other prisons.53The Marquis of Londonderry.54What became of Seurat we do not know, but we lately came across the following: “the Siamese twins married; theliving skeletonwas crossed in love, but afterwards consoled himself with a corpulent widow.” The authority is George Augustus Sala in “Twice Round the Clock.” We strongly suspect that the wit extracted the information out of his own “inner consciousness.”55We purposely omit the title.56Presumably post “bag.”
50The name given him by Bernard Blackmantle.
51Further particulars of them will be found in the “Memoirs of the Duchess d’Abrantes” (Madame Junot). The fashions of the years which immediately preceded the Revolution appear to have been almost as funny. I have somewhere seen a French semi-caricature depicting fashionables of the Palais Royal in 1786, and the people who had their heads cut off in ’93 were almost as queer as the dandies of the Directory and the Consulate.
52The treadmill was the invention of Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Cubitt, of Ipswich. It was erected at Brixton gaol in 1817, and was afterwards gradually introduced into other prisons.
53The Marquis of Londonderry.
54What became of Seurat we do not know, but we lately came across the following: “the Siamese twins married; theliving skeletonwas crossed in love, but afterwards consoled himself with a corpulent widow.” The authority is George Augustus Sala in “Twice Round the Clock.” We strongly suspect that the wit extracted the information out of his own “inner consciousness.”
55We purposely omit the title.
56Presumably post “bag.”
Inperusing various articles on George Cruikshank in which reference is made to the “Life in London,” we have been struck with the almost utter absence of Robert Cruikshank’s name; further than this, it seems to have been the almost universal impression that it was his association with George on this memorable book which secured such reputation as Robert himself enjoyed. So far, however, was this from being the case, that not only was Robert, in 1821, a caricaturist and satirist of acknowledged reputation, but he was believed at this very time by the general public to be the cleverer artist of the two. Robert, indeed, has been treated with curious injustice in relation to this famous book, which owes its very existence (as we shall presently see) to him alone. While according to George (as in effect they do) the whole merit of the performance, many of the writers of the articles referred to acknowledge that they find it impossible to assign to him his share of the illustrations; and that difficulty will be largely increased to any one who has studied Robert Cruikshank’s caricature work. The fact is that few of these famous plates will bear comparison with the best of Robert’s pictorial satires; while the kindred book of the “English Spy,” which was illustrated (with the exception of one plate) by Robert alone, contains designs quite equal to those which adorn the “Life in London.” When it is admitted that Robert executed three parts of these illustrations, while those who have written upon him say that they are unable to identifyGeorge’s share of the work,57it seems unjust (to say the least of it) that the credit of thewholeperformance should be assigned to him alone. Let us be just to Robert, even though his merit as a draughtsman has been lost sight of in the fame which the younger brother achieved by virtue of his greater genius.
The reader need not be told—and we are not going to tell himPopularity of “Life in London.”what he knows already—that the “Life” was dramatized by four writers for different theatrical houses. The most successful version was the one produced at the Adelphi, previously known as theSans Pareiltheatre. The first season of this house, which Messrs Jones and Rodwell had recently purchased for £25,000, was only moderately successful; but the fortune of the second was made by “Tom and Jerry.” Night after night immediately after the opening of the doors, the theatre was crowded to the very ceiling; the rush was tremendous. By three o’clock in the afternoon of every day the pavement of the Strand had become impassable, and the dense mass which occupied it had extended by six o’clock far across the roadway. Peers and provincials, dukes and dustmen, all grades and classes of people swelled the tide which night after night rolled its wave up the passage of the Adelphi. It was a compact wedge; on it moved, slowly, laboriously, amid the shouts and shrieks, the justling and jostling of the crowd which composed it, leavened by the intermixture of numbers of the swell mob, who plied their vocation with indefatigable industry and impunity. Nevertheless, the reader will be surprised to learn (and it is probably little known) that in spite of this amazing popularity, the first night of “Tom and Jerry” met with such unexpected opposition that Mr. Rodwell declared it should never be played again. Luckily for himself and his partner he was induced to reconsider this decision. The tide was taken at the flood, and it led—as the poet assures us that it will lead when so taken—to an assured fortune.
Robert Cruikshank.][From “The Universal Songster.”“By this take a warning, for noon, night, or morning,The devil’s in search of attorneys.”Robert Cruikshank.][From “The Universal Songster.”“With her flames and darts, and apple tarts, her ices, trifles, cherry-brandy,O, she knew not which to choose, for she thought them both the Dandy.”[Face p. 110.
Robert Cruikshank.]
[From “The Universal Songster.”
“By this take a warning, for noon, night, or morning,
The devil’s in search of attorneys.”
Robert Cruikshank.]
[From “The Universal Songster.”
“With her flames and darts, and apple tarts, her ices, trifles, cherry-brandy,
O, she knew not which to choose, for she thought them both the Dandy.”
[Face p. 110.
One night a stranger entered the private box of the Duke of York at the Adelphi, and seated himself immediately behind his RoyalHighness, who took but little notice of the intruder. The mysterious stranger had been brought in and was fetched by a plain green chariot; and the few that saw him said that he was a portly gentleman, wrapped in a long great coat and muffled up to the eyes. Keeping himself well behind his Royal Highness, the portly stranger took a deep but unostentatious interest in the performance. In his Haroun al-Raschid character he had been present, with his friend Lord Coleraine (then Major George Hanger), at some of the actual scenes represented; and in particular, by virtue of the fact of his wearing “a clean shirt,” had been called upon by the ragged chairman at a convivial meeting of the “Cadgers” to favour them with a song, which had been sung for him by his friend and proxy the Major. The mysterious stranger in fact, as the reader has already guessed, was his gracious Majesty King George the Fourth, and his visitincognitohaving been made by previous notice and arrangement, the passages were kept as clear of the general public as possible.
The scenery of the Adelphi version was superintended by Robert Cruikshank himself. “Tom and Jerry” brought a strange mixture of visitors to attend the rehearsals. Corinthians (men of fashion)—members of the turf and the prize ring, who found a common medium of conversation in the sporting slang which Mr. Egan has made so familiar to us. Naturally there was a mixture. Tom Cribb, whom the Cruikshanks had temporarily elevated into the position of a hero, was indispensable; and the silver cup which figures in Robert’s sketch was every night made use of in the scene depicting the champion’s pot-house sanctum. Among the frequenters at these rehearsals was a quiet man of unusually unobtrusive deportment and conversation,—this man was Thurtell, the cold-blooded murderer of Mr. Weare.
Since the days of the “Beggars’ Opera,” a success equal to that which attended the “Life in London,” and its several dramatized versions by Barrymore, Charles Dibdin, Moncrieff, and Pierce Egan, had been unknown. The exhausted exchequers of four or five theatres were replenished; and as in the days of the “Beggars’ Opera” the favourite songs of that piece were transferred to the ladies’fans, and highwaymen and abandoned women became the heroes and heroines of the hour, so, in like manner, the Cruikshanks’ designs were now transferred to tea-trays, snuff-boxes, pocket-handkerchiefs, screens, and ladies’ fans, and the popular favourites of 1821 and 1822 were “Corinthian Tom,” “Jerry Hawthorn,” “Bob Logic,” “Bob the dustman,” and “Corinthian Kate.”
The success of “Life in London” was not regarded with equal satisfaction by all classes of the community; the serious world was horribly scandalized. Zealous, honest, fervid, and terribly in earnest, these good folks, in their ignorance of the world and of human nature, only added to the mischief which it was their honest wish to abate. They proclaimed the immorality of the drama; denounced “Tom and Jerry” from the pulpit; and besieged the doors of the play houses with a perfect army of tract droppers. Anything more injudicious, anything less calculated to achieve the end which these good people had in view, I can scarcely imagine; for it is a well-known fact that the best method of making a book or a play a “commercial success,” in England, is to throw doubts on its moral tendency.58The more respectable portion of the press did better service to their cause by showing that, in spite of their popularity, “Tom and Jerry” were doing mischief, and that the theatres lent their aid to disseminate the evil, by nightly regaling the female part of society “with vivid representations of the blackest sinks of iniquity to be found in the metropolis.” Called on to defend his drama, Moncrieff, strange to say, proved himself no wiser than his assailants. All he could allege in its behalf was that “the obnoxious scenes of life were only shown that they might be avoided; the danger of mixing in them was strikingly exemplified; and every incident tended to prove”—what? why,—“that happiness was only to be found in the domestic circle”! This was special pleading with a vengeance! Of course all that the theatres really cared to do was to fill their exhausted exchequers; while as for Bohemian Robert and his friend Egan, the idea of making the “Life in London” a moral lesson neveronce entered their heads. The artist however was shrewd enough to take note of the observation for future use; and seven years later on, when he and Egan produced their “Finish to the Adventures of Tom, Jerry, and Logic in their Pursuits through Life in and out of London,” endeavoured to profit by the storm which had been raised by the good people of 1821, by tagging a clumsy moral to the sequel.
By this time, however, the excitement which had attended the original work had evaporated; by this time, too, the public had learnt to discriminate between the pencils of the brothers Cruikshank; and the “Finish,” as compared with the original “Life,” fell comparatively flat. It made however some sort of sensation in its day, but has become not only a scarce book, but one that is little sought after. The genius and reputation of George and the pen of Thackeray have kept alive the popularity of the “Life,”59while the “Finish”—left to the unaided but clever hand of Robert—has like himself been almost forgotten.
And yet it scarcely merits this fate. It contains thirty-six etchings by Robert Cruikshank, some of them of singular merit. Among them may be mentioned,The Duchess of Dogood;Splendid Jim;Logic Visiting his Old Acquaintance on Board the Fleet;Corinthian Kate in the Last Stage of Consumption, Disease, and Inebriety; and if not the production of a genius, the hand of an artist of singular merit, ability, and power is manifest in the etchings entitled,The Hounds at a Standstill;Logic’s Upper Storey; andThe End of Corinthian Kate.
Although modestly claiming for himself the merits of this book,Pierce Egan.Pierce Egan stands in relation to it in the position of a showman, and nothing more. He is not even entitled to the credit of being the originator,—for the originator and suggestor was Robert Cruikshank, who informs us of the fact (after his own characteristic fashion) by way of footnote to his frontispiece to the “Finish.”60But Egan isundoubtedly a clever showman; if he displays rather more vulgarity than we altogether like, we must not forget the audience to whom he addresses himself, and for whom indeed his show is specially intended. We cannot admit that the popularity of this book wasentirelydue to the merit of the artists whose canvas he elucidates and (after his own fashion) explains. In common fairness some credit should beconcededto Egan himself. Of literary talents he had not a particle; and if he lacked taste and refinement, it may at least be urged in his behalf that the age was not one of refinement, and that sixty years ago we had scarcely emancipated ourselves from the barbarism and vulgarity some remnants of which had descended to us from the time of George the Second. The bent of his taste and the scope of his abilities may be guessed from the fact that his “account of the trial of John Thurtell, the murderer,” passed into at leastthirteeneditions. A man of this stamp could scarcely be expected to recognise the true value of the work with which he had the honour to be associated; he never looked beyond his patrons of the day, and as a natural consequence posterity has troubled itself little about him. You will search the biographical dictionaries in vain for any account of him;61and this oblivion he scarcely deserves, for not only was he one of the most popular men of sixty years ago, but he would scarcely have attained that position without a fair share of merit. He was not deficient in energy, and his talent is shown by the fact that he understood and (in a measure) led the taste of his day, taking advantage of his knowledge to raise himself to a position unattainable had such taste been of a more elevated and refined character. His descriptive powers (such as they were) were sufficient to procure him the post of recorder of the “Doings of the Ring” on the staff of theWeekly Dispatch, which post he occupied at the time he officiated as literary showman to “Tom and Jerry.” He had however tried many trades,—had been in turn a compositor, bookseller, sporting writer, newspaper reporter, and even secretary to an Irish theatrical manager. The success of “Life in London,” which hearrogated to himself, raised up a crop of enemies as well as friends, and he soon afterwards received hiscongéfrom the proprietors of theDispatch. Pierce Egan, however, was not a man to be daunted by any such discouragement; he was found equal to the occasion, meeting his employers’coup d’étatby starting a sporting paper of his own, to which he gave the name of his successful book,—Pierce Egan’s Life in London, and Sporting Guide. This counter movement proved the germ of a great enterprise. Probably his venture was no very great success; it ran only for three years from its commencement on the 1st of February, 1824. On the 28th of October, 1827,Egan’s Life in Londonwas sold by auction to a Mr. Bell, and thenceforth assumed its well known and now time honoured title ofBell’s Life in London.
Another friend of the artist was Charles Molloy Westmacott, as heCharles Molloy Westmacott.called himself, but who is supposed to have been—filius nulliusorfilius populi—the child of Mrs. Molloy, a pretty widow who kept a tavern at Kensington. Westmacott was one of a class of writers who not only existed but thrived in the early part of our century by the levying of literary black-mail. Themodus operandi(as given by Mr. William Bates, from whom we derive our information respecting this man) appears to have been as follows: “Sometimes a vague rumour or hint of scandal, accompanied perchance by a suggestive newspaper paragraph, was conveyed to one or more of the parties implicated, with a threat offurtherinquiry into its truth, and a full exposure of the circumstances which excited the sender’s virtuous indignation. This, if the selected victim was a man of nervous, timid temperament, often produced the desired effect; and although possibly entirely innocent of the allegation, he preferred to purchase silence, and escape the suspicion which publicity does not fail to attach to a name. If, on the other hand, no notice was taken of the communication, the screw received some further turns. A narrative was drawn up, and printed off, in the form of a newspaper paragraph, and was transmitted to the parties concerned, with a letter, intimating that it had been ‘received from a correspondent,’ and that the publisher thought fit, prior to publication, to ascertain whether thosewhose names were mentioned desired to correct, modify, or cancel any part of the statement. There is no doubt that very large sums have been extorted by these scoundrelly means, and a vast amount of anxiety and misery occasioned.”62This was “the sort of man” that Charles Molloy Westmacott appears to have been; and I learn on the same authority that by these means he was enabled in one instance alone to net not much less than a sum of £5,000. “Pulls” of this kind enabled this fellow to live at his ease in a suburban retreat situated somewhere between Barnes and Richmond, which he fitted up (for he considered himself, as some others of his more modern class appear to do, a “man of letters”) with books and pictures.
In 1825 this man brought out, under his pseudonym of “Bernard“The English Spy.”Blackmantle,” a veritablechronique scandaleuseof the time, entitled, “The English Spy,” the title page of which describes it as “an original work, characteristic, satirical, and humorous, containing scenes and sketches in every rank of society; being portraits of the Illustrious Eminent, Eccentric and Notorious, drawn from the Life by Bernard Blackmantle.” This extraordinaryworkpresents us with pictures of “life” at Eton, at Oxford, and in fashionable society in London, Brighton, Cheltenham, Bath, and elsewhere; and the seventy-two admirable copperplate aqua-tinted etchings, with one exception (which is by the veteran Rowlandson), are the work of Isaac Robert Cruikshank. This is a far rarer and more valuable book than the “Life in London.” In place of “Corinthian” hook-nosed Tom, rosy-cheeked Jerry, and the vulgargobemoucheLogic, we find figuring amongst the interesting groups, scenes, and characters all the notabilities of the day: celebrities such as George the Fourth and his favourite sultana the Marchioness of Conyngham, the Princess Augusta, Charles Kemble, Matthews, Fawcett, Farren, Grimaldi, Macready, Young, T. P. Cooke, Elliston, Dowton, Harley, Munden, Liston, Wallack, Madame Vestris, Townsend (the Bow Street “runner”), “Pea Green” Hayne, Lord William Lennox,Colonel Berkeley, Hughes Ball, and others. The etchings are singularly clear and distinct, and the colouring bright and pleasing. Among the illustrations which specially deserve notice are:The Oppidans’ Museum;The Eton Montem(an admirable design);The First Bow to Alma Mater;College Comforts(a freshman taking possession of his rooms);Kensington Gardens Sunday Evenings, Singularities of 1824(woodcut);The Opera Green-room, or Noble Amateurs viewing Foreign Curiosities;Oxford Transports, or Albanians doing Penance for Past Offences;TheKing at Home, or Mathews at Carlton House;A Visit to Billingsgate;Characters on the Steyne, Brighton;The Cogged Dice, Interior of a Modern Hell;City Ball at the Mansion House;The Wake;The Cyprians’ Ball at the Argyle Rooms;The Post Office Bristol, Arrival of the London Mail;The Fancy Ball at the Upper Rooms, Bath; andMilsom Street and Bond Street, containing portraits of Bath fashionables.
The so-calledOppidans’63Museumis composed of the signs stolen by Eton scapegraces from the local tradesmen; a mock court is in progress, at which the injured parties attend and either claim or receive compensation for their stolen property. The tradesmen in the plate before us look anything but injured persons, and as a matter of fact the award is sufficiently ample to make amends for all damage. The two persons officiating as assessors and apportioning compensation to the various claimants, are Westmacott and “Robert Transit” (the artist himself). The illustration is full of life and character. Among the groups may be noticed a young fellow holding a bull-terrier suspended by its teeth from a handkerchief; a bet depends on the dog’s patience and strength of jaw, and an interested companion watches the result, chronometer in hand.The King at Home, represents a scene which is said to have actually taken place when Mathews was giving his entertainment at Carlton House. The performer was imitating Kemble, when the king started up, and to the surprise of every one, particularly of Mathews, interrupted the performance by a personal and very clever imitation ofthe actor, who, by the way, had taught him elocution. This, indeed, was one of George’s strong points, who, if not a good king, was at least an admirable mimic. Says old Dr. Burney (writing to his daughter on the 12th of July, 1805), “He is a most excellent mimic of well-known characters; had we been in the dark, any one would have sworn that Dr. Parr andKemblewere in the room.”64In this plate we find likenesses not only of the king and of Mathews, but also of the Princess Augusta and the too celebrated Marchioness of Conyngham.
Thomas Rowlandson’s single pictorial contribution to the “English Spy,”R—— A——ys of Genius Reflecting on the True Line of Beauty at the Life Academy, is described by Mr. Grego under date of 1825. This is not the only time in which the artist was associated in work with Rowlandson. There is a rare work (one of an annual series)—“The Spirit of the Public Journals,” for the year 1824, with explanatory notes by C. M. Westmacott, a collection of whimsical extracts from the press, which appeared in print in the previous season, which has illustrations on wood by four distinguished coadjutors: Thomas Rowlandson, George Cruikshank, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, and Theodore Lane.
The Footev.Hayne affair mentioned in our last chapter afforded“FitzAlleyne of Berkeley.”grist for the kind of mill driven by literary blacklegs of the class of “Bernard Blackmantle.” The black-mail system was tried at first, and when that failed he produced the now rareFitzAlleyne of Berkeley: a Romance of the Present Times, a pair of libellous volumes, thedramatis personæof which comprise the persons whose names were mentioned in connection with the case. “Maria Pous” was of course Maria Foote; Samuel Pous, her father; Lord A——y, Alvanley; Major H——r, Major George Hanger, afterwards Lord Coleraine; Optimus, Mr. Tom Best (who shot Lord Camelford in a duel); the Pea-green Count and FitzAlleyne of Berkeley speak for themselves; while “Mary Carbon” is the butcher’s daughter of Gloucester, mother of the Colonel, and afterwards Countess ofBerkeley. Such a character as Molloy, otherwise Westmacott, was bound to get sometimes into trouble (in these days he would probably receive his reward for “endeavouring to extort money by threats”); and if he did not get exactly what he deserved, he did get, on the tenth of October, 1830, a tremendous thrashing from Charles Kemble. References to the memorandum books of this Ishmaelite of the press, in which he entered (for future use) some of the scandalous chronicles of his time, and which were offered for sale at his death in 1868, will be found in Mr. Bates’s interesting book, from which we have already quoted.
Returning to his friend and coadjutor, Robert Cruikshank, the“Points of Humour.”best of the artist’s coloured illustrations to the “English Spy” are contained in the first volume; in the second he falls into those habits of carelessness which, with all his ability and artistic talent, were a besetting weakness. Robert lacked the genius, the fine fancy, the careful, delicate handling of George. Up to the publication of the “Life,” the brothers as we have seen had worked together frequently, but after this period they separated. George had already achieved one of his earliest triumphs in book illustration—“The Points of Humour,” which provoked the universal admiration of the critics, and proclaimed him one of the most original geniuses of the time. The “Life,” however, had made both brothers famous, and the general public had scarcely yet learnt to distinguish between the pencils of George and Robert. This confusion was taken advantage of by unscrupulous publishers (a practice at which Robert himself seems to have connived) to trade upon the popularity of the Cruikshank name. We frequently find, for instance, in literary advertisements of the time, that a forthcoming book is illustrated by “Cruikshank,” and the work we have just named is a case in point. No sooner had the “Points of Humour” appeared and made their mark, than they were followed by an announcement by Sherwood, Jones & Co., of the “Points of Misery,” the letterpress by Charles Molloy Westmacott, and the designs by “Cruikshank,” that is to say—Robert. Although this publication is marred by the slovenliness of execution which characterised the artist in his carelessmoods, a few of the designs are excellent, and the tailpieces—A Six Inside, at page 36;Cleaned Out, at page 88; and thePawn Shop, at page 87—suffice to show of how much better work Robert Cruikshank was capable. George, as was usual with him on these occasions, was horribly annoyed, and loudly and (as it seems to us) unnecessarily proclaimed to the world that he had no connection with the work. Probably this manifesto did no good to a book little calculated either by its literary or pictorial merits to command success; and as the copy before us remained uncut from the date of the publication until the present, the inference is that the speculation of Messrs. Sherwood, Jones & Co., proved scarcely a remunerative one.
Among the forgotten books of half a century ago, we meet with one whose title reminds us of the “Life in London.” It is called, “Doings in London; or, Day and Night Scenes of the Frauds, Frolics, Manners, and Depravities of the Metropolis.” It came out in threepenny numbers, in 1828, and its professed object (in the queer language of George Smeeton, its compiler and publisher) was to “show vice and deception in all their real deformity, and not by painting in glowing colours the fascinating allurements, the mischievous frolics and vicious habits of the profligate, the heedless, and the debauchee, tempt youth to commit those irregularities which often lead to dangerous consequences, not only to themselves but also to the public.” This shot of course was aimed at Pierce Egan, who, engaged at that time in bringing out the “Finish,” not unnaturally considered these “Doings” an attempt to derive profit by an indirect infringement of his own title. The title in factwasa misleading one, and the book a specimen of a class of useless literature of the time, by which paste-and-scissors information compiled from books, newspapers, and statistics by some one at best imperfectly acquainted with his subject, was attempted to be conveyed by means of questions and answers, supplemented by dreary and unnecessary remarks of a moralizing tendency. The persons in whose company Smeeton would send us round, in order that we may form a just conception of the “vice and deception inall their real deformity,” of which he speaks, are a couple of idiots, one Peregrine Wilson, and an attendant mentor, whom we drop at the earliest convenient opportunity. Information combined with morality is all very well. The “History of Sandford and Merton” may have been, as Lord Houghton assures us it was, “the delight of the youth of the first generation of the present century.” As one of the youth of the generation referred to, we refuse to admit it, and we are perfectly certain that the youth of the present generation would have nothing whatever to do with it. We resign ourselves preferentially to the guidance of Isaac Robert and George Cruikshank, sensible that they at least, while conversant with the scenes they so graphically describe, will not bore us with unnecessary moral reflections. We prefer, if the truth must be told, to “sport a toe among the Corinthians at Almack’s” with hooked-nosed Tom and rosy-cheeked Jerry; to visit with these merry and by no means strait-laced persons, Mr. O’Shaunessy’s rooms in the Haymarket; the back parlour of the respected Thomas Cribb, ex-champion of England; to take wine with them “in the wood” at the London Docks; to enjoy with them, if they will, “the humours of a masquerade supper at the opera house.” The work which Smeeton designed with such indifferent success was subsequently carried out in a far more efficient manner by Mr. James Grant, in his “Sketches in London,”65and at a later date by Mr. Mayhew, in his well-known “London Labour and the London Poor.”
The “Doings in London” owe whatever value they possess to the thirty-nine curious designs on wood of Isaac Robert Cruikshank, engraved by W. C. Bonner, which, on the whole fair examples of his workmanship in this style, strongly remind us of the smaller woodcuts in Hone’s “Every-Day Book.”
The best specimens, however, of Robert’s designs on wood are those which will be found in two small volumes, known indifferently as “Facetiæ” and “Cruikshank’s Comic Album,” which contain aseries ofjeux d’esprits, published between the years 1830 and 1832, and comprisingOld Bootey’s GhostandThe Man of Intellect, by W. F. Moncrieff;The High-mettled RacerandMonsieur Nongtongpaw, by Charles Dibdin;Margate and Brighton;The Devil’s Visit;Steamers and Stages;Monsieur Touson;Monsieur Mallet, by H. W. Montague;Mathew’s Comic Annual(a miserablemélangeby our friend Pierce Egan); the famousDevil’s Walk, by Coleridge and Southey, etc., etc. These little volumes, which are now rare, contain nearly one hundred excellent examples of Robert Cruikshank’s workmanship, the woodcuts being executed after the artist’s designs by W. C. Bonner and other wood engravers of eminence. We can stay only to describe one, which illustrates one of the many experiences of John Bull in his memorable visit to France. Struck with the appearance of a French lady, “young and gay,” the stanza tells us—
“Struck by her charms he ask’d her nameOf the first man he saw;From whom, with shrugs, no answer cameBut, ‘Je vous n’entends pas.’”
“Struck by her charms he ask’d her name
Of the first man he saw;
From whom, with shrugs, no answer came
But, ‘Je vous n’entends pas.’”
Three other books (two of them exceedingly rare) must suffice to complete our survey of Robert’s merits as a designer and book illustrator. These are “Colburn’s Kalendar of Amusements” (1840), “Job Crithannah’s Original Fables” (1834), and Eugene Sue’s “Orphan.” There is an Irishman sitting on a barrel in one of the woodcuts to the “Kalendar,” who quite equals any of the Hibernians of George. The eighty-four designs to the “Fables” are admirable specimens of the artist’s best manner, and George himself rarely executed better illustrations than those of theFarmer and the Pointer, at page 110,The Cow and the Farmer, at page 163, andThe Old Woman and her Cat, at page 219. This rare and choice book abounds with admirable tailpieces; one of which exhibits a sufferer down in the agonies of gout, the treatment of which subject may even be compared with the more elaborate and admirable design by the brother described by Thackeray. Sue’s “Orphan”has numerous carefully executed etchings by the artist, after the style and manner of his brother; in the very signature, “Robert Cruikshank,” we trace a distinct copy of George’s peculiar trademark or sign-manual. Mr. Walter Hamilton, in his essay on the brother, presents us with a dozen copies of Robert’s designs, eight of which, although unacknowledged, are taken from Crithannah’s “Fables,” and will bear as much comparison with the original and beautiful woodcuts as the work of a common sign-painter with a finished painting by Landseer. A detailed but probably imperfect list of the artist’s book work will be found in theappendix.
The name of Robert Cruikshank has slipped out of the place it once occupied in public estimation; and his good work and his poor work being equally scarce, his name and his claims to rank high among the number of English caricaturists and comic artists have been forgotten even by the survivors of the generation to which he himself belonged. In bringing to the remembrance of those who do know, and to the knowledge of those who do not know, some of the work which entitled him in our judgment to occupy a leading place amongst the number of those of whom we write, we have endeavoured to brush away the dust of oblivion which for so many years has obscured the name and reputation of an artist, who, in spite of much slovenliness and carelessness of execution, was both an able caricaturist and a skilful draughtsman. George writes of his dead brother in terms of affection, and describes him as “a very clever miniature and portrait painter, and also a designer and etcher;” his friend and coadjutor, the late George Daniel, gives him credit for genius, of which however (in the sense in which we use and understand the word) he did not possess a particle. He tells us that “he was apt to conceive and prompt to execute; he had a quick eye and a ready hand; with all his extravagant drollery, his drawing is anatomically correct; his details are minute, expressive, and of careful finish, and his colouring is bright and delicate.” In the early part of his career, as we have seen, the two brothers had been so closely associated in life and in art, that the history of Robert is, to some extent, the history of George; but when theyseparated, when each was left to his own individual resources, George then struck into a path which neither Robert nor any of his contemporaries might hope to follow. By the time Robert had realized this fact,HBhad appeared, and the art of caricaturing, as theretofore practised, received a blow from which it will never rally. Besides being an able water colour artist, he had at one time achieved some reputation as a portrait painter; but the latter pursuit he had long practically abandoned, while success in the former required a closer application and the exercise of a greater amount of patience than a man of his age and temperament could afford to bestow. He was, in fact, too old to commence life afresh; and so it came inevitably to pass that, as his brother did in after life (but from causes, as we shall see, widely different), Robert gradually dropped behind and was forgotten. He had not the genius or pride in his art of his brother, and looked rather to that art as a means of present livelihood than of acquiring a permanent and enduring reputation. If George—with all his pride in his art, with all his genius, with all his rare gifts of imagination and fancy—was destined to be left behind in the race of life, what could poor Robert hope for? It is sad to think that in later life, poor easy-going, thriftless, careless, Bohemian Robert sank into neglect and consequent poverty. He died (of bronchitis) on the 13th of March, 1856, in his sixty-sixth year.
57In this I cannot agree. George designed about a third of the plates, and those who know his workmanship thoroughly will not fail to identify it.58A fact which testifies to the curiosity andnotthe immorality of our people.59I have known as much as £10 asked for a copy; buta first edition(a rarity) may be purchased sometimes of a respectable bookseller for £8.60“Fair Play! Robt. Cruikshank, invt. et fect., original suggestor and artist of the 2 vols. Adieu!”61A list of his works will be found in Dr. Brewer’s “Handbook.”62“The Maclise Portrait Gallery,” by William Bates (ed. 1883), p. 236.63The name given to the students of Eton School who board in the town.64Diary of Madam d’Arblay.65W. S. Orr & Co., 1838.
57In this I cannot agree. George designed about a third of the plates, and those who know his workmanship thoroughly will not fail to identify it.
58A fact which testifies to the curiosity andnotthe immorality of our people.
59I have known as much as £10 asked for a copy; buta first edition(a rarity) may be purchased sometimes of a respectable bookseller for £8.
60“Fair Play! Robt. Cruikshank, invt. et fect., original suggestor and artist of the 2 vols. Adieu!”
61A list of his works will be found in Dr. Brewer’s “Handbook.”
62“The Maclise Portrait Gallery,” by William Bates (ed. 1883), p. 236.
63The name given to the students of Eton School who board in the town.
64Diary of Madam d’Arblay.
65W. S. Orr & Co., 1838.
Justsixty years ago, a writer inBlackwoodspoke of the subject ofSixty Years ago.the present chapter (then a young man who had already acquired an artistic reputation) in the following terms:—
“It is high time that the public should think more than they have hitherto done of George Cruikshank; and it is also high time that George Cruikshank should begin to think more than he seems to have done hitherto of himself. Generally speaking, people consider him as a clever, sharpcaricaturist, and nothing more; a free-handed, comical young fellow, who will do anything he is paid for, and who is quite contented to dine off the proceeds of a ’George IV.’ to-day, and those of a ‘Hone,’ or a ‘Cobbett’ to-morrow. He himself, indeed, appears to be the most careless creature alive, as touching his reputation. He seems to have no plan—almost no ambition—and, I apprehend, not much industry. He does just what is suggested or thrown in his way, pockets the cash, orders his beef-steak and bowl, and chaunts, like one of his own heroes,—
’Life is all a variorium,We regard not how it goes.’
’Life is all a variorium,
We regard not how it goes.’
Now, for a year or two to begin with, this is just what it should be. Cruikshank was resolved to seeLife,66and his sketches show that he has seen it, in some of its walks, to purpose. But life is short, and art is long; and our gay friend must pull up.
“Perhaps he is not aware of the fact himself—but a fact itundoubtedly is—that he possesses genius—genius in its truest sense—strong, original, English genius. Look round the world of art, and ask, How many are there of whom anything like this can be said? Why, there are not half a dozen names that could bear being mentioned at all; and certainly there is not one, the pretensions of which will endure sifting, more securely and more triumphantly than that of George Cruikshank. In the first place, he is—what no livingcaricaturistbut himself has the least pretensions to be, and what, indeed, scarcely one of their predecessors was—he is a thoroughbredartist.67He draws with the ease and freedom and fearlessness of a master; he understands the figure completely; and appears, so far as one can guess from the trifling sort of things he has done, to have a capital notion of the principles of grouping. Now these things are valuable in themselves, but they are doubly, trebly valuable as possessed by a person of real comic humour; and a total despiser of that Venerable Humbug which almost all the artists of our day seem, in one shape or other, to revere as the prime god of their idolatry. Nobody, that has the least of an eye for art, can doubt that Cruikshank, if he chose, might design as many annunciations, beatifications, apotheoses, metamorphoses, and so forth, as would cover York cathedral from end to end. It is still more impossible to doubt that he might be a famous portrait painter. Now, these are fine lines both of them, and yet it is precisely the chief merit of Cruikshank that he cuts them both; that he will have nothing to do with them; that he has chosen a walk of his own, and that he has made his own walk popular. Here lies genius; but let him do himself justice; let him persevere andrisein his own path, and then, ladies and gentlemen,thenthe day will come when his name will be a name indeed, not a name puffed and paraded in the newspapers, but a living, a substantial, perhaps even an illustrious, English name. Let him, in one word, proceed, and, as he proceeds, let him think of Hogarth.”68
Now, although amused (and surely he cannot fail to be amused) at the curious incapacity of an art critic so strangely ignorant of his subject as to conceiveGeorge Cruikshankan artist capable of designingannunciations,beatifications,apotheoses, and subjects so completely out of the range of his sympathies and abilities, the reader will, at the same time, be struck with the prescience of the intelligent writer who discerned in him the possession of true genius, and predicted for him, even at this early period of his career, the reputation—“living, substantial,” and “illustrious”—which he afterwards so justly achieved for himself.
In everything save the power to realize an annunciation, a beatification, or an apotheosis, George Cruikshank was, at the time this article was penned, exactly what Mr. Lockhart describes him. The most able and accomplished of the caricaturists of his time, he was nevertheless willing to etch the works of an amateur or of an artist inferior to himself, to whose work he has frequently imparted a vitality of which it would have been destitute but for the interposition of his hand. He was ready, moreover, to execute woodcuts for a song-book or the political skits of any scribbler of his time, whether on the ministerial or the popular side mattered little to him. It was therefore not unnatural that doing “just what was suggested or thrown in his way,” Lockhart should come to the erroneous conclusion that the artist had “no plan,” “no ambition,” and “not much industry.” The assertion that he had “no ambition” has been amply disproved by his subsequent life, whilst so far from having “no plan,” the sequel shows that all this time, unsuspected by the critic, he had been gradually developing the style of illustration by which he made his mark and reputation,—a style first displayed in the celebrated “Points of Humour,” the publication of which served as the occasion for Lockhart’s criticism.
On this account, if for no other reason, the caricatures of George Cruikshank possess so remarkable an interest, that it is singular that this field of artistic labour has been left almost unexploredby the essayists, many of whom, with a somewhat imperfect knowledge of their subject, have essayed to give us information on the subject of this artist and his works. It is just this early period of his life, in which he first followed and then gradually emancipated himself from the artistic control and influence of Gillray, which seems to us to afford the most interesting study of the man’s career. Nevertheless, nearly all the articles we have read on George Cruikshank would give us the idea that, with the exception of certain designs for woodcuts for Hone—such as the celebratedNon Mi Ricordoand others—certain rough coloured engravings for “The Meteor,” “The Scourge,” and other periodicals of a kindred stamp, the artist executed but few caricatures properly so called. This at least is the impression which these articles have left on our own minds; and we can only account for the little notice taken of him as a caricaturist by the fact that, unlike the etchings which he produced when in the prime of his career, his caricatures are not only exceedingly scarce, but being in many cases unsigned, are capable only of being recognised by those intimately acquainted with his early handiwork.
The caricatures of George Cruikshank may be divided into three classes: first, those which are wholly designed and etched by himself; secondly, those which he designed after the sketches or suggestions of his friends; and thirdly, those merely etched from the designs of other artists. We find the first, although frequently unsigned, more usually signed (on the left hand), “Geo. Cruikk. fect.” or “invt. & fect.”; the second—“invt. G. Cruikk. fect.;” while the third are indicated as merelyetchedby him. Of the second class it may be remarked that with the exception of the mere sketch or suggestion, the drawing and the workmanship are oftentimes unmistakably George’s own. In the description of his caricatures which follow, we shall indicate the designs which belong tothisclass with an asterisk.
Publications such as “The Scourge,” although containing many caricature designs by George Cruikshank, are scarcely among those to which the present chapter was intended to be devoted.There are, however, two satirical compositions of his in this scurrilous publication,69which appear to us so exceptionally good, that we feel justified in drawing special attention to them. As the publication itself affords little or no clue to the subject of the illustrations, it seems necessary in order that the first may be understood, to explain the circumstances which appear to us to have led up to it.
For several years prior to 1811, the established clergy had1811.manifested considerable uneasiness on account of the rapid spread of Methodism. The readiness with which licenses for preaching could be obtained according to the usual interpretation of the Toleration Act, had tended to the multiplication of a class of preachers whose manners and language peculiarly fitted them for acquiring influence over the inferior ranks of the people; and by this means a great diminution had taken place in the congregations of parish churches. It is affirmed—with what truth we know not—that Lord Sidmouth in the measure (presently to be noticed) was encouraged to proceed in his design by letters from persons of high position in the Church.
On the 9th of May, 1811, Lord Sidmouth moved in the HouseLord Sidmouth’s Motion.of Lords for leave to bring in a bill for amending and explaining the Acts of William and Mary and 17th George III., so far as applied to dissenting ministers. According to the statement of his lordship, at most of the quarter sessions, when the oaths were taken and the declarations made requisite for enabling a person to officiate in a chapel or meeting-house, any person, however ignorant or profligate, was able to obtain a certificate whichauthorized him to preach. His lordship proposed that, in order to entitle any person to a qualification as a preacher, he should have the recommendation of at least six respectable householders of the congregation to which he belonged. Lord Holland, in opposing the bill, observed that he held it to be the inalienable right of every man who thought himself able to instruct others to do so, provided his doctrines were not incompatible with the peace of society.
When the nature and provisions of the proposed measure were made known to the public, an alarm was excited among all those whom it was likely to affect. The Nonconformists generally regarded it as intended, not so much to add to the respectability of the dissenting ministers, as to contract the limits of toleration, and subject the licensing of preachers to the control of the magistracy. When therefore, on the 21st of May, the bill was to be read a second time, such a deluge of petitions was poured in against it, that the mover was left totally unsupported. The Archbishop of Canterbury said with truth, that the Dissenters were the best judges of their own concerns; and as it appeared from the great number of petitions against it, that they were hostile to the bill, he thought it unwise to press the measure against their manifest wishes. Under these circumstances the bill was, we need not say, thrown out.
This would appear to be the subject which produced George Cruikshank’s graphic satire of theInterior View of the House of God, in the first volume of “The Scourge.” The pulpit is occupied by two fanatics, one of whom rants, while the other snuffs the candles; the devil, in the gallery above, ridicules the proceedings by rasping,à lafiddle, the bars of a gridiron with a poker; among the numerous congregation present we notice some attentive and interested listeners, whilst others evidently attend from mere motives of curiosity. Above the composition appears the quotation, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” The satire,The Examination of a Young Surgeon, whichappears in the same volume, is aimed at the medical profession. One of the examiners is deaf, another has the gout, a third is asleep, while two others (unmistakable Scotchmen) discuss the merits of their respective snuff-mulls. The deaf man calls upon the frightened candidate to “describe the organs of hearing.” The table is garnished with “The Cow Pox Chronicle,” and a skull and bones, while the walls are decorated with pictures depicting a fight between death and a pugilist, the Hottentot Venus, a group of various nations worshipping the golden calf, and the lady without arms or legs. The hand of the clock points to the hour of eleven. Judging by the pile of money-bags lying at the foot of the president’s chair, and the two members of the court who are busily engaged in counting coin, George would seem to insinuate that the fellows of the college of his time were a decidedly mercenary set.
Of character akin to “The Scourge” (the ten volumes of which“The Satirist.”were published between 1811 and 1815 inclusive); is “The Satirist, or Monthly Meteor,” the thirteen volumes of which made their appearance between the years 1808 and 1813. Both publications, which now command prices very far beyond what they are intrinsically worth, contain a number of satires, of more or less merit (generallyless), by various satirists, including George Cruikshank; so far as “The Satirist” is concerned, the designs of the latter are confined to the thirteenth and last volume, and his caricature contributions are of a vastly superior order of merit to any of those by which they are preceded. Besides those in “The Scourge” and “The Satirist,” may be mentioned George Cruikshank’s comic designs in “Fashion,” printed for J. J. Stockdale, of Pall Mall, in 1818; and his very admirable series of untinted etchings in “The Loyalist Magazine; or, Anti-Radical,” a publication exclusively devoted to the ministerial side of the Carolinian scandal, and published by James Wright, of Fleet Street, in 1820.
One of the earliest caricatures I have met with by George is entitled,Apollyon[i.e., Napoleon], the Devil’s Generalissimo, Addressing his Legions; it is signed (contrary to his usual custom),“Cruikshank del.,” and was executed (if I am right in assigning it to him) when he was sixteen years of age.
The attention of the public in 1813 was, as we have seen,1813.Discovery of the remains of Charles I.attracted by the Regent’s treatment of his miserable wife; and in April the sympathy of the Livery and Corporation of London, and other public bodies, found expression in an address which was presented to Her Royal Highness. On the 28th of March of that year, the remains of Charles the First had been discovered in the vault of Henry the Eighth, at Windsor, a circumstance which suggested to George Cruikshank his admirable satire entitled,Meditations amongst the Tombs. It shows us His Royal Highness gazing at the recovered bodies, and regretting that while Henry had managed to dispose of many wives,hefound it impossible to get rid of one. A figure behind him points to the headless corpse, and significantly remarks, “How rum King Charley looks without his head!” The Battle of Vitoria (fought this year) forms the subject of a pair of roughly executed caricatures, entitled respectively,The Battle of Vitoria, andA Scene after the Battle, or More Trophies for Whitehall. Other satires of the year, areDouble Bass, andA Venomous Viper Poisoning the R—l Mind, the latter as coarsely and indelicately handled a subject as any caricaturist of the old school might possibly desire.
Little Boney gone to Pot(Thomas Tegg, May 12th, 1814), is one of1814.the artist’s contributions to the series of caricatures which followed the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Here the satirist has seated the emperor (a lean, ragged, forlorn, miserable, diseased object) on a huge article of bedroom furniture, labelled, “Imperial Throne.” He is in a forlorn condition, suffering from itch, with large excrescences growing on his toes. He is all alone in his island prison (Elba), and tempted by a fiend, who tenders him a pistol—“If you have one spark of courage left,” it says, “take this.” “Perhaps I may,” replies Napoleon, “if you’ll take the flint out.” By his side we find a pot of brimstone, numerous medicine bottles, and “a treatise on the itch, by Dr. Scratch.”70One of the imperial boots,mounted on a tiny carriage, forms a dummy cannon. His back leans against a tree, to which is nailed the “Imperial Crow,” while from the branches depends a ragged pair of breeches and stockings. It was a sorry libel on the unfortunate emperor, whose courage was undoubted, and who, at this time, instead of being the scarecrow the artist has represented him, had grown extremely corpulent.Snuffing out Boneyfollows up the same subject, and represents a cossack snuffing out Napoleon, who figures as a candle; another caricature on the great subject of the year bears the title ofBroken Gingerbread(Napoleon selling images).