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diff --git a/old/cruik10.txt b/old/cruik10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e52756 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cruik10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1930 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Etext of George Cruikshank, by Wm. Thackeray +#15 in our series by William Makepeace Thackeray + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +George Cruikshank + +by William Makepeace Thackeray + + + + +* Reprinted from the Westminster Review for June, 1840. (No 66.) + + +Accusations of ingratitude, and just accusations no doubt, are made +against every inhabitant of this wicked world, and the fact is, that +a man who is ceaselessly engaged in its trouble and turmoil, borne +hither and thither upon the fierce waves of the crowd, bustling, +shifting, struggling to keep himself somewhat above water--fighting +for reputation, or more likely for bread, and ceaselessly occupied +to-day with plans for appeasing the eternal appetite of inevitable +hunger to-morrow--a man in such straits has hardly time to think of +anything but himself, and, as in a sinking ship, must make his own +rush for the boats, and fight, struggle, and trample for safety. +In the midst of such a combat as this, the "ingenious arts, which +prevent the ferocity of the manners, and act upon them as an +emollient" (as the philosophic bard remarks in the Latin Grammar) +are likely to be jostled to death, and then forgotten. The world +will allow no such compromises between it and that which does not +belong to it--no two gods must we serve; but (as one has seen in +some old portraits) the horrible glazed eyes of Necessity are always +fixed upon you; fly away as you will, black Care sits behind you, +and with his ceaseless gloomy croaking drowns the voice of all more +cheerful companions. Happy he whose fortune has placed him where +there is calm and plenty, and who has the wisdom not to give up his +quiet in quest of visionary gain. + +Here is, no doubt, the reason why a man, after the period of his +boyhood, or first youth, makes so few friends. Want and ambition +(new acquaintances which are introduced to him along with his beard) +thrust away all other society from him. Some old friends remain, it +is true, but these are become as a habit--a part of your selfishness; +and, for new ones, they are selfish as you are. Neither member of +the new partnership has the capital of affection and kindly feeling, +or can even afford the time that is requisite for the establishment +of the new firm. Damp and chill the shades of the prison-house +begin to close round us, and that "vision splendid" which has +accompanied our steps in our journey daily farther from the east, +fades away and dies into the light of common day. + +And what a common day! what a foggy, dull, shivering apology for +light is this kind of muddy twilight through which we are about to +tramp and flounder for the rest of our existence, wandering farther +and farther from the beauty and freshness and from the kindly +gushing springs of clear gladness that made all around us green in +our youth! One wanders and gropes in a slough of stock-jobbing, one +sinks or rises in a storm of politics, and in either case it is as +good to fall as to rise--to mount a bubble on the crest of the wave, +as to sink a stone to the bottom. + +The reader who has seen the name affixed to the head of this article +scarcely expected to be entertained with a declamation upon +ingratitude, youth, and the vanity of human pursuits, which may seem +at first sight to have little to do with the subject in hand. But +(although we reserve the privilege of discoursing upon whatever +subject shall suit us, and by no means admit the public has any +right to ask in our sentences for any meaning, or any connection +whatever) it happens that, in this particular instance, there is an +undoubted connection. In Susan's case, as recorded by Wordsworth, +what connection had the corner of Wood Street with a mountain +ascending, a vision of trees, and a nest by the Dove? Why should +the song of a thrush cause bright volumes of vapor to glide through +Lothbury, and a river to flow on through the vale of Cheapside? As +she stood at that corner of Wood Street, a mop and a pail in her +hand most likely, she heard the bird singing, and straight-way began +pining and yearning for the days of her youth, forgetting the proper +business of the pail and mop. Even so we are moved by the sight of +some of Mr. Cruikshank's works--the "Busen fuhlt sich jugendlich +erschuttert," the "schwankende Gestalten" of youth flit before one +again,--Cruikshank's thrush begins to pipe and carol, as in the days +of boyhood; hence misty moralities, reflections, and sad and +pleasant remembrances arise. He is the friend of the young +especially. Have we not read, all the story-books that his +wonderful pencil has illustrated? Did we not forego tarts, in order +to buy his "Breaking-up," or his "Fashionable Monstrosities" of the +year eighteen hundred and something? Have we not before us, at this +very moment, a print,--one of the admirable "Illustrations of +Phrenology"--which entire work was purchased by a joint-stock +company of boys, each drawing lots afterwards for the separate +prints, and taking his choice in rotation? The writer of this, too, +had the honor of drawing the first lot, and seized immediately upon +"Philoprogenitiveness"--a marvellous print (our copy is not at all +improved by being colored, which operation we performed on it +ourselves)--a marvellous print, indeed,--full of ingenuity and fine +jovial humor. A father, possessor of an enormous nose and family, +is surrounded by the latter, who are, some of them, embracing the +former. The composition writhes and twists about like the Kermes of +Rubens. No less than seven little men and women in nightcaps, in +frocks, in bibs, in breeches, are clambering about the head, +knees, and arms of the man with the nose; their noses, too, are +preternaturally developed--the twins in the cradle have noses of the +most considerable kind. The second daughter, who is watching them; +the youngest but two, who sits squalling in a certain wicker chair; +the eldest son, who is yawning; the eldest daughter, who is +preparing with the gravy of two mutton-chops a savory dish of +Yorkshire pudding for eighteen persons; the youths who are examining +her operations (one a literary gentleman, in a remarkably neat +nightcap and pinafore, who has just had his finger in the pudding); +the genius who is at work on the slate, and the two honest lads who +are hugging the good-humored washerwoman, their mother,--all, all, +save, this worthy woman, have noses of the largest size. Not +handsome certainly are they, and yet everybody must be charmed +with the picture. It is full of grotesque beauty. The artist +has at the back of his own skull, we are certain, a huge bump of +philoprogenitiveness. He loves children in his heart; every one of +those he has drawn is perfectly happy, and jovial, and affectionate, +and innocent as possible. He makes them with large noses, but he +loves them, and you always find something kind in the midst of his +humor, and the ugliness redeemed by a sly touch of beauty. The +smiling mother reconciles one with all the hideous family: they have +all something of the mother in them--something kind, and generous, +and tender. + +Knight's, in Sweeting's Alley; Fairburn's, in a court off Ludgate +Hill; Hone's, in Fleet Street--bright, enchanted palaces, which +George Cruikshank used to people with grinning, fantastical imps, +and merry, harmless sprites,--where are they? Fairburn's shop knows +him no more; not only has Knight disappeared from Sweeting's Alley, +but, as we are given to understand, Sweetings Alley has disappeared +from the face of the globe. Slop, the atrocious Castlereagh, the +sainted Caroline (in a tight pelisse, with feathers in her head), +the "Dandy of sixty," who used to glance at us from Hone's friendly +windows--where are they? Mr. Cruikshank may have drawn a thousand +better things since the days when these were; but they are to us a +thousand times more pleasing than anything else he has done. How we +used to believe in them! to stray miles out of the way on holidays, +in order to ponder for an hour before that delightful window in +Sweeting's Alley! in walks through Fleet Street, to vanish abruptly +down Fairburn's passage, and there make one at his "charming gratis" +exhibition. There used to be a crowd round the window in those +days, of grinning, good-natured mechanics, who spelt the songs, and +spoke them out for the benefit of the company, and who received the +points of humor with a general sympathizing roar. Where are these +people now? You never hear any laughing at HB.; his pictures are a +great deal too genteel for that--polite points of wit, which strike +one as exceedingly clever and pretty, and cause one to smile in a +quiet, gentleman-like kind of way. + +There must be no smiling with Cruikshank. A man who does not laugh +outright is a dullard, and has no heart; even the old dandy of sixty +must have laughed at his own wondrous grotesque image, as they say +Louis Philippe did, who saw all the caricatures that were made of +himself. And there are some of Cruikshank's designs which have the +blessed faculty of creating laughter as often as you see them. As +Diggory says in the play, who is bidden by his master not to laugh +while waiting at table--"Don't tell the story of Grouse in the Gun- +room, master, or I can't help laughing." Repeat that history ever +so often, and at the proper moment, honest Diggory is sure to +explode. Every man, no doubt, who loves Cruikshank has his "Grouse +in the Gun-room." There is a fellow in the "Points of Humor" who is +offering to eat up a certain little general, that has made us happy +any time these sixteen years: his huge mouth is a perpetual well of +laughter--buckets full of fun can be drawn from it. We have formed +no such friendships as that boyish one of the man with the mouth. +But though, in our eyes, Mr. Cruikshank reached his apogee some +eighteen years since, it must not be imagined that such is really +the case. Eighteen sets of children have since then learned to love +and admire him, and may many more of their successors be brought up +in the same delightful faith. It is not the artist who fails, but +the men who grow cold--the men, from whom the illusions (why +illusions? realities) of youth disappear one by one; who have no +leisure to be happy, no blessed holidays, but only fresh cares at +Midsummer and Christmas, being the inevitable seasons which bring us +bills instead of pleasures. Tom, who comes bounding home from +school, has the doctor's account in his trunk, and his father goes +to sleep at the pantomime to which he takes him. Pater infelix, you +too have laughed at clown, and the magic wand of spangled harlequin; +what delightful enchantment did it wave around you, in the golden +days "when George the Third was king!" But our clown lies in his +grave; and our harlequin, Ellar, prince of how many enchanted +islands, was he not at Bow Street the other day,* in his dirty, +tattered, faded motley--seized as a law-breaker, for acting at a +penny theatre, after having wellnigh starved in the streets, where +nobody would listen to his old guitar? No one gave a shilling to +bless him: not one of us who owe him so much. + + +* This was written in 1840. + + +We know not if Mr. Cruikshank will be very well pleased at finding +his name in such company as that of Clown and Harlequin; but he, +like them, is certainly the children's friend. His drawings abound +in feeling for these little ones, and hideous as in the course of +his duty he is from time to time compelled to design them, he never +sketches one without a certain pity for it, and imparting to the +figure a certain grotesque grace. In happy schoolboys he revels; +plum-pudding and holidays his needle has engraved over and over +again; there is a design in one of the comic almanacs of some young +gentlemen who are employed in administering to a schoolfellow the +correction of the pump, which is as graceful and elegant as a +drawing of Stothard. Dull books about children George Cruikshank +makes bright with illustrations--there is one published by the +ingenious and opulent Mr. Tegg. It is entitled "Mirth and +Morality," the mirth being, for the most part, on the side of the +designer--the morality, unexceptionable certainly, the author's +capital. Here are then, to these moralities, a smiling train of +mirths supplied by George Cruikshank. See yonder little fellows +butterfly-hunting across a common! Such a light, brisk, airy, +gentleman-like drawing was never made upon such a theme. Who, +cries the author-- + + + "Who has not chased the butterfly, + And crushed its slender legs and wings, + And heaved a moralizing sigh: + Alas! how frail are human things!" + + +A very unexceptionable morality truly; but it would have puzzled +another than George Cruikshank to make mirth out of it as he has +done. Away, surely not on the wings of these verses, Cruikshank's +imagination begins to soar; and he makes us three darling little men +on a green common, backed by old farmhouses, somewhere about May. A +great mixture of blue and clouds in the air, a strong fresh breeze +stirring, Tom's jacket flapping in the same, in order to bring down +the insect queen or king of spring that is fluttering above him,--he +renders all this with a few strokes on a little block of wood not +two inches square, upon which one may gaze for hours, so merry and +lifelike a scene does it present. What a charming creative power is +this, what a privilege--to be a god, and create little worlds upon +paper, and whole generations of smiling, jovial men, women, and +children half inch high, whose portraits are carried abroad, and +have the faculty of making us monsters of six feet curious and happy +in our turn. Now, who would imagine that an artist could make +anything of such a subject as this? The writer begins by stating,-- + + + "I love to go back to the days of my youth, + And to reckon my joys to the letter, + And to count o'er the friends that I have in the world, + Ay, and those who are gone to a better." + + +This brings him to the consideration of his uncle. "Of all the men +I have ever known," says he, "my uncle united the greatest degree of +cheerfulness with the sobriety of manhood. Though a man when I was +a boy, he was yet one of the most agreeable companions I ever +possessed. . . . He embarked for America, and nearly twenty years +passed by before he came back again; . . . but oh, how altered!--he +was in every sense of the word an old man, his body and mind were +enfeebled, and second childishness had come upon him. How often +have I bent over him, vainly endeavoring to recall to his memory the +scenes we had shared together: and how frequently, with an aching +heart, have I gazed on his vacant and lustreless eye, while he has +amused himself in clapping his hands and singing with a quavering +voice a verse of a psalm." Alas! such are the consequences of long +residences in America, and of old age even in uncles! Well, the +point of this morality is, that the uncle one day in the morning of +life vowed that he would catch his two nephews and tie them +together, ay, and actually did so, for all the efforts the rogues +made to run away from him; but he was so fatigued that he declared +he never would make the attempt again, whereupon the nephew +remarks,--"Often since then, when engaged in enterprises beyond my +strength, have I called to mind the determination of my uncle." + +Does it not seem impossible to make a picture out of this? And yet +George Cruikshank has produced a charming design, in which the +uncles and nephews are so prettily portrayed that one is reconciled +to their existence, with all their moralities. Many more of the +mirths in this little book are excellent, especially a great figure +of a parson entering church on horseback,--an enormous parson truly, +calm, unconscious, unwieldy. As Zeuxis had a bevy of virgins in +order to make his famous picture--his express virgin--a clerical +host must have passed under Cruikshank's eyes before he sketched +this little, enormous parson of parsons. + +Being on the subject of children's books, how shall we enough praise +the delightful German nursery-tales, and Cruikshank's illustrations +of them? We coupled his name with pantomime awhile since, and sure +never pantomimes were more charming than these. Of all the artists +that ever drew, from Michael Angelo upwards and downwards, +Cruikshank was the man to illustrate these tales, and give them just +the proper admixture of the grotesque, the wonderful, and the +graceful. May all Mother Bunch's collection be similarly indebted +to him; may "Jack the Giant Killer," may "Tom Thumb," may "Puss in +Boots," be one day revivified by his pencil. Is not Whittington +sitting yet on Highgate hill, and poor Cinderella (in that sweetest +of all fairy stories) still pining in her lonely chimney-nook? A +man who has a true affection for these delightful companions of his +youth is bound to be grateful to them if he can, and we pray Mr. +Cruikshank to remember them. + +It is folly to say that this or that kind of humor is too good for +the public, that only a chosen few can relish it. The best humor +that we know of has been as eagerly received by the public as by the +most delicate connoisseur. There is hardly a man in England who can +read but will laugh at Falstaff and the humor of Joseph Andrews; and +honest Mr. Pickwick's story can be felt and loved by any person +above the age of six. Some may have a keener enjoyment of it than +others, but all the world can be merry over it, and is always ready +to welcome it. The best criterion of good humor is success, and what +a share of this has Mr. Cruikshank had! how many millions of mortals +has he made happy! We have heard very profound persons talk +philosophically of the marvellous and mysterious manner in which he +has suited himself to the time--fait vibrer la fibre populaire (as +Napoleon boasted of himself), supplied a peculiar want felt at a +peculiar period, the simple secret of which is, as we take it, that +he, living amongst the public, has with them a general wide-hearted +sympathy, that he laughs at what they laugh at, that he has a kindly +spirit of enjoyment, with not a morsel of mysticism in his +composition; that he pities and loves the poor, and jokes at the +follies of the great, and that he addresses all in a perfectly +sincere and manly way. To be greatly successful as a professional +humorist, as in any other calling, a man must be quite honest, and +show that his heart is in his work. A bad preacher will get +admiration and a hearing with this point in his favor, where a man +of three times his acquirements will only find indifference and +coldness. Is any man more remarkable than our artist for telling +the truth after his own manner? Hogarth's honesty of purpose was as +conspicuous in an earlier time, and we fancy that Gilray would have +been far more successful and more powerful but for that unhappy +bribe, which turned the whole course of his humor into an unnatural +channel. Cruikshank would not for any bribe say what he did not +think, or lend his aid to sneer down anything meritorious, or to +praise any thing or person that deserved censure. When he levelled +his wit against the Regent, and did his very prettiest for the +Princess, he most certainly believed, along with the great body of +the people whom he represents, that the Princess was the most +spotless, pure-mannered darling of a Princess that ever married a +heartless debauchee of a Prince Royal. Did not millions believe +with him, and noble and learned lords take their oaths to her Royal +Highness's innocence? Cruikshank would not stand by and see a woman +ill-used, and so struck in for her rescue, he and the people +belaboring with all their might the party who were making the +attack, and determining, from pure sympathy and indignation, that +the woman must be innocent because her husband treated her so foully. + +To be sure we have never heard so much from Mr. Cruikshank's own +lips, but any man who will examine these odd drawings, which first +made him famous, will see what an honest hearty hatred the champion +of woman has for all who abuse her, and will admire the energy with +which he flings his wood-blocks at all who side against her. +Canning, Castlereagh, Bexley, Sidmouth, he is at them, one and all; +and as for the Prince, up to what a whipping-post of ridicule did he +tie that unfortunate old man! And do not let squeamish Tories cry +out about disloyalty; if the crown does wrong, the crown must be +corrected by the nation, out of respect, of course, for the crown. +In those days, and by those people who so bitterly attacked the son, +no word was ever breathed against the father, simply because he was +a good husband, and a sober, thrifty, pious, orderly man. + +This attack upon the Prince Regent we believe to have been Mr. +Cruikshank's only effort as a party politician. Some early +manifestoes against Napoleon we find, it is true, done in the +regular John Bull style, with the Gilray model for the little +upstart Corsican: but as soon as the Emperor had yielded to stern +fortune our artist's heart relented (as Beranger's did on the other +side of the water), and many of our readers will doubtless recollect +a fine drawing of "Louis XVIII. trying on Napoleon's boots," which +did not certainly fit the gouty son of Saint Louis. Such satirical +hits as these, however, must not be considered as political, or as +anything more than the expression of the artist's national British +idea of Frenchmen. + +It must be confessed that for that great nation Mr. Cruikshank +entertains a considerable contempt. Let the reader examine the +"Life in Paris," or the five hundred designs in which Frenchmen are +introduced, and he will find them almost invariably thin, with +ludicrous spindle-shanks, pigtails, outstretched hands, shrugging +shoulders, and queer hair and mustachios. He has the British idea +of a Frenchman; and if he does not believe that the inhabitants of +France are for the most part dancing-masters and barbers, yet takes +care to depict such in preference, and would not speak too well of +them. It is curious how these traditions endure. In France, at the +present moment, the Englishman on the stage is the caricatured +Englishman at the time of the war, with a shock red head, a long +white coat, and invariable gaiters. Those who wish to study this +subject should peruse Monsieur Paul de Kock's histories of "Lord +Boulingrog" and "Lady Crockmilove." On the other hand, the old +emigre has taken his station amongst us, and we doubt if a good +British gallery would understand that such and such a character WAS +a Frenchman unless he appeared in the ancient traditional costume. + +A curious book, called "Life in Paris," published in 1822, contains +a number of the artist's plates in the aquatint style; and though we +believe he had never been in that capital, the designs have a great +deal of life in them, and pass muster very well. A villanous race +of shoulder-shrugging mortals are his Frenchmen indeed. And the +heroes of the tale, a certain Mr. Dick Wildfire, Squire Jenkins, and +Captain O'Shuffleton, are made to show the true British superiority +on every occasion when Britons and French are brought together. +This book was one among the many that the designer's genius has +caused to be popular; the plates are not carefully executed, but, +being colored, have a pleasant, lively look. The same style was +adopted in the once famous book called "Tom and Jerry, or Life in +London," which must have a word of notice here, for, although by no +means Mr. Cruikshank's best work, his reputation was extraordinarily +raised by it. Tom and Jerry were as popular twenty years since as +Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller now are; and often have we wished, while +reading the biographies of the latter celebrated personages, that +they had been described as well by Mr. Cruikshank's pencil as by Mr. +Dickens's pen. + +As for Tom and Jerry, to show the mutability of human affairs and +the evanescent nature of reputation, we have been to the British +Museum and no less than five circulating libraries in quest of the +book, and "Life in London," alas, is not to be found at any one of +them. We can only, therefore, speak of the work from recollection, +but have still a very clear remembrance of the leather gaiters of +Jerry Hawthorn, the green spectacles of Logic, and the hooked nose +of Corinthian Tom. They were the schoolboy's delight; and in the +days when the work appeared we firmly believed the three heroes +above named to be types of the most elegant, fashionable young +fellows the town afforded, and thought their occupations and +amusements were those of all high-bred English gentlemen. Tom +knocking down the watchman at Temple Bar; Tom and Jerry dancing at +Almack's; or flirting in the saloon at the theatre; at the night- +houses, after the play; at Tom Cribb's, examining the silver cup +then in the possession of that champion; at the chambers of Bob +Logic, who, seated at a cabinet piano, plays a waltz to which +Corinthian Tom and Kate are dancing; ambling gallantly in Rotten +Row; or examining the poor fellow at Newgate who was having his +chains knocked off before hanging: all these scenes remain indelibly +engraved upon the mind, and so far we are independent of all the +circulating libraries in London. + +As to the literary contents of the book, they have passed sheer +away. It was, most likely, not particularly refined; nay, the +chances are that it was absolutely vulgar. But it must have had +some merit of its own, that is clear; it must have given striking +descriptions of life in some part or other of London, for all London +read it, and went to see it in its dramatic shape. The artist, it +is said, wished to close the career of the three heroes by bringing +them all to ruin, but the writer, or publishers, would not allow any +such melancholy subjects to dash the merriment of the public, and we +believe Tom, Jerry, and Logic, were married off at the end of the +tale, as if they had been the most moral personages in the world. +There is some goodness in this pity, which authors and the public +are disposed to show towards certain agreeable, disreputable +characters of romance. Who would mar the prospects of honest +Roderick Random, or Charles Surface, or Tom Jones? only a very stern +moralist indeed. And in regard of Jerry Hawthorn and that hero +without a surname, Corinthian Tom, Mr. Cruikshank, we make little +doubt, was glad in his heart that he was not allowed to have his own +way. + +Soon after the "Tom and Jerry" and the "Life in Paris," Mr. +Cruikshank produced a much more elaborate set of prints, in a work +which was called "Points of Humor." These "Points" were selected +from various comic works, and did not, we believe, extend beyond a +couple of numbers, containing about a score of copper-plates. The +collector of humorous designs cannot fail to have them in his +portfolio, for they contain some of the very best efforts of Mr. +Cruikshank's genius, and though not quite so highly labored as some +of his later productions, are none the worse, in our opinion, for +their comparative want of finish. All the effects are perfectly +given, and the expression is as good as it could be in the most +delicate engraving upon steel. The artist's style, too, was then +completely formed; and, for our parts, we should say that we +preferred his manner of 1825 to any other which he has adopted +since. The first picture, which is called "The Point of Honor," +illustrates the old story of the officer who, on being accused of +cowardice for refusing to fight a duel, came among his brother +officers and flung a lighted grenade down upon the floor, before +which his comrades fled ignominiously. This design is capital, and +the outward rush of heroes, walking, trampling, twisting, scuffling +at the door, is in the best style of the grotesque. You see but the +back of most of these gentlemen; into which, nevertheless, the +artist has managed to throw an expression of ludicrous agony that +one could scarcely have expected to find in such a part of the human +figure. The next plate is not less good. It represents a couple +who, having been found one night tipsy, and lying in the same +gutter, were, by a charitable though misguided gentleman, supposed +to be man and wife, and put comfortably to bed together. The +morning came; fancy the surprise of this interesting pair when they +awoke and discovered their situation. Fancy the manner, too, in +which Cruikshank has depicted them, to which words cannot do +justice. It is needless to state that this fortuitous and temporary +union was followed by one more lasting and sentimental, and that +these two worthy persons were married, and lived happily ever after. + +We should like to go through every one of these prints. There is +the jolly miller, who, returning home at night, calls upon his wife +to get him a supper, and falls to upon rashers of bacon and ale. +How he gormandizes, that jolly miller! rasher after rasher, how they +pass away frizzling and, smoking from the gridiron down that immense +grinning gulf of a mouth. Poor wife! how she pines and frets, at +that untimely hour of midnight to be obliged to fry, fry, fry +perpetually, and minister to the monster's appetite. And yonder in +the clock: what agonized face is that we see? By heavens, it is the +squire of the parish. What business has he there? Let us not ask. +Suffice it to say, that he has, in the hurry of the moment, left up +stairs his br----; his--psha! a part of his dress, in short, with a +number of bank-notes in the pockets. Look in the next page, and you +will see the ferocious, bacon-devouring ruffian of a miller is +actually causing this garment to be carried through the village and +cried by the town-crier. And we blush to be obliged to say that the +demoralized miller never offered to return the banknotes, although +he was so mighty scrupulous in endeavoring to find an owner for the +corduroy portfolio in which he had found them. + +Passing from this painful subject, we come, we regret to state, to a +series of prints representing personages not a whit more moral. +Burns's famous "Jolly Beggars" have all had their portraits drawn by +Cruikshank. There is the lovely "hempen widow," quite as +interesting and romantic as the famous Mrs. Sheppard, who has at the +lamented demise of her husband adopted the very same consolation. + + + "My curse upon them every one, + They've hanged my braw John Highlandman; + + . . . . + + And now a widow I must mourn + Departed joys that ne'er return; + No comfort but a hearty can + When I think on John Highlandman." + + +Sweet "raucle carlin," she has none of the sentimentality of the +English highwayman's lady; but being wooed by a tinker and + + + "A pigmy scraper wi' his fiddle + Wha us'd to trystes and fairs to driddle," + + +prefers the practical to the merely musical man. The tinker sings +with a noble candor, worthy of a fellow of his strength of body and +station in life-- + + + "My bonnie lass, I work in brass, + A tinker is my station; + I've travell'd round all Christian ground + In this my occupation. + I've ta'en the gold, I've been enroll'd + In many a noble squadron; + But vain they search'd when off I march'd + To go an' clout the caudron." + + +It was his ruling passion. What was military glory to him, +forsooth? He had the greatest contempt for it, and loved freedom +and his copper kettle a thousand times better--a kind of hardware +Diogenes. Of fiddling he has no better opinion. The picture +represents the "sturdy caird" taking "poor gut-scraper" by the +beard,--drawing his "roosty rapier," and swearing to "speet him like +a pliver" unless he would relinquish the bonnie lassie for ever-- + + + "Wi' ghastly ee, poor tweedle-dee + Upon his hunkers bended, + An' pray'd for grace wi' ruefu' face, + An' so the quarrel ended." + + +Hark how the tinker apostrophizes the violinist, stating to the +widow at the same time the advantages which she might expect from an +alliance with himself:-- + + + "Despise that shrimp, that withered imp, + Wi' a' his noise and caperin'; + And take a share with those that bear + The budget and the apron! + + "And by that stowp, my faith an' houpe, + An' by that dear Kilbaigie! + If e'er ye want, or meet wi' scant, + May I ne'er weet my craigie." + + +Cruikshank's caird is a noble creature; his face and figure show him +to be fully capable of doing and saying all that is above written of +him. + +In the second part, the old tale of "The Three Hunchbacked Fiddlers" +is illustrated with equal felicity. The famous classical dinners +and duel in "Peregrine Pickle" are also excellent in their way; and +the connoisseur of prints and etchings may see in the latter plate, +and in another in this volume, how great the artist's mechanical +skill is as an etcher. The distant view of the city in the duel, +and of a market-place in "The Quack Doctor," are delightful +specimens of the artist's skill in depicting buildings and +backgrounds. They are touched with a grace, truth, and dexterity of +workmanship that leave nothing to desire. We have before mentioned +the man with the mouth, which appears in this number emblematical of +gout and indigestion, in which the artist has shown all the fancy of +Callot. Little demons, with long saws for noses, are making +dreadful incisions into the toes of the unhappy sufferer; some are +bringing pans of hot coals to keep the wounded member warm; a huge, +solemn nightmare sits on the invalid's chest, staring solemnly into +his eyes; a monster, with a pair of drumsticks, is banging a devil's +tattoo on his forehead; and a pair of imps are nailing great +tenpenny nails into his hands to make his happiness complete. + +The late Mr. Clark's excellent work, "Three Courses and a Dessert," +was published at a time when the rage for comic stories was not so +great as it since has been, and Messrs. Clark and Cruikshank only +sold their hundreds where Messrs. Dickens and Phiz dispose of their +thousands. But if our recommendation can in any way influence the +reader, we would enjoin him to have a copy of the "Three Courses," +that contains some of the best designs of our artist, and some of +the most amusing tales in our language. The invention of the +pictures, for which Mr. Clark takes credit to himself, says a great +deal for his wit and fancy. Can we, for instance, praise too highly +the man who invented that wonderful oyster? + +Examine him well; his beard, his pearl, his little round stomach, +and his sweet smile. Only oysters know how to smile in this way; +cool, gentle, waggish, and yet inexpressibly innocent and winning. +Dando himself must have allowed such an artless native to go free, +and consigned him to the glassy, cool, translucent wave again. + +In writing upon such subjects as these with which we have been +furnished, it can hardly be expected that we should follow any fixed +plan and order--we must therefore take such advantage as we may, and +seize upon our subject when and wherever we can lay hold of him. + +For Jews, sailors, Irishmen, Hessian boots, little boys, beadles, +policemen, tall life-guardsmen, charity children, pumps, dustmen, +very short pantaloons, dandies in spectacles, and ladies with +aquiline noses, remarkably taper waists, and wonderfully long +ringlets, Mr. Cruikshank has a special predilection. The tribe of +Israelites he has studied with amazing gusto; witness the Jew in Mr. +Ainsworth's "Jack Sheppard," and the immortal Fagin of "Oliver +Twist." Whereabouts lies the comic vis in these persons and things? +Why should a beadle be comic, and his opposite a charity boy? Why +should a tall life-guardsman have something in him essentially +absurd? Why are short breeches more ridiculous than long? What is +there particularly jocose about a pump, and wherefore does a long +nose always provoke the beholder to laughter? These points may be +metaphysically elucidated by those who list. It is probable that +Mr. Cruikshank could not give an accurate definition of that which +is ridiculous in these objects, but his instinct has told him that +fun lurks in them, and cold must be the heart that can pass by the +pantaloons of his charity boys, the Hessian boots of his dandies, +and the fan-tail hats of his dustmen, without respectful wonder. + +He has made a complete little gallery of dustmen. There is, in the +first place, the professional dustman, who, having in the +enthusiastic exercise of his delightful trade, laid hands upon +property not strictly his own, is pursued, we presume, by the right +owner, from whom he flies as fast as his crooked shanks will carry +him. + +What a curious picture it is--the horrid rickety houses in some +dingy suburb of London, the grinning cobbler, the smothered butcher, +the very trees which are covered with dust--it is fine to look at +the different expressions of the two interesting fugitives. The +fiery charioteer who belabors the poor donkey has still a glance for +his brother on foot, on whom punishment is about to descend. And +not a little curious is it to think of the creative power of the man +who has arranged this little tale of low life. How logically it is +conducted, how cleverly each one of the accessories is made to +contribute to the effect of the whole. What a deal of thought and +humor has the artist expended on this little block of wood; a large +picture might have been painted out of the very same materials, +which Mr. Cruikshank, out of his wondrous fund of merriment and +observation, can afford to throw away upon a drawing not two inches +long. From the practical dustmen we pass to those purely poetical. +There are three of them who rise on clouds of their own raising, the +very genii of the sack and shovel. + +Is there no one to write a sonnet to these?--and yet a whole poem +was written about Peter Bell the wagoner, a character by no means so +poetic. + +And lastly, we have the dustman in love: the honest fellow having +seen a young beauty stepping out of a gin-shop on a Sunday morning, +is pressing eagerly his suit. + +Gin has furnished many subjects to Mr. Cruikshank, who labors in his +own sound and hearty way to teach his countrymen the dangers of that +drink. In the "Sketch-Book" is a plate upon the subject, remarkable +for fancy and beauty of design; it is called the "Gin Juggernaut," +and represents a hideous moving palace, with a reeking still at the +roof and vast gin-barrels for wheels, under which unhappy millions +are crushed to death. An immense black cloud of desolation covers +over the country through which the gin monster has passed, dimly +looming through the darkness whereof you see an agreeable prospect +of gibbets with men dangling, burnt houses, &c. The vast cloud +comes sweeping on in the wake of this horrible body-crusher; and you +see, by way of contrast, a distant, smiling, sunshiny tract of old +English country, where gin as yet is not known. The allegory is as +good, as earnest, and as fanciful as one of John Bunyan's, and we +have often fancied there was a similarity between the men. + +The render will examine the work called "My Sketch-Book" with not a +little amusement, and may gather from it, as we fancy, a good deal +of information regarding the character of the individual man, George +Cruikshank: what points strike his eye as a painter; what move his +anger or admiration as a moralist; what classes he seems most +especially disposed to observe, and what to ridicule. There are +quacks of all kinds, to whom he has a mortal hatred; quack dandies, +who assume under his pencil, perhaps in his eye, the most grotesque +appearance possible--their hats grow larger, their legs infinitely +more crooked and lean; the tassels of their canes swell out to a +most preposterous size; the tails of their coats dwindle away, and +finish where coat-tails generally begin. Let us lay a wager that +Cruikshank, a man of the people if ever there was one, heartily +hates and despises these supercilious, swaggering young gentlemen; +and his contempt is not a whit the less laudable because there may +be tant soit peu of prejudice in it. It is right and wholesome to +scorn dandies, as Nelson said it was to hate Frenchmen; in which +sentiment (as we have before said) George Cruikshank undoubtedly +shares. In the "Sunday in London,"* Monsieur the Chef is instructing +a kitchen-maid how to compound some rascally French kickshaw or the +other--a pretty scoundrel truly! with what an air he wears that +nightcap of his, and shrugs his lank shoulders, and chatters, and +ogles, and grins: they are all the same, these mounseers; there are +other two fellows--morbleu! one is putting his dirty fingers into +the saucepan; there are frogs cooking in it, no doubt; and just over +some other dish of abomination, another dirty rascal is taking +snuff! Never mind, the sauce won't be hurt by a few ingredients +more or less. Three such fellows as these are not worth one +Englishman, that's clear. There is one in the very midst of them, +the great burly fellow with the beef: he could beat all three in +five minutes. We cannot be certain that such was the process going +on in Mr. Cruikshank's mind when he made the design; but some +feelings of the sort were no doubt entertained by him. + + +* The following lines--ever fresh--by the author of "Headlong Hall," +published years ago in the Globe and Traveller, are an excellent +comment on several of the cuts from the "Sunday in London:"-- + + I. + + "The poor man's sins are glaring; + In the face of ghostly warning + He is caught in the fact + Of an overt act, + Buying greens on Sunday morning. + + II. + + "The rich man's sins are hidden + In the pomp of wealth and station, + And escape the sight + Of the children of light, + Who are wise in their generation. + + III. + + "The rich man has a kitchen, + And cooks to dress his dinner; + The poor who would roast, + To the baker's must post, + And thus becomes a sinner. + + IV. + + "The rich man's painted windows + Hide the concerts of the quality; + The poor can but share + A crack'd fiddle in the air, + Which offends all sound morality. + + V. + + "The rich man has a cellar, + And a ready butler by him; + The poor must steer + For his pint of beer + Where the saint can't choose but spy him. + + VI. + + "This rich man is invisible + In the crowd of his gay society; + But the poor man's delight + Is a sore in the sight + And a stench in the nose of piety." + + +Against dandy footmen he is particularly severe. He hates idlers, +pretenders, boasters, and punishes these fellows as best he may. +Who does not recollect the famous picture, "What IS taxes, Thomas?" +What is taxes indeed; well may that vast, over-fed, lounging flunky +ask the question of his associate Thomas: and yet not well, for all +that Thomas says in reply is, "I DON'T KNOW." "O beati PLUSHICOLAE," +what a charming state of ignorance is yours! In the "Sketch-Book" +many footmen make their appearance: one is a huge fat Hercules of a +Portman Square porter, who calmly surveys another poor fellow, a +porter likewise, but out of livery, who comes staggering forward +with a box that Hercules might lift with his little finger. Will +Hercules do so? not he. The giant can carry nothing heavier than a +cocked-hat note on a silver tray, and his labors are to walk from +his sentry-box to the door, and from the door back to his sentry-box, +and to read the Sunday paper, and to poke the hall fire twice or +thrice, and to make five meals a day. Such a fellow does Cruikshank +hate and scorn worse even than a Frenchman. + +The man's master, too, comes in for no small share of our artist's +wrath. There is a company of them at church, who humbly designate +themselves "miserable sinners!" Miserable sinners indeed! Oh, what +floods of turtle-soup, what tons of turbot and lobster-sauce must +have been sacrificed to make those sinners properly miserable. My +lady with the ermine tippet and draggling feather, can we not see +that she lives in Portland Place, and is the wife of an East India +Director? She has been to the Opera over-night (indeed her husband, +on her right, with his fat hand dangling over the pew-door, is at +this minute thinking of Mademoiselle Leocadie, whom he saw behind +the scenes)--she has been at the Opera over-night, which with a +trifle of supper afterwards--a white-and-brown soup, a lobster- +salad, some woodcocks, and a little champagne--sent her to bed quite +comfortable. At half-past eight her maid brings her chocolate in +bed, at ten she has fresh eggs and muffins, with, perhaps, a half- +hundred of prawns for breakfast, and so can get over the day and the +sermon till lunch-time pretty well. What an odor of musk and +bergamot exhales from the pew!--how it is wadded, and stuffed, and +spangled over with brass nails! what hassocks are there for those +who are not too fat to kneel! what a flustering and flapping of gilt +prayer-books; and what a pious whirring of bible leaves one hears +all over the church, as the doctor blandly gives out the text! To +be miserable at this rate you must, at the very least, have four +thousand a year: and many persons are there so enamored of grief and +sin, that they would willingly take the risk of the misery to have a +life-interest in the consols that accompany it, quite careless about +consequences, and sceptical as to the notion that a day is at hand +when you must fulfil YOUR SHARE OF THE BARGAIN. + +Our artist loves to joke at a soldier; in whose livery there appears +to him to be something almost as ridiculous as in the uniform of the +gentleman of the shoulder-knot. Tall life-guardsmen and fierce +grenadiers figure in many of his designs, and almost always in a +ridiculous way. Here again we have the honest popular English +feeling which jeers at pomp or pretension of all kinds, and is +especially jealous of all display of military authority. "Raw +Recruit," "ditto dressed," ditto "served up," as we see them in the +"Sketch-Book," are so many satires upon the army: Hodge with his +ribbons flaunting in his hat, or with red coat and musket, drilled +stiff and pompous, or at last, minus leg and arm, tottering about on +crutches, does not fill our English artist with the enthusiasm that +follows the soldier in every other part of Europe. Jeanjean, the +conscript in France, is laughed at to be sure, but then it is +because he is a bad soldier: when he comes to have a huge pair of +mustachios and the croix-d'honneur to briller on his poitrine +cicatrisee, Jeanjean becomes a member of a class that is more +respected than any other in the French nation. The veteran soldier +inspires our people with no such awe--we hold that democratic weapon +the fist in much more honor than the sabre and bayonet, and laugh at +a man tricked out in scarlet and pipe-clay. + +That regiment of heroes is "marching to divine service," to the tune +of the "British Grenadiers." There they march in state, and a +pretty contempt our artist shows for all their gimcracks and +trumpery. He has drawn a perfectly English scene--the little +blackguard boys are playing pranks round about the men, and +shouting, "Heads up, soldier," "Eyes right, lobster," as little +British urchins will do. Did one ever hear the like sentiments +expressed in France? Shade of Napoleon, we insult you by asking the +question. In England, however, see how different the case is: and +designedly or undesignedly, the artist has opened to us a piece of +his mind. In the crowd the only person who admires the soldiers is +the poor idiot, whose pocket a rogue is picking. There is another +picture, in which the sentiment is much the same, only, as in the +former drawing we see Englishmen laughing at the troops of the line, +here are Irishmen giggling at the militia. + +We have said that our artist has a great love for the drolleries of +the Green Island. Would any one doubt what was the country of the +merry fellows depicted in his group of Paddies? + + + "Place me amid O'Rourkes, O'Tooles, + The ragged royal race of Tara; + Or place me where Dick Martin rules + The pathless wilds of Connemara." + + +We know not if Mr. Cruikshank has ever had any such good luck as to +see the Irish in Ireland itself, but he certainly has obtained a +knowledge of their looks, as if the country had been all his life +familiar to him. Could Mr. O'Connell himself desire anything more +national than the scene of a drunken row, or could Father Mathew +have a better text to preach upon? There is not a broken nose in +the room that is not thoroughly Irish. + +We have then a couple of compositions treated in a graver manner, as +characteristic too as the other. We call attention to the comical +look of poor Teague, who has been pursued and beaten by the witch's +stick, in order to point out also the singular neatness of the +workmanship, and the pretty, fanciful little glimpse of landscape +that the artist has introduced in the background. Mr. Cruikshank +has a fine eye for such homely landscapes, and renders them with +great delicacy and taste. Old villages, farm-yards, groups of +stacks, queer chimneys, churches, gable-ended cottages, Elizabethan +mansion-houses, and other old English scenes, he depicts with +evident enthusiasm. + +Famous books in their day were Cruikshank's "John Gilpin" and +"Epping Hunt;" for though our artist does not draw horses very +scientifically,--to use a phrase of the atelier,--he FEELS them very +keenly; and his queer animals, after one is used to them, answer +quite as well as better. Neither is he very happy in trees, and +such rustical produce; or, rather, we should say, he is very +original, his trees being decidedly of his own make and composition, +not imitated from any master. + +But what then? Can a man be supposed to imitate everything? We +know what the noblest study of mankind is, and to this Mr. +Cruikshank has confined himself. That postilion with the people in +the broken-down chaise roaring after him is as deaf as the post by +which he passes. Suppose all the accessories were away, could not +one swear that the man was stone-deaf, beyond the reach of trumpet? +What is the peculiar character in a deaf man's physiognomy?--can any +person define it satisfactorily in words?--not in pages; and Mr. +Cruikshank has expressed it on a piece of paper not so big as the +tenth part of your thumb-nail. The horses of John Gilpin are much +more of the equestrian order; and as here the artist has only his +favorite suburban buildings to draw, not a word is to be said +against his design. The inn and old buildings are charmingly +designed, and nothing can be more prettily or playfully touched. + + + "At Edmonton his loving wife + From the balcony spied + Her tender husband, wond'ring much + To see how he did ride. + + "'Stop, stop, John Gilpin! Here's the house!' + They all at once did cry; + 'The dinner waits, and we are tired--' + Said Gilpin--'So am I!' + + "Six gentlemen upon the road + Thus seeing Gilpin fly, + With post-boy scamp'ring in the rear, + They raised the hue and cry:-- + + "'Stop thief! stop thief!--a highwayman!' + Not one of them was mute; + And all and each that passed that way + Did join in the pursuit. + + "And now the turnpike gates again + Flew open in short space; + The toll-men thinking, as before, + That Gilpin rode a race." + + +The rush, and shouting, and clatter are excellently depicted by the +artist; and we, who have been scoffing at his manner of designing +animals, must here make a special exception in favor of the hens and +chickens; each has a different action, and is curiously natural. + +Happy are children of all ages who have such a ballad and such +pictures as this in store for them! It is a comfort to think that +woodcuts never wear out, and that the book still may be had for a +shilling, for those who can command that sum of money. + +In the "Epping Hunt," which we owe to the facetious pen of Mr. Hood, +our artist has not been so successful. There is here too much +horsemanship and not enough incident for him; but the portrait of +Roundings the huntsman is an excellent sketch, and a couple of the +designs contain great humor. The first represents the Cockney hero, +who, "like a bird, was singing out while sitting on a tree." + +And in the second the natural order is reversed. The stag having +taken heart, is hunting the huntsman, and the Cheapside Nimrod is +most ignominiously running away. + +The Easter Hunt, we are told, is no more; and as the Quarterly +Review recommends the British public to purchase Mr. Catlin's +pictures, as they form the only record of an interesting race now +rapidly passing away, in like manner we should exhort all our +friends to purchase Mr. Cruikshank's designs of ANOTHER interesting +race, that is run already and for the last time. + +Besides these, we must mention, in the line of our duty, the notable +tragedies of "Tom Thumb" and "Bombastes Furioso," both of which have +appeared with many illustrations by Mr. Cruikshank. The "brave +army" of Bombastes exhibits a terrific display of brutal force, +which must shock the sensibilities of an English radical. And we +can well understand the caution of the general, who bids this +soldatesque effrenee to begone, and not to kick up a row. + +Such a troop of lawless ruffians let loose upon a populous city +would play sad havoc in it; and we fancy the massacres of Birmingham +renewed, or at least of Badajoz, which, though not quite so +dreadful, if we may believe his Grace the Duke of Wellington, as the +former scenes of slaughter, were nevertheless severe enough: but we +must not venture upon any ill-timed pleasantries in presence of the +disturbed King Arthur and the awful ghost of Gaffer Thumb. + +We are thus carried at once into the supernatural, and here we find +Cruikshank reigning supreme. He has invented in his time a little +comic pandemonium, peopled with the most droll, good-natured fiends +possible. We have before us Chamisso's "Peter Schlemihl," with +Cruikshank's designs translated into German, and gaining nothing by +the change. The "Kinder und Hans-Maerchen" of Grimm are likewise +ornamented with a frontispiece copied from that one which appeared +to the amusing version of the English work. The books on Phrenology +and Time have been imitated by the same nation; and even in France, +whither reputation travels slower than to any country except China, +we have seen copies of the works of George Cruikshank. + +He in return has complimented the French by illustrating a couple of +Lives of Napoleon, and the "Life in Paris" before mentioned. He has +also made designs for Victor Hugo's "Hans of Iceland." Strange, +wild etchings were those, on a strange, mad subject; not so good in +our notion as the designs for the German books, the peculiar humor +of which latter seemed to suit the artist exactly. There is a +mixture of the awful and the ridiculous in these, which perpetually +excites and keeps awake the reader's attention; the German writer +and the English artist seem to have an entire faith in their +subject. The reader, no doubt, remembers the awful passage in +"Peter Schlemihl," where the little gentleman purchases the shadow +of that hero--"Have the kindness, noble sir, to examine and try this +bag." "He put his hand into his pocket, and drew thence a tolerably +large bag of Cordovan leather, to which a couple of thongs were +fixed. I took it from him, and immediately counted out ten gold +pieces, and ten more, and ten more, and still other ten, whereupon I +held out my hand to him. Done, said I, it is a bargain; you shall +have my shadow for your bag. The bargain was concluded; he knelt +down before me, and I saw him with a wonderful neatness take my +shadow from head to foot, lightly lift it up from the grass, roll +and fold it up neatly, and at last pocket it. He then rose up, +bowed to me once more, and walked away again, disappearing behind +the rose bushes. I don't know, but I thought I heard him laughing a +little. I, however, kept fast hold of the bag. Everything around +me was bright in the sun, and as yet I gave no thought to what I had +done." + +This marvellous event, narrated by Peter with such a faithful, +circumstantial detail, is painted by Cruikshank in the most +wonderful poetic way, with that happy mixture of the real and +supernatural that makes the narrative so curious, and like truth. +The sun is shining with the utmost brilliancy in a great quiet park +or garden; there is a palace in the background, and a statue basking +in the sun quite lonely and melancholy; there is a sun-dial, on +which is a deep shadow, and in the front stands Peter Schlemihl, bag +in hand: the old gentleman is down on his knees to him, and has just +lifted off the ground the SHADOW OF ONE LEG; he is going to fold it +back neatly, as one does the tails of a coat, and will stow it, +without any creases or crumples, along with the other black garments +that lie in that immense pocket of his. Cruikshank has designed all +this as if he had a very serious belief in the story; he laughs, to +be sure, but one fancies that he is a little frightened in his +heart, in spite of all his fun and joking. + +The German tales we have mentioned before. "The Prince riding on +the Fox," "Hans in Luck," "The Fiddler and his Goose," "Heads off," +are all drawings which, albeit not before us now, nor seen for ten +years, remain indelibly fixed on the memory. "Heisst du etwa +Rumpelstilzchen?" There sits the Queen on her throne, surrounded by +grinning beef-eaters, and little Rumpelstiltskin stamps his foot +through the floor in the excess of his tremendous despair. In one +of these German tales, if we remember rightly, there is an account +of a little orphan who is carried away by a pitying fairy for a term +of seven years, and passing that period of sweet apprenticeship +among the imps and sprites of fairy-land. Has our artist been among +the same company, and brought back their portraits in his sketch- +book? He is the only designer fairy-land has had. Callot's imps, +for all their strangeness, are only of the earth earthy. Fuseli's +fairies belong to the infernal regions; they are monstrous, lurid, +and hideously melancholy. Mr. Cruikshank alone has had a true +insight into the character of the "little people." They are +something like men and women, and yet not flesh and blood; they are +laughing and mischievous, but why we know not. Mr. Cruikshank, +however, has had some dream or the other, or else a natural +mysterious instinct (as the Seherinn of Prevorst had for beholding +ghosts), or else some preternatural fairy revelation, which has made +him acquainted with the looks and ways of the fantastical subjects +of Oberon and Titania. + +We have, unfortunately, no fairy portraits; but, on the other hand, +can descend lower than fairy-land, and have seen some fine specimens +of devils. One has already been raised, and the reader has seen him +tempting a fat Dutch burgomaster, in an ancient gloomy market-place, +such as George Cruikshank can draw as well as Mr. Prout, Mr. Nash, +or any man living. There is our friend once more; our friend the +burgomaster, in a highly excited state, and running as hard as his +great legs will carry him, with our mutual enemy at his tail. + +What are the bets; will that long-legged bondholder of a devil come +up with the honest Dutchman? It serves him right: why did he put +his name to stamped paper? And yet we should not wonder if some +lucky chance should turn up in the burgomaster's favor, and his +infernal creditor lose his labor; for one so proverbially cunning as +yonder tall individual with the saucer eyes, it must be confessed +that he has been very often outwitted. + +There is, for instance, the case of "The Gentleman in Black," which +has been illustrated by our artist. A young French gentleman, by +name M. Desonge, who, having expended his patrimony in a variety of +taverns and gaming-houses, was one day pondering upon the exhausted +state of his finances, and utterly at a loss to think how he should +provide means for future support, exclaimed, very naturally, "What +the devil shall I do?" He had no sooner spoken than a GENTLEMAN IN +BLACK made his appearance, whose authentic portrait Mr. Cruikshank +has had the honor to paint. This gentleman produced a black-edged +book out of a black bag, some black-edged papers tied up with black +crape, and sitting down familiarly opposite M. Desonge, began +conversing with him on the state of his affairs. + +It is needless to state what was the result of the interview. M. +Desonge was induced by the gentleman to sign his name to one of the +black-edged papers, and found himself at the close of the +conversation to be possessed of an unlimited command of capital. +This arrangement completed, the Gentleman in Black posted (in an +extraordinarily rapid manner) from Paris to London, there found a +young English merchant in exactly the same situation in which M. +Desonge had been, and concluded a bargain with the Briton of exactly +the same nature. + +The book goes on to relate how these young men spent the money so +miraculously handed over to them, and how both, when the period drew +near that was to witness the performance of THEIR part of the +bargain, grew melancholy, wretched, nay, so absolutely dishonorable +as to seek for every means of breaking through their agreement. The +Englishman living in a country where the lawyers are more astute +than any other lawyers in the world, took the advice of a Mr. +Bagsby, of Lyon's Inn; whose name, as we cannot find it in the "Law +List," we presume to be fictitious. Who could it be that was a +match for the devil? Lord ---- very likely; we shall not give his +name, but let every reader of this Review fill up the blank +according to his own fancy, and on comparing it with the copy +purchased by his neighbors, he will find that fifteen out of twenty +have written down the same honored name. + +Well, the Gentleman in Black was anxious for the fulfilment of his +bond. The parties met at Mr. Bagsby's chambers to consult, the +Black Gentleman foolishly thinking that he could act as his own +counsel, and fearing no attorney alive. But mark the superiority of +British law, and see how the black pettifogger was defeated. + +Mr. Bagsby simply stated that he would take the case into Chancery, +and his antagonist, utterly humiliated and defeated, refused to move +a step farther in the matter. + +And now the French gentleman, M. Desonge, hearing of his friend's +escape, became anxious to be free from his own rash engagements. He +employed the same counsel who had been successful in the former +instance, but the Gentleman in Black was a great deal wiser by this +time, and whether M. Desonge escaped, or whether he is now in that +extensive place which is paved with good intentions, we shall not +say. Those who are anxious to know had better purchase the book +wherein all these interesting matters are duly set down. There is +one more diabolical picture in our budget, engraved by Mr. Thompson, +the same dexterous artist who has rendered the former diableries so +well. + +We may mention Mr. Thompson's name as among the first of the +engravers to whom Cruikshank's designs have been entrusted; and next +to him (if we may be allowed to make such arbitrary distinctions) we +may place Mr. Williams; and the reader is not possibly aware of the +immense difficulties to be overcome in the rendering of these little +sketches, which, traced by the designer in a few hours, require +weeks' labor from the engraver. Mr. Cruikshank has not been +educated in the regular schools of drawing (very luckily for him, as +we think), and consequently has had to make a manner for himself, +which is quite unlike that of any other draftsman. There is nothing +in the least mechanical about it; to produce his particular effects +he uses his own particular lines, which are queer, free, fantastical, +and must be followed in all their infinite twists and vagaries by +the careful tool of the engraver. Those three lovely heads, for +instance, imagined out of the rinds of lemons, are worth examining, +not so much for the jovial humor and wonderful variety of feature +exhibited in these darling countenances as for the engraver's part +of the work. See the infinite delicate cross-lines and hatchings +which he is obliged to render; let him go, not a hair's breadth, but +the hundredth part of a hair's breadth, beyond the given line, and +the FEELING of it is ruined. He receives these little dots and +specks, and fantastical quirks of the pencil, and cuts away with a +little knife round each, not too much nor too little. Antonio's +pound of flesh did not puzzle the Jew so much; and so well does the +engraver succeed at last, that we never remember to have met with a +single artist who did not vow that the wood-cutter had utterly +ruined his design. + +Of Messrs. Thompson and Williams we have spoken as the first +engravers in point of rank; however, the regulations of professional +precedence are certainly very difficult, and the rest of their +brethren we shall not endeavor to class. Why should the artists who +executed the cuts of the admirable "Three Courses" yield the pas to +any one? + +There, for instance, is an engraving by Mr. Landells, nearly as good +in our opinion as the very best woodcut that ever was made after +Cruikshank, and curiously happy in rendering the artist's peculiar +manner: this cut does not come from the facetious publications which +we have consulted; but is a contribution by Mr. Cruikshank to an +elaborate and splendid botanical work upon the Orchidaceae of +Mexico, by Mr. Bateman. Mr. Bateman despatched some extremely +choice roots of this valuable plant to a friend in England, who, on +the arrival of the case, consigned it to his gardener to unpack. A +great deal of anxiety with regard to the contents was manifested by +all concerned, but on the lid of the box being removed, there issued +from it three or four fine specimens of the enormous Blatta beetle +that had been preying upon the plants during the voyage; against +these the gardeners, the grooms, the porters, and the porters' +children, issued forth in arms, and this scene the artist has +immortalized. + +We have spoken of the admirable way in which Mr. Cruikshank has +depicted Irish character and Cockney character; English country +character is quite as faithfully delineated in the person of the +stout porteress and her children, and of the "Chawbacon" with the +shovel, on whose face is written "Zummerzetsheer." Chawbacon +appears in another plate, or else Chawbacon's brother. He has come +up to Lunnan, and is looking about him at raaces. + +How distinct are these rustics from those whom we have just been +examining! They hang about the purlieus of the metropolis: Brook +Green, Epsom, Greenwich, Ascot, Goodwood, are their haunts. They +visit London professionally once a year, and that is at the time of +Bartholomew fair. How one may speculate upon the different degrees +of rascality, as exhibited in each face of the thimblerigging trio, +and form little histories for these worthies, charming Newgate +romances, such as have been of late the fashion! Is any man so +blind that he cannot see the exact face that is writhing under the +thhnblerigged hero's hat? Like Timanthes of old, our artist +expresses great passions without the aid of the human countenance. +There is another specimen--a street row of inebriated bottles. Is +there any need of having a face after this? "Come on!" says Claret- +bottle, a dashing, genteel fellow, with his hat on one ear--"Come +on! has any man a mind to tap me?" Claret-bottle is a little +screwed (as one may see by his legs), but full of gayety and +courage; not so that stout, apoplectic Bottle-of-rum, who has +staggered against the wall, and has his hand upon his liver: the +fellow hurts himself with smoking, that is clear, and is as sick as +sick can be. See, Port is making away from the storm, and Double X +is as flat as ditch-water. Against these, awful in their white +robes, the sober watchmen come. + +Our artist then can cover up faces, and yet show them quite clearly, +as in the thimblerig group; or he can do without faces altogether; +or he can, at a pinch, provide a countenance for a gentleman out of +any given object--a beautiful Irish physiognomy being moulded upon a +keg of whiskey; and a jolly English countenance frothing out of a +pot of ale (the spirit of brave Toby Philpot come back to reanimate +his clay); while in a fungus may be recognized the physiognomy of a +mushroom peer. Finally, if he is at a loss, he can make a living +head, body, and legs out of steel or tortoise-shell, as in the case +of the vivacious pair of spectacles that are jockeying the nose of +Caddy Cuddle. + +Of late years Mr. Cruikshank has busied himself very much with steel +engraving, and the consequences of that lucky invention have been, +that his plates are now sold by thousands, where they could only be +produced by hundreds before. He has made many a bookseller's and +author's fortune (we trust that in so doing he may not have +neglected his own). Twelve admirable plates, furnished yearly to +that facetious little publication, the Comic Almanac, have gained +for it a sale, as we hear, of nearly twenty thousand copies. The +idea of the work was novel; there was, in the first number +especially, a great deal of comic power, and Cruikshank's designs +were so admirable that the Almanac at once became a vast favorite +with the public, and has so remained ever since. + +Besides the twelve plates, this almanac contains a prophetic +woodcut, accompanying an awful Blarneyhum Astrologicum that appears +in this and other almanacs. There is one that hints in pretty clear +terms that with the Reform of Municipal Corporations the ruin of the +great Lord Mayor of London is at hand. His lordship is meekly going +to dine at an eightpenny ordinary, his giants in pawn, his men in +armor dwindled to "one poor knight," his carriage to be sold, his +stalwart aldermen vanished, his sheriffs, alas! and alas! in gaol! +Another design shows that Rigdum, if a true, is also a moral and +instructive prophet. John Bull is asleep, or rather in a vision; +the cunning demon, Speculation, blowing a thousand bright bubbles +about him. Meanwhile the rooks are busy at his fob, a knave has cut +a cruel hole in his pocket, a rattlesnake has coiled safe round his +feet, and will in a trice swallow Bull, chair, money and all; the +rats are at his corn-bags (as if, poor devil, he had corn to spare); +his faithful dog is bolting his leg-of-mutton--nay, a thief has +gotten hold of his very candle, and there, by way of moral, is his +ale-pot, which looks and winks in his face, and seems to say, O +Bull, all this is froth, and a cruel satirical picture of a certain +rustic who had a goose that laid certain golden eggs, which goose +the rustic slew in expectation of finding all the eggs at once. +This is goose and sage too, to borrow the pun of "learned Doctor +Gill;" but we shrewdly suspect that Mr. Cruikshank is becoming a +little conservative in his notions. + +We love these pictures so that it is hard to part us, and we still +fondly endeavor to hold on, but this wild word, farewell, must be +spoken by the best friends at last, and so good-by, brave woodcuts: +we feel quite a sadness in coming to the last of our collection. + +In the earlier numbers of the Comic Almanac all the manners and +customs of Londoners that would afford food for fun were noted down; +and if during the last two years the mysterious personage who, under +the title of "Rigdum Funnidos," compiles this ephemeris, has been +compelled to resort to romantic tales, we must suppose that he did +so because the great metropolis was exhausted, and it was necessary +to discover new worlds in the cloud-land of fancy. The character of +Mr. Stubbs, who made his appearance in the Almanac for 1839, had, we +think, great merit, although his adventures were somewhat of too +tragical a description to provoke pure laughter. + +We should be glad to devote a few pages to the "Illustratons of +Time," the "Scraps and Sketches," and the "Illustrations of +Phrenology," which are among the most famous of our artist's +publications; but it is very difficult to find new terms of praise, +as find them one must, when reviewing Mr. Cruikshank's publications, +and more difficult still (as the reader of this notice will no doubt +have perceived for himself long since) to translate his design into +words, and go to the printer's box for a description of all that fun +and humor which the artist can produce by a few skilful turns of his +needle. A famous article upon the "Illustrations of Time" appeared +some dozen years since in Blackwood's Magazine, of which the +conductors have always been great admirers of our artist, as became +men of honor and genius. To these grand qualities do not let it be +supposed that we are laying claim, but, thank heaven, Cruikshank's +humor is so good and benevolent that any man must love it, and on +this score we may speak as well as another. + +Then there are the "Greenwich Hospital" designs, which must not be +passed over. "Greenwich Hospital" is a hearty, good-natured book, +in the Tom Dibdin school, treating of the virtues of British tars, +in approved nautical language. They maul Frenchmen and Spaniards, +they go out in brigs and take frigates, they relieve women in +distress, and are yard-arm and yard-arming, athwart-hawsing, +marlinspiking, binnacling, and helm's-a-leeing, as honest seamen +invariably do, in novels, on the stage, and doubtless on board ship. +This we cannot take upon us to say, but the artist, like a true +Englishman, as he is, loves dearly these brave guardians of Old +England, and chronicles their rare or fanciful exploits with the +greatest good-will. Let any one look at the noble head of Nelson in +the "Family Library," and they will, we are sure, think with us that +the designer must have felt and loved what he drew. There are to +this abridgment of Southey's admirable book many more cuts after +Cruikshank; and about a dozen pieces by the same hand will be found +in a work equally popular, Lockhart's excellent "Life of Napoleon." +Among these the retreat from Moscow is very fine; the Mamlouks most +vigorous, furious, and barbarous, as they should be. At the end of +these three volumes Mr. Cruikshank's contributions to the "Family +Library" seem suddenly to have ceased. + +We are not at all disposed to undervalue the works and genius of Mr. +Dickens, and we are sure that he would admit as readily as any man +the wonderful assistance that he has derived from the artist who has +given us the portraits of his ideal personages, and made them +familiar to all the world. Once seen, these figures remain +impressed on the memory, which otherwise would have had no hold +upon them, and the heroes and heroines of Boz become personal +acquaintances with each of us. Oh, that Hogarth could have +illustrated Fielding in the same way! and fixed down on paper those +grand figures of Parson Adams, and Squire Allworthy, and the great +Jonathan Wild. + +With regard to the modern romance of "Jack Sheppard," in which the +latter personage makes a second appearance, it seems to us that Mr. +Cruikshank really created the tale, and that Mr. Ainsworth, as it +were, only put words to it. Let any reader of the novel think over +it for a while, now that it is some months since he has perused and +laid it down--let him think, and tell us what he remembers of the +tale? George Cruikshank's pictures--always George Cruikshank's +pictures. The storm in the Thames, for instance: all the author's +labored description of that event has passed clean away--we have +only before the mind's eye the fine plates of Cruikshank: the poor +wretch cowering under the bridge arch, as the waves come rushing in, +and the boats are whirling away in the drift of the great swollen +black waters. And let any man look at that second plate of the +murder on the Thames, and he must acknowledge how much more +brilliant the artist's description is than the writer's, and what a +real genius for the terrible as well as for the ridiculous the +former has; how awful is the gloom of the old bridge, a few lights +glimmering from the houses here and there, but not so as to be +reflected on the water at all, which is too turbid and raging: a +great heavy rack of clouds goes sweeping over the bridge, and men +with flaring torches, the murderers, are borne away with the stream. + +The author requires many pages to describe the fury of the storm, +which Mr. Cruikshank has represented in one. First, he has to +prepare you with the something inexpressibly melancholy in sailing +on a dark night upon the Thames: "the ripple of the water," "the +darkling current," "the indistinctively seen craft," "the solemn +shadows" and other phenomena visible on rivers at night are detailed +(with not unskilful rhetoric) in order to bring the reader into a +proper frame of mind for the deeper gloom and horror which is to +ensue. Then follow pages of description. "As Rowland sprang to the +helm, and gave the signal for pursuit, a war like a volley of +ordnance was heard aloft, and the wind again burst its bondage. A +moment before the surface of the stream was as black as ink. It was +now whitening, hissing, and seething, like an enormous caldron. The +blast once more swept over the agitated river, whirled off the +sheets of foam, scattered them far and wide in rain-drops, and left +the raging torrent blacker than before. Destruction everywhere +marked the course of the gale. Steeples toppled and towers reeled +beneath its fury. All was darkness, horror, confusion, ruin. Men +fled from their tottering habitations and returned to them, scared +by greater danger. The end of the world seemed at hand. . . . The +hurricane had now reached its climax. The blast shrieked, as if +exulting in its wrathful mission. Stunning and continuous, the din +seemed almost to take away the power of hearing. He who had faced +the gale WOULD HAVE BEEN INSTANTLY STIFLED," &c. &c. See with what +a tremendous war of words (and good loud words too; Mr. Ainsworth's +description is a good and spirited one) the author is obliged to +pour in upon the reader before he can effect his purpose upon the +latter, and inspire him with a proper terror. The painter does it +at a glance, and old Wood's dilemma in the midst of that tremendous +storm, with the little infant at his bosom, is remembered +afterwards, not from the words, but from the visible image of them +that the artist has left us. + +It would not, perhaps, be out of place to glance through the whole +of the "Jack Sheppard" plates, which are among the most finished and +the most successful of Mr. Cruikshank's performances, and say a word +or two concerning them. Let us begin with finding fault with No. 1, +"Mr. Wood offers to adopt little Jack Sheppard." A poor print, on a +poor subject; the figure of the woman not as carefully designed as +it might be, and the expression of the eyes (not an uncommon fault +with our artist) much caricatured. The print is cut up, to use the +artist's phrase, by the number of accessories which the engraver has +thought proper, after the author's elaborate description, elaborately +to reproduce. The plate of "Wild discovering Darrell in the +loft" is admirable--ghastly, terrible, and the treatment of it +extraordinarily skilful, minute, and bold. The intricacies of the +tile-work, and the mysterious twinkling of light among the beams, +are excellently felt and rendered; and one sees here, as in the two +next plates of the storm and murder, what a fine eye the artist has, +what a skilful hand, and what a sympathy for the wild and dreadful. +As a mere imitation of nature, the clouds and the bridge in the +murder picture may be examined by painters who make far higher +pretensions than Mr. Cruikshank. In point of workmanship they are +equally good, the manner quite unaffected, the effect produced +without any violent contrast, the whole scene evidently well and +philosophically arranged in the artist's brain, before he began to +put it upon copper. + +The famous drawing of "Jack carving the name on the beam," which has +been transferred to half the play-bills in town, is overloaded with +accessories, as the first plate; but they are much better arranged +than in the last-named engraving, and do not injure the effect of +the principal figure. Remark, too, the conscientiousness of the +artist, and that shrewd pervading idea of FORM which is one of his +principal characteristics. Jack is surrounded by all sorts of +implements of his profession; he stands on a regular carpenter's +table: away in the shadow under it lie shavings and a couple of +carpenter's hampers. The glue-pot, the mallet, the chisel-handle, +the planes, the saws, the hone with its cover, and the other +paraphernalia are all represented with extraordinary accuracy and +forethought. The man's mind has retained the exact DRAWING of all +these minute objects (unconsciously perhaps to himself), but we can +see with what keen eyes he must go through the world, and what a +fund of facts (as such a knowledge of the shape of objects is in his +profession) this keen student of nature has stored away in his +brain. In the next plate, where Jack is escaping from his mistress, +the figure of that lady, one of the deepest of the [Greek text +omitted], strikes us as disagreeable and unrefined; that of Winifred +is, on the contrary, very pretty and graceful; and Jack's puzzled, +slinking look must not be forgotten. All the accessories are good, +and the apartment has a snug, cosy air; which is not remarkable, +except that it shows how faithfully the designer has performed his +work, and how curiously he has entered into all the particulars of +the subject. + +Master Thames Darrell, the handsome young man of the book, is, in +Mr. Cruikshank's portraits of him, no favorite of ours. The lad +seems to wish to make up for the natural insignificance of his face +by frowning on all occasions most portentously. This figure, +borrowed from the compositor's desk, will give a notion of what we +mean. Wild's face is too violent for the great man of history (if +we may call Fielding history), but this is in consonance with the +ranting, frowning, braggadocio character that Mr. Ainsworth has +given him. + +The "Interior of Willesden Church" is excellent as a composition, +and a piece of artistical workmanship; the groups are well arranged; +and the figure of Mrs. Sheppard looking round alarmed, as her son is +robbing the dandy Kneebone, is charming, simple, and unaffected. +Not so "Mrs. Sheppard ill in bed," whose face is screwed up to an +expression vastly too tragic. The little glimpse of the church seen +through the open door of the room is very beautiful and poetical: it +is in such small hints that an artist especially excels; they are +the morals which he loves to append to his stories, and are always +appropriate and welcome. The boozing ken is not to our liking; Mrs. +Sheppard is there with her horrified eyebrows again. Why this +exaggeration--is it necessary for the public? We think not, or if +they require such excitement, let our artist, like a true painter as +he is, teach them better things.* + + +* A gentleman (whose wit is so celebrated that one should be very +cautious in repeating his stories) gave the writer a good +illustration of the philosophy of exaggeration. Mr. ---- was once +behind the scenes at the Opera when the scene-shifters were +preparing for the ballet. Flora was to sleep under a bush, whereon +were growing a number of roses, and amidst which was fluttering a +gay covey of butterflies. In size the roses exceeded the most +expansive sunflowers, and the butterflies were as large as cocked +hats;--the scene-shifter explained to Mr. ----, who asked the reason +why everything was so magnified, that the galleries could never see +the objects unless they were enormously exaggerated. How many of +our writers and designers work for the galleries? + +The "Escape from Willesden Cage" is excellent; the "Burglary in +Wood's house" has not less merit; "Mrs. Sheppard in Bedlam," a +ghastly picture indeed, is finely conceived, but not, as we fancy, +so carefully executed; it would be better for a little more careful +drawing in the female figure. + +"Jack sitting for his picture" is a very pleasing group, and savors +of the manner of Hogarth, who is introduced in the company. The +"Murder of Trenchard" must be noticed too as remarkable for the +effect and terrible vigor which the artist has given to the scene. +The "Willesden Churchyard" has great merit too, but the gems of the +book are the little vignettes illustrating the escape from Newgate. +Here, too, much anatomical care of drawing is not required; the +figures are so small that the outline and attitude need only to be +indicated, and the designer has produced a series of figures quite +remarkable for reality and poetry too. There are no less than ten +of Jack's feats so described by Mr. Cruikshank. (Let us say a word +here in praise of the excellent manner in which the author has +carried us through the adventure.) Here is Jack clattering up the +chimney, now peering into the lonely red room, now opening "the door +between the red room and the chapel." What a wild, fierce, scared +look he has, the young ruffian, as cautiously he steps in, holding +light his bar of iron. You can see by his face how his heart is +beating! If any one were there! but no! And this is a very fine +characteristic of the prints, the extreme LONELINESS of them all. +Not a soul is there to disturb him--woe to him who should--and Jack +drives in the chapel gate, and shatters down the passage door, and +there you have him on the leads. Up he goes! it is but a spring of +a few feet from the blanket, and he is gone--abiit, evasit, erupit! +Mr. Wild must catch him again if he can. + +We must not forget to mention "Oliver Twist," and Mr. Cruikshank's +famous designs to that work.* The sausage scene at Fagin's, Nancy +seizing the boy; that capital piece of humor, Mr. Bumble's +courtship, which is even better in Cruikshank's version than in +Boz's exquisite account of the interview; Sykes's farewell to the +dog; and the Jew,--the dreadful Jew--that Cruikshank drew! What a +fine touching picture of melancholy desolation is that of Sykes and +the dog! The poor cur is not too well drawn, the landscape is stiff +and formal; but in this case the faults, if faults they be, of +execution rather add to than diminish the effect of the picture: it +has a strange, wild, dreary, broken-hearted look; we fancy we see +the landscape as it must have appeared to Sykes, when ghastly and +with bloodshot eyes he looked at it. As for the Jew in the dungeon, +let us say nothing of it--what can we say to describe it? What a +fine homely poet is the man who can produce this little world of +mirth or woe for us! Does he elaborate his effects by slow process +of thought, or do they come to him by instinct? Does the painter +ever arrange in his brain an image so complete, that he afterwards +can copy it exactly on the canvas, or does the hand work in spite of +him? + + +* Or his new work, "The Tower of London," which promises even to +surpass Mr. Cruikshank's former productions. + + +A great deal of this random work of course every artist has done in +his time; many men produce effects of which they never dreamed, and +strike off excellences, haphazard, which gain for them reputation; +but a fine quality in Mr. Cruikshank, the quality of his success, as +we have said before, is the extraordinary earnestness and good faith +with which he executes all he attempts--the ludicrous, the polite, +the low, the terrible. In the second of these he often, in our +fancy, fails, his figures lacking elegance and descending to +caricature; but there is something fine in this too: it is good that +he SHOULD fail, that he should have these honest naive notions +regarding the beau monde, the characteristics of which a namby-pamby +tea-party painter could hit off far better than he. He is a great +deal too downright and manly to appreciate the flimsy delicacies of +small society--you cannot expect a lion to roar you like any sucking +dove, or frisk about a drawing-room like a lady's little spaniel. + +If then, in the course of his life and business, he has been +occasionally obliged to imitate the ways of such small animals, he +has done so, let us say it at once, clumsily, and like as a lion +should. Many artists, we hear, hold his works rather cheap; they +prate about bad drawing, want of scientific knowledge:--they would +have something vastly more neat, regular, anatomical. + +Not one of the whole band most likely but can paint an Academy +figure better than himself; nay, or a portrait of an alderman's lady +and family of children. But look down the list of the painters and +tell us who are they? How many among these men are POETS (makers), +possessing the faculty to create, the greatest among the gifts with +which Providence has endowed the mind of man? Say how many there +are, count up what they have done, and see what in the course of +some nine-and-twenty years has been done by this indefatigable man. + +What amazing energetic fecundity do we find in him! As a boy he +began to fight for bread, has been hungry (twice a day we trust) +ever since, and has been obliged to sell his wit for his bread week +by week. And his wit, sterling gold as it is, will find no such +purchasers as the fashionable painter's thin pinchbeck, who can live +comfortably for six weeks, when paid for and painting a portrait, +and fancies his mind prodigiously occupied all the while. There was +an artist in Paris, an artist hairdresser, who used to be fatigued +and take restoratives after inventing a new coiffure. By no such +gentle operation of head-dressing has Cruikshank lived: time was (we +are told so in print) when for a picture with thirty heads in it he +was paid three guineas--a poor week's pittance truly, and a dire +week's labor. We make no doubt that the same labor would at present +bring him twenty times the sum; but whether it be ill paid or well, +what labor has Mr. Cruikshank's been! Week by week, for thirty +years, to produce something new; some smiling offspring of painful +labor, quite independent and distinct from its ten thousand jovial +brethren; in what hours of sorrow and ill-health to be told by the +world, "Make us laugh or you starve--Give us fresh fun; we have +eaten up the old and are hungry. And all this has he been obliged +to do--to wring laughter day by day, sometimes, perhaps, out of +want, often certainly from ill-health or depression--to keep the +fire of his brain perpetually alight: for the greedy public will +give it no leisure to cool. This he has done and done well. He has +told a thousand truths in as many strange and fascinating ways; he +has given a thousand new and pleasant thoughts to millions of +people; he has never used his wit dishonestly; he has never, in all +the exuberance of his frolicsome humor, caused a single painful or +guilty blush: how little do we think of the extraordinary power of +this man, and how ungrateful we are to him! + +Here, as we are come round to the charge of ingratitude, the +starting-post from which we set out, perhaps we had better conclude. +The reader will perhaps wonder at the high-flown tone in which we +speak of the services and merits of an individual, whom he considers +a humble scraper on steel, that is wonderfully popular already. But +none of us remember all the benefits we owe him; they have come one +by one, one driving out the memory of the other: it is only when we +come to examine them all together, as the writer has done, who has a +pile of books on the table before him--a heap of personal kindnesses +from George Cruikshank (not presents, if you please, for we bought, +borrowed, or stole every one of them)--that we feel what we owe him. +Look at one of Mr. Cruikshank's works, and we pronounce him an +excellent humorist. Look at all: his reputation is increased by a +kind of geometrical progression; as a whole diamond is a hundred +times more valuable than the hundred splinters into which it might +be broken would be. A fine rough English diamond is this about +which we have been writing. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of George Cruikshank, by Wm. 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