COLLECTIONS -- and -- CRITIQUES

The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Room at present contains selections from one of the Library's most interesting historical collections, the cartoons of James Gillray.

Born in 1757, Gillray soon developed remarkable ability at caricaturing, and before his death in 1815 had come to wield perhaps a more powerful influence than any other Britisher not directly affiliated with a political party. His cartoons touched every possible matter of public interest; and as he lived in a period of fast-occurring and momentous events, to follow his sketches is to learn the history of the times.

Of Gillray's works the Library has the largest collection existing; it includes several hundred copies, many of them the original color-and-ink drawings. About a dozen are now on exhibition.

"Britannia between Scylla and Charybdis", one of those now in the cases, was created in 1793, when the ominous influence of the French Revolution was beginning to penetrate into England. In the engraving Pitt is steering Britannia in the snugly-built ship "Constitution," between Charybdis, the ministers of the Crown, and Scylla, a towering threatening rock capped by the colors of France. True to her attitude at that time, the fair maiden England is heedless of Charybdis, but is gazing fearfully at the rock and the sea dogs swarming around its base, representing, in ugly caricatures, the famous trio of Fox, Sheridan, and Priestly.

A second etching portrays a more personal scene in 1798. At a birthday party in honor of Fox, the Duke of Norfolk proposed such vehement toasts in favor of Parliamentary reform that he was dismissed by the Crown. This, too, Gillray has touched with insight and humor.

Later, in 1803, word came across the Strait of Dover that Napoleon was preparing to invade England; and the French Assembly was reported to have declared that England could not cope single-handed with the armies of the Tricolor. In one of his most elaborate and brilliant drawings, Gillray shows the thick-set Napoleon urging his fleet on; the chief interest, however, lies in the different reactions seen in the faces of the onlookers in England--Sheridan making a dramatic speech, and Fox hiding behind his hat.