Object types
satirical print (scope note | all objects)
print (scope note | all objects)
broadside (scope note | all objects)
Title (object)
The World is Ruled & Governed by Opinion
Materials
paper (all objects)
Techniques
etching (scope note | all objects)
Production person
Print made by Wenceslaus Hollar (biographical details | all objects)
Production place
Published in London (scope note | all objects)
Date
1642
Schools /Styles
British (all objects)
Description
Opinion represented as a blindfold woman, crowned with the Tower of Babel, with terrestrial globe on her lap, chameleon on her left arm and staff in her right hand, seated in a tree from which hang or fall pamphlets and broadsides, among which can be identified by title, "[John] Taylor's Reply", "The Ironmonger's Answer" (probably representing "An Answer to a Foolish Pamphlet" by Henry Walker), "Mercuries Message", "News from Elyzium", "Hellish Parliament", "A Swarme of Sectaries", "Canterburies Troubles", "Brownists Conventicle", "Taylors Physicke", "Lambeth Faire"; a man in motley watering the tree from watering-can on his shoulder at left, elegantly-dressed man standing speaking at right; with text in two columns below. 1642
Etching
Inscriptions
Inscription Content: Lettered with title above "THE WORLD IS RVLED & GOVERNED by OPINION". Two columns of text below in the form of a dialogue between "Viator" and "Opinio". At bottom with a two line dedication to Sir Francis Prujean by Henry Peacham.
Dimensions
Height: 283 millimetres
Width: 215 millimetres
Curator's comments
(Text from Antony Griffiths, 'The Print in Stuart Britain', BM 1998, cat. 100)
Opinion (Opinio) is seated in a tree, blindfolded, with the Tower of Babel of her head, a chameleon on her wrist and a fool watering the roots. The fruit of the tree are tracts and pamphlets, many of which were identified by Stephens as being published in 1641 (see BMSat 272). The text below takes the form of a conversation between her and the traveller (Viator), who represents Everyman, and is a non-partisan condemnation of the folly of the world. The occasion is obviously the Civil War, but it is never alluded to.
The verses are signed by Henry Peacham and are dedicated to Sir Francis Prujean (1593-1666), the president of Caius College. Although unsigned, the etching is unmistakeably by Hollar, who had been associated with Peacham since 1637.
The first state of the print (of which an impression is in Windsor) has the address of Thomas Bankes 'at the top of Bridewell Stairs' in Blackfriars. He became free of the Stationers in 1637, and published various pamphlets and broadsheets between 1641-9. Among his few prints are a number of small oval heads by Hollar and Glover. In the second state Bankes's address was removed.
Hollar, depite his Royalist associations, needed to earn a living in London and etched many prints that favoured the Parliamentarian side in the Civil War. Among them are the Parliamentary Mercies of 1642 (P.469-76) and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1644 (P.491A). His own position comes through clearly in his famous comparison of the Bohemian and British wars (P.543) of 1642/3, where his use of a quotation from Virgil's Eclogues give an elegiac rather than partisan condemnation of the War.
Hollar emigrated in 1644 to Antwerp, returning in 1651. He later told Aubrey 'that when he first came into England (which was a serene time of peace) that the people, both poore and rich, did looke cheerfully, but at his returne, he found the countenances of the people all changed, melancholy, spightfull, as if bewitched.'
Subject
satire (scope note | all objects)
allegory/personification (scope note | all objects)
non-conformist (Brownists) (scope note | all objects)
gardener (all objects)
fool/jester (scope note | all objects)
book/newspaper (scope note | all objects)
Associated names
Associated with John Taylor (biographical details | all objects)
Associated with Francis Prujean (biographical details | all objects)
Associated with Henry Peacham (biographical details | all objects)
Associated with William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (biographical details | all objects)
Associated with Henry Walker (biographical details | all objects)
Acquisition date
1850
Exhibition History
2006 April-Oct, London, Museum of London, 'Satirical London:...'
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