- Museum number
- 1868,0808.4861
- Title
- Object: Gloria Mundi , or- the devil addressing the sun.
- Description
-
Fox, with the legs and brush of a fox, and with horns like those of a cow, tipped to prevent mischief, projecting through the crown of his hat, stands on an E. O. table, which is placed on the summit of the globe (over the North Pole). Above, in the upper right corner of the design is a bust portrait of Shelburne, within a circle which represents the sun and is sending out rays. He smiles cynically, looking down at Fox. Fox stands full-face, his head slightly turned upwards and to the right towards Shelburne, saying,
"To thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, & add thy name,
Sh ne! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell: &c. &c. &c...."
His waistcoat pockets are turned inside out to show that he is penniless, and the E. O. table, see BMSat 5928, &c, indicates that gambling is the cause or it. On the globe is sketched a map showing the British Isles, N. Europe, &c. Clouds rise above the globe (left) and form a background. 22 July 1782
Etching
- Production date
- 1782
- Dimensions
-
Height: 352 millimetres
-
Width: 250 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935)
For Fox's resignation see BMSat 6010, &c. It was unusual for the resignation of office to give rise to unpopularity. For Shelburne's appointment see also BMSat 6018, &c. Grego, 'Gillray', p. 40; Wright and Evans, No. 11.
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In d'Achery's advertisement in the 'Morning Chronicle' of 23 August 1782 of her publication of Gillray's 'The Thunderer' (see 1868,0808.4874) she attributes its design, and probably also the present print, to 'a gentleman of the first fashion', see T. Clayton, 'James Gillray, a revolution in satire', New Haven and London, 2022, p. 48 (he also illustrates an impression of the print from Andrew Edmunds collection with the original d'Achery publication details). As Clayton observes the casting of the political subjects of the prints as literary characters (in this case Milton's Satan from 'Paradise Lost') was not new, he cites George Bickham junior's likening of Walpole to Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' in 'The Stature of a Great Man' of 1740 (see 1935,0413.207). However if this was an idea suggested to Gillray by 'a gentleman of the first fashion', it was one that he mastered and used regularly. thereafter.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.4861