Sir Max Beerbohm and Master William Shakespeare, gent.

This caricature of Shakespeare as complicit plagiarist is the work of English satirist and cartoonist Max Beerbohm (1872-1956). Entitled William Shakespeare, His Method of Work, it is the artist's wry comment on the idea (we won't call it a theory) that Francis Bacon was the true author of the works attributed to Shakespeare. 

Our own 'theory' is that the author of the plays - whose identity we have not yet established - used an Irishman by the name of O'Ricky as a conduit between himself and the theatre company. It is self-evident to us that this is the case since the author clearly immortalised O'Ricky in the skull of Yorick, an anagram on his name. 

We can see O'Ricky arriving at the playhouse and handing over the author's latest manuscript to Richard Burbage, perhaps with the words: "Begad, will ye look what I have here, now? 'Tis only the new play by himself, or my name's not Paddy O'Ricky, an' dat's a fact, now".

We recognise that our theory needs further research, but are convinced that in time it will be as incredulous as any other.

Is it time to ditch 'the Bard'?

David Garrick leaning on a Bust of Shakespeare.
A copy of portrait by Thomas Gainsborough
destroyed by fire.

In September 1769, actor-manager David Garrick organised a Jubilee event in Stratford-upon-Avon to mark the bicentenary of the birth of William Shakespeare. (Shakespeare, in fact, was born in 1564, but Garrick's event was delayed for five years to coincide with the opening of the new town hall). It lasted three days and included a Grand Parade of Shakespeare's Characters, a masquerade ball, as well as horse racing and fireworks displays. Despite being dogged by torrential rain from start to finish, it attracted enormous attention throughout Europe, and established Shakespeare's birthplace as a destination of secular pilgrimage. As one of the songs for the Jubilee proudly proclaimed: 'The bard of all bards, was a Warwickshire bard'.

Since then the word 'Bard' has become the established nickname for Shakespeare, and has given rise to 'bardolatry', first coined by George Bernard Shaw as a term to describe the uncritical worship of Shakespeare as a being almost part divine. But has the term lost its air of reverence, and become facetious, patronising and crude? Should we unreservedly embrace Garrick's Jubilee ode "'Tis he, 'tis he, / The god of our idolatry!"? Or is it not time to do as Ben Jonson did,  honour the man's memory "on this side idolatry", and ditch the terms 'Bard' and 'Bard of Avon' for ever?

James Gillray and John Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery Exhibition

Shakespeare Sacrificed - or the Offering to Avarice
by James Gillray 1789

John Boydell was a British publisher who lived from 1719 to 1804. Towards the end of his life he embarked upon an ambitious project of publishing an illustrated edition of the plays of William Shakespeare; a folio of prints depicting scenes from the dramatist's plays; and establishing his Shakespeare Gallery.


In his early career he worked as an engraver's apprentice before embarking on a profitable business selling and exporting prints after English artists, which he commissioned himself. In addition, he served as lord mayor of London on three occasions, in 1782, 1785 and 1791. And in 1789 his Shakespeare Gallery was officially launched.


The project was a liaison between art and business. His stated aim of the gallery was to establish an 'English School of Painting', but negotiations with participating artists were often beset with difficulties due to Boydell's refusal to accept paintings which he believed would not sell prints. 


One unsuccessful participant was the satirical caricaturist James Gillray. His response to the snub was one of his most celebrated satires, Shakespeare Sacrificed - or the Offering to Avarice, a dig at Boydell's anxiety to ensure the commercial success of the gallery, and a swipe at the gallery's pretensions to History Painting.


The gallery itself was lampooned in the popular press and was finally sold by lottery.

William Hogarth and William Shakespeare

David Garrick as Richard III by William Hogarth

The depiction of scenes from Shakespeare's plays has been an important part of many British artists repertoire, including William Hogarth (1697-1764).

David Garrick and His Wife
by William Hogarth

Among the artist's works is a portrait of 18th century theatrical actor, manager and writer David Garrick as Richard III. The painting dates from 1745 and is influenced by French baroque. It was followed a few years later, in 1757, by a double portrait of Garrick and his wife, in which Garrick is seated on a chair allegedly constructed of wood from a mulberry tree supposedly planted by Shakespeare himself in the garden of his home in Stratford-upon-Avon, though there is no evidence to suggest that this posthumous tale has any truth in it.




Hogarth also painted a charming and slightly biblical scene from The Tempest, depicting Prospero and Miranda, a love-struck Ferdinand, a web-footed Caliban, and the ethereal Ariel hovering overhead.

The Tempest by William Hogarth

Fernand Khnopff - symbolist artist from a world elsewhere

The Sphinx or The Caresses

Who shall deliver me?

Fernand Edmond Jean-Marie Khnopff was a Belgian painter, designer and engraver of the symbolist movement, born 12 September 1858, did 12 November 1921.


His work is characterised by two types of women - sphinxes and angels. Mystery lingers in the paintings, a mystery of inaccessible women in a state of idle contemplation, or surrounded by objects filled with symbolism. A symbolism, in the words of Edmond-Louis de Taeye in 1898 'not religious, nor Christian, nor mythological, but emblematic'. 

The Cigarette

The March of the Guards to Finchley in 1745 by William Hogarth

Detail of The March of the Guards by Hogarth

William Hogarth's work of 1750 depicts the footguards setting off to fight the Young Pretender, Charles Edward, who in 1745 had landed on the west coast of Scotland with just seven followers. The Highlanders rose in support of their hero, occupied Edinburgh, and moved south into England as far as Derby. But the Pretender's English sympathisers did not join him, and with no help from France, he was forced to retreat, and his troupes were finally routed on Culloden Moor near Inverness.


Hogarth presented his depiction to George II, but the king was not amused, ordering the bearer "Take this trumpery out of my sight".

The History of England from 4000 BC to 1625

A late Stone Age burial chamber in
Trethevy Quoit, Cornwall

4000 BC immigrants arrive from continental Europe and become farmers. Their descendants construct great stone tombs. By 2500 BC Stonehenge is underway. 500 years on immigrants from Holland and Rhineland arrive. 800 BC Celtic peoples skilled in bronze and later iron also arrive. They impose Bythonic language on England and introduce Druids. 55 BC Julius Caesar invades Britain and is repulsed. The Romans return a century later and colonise the country. Roman merchants follow and Cymbeline is British king. Cymbeline dies and his kingdom collapses. AD 43 Emperor Claudius adds Britain to his empire and there are 300 years of peace.