"King Giglio in a Disturbed State of Mind": Chapter XVI: "How Hedzoff Rode Back Again to King Giglio" —Richard Doyle's seventh illustration for W. M. Thackeray's "The Rose and The Ring" (1898)

King Giglio in a Disturbed State of Mind

Richard Doyle

1898

Wood-engraving

9.8 cm high x 7 cm wide (3 by 2 ⅞ inches), vignetted

Seventh illustration for W. M. Thackeray's The Rose and The Ring (first published 1855): Chapter XVI: "How Hedzoff Rode Back Again to King Giglio," p. 316. Descriptive headline: "Of Poor Bulbo, How They Picked Him / Out, as Usual, for a Victim" (pp. 316-317).

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: A Theatrical Reaction to Distressing News

Captain Hedzoff rode away when King Padella uttered this cruel command, having done his duty in delivering the message with which his royal master had entrusted him. Of course he was very sorry for Rosalba, but what could he do?

So he returned to King Giglio’s camp, and found the young monarch in a disturbed state of mind, smoking cigars in the royal tent. His Majesty’s agitation was not appeased by the news that was brought by his ambassador. "The brutal ruthless ruffian royal wretch!" Giglio exclaimed. ‘As England’s poesy has well remarked, “The man that lays his hand upon a woman, save in the way of kindness, is a villain.” Ha, Hedzoff!" [Chapter XVI: "How Hedzoff Rode Back Again to King Giglio," pp. 316-317]

Commentary: Another Realistic Eighteenth-Century Figure

Doyle inserts his own headpiece for Chapter XVI to complement the full-page Thackeray drawing Poor Bulbo is Ordered for Execution, with its infantrymen in eighteenth-century uniforms and magnificent mustaches. Although Doyle provides no backdrop for the King's over-the-top reaction to Hedzoff's news, he is relying upon the reader's making the connection with the setting on the facing page, a military tent. And, indeed, Doyle has made his figure of King Giglio perfectly consistent with Thackeray's in terms of his face and clothing. Doyle makes Giglio's reaction suitably "stagey" and melodramatic as such was the acting style of Pantomime.

Related Illustrations by W. M. Thackeray (1855)

Bibliography

Thackeray, W. M. The Christmas Books of M. A. Titmarsh. With illustrations by Richard Doyle and Thackeray. London: Smith. Elder, 1898.

Created 8 August 2022