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The Alarm of Crowe & Fillet at the appearance of Sir Launcelot
George Cruikshank
1832
steel-engraving
9.2 cm high x 7.7 cm wide, vignetted
Fifth of eight illustrations by George Cruikshank for Tobias Smollett's The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves (1766), Book I, Chapter I, facing p. 8
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.
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The outward door of the Black Lion had already sustained two dreadful shocks, but at the third it flew open, and in stalked an apparition that smote the hearts of our travellers with fear and trepidation. It was the figure of a man armed cap-a-pee, bearing on his shoulders a bundle dropping with water, which afterwards appeared to be the body of a man that seemed to have been drowned, and fished up from the bottom of the neighbouring river. Having deposited his burden carefully on the floor, he addressed himself to the company in these words: "Be not surprised, good people, at this unusual appearance, which I shall take an opportunity to explain, and forgive the rude and boisterous manner in which I have demanded, and indeed forced admittance; the violence of my intrusion was the effect of necessity. In crossing the river, my squire and his horse were swept away by the stream, and, with some difficulty, I have been able to drag him ashore, though I am afraid my assistance reached him too late, for since I brought him to land he has given no signs of life." Here he was interrupted by a groan, which issued from the chest of the squire, and terrified the spectators as much as it comforted the master.[Chapter II, "In which the hero of these adventures makes his first appearance on the stage of action," p. 9]
Cruikshank executed seventy-four such etchings for the works of eighteenth-century novelists, covering seventeen of the nineteen volumes in Roscoe's Novelist's Library (London: James Cochrane, 1831-33). Of particular relevance here are his companion illustrations for Smollett, Fielding, Goldsmith, Sterne, and Cervantes. Working in the tradition of the earlier illustrators of many of these same works, Thomas Stothard and Thomas Rowlandson.
Here we have Cruikshank's interpretations of some of the standard reading fare of the English public of his day. For works by Smollett, he did four etchings for Humphrey Clinker, five for Roderick Random, and eight for Peregrine Pickle. . . . . The general rule seemed to be four etchings for every volume in the series. [Vogler, p. 145]
Burton, Anthony. "Cruikshank as an Illustrator of Fiction." George Cruikshank: A Revaluation. Ed. Robert L. Patten. Princeton: Princeton U. P., 1974, rev., 1992. Pp. 92-128.
Cohen, Jane Rabb. Part One, "Dickens and His Early Illustrators: 1. George Cruikshank. Charles Dickens and His Original Illustrators. Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1980. Pp. 15-38.
Kitton, Frederic G. "George Cruikshank." Dickens and His Illustrators. London: Chapman & Hall, 1899. Pp. 1-28.
McLean, Ruari. George Cruikshank: His Life and Work as a Book Illustrator. English Masters of Black-and-White. London: Art and Technics, 1948.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 21, "An 'Average-European' Style." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 1: 1792-1835. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1992; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1992. Pp. 341-354.
Smollett, Tobias. The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. (1760). Illustrated by George Cruikshank. London: James Cochrane, 1832.
Vogler, Richard A. Graphic Works of George Cruikshank. New York: Dover, 1979.
Last modified 8 January 2018