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Herne the HunterAppearing to Henry on the Terrace
George Cruikshank
1843
Steel-engraving
13.4 cm high by 10.5 cm wide, framed
Cruikshank's seventh illustration for W. Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance, first published in the January 1843 number of Ainsworth's Magazine; volume, facing p. 184.
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Henry paced slowly to and fro, utterly indifferent to the peril he ran — now watching the lightning as it shivered some oak in the home park, or lighted up the wide expanse of country around him — now listening to the roar of heaven's artillery; and he had just quitted the western extremity of the terrace, when the most terrific crash he had yet heard burst over him. The next instant a dozen forked flashes shot from the sky, while fiery coruscations blazed athwart it; and at the same moment a bolt struck the Wykeham Tower, beside which he had been recently standing. Startled by the appalling sound, he turned and beheld upon the battlemented parapet on his left a tall ghostly figure, whose antlered helm told him it was Herne the Hunter. Dilated against the flaming sky, the proportions of the demon seemed gigantic. His right hand was stretched forth towards the king, and in his left he held a rusty chain. Henry grasped the handle of his sword, and partly drew it, keeping his gaze fixed upon the figure.
"You thought you had got rid of me, Harry of England," cried Herne, "butwere you to lay the weight of this vast fabric upon me, I would breakfrom under it— ho! ho!"
"What wouldst thou, infernal spirit?" cried Henry.
"I am come to keep company with you, Harry," replied the demon; "this isa night when only you and I should be abroad. We know how to enjoyit. We like the music of the loud thunder, and the dance of the blithelightning."
"Avaunt, fiend!" cried Henry. "I will hold no converse with thee. Backto thy native hell!"
"You have no power over me, Harry," rejoined the demon, his wordsmingling with the rolling of the thunder, "for your thoughts are evil, and you are about to do an accursed deed. You cannot dismiss me. Before the commission of every great crime—and many great crimes you will commit—I will always appear to you. And my last appearance shall be three days before your end—ha! ha!"
"Darest thou say this to me!" cried Henry furiously.
"I laugh at thy menaces," rejoined Herne, amid another peal of thunder —"but I have not yet done. Harry of England! your career shall be stained in blood. Your wrath shall descend upon the heads of thosewho love you, and your love shall be fatal. Better Anne Boleyn fledthis castle, and sought shelter in the lowliest hovel in the land, thanbecome your spouse. For you will slay her—and not her alone. Anothershall fall by your hand; and so, if you had your own will, would all!"
"What meanest thou by all?" demanded the king.
"You will learn in due season," laughed the fiend. "But now mark me, Harry of England, thou fierce and bloody kin—thou shalt be drunken with the blood of thy wives; and thy end shall be a fearful one. Thou shaltlinger out a living death —a mass of breathing corruption shalt thoubecome —and when dead the very hounds with which thou huntedst me shalllick thy blood!"
These awful words, involving a fearful prophecy, which was afterwards,as will be shown, strangely fulfilled, were so mixed up with the rolling of the thunder that Henry could scarcely distinguish one sound from theother. At the close of the latter speech a flash of lightning of suchdazzling brilliancy shot down past him, that he remained for somemoments almost blinded; and when he recovered his powers of vision the demon had vanished.[Book the Fourth, "CardinalWolsey," Chapter II, "How Herne the Hunter appeared to Henry on the Terrace," pp.184-185]
Here, Cruikshank is at his most effective in his depiction of the phantom-hunter,who elsewhere, peering out from behind a tree or through a window, is almost cartoon-like.The illustrator accentuates the differences between the mortal monarch and the demon hunter by making Herne, balanced on the battlements, rake-thin and insubstantial. As he fearlessly regards Henry, Herne gives a gesture of command, in contrast to a jittery Henry, leaning slightly to the left and fumbling with his sword. Significantly, Henry'ssubstantial form, facing the lighting, casts a shadow, but the wraith-like Herne does not.
influenced by Delamotte's minute presentations of nature, Cruikshank expended great efforts on the Windsor Castle plates, delineating the settings with more explicit detail than usual. The result, unfortunately, is not always commensurate with the ambition: the highly patterned surfaces blunt dramatic intensity, The best effects are achieved in those illustrations featuring the demonic Herne the hunter: when the "tall, ghostly figure," wit antlered helm, rises up before Henry on the parapets of the castle amid the pyrotechnics of a summer thunderstorm, Cruikshank stops out jagged bolts of lightning that seem to glow with a preternatural light that illuminates the shadowy towers and distant hills. [Patten, vol. 2, pp. 173-174]
W. H. Chesson takes issue with Julian Moore's assessment of the fourteen Cruikshank illustrations in Windsor Castle as representing "the minimum of charm and freshness [for those qualities one would have turn to the illustrations for Sketches by 'Boz'], and the maximum achievement in technique" (89). He considers the 1842-43 steel-engravings "admirable," and ventures to assert that he discerns "an influence of Johannot upon Cruikshank's design (spirited but not insufferably vigorous) entitled "The Quarrel between Will Summers and Patch" (89), namely the quality of "artistic restraint." The other illustration that Chesson singles out for grudging praise is that of Herne the Hunter, whom he pronounces "as impressive a person can be who jeopardizes the dignity of demonhood by wearing horns" (90). Cruikshank's task here was two-fold: to realise the best aspects of Ainsworth's scenic word-painting in the opening paragraph, and to complement the dialogue between the determined antagonists — all the while suggesting Herne's supernatural form and powers, as reflected in the lightning storm. Whereas in other illustrations Cruikshank gives Herne a very human body and substance, here the illustrator must convince the viewer that Herne, when he wishes to appear so, is also an insubstantial wraith.
Ainsworth, William Harrison. Windsor Castle. An Historical Romance. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and Tony Johannot. With designs on wood by W. Alfred Delamotte. London: Routledge, 1880. Based on the Henry Colburn edition of 1844.
Chesson, Wilfred Hugh. George Cruikshank. The Popular Library of Art. London: Duckworth, 1908.
Jerrold, Blanchard. The Life of George Cruikshank. In Two Epochs. Illustrated by George Cruikshank. 2 vols. London: Chatto and Windus, 1882.
Johnson, E. D. H. "The George Cruikshank Collection at Princeton." George Cruikshank: A Revaluation. Ed. Robert L. Patten. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. P., 1974, rpt. 1992. Pp. 1-34.
Patten, Robert L. Chapter 30, "The 'Hoc' Goes Down." George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, vol. 2: 1835-1878. Rutgers, NJ: Rutgers U. P., 1991; London: The Lutterworth Press, 1996. Pp. 153-186.
Vann, J. Don. "Windsor Castle in Ainsworth's Magazine, June 1842-June 1843." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. P. 23.
Worth, George J. William Harrison Ainsworth. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Last modified 25 December 2017