"The Crying Angel": "The Last Lecture" —Richard Doyle's final illustration forDouglas Jerrold's"Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures," 3rd edition(1866)

The Crying Angel

Richard Doyle

1845

Wood-engraving

3.5 cm high x 3.4 cm wide, framed

Final illustration for Douglas Jerrold's Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures (first published 8 November 1845): "The Last Lecture," p. 188.

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated

The above significant sketch is a correct copy of a drawing from the hand of Caudle at the end of this Lecture. It can hardly, we think, be imagined that Mrs. Caudle, during her fatal illness, never mixed admonishment with soothing as before; but such fragmentary Lectures were, doubtless, considered by her disconsolate widower as having too touching, too solemn an import to be vulgarised by type. They were, however, printed on the heart of Caudle; for he never ceased to speak of the late partner of his bed as either "his sainted creature," or "that angel now in heaven." ["The Last Lecture," p. 188]

Bibliography

Jerrold, Douglas. Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures, as Suffered by the late Job Caudle.Edited from the Original MSS. by Douglas Jerrold. With a frontispiece by Leech, and as motto on the title-page, "Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Fury's lap. — Shakespeare." London: Punch Office; Bradburyand Evans, 1846.

Jerrold, Douglas. Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. Illustrated by John Leach and Richard Doyle. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1856.

Jerrold, Douglas. Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures. Illustrated by Charles Keene. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1866.

Last modified 21 November 2017