"Prince Giglio": Chapter VI: "How Prince Giglio Behaved Himself" —Richard Doyle's initial illustration for W. M. Thackeray's "The Rose and The Ring" (1898)

Prince Giglio

Richard Doyle

1898

Wood-engraving

10.3 cm high x 5.9 cm wide (4 by 2 ⅜ inches), vignetted

Initial illustration for W. M. Thackeray's The Rose and The Ring (first published 1855): Chapter VI, "How Prince Giglio Behaved Himself," p. 242. Descriptive headline: "Shows How Giglio Evinces / Idle Tastes Like Other Princes" (pp. 242-243).

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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham.

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Passage Illustrated: Ornate Eighteenth-Century Adolescent Boy's Suit

And now let us speak about Prince Giglio, the nephew of the reigning monarch of Paflagonia. It has already been stated, in page seven, that as long as he had a smart coat to wear, a good horse to ride, and money in his pocket, or rather to take out of his pocket, for he was very good-natured, my young Prince did not care for the loss of his crown and sceptre, being a thoughtless youth, not much inclined to politics or any kind of learning. So his tutor had a sinecure. Giglio would not learn classics or mathematics, and the Lord Chancellor of Paflagonia, SQUARETOSO, pulled a very long face because the Prince could not be got to study the Paflagonian laws and constitution; but, on the other hand, the King’s gamekeepers and huntsmen found the Prince an apt pupil; the dancing-master pronounced that he was a most elegant and assiduous scholar; the First Lord of the Billiard Table gave the most flattering reports of the Prince’s skill; so did the Groom of the Tennis Court; and as for the Captain of the Guard and Fencing Master, the valiant and veteran Count KUTASOFF HEDZOFF, he avowed that since he ran the General of Crim Tartary, the dreadful Grumbuskin, through the body, he never had encountered so expert a swordsman as Prince Giglio. [Chapter VI, "How Prince Giglio Behaved Himself," p. 242]

Commentary: Realism versus Pantomime Style

Whereas Thackeray presented "straight" or uncaricatured figures and whimsical pantomime figures together, Doyle prefers a realistic style of portraiture that occasionally clashes with Thackeray's pantomime storyline. Here he gives readers a realistic image of an eighteenth-century adolescent in the manner of fashionable painter Thomas Gainsborough in order to make his composition at least somewhat congruent with Thackeray's original "theatrical-fairytale" program.

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 5 August 2022