that in the Flemish school it found a ready admission. Almost every form and character among the Dutch and Flemish had something of the grotesque; their habits and manners all tended to meaner occupations, and lower diversions, than those of the Italians.

Hence the boorish sports of Teniers, Ostade, and Jan Stein, and the more ludicrous drolls of Hemskirk; even Rembrandt's finest performances partake so much of this degradation, that it requires great knowledge and love of the skill which distinguishes his works, not to be disgusted with their occasional vulgarity.

But prior to the time of Rembrandt, Hans Holbein may be considered as excelling in the ludicrous, though with an intention to instruct rather than to ridicule.

{! His Dance of Death, however, which he painted for the Town Hall of Basil, was of a nature similar to the moralities, or mysteries*,

*

For many curious particulars of these, see D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, vol. ii.

in what may be called the barbarous age of devotion, and was better calculated to raise laughter, than to attain the end proposed. The designs made by this artist for the book of his friend Erasmus, in praise of Folly, echo the sentiments of the writer. Besides being replete with sarcasm, they have the advantage of general application, and are of course universally understood.

Advancing through these desultory remarks, we arrive at the caricaturists of the present time, who have distinguished themselves by their wit, humour, or satire; some have only indulged a passing disposition, and like Sir Joshua Reynolds and P. Sandby, have relinquished the desire of becoming humourists, as incompatible with justice, or their professional views.

At the head of those whose genius has been within the last thirty or forty years devoted to works of graphic humour, stood Mr. Grose, who was possessed of every quality of a caricaturist. His disposition was facetious, his

turn for ridicule such as to induce him not even to spare his own person; but in the humour he displayed, he was careful not to violate the rules which he had himself laid down. His satire embraced only absurdior unsuitableness of characters to the employments in which he found them engaged.

ties,

Grose was just skilful enough in drawing to reach the ludicrous in art, but never to approach any thing like taste; his pencil would have staggered in the line of beauty, and a serious beginning of any kind must under his hand have of necessity ended in something droll. His character for good fellowship is drawn con amore by the pen of Burns:

But wad ye see him in his glee,
For meikle glee and fun has he,
Then set him down, and twa or three
Gude fellows wi' him;

And port! O port! shine thou a wee,
And then ye'll see him.

Loutherbourg, to his skill as a carica

turist, added a knowledge of the principles of his art, which, independent of the subject, gave value to the delineation. This artist was only occasionally employed on works of

this kind.

Brereton, formerly a drawing-master, in Bond-street, possessed considerable talent in caricature; his subjects were mostly derived from Oxford, and from Tristram Shandy. French travelling, post-horses, and drivers, were depicted by this artist with peculiar humour and whim. His style of etching was rude and scattered, but no atom of character and expression was lost by it; every thing was strongly marked, and ludicrous in the

extreme.

H. Bunbury, Esq., was an amateur artist, eminently distinguished for his talents in works of humour, though his pencil was sometimes employed on subjects of a different kind. Designs from the once popular novel, "The Sorrows of Werter," the ballad of "Old Robin Gray," &c., were among

the

first of his productions to attract the public regard; but his Long Minuet, Long Story, and Barber's Shop, Geoffrey Gambado, and many others of the same class, exhibit such strokes of exquisite humour, as to supersede his other performances, though possessed of considerable merit.

This gentleman, like many other artists, mistook his powers, and in attempting to embody the scenes of our immortal bard, gave proofs of the inefficiency of his pencil in such undertakings.

It was reserved for the versatility of Stothard's genius to display at the same time all that is characteristic of the ludicrous in comedy, with all that is powerful and overwhelming in tragedy. This rare union of talent may be seen in his characters from Shakspeare*, painted as a sort of companion to his Canterbury Pilgrims. This performance alone is sufficient to establish the reputation

* The original picture is in the possession of I. Benson, Esq., of Thorne, in Yorkshire.