THE LESSER CARICATURISTS OF THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.--PAUL SANDBY--COLLET: THE DISASTER, AND FATHER PAUL IN HIS CUPS--JAMES SAYER: HIS CARICATURES IN SUPPORT OF PITT, AND HIS REWARD--CARLO KHAN'S TRIUMPH--BUNBURY'S: HIS CARICATURES ON HORSEMANSHIP--WOODWARD: GENERAL COMPLAINT--ROWLANDSON'S INFLUENCE ON THE STYLE OF THOSE WHOSE DESIGNS HE ETCHED--JOHN KAY OF EDINBURGH: LOOKING A ROCK IN THE FACE 450 CHAPTER XXVII. GILLRAY--HIS FIRST ATTEMPTS--HIS CARICATURES BEGIN WITH THE SHELBURNE MINISTRY--IMPEACHMENT OF WARREN HASTINGS--CARICATURES ON THE KING; NEW WAY TO PAY THE NATIONAL DEBT--ALLEGED REASON FOR GILLRAY'S HOSTILITY TO THE KING--THE KING AND THE APPLE-DUMPLINGS--GILLRAY'S LATER LABOURS--HIS IDIOTCY AND DEATH 464 CHAPTER XXVIII. GILLRAY'S CARICATURES ON SOCIAL LIFE--THOMAS ROWLANDSON--HIS EARLY LIFE--HE BECOMES A CARICATURIST--HIS STYLE AND WORKS--HIS DRAWINGS--THE CRUIKSHANKS 480 A HISTORY OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF CARICATURE AND GROTESQUE.--SPIRIT OF CARICATURE IN EGYPT.--MONSTERS: PYTHON AND GORGON.--GREECE.--THE DIONYSIAC CEREMONIES, AND ORIGIN OF THE DRAMA.--THE OLD COMEDY.--LOVE OF PARODY.--PARODIES ON SUBJECTS TAKEN FROM GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY: THE VISIT TO THE LOVER: APOLLO AT DELPHI.--THE PARTIALITY FOR PARODY CONTINUED AMONG THE ROMANS: THE FLIGHT OF ÆNEAS. It is not my intention in the following pages to discuss the question what constitutes the comic or the laughable, or, in other words, to enter into the philosophy of the subject; I design only to trace the history of its outward development, the various forms it has assumed, and its social influence. Laughter appears to be almost a necessity of human nature, in all conditions of man's existence, however rude or however cultivated; and some of the greatest men of all ages, men of the most refined intellects, such as Cicero in the ages of antiquity, and Erasmus among the moderns, have been celebrated for their indulgence in it. The former was sometimes called by his opponents _scurra consularis_, the "consular jester;" and the latter, who has been spoken of as the "mocking-bird," is said to have laughed so immoderately over the well-known "Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum," that he brought upon himself a serious fit of illness. The greatest of comic writers, Aristophanes, has always been looked upon as a model of literary perfection. An epigram in the Greek Anthology, written by the divine Plato, tells us how, when the Graces sought a temple which would not fall, they found the soul of Aristophanes:--