DEFOE'S 'HISTORY OF
THE PLAGUE,' 1862
THE PLAGUE-CART
The Life of St. Patrick, by H. Formby, is said to be illustrated by M. J. Lawless, but the labour in tracking it was lost; for, whoever made the designs, the wood-engravings are of the lowest order, and the book no more interesting than an illustrated religious tract is usually. A sumptuously produced volume, Moral Emblems (Longmans), 'from Jacob Cats and Robert Fairlie,' contains 'illustrations freely rendered from designs found in their works,' by John Leighton. The text is by Richard Pigot, whose later career affords us a moral emblem of another sort; if indeed he be the hero of the Parnell incident, as contemporary notices declared. Its two hundred and forty-seven blocks were engraved by different hands—Leighton, Dalziel, Green, Harral, De Wilde, Swain, and others, all duly acknowledged in the contents. It is only fair to say that the decorators rarely fall to the level of the platitudes, interspersed with Biblical quotations, which form the text of the work. Among other volumes worth mentioning are: Papers for Thoughtful Girls, by Sarah Tytler, illustrated by J. E. Millais; Children's Sayings, with four pictures by Walter Crane; Stories of Old, two series, each with seven illustrations by the same artist; Stories little Breeches told, illustrated by C. H. Bennett; and volumes of Laurie's Shilling Entertainment Library, including probably (the date of the first edition is not quite clear) Defoe's History of the Plague, with singularly powerful designs by Frederick Shields,—'Rembrandt-like in power,' Mr. Joseph Pennell has rightly called them; and Puck on Pegasus, a volume of humorous verses by H. Cholmondeley Pennell, illustrated, and well illustrated, by Leech, Tenniel, Doyle, Millais, Sir Noel Paton, 'Phiz,' Portch, and M. Ellen Edwards. The Doyle tailpiece is the only one formally attributed, but students will have little difficulty in identifying the work of the various hands represented in its pages. A volume, artless in its art, that has charmed nevertheless for thirty years, and still amuses—Lear's Book of Nonsense appeared this year; but luckily its influence has been nil so far, except possibly upon modern posters; Wordsworth's Poems for the Young, with fifty illustrations by John Pettie and J. M'Whirter; an illustrated edition of Mrs. Alexander's Hymns for Little Children, mildly exciting as works of art, Famous Boys (Darton), illustrated by T. Morten; One Year, with pictures by Clarence Dobell (Macmillan), and Wood's Natural History, with fine drawings by Zwecker, Wolf, and others, are also in the sterile crop of the year 1862. Passages from Modern English Poets (1862), illustrated by the Junior Etching Club, an important book of its sort, is noticed elsewhere.
In 1863 Millais' Parables of our Lord was issued, although it is dated 1864. Of the masterpieces it contained a reviewer of the period wrote: 'looked at with unfeeling eyes there is little to commend them to the average class of book-buyers.' This, which is no doubt a fairly representative opinion, may be set against the wide appreciation by artists they aroused at the time, and ever since, merely to show that the good taste of the sixties was probably confined to a minority, and that the public in 1867 or 1897, despite its pretence of culture, is rarely moved deeply by great work. It is difficult to write dispassionately of this book. Granted that when you compare it with the drawings of some of the subjects which are still extant, you regret certain shortcomings on the part of the engravers; yet, when studied apart from that severe test, there is much that is not merely the finest work of a fine period, but that may be placed among the finest of any period. We are told in the preface that 'Mr. Millais made his first drawing to illustrate the Parables in August 1857, and the last in October 1863; thus he has been able to give that care and consideration to his subjects which the beauty as well as the importance of The Parables demanded.' It is not necessary to describe each one of the many illustrations. Those which appeared in Good Words are printed with the titles they first bore in the notice of that magazine. The other eight are: The Tares, The Wicked Husbandman, The Foolish Virgins, The Importunate Friend, The Marriage Feast, The Lost Sheep, The Rich Man and Lazarus, and The Good Shepherd, all engraved by the brothers Dalziel, who (to quote again from the preface), 'have seconded his efforts with all earnestness, desiring, as far as their powers would go, to make the pictures specimens of the art of wood-engraving.' Here it would be superfluous to ask whether the designs could have been better engraved, or even whether photogravure would not have retained more of the exquisite beauty of the originals. As they are, remembering the conditions of their production, we must needs accept them; and the full admiration they demand need not be dashed by useless regret. In place of blaming Dalziels, let us rather praise lavishly the foresight and sympathy which called into being most of the books we now prize. Indeed, a history of Dalziels' undertakings fully told would be no small part of a history of modern English illustration. If any one who loves art, especially the art of illustration, does not know and prize these Parables, then it were foolish to add a line in their praise, for ignorance of such masterpieces is criminal, and lukewarm approval a fatal confession.
J. E. MILLAIS
'THE PARABLES OF OUR
LORD,' ROUTLEDGE, 1864
THE PRODIGAL
SON
J. E. MILLAIS