George Cruikshank | Page 7

and give them just the
proper admixture of the grotesque, the wonderful, and the graceful.
May all Mother Bunch's collection be similarly indebted to him; may

"Jack the Giant Killer," may "Tom Thumb," may "Puss in Boots," be
one day revivified by his pencil. Is not Whittington sitting yet on
Highgate hill, and poor Cinderella (in that sweetest of all fairy stories)
still pining in her lonely chimney-nook? A man who has a true
affection for these delightful companions of his youth is bound to be
grateful to them if he can, and we pray Mr. Cruikshank to remember
them.
It is folly to say that this or that kind of humor is too good for the
public, that only a chosen few can relish it. The best humor that we
know of has been as eagerly received by the public as by the most
delicate connoisseur. There is hardly a man in England who can read
but will laugh at Falstaff and the humor of Joseph Andrews; and honest
Mr. Pickwick's story can be felt and loved by any person above the age
of six. Some may have a keener enjoyment of it than others, but all the
world can be merry over it, and is always ready to welcome it. The best
criterion of good humor is success, and what a share of this has Mr.
Cruikshank had! how many millions of mortals has he made happy!
We have heard very profound persons talk philosophically of the
marvellous and mysterious manner in which he has suited himself to
the time--fait vibrer la fibre populaire (as Napoleon boasted of himself),
supplied a peculiar want felt at a peculiar period, the simple secret of
which is, as we take it, that he, living amongst the public, has with
them a general wide-hearted sympathy, that he laughs at what they
laugh at, that he has a kindly spirit of enjoyment, with not a morsel of
mysticism in his composition; that he pities and loves the poor, and
jokes at the follies of the great, and that he addresses all in a perfectly
sincere and manly way. To be greatly successful as a professional
humorist, as in any other calling, a man must be quite honest, and show
that his heart is in his work. A bad preacher will get admiration and a
hearing with this point in his favor, where a man of three times his
acquirements will only find indifference and coldness. Is any man more
remarkable than our artist for telling the truth after his own manner?
Hogarth's honesty of purpose was as conspicuous in an earlier time, and
we fancy that Gilray would have been far more successful and more
powerful but for that unhappy bribe, which turned the whole course of
his humor into an unnatural channel. Cruikshank would not for any
bribe say what he did not think, or lend his aid to sneer down anything

meritorious, or to praise any thing or person that deserved censure.
When he levelled his wit against the Regent, and did his very prettiest
for the Princess, he most certainly believed, along with the great body
of the people whom he represents, that the Princess was the most
spotless, pure-mannered darling of a Princess that ever married a
heartless debauchee of a Prince Royal. Did not millions believe with
him, and noble and learned lords take their oaths to her Royal
Highness's innocence? Cruikshank would not stand by and see a
woman ill-used, and so struck in for her rescue, he and the people
belaboring with all their might the party who were making the attack,
and determining, from pure sympathy and indignation, that the woman
must be innocent because her husband treated her so foully.
To be sure we have never heard so much from Mr. Cruikshank's own
lips, but any man who will examine these odd drawings, which first
made him famous, will see what an honest hearty hatred the champion
of woman has for all who abuse her, and will admire the energy with
which he flings his wood-blocks at all who side against her. Canning,
Castlereagh, Bexley, Sidmouth, he is at them, one and all; and as for
the Prince, up to what a whipping-post of ridicule did he tie that
unfortunate old man! And do not let squeamish Tories cry out about
disloyalty; if the crown does wrong, the crown must be corrected by the
nation, out of respect, of course, for the crown. In those days, and by
those people who so bitterly attacked the son, no word was ever
breathed against the father, simply because he was a good husband, and
a sober, thrifty, pious, orderly man.
This attack upon the Prince Regent we believe to have been Mr.
Cruikshank's only effort as a party