Sunday, April 15, 2012

Lurking in the Shadows

Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass
That I may see my shadow as I pass

Shakespeare: Richard III Act 1 Scene 2**


A foolscap (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Foolscap



A greedy pig (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Greedy Pig



A parrot (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Parrot



A crocodile (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Crocodile



A pump (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Pump



A bantom (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Bantom



A little duck (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
A Little Duck



An old fashion (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
An Old Fashion



Shadows by CH Bennett (titlepage) (1850s coloured lithograph by CH Bennett)
'Shadows' title page

[all images were cropped from the full page layouts and were lightly cleaned of background spots]
"Charles Bennett (1829-67) was a talented illustrator who worked mainly as a caricaturist for periodicals such as the Comic Times and Comic News; he joined Punch in 1865, but died in poverty only two years later. He wrote stories for his own children and illustrated them with delightful comic details, often cutting his own wood blocks."
[source ::: home]
"He also illustrated children's books like 'Papernose Woodensconce' (1854), 'The Faithless Parrott' (1858) and 'Mr. Wind and Madame Rain' (1864). The stories Charles Bennett drew for Punch often showed a sequence, and can be seen as an early form of comics."
[source]


**The Shakespeare passage^ up top has Richard being reminded by a mirror ("glass") that he is always on stage and that a reflection, like a shadow (metaphor), is divorced from the true nature of character portrayed in reflected or shadowed form.

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