Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/261

 ful if somewhat theatric rendering of the hook-nosed Jew gnawing his fingers in an agony of remorse and fear, ranks, with ‘Jack Sheppard carving his Name upon the Beam,’ as among the most desirable of the artist's performances. For Bentley also he did eight etchings to as many of the ‘Ingoldsby Legends,’ and seven to ‘Nights at Sea.’ Some of the illustrations which make up the tale of his contributions to the ‘Miscellany’ are very unequal in merit, and can only be accounted for by the supposition that he was out of sympathy with his work or fretting for other enterprises. One of them, that to a story called ‘Regular Habits,’ 1843, has a succès de scandale with the curious, owing to its obviously intentional badness. The only reasonable explanation which has been offered for its eccentricity is that Cruikshank sought by the sheer ineptitude of his performance to oblige the publisher to release him from what he held to be an unprofitable bondage. His object seems to have been attained, for ‘Regular Habits’ is one of the latest, if not the last, of his contributions to ‘Bentley's Miscellany,’ in which he was succeeded by John Leech.

With Harrison Ainsworth he still seems to have maintained his relations, and for him he illustrated ‘The Tower of London,’ 1840, and ‘Guy Fawkes,’ 1841. When later Ainsworth retired from ‘Bentley,’ in the editorship of which he had succeeded Dickens, he started ‘Ainsworth's Magazine’ with Cruikshank for his pictorial coadjutor, and there is a little woodcut (‘Our Library Table’) which represents the pair in council, Cruikshank characteristically laying down the law. For ‘Ainsworth's Magazine’ he illustrated the ‘Miser's Daughter,’ 1842, ‘Windsor Castle’ (in part), 1844, and ‘St. James's, or the Court of Queen Anne,’ 1844, thus making seven novels which he had embellished for the popular author of ‘Rookwood.’ In addition to these he illustrated for the same periodical Maginn's ‘John Manisty,’ Raymond's ‘Elliston Papers,’ and a ‘new Orlando Furioso’ entitled ‘Modern Chivalry,’ which was reprinted in 1843.

After the publication of ‘St. James's’ Ainsworth sold the magazine, and Cruikshank ceased to supply designs for its pages, the eighth and subsequent volumes to its conclusion in 1854 being illustrated by ‘Phiz’ (Hablot Knight Browne [q. v.]). Cruikshank, it is said, regarded this sale as a violation of a tacit engagement between himself and Ainsworth. In connection with this misunderstanding may be mentioned the curious claim which, mainly in his later years, he set up as regards his collaboration with both Ainsworth and Dickens. He asserted that he suggested the story and incidents of ‘Oliver Twist;’ he asserted also that he suggested the ‘title and general plan’ of the ‘Miser's Daughter’ and other of Ainsworth's romances. The charge, which in the case of Dickens was made after his death, was summarily dismissed by his biographer, Mr. Forster, while in a letter printed by Mr. Blanchard Jerrold in his ‘Life of Cruikshank’ (2nd ed. 1883, pp. 171–8), Ainsworth gives an equally unqualified denial to Cruikshank's allegations. Cruikshank's own ‘statement of facts’ is contained in a little pamphlet issued by him in 1872 under the title of ‘The Artist and the Author,’ after the appearance of vol. i. of Forster's ‘Life of Dickens.’ As may be inferred from his description of the results which followed the ‘Bank Restriction Note,’ he was not exempt from a certain ‘Roman infirmity’ of exaggerating the importance of his own performances—an infirmity which did not decrease with years. Whatever the amount of assistance he gave to Dickens and to Ainsworth, it is clear it was not rated by them at the value he placed upon it. That he did make suggestions, relevant or irrelevant, can scarcely be doubted, for it was part of his inventive and ever-projecting habit of mind. It must also be conceded that he most signally seconded the text by his graphic interpretations; but that this aid or these suggestions were of such a nature as to transfer the credit of the ‘Miser's Daughter’ and ‘Oliver Twist’ from the authors to himself is more than can reasonably be allowed. Those curious in this unpleasant chapter in Cruikshank's biography will find it fairly treated in Mr. Jerrold's book (ed. ut supra, pp. 137–81).

During the period of his connection with ‘Bentley's Miscellany,’ Cruikshank illustrated, besides the ‘Comic Almanack,’ several works that deserve mention. Among these are the ‘Memoirs of Grimaldi,’ edited by ‘Boz,’ 1838; Glasscock's ‘Land Sharks and Sea Gulls,’ 1838; Barker's ‘Topsail-Sheet Blocks,’ 1838 Moir's ‘Mansie Wauch,’ 1839; and ‘The Loving Ballad of Lord Bateman,’ 1839, the introduction and serio-comic notes to which were supplied by Charles Dickens. In 1841, when at variance with Bentley, though still under engagements to him, he started a magazine of his own, ‘The Omnibus,’ with Laman Blanchard for editor. Thackeray, who wrote in this ‘The King of Brentford's Testament,’ was one of the contributors, and Captain Marryat. When ‘Ainsworth's Magazine’ was sold, Cruikshank started another miscellany of a similar kind, ‘The Table Book,’ 1845, which contains two of the most