7 6 



THOMAS BEWICK. 



These cuts have in many instances designs very nearly approaching in 

 conception those in early editions of Croxall's "/Esop's Fables." In 1722 

 E. Kirkall illustrated these Fables in a very superior way ; but Chatto, in the 

 " History of Wood Engraving," mentions that these again are in many cases 

 merely reversed copies of engravings on copper by S. le Clerc, in illustration 

 of a French edition of /Esop's Fables, published about 1694. There is no 

 doubt that Bewick took his primary ideas from these prints, but he treated the 

 designs so much more naturally and ingeniously that they possess all the 

 essential character of original works. The volume issued in 1784 was not, 

 indeed, a first edition, for — as has already been mentioned in Chapter IV. — in 

 1776 a volume of Fables was issued by Saint, the 1784 publication being an 

 improvement and enlargement of the earlier. Of the vignettes, the Man and 

 Donkey at pages 14 and 88, and the Stag at page 17, the Fox and Swan, 

 and the ornament at page 26, also appear in the Fables by Gay. 



It is said that Bewick was paid only nine shillings each for several of the 

 engravings in the 1784 Fables ; but possibly he found he could make a small 

 profit even out of this — it could not have been a large one — as he had so 

 many to execute at once, and comparative leisure to do them at spare times. 

 Blocks of similar size and subject would not be taken in hand nowadays at 

 less than three or four guineas, and at this price we should have the cheapest, 

 commonest, unpleasantest work imaginable. Bewick may only have received 

 the paltry sum named, yet the labour he gave in return was not to be had for 

 payment of any kind : a genius may receive wages, but his labours confer 

 honour on whatever his hands touch, and repay in years to come more 

 real value than money can equal. Saint might have paid a thousand 

 pounds for his series of blocks to one of the engravers of the day then 

 considered at the head of his profession, and now they would have been 

 entirely forgotten. No money could insure the purchase of the gems for which 

 he paid so trifling a sum, yet they give the book a renown sure to last as long 

 as Bewick is recognised as the revolutioniser of wood engraving in England. 



