Cambridge Commencement Sermon
This is one of four prints relating to Cambridge University undoubtedly created by an amateur and etched by Gillray in the last two years of his productive life. The others include:
- Bristol Cheese,Made & Sold by Percival & Co_
- Matins at D-wn-ng College
- A Petty Professor of Modern History, Brought to Light
Stylistic similarities among the prints, as well as the common Cambridge focus, make it likely that the same amateur was responsible for all four.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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The Cambridge Commencement Sermon features a crudely caricatured portrait of a Doctor of Divinity, George Varenne, who delivered the Cambridge Commencement Sermon that year. The 10 page sermon, for which I have provided a transcript, was later published by Robert Rogers as:
'We Ought Not to Tempt God'
A Sermon Preached Before the University of Cambridge, on July 2, 1809
Being the Commencement Sunday, at Great St. Mary's Church
Varenne is shown speaking from a wood-panelled pulpit looking both animalistic and demonic with an unexplained radiance behind him and an equally odd and impossible fiery cloud in front of him. Beneath the cloud is a quotation adapted from the sermon itself, which one assumes is to be applied to Varenne: "for the Devil could quote Scripture—he was up to that."
Surprisingly, the sermon itself, is anything but fiery and decidedly un-devilish—extolling the generosity of God, the plan of redemption, but only warning his audience that they should not take those mercies for granted.
"Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
Given the absurdity of the drawing, the crudeness and lack of subtlety in the satire, and the apparent groundlessness of the attack, one can only conclude that the print was commissioned by someone connected with Cambridge, distinctly unhappy with Varenne, and willing to vent his spleen in a graphic. But it is also hardly surprising that Gillray refuses to lend his name to any part of the effort.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Cambridge Commencement Sermon.
- "George Varenne," CCEd
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