Gloria Mundi...
Gloria Mundi, or the Devil Addressing the Sun shows Charles James Fox (as Satan) looking up to Shelburne (as God) with a mixture of hatred and envy after his departure from the newly formed Shelburne ministry. His words are a quotation from Miton's Paradise Lost deploring those brilliant beams of sunlight "That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell."
© National Portrait Gallery, London.
Gillray's print was likely inspired by one of James Sayers' published a week earlier called Paradise Lost. In that print, also quoting Milton, Fox and Burke are shown cast out and walking away, like Adam and Eve, from the now locked Gates of Paradise (the Shelburne ministry). Gillray's print is both more dramatic and more accurate.
In July of 1782, the First Minister, Rockingham, died suddenly and the King, as was his prerogative, appointed Lord Shelburne as Rockingham's successor. Shelburne and Fox had been uneasy colleagues in the Rockingham ministry, one Secretary of State for Domestic Affairs and the other Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Their overlapping responsibilities and deep suspicion of one another had already been complicating negotiations with the French and Americans over the recognition of American independence. Fox, therefore, bitterly opposed the appointment of Shelburne, portraying the Duke of Portland, Fox, and his followers as the logical successors to Rockingham and his policies. The King disagreed, and Fox resigned.
In his public defence of his decision, Fox tried to portray his resignation as a principled determination not to serve a man whose values and policies he could not support. But like Satan, his motivations were closer to angry rebellion than genuine principle.
In Gillray's print, Fox is shown with empty pockets, standing on an E.O. table. Fox was a notorious gambler, losing as much as 10,000 Pounds in a single evening. So along with his fox-like tail and legs, the gambling table helps to ensure his identification. But it also suggests that his resignation was a political gamble that he obviously lost.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Gloria Mundi. . .
- "Charles James Fox," Wikipedia
- "Second Rockingham ministry," Wikipedia
- John Derry, Charles James Fox, 1972
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