The Fall of Phaeton

In his role as professional caricaturist, Gillray had to take advantage of the news of the day. Most often that was the latest subject of debate in Parliament: the French commercial treaty, the Prince's debt, the trial of Warren Hastings, or the Westminster election. But sometimes the news that captured the public's imagination was non-political: a much anticipated prize fight, a brutal murder, a sordid domestic dispute, or, as in this case, an accident involving two particular persons of note. So, on June 19, 1788, Gillray would have seen the following item reported in the Public Advertiser and considered what he could do with it.

Monday afternoon as his Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, was driving in his phaeton, accompanied by Mrs. Fitzherbert, he was met just as he turned out of Hyde Park, at Kensington, by one of the Brentford Stages, which his Royal Highness endeavoring to avoid, the reins broke, and the horses took down Hogmore Lane, where the carriage overset. His Royal Highness fortunately received no injury; but Mrs. Fitzherbert is so much hurt as to be at present attended by Mr. Pott, her surgeon, and Mr. Weit, her apothecary.

In 1788, the relationship between the Prince of Wales and the Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert was a matter of frequent discussion, strong suspicion, and much titillation. A few months earlier, Gillray had already created two prints for Henry Holland imagining a secret wedding between the two and a post-marital scene in the Prince's bedroom. Both were were daring enough to cause discomfort among the royal family, but not so crude as to become one of the prints later "suppressed by the Victorians."

But in this print for S.W. Fores, the principal publisher of Thomas Rowlandson's efforts, Gillray crosses the line, and portrays the Prince's phaeton accident as a comedy of exposure, especially sexual exposure, such as Rowlandson was to make his specialty in prints like The Exhibition Stare Case. And the viewer is invited to join the men in the background as well as the seemingly delighted horse in the voyeuristic opportunity that has "accidentally" presented itself.

The subtitle of the print is adapted with significant changes from "The Story of Aglauros, transform'd into a Statue" from Ovid's Metamorphosis, translated by John Dryden and Joseph Addison. Here is the original.

Th' imaginary bride appears in state;
The bride-groom with unwonted beauty glows:
For Envy magnifies what-e'er she shows.

In Ovid, the imaginary bride is Herse whose potential marriage with the god Hermes is deeply resented by her sister Aglauros, whose dreams are poisoned by the malicious hag, Envy.

Gillray compresses and changes the quotation.

Th' imaginary Bride with Beauty glows
For Envy magnifies what e'er She shows.

In Gillray's version, the imaginary bride would seem to be Mrs. Fitzherbert, the bride and no bride of the Prince whose beauty is on display to be envied or desired by both the Prince and various bystanders.

But this relatively simple comedy of exposure is perhaps complicated by the myth of Phaeton whose hubris caused him to lose control of his father's chariot. In this reading, phaeton is not the carriage, but the prince driving the carriage whose complete indifference to his proper station and reputation causes his fall from grace to such an indignity as Gillray clearly shows.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on The Fall of Phaeton
• The Story of Aglauros

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