Cooling the Brain, or the Little Major Shaving the Shaver

In this complex and many sided print, Gillray portrays Edmund Burke as having gone mad in his prosecution of Warren Hastings for high crimes and misdemeanors while serving as the first Governor General of India. Burke is chained in his bare cell in Bedlam while his head is being shaved by the principal agent and quasi-defense attorney for Hastings, John Scott-Waring. And at least in this instance, Major Scott got the better of Burke, getting him censured for introducing language and accusations that were both extreme and extraneous to the charges brought against Hastings.

On the wall behind Burke, a crude drawing, presumably the work of Burke himself in his madness, shows the execution of Maharaja Nandakumar who was hung for forging documents. Burke had claimed that the execution was in effect a judicial murder carried out by Chief Justice Elijah Impey to protect Hastings who had been accused of attempted bribery by Nandakumar. The mad Burke calls out to a vision of Hastings with a money bag slung over his shoulder, "Ha! Miscreant! Plunderer! Murderer of Nundocomar! where wilt thou hide thy head now?" An answer seems to be provided by the welcoming arms emerging from St. James's Palace: Hastings will have the support of the King so long as he comes with money.

The portrayal of Burke as madman is derived from Plate 8 of Hogarth's Rake's Progress. Both are sitting on the ground, bare-chested, manacled, and shaved. The scrawled hanged man on the back wall of Burke's cell is evidence of Burke's obsession with Nandakumar just as the moon, ship, and globe are evidence of the astronomer's obsession in Hogarth's print. But what is finally most conclusive is the text beneath Gillray's print. It is virtually identical to the first three columns beneath Tom Rakewell in Hogarth's print.

Madness thou chaos of the brain;
What art, that pleasure giv'st and pain?
Tyranny of Fancy's reign!
Mechanic Fancy! that can build
Vast labyrinths & mazes wild,
With rule disjointed, shapeless measure,
Fill'd with horror, filld with pleasure
Shapes of horror, that would even
Cast doubt of mercy upon Heaven!

Is Hastings guilty of murder? Is the crown being bought off by the wealth pillaged from the native Indians? Gillray introduces the possibility. But by casting both as the scawlings and vision of a madman, he simultaneously discounts it, leaving it an open question as to whom is ultimately being shaved.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on Cooling the Brain, or the Little Major Shaving the Shaver
• Nicholas K Robinson, Edmund Burke: A Life in Caricature, 1996, Pl. 140, pp. 133-34, 197
• "Edmund Burke," Wikipedia
• "Impeachment of Warren Hastings," Wikipedia
• "John Scott-Waring," Wikipedia
• "Maharaja Nandakumar," Wikipedia

Comments & Corrections

NOTE: Comments and/or corrections are always appreciated. To make that easier, I have included a form below that you can use. I promise never to share any of the info provided without your express permission.

First Name:	Last Name:
Email Address:
Comments/Corrections: