James Gillray, Shakespeare -Sacrificed; -or- The Offering to Averice. Published 20 June 1789. Courtesy of The British Museum, London.

The target of this print was a publisher named John Boydell, who had recently launched an ambitious scheme to commission a whole gallery of paintings illustrating subjects from Shakespeare's plays. He claimed that his main intention was to support British painters. However, the Gallery was to be made profitable though the sale of engravings made after the pictures, and Gillray is suggesting that Boydell was really motivated by greed rather than patriotism.

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