Shakespeare - Sacrificed; - or - The Offering to Avarice (9)
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This is a small but telling detail which appears in
the background of all three of the prints highlighted
in this part of the website: a classical temple on a
mountain. This is probably intended as Mount Helicon,
in Greek mythology the sacred hill of the Muses. Gillray
is suggesting a complete betrayal of the literary and
artistic values which the subjects of his prints - in
this case John Boydell - ought to have been defending.
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Detail from James Gillray, Shakespear
-Sacrificed; -or- The Offering to Averice. Published 20 June
1789. Courtsey of The British Museum, London.
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