CLASSICS INTERDISCIPLINARY POSTGRADUATE SEMINAR SERIES

Monday February 8, 5 p.m., 65 Oakfield Avenue, Classics Department, Walsh Room

(Basement)

Henna Karhapää (MA, MLitt, Phd Candidate):

Aesop's Fables and the Assimilation of Animal Imagery into Political Allegory: Physiognomy
and the Eighteenth-Century English Satirical Print

This paper examines how the moralistic animal tales from Aesop's fables were utilised by the
eighteenth-century English political print to allegorise the actions of contemporary politicians, such
as Henry Fox and the Duke of Newcastle (frequently depicted as a fox and a goose respectively).
Aesop's fables were collected and published numerous times during the early modern period, and
especially John Ogilby's 1668 edition illustrated by the likes of Wenceslaus Hollar, who introduced
etching to England, and Francis Barlow, who was also known for his anti-Catholic propaganda
prints, inspired political printmakers of the following century to draw parallels between the animal
archetypes and behaviour of the members of successive ministries from Robert Walpole to Charles
James Fox. The eighteenth-century pictorial political argument was also influenced by the pseudo-
science of physiognomy that sought to ascribe animal characteristics to humans based on their
appearance and personality. In this instance, the deployment of Aesop's fables may be seen as an
attempt to divulge the moral character of politicians, and assign a stereotypical depiction to each
personage to facilitate their familiarity with the public who consumed political prints.

Thomas Colley (made by), William Richardson (published by) The Fox and Stork, 1783.