Gillray, James. “The Rake’s Progress at the University, No 3”. Original antique engraving by James Gillray. From the Bohn edition of 1851, using Gillray’s original copper plates. With later hand colouring.

“The Rake’s-Progress at the University – No. 3” was first published by Hannah Humphrey on 22 October 1806.

This third installment in the five-plate series parodies William Hogarth’s legendary moral tale, A Rake’s Progress, tracking a young student’s rapid descent into rule-breaking, laziness, and trouble while studying at Oxford or Cambridge.

Plate No. 3 pokes fun at strict, arcane university discipline and the specific rules students frequently flouted. The piece is built around a humorous, rhyming caption etched directly onto the plate.

“The Master’s Wig the guilty wight appals,Who brings his Dog within the College walls.”

The artwork centers on an illegal pet, a terrified student, and the overbearing presence of university authority:

The young rake is caught red-handed in a college quadrangle. He wears standard academic robes and a mortarboard tassel, but his face is contorted in utter shock and fear.

Standing next to the rake is a small dog. Bringing pets onto college grounds was strictly forbidden by university statutes, turning the dog into concrete proof of his rebellion.

Peering down from a doorway or window is the stern face of the College Master, framed by an enormous, formal academic wig. The giant wig itself functions as a visual symbol of suffocating institutional law.

The University Setting: Gillray relies heavily on the architectural framing of a historic university courtyard to emphasise how trapped the young student is under the watchful eye of faculty spies and scouts.

Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray’s illustrations including satirical works.

By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray’s superior craftsmanship. His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late 18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours.

Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray’s health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815.

Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah’s estate when she died in 1818. The executor’s of Hannah’s estate sold Gillray’s painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources, eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, “The Works of James Gillray”