Margaret's Ghost was first published on 25 March 1791 by Hannah Humphrey. The caricature mocks a highly publicised 18th-century aristocratic betting and marriage scandal known as the Gunning Scandal.
The artwork serves as a parody of David Mallet's popular, tragic ballad William and Margaret (often called Margaret's Ghost). In the ballad, a deceased woman's ghost visits her unfaithful lover to reproach him. Gillray cleverly subverts this dark, romantic theme to lampoon the real-life antics of the Gunning family.
The scandal involved Mrs. Susannah Gunning, who was accused of forging letters to orchestrate a prestigious marriage between her daughter, Elizabeth, and the Marquis of Blandford.
The print depicts a chaotic bedroom scene loaded with hidden visual jokes:
Rushing through the doorway on the right is Elizabeth's aunt, Margaret Minifie (referred to as "Auntee Peg"). She is drawn as a heavily caricatured, terrifying creature with staring eyeballs and outstretched arms. She bursts in to deliver the horrific news of the family's public exposure.
Elizabeth Gunning is lying in bed on the left, looking entirely alarmed by her aunt's sudden, dramatic appearance.
Susannah Gunning, the mother, is seated by the bedside and she is so startled by Margaret's entry that she leaps up. In doing so, she accidentally knocks over and breaks a hidden bottle of brandy that she had been concealing under her petticoats to "soothe her sorrows".
Beneath the caricature, Gillray etched a caption mocking the overly dramatic, defensive statements the mother made during the scandal:-
"What's the matter AUNTEE PEG, what makes you put on such a long face?"
It continues into a satirical block of text mimicking Mrs. Gunning's flowery language: "I was sitting by the Bedside of my smiling-injured-innocent-Lambkin, & holding one of the sweet tender hands of my amiable-gentle-dovelike-Cherub...".
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 late18th 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".
