Civil Discord

Known in the ancient world as an amphisbaena (from

the Greek ‘to go both ways’), this mythical serpent

represents the opposed forces in English society

that tore the kingdom apart. Hollar avoided directly

commenting on the conflict and chose instead to

satirise it with this allegory that one scholar has

noted represents the ‘sheer viperine nastiness of civil

conflict’. This impression, in reverse, is a

counterproof made by pressing a fresh sheet of paper

onto a new print while the ink was still wet.

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