Visitors to the Fitzwilliam Museum are being invited to update a vintage piece of Victorian humour and have their wit judged by Griff Rhys Jones in a special festive competition.

To celebrate the final weeks of its Literary Circles exhibition, the museum is inviting members of the public to devise captions for a 19th century drawing.

George du Maurier’s 1876 drawing “De Gustibus Non Disputandum” (or, “There’s No Accounting For Taste”) forms part of the exhibition in the Mellon Gallery, which closes on 30 December. The original caption tells the story of a squabbling, petty couple but for many the humour belongs to a different era. Visitors are being asked to write their own, modern comic alternative.

All the entries will be judged by the comedian, television presenter and Cambridge alumnus Griff Rhys Jones and prizes will be awarded to his favourites. The closing date is 8 January 2007.

The Literary Circles exhibition examines the fascinating relationship between authors,artists, word and image, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Focusing on illustration, artists’ books, fantasy and caricature, it includes paintings, drawings and literary manuscripts by John Everett Millais, Elizabeth Siddal, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, William Blake, Samuel Palmer and Max Beerbohm. It also illuminates the network of interests that linked authors and artists such as John Keats, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Robert Browning, Algernon Swinburne, Burne-Jones, Thomas Hardy, Augustus John and Siegfried Sassoon.

Du Maurier’s drawing forms part of the “Where’s The Joke?” section of the exhibition, which explores the fashion for caricature and pictorial parody in the late Victorian Age.

Fiona Brown, the Museum’s marketing officer, said: “We hope this competition provides an opportunity for fun and creativity for visitors to the Fitzwilliam over the festive season. The drawing has already prompted a number of humorous suggestions from our staff, so opening the debate up to the public is a great way to celebrate the closing weeks of this very popular exhibition.”

Further information and entry forms are available in the exhibition in the Mellon Gallery. Entries should be handed in at the desks at either entrance as visitors leave the museum or may be sent by post to The Marketing Office, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RB

The Museum, on Trumpington Street, is open from Tuesday to Saturday between 10am and 5pm and on Sunday between 12 noon and 5pm. It is closed on Mondays, and will shut during the Christmas break on 24, 25, 26, and 31 December and 1 January. Admission to the Literary Circles exhibition and the Museum’s permanent collection is free.

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