English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2)Ashton, John
History
English Caricature and Satire on Napoleon I. Volume 2 (of 2)
Ashton, John
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Caricatures and cartoons
Ansell gives us (May 28, 1804) ‘The Frog and the Ox, or The Emperor of
the _Gulls_ in his stolen gear.’ Napoleon, very small, is depicted as
capering about in imperial robes, with an enormous crown made of coins,
daggers, and a cup of poison; his sceptre has for its top a guillotine.
George the Third is regarding him through his glass. Napoleon says,
‘There Brother! there! I shall soon be as Big as you, it’s a real
Crown, but it’s cursed heavy, my Head begins to ache already. I say
Can’t we have a grand meeting like Henry the 8th and Francis the 1st?’
King George cannot quite make out the mannikin. ‘What have we got
here, eh? A fellow that has stolen some Dollars, and made a Crown of
them, eh? and then wants to pass them off for Sterling; it won’t go, it
won’t pass Fellow.’ Beside the King is a bull, and behind Napoleon is
a frog, who is trying to swell to the bull’s proportions, whilst John
Bull laughingly remarks, ‘Dang it, why a looks as tho a’d burst: a’l
nerr be zo big as one of our Oxen tho.’
‘Injecting blood Royal, or Phlebotomy at St. Cloud,’ shews Napoleon,
in his new phase of power, having the blood of a Royal Tiger infused
into his veins. He says, ‘It’s a delightful operation! I feel the
Citizenship oozing out at my fingers’ ends.--let all the family
be plentifully supplied! Carry up a Bucket full to the Empress
immediately!!!’
In June 1804 I. Cruikshank drew a picture called ‘the Right Owner.’
Louis the Eighteenth appears to Napoleon, and, pointing to his crown,
says, ‘That’s Mine.’ Napoleon, who is seated on his throne, armed with
sword, pistols, and dagger, shrinks back in violent alarm, exclaiming,
‘Angels and Ministers of Grace defend me.’
‘A Proposal from the New Emperor’ is a caricature by Ansell (July 9,
1804). He comes, cap, or rather crown, in hand, to John Bull, saying,
‘My Dear Cousin Bull--I have a request to make you--the good people
whom I govern, have been so lavish of their favors towards me--that
they have exhausted every title in the Empire--therefore, in addition,
I wish you to make me a Knight of Malta.’ John Bull replies, ‘I’ll see
you d--d first!! You know I told you so before.’
‘The Imperial Coronation’ is a very inartistic sketch by an unknown
artist (July 31, 1804). Napoleon is being crowned by the Pope, who
says, ‘In a little time you shall see him, and in a little time you
shall not see him,’ and then lets down the crown, with cruel force, by
a rope and pulley from the gibbet from which it has been suspended.
Its weight crushes him through the platform on which he has been
sitting, and he exclaims, ‘My dear Talleyrand, save me; My throne is
giving way. I am afraid the foundation is rotten, and wants a deal of
mending.’ Talleyrand sympathisingly answers, ‘Oh, Master, Master, the
Crown is too heavy for you.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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