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
‘The Continental Dockyard,’ by Woodward (November 27, 1807), shows a
very tumbledown erection, called ‘The Gallic Storehouse for English
Shipping,’ but it contains none. It only holds the ‘Yaw Mynheer,’
the ‘Don Diego,’ the ‘Swede,’ the ‘Dane,’ and the ‘Napoleon,’ on
which a number of shipwrights are engaged, being driven to their
task by Napoleon, with drawn sword. He thus addresses the master
shipwright: ‘Begar you must work like de Diable, ve must annihilate
dis John Bull.’ The unlucky foreman replies: ‘Please you, my Grand
Empereur, ’tis no use vatever. As fast as ve do build dem, he vas
clap dem in his storehouse over de way.’ Accordingly, we see in
‘John Bull’s Storehouse’ a large collection of captured vessels from
the Armada--‘Portobello,’ ‘Camperdown,’ ‘St. Vincent,’ ‘Nile,’ and
‘Trafalgar.’ John Bull and a number of sailors enjoy this cheering
sight. Says he to them: ‘I say my lads, if he goes on this way we shall
be overstocked.’ And a sailor remarks: ‘What a deal of pains some
people take for nothing.’
I. Cruikshank (December 20, 1807) gives us ‘The Bear, the Monkey, the
Turkey, and the Bull, or the true cause of the Russian war.’ Bonaparte,
as the French Monkey, is leading the Russian Bear by a collar and
chain, and thus addresses him: ‘The case is this, if you will make war
against that overgrown Bull over the way, you shall have a slice of
that fine Turkey! and the Eastern Star.’ The Turkey is represented as
saying: ‘I wish I was well out of their clutches, but I am afraid they
will have me at last.’ The _Eastern Star_ appears on the horizon, and
represents the Indies. A Bull, on the opposite coast, is in a menacing
attitude, and bellows forth: ‘You had better beware, for, remember the
old adage--When you play with a Bull, take care of his horns.’
‘John Bull refreshing the Bear’s Memory’ is by I. Cruikshank (December
20, 1807), and shows the former worthy opening an enormous volume, his
journal, and thus addressing a crowned bear, who has a collar round his
neck inscribed ‘This bear belongs to Napoleon,’ and who regards the
book through an enormous pair of spectacles. ‘So you say, Master Bruin,
that my visit to Denmark has no parallel in History--do be so good as
to turn your spectacles to this page, and refresh your memory.’ And he
points to a page of his journal, in which is written: ‘The Great, the
Magnanimous, Catherine of Russia seized upon one third of the Kingdom
of Poland, and kept it to herself. These peaceful Danes seized on the
City of Hamburgh.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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