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
Drilling went on, a necessary step to the formation of a new army,
and the French temperament is well shown in a caricature, published
in April 1813, of ‘Nap reviewing the Grand Army, or the Conquest of
Russia anticipated,’ in which, during the march past, he points to his
soldiers with his sword, and says to two of his generals, ‘With this
Army will I crush those Russian Scourges, and make all Nations tremble
at my wrath.’ One general, in his enthusiasm, exclaims, ‘Parbleu!
vid dis Armée ve vil conquer de Heaven!!!’ The other, evidently an
Anglophobe, says, ‘And de Hell too, dat we may send dere de dam
Anglais.’
In April Napoleon judged that his army was in a fit state to take the
field, and the caricaturist’s idea of a council of war is humorously
told in the picture of ‘Boney and the Gay lads of Paris calculating
for the next Triumphal entry into Moscow.’ This broadside, which made
its appearance in April 1813, represents Bonaparte and his generals
in council. The latter are in different stages of dilapidation, some
having lost their noses, others with their feet bound up, and all more
or less suffering from frost-bite. One, pointing to a map, says, ‘By
Gar, Sire, we had better go to Petersburgh at once.’ Napoleon replies,
‘Aye, and then we can march to Siberia, and release the Exiles, who
will gladly join us, and abjure their tyrant.’ Two generals, in
conversation together, do not seem to relish the plan. One remarks,
‘Sacre Dieu, I no like de Russia Campaign. I lose my nose, my fingers,
and toes, in de last.’ And the other replies, ‘Eh bien, den now we lose
all our odds and ends.’ The letterpress is as follows:--
Master Boney was fain, after fighting with Spain,
And loseing some thousands of men;
To make an attack on the Russian Cossack,
With Nations to assist him full Ten.
He began with a boast, that he’d scower their Coast,
And drive them all into the Sea;
He continued his blow, till he got to Moscow,
His designed Winter quarters to be.
But when he got there, Lord how he did stare
To see the whole place in a flame,
Not a house for his head, not a rug for his bed,
Neither plunder, nor victuals, nor fame. ·
So he sent every Scout, who ran in and out,
But brought neither forage, nor food;
For that d--d Wittgenstein, so compleat hem’d him in,
That they dared not to venture a rood.
Now the fire having ceas’d, and the frost much encreas’d,
No cov’ring, no clothes to protect ’em;
Boney thought to be packing, Kutusoff began hacking,
And the Cossacks did fairly dissect ’em.
Says this Corsican wight, Why let my Friends fight,
As for me, the old Proverb I’ll follow,
He that fights and then runs, may, in spite of their guns,
Live! and some future day beat them hollow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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