The Dawn of the XIXth Century in England: A social sketch of the timesAshton, John
History
The Dawn of the XIXth Century in England: A social sketch of the times
Ashton, John
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
but there was the flat-bottomed Flotilla, on the opposite shore,
which we were unable to destroy, or even to appreciably damage, and
the “Army of England,” inactive certainly, was still there, and a
standing menace. The Volunteers were fêted, and praised to the top of
their bent. An old air of Henry Purcell’s (1695), which accompanied
some words interpolated in Beaumont and Fletcher’s play of “Bonduca”
or “Boadicæa,” became extremely popular; and the chorus, “Britons,
strike home,” was married to several sets of words, and duly shouted
by loyal Volunteers. The Pictorial Satirist delineates the Volunteer
as performing fabulous deeds of daring. Gillray gives us his idea of
the fate of “Buonaparte forty-eight hours after Landing!” where a burly
rustic Volunteer holds the bleeding head of Napoleon upon a pitchfork,
to the delight of his comrades, and he thus apostrophises the head:
“Ha, my little Boney! what do’st think of Johnny Bull, now? Plunder
Old England! hay? make French slaves of us all! hay? ravish all our
Wives and Daughters! hay? O Lord, help that silly Head! To think that
Johnny Bull would ever suffer those lanthorn Jaws to become King of Old
England Roast Beef and Plum Pudding!”
Ansell, too, treats Bonaparte’s probable fate, should he land, in a
somewhat similar manner. His etching is called “After the Invasion. The
Levée en Masse, or, Britons, strike home.” The French have landed, but
have been thoroughly routed, of course, by a mere handful of English,
who drive them into the sea. Our women plunder the French dead, but
are disgusted with their meagre booty—garlic, onions, and pill-boxes.
A rural Volunteer is, of course, the hero of the day, and raises
Napoleon’s head aloft on a pitchfork, whilst he thus addresses two of
his comrades. “Here he is exalted, my Lads, 24 Hours after Landing.”
One of his comrades says, “Why, Harkee, d’ye zee, I never liked
soldiering afore, but, somehow or other, when I thought of our Sal, the
bearns, the poor Cows, and the Geese, why I could have killed the whole
Army, my own self.” The other rustic remarks, “Dang my Buttons if that
beant the head of that Rogue Boney. I told our Squire this morning,
‘What! do you think,’ says I, ‘the lads of our Village can’t cut up a
Regiment of them French Mounseers? and as soon as the lasses had given
us a kiss for good luck, I could have sworn we should do it, and so we
have.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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