Bleeding & warm water!, or, The allied doctors bringing Boney to his sense's [graphic]

"Napoleon, a grotesque mannikin in a strait-waistcoat, sits on a three-legged 'Stool of Repentance' which stands in a large tub of 'Hot Water', whose steaming contents are inscribed 'Sea of Troubles'. The waistcoat is inscribed 'Allied Strait Waist-coat'; it has long sleeves extending far beyond his hands, the ends held by the Tsar (left) and a Cossack (right) so that the captive's arms are horizontally extended. His head is bald and is in profile to the left; he has a beak-like nose and his mouth gapes like a young bird's for a huge bolus inscribed 'Invasion of France' which John Bull, a fat 'cit', puts into his mouth. Alexander, who wears an ill-fitting bag-wig poised on his own hair, holds a knout with knotted lashes, inscribed 'Russia Hemp'; he says: "I have found, a constant application of this Russian Knout to work Wonders!!" John Bull, who stands beside him, says: "Work away my Masters I'll pay you your fees ay ay rave & rant Master Boney but the Devil will Bone you at last." In the centre of the design, high above the other figures, stands a grotesque Dutchman, with a conical hat, a frill round his neck, and grinning features. In his hat is a ribbon inscribed 'Orange' and a pipe. He holds up a short cannon or mortar inscribed 'Dutch Drops' [see British Museum Satires No. 12114], from which pours a flood containing tiny replicas of himself armed with dagger, axe, a blunderbuss or bayonet, who descend upon Napoleon's head; among these are balls (bullets or oranges), the largest inscribed 'Orange Boven'. He says: "We'll try what Dutch Drops will do!" By the tub (right) kneels a Spanish don, wearing slashed tunic and breeches, with cloak and ruff; he applies a plaster to Napoleon's back inscribed 'Spanish Flies' [cantharides or blister-beetles, see British Museum Satires No. 11016], and grins broadly, saying, "Here is a Plaster of Spanish flies for his - ." Behind him stands the Cossack, piercing Napoleon's left arm with his long spear, making a fountain of blood spurt into a bowl, inscribed 'Crown Bowl', held by Bernadotte, the Crown Prince of Sweden. Bernadotte wears an absurd powdered wig with queue perched on his own hair which is in a small pigtail. On the wig is poised a cocked hat. He says: "I think my Crown Razors have shaved his Crown pretty close." From his belt hangs an open razor, the blade inscribed 'Best Crown Steel'. Like Alexander, he wears uniform with jack-boots. The tub stands upon flames inscribed 'Moscow' from which emerge the towers and buildings of the city, see No. 12049. Napoleon frantically flourishes above the water one thin leg in a huge jack-boot with a giant spur. He exclaims: "Hence with your Medecines--they but drive me Mad-- Curse on your Dutch Drops your Leipsic Blister [see British Museum Satires No. 12093, &c.] & your Spanish flies they have fretted me to what I am D--n your Cossack Lancets They have drained my veins and rendered me poor & vulnerable indeed!--Oh! how I am fallen--But I will still struggle--I will still be great--Myriads of Frenchmen still shall uphold the glory of my Name the Granduer [sic] of my Throne & write my disgrace in the hearts of ye--ye Wretched creatures of English Gold!" On the extreme right a Frenchman wearing a bonnet rouge looks in through a window, much perturbed. He says: "By gar de grande Bounaparte get into de hot water at last, he no like his Doctors--by gar he say they be no doctors, but de journeymen of dat great Doctor John Bull." Behind Alexander and on the extreme left is the 'Allied Medecine Chest'. It contains a jar of 'Surgical Instruments' bristling with cutting and slashing weapons, axes, bayonets, sword, &c., with a jagged saw; a pile of 'snow balls' [cf. British Museum Satires No. 11917, &c.], and a jar of 'Cossack Leeches'."--British Museum online catalogue