"Three volunteers or militiamen, three-quarter length figures, exult at the head of Bonaparte which one of them (right) holds up on a pitchfork, saying, "Here he is Exalted my Lads 24 Hours after Landing." The head is in profile to the left, the sharp well-cut features contrast with those of the chubby yokels. The centre figure, holding out his hat, says, turning to the left: "Why Harkee, d'ye zee, I never liked Soldiering afore, but some how or other when I though [sic] of our Sal the bearns, the poor pigs, the Cows and the Geese, why I could have killed the whole Army my own Self." He wears a smock with the crossed straps of a cartouche-box. The third man (left) in regimentals, but round-shouldered and unsoldierly, says: "Dang my Buttons if that beant the Head of that Rogue Boney - I told our Squire this Morning, what do you think say's I the Lads of our Village can't cut up a Regiment of them French Mounsheers, 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." All three have hats turned up with favours and oak-twigs, the favours being inscribed respectively (left to right): 'Hearts of Oak'; 'Britons never will be Slaves', and 'We'll fight and We'll Conquer again and again'. In the spaces between these foreground figures is seen a distant encounter between English horse and foot and French invaders, who are being driven into the sea, on which are flat-bottomed boats, all on a very small scale. Two women search French corpses; one says: "why this is poor finding I have emtied the pocketts of a score and only found one head of garlic 9 onions & a parcel of pill Boxes." Cf. British Museum Satires No. 8145."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Levée en masse, or, Britons strike home and Britons strike home
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to Charles Williams in the British Museum catalogue., Publisher's advertisement below image, in lower right: Folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening., and Sheet trimmed to plate mark on top and bottom.
Publisher:
Pub. Augt. 6th, 1803, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 and Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821.
Subject (Topic):
Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815, Proposed invasion of England, 1793-1805, Soldiers, British, French, Militias, Pitchforks, Heads (Anatomy), Decapitations, and War casualties
"Two tiers of single English figures expressing appropriate opinions about the coronation of Napoleon."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to Charles Williams in dealer's description. Questionably attributed to Isaac Cruikshank in the British Museum online catalogue, registration no.: 1985,0119.188., Sheet trimmed to plate mark leaving thread margins., "Folios of caracatures [sic] lent out for the evening"--Below image in lower right., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., and Watermark.
Publisher:
Pubd. July 16th, 1804, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Geographic):
France and Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821.
Subject (Topic):
Foreign public opinion, British, Public opinion, Soldiers, French, Sailors, and British
"Gunboats in the form of coffins are foundering or about to founder. Each has a single cannon in the bows, and a mast with a triangular sail whose corner is held in the teeth of the skull which surmounts the mast. The crews all wear shrouds and bonnets rouges; on the skulls also are bonnets rouges. Some of the men are screaming in the water, where a floating skull holds the end of a sail in its teeth, looking round fiercely at one of the drowning men. Others are still in the coffin-gunboats, holding muskets or making gestures of despair. One says: "Oh de Corsican Bougre, was make dese Gun Boats on purpose for our Funeral." In the background are two British men of war. Two tiny sailors say: "I say Messmate if we dont bear up quickly there will be nothing left for us to do", and, "Rigt [sic] Tom, & I take them there things at the mast head to be Boney's Crest, a Skull without Brains." A satire on the manifest impracticability of an invasion (see British Museum Satires No. 10008) by gunboats without the command of the sea, cf. British Museum Satires Nos. 9995, &c, 10125, 10223, 10231, 10260, 10277."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Boney's invincible armada half seas over
Description:
Title etched below image., Attributed to Charles Williams in the British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Publisher's advertisement beneath imprint: Folios of caracatures lent out for the evening., Printseller's stamp in lower right corner: S.W.F., and Mounted at the corners: 30 x 42 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Jany. 6th, 1804, by S.W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821.
Subject (Topic):
Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815, Proposed invasion of England, 1793-1805, Coffins, Gunboats, Cannons, Rifles, Skulls, Liberty cap, Drowning, Warships, and British