Buonaparte, 48 Hours after Landing
After the short-lived Peace of Amiens ended on May 18, 1803 and the war against France resumed, Gillray produced a flurry of more than ten prints during the remainder of the year, all of which could be described as British propaganda. Most of them fall into one or more of three categories: prints that literally and/or figuratively diminish the stature of Napoleon and/or his army; prints that portray his death as either imminent or a fait accompli; and prints that celebrate the strength, bravery, and determination of the British forces. The prints coincided with a renewal of rumors of an imminent French Invasion and efforts in Parliament with the Levy en Masse Act of 1803 (introduced July 18) to stiffen the defense of the country by increasing the numbers of volunteers and the extent of their training.
© Trustees of the British Museum
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As the text acompanying the rather gruesome image of Buonaparte's head on a pitchfork suggests, this print has several intended audiences. One includes "Jacobin Adventurers" both at home and abroad who may be contemplating an invasion and for whom this print would serve as a warning to reconsider. One of those Adventurers is, of course, Napoleon himself whom John Bull addresses directly as "little Boney" and taunts for underestimating him (" to think that Johnny Bull would ever suffer those Lanthorn Jaws to become King of Old England's Roast-Beef & Plumpudding!). The fact that Napoleon's head is so prominent and NOT caricatured makes the taunt and threat that much more real.
But the print is also intended to inspire the patriotism of the ordinary Briton personified by John Bull whose hat includes oak leaves and labeled "Britons Strike Home." The speech and portrayal of John Bull are likely meant to recall the "hearts of oak" march of the Royal Navy.
Heart of Oak are our ships,
Jolly Tars are our men,
We always are ready: Steady, boys, Steady!
We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.
. . .
They say they'll invade us, these terrible foes,
They frighten our women, our children, our beaus,
But if they in their flat-bottoms, in darkness set oar,
Still Britons they'll find to receive them on shore.
We still make them fear and we still make them flee,
And drub them ashore as we drub them at sea,
Then cheer up me lads with one heart let us sing,
Our soldiers and sailors, our statesmen and king.
And given that patriotic allusion, it is certainly no accident that the verbal tics of John's speeech—"Plunder Old England! hay?-- ravish all our Wives & Daughters! hay"—resemble those of the leader of the Britons, the affable Farmer George.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Buonaparte, 48 Hours after Landing.
- Tim Clayton & Sheila O'Connell, Bonaparte and the British, 2015, #76, p. 133.
- "Levy en Masse Act 1803," Wikipedia
- "Heart of Oak," Wikipedia
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #292.
- Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times, p. 299.
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