Comforts of a Bed of Roses

The impetus for this wonderfully surreal print was an exchange between the Tory Lord Castlereagh and the new Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of All the Talents, Charles James Fox. Castlereagh had been Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in Pitt's second administration and an ardent supporter of Pitt's policies, especially in the conduct of the war against Napoleon. So when the new ministry began criticizing those policies, Castlereagh replied with a distinctly one-sided account of Pitt's (and his) successes, concluding with the somewhat contorted and highly questionable assertion that

in all the essential points. . .the finances, the navy, the army, compared with the embarrassments under which they are disposed to represent themselves as taking the Government, the present Administration may be considered as on a bed of roses.

In the wake of disastrous defeats at Ulm and Austerlitz in the waning months of Pitt's administration and the necessity of continuing and raising onerous and unpopular taxes to continue the war, Fox's reaction was understandably incredulous.

What has fallen from the Noble Lord appears to me so extraordinary that I could not have imagined that any human nerves were sufficient to enable any one gravely to make such assertions as he has hazarded. . . . Really it is insulting, to tell me, I am on a bed of roses, when I feel myself torn and stung by brambles and nettles whichever way I turn.

Using the now favorite device of portraying a complex situation as a dream, as he did with Political Dreamings! Visions of Peace! Perspective Horrors! (1801), Tom Paine's Nightly Pest (1792), The Lover's Dream (1795), and Duke William's Ghost (1799), Gillray picks up the metaphor used by Castlereagh and Fox and presents Fox's "bed of roses" as a political and personal nightmare.

As the subtitle to the print suggests (A Nightly Scene near Cleveland Row), Fox and his wife Elizabeth (Armistead) are sleeping in the ducal bed of their friend and fellow Whig, the Duke of Bedford, in Arlington Street. The Bedford coat of arms appears at its head. Naturally, the bed itself is shown with a rose-coloured coverlet, patterned with roses. Extending from the left side of the bed are some of the brambles, mentioned by Fox, representing thorny issues inherited from the Pitt ministry. They include "India Roses," "Emancipation Roses," "Coalition Roses," "Volunteer Roses," and, most significantly, "French Roses."

"India Roses" refer to the ongoing tensions and instability in India after the Second Anglo-Maratha War (1803-1805) between the Maratha Empire and British East India Company.

"Emancipation Roses" refer to the seemingly endless struggles to remove the restrictions on Roman Catholics that prevented them from holding high positions in government and the military. Alas, resistance from the King would ultimately doom Fox and the Ministry of all the Talents just as it had the first Pitt ministry.

"Coalition Roses" refer to the ongoing difficulties maintaining a coalition of countries willing and able to join with Britain in opposing France. The twin defeats of the mainly Austrian/Russian armies at Ulm and Austerlitz, however, put a virtual end to the Third Coaltiion.

"Volunteer Roses" refer to the plans of the new administration to reform the training and use of the volunteers to render them more generally effective.

But, of course, the most significant threat inherited from the Pitt administration was Buonaparte, whose ambition and recalcitrance had grown with his recent victories over the Third Coaltion. In Fox's nightmare, he appears on the other side of the bed, sword drawn, jumping from a huge French cannon and pulling on Fox's night shirt. Accurately reflecting Napoleon's unrestrained ambition at the time, the cannon is labeled "Pour subjuguer le Monde" (to conquer the world). And as if to make good on that ambition, an army of spears follows him hidden in smoke and clouds from which a banner emerges with the words "Horrors of Invasion."

If these were not threats enough, above Fox's bed a bird of prey labeled "Prussia" swoops down with its claws extended. At the instigation of France at the Vienna Convention, Prussia had become, in effect, an enemy of Britain by appropriating the Electorate of Hanover, King George's hereditary homeland.

Finally, to complete Fox's sense of being "stung by brambles and nettles whichever way I turn," from under the bed comes yet another threat in the figure of death holding an hour glass in which the sands of time are running out. In fact, as Gillray suggests, a life of intemperance probably contributed to the dropsy (edema) from which Fox was suffering and from which he would die scarcely five months after the publication of this print.

As I have indicated, the details of the print allude to issues Fox faced in the new administration and reflect much of the discussion between Castlereagh and Fox that prompted it. But the basic design of the print follows the age-old motif of the choice of Hercules, in which Hercules appears between representations of Virtue and Vice and must make a choice between them. Sir Joshua Reynolds had more recently adapted the motif in a more light-hearted way in his David Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy. And Gillray had himself adapted the motif in John Bull in a Quandary (1788).

In the very center of the print Fox is shown with arms outstreched being pulled in opposite directions: on the one hand by France and Buonaparte and on the other by the ghost of Pitt. Choosing France and acceding to the demands of Napoleon, Gillray suggests, is tantamount to subjugation and the horrors of a French invasion. Choosing to continue Pitt's policy entails dealing with all the thorny issues in the bramble beneath Pitt's ghost, including war with France. But unless Fox awakes and arises, England and he will be forever fallen. And as hourglass in the hand of death suggests, the time for Fox (and England) is running out.

Two details suggest a doubt whether the correct choice will be made. One is the list of Fox's colleagues and supporters in the paper at the bottom of the bed upon which the snarling dog representing John Bull is relieving himself. Not exactly a hearty vote of confidence for the Ministry of All the Talents! The second is the bonnet rouge that serves as Fox's night-cap. Will Fox's longtime predisposition in favor of the revolution affect his choice? Does the fact that the bonnet is coming off from his head suggest Fox's realization that France and Buonaparte in the end could not be trusted.

These are the kinds of complications that Gillray loves to introduce to prevent his satire from becoming one-dimensional. But it is sometimes hard to know when symbol or allusion is intended to be meaningful or is included simply for fun. A case in point is Pitt's injunction "Awake, arise, or be forever fallen." Taken by themselves, these stirring words are perfectly appropriate to the urgency of the situation, a call to arms for Fox and Britain and a determination not to accept defeat by France. Does it matter that the words are a quotation from Milton's Paradise Lost Book One, l. 330 where they are spoken by Satan, the Arch-Fiend after his fall from heaven?

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on Comforts of a Bed of Roses.
• "Charles James Fox," Wikipedia
• "Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh," Wikipedia
• "War of the Third Coalition," Wikipedia
• "Hercules at the crossroads," Wikipedia
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #316.
• Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times, p. 351 .