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Abstract: The scene shows a peepshow at a fair. Fox and Pitt stand on an elevated wooden platform and encourage the crowd to enter the booth--"The Only Booth at the Fair"--to gawk at Napoleon, recently captured during the Egyptian campaign. The crowd around the base of the platform looks alternately shocked and dubious. While Napoleon's capture was a fabrication of the satirist, the print celebrates the British victory led by Admiral Nelson over Napoleon's army in Egypt. However, like many satires, the image also manages to convey the ambiguity of the situation, indicating the public's lack of trust in the promises of the Tory party. On the left of the image, a broadside poster advertises the captured Napoleon as the spectacle available for public view in the booth. The poster shows Napoleon in the figure of "Nobody," a stock figure in the history of caricature who is represented without a torso. For Gillray, this was one way of arriving at the figuration of "Little Boney," which would become so elemental to Napoleonic caricatures. Here Napoleon is associated with the French Revolution through the bonnet rouge on his head, the daggers in his fists, and by his long mustache and ragged hairdo. Charles James Fox stands in the center of the image. He wears the costume of a clown or a harlequin and gestures forlornly at the poster, while tears run down his cheeks. Although he proclaims his pleasure at the capture of Napoleon, his face betrays his distress. On the right of the image William Pitt sits on a chair decorated with the crown. He has propped up his gouty foot on a small stool and waves a trumpet to which is tied a banner that reads "John Bull Humbug'd" and depicts Pitt and George III kissing either cheek of a shocked John Bull who stands between them. Attenuated and angular where Fox is short and round, Pitt attempts to lure the crowd to the spectacle and promises, "I do not mean to deceive you this time, he really is taken." The crowd's reluctance to participate may also stem from Pitt's urging of the crowd to part with their "pence"; tremendous taxation of the British middle and lower classes was also part of the war effort.
Note: George attributes this image to Ansell.
Note: Text (displayLabel="Caption", lang="English"): To be seen here alive/ The Notet/ Boney-Part/ from Egypt/ an Undoubted Likeness
Note: Text (displayLabel="Dialogue", lang="English"): Fox: "He is certainly taken/ I never was so pleased/ at any event in the whole/ course of my Life."
Note: Text (displayLabel="Dialogue", lang="English"): Pitt: "Believe me I do not mean to decieve you this/ time, he is really taken, and is in this Booth at/ this present moment - Out with your pence good/ people - don't be so shy, -tumble up Mr Bull - the/ only Booth in the Fair! dont be alarm'd - he is/ perfectly tame I assure you."
Note: Text (displayLabel="Inscription", lang="English"): Pubd, Augt. 13th 1798 by S. W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly
Subject
Related Item: Host (displayLabel="Collection:")
Identifier: Local (displayLabel="ASKB Call No.:"): FrBH 1798 mf-1
Location
Identifier: METSID: 1147722727509410
Type of Resource: still image
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/"): No Copyright - United States
Access Condition: restriction on access: Collection is open for research.