print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1851,0901.814
- Title
- Object: The Tree of Corruption ,-with John Bull hard at work.
- Description
-
A very fat John Bull (right), in profile to the left, tugs hard at a rope which is round the fork of a tree, trying hard to pull it down, his left foot planted on the trunk. In the branches are the heads of Dundas (left) and Pitt (centre) in profile to the right, and of (?) Loughborough looking towards Pitt and wearing a collar inscribed 'To be Killed off'. Dundas, wearing a tartan neckcloth, is plethoric, Pitt drink-blotched and smiling. Near the heads are three money-bags: 'Sinecures', 'Treasury Pickings', 'Secret Service Money', and a scroll, 'Pensions'. Against the trunk (left) lies a headsman's axe. Beneath the title: "Yes, honest John! by your Pulling, you have Shaken it! - pull again & it will Totter, pull once more, & it will fall" - Vide Horne Tooke Speech Answer to Horne Tooke
" You may pluck up a Hazel & pull up a Pea,
But there ne'er was a Man, that could pull down a Tree
And so Honest John if you'd pluck off the Fruit,
Leave pulling alone, lay the Ax to the Root!' 22 June 1796
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1796
- Dimensions
-
Height: 357 millimetres
-
Width: 251 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
Quoted from a speech of 4 June 1796 at the Westminster election, see BMSat 8813, &c, printed Stephens, 'Life of Horne Tooke', ii. 195-7. Gillray alters 'gentlemen' to 'Honest John', and makes other changes. These speeches were published as election hand-bills, see BMSat 8815, and appear in BMSat 9240. A leaflet 'To the Electors of Westminster. We are tied to a Tree - The Tree of Corruption - . . .' was issued 8 June 1796. (B.M.L., 1389. d. 9/2.)
The line has a studied childishness in keeping with the signature, but the hand of Gillray is not concealed; cf. BMSat 8812, &c.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1851
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1851,0901.814