- Museum number
- 1868,0808.10379
- Title
- Object: Consequences of a successful French invasion. - No. I - plate 2d.
- Description
-
The title continues: 'We explain de Rights of Man to de Noblesse. - Scene. The House of Lords.' Under the title: 'Description. - A Guillotine, which is placed on the Throne; the royal Chairs being removed, pour accomoder les Etrangers, (in English) To accommodate the Strangers. Two Turkish Mutes, with strangling Bowstrings, each his hand on his Mouth, stand as Supporters. The House empty of Peers. On a Board is written, "Solitudinem faciunt, Pacem appellant". (in English)" They (that is, the French) "create Solitude, and call it Peace". - The Cap of Liberty [Liberté] above the Canopy, below which is painted in capital Letters, "Confusion to all Order". - A French Admiral [right], looking at the Tapestry, which represents the Defeat of ye Spanish invincible Armada, & the Portraits of the Immortal English Commanders, says "Me like not de Omen; destroy it." French Soldiers with Swords, Pikes, & screwed Bayonets, attack the Tapestry, on one Side of the Room [right]. A Sea Captain, on the Top of a Ladder [left], tears down ye Tapestry from above ; his Lieutenant sets fire to it below, & at the same Time pulls the Foot of the Ladder, to break his Superior's Neck; saying, "This is an easier Way of getting Preferment than de English Way." - "Un Commandant en Chef (in English) The Commander in Chief, in his full Republican Uniform, pointing at the Mace says, "Here take away this Bauble; but if there be any Gold on it, send it to my Lodging." - A [ragged] French Soldier carries it away on his Shoulder. The Bust of Felton [assassin of Buckingham, 1628] on the Table, in the Middle between those of Damien & Ravillac.' [Dalrymple, op. cit., pp. 3-4.] See BMSat 9180. 1 March 1798
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1798
- Dimensions
-
Height: 347 millimetres
-
Width: 403 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
The design is as described; the sea-captain falls from the ladder, slyly jerked by his lieutenant, who kneels on one knee (left) looking with triumph at the spectator. On the right soldiers pierce the tapestry with pikes and bayonets; a cavalryman in jack-boots stands on a bench slashing violently with his sabre. The cap of Liberty is supported on a pike, and the two crowns which decorate the throne are broken. The famous tapestries representing the defeat of the Armada are realistically drawn by Gillray: galleons in full sail with a decorative border of bust portraits in ovals. See the engravings by Pine in his 'Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords . . .', 1739. (The portions saved from the fire of 1835 are at Hampton Court.)
Grego, 'Gillray', p. 236. Wright and Evans, No. 179. Reprinted, 'G.W.G.', 1830.
(Supplementary information)
The second of four plates on the 'Consequences of a Successful French Invasion' etched by Gillray from descriptions by Sir John Dalrymple, the descriptions etched below or, in this case, on the plates.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.10379
