‘Boney at Elba—or, a Madman’s Amusement’ (April 20, 1814), is a very characteristic caricature.
So high he’s mounted on his airy Throne,
That now the wind has got into his Head,
And turns his brains to Frenzy.
Bonaparte, crowned with a straw crown, and wielding a straw sceptre, is setting light to a straw cannon, with which he is supposed to be aiming at straw dummies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden. The cannon naturally catches alight, and his army (one corporal) calls out, ‘Ah! Diable, mais you was burn Le Materiel, you burn your playtings.’ The mad monarch, however, persists, and replies, ‘Now these fellows shall know what the Conqueror of the World can do —— Corporal! D—— you Sir! don’t you blow up the Bridge till I order you.’
BONEY AT ELBA—OR, A MADMAN’S AMUSEMENT.
‘“Cruce dignus,” the Grand Menagerie, with an exact representation of Napoleon Bonaparte,[41] the little Corsican monkey, as he may probably appear at the island of Elba,’ is a reproduction of the engraving by Lee in 1803 of ‘Pidcock’s Grand Menagerie,’ and, as the letterpress is almost identical, it is not worth giving again (published April 20, 1814).
The following broadside was published April 23, 1814, price 3d.:—
Cruce Dignus
EPITAPH
Underneath a Gibbet over a Dunghill
at Elba.Underneath this Dunghill
Is all that remains of a mighty Conqueror
NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE,[42].
Who, with inflexible Cruelty of Heart,
And unexampled Depravity of Mind,
Was permitted to scourge the Earth, for a Time,
With all the Horrors of War.
Too ignorant and incapable to do good to Mankind
The whole force of his mind was employed
In oppressing the weak, and plundering the industrious.
He was equally detested by all:
His enemies he butchered in cold blood:
And, fearing to leave incomplete the Catalogue of his Crimes,
His friends he rewarded with a poisoned Chalice.
He was an Epitome
Of all that was vicious in the worst of Tyrants;
He possess’d their Cruelty, without their Talents;
Their Madness without their Genius;
The Baseness of one, and the Imbecility of another.
Providence at last,
Wearied out with his Crimes,
Returned him to the Dunghill from which he sprung,
BRITON!
Ere you pass by,
Kneel and thank thy God,
For all the Blessings of thy glorious Constitution;
Then return into the peaceful Bosom of thy Family, and continue
In the practice of those Virtues
By which thy Ancestors
Have obtained the Favor of the Almighty.
