Introduction of Citizen Volpone & his suite at Paris vide the Moniteur & Cobbetts letters / [graphic]

"Napoleon, enthroned, receives the obeisance of Fox and his party. The centre figure is the enormous Mrs. Fox, burlesqued, and full face, who curtsies, fan in hand; her coarse features and patched face indicate Gillray's view of her antecedents, cf. BMSats 5352, 5587, 10589. On her right and next Bonaparte, O'Connor bends forward, chapeau-bras; from his pocket projects a pamphlet: 'Trial of O'Conner at Maid[stone]'. Opposite Bonaparte, and on his wife's left, Fox much caricatured, and with gouty swollen legs, makes a low bow, right hand on his breast, hat held out. He wears court dress with a sword. From his pocket issues a document: 'Original Jacobin Manuscripts'. Behind him Erskine, tall and self-important in barrister's wig and gown, bows with a complacent smile, holding out a brief bag in his left hand. Behind him Lord and Lady Holland (who is meretricious-looking) are bowing. In the foreground and on Fox's left, Robert Adair, much emaciated, grovels on the floor, his head between his arms which are extended along the carpet, in a gesture of abject homage. From his coat pockets project 'Revolutionary Odes, by Citizen Bow-ba-dara' and 'Intelligence for the Morning Chronicle.' Napoleon, very thin, sits on a canopied throne whose arms terminate in globes covered with maps of the world, each supported on the shoulders of a naked manikin. On one globe the Consul rests his right hand, clutching it with long predatory fingers; the left hand is extended towards Fox. He wears military uniform, with a huge plumed cocked hat, and (like Fox) a black bag attached to his coat collar, below his cropped hair. His throne is on a circular dais, covered with a fringed carpet, with a tasselled cushion for his feet. Behind it is a carved irradiated sun, reminiscent of Louis XIV, le Roi Soleil, but with eyes which look down in surprise at the First Consul. On each side of the throne fierce Mamelukes stand at attention, holding sabres, and with pistols in their belts."--British Museum online catalogue