"A crowded design: the room of a quack doctor or astrologer; Larevellière-Lépeaux sits at his table in a gothic chair; five generals approach him from the right, two others are seated (left) behind his chair. The doctor wears his official (Director's) dress (see BMSat 9199) with feathered hat; a bonnet-rouge crowns the back of his chair, against which leans a book: 'Hortus Siccus' (Larevellière was a botanist). He is hunchbacked, with deformed legs ('The holy Hunchback . . .', cf. BMSat 9240). He holds up a retort in which a liquid explodes, so that tiny decollated heads fly upwards. On his table are jars, bottles, and an open book: 'Mal de Naples sive Morbus Gallicus'. (The blockade of Naples by the British fleet was followed by its evacuation by the French (8 May) and risings against the republicans.) A mortar is inscribed 'Arch-Duke Boluses' (the Arch-duke Charles had beaten the French decisively at Stockach, 25 Mar.). A jar is 'Preparation of Lead', a box is 'Lake's Pills' (a pun on Leake's quack remedy; Lake had defeated the Irish rising in 1798). A large jar of 'Esprit de Robespierre' contains a guillotine; a smaller one, a dagger. The five generals are in advanced stages of disease or decay. The foremost holds his hat; from his pocket issues a paper: 'Case of Diabetes'. The next hobbles, contorted with pain, his shambling puny legs swollen below the knee, his boot slashed; he has a paper: 'l'ennemi inquietait mes derrieres'. A lean man has one eye and holds an ear-trumpet to his ear. On the left a general, his face distorted, sits painfully on a close-stool decorated with a bonnet-rouge and motto: 'Vive la grande Nation'. He clutches a paper: 'Ordres, les Ordres'. Beside him is a torn paper, 'Plans de Campagne'. Jourdan, facing him, vomits into a chamber-pot punningly inscribed 'Jourdan' (cf. BMSat 7908, &c). On the ground are clyster-pipe and syringe, books, and papers: 'French Conquêtes' (torn); 'Regime de Terreur' with 'alo Septembre' (BMSat 8122), 'Russian Regimen' (see BMSat 9408, &c), 'Hosologie [sic] Francoise', and 'Catalogue of new French Diseases'. A large crocodile, emblem of the quack and of Egypt (see BMSat 9250), is suspended (as in BMSat 7735) from the roof by tricolour bands. Against the wall are many emblematical objects: on the extreme left an ape (Liberty) seated on a bracket holds a bonnet-rouge on a staff. Above is a terrestrial globe suspended upside down. Next are two mummies swathed with tricolour bandages; the larger is 'Buonaparte', the smaller 'Kleber' (both confined to Egypt by the British fleet). Glass jars containing specimens of abortion are ranged on a long shelf inscribed 'Projets Avortès' [sic]. Some of the labels are illegible, others are: 'Ireland, Commune de Pekin, Venise, Department du Mont Caucase, Directoire d'Abissinie [see BMSat 9352], Armée du Gauge'."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and Temporary local subject terms: Medical: quacks -- Male costume: French Director's habit -- Furniture: Gothic chairs -- Hunchbacks -- Medicine: pun on Leak's pills -- Preparation of lead -- Globes -- Emblems: bonnet rouge -- Medicine: Esprit de Robespierre -- Diseases: diabetes -- Furnishings: close-stool -- Chamberpots -- Medical implemets: Clyster pipe -- Syringe -- Emblems: crocodile as quack's emblem -- Crocodile as emblem of the Egyptian campaign -- Mummies: Napoleon I as a mummy -- Medical specimens -- Military uniforms: French officers's uniforms -- Ape with bonnet rouge as an emblem of liberty -- Napoleonic wars, 2nd Coalition: French defeat 1799 -- Allusion to Gerard Lake (1744-1808).
Publisher:
Pubd. June 20th, 1799, by H. Humphrey, St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821, La Revellière-Lépeaux, Louis-Marie de, 1753-1824, Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste, 1762-1833, and Kléber, Jean-Baptiste, 1753-1800
