Skip to main content

The Magnanimous-Minister, Chastising Prussian-Perfidy, 2 May 1806

 Item — Box: LF104/8 Box 1
Reference code: LF104/8/71

Scope and Contents

Artist: James Gillray. Published: Hannah Humphrey. Fox, wearing a military cocked hat, with civilian dress, threatens Prussia (or Frederick William III) with his sabre, while he puts a foot on the sword that Prussia has dropped. The latter, a grotesque figure with a long pigtail and moustaches, kneels terrified at his feet, clasping his hands in supplication. His Death's Head Hussar cap falls from his thrown-back head; he wears a fur-trimmed cloak and tunic, with a badge of the Prussian Eagle on his sleeve, with half-boots and extravagant spurs. Fox says, with an expression of sour and calculating contempt, " - O you Prussian Marauder, you! - what I've caught you at last? - what, You took me for a double-faced-Talleyrand! did you? - did you think I was like yourself, to Look One way & Row another? - what you thought because I make Loyal Speeches now, that I must be a Turncoat? - O you Frenchified Villain! - I'll teach you to humbug & insult my poor, dear, dear Master? - & to join with such Rascals as Boney, & O'Conner!" Prussia exclaims, terrified, "indeed! indeed! indeed! I could not help it. - " Meanwhile, Napoleon, holding his sabre, and wearing feathered bicorne, with spurred jack-boots, furtively hastens up to Fox from behind, to read the open book which the latter displays to him behind his back: 'State of the Nation'. Description from the British Museum.

Dates

  • Creation: 2 May 1806

Conditions Governing Access

Available by appointment in our Reading Room

Extent

1 Item(s)

Language of Materials

English

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository

Contact:
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
+44 (0) 114 222 7299