John Bull bother'd, or, The geese alarming the capitol / Js. Gy. desn. et fect - pro bono publico.

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James Gillray
1756-1815
John Bull bother'd, or, The geese alarming the capitol / Js. Gy. desn. et fect - pro bono publico.
etching and aquatint, hand colored
image: 309 x 376 mm; plate: 313 x 395 mm; sheet: 330 x 412 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 2802
Published: 
[London] : Pubd Decr 19th 1792, by H. Humphrey No 18 Old Bond Street, [1792]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

At upper right: Price 3 shills - The engraving not having been Paid for, by the Associations for vending two'penny Scurrilities.
Below title: '"Thus on the Rock, heroic Manlius stood, "Spy'd out the Geese, & prov'd Rome's guardian God.

Summary: 

Print shows Pitt standing on a fortified tower, or platform, in the crenellations of which are cannon; he looks through a spy-glass, his knees bending with fear, and clutches by the arm a stout John Bull, a yokel, who stands full face, almost equally terrified. He is watching a flight of geese advancing from the right, and says, "There, John! - there! there they are! - I see them - get your Arms ready, John! - they're Rising & coming upon us from all parts; - there! - theres Ten Thousand sans-Culottes now on their passage! - & there! look on the other side, the Scotch have caught the Itch too; and the Wild-Irish have begun to pull off their Breeches! - what will become of us John? ... [etc.]. John Bull answers: "Aristocrat Pyes ? - Lord defend us! - Wounds, Measter, you frighten a poor honest simple Fellow out of his wits! - Gin-Shops & Printers-Ears! - & Bloody-Clubs & Lord Mayors! - and Wild-Irishmen without Breeches, & Sans-Culottes! Lord have mercy upon our Wives & Daughters! - And yet, I'll be shot, if I can see any thing myself, but a few Geese, gabbling together ... [etc]. John Bull, frightened and bemused, holds a musket with a broken bayonet, his left hand is in his coat-pocket, and he wears very wrinkled gaiters. In his hat are two favours, one 'Vive la Liberte', the other 'God save the King'. A pamphlet projects from each waistcoat-pocket: one, Paine's 'Rights of Man' (see BMSat 7867, &c), the other 'Pennyworth of Truth'.

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