William Pitt the younger as an obstetrician and medicine vendor, accompanied by Henry Dundas as his assistant, disputing with Napoleon Bonaparte their respective medicinal remedies for the delivery of Europe. Etching after C. Ansell (?), 1800.
- Ansell, Charles, approximately 1752-
- Date:
- [1800]
- Reference:
- 663331i
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The print contrasts Pitt's use of cash to support his Austrian allies with Napoleon's use of military force. Pitt is represented both as an accoucheur or man-midwife (he has a pair of forceps labeled "Income tax" sticking out of his pocket) and as a medicine vendor ("quack doctor"). To the left, Dundas wears a Scottish bonnet and a plaid suit in the style of the harlequin costume traditionally worn by the quack-doctor's zany. Napoleon carries a sword (as the obstetrician does in the print "Doctor Forceps" by Matthias Darly, 1773) with which he points to a pile of bolus-shaped (and musket-ball-shaped) pills. On the right his assistant uses a musket to shoot a bolus down the throat of one of the Austrian generals whom Napoleon had defeated at the battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800: either General Michael von Melas or General Pál Kray, both of whom are mentioned in the lettering. The British Museum catalogue suggests the shooting man may be Napoleon's general Louis Charles Antoine Desaix (1768-1800), though he would be an unsuitable candidate as he was killed by a musket ball at Marengo
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