John Bull as a patient, in disarray, reclines on a sofa and receives medical treatment from politicians. Coloured etching by G. Cruikshank, 1813.

  • Cruikshank, George, 1792-1878.
Date:
1 December 1813
Reference:
38418i
  • Pictures
  • Online

Selected images from this work

View 1 image

About this work

Description

The patient (John Bull) wears his trousers round his neck, his jacket around his legs, his shoes on his hands and his gloves on his feet: he has "phrenzy" (mania , delirium). Lord Eldon (left) feels John Bull's pulse. Lord Liverpool (upper left) bleeds him in the arm with a lancet, causing a spout of gold to be issued; the gold is siphoned off by Sir John McMahon, private secretary to the Prince Regent and keeper of the privy purse (bottom left) Castlereagh (above, centre) shovels boluses into his mouth. Napoleon (below) s wedged into an apothecary's mortar about to be crushed by a pestle wielded by Death portrayed as a doctor. Sir F. Burdett, fighting with a judge, holds a surgeon's saw. Grenville (right foreground, with large backside) walks off with a physician's gold-headed cane. Beyond him are two other whigs, Earl Grey (in profile) and Baron Holland

Publication/Creation

[Place of publication not identified] : Pub[lishe]d for the Meteor, 1 December 1813.

Physical description

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; image 19.3 x 48.8 cm

Lettering

National phrenzy, or, John Bull and his doctors! G. Cruikshank fect.

References note

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1949, vol. 9, no. 12110

Reference

Wellcome Collection 38418i

Type/Technique

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

Permanent link