Britannia between death and the doctor’s.

James Gillray

Britannia between death and the doctor’s.

London, H Humphrey, May 20^th 1804

Etching

Original hand colouring

255 x 375 mm

£2200

A rare Napoleonic / medical Gillray

Britannia sits, propped up by pillows, against a heavily curtained bed, holding her spear; her shield and an olive-branch are beside her. Pitt, the new doctor, kicks Addington through the door (from which a staircase directly descends) (l.); one foot is against his rival’s posterior, the other steps on the face of Fox, the third (would-be) doctor, who lies on the ground, kicking wildly. Pitt triumphantly holds up a bottle, labelled ‘Constitutional Restorative’; its stopper is a crown, and it is irradiated, shedding its light on the faint but reviving Britannia, from whose neck hangs a medal with the king’s profile inscribed ‘Georgius III Rex.’ From Pitt’s pocket projects a bundle of papers: ‘Art of Restoring Health’. Addington, terrified, drops a bottle of ‘Composing Draft’, whose contents are spilling; from his pocket projects a clyster-pipe (cf. BMSat 9849). Fox holds up a stoppered bottle of ‘Republican Balsam’; in his other hand is a bonnet rouge (cf. BMSat 9735); from his pocket dice and a dice-box inscribed ‘Whig Pills’ have fallen. Pitt’s heel is firmly planted on his mouth.
From behind the bed-curtains (r.) Death strides with furtive ferocity into the room, his spear raised to strike Britannia. He is a skeleton with the head of Napoleon wearing a huge bicorne with heavy tricolour plumes. He has overturned a table from which cloth and bottles of medicine have cascaded to the floor, with a ‘Prescription’ signed ‘Addington’, box of pills, &c. After the title: ‘ – “Death may decide, when Doctors disagree.”