The coming-on of the monsoons;-or-the re-treat from seringapatam

James Gillray

The coming-on of the monsoons;-or-the re-treat from seringapatam

Etching

Bohn c. 1850

225x 280 mm

£120.

Originally published 6th. December 1791Cornwallis, [It has been suggested that he is William Monson (1760-1807), then serving under Cornwallis, but as a captain in the 52nd he was not of sufficient note in England for caricature and Cornwallis’s star removes all doubt of his identity. ‘Monsoon’ is not a pun, see BMSat 7938.] mounted on an ass, flees terror-stricken from a fortess (right) from behind the battlements of which the grinning Tipu Sultan, holding a sabre, urinates a devastating stream upon the fleeing British soldiers (right). Two cannon belch fire and smoke from loopholes. Cornwallis, wearing his Garter star, gallops past the bodies of dead soldiers, he drops his sabre and his reins, holding up his arms; his hat flies off. His ass is muzzled by a long nose-bag. Beneath the design is etched: ‘"Whats the matter Falstaff" – "Whats the matter! here be Four of "us, have taken a City this morning – where is it? – where is it? where is it? "taken from us it is; a hundred Thousand, upon poor Four of us, I am a "rogue, if I was not at half-sword with a Thousand of them for two hours "together, I have escaped by miracle, I am eight times thrust through the "doublet, four through the hose, my buckler cut through & through, my Sword "hack’d like a hand-saw, I never dealt better since I was a man: all would "not do!’