British etching from 1814 in celebration of Napoleon's first exile

[Asid]

British etching from 1814 in celebration of Napoleon's first exile to Elba at the close of the War of the Sixth Coalition



Print shows Napoleon I seated backwards on a donkey on the road "to Elba" from Fontainebleau; he holds a broken sword in one hand and the donkey's tail in the other while two drummers follow him playing a farewell(?) march. Includes twelve lines of verse.

Inscriptions
Title bottom center: The Journey of a modern Hero to the island of ELBA
Publisher's mark bottom right: Pub'd by J. Phillips, No. 32 Charles Street Hampstead road
Text top left: To Elba // To Fontainebleu
Text on saddle: Materials for the history of my life and exploits // A budget of mathematical books for my study at ELBA
Text top left: A throne is only made of wood and cover'd in velvet.
Text behind the donkey: The greatest events in human life is turn'd to a puff.
Text bottom:
Farewell my brave soldiers, my eagles adieu;

    Stung with my ambition, o'er the world ye flew:
    But deeds of disaster so sad to rehearse
    I have lived--fatal truth for to know the reverse.
    From Moscow to Lipsic; the case it is clear
    I was sent back to France with a flea in my ear.

    A lesson to mortals regarding my fall:
    He grasps at a shadow, by grasping at all.
    My course it is finish'd my race it is run,
    My career it is ended just where it begun.
    The Empire of France no more it is mine.
    Because I can't keep it I freely resign.

[Mr. Digby]

Nice find. The artistic conventions of these early 19th c. cartoons is that the lines people are speaking are placed with the start of the sentence near their mouths. So Napoleon is saying "A throne is only made of wood and cover'd in velvet." while the donkey is saying (out of its behind) "The greatest events in human life is turn'd to a puff.", the 'puff' suggesting that the result of all Napoleon's life is but a donkey's fart.

I like the 11 lines of verse. Reading them I was struck by the fact they'd be the perfect eulogy for Hitler, 130 years later.