Representations of France and the French in English Satirical Prints, C
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Representations of France and the French in English Satirical Prints, c. 1740-1832 Vol. 1:2 John Richard Moores Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of York History September 2011 Abstract This thesis explores representations of France and the French in English satirical prints in the period c. 1740-1832. This was an era of rivalry and conflict between the two nations. It has been suggested that hostility towards France at this time contributed to the formation of English, or British, national identity. This coincided with England’s ‘golden age of caricature’. While much of the satirical art produced focussed on France, most studies of this material have dealt with how the English portrayed themselves and each other. Those which have discussed representations of the French have promoted the view that English perceptions of the French were principally hostile. While there is a temptation to employ such prints as evidence of English Francophobia, a closer investigation reveals greater satirical complexities at work which do not simply conceptualise and employ the French ‘Other’ as target of hatred. Informed by war and rivalry, as well as by trade, travel, and cultural exchange, the prints projected some positive characteristics onto the French ‘Other’, they contain varying degrees of sympathy and affinity with the French, and are demonstrative of a relationship more distinct and intimate than that shared with any other nation. At the same time, the prints expose many of the tensions and divisions that existed within Britain itself. French characters were employed to directly attack British political figures, while in other instances domestic anxieties were projected onto images of the French. 1 Contents Volume 1:2 Acknowledgments 3 Author’s Declaration 5 Introduction 6 Chapter One: Studying Satirical Prints 10 Chapter Two: Frenchmen, Food and Fashion 46 Chapter Three: Kings and Leaders 76 1) Pre-revolutionary Kings and Politicians 76 2) Religion 101 3) Napoleon 124 4) Restoration 152 5) Summary 165 Chapter Four: War (and Peace) 168 1) Politics, Propaganda and Peace 168 2) The Battlefield 192 3) Summary 202 Chapter Five: Revolution 204 Chapter Six: Women and other ‘Others’ 237 1) Women 237 2) Other ‘Others’ 257 3) Summary 277 Conclusion 280 Bibliography 287 Volume 2:2 Illustrations 2 Acknowledgements My first thanks must go to my supervisor Alan Forrest. He provided invaluable advice, encouragement and support throughout. I would also like to thank John Barrell, whose feedback on my work and knowledge of the material were instrumental in shaping this thesis. Catriona Kennedy provided useful guidance and reassurance, as did Geoffrey Cubitt who subsequently acted as internal examiner. I am similarly grateful to my external examiner Matthew Shaw. I must also express my gratitude to the staff at both the King’s Manor and JB Morrell libraries at York, as well as those at the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum who were all extremely friendly, helpful, accommodating, and quick to respond to any correspondence. In a more virtual capacity, I am also indebted to the British Museum’s abundant digital collection database and the Lewis Walpole Library’s digital image collection, both of which played a vital part in my research and provided many of the images discussed. I would also like to thank the administrative staff in the History Department of the University of York and Clare Bond at the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies for all their assistance. Various parts of this work have been presented in papers at the Eighteenth Century Worlds’ ‘Civilians and War in Europe c. 1640-1815’ conference, the Centre for Metropolitan History’s ‘Cities and Nationalisms’ conference, and the ‘British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Annual Conference’. For the latter, I would like to thank my collaborators on York’s panel on ‘National identity and emotion in the long eighteenth century’: Graeme Callister and Amy Milka. Papers were also presented as various departmental and interdisciplinary postgraduate forums and conferences at the University of York. My thanks go to those who kindly invited me to present these papers and those who asked questions, made comments, and offered advice. My thanks also to the York Georgian Society which in 2010 honoured my work with a Patrick Nuttgens 3 Award of High Commendation. Christopher Moores and Stephanie King provided valuable advice in the closing stages of the work. Finally, I would like to thank my family for all their patience, support and encouragement, and my partner Stephanie whose contribution to this thesis, and to my life, cannot be put into words. 4 Author’s Declaration An early version of Chapter Four was presented at the Eighteenth Century Worlds’ ‘Civilians and War in Europe c. 1640-1815’ conference at the University of Liverpool in June 2009. Certain elements of Chapter Two were presented in a paper at the Centre for Metropolitan History’s ‘Cities and Nationalisms’ conference held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London, in June 2010. A version of the ‘Religion’ section of Chapter Three was presented at the ‘British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Annual Conference’ at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, in January 2011. 5 Introduction Between the years of 1740 and 1832, Britain witnessed what has become known as its ‘golden age’ of caricature.1 This period was also characterised by dramatic social and political change both at home and abroad. Britain’s relationship with France during this time was particularly turbulent, leading to suggestions that British or English national identity was forged thanks to hostility towards the French ‘Other’.2 Visual prints remain an overlooked area of study, and those scholars who have tackled such material have tended to focus on how the British depicted themselves and each other.3 The studies which have focussed on graphic portrayals of foreigners and of the French have been too brief to explore the prints and their complexities in detail and have generally promoted the view that English perceptions of the French were defined by hostility, antagonism and derision.4 Although British interest in France never disappears, the obsession with that nation was particularly strong during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. By the eighteenth century, France’s wealth and influence had superseded those of other continental nations such as Spain. France thus became Britain’s most powerful rival. Representations of the French were informed by this rivalry, and by the numerous wars which broke out between the two countries. They were also informed by travel, by an attraction to French fashions and culture, and by a close attention to the interior workings of France. The satirical depictions, which at first appear to be straightforward expressions of Francophobia, also contain evidence of familiarity, empathy, and a kinship with France, one more intimate than that shared with any other nation. 1 Though some might argue that ‘London’s Golden Age’ would be more accurate, and there is also debate over whether the term ‘caricature’ should be applied to a body of material of such disparate styles - see Chapter One. 2 Gerald Newman, The Rise of English Nationalism: A cultural history, 1740-1830 (London: Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1987); Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837 (London: Yale University Press, 2005). 3 See Chapter One. 4 Michael Duffy, The Englishman and the Foreigner (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1986); Michael Duffy, ‘The Noisie, Empty, Fluttering French: English Images of the French, 1689-1815’, History Today 32 (1982), pp. 21-26; see Chapter One. 6 Prints on the French ‘Other’ also reveal many of the tensions that existed within Britain itself, for domestic anxieties were projected onto images of the French. Sometimes this was done fairly directly, with French characters employed as tools with which to undermine the reputations of British politicians. At other times, attacks on the British political system and on social inequalities, and more general condemnation of subjects such as tyranny, religion, and corruption, were implied through representations of French leaders. Many of the prints on fashion, meanwhile, were less concerned with the actions of Frenchmen than on those of a particular type of Englishman. This thesis begins by exploring the methodology and historiography of satirical print studies, the advantages of this material and the problems it causes for historians, the methods of production and sale, the reach and diversity of its audience (Chapter One). Focus then turns to imagery on France and French, and is arranged thematically. Chapter Two looks at cultural and social representations, though of course such depictions were unavoidably tied to the political. This chapter discusses the concerns about diminishing English masculinity that were projected onto representations of Frenchmen and their English imitators, the ‘macaronis’. While much of this imagery could be said to have been inspired by fears of a ‘dilution of British stock’ and of a French cultural invasion, it was also a subject which inspired jovial amusement. These portrayals derided the popularity of French culture in England, but in doing so provided proof of the potency and consistency of this popularity. Chapter Three moves upwards from the more generic stereotypes of the French ‘people’ to the political and religious rulers of France. It explores the ways in which images of the French could be used to express dissatisfaction with domestic political and religious leaders (both directly and indirectly). It questions the extent 7 to which British conceptions of themselves and the French relied on Protestant Anti-Catholicism. It investigates the way French rulers were not necessarily thought to be representative of their subjects, and that it was usually French and British leaders, rather than the French people, who were the targets of hatred. It expands on the ideas concerning sympathy for the French people from Chapter Two and also charts the emergence of less antagonistic depictions of French rulers.