File:The tree of Liberty,-with, the Devil tempting John Bull (BM 1868,0808.6739 2).jpg

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The tree of Liberty,-with, the Devil tempting John Bull   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: James Gillray

Published by: Hannah Humphrey
Title
The tree of Liberty,-with, the Devil tempting John Bull
Description
English: Round a bare and decayed oak-tree is twined a serpent with the head of Fox; he has scaly arms with human hands and holds out a damaged apple inscribed 'Reform', saying, "nice Apple, Johnny! - nice Apple". John Bull (left) is a fat and squat yokel, wearing the Windsor uniform of blue coat with red collar and cuffs. The pockets of his coat and waistcoat bulge with round golden apples. His back is to Fox, towards whom he looks out of the corners of his eyes, saying: "Very nice N'apple indeed! - but my Pokes are all full of Pippins from off t'other Tree: & besides, I hates Medlars, they're so domn'd rotten! that I'se afraid they'll gie me the Guts-ach for all their vine looks!" Fox's scaly tail is coiled round the upper branches; its tip issues from a large cap of 'Liberté', decorated with tricolour cockade and ribbons, which is poised on a branch. The trunk of the tree is 'Opposition'; its roots are: 'Envy', 'Ambition', 'Disappointment'. The main branches are 'Rights of Man' (see BMSat 7867, &c.) and 'Profligacy'. Each rotten apple or medlar has an inscription: 'Democracy.', 'Treason.', 'Slavery.', 'Atheism.', 'Blasphemy.', 'Plunder.', 'Murder.', 'Whig Club', 'Impiety', 'Revolution', 'Conspiracy', 'Corresponding Society', 'Deism', 'Age of Reason' (Paine's deistic book).


In the background (right) is an oak in full leaf: its trunk is 'Justice', the roots 'Commons', 'King', 'Lords', the branches 'Laws' and 'Religion'. From it hangs a crown surrounded by 'pippins', some inscribed 'Freedom', 'Happiness', 'Security'. (Cf. BMSat 8287, &c.) 23 May 1798


Hand-coloured etching
Depicted people Associated with: Charles James Fox
Date 1798
date QS:P571,+1798-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 365 millimetres
Width: 261 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.6739
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942) The theme that under the guise of a demand for Reform treason and sedition were hatched was that of the prosecutions of 1793 and 1794 in England and Scotland, and of the Reports of the Committee of Secrecy, see BMSat 9369. The support by the Opposition of Reform is here identified with sedition and with the plots of extremists of the Corresponding Society, see BMSat 9189, &c. The planting of a Tree of Liberty with garlands and emblems was carried out wherever the French troops established themselves. In Dundee in Nov. 1792 rioters erected a Tree of Liberty with the scroll 'Liberty Equality and no Sinecures', decorated with apples and illuminated. Meikle, 'Scotland and the French Revolution', 1912, pp. 96-7. Cf. BMSats 8631, 8826, 8831, 8846, 8986, 9193, 9229, 9369, 9393, 9412, 9422. The emblem derived from the American Revolution, see BMSat 5401 (1777), where 'The Tree, Of Treason, alias Liberty' is depicted; cf. BMSats 5241, 5336. For French invaders forcing Italians to dance round a Tree of Liberty see a French satire of 1797, 'Il faut danser' (reproduced Broadley, ii. 32), where an emblematical tree is depicted. For Fox as a serpent cf. BMSat 8684.

Grego, 'Gillray', p. 240. Wright and Evans, No. 200. Reprinted, 'G.W.G.', 1830.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-6739
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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current09:35, 15 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 09:35, 15 May 20201,884 × 2,500 (985 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1798 image 3 of 3 #9,672/12,043

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