A FRIENDLY VISIT, Satire on Napoleon's defeat, abdication and retirement to Elba, 1814 (engraving)

A FRIENDLY VISIT, By Rowlandson April 16th 1814 Not in catalogue. Satire on Napoleon's defeat, abdication and retirement to Elba. in a makeshift-looking room, a huge, hairy devil approaches Napoleon at right, holding a trident and proffering a noose, saying, 'Master Boney the favour of your company is requested -'; Napoleon, at left, hurriedly rising from his 'Camp stool' and pulling on his breeches, replies, 'I'll be with you in a crack'; a skeleton looms up behind him, at the same time holding back Joseph Bonaparte who tries to escape through an open door at left, his crown falling off, the skeleton apprehending him, 'Stop thief'. By the side of Napoleon's throne-like stool, a stoppered bottle labelled 'Composing draught', a glass and a crown, at his feet his hat and sword; on a table beside the devil are other suggested measures for suicide: pistols, a dagger, a smaller demon holding out a cup labelled 'Genuine Jaffa poison', a dish of 'Opium', an axe, a paper lettered 'Perhaps you would prefer drowning'; underneath the table are trunks lettered 'Military chest / Hospital chest / Diamonds'.