Man in the Moon

Commentary
Man in the Moon
Accession number: 
Curzon b. 12(13)
Collection: 
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

Napoleon Bonaparte is depicted as the Man in the Moon in this cartoon, printed in Britain in the course of the Napoleonic Wars with France. In the original nursery rhyme ‘The Man in the Moon came down too soon’ and met with disaster. The satirical version suggests that the French military leader has been too busy dreaming of foreign conquests and has not taken care to make sure that his power remains unchallenged at home.

(Britain, 1803-1809)