) before the assembled
Powers of Europe (dated July 11, 1808); and the fine print of the
"Valley of the Shadow of Death" (September 24, 1808), in which the
prediction of an earlier print ("The Handwriting on the Wall") seems
near its fulfilment, and the Powers of Europe in grim demonic shapes
surround the terrified ruler, the British lion charging him full in
front, while the Russian bear takes an ugly snatch from behind at his
legs.

=_By James Gillray_ BUONAPARTE AS KING-MAKER (WITH TALLEYRAND TO HELP)=

James Gillray's political caricatures are so interesting and so
important, they form such a priceless commentary on the history of the
time, that I have given them the priority of space over his amusing
social satires, which scourge without mercy the follies of dress and
fashion. "A Lady putting on her Cap" (1795), "Lady Godiva's Rout"
(1796), "High Change in Bond Street" (1796), "A Modern Belle at Bath"
(1796), and "A Fashionable Mamma" come into this class, as well as
"Following the Fashion," "Characters in High Life," and many others. It
was the epoch when English ladies' waists seem to have risen nearly to
their arm-pits, and when their hair towered up correspondingly into a
forest of feathers; and all the above prints--as well as the series of
"Faro's Daughters," directed at the gambling craze, "The Graces in a
High Wind (as seen from Nature in Kensington Gardens)," and the still
more risky series of "Three Stages of a Lady's Toilet,"--depict these
extreme fashions.

"Tales of Wonder," "Advantages of Wearing Muslin Dresses, dedicated to
the Fashionable Ladies of Great Britain," "A Broad Hint of not Meaning
to Dance," "A Company shocked at a Lady getting up to Ring the Bell,"
belong to a slightly later period of costume, say 1802-04.

"Dido in Despair" is evidently a satire on the beautiful Lady Hamilton,
who is however represented in this print as enormously fat.[10] Gillray
has evidently no sympathy or mercy for the frail and famous beauty; for
here she is tumbling out of bed in nightcap and nightdress, from which a
huge foot protrudes, while she waves her fat arms in despair. A flask of
Maraschino is on the dressing-table near the rouge pot; on the floor
lie broken antiques; and a work on _Studies of Academic Attitudes_, with
scarcely academic illustrations, lies near the window, through which is
seen a line of British battleships standing out to sea.

"Ah where and oh where is my gallant sailor go