The Pigs Possessed:–or–the Broad Bottom'd Litter Running Headlong into Ye Sea of Perdition

James Gillray|Hannah Humphrey

April 18, 1807 · Hand-colored etching · Drawings and Prints

King George III appears as an angry farmer driving overfed pigs over a cliff. These pigs have the faces of Whig politicians and have weakened the nation by their greedy pursuit of government posts. Farmer George (the king’s nickname in real life) uses his foot to prod from office the playwright-politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who is clad as a Harlequin. The ousted chief minister, William Grenville, floats in the foreground wearing a yellow suit while resting one trotter on a bill for Catholic Emancipation, the defeat of which helped bring down his ministry. Gillray borrowed his imagery from the Gospel of Mark (5:1-20) where Jesus casts a legion of demons out of a possessed man and into a herd of swine, which then runs into the Sea of Galilee. King George is thus presented as the nation’s savior, and the defeated Whigs as devils.

Artist

James Gillray|Hannah Humphrey

Date

April 18, 1807

Medium

Hand-colored etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917