It is not known whether Gillray invented the “short Napoleon” trope, or whether he borrowed it from anti-Napoleon pamphlets. Library of Congressīefore the circulation of Little Boney, Napoleon “was of normal stature,” Clayton noted in an email to the National Post. In it, the famed caricaturist James Gillray portrays a diminutive Bonaparte flipping over furniture in a childish temper tantrum while raving about the “British Parliament” and “London Newspapers! Oh! Oh! Oh!”Īn extremely small Napoleon featured in the 1803 print The Evacuation of Malta.
A particularly scatological cartoon from 1798, for instance, showed Napoleon standing pantsless on the French coast and farting out a storm of balloons and guillotines aimed at the English.īut the “tiny Napoleon” trope did not start until 1803, according to Tim Clayton, a British expert on Napoleonic-era propaganda. It was that year that saw the publication of a famed cartoon known as “Maniac ravings or Little Boney in a strong fit.”
