Boreas helping the patriotic Weather-cock to snap a Goose.

DateApril 4, 1783

Publisher J. Barrow

MediumBlack and white line engraving

DimensionsPlate H: 9 1/2" x W: 14"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1957-62

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "MARS doth his Iron Chariot stop,/ And it's a General Peace:/ Boreas with Fox hath made it up,/ And freely blows him Geese./ A Weather-cock to snap a Goose,/ May seem a Paradox;/ The Policy needs no Excuse; The Weather-cock's a Fox./ Pub.d by J. Barrow, April 4.th 1783, White Lion Bull Stairs Surry Side Black Friars Bridge."

Early in 1783, a strange alliance of two former enemies occurred. In a last ditch effort to regain some of his lost power, Fox agreed to join North, a man he had long condemned, in attempting to unseat Shelburne, the prime minister. In 1782, J. Barrow, reflecting public opinion, had published an anti-Fox commentary on his break with government policy during the peace negotiations by depicting a flock of geese flying Fox to America. Now Fox was back in favor, and Barrow published this sequel to the affair less than two months later.

Lord North, his head just barely visible to the left, appears as Boreas, symbol of the North Wind, blowing the geese that would have flown him away toward Fox, a weathervane. The weathervane symbolism for Fox suggests his proclivity to alter his opinions on important issues to conform to public sentiment. Representing his political enemies, the geese are threatened by Fox's open mouth.