HOLLANDIA REGENERATA-SATIRE-MUSIC-BAGPIPEs [James GILLRAY after , 1796]

Hollandia Regenerata (…) – This scarce original antique print shows a Dutch soldier (left) and his wife (right), joining hands, dance round a tree of Liberty to music supplied by a foppish French soldier on the extreme left who beats a drum and blows a trumpet, and by a stout Dutchman on the extreme right who plays bagpipes inscribed ‘Vader-lands Liefde’ (Love of Country). The ‘tree’ is a pole surmounted by a milk-churn inscribed ‘Vryheid Gellykheid Broederscha[p]’, [This inscription (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) occurs on Dutch prints after the French invasion, e.g. Van Stolk, No. 5299; Muller, No. 5385.] above which is a cap of Liberty shaped like a fool’s cap, and a tricolour flag inscribed ‘Hollandia Regenerate[a]’. On the churn sits a parroquet, ‘trying to imitate the patriotic accents of his French brothers’. A monkey climbs up the pole.