George III is portrayed as Prospero the wizard in his long black cloak, holding a book bearing the words “justice” and “integrity” and a long, whip-like wand. He stands on a landmass labeled “Albion,” a tattered French flag under his feet. A gold and blue flag patterned with lions, a harp, and several fleurs-de-lis flies behind him. The sun smiles above his head. On a second, much smaller landmass labeled “Paris,” a black imp (Caliban) wreathed in flame bares its teeth at George. Between them is a river in which ships bearing French and British flags are fighting. George’s caption reads, “Yea all which it inherit shall dissolve & like the baseless Fabric of a Vision leave not a Wreck behind.” Behind him are the words, “God save great George our King,” “Long live our noble King,” “God prosper long our noble King our lives & saveties all,” and “Huzza Huzza Huzza.” Caliban says, “These Lands are mine by Sycorax my mother” (Baker 167).

The French Revolutionary Wars played a significant role in shaping Romantic culture. Political propaganda both for and against the French Revolution was prolifically produced, and caricaturists contributed to this mass of literature by reporting and critiquing the events of the war and the ideas behind it (Donald 142). The Romantic era was also shaped by a revival of older works, such as those by Dante, Milton, and Shakespeare. By using the characters created by these authors, as well as by utilizing the strangeness of their stories, a caricaturist could add yet another layer of interest or meaning to his image. By casting England as Prospero and France as Caliban, the artist here alludes to one of the conflicts of The Tempest: who really owns the enchanted island? The wizard who has claimed it, or the monster, native to the island, who inherited it? This question of ownership is echoed, for the caricaturist, in the British-French conflicts over colonized land (Alexander 4). This caricature of the English victory at the Battle of the Nile casts Britain and France as characters from Shakespeare's The Tempest, consequently finding the significance of the battle in questions of property and colonialism.