William Combe (1742–1823)?
The life of Napoleon: a Hudibrastic poem in fifteen cantos by Doctor Syntax
London: printed for T. Tegg, W. Allason and J. Dick, Edinburgh, 1815
Harley-Mason.c.76, plate opposite p. 259

This verse biography of Napoleon has sometimes been attributed to William Combe, famous in his day as the author of the ‘tours’ of Doctor Syntax, but is probably by an anonymous writer seeking to exploit Combe’s success. It was illustrated with thirty engravings by George Cruikshank (1792–1878), whose burgeoning career as a graphic satirist up to that point had been punctuated by repeated abusive caricatures of Napoleon. This sunset view of the former Emperor disembarking on Elba in 1814 is the last print in the volume, and would have been seen as marking the final episode in Napoleon’s story.

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