An English Privateer bringing in La Monsieur, a French Prize (caricature)

Published in 1782 by Robert Sayer and J. Bennett, this print shows a French naval officer being welcomed into a finely decorated room by an English woman. As the man enters the room the woman puts her arm around his shoulders and gestures towards the fireplace. He in return wraps his arm around her waist and smiles at her. The title, ‘An English Privateer bringing in La Monsieur, a French Prize’, uses maritime vocabulary to allude to sexual activity. The woman, whom it is implied may be a sex worker, is likened to an ‘English privateer’, while her French client is described as her ‘prize’ (a captured enemy vessel).