All the World's in Paris

1815 print by George Cruikshank portraying Joseph Grimaldi singing the song.

British tourists headed to France following Napoleon's defeat and abdication following the Battle of Paris.

"All the World's in Paris" is an 1814 comedy song by the British performer Joseph Grimaldi. It formed part of the Harlequin Whittington Boxing Day pantomime first performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden in London. Sometimes also known as "All the Word's at Paris" it mocked the fashionable British upper-class tourists who had flocked to the French capital Paris following the defeat of Napoleon. Grimaldi dressed up as an exaggerated dandy of the Regency style as well as traditional clown make-up.

A pirated, parodic play on the song was released under the title "Boney's Return to Paris" in 1815 following Napoleon's escape from Elba during the Hundred Days, before his defeat at Waterloo. The original song continued to have relevance during the subsequent post-Waterloo Allied Occupation of France under the Duke of Wellington, as the British elite continued to travel to Paris in great numbers. It was the inspiration for a popular print by George Cruikshank portraying Grimaldi singing the song.

Bibliography

• Buckmster, Jonathon. Dickens's Clowns: Charles Dickens, Joseph Grimaldi and the Pantomime of Life. Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
• Findlater, Richard. Joe Grimaldi: His Life and Theatre. CUP Archive, 1979.
• George, Mary Dorothy. Hogarth to Cruickshank: Social Change in Graphic Satire. Walker, 1967.
• Jensen, Oskar Cox. Napoleon and British Song, 1797-1822. Springer, 2015.