diff options
Diffstat (limited to '23881-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 23881-8.txt | 22924 |
1 files changed, 22924 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/23881-8.txt b/23881-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d47327c --- /dev/null +++ b/23881-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,22924 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of "Punch", by M. H. Spielmann + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The History of "Punch" + + +Author: M. H. Spielmann + + + +Release Date: December 17, 2007 [eBook #23881] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF "PUNCH"*** + + +E-text prepared by Malcolm Farmer, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 23881-h.htm or 23881-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/8/8/23881/23881-h/23881-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/8/8/23881/23881-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + An equal sign and a letter enclosed within square brackets + indicates the letter has a macron. For example, [=i] + indicates i-macron. + + Text enclosed between equal signs was in bold face in the + original. + + + + + +THE HISTORY OF "PUNCH" + +by + +M. H. SPIELMANN + +With Numerous Illustrations + + + + + + + +Cassell and Company, Limited +_London, Paris, & Melbourne_ +1895 + +All Rights Reserved + + + + +[Illustration: "THE MAHOGANY TREE." + +(_By Linley Sambourne. From "Punch's" Jubilee Number, by special +permission of Sir William Agnew, Bart., Owner of the original drawing._) +(_See page 536._)] + + + + +_TO MY SON_ + +_PERCY EDWIN SPIELMANN_ + + + + +[Illustration: (_Drawn by George du Maurier._)] + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The prevailing idea of the origin and history of _Punch_ has hitherto +rested mainly on three productions: the "Memories" of George Hodder, +"Mr. Punch's Origin and Career," and Mr. Joseph Hatton's delightful but +fragmentary papers, entitled "The True Story of _Punch_." So far as the +last-named is based upon the others, it is untrustworthy in its details; +but the statements founded on the writer's own knowledge and on the +documentary matter in his hands, as well as upon his intimacy with Mark +Lemon, possess a distinct and individual value, and I have not failed to +avail myself in the following pages of Mr. Hatton's courteous permission +to make such use of them as might be desirable. + +During the four years in which I have been engaged upon this book, my +correspondents have been numbered by hundreds. Hardly a man living whom +I suspected of having worked for _Punch_, but I have communicated with +him; scarce one but has afforded all the information within his +knowledge in response to my application. Editor and members of the +_Punch_ Staff, past and present--"outsiders," equally with those +belonging to "the Table"--the relations and friends of such as are dead, +all have given their help, and have shown an interest in the work which +I hope the result may be thought to justify. All this mass of +material--all the evidence, published and unpublished, that was adduced +in order to establish certain points and refute others--had to be +carefully sifted and collated, contrary testimony weighed, and the truth +determined. Especially was this the case in dealing with the valuable +reminiscences imparted by _Punch's_ earliest collaborators, still or +till lately living. Of undoubted contributors and their work, it may be +stated, more than two hundred and fifty are here dealt with. A further +number cheerfully submitted to cross-examination on one or other of the +many subjects touched upon; and probably as many more were approached +with only negative results. + +My special thanks are due to Mrs. Chaplin, the daughter of the late Mr. +Ebenezer Landells, who unreservedly placed in my hands all the _Punch_ +documents, legal and otherwise, accounts, and letters, concerning the +origin and early editorships of _Punch_, which have been preserved in +the family; and to Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew, who have supplemented +these with similar assistance, as well as with books of the Firm +establishing points of literary interest not hitherto suspected, +together with the letters of Thackeray which illustrate his early +connection with and final secession from the Staff. Apart from their +general interest, these documents, taken together, establish the facts +of such very vexed questions as the origin and the early editorships of +_Punch_. This is the more satisfactory, perhaps, by reason of the +numerous unfounded claims--or founded chiefly on family tradition or +filial pride and affection--which are still being made on behalf of +supposed originators of the Paper. Even these partisan historians, it is +believed, will hardly be able to resist the proofs here set forth; +although attested fact does not, with them, necessarily carry +conviction. For such services, and for their ready and sympathetic +acquiescence in the requests I have made for permission to quote text or +reproduce engraving, my hearty thanks to Messrs. Bradbury, Agnew and Co. +are due. To them and to all my numerous correspondents I here repeat the +assurance of gratitude for their courtesy which I have privately +expressed before. + +I have reproduced no more pictures from _Punch_ than were rendered +necessary by the topics under discussion. I would rather send the +reader, for _Punch's_ pictures, to the ever-fresh pages of _Punch_ +itself. Nor, I may add, did I seek information and assistance from its +Proprietors until this book was well advanced, preferring to make +independent research and to test statements on my own account. + +My primary inducement to the writing of this book has been the interest +surrounding _Punch_, the study of which has not begotten in me the +hero-worship that can see no fault. How far I have succeeded, it rests +with the readers of this volume to decide. + + _September, 1895._ + M. H. SPIELMANN. + + +[Illustration: AN INTRODUCTION. + +(_From the First Sketch by Charles H. Bennett._)] + + + + +CONTENTS. + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTORY. 1 + + CHAPTER I. + + _PUNCH'S_ BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. + + The Mystery of His Birth--Previous Unsuccessful Attempts at + Solution--Proposal for a "London Charivari"--Ebenezer Landells and + His Notion--Joseph Last Consults with Henry Mayhew--Whose + Imagination is Fired--Staff Formed--Prospectus--_Punch_ is Born and + Christened--The First Number 10 + + CHAPTER II. + + _PUNCH'S_ EARLY PROGRESS AND VICISSITUDES. + + Reception of _Punch_--Early Struggles--Financial Help Invoked--The + First Almanac--Its Enormous Success--Transfer of _Punch_ to + Bradbury and Evans--Terms of Settlement--The New Firm--_Punch's_ + Special Efforts--Succession of Covers--"Valentines," "Holidays," + "Records of the Great Exhibition," and "At the Paris + Exhibition" 29 + + CHAPTER III. + + THE _PUNCH_ DINNER AND THE _PUNCH_ CLUB. + + Origin and Antiquity of the Meal--Place of Celebration--The + "Crown"--In Bouverie Street and Elsewhere--The Dining-Hall--The + Table--And Plans--Jokes and Amenities--Jerrold and his "Bark"--A + Night at the Dinner--From Mr. Henry Silver's Diary--Loyalty and + Perseverance of Diners--Charles H. Bennett and the _Jeu + d'esprit_--Keene Holds Aloof--Business--Evolution of the + Cartoon--Honours Divided--Guests--Special Dinners, "Jubilee," + "Thackeray," "Burnand," and "Tenniel"--Dinners to _Punch_--The + _Punch_ Club--Exit Albert Smith--High Spirits--"The Whistling + Oyster"--Baylis as a Prophet--"Two Pins Club" 53 + + CHAPTER IV. + + _PUNCH_ AS A POLITICIAN. + + _Punch's_ Attitude--His Whiggery--And Sincerity--Catholics and + Jews--Home Rule--European Politics--Prince Napoleon--_Punch's_ + Mistakes--His Campaign against Sir James Graham--His Relations with + Foreign Powers--And Comprehensive Survey of Affairs 99 + + CHAPTER V. + + "CHARIVARIETIES." + + _Punch's_ Influence on Dress and Fashion--His Records--As a + Prophet--As an Artist--As an Actor and Dramatist--Benefit + Performances--Guild of Literature and Art 122 + + CHAPTER VI. + + _PUNCH'S_ JOKES--THEIR ORIGIN, PEDIGREE, AND APPROPRIATION. + + "The Unknown Man"--Jokes from Scotland--"Bang went + Saxpence"--"Advice to Persons about to Marry"--Claimants and True + Authorship--Origin of some of _Punch's_ Jokes and + Pictures--Contributors of Witty Things--A Grim Coincidence--"I Used + Your Soap Two Years Ago"--Charles Keene Offended--The + Serjeant-at-Arms and Mr. Furniss's Beetle--Mr. Birket Foster and + Mr. Andrew Tuer--Plagiarism and Repetition--The Seamy Side of + Joke-editing--_Punch_ Invokes the Law--Rape of Mrs. Caudle--_Sturm + und Drang_--Plagiarism or Coincidence?--Anticipations of the + "Puppet-Show" and "The Arrow"--Of Joe Miller--And + Others--_Punch-baiting_--Impossibility of + Joke-identification--Repetitions and Improvements 138 + + CHAPTER VII. + + CARTOONS--CARTOONISTS AND THEIR WORK. + + The Cartoon takes Shape--"The Parish Councils + Cockatoo"--Cartoonists and their Relative Achievements--John + Leech's First--Rapidity in Design--"General Février turned + Traitor"--"The United Service"--Sir John Tenniel's Animal + Types--"The British Lion Smells a Rat"--The Indian Mutiny--A + Cartoon of Vengeance--_Punch_ and Cousin Jonathan--"Ave + Cæsar!"--The Franco-Prussian War--The Russo-Turkish War--"The + Political 'Mrs. Gummidge'"--"Dropping the Pilot," its Origin and + Present Ownership--"Forlorn Hope"--"The Old Crusaders"--Troubles of + the Cartoonist--The Obituary Cartoon 168 + + CHAPTER VIII. + + CARTOONS AND THEIR EFFECT. + + Origin and Growth of the Cartoon--And of its Name--Its Reflection + of Popular Opinion--Source of _Punch's_ Power--_Punch's_ + Downrightness offends France--Germany--And Russia--Lord Augustus + Loftus's Fix--Lord John Russell and "No Popery"--Mr. Gladstone and + Professor Ruskin on _Punch's_ Cartoons--Their Effect on Mr. + Disraeli--His Advances and Magnanimity--Rough Handling of Lord + Brougham--Sir Robert Peel--Lord Palmerston's Straw--Mr. Bright's + Eye-glass--Difficulties of Portraiture--John Bull _alias_ Mark + Lemon--Sir John Tenniel's Types 185 + + CHAPTER IX. + + _PUNCH_ ON THE WAR-PATH: ATTACK. + + _Punch_ lays about Him--Assaults the "Morning Post"--The Factitious + "Jenkins"--Thackeray's Farewell--Mrs. Gamp (the "Morning Herald") + and Mrs. Harris (the "Standard")--_Lèse Majesté!_--The "Standard" + Fulminates a Leader--The Retort--His Loyalty--Banters the Prince + Consort--Tribute on the Prince's Death--_Punch's_ Butts: Lord + William Lennox--Jullien--Sir Peter Laurie--Harrison + Ainsworth--Lytton--Turner--A Fallacy of Hope--Burne-Jones--Charles + Kean--S. C. Hall as "Pecksniff"--James Silk Buckingham and the + "British and Foreign Destitute"--Alfred Bunn--_Punch's_ Waterloo: + "A Word with Punch"--Bunn, Hot and Cross--A Second "Word" Prepared, + but never Uttered--Other Points of Attack 209 + + CHAPTER X. + + _PUNCH_ ON THE WAR-PATH: COUNTER-ATTACK. + + Satire and Libel--Mrs. Ramsbotham Assaulted--Attacks of "The Man in + the Moon" and "The Puppet-Show"--H. S. Leigh's Banter--Malicious + Wit--Mr. Pincott--_Punch's_ Purity gives Offence--His Slips of + Fact--Quotation--And Dialect are Resented--His Drunkards not + Appreciated by the U. K. A.--"_Punch_ is not as good as it + was!" 234 + + CHAPTER XI. + + ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. + + Mr. Joseph Swain supersedes Ebenezer Landells--His Education as + Engraver--Head of His Department--Engraving the Big Cut: Then and + Now--Printing from the Wood-blocks--Leech's + Fastidiousness--Impracticability of Keene--Thackeray's Little + Confidence--A Record of Half a Century 247 + + CHAPTER XII. + + _PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1841. + + Mark Lemon--As Others Saw Him--His Duties--His Industry--His Staff + and their Apportioned Work--Lemon as an Editor--And Diplomatist--A + Testimonial--And a Practical Joke--Henry Mayhew--His Great Powers + and Little Weaknesses--Disappointment and Retirement--Stirling + Coyne--Gilbert Abbott à Beckett--His Early Career--Tremendous + Industry--À Beckett and Robert Seymour--Appointed + Magistrate--Locked in--Agnus B. Reach 254 + + CHAPTER XIII. + + _PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1841. + + H. P. Grattan--W. H. Wills--R. B. Postans--Bread-Tax and + Tooth-Tax--G. Hodder--G. H. B. Rodwell--Douglas Jerrold--His + Caustic Wit--The "Q Papers"--A Statesman _pour rire_--His Sympathy + with the Poor and Oppressed--Wins for _Punch_ his Political + Influence--Ill-health--"_Punch's_ Letters"--The "Jenkins" and + "Pecksniff" Papers--"Mrs. Caudle"--Jerrold's Love of Children, + common to the Staff--He Silences his Fellow-wits--And is Routed by + a Barmaid--He sends his Love to the Staff--And they prove theirs + 282 + + CHAPTER XIV. + + _PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1841-2. + + Percival Leigh--His Medical Shrewdness--Unsuspected Wealth--His + Ability and Work--His Decay--Kindness of the Proprietors to the Old + Pensioner--Albert Smith--Inspires varied Sentiments--Jerrold's + Hostility--"Lord Smith"--Parts Company--H. A. Kennedy--Dr. + Maginn--John Oxenford--W. M. Thackeray--His First + Contribution--"Miss Tickletoby" Fails to Please--He Withdraws--And + Resumes--Rivalry with Jerrold--As an Illustrator--A Mysterious + Picture--Thackeray's Contributions--And Pseudonyms--Quaint + Orthography--"The Snobs of England"--He Tires of _Punch_--His + Motives for Resignation--The Letter--Death of "Dear Old + Thack"--_Punch's_ Tribute to his Memory 299 + + CHAPTER XV. + + _PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1843-51. + + Horace Mayhew--"The Wicked Old Marquis"--A Birthday Ode--R. B. + Peake--Thomas Hood--"The Song of the Shirt"--Its Origin--Its Effect + in the Country--Its Authorship Claimed by Others--Translated + throughout Europe--A Missing Verse--Hood Compared with + Jerrold--"Reflections on New Year's Day"--Dr. E. V. Kenealy--J. W. + Ferguson--Charles Lever--Laman Blanchard--Tom Taylor--Passed over + by Shirley Brooks--Taylor's Critics--Mr. Coventry Patmore--"Jacob + Omnium"--Tennyson _v._ Bulwer Lytton--Horace Smith--"Rob Roy" + Macgregor--Mr. Henry Silver--Introduces Charles Keene--His Literary + Work--Service to Leech--Retirement--Mr. Sutherland Edwards--Charles + Dickens and _Punch_--Sothern Earns his Dinner--Reconciliation of + Dickens and Mark Lemon--J. L. Hannay--Cuthbert Bede 327 + + CHAPTER XVI. + + _PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1852-78. + + Shirley Brooks--His Wit and Humour--Training--Lays Siege to + _Punch_--And Carries him by Assault--"Essence of + Parliament"--William Brough--Mr. Beatty Kingston--F. I. + Scudamore--M. J. Barry--Dean Hole--Mr. Charles L. Eastlake--Mr. + Francis Cowley Burnand--His Little Joke with Cardinal + Manning--"Fun"--"Mokeanna"--Its Success--Thackeray's + Congratulations to _Punch_--"Happy Thoughts"--And Other Happy + Thoughts--Mr. Burnand as a Ground-Swell--Promoted to the + Editorship--The Apotheosis of the Pun--Mr. J. Priestman + Atkinson--Mr. John Hollingshead--Mr. R. F. Sketchley--"Artemus + Ward"--A Death-bed Ambition--H. Savile Clarke--Locker-Lampson and + C. S. Calverley--Miss Betham-Edwards--Mr. du Maurier's "Vers + Nonsensiques"--Mr. A. P. Graves--Rev. Stainton Moses--Mr. Arthur W. + à Beckett--"A. Briefless, Junior"--Mortimer Collins--Mr. E. J. + Milliken--"The 'Arry Papers"--Gilbert à Beckett--"How we Advertise + Now"--Mr. H. F. Lester--Mr. Burnand and the Corporal 356 + + CHAPTER XVII. + + _PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1880-94. + + "Robert"--Mr. Deputy Bedford--Mr. Ashby-Sterry--Reginald Shirley + Brooks--Mr. George Augustus Sala--Mr. Clement Scott--The "Times" + Approves--Mr. H. W. Lucy--"Toby, M.P."--Martin Tupper and Edmund + Yates--Mr. George Grossmith--Mr. Weedon Grossmith--Mr. Andrew + Lang's "Confessions of a Duffer"--Miss May Kendall--Miss + Burnand--Lady Humorists--Mr. Brandon Thomas and Mr. Gladstone--Mr. + Warham St. Leger--Mr. Anstey--"Modern Music-hall Songs"--"Voces + Populi"--Mr. R. C. Lehmann--Mr. Barry Pain--Mr. H. P. Stephens--Mr. + Charles Geake--Mr. Gerald Campbell--R. F. Murray--Mr. George + Davis--Mr. Arthur A. Sykes--Rev. A. C. Deane--Mr. Owen Seaman--Lady + Campbell--Mr. James Payn--Mr. H. D. Traill--Mr. A. Armitage--Mr. + Hosack--"Arthur Sketchley"--Henry J. Byron--_Punch's_ Literature + Considered 385 + + CHAPTER XVIII. + + _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1841. + + _Punch's_ Primitive Art--A. S. Henning--Brine--A Strange + Doctrine--John Phillips--W. Newman--Pictorial Puns--H. G. + Hine--John Leech--His Early Life--Friendship with Albert + Smith--Leech Helps _Punch_ up the Social Ladder--His Political + Work--Leech Follows the "Movements"--"Servantgalism"--"The Brook + Green Volunteer"--The Great Beard Movement--Sothern's Indebtedness + to Leech for Lord Dundreary--Crazes and Fancies--Leech's + Types--"Mr. Briggs"--Leech the Hunter--Leech as a Reformer--Leech + as an Artist--His "Legend" Writing--His Prejudices--His Death--And + Funeral 409 + + CHAPTER XIX. + + _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1841-50. + + William Harvey--Mr. Birket Foster--Kenny Meadows--His + Joviality--Alfred "Crowquill"--Sir John Gilbert--Exit + "Rubens"--Hablôt Knight Browne ("Phiz")--Henry Heath--Mr. R. J. + Hamerton--W. Brown--Richard Doyle--Desires Pseudonymity--His + Protest against _Punch's_ "Papal Aggression" + Campaign--Withdraws--His Art--Epitaph by _Punch_--Henry Doyle--T. + Onwhyn--"Rob Roy" Macgregor--William McConnell--Sir John + Tenniel--His Career--And Technique--His Early Work--Cartoons--His + Art--His Memory and its Lapses--"Jack[=i]d[=e]s"--Knighthood 444 + + CHAPTER XX. + + _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1850-60. + + Captain Howard--Receipt for Landscape Drawing--Earnings, Real and + Ideal--George H. Thomas--Charles Keene--His Training--Introduction + to _Punch_--Called to the Table--Uselessness in Council--A Strong + Politician--Inherits Leech's Position--Keene as an Artist--Where He + Failed--His Joke-Primers--Torturing the Bagpipes--Good Stories, + Used, Spoiled, and Rejected--"Toby" as a Dachshund--Death of + "Frau"--Keene's Technique--His Inventions and Creations--And what + He Earned by Them--Charles Martin--Harry Hall--Rev. Edward Bradley + ("Cuthbert Bede")--"Verdant Green" or "Blanco White"?--Double + Acrostics--George Cruikshank Defies _Punch_--Mr. T. Harrington + Wilson--Mr. Harrison Weir--Mr. Ashby-Sterry--Alfred Thompson--Frank + Bellew--Julian Portch--"Cham"--G. H. Haydon--J. M. Lawless 475 + + CHAPTER XXI. + + _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1860-67. + + Mr. G. du Maurier's First Drawing--The "Romantic Tenor"--Polite + Satire--His Types and Creations--His Pretty Women--And Fair + American--"Chang," "Don," and "Punch"--Mr. du Maurier as a _Punch_ + Writer--Mr. Gordon Thompson--Mr. Stacy Marks, R.A.--Paul Gray--Sir + John Millais, Bart., R.A.--Mr. Fred Barnard--First Joke Refused as + "Painful"--Mr. R. T. Pritchett--Initiation by Sir John + Tenniel--Fritz Eltze--His Amiable Jocularity--Mr. A. R. + Fairfield--Colonel Seccombe--Fred Walker, A.R.A.--Mr. J. Priestman + Atkinson ("Dumb Crambo")--C. H. Bennett--Mr. W. S. Gilbert + ("Bab")--His Classic Joke--G. B. Goddard--Miss Georgina Bowers--Mr. + Walter Crane 503 + + CHAPTER XXII. + + _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1867-82. + + Mr. Linley Sambourne--His Work--His Photographs--And + Enterprise--Strasynski--Mr. Wilfrid Lawson--Mr. E. J. Ellis--Mr. + Ernest Griset--Mr. A. Chasemore--Mr. Walter Browne--Mr. Briton + Riviere, R.A.--An Undergraduate Humorist--A _Punch_ Initial + Converted into an Academy Picture--Mrs. Jopling-Rowe--Mr. Wallis + Mackay--Mr. J. Sands--Mr. W. Ralston--Mr. A. Chantrey + Corbould--Charles Keene's Advice--Randolph Caldecott--Major-General + Robley--R. B. Wallace--Colonel Ward Bennitt--Mr. Montagu + Blatchford--Mr. Harry Furniss--Origin of Mr. Gladstone's Collars--A + Favourite Ruse--How It's Done--Mr. Furniss and the Irish + Members--The Lobby Incident--Clever Retaliation--Mr. Furniss's + Withdrawal--Mr. Lillie--Mr. Storey, A.R.A.--Mr. Alfred Bryan. 531 + + CHAPTER XXIII. + + _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1882-95. + + Mr. William Padgett--Mr. E. M. Cox--Mr. J. P. Mellor--Sir F. + Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.--Mr. G. H. Jalland--Monsieur Darré--Mr. + E. T. Reed--His Original Humour--"Contrasts" and "Prehistoric + Peeps"--Approved by Sports Committees and School Classes--Mr. + Maud--A Useful Drain--Mr. Bernard Partridge--Fine Qualities of his + Art--Mr. Everard Hopkins--Mr. Reginald Cleaver--Mr. W. J. + Hodgson--Excites the Countryside--Miss Sambourne--Sir Frank + Lockwood, Q.C., M.P.--Mr. Arthur Hopkins--Mr. J. F. Sullivan--Mr. + J. A. Shepherd--Mr. A. S. Boyd--Mr. Phil May--A Test of + Drunkenness--Mr. Stafford--"Caran d'Ache"--Conclusion. 558 + + APPENDIX 573 + + INDEX 581 + + +[Illustration: MR. PUNCH. + +(_Drawn by Harry Furniss._)] + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + PAGE + + "The Mahogany Tree." By Linley Sambourne _Frontis._ + + Headpiece to Preface. By G. du Maurier vii + + An Introduction. From First Sketch by C. H. Bennett x + + Mr. Punch. By Harry Furniss xiv + + Mr. Punch portrayed by Different Hands 7 + + Ebenezer Landells 15 + + Prospectus of _Punch_, Facsimile of Mark Lemon's MS. 20-22 + + Preliminary Leaflet 23 + + Signatures to the Original Agreement 25 + + First Cover of _Punch_. By A. S. Henning. 27 + + The Four Earlier Proprietors 37 + + The Five Later Proprietors 39 + + Second Cover. By "Phiz" 42 + + Third Proposed Cover. By H. G. Hine 43 + + Third Cover. By W. Harvey 44 + + Fourth Cover. By Sir John Gilbert, R.A. 45 + + Fifth Cover. By Kenny Meadows 46 + + Sixth Cover. First Design. By Richard Doyle 47 + + Sixth Cover. Second Design. By Richard Doyle 48 + + The First _Punch_ Table: "Crown Inn" 57 + + The Present _Punch_ Table: Bouverie Street 59 + + Twenty-six Initials Carved upon the Table 60-75 + + The Dinner Card 69 + + "Peel's Dirty Boy": Leech's First Sketch 112 + + "Peel's Dirty Boy": The Cartoon 113 + + The Anti-Graham Envelope 115 + + _Punch's_ Anti-Graham Wafers 117 + + The Draughtsman's Revenge 127 + + Bennett's Benefit--The Cast 133 + + Playbill of the Guild of Literature and Art 137 + + Musical: First Sketch. By Henry Walker 148 + + Musical: Drawing. By G. du Maurier 149 + + The Political "Pas de Quatre." By A. S. Henning 154 + + The Political "Pas de Quatre." By J. Leech 155 + + General Février. By J. Leech 175 + + The "Pas de Deux:" Original Drawing. By Sir John Tenniel 178 + + "The Political Mrs. Gummidge." By Sir John Tenniel 181 + + Portraits of Beaconsfield. Re-drawn by Harry Furniss 201 + + "The Mrs. Caudle of the House of Lords:" + Original Sketch. By J. Leech 203 + + Portraits of Gladstone. Re-drawn by Harry Furniss 207 + + Maternal Solicitude. By J. Leech 212 + + "A Word with Punch" 229 + + Joseph Swain 247 + + Mark Lemon 254 + + "Mr. Punch's Fancy Ball" 261 + + Portraits of _Punch_ Staff 262 + + Lemon's Presentation Inkstand 264 + + Henry Mayhew 268 + + J. Stirling Coyne 271 + + Gilbert Abbott à Beckett 272 + + Douglas Jerrold 284 + + Albert Smith 303 + + John Oxenford 308 + + W. M. Thackeray 309 + + Thackeray and Jerrold ("Authors' Miseries") 312 + + Thackeray's Presentation Inkstand 321 + + Thackeray at Work. By E. M. Ward, R.A. 325 + + Horace Mayhew 327 + + Thomas Hood 330 + + Tom Taylor 338 + + Leech, Tom Taylor, and part of Horace Mayhew. By R. Doyle 339 + + Henry Silver 347 + + Dickens' Sole (and Rejected) Contribution 350 + + J. Hannay 354 + + Shirley Brooks 356 + + F. C. Burnand 363 + + R. F. Sketchley 369 + + "Artemus Ward" 370 + + H. Savile Clarke 371 + + Arthur W. à Beckett 375 + + E. J. Milliken 378 + + Gilbert à Beckett 381 + + _Punch's_ Family Trees 382 + + John T. Bedford 385 + + J. Ashby-Sterry 386 + + H. W. Lucy 390 + + F. Anstey 396 + + R. C. Lehmann 401 + + A. S. Henning 411 + + H. G. Hine 414 + + _Punch's_ Seal. By H. G. Hine 415 + + John Leech. By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., R.A. 418 + + "How long have you been gay?" By J. Leech 428 + + "Leech's 'Pretty Girl'": A Skit. + By Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., R.A. 431 + + Leech's House in Kensington. By J. Fulleylove, R. I. 438 + + The Historical Ash-tree in Leech's Garden. By J. Fulleylove, R. I. 439 + + "Two Roses": Sketch by John Leech 440 + + A Page from Leech's Sketch-Book: My Lord Brougham 441 + + Kenny Meadows 447 + + Alfred "Crowquill" 450 + + Hablôt K. Browne ("Phiz") 451 + + R. J. Hamerton 453 + + W. McConnell 461 + + Sir J. Tenniel. By Himself 462 + + Sketch for the Pocket-Book, "Arthur and Guinevere." + By Sir John Tenniel 464 + + Sketch for the Cartoon "Will it Burst?" By Sir John Tenniel 465 + + Sketch for the Pocket-Book: "Thor." By Sir John Tenniel 468 + + Sketch for the Cartoon "Humpty-Dumpty." By Sir John Tenniel 469 + + Captain H. R. Howard 475 + + Charles S. Keene. By J. D. Watson 478 + + Keene torturing the Bagpipes. By Himself 485 + + From Keene to his Editor 486 + + "Frau," _alias_ "Toby"--Keene's last Drawing 488 + + "Cuthbert Bede" 492 + + T. Harrington Wilson. By T. Walter Wilson 497 + + George du Maurier 503 + + "My Pretty Woman." By G. du Maurier 508 + + Pencil Study. By G. du Maurier 509 + + "Chang." By G. du Maurier 514 + + "Don." By G. du Maurier 515 + + Pencil Study. By G. du Maurier 516 + + Pencil Study. By G. du Maurier 517 + + Fred Barnard. A Libel on Himself 518 + + R. T. Pritchett 520 + + J. Priestman Atkinson 524 + + In a Hansom with Mark Lemon. By J. Priestman Atkinson 524 + + C. H. Bennett. By Himself 525 + + Mrs. Bowers-Edwards (Miss G. Bowers) 529 + + Linley Sambourne. By Himself 531 + + Ernest Griset 538 + + Mr. Griset introduces himself to Mark Lemon 538 + + J. Moyr Smith 541 + + J. Sands 542 + + W. Ralston 543 + + A. Chantrey Corbould 544 + + M. Blatchford 548 + + E. J. Wheeler 549 + + Harry Furniss 549 + + _Punch_ as the Bishop of Lincoln. By Harry Furniss 550 + + Mr. Gladstone Collared. By Harry Furniss 552 + + Two Friends. By Harry Furniss 554 + + "A Happy Release:" A Rejected Trifle. By C. J. Lillie 556 + + E. T. Reed. By Himself 560 + + J. Bernard Partridge. By Himself 564 + + Phil May at Work. By Himself 568 + + Phil May as _Punch_. By Himself 570 + + The _Punch_ Staff at Table, 1895 571 + + "Finale." By Linley Sambourne 572 + + Index. Original Sketch. By Charles Keene. 581 + +The engravings here borrowed from _Punch_ are reproduced (in all cases +in smaller sizes) by special permission of the Proprietors, Messrs. +Bradbury, Agnew & Co. The Portrait of Charles Keene by J. D. Watson, and +of Himself with the Bagpipes, were first published in _Black and White_, +through whose courtesy they appear here. To all who have accorded the +various permissions for reproductions, or who have lent drawings for the +better illustration of this volume, the acknowledgments of the writer +are gratefully recorded. The Copyright of the illustrations is in every +case strictly reserved. + + + + +THE + +HISTORY OF "PUNCH." + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +"If humour only meant laughter," said Thackeray, in his essay on the +English humorists, "you would scarcely feel more interest about humorous +writers than the life of poor Harlequin, who possesses with these the +power of making you laugh. But the men regarding whose lives and stories +you have curiosity and sympathy appeal to a great number of our other +faculties, besides our mere sense of ridicule. The humorous writer +professes to awaken and direct your love, your pity, your kindness; your +scorn of untruth, pretension, imposture; your tenderness for the weak, +the poor, the oppressed, the unhappy. To the best of his means and +ability he comments on all the ordinary actions and passions of life +almost." + +It may surely be claimed that these words, consecrated to his mighty +predecessors by the Great Humorist of _Punch_, may be applied without +undue exaggeration to his colleagues on the paper. Though posing at +first only as the puppet who waded knee-deep in comic vice, _Punch_ has +worked as a teacher as well as a jester--a leader, and a preacher of +kindness. Nor was it simple humour that was _Punch's_ profession at the +beginning; he always had a more serious and, so to say, a worthier +object in view. This may be gathered from the very first article in the +very first number, the manifesto of the band of men who started it, +contributed by Mark Lemon, under the title of-- + + "THE MORAL OF PUNCH." + + "As we hope, gentle public, to pass many happy hours in your + society, we think it right that you should know something of our + character and intentions. Our title, at a first glance, may have + misled you into a belief that we have no other intention than the + amusement of a thoughtless crowd, and the collection of pence. We + have a higher object. Few of the admirers of our prototype, merry + Master PUNCH, have looked upon his vagaries but as the practical + outpourings of a rude and boisterous mirth. We have considered him + as a teacher of no mean pretensions, and have, therefore, adopted + him as the sponsor for our weekly sheet of pleasant instruction. + When we have seen him parading in the glories of his motley, + flourishing his _bâton_ in time with his own unrivalled discord, by + which he seeks to win the attention and admiration of the crowd, + what visions of graver puppetry have passed before our eyes!... Our + ears have rung with the noisy frothiness of those who have bought + their fellow-men as beasts in the market-place, and found their + reward in the sycophancy of a degraded constituency, or the + patronage of a venal ministry--no matter of what creed, for party + _must_ destroy patriotism.... + + "There is one portion of PUNCH'S drama we wish was omitted, for it + always saddens us--we allude to the prison scene. PUNCH, it is + true, sings in durance, but we hear the ring of the bars mingling + with the song. We are advocates for the _correction_ of offenders; + but how many generous and kindly beings are there pining within the + walls of a prison whose only crimes are poverty and misfortune!... + + "We now come to the last great lesson of our motley teacher--the + gallows; that accursed tree which has its _root_ in injuries. How + clearly PUNCH exposes the fallacy of that dreadful law which + authorises the destruction of life! PUNCH sometimes destroys the + hangman, and why not? Where is the divine injunction against the + shedder of man's blood to rest? None _can_ answer! To us there is + but ONE disposer of life. At other times PUNCH hangs the devil: + this is as it should be. Destroy the principle of evil by + increasing the means of cultivating the good, and the gallows will + then become as much a wonder as it is now a jest.... + + "As on the stage of PUNCH'S theatre many characters appear to fill + up the interstices of the more important story, so our pages will + be interspersed with trifles that have no other object than the + moment's approbation--an end which will never be sought for at the + expense of others, beyond the evanescent smile of a harmless + satire." + +A portion of this programme was duly eliminated by the abolition of the +Fleet and the Marshalsea; and it must be admitted that _Punch_ has long +since forgotten his declared crusade against capital punishment. But he +has been otherwise busy. His sympathy for the poor, the starving, the +ill-housed, and the oppressed; for the ill-paid curate and the +worse-paid clerk; for the sempstress, the governess, the shop-girl, has +been with him not only a religion, but a passion. Professor Ruskin, +judging only by _Punch's_ pictures, and that a little narrowly, has +thought otherwise. _Punch_ "has never in a single instance," says he in +his "Art of England," "endeavoured to represent the beauty of the poor. +On the contrary, his witness to their degradation, as inevitable +consequences of their London life, is constant and, for the most part, +contemptuous." + +Truth to tell, _Punch_ has been kindly from the first; and a man of +mettle, too. None has been too exalted or too powerful for attack; +withal, his assaults, in comparison with those of his scurrilous +contemporaries, have been moderate and gentlemanly in tone. He has +attacked abuses from the highest to the lowest. Sham gentility, vulgar +ostentation, crazes and fads, linked æstheticism long drawn out, foolish +costume, silly affectations of fashion in compliment and language--all +have been set up as targets for his shafts of ridicule or scorn. He has +been a moral reformer and a disinterested critic. A liberal-minded +patriot, he has ever opposed the advocacy of "Little Peddlington" in +Imperial politics; and municipal maladministration is a perennial +subject for his denunciations. He has been a kindly cauteriser of social +sores; caustic, but rarely vindictive. Spiritualism, Socialism, +Ibsenism, Walt Whitmania--all the movements and sensations of the day, +social, political, and artistic, in so far as they are follies--have +been shot at as they rose. And having conquered his position, _Punch_ +has known how to retain it. "The clown," says Oliver Wendell Holmes, +"knows his place to be at the tail of the procession." It is to +_Punch's_ honour that with conscious dignity--and, of course, with +conscious impudence--he took _his_ place at its head. And there he has +stayed; and transforming his pages into the Royal Academy of pictorial +satire, his alone among all the comic papers has forced its way into the +library and taken up its position in the boudoir. His workers are the +best available in the land; and when in course of time one contributor +falls away, another is ready to step quickly into his place--_uno avulso +non deficit alter_. + +So _Punch_--who for many years past has set up as the incarnation of all +that is best in wit and virtue--is a scholar and a gentleman. He is, +moreover, on his own showing, a perfect combination of humour, wisdom, +and honour; and yet, in spite of it all, not a bit of a prig. It is true +that when he donned the dress-coat, and "Punch" and "Toby" put on airs +as "Mr. Punch" and "Toby, M.P.," he became milder at the expense of some +of his political influence. Yet what he lost in power he gained in +respectability, as well as in the affection of his countrymen. He +appealed to a higher class, to the greater constituency of the whole +nation; and remembering that a jest's prosperity lies in the ear that +hears it, he transferred some of his allegiance from pit to stalls, and +was content with the well-bred smile where before he had been eager for +noisy laughter and loud applause. + +People say--among them Mr. du Maurier himself--that there does not seem +quite as much fun and jollity in the world as when John Leech was alive; +but that surely is only the wail of the middle-aged. Englishmen never +were uproarious in their mirth, as Froissart once reminded us. But it is +true that _Punch_ does not indulge so much as once he did in +caricature--which after all, as Carlyle has pointed out, is not Humour +at all, but Drollery. Caricature, one must remember, has two mortal +enemies--a small and a great: artistic excellence of draughtsmanship, +and national prosperity with its consequent contentment. Good harvests +beget good-humour. They stifle all motive for genuine caricature, for +"satire thrives only on the wrath of the multitude." A joke may be only +a joke--or a comedy, or a tragedy; but the greatest caricature (which +need by no means display the greatest art) is necessarily that which +goes straightest to the heart and mind. No drawing is true caricature +which does not make the beholder _think_, whether it springs simply from +good-humour or has its source in the passion of contempt, hatred, or +revenge, of hope or despair. Mere amusement, said Swift, "is the +happiness of those who cannot think," while Humour, to quote Carlyle +again, "is properly the exponent of low things; that which first renders +them poetical to the mind." Through this truth we may see how _Punch_ +has so continually dealt with vulgarity without being vulgar; while many +of his so-called rivals, touching the self-same subjects, have so +tainted themselves as to render them fitter for the kitchen than the +drawing-room, through lack of this saving grace. Fun may have been in +their jokes, but not true humour. _Punch_ thus became to London much +what the Old Comedy was to Athens; and, whatever individual critics may +say, he is recognised as the Nation's Jester, though he has always +sought to do what Swift declared was futile--to work upon the feelings +of the vulgar with fine sense, which "is like endeavouring to hew blocks +with a razor." + +If there is one thing more than another on which _Punch_ prides +himself--on which, nevertheless, he is constantly reproached by those +who would see his pages a remorseless mirror of human weakness and +vice--it is his purity and cleanness; his abstention from the unsavoury +subjects which form the principal stock-in-trade of the French humorist. +This trait was Thackeray's delight. "As for your morality, sir," he +wrote to Mr. Punch, "it does not become me to compliment you on it +before your venerable face; but permit me to say that there never was +before published in this world so many volumes that contained so much +cause for laughing, and so little for blushing; so many jokes, and so +little harm. Why, sir, say even that your modesty, which astonishes me +more and more every time I regard you, is calculated, and not a virtue +naturally inherent in you, that very fact would argue for the high sense +of the public morality among us. We will laugh in the company of our +wives and children; we will tolerate no indecorum; we like that our +matrons and girls should be pure." + +It was not till the great occasion of his Jubilee that the Merry Old +Gentleman of Fleet Street, who "hath no Party save Mankind; no +Leader--but Himself," discovered the full measure of his popularity. The +day broke for him amid a chorus of greeting--a perfect pæan of triumph, +in which his own trumpet was not the softest blown. It is not an +exaggeration to say that the Press of the world welcomed the fiftieth +anniversary of his birth, and that with a cordiality and unanimity never +before accorded to any paper. Hardly a journal in the English-speaking +world but commented on the event with kindly sympathy; hardly one that +marred the celebration with an ill-humoured reflection. Pencil as well +as pen was put to it to do honour to the greatest comic paper in the +world, and demonstrate in touching friendliness the confraternity of the +Press. + +For the public, _Punch_ issued his "Jubilee number" and, in accordance +with the promise given in the first volume fifty years before, he +produced in his hundredth a brief history of his career and the names of +the men who made it, modestly advising his readers to secure a set of +his back volumes as the real "Hundred Best Books." For himself, he dined +with the Staff at the "Ship Hotel" at Greenwich, when the Editor, who +occupied the chair, was fêted by the proprietors of the paper and +received a suitable memento of the glorious event. + +[Illustration: MR. PUNCH PORTRAYED BY DIFFERENT HANDS. + +_See p. 9._] + +And what may appear to some as the most curious celebration of all was a +solemn religious celebration--nothing less than a _Te Deum_--in honour +of the occasion. It sounds at first, perhaps, a little like a +joke--though not in good enough taste to be one of Mr. Punch's own; but +the service was held; and when regarded in the light shed upon it by the +Rev. J. de Kewer Williams, the incongruity of it almost disappears. "I +led my people yesterday," he wrote, "in giving thanks on the occasion +of your Jubilee, praying that you might ever be as discreet and as +kindly as you have always been." The prayer spoken in the pulpit +appropriately ended as follows: "For it is so easy to be witty and +wicked, and so hard to be witty and wise. May its satire ever be as good +and genial, and the other papers follow its excellent example!" + +The public tribute was not less cordial and sincere, and poetic +effusions flowed in a gushing stream. But none of these verses, doggerel +and otherwise, expressed more felicitously the general feeling than +those which had been written some years before by Henry J. Byron--(who +had himself attempted to establish a rival to _Punch_, but had been +crushed by the greater weight)--one of his verses running:-- + + "From 'Forty-one to present times + How much these pages speak, + And _Punch_ still bids us look into + The middle of next week; + And that's a Wednesday, as we know, + When still our friend appears, + As honest, fearless, bright, and pure + As in the bygone years." + +But greater far than the public esteem is the affection of the Staff, +who naturally enough regard the personality of _Punch_ with a good deal +more than ordinary loyal sentiment and _esprit de corps_. It is +interesting to observe the different views the artists have severally +taken of it, for most of them in turn have attempted his portrayal. +Brine regarded him as a mere buffoon, devoid of either dignity or +breeding; Crowquill, as a grinning, drum-beating Showman; Doyle, +Thackeray, and others adhered to the idea of the Merry, but certainly +not uproarious, Hunchback; Sir John Tenniel showed him as a vivified +puppet, all that was earnest, responsible, and wise, laughing and +high-minded; Keene looked on him generally as a youngish, bright-eyed, +but apparently brainless gentleman, afflicted with a pitiable deformity +of chin, and sometimes of spine; Sir John Gilbert as a rollicking +Polichinelle, and Kenny Meadows as Punchinello; John Leech's +conception, originally inspired, no doubt, by George Cruikshank's +celebrated etchings, was the embodiment of everything that was jolly and +all that was just, on occasion terribly severe, half flesh, half +wood--the father, manifestly, of Sir John Tenniel's improved figure of +more recent times. Every artist--Mr. du Maurier, Mr. Sambourne, Mr. +Furniss, and the rest--has had his own ideal; and it is curious to +observe that in his realisation of it, each has illustrated or betrayed +in just measure the strength or weakness of his own imagination. + +Some of these portraits, characteristic examples of _Punch's_ leading +artists, are reproduced on page 7, arranged according to authorship, +thus:-- + + W. Newman Kenny Meadows R. Doyle + W. M. Thackeray J. Leech (1) J. Tenniel (1) + C. Keene J. Leech (2) G. du Maurier + L. Sambourne (1) J. Tenniel (2) F. Eltze + L. Sambourne (2) J. Tenniel (3) H. Furniss + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +_PUNCH'S_ BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. + + The Mystery of His Birth--Previous Unsuccessful Attempts at + Solution--Proposal for a "London Charivari"--Ebenezer Landells and + His Notion--Joseph Last Consults with Henry Mayhew--Whose + Imagination is Fired--Staff Formed--Prospectus--_Punch_ is Born and + Christened--The First Number. + + +It should be counted against neither the fair fame nor the reputation of +_Punch_ that the facts of his birth have never yet been definitely and +honourably established. It is not that his parentage has been lost to +history in a discreet and charitable silence; on the contrary, it is +rather that that honour has been claimed by over-many, covetous of the +distinction. He seems to come within the category of Defoe's true-born +Englishman, "whose parents were the Lord knows who," not because there +should be any doubt upon the subject, but because none suspected at the +time the latent importance of the bantling and the circumstances of his +birth until it seemed too late to decide by demonstration or simple +affirmation who was father and who the sponsors. Had it then been known +that _Punch_ was born for immortality, I should not now be at the pains +of setting forth, at greater length than would otherwise be necessary or +justifiable, the proofs of his parentage and of his natal place. + + "Great Homer's birth seven rival cities claim, + Too mighty such monopoly of Fame." + +Rubens was born both at Antwerp and Cologne. One knows it to be so, when +one has visited both houses. Hans Memling, again, was native of Bruges +and Mömelingen too. It is hardly surprising, then, that several +roof-trees claim the honour of having sheltered the new-born _Punch_, +and that many men have contended for his paternity. + +I say "his" paternity; for the absolute personality of _Punch_ has +long been recognised. It has been the usual custom of comic papers +to indulge in a similar fiction, mildly humorous and conveniently +anonymous--"Figaro in London," "Pasquin," "The Puppet Show"-man, "The +Man in the Moon," and the rest. But _Punch_ was not only a personality +himself, but at the outset began by introducing the rest of his family +to the public. Nowadays he ignores his wife, especially since a +contemporary has appropriated her name. But this was not always so. In +his prospectus he announces that his department of "Fashion" will be +conducted by Mrs. J. Punch, whose portrait, drawn by Leech's pencil, +appeared in 1844 (p. 19, Vol. VI.), and who was seen again, under the +name of Judina, in honourable companionship with her husband, in the +preface to Vol. XLVII., for 1864, and once more in "Mrs. Punch's Letters +to Her Daughter." His daughter Julia, too, being then, in 1841, "in +service," wrote a letter to the journal in that style of damaged +orthography afterwards adopted by the immortal Jeames and his American +cousin, Artemus Ward. But it was not long before _Punch_ took a rise in +the social scale, and many men of distinction in literature have claimed +him for their child with all the emphasis of groundless assertion. + +According to the "City Press" (June 27th, 1892), Mr. C. Mitchell +frequently declared that _Punch_ originated with him, Shirley Brooks, +Henry Mayhew, and Ebenezer Landells, in his office in Red Lion Court, +the latter drawing the original sketch of the pink monthly cover of +_Punch_. But as Shirley Brooks did not come on the scene till thirteen +years later, and as the cover in question is the one designed, and +signed, by Sir John Gilbert in 1842, the claim may be dismissed, except +in so far as it may support Landells' statement that he prepared the +scheme of such a paper and submitted it to several publishers before he +and his associates determined upon carrying it themselves into +execution. And soon after it was started, as will be seen, the services +of a speculative printer were anxiously sought. + +Mr. Hatton declares that Mark Lemon "always spoke of it to me as a +project of himself and Henry Mayhew," wherein he is followed by the +"Dictionary of National Biography;" and the Hon. T. T. à Beckett gives +the exclusive honour to Henry Mayhew (wherein he is followed by the same +authority in the notice of the latter writer), but admits the further +founder's claim of Stirling Coyne. + +The writer of the well-known, but sadly inaccurate, pamphlet entitled +"Mr. Punch, His Origin and Career," which was published in 1882 as a +memorial of Mark Lemon, explains circumstantially that it was Mr. Last, +the printer, who proposed the idea to Henry Mayhew, who "readily +accepted it." The book is generally accredited to Sidney Blanchard; but +when I explain that the printer of it, now deceased, informed me that it +was written and brought to him by Last's son, the transfer of the +central interest from Landells and Henry Mayhew becomes intelligible. + +The late Mr. R. B. Postans, the house-chum of Henry Mayhew, "his +companion from morning to night," and George Hodder, in his oft-quoted +"Memories of My Time," agree in according undivided credit to Henry +Mayhew; but they unfortunately disagree in essentials, and contradict +each other, and indirectly confirm my own conclusions. Hodder further +declares that Mayhew invented the paper and its name simultaneously, +which sprang Minerva-like, full-titled, from his brain--which we know to +be untrue, as the name was not decided upon until a subsequent meeting. +Indeed, on the final prospectus, written with Mark Lemon's hand, as may +be seen on p. 20, the present title was only inserted as an +after-thought. + +Then comes the version of Henry Mayhew's son, Mr. Athol Mayhew, who +claims everything for his father in a statement of some length, in some +respects authentic, but in many details entirely erroneous. He carries +back Mayhew's idea of a "London Charivari" to the year 1835; but, as +will be seen a little further on, Orrin Smith, Jerrold, Thackeray, and +several more of the wags of the day afterwards combined in a stillborn +effort to start a similar paper based on the same model. The writer +bases his case far too much on Hodder's "Memories," which, entertaining +though they are, do not universally command the trust and respect with +which Mr. Athol Mayhew regards them. "A more sanguine man than my +father," he says, "never breathed, and in his arrangement with Hodder +appears to have taken everything for granted, although the scheme had +not as yet been even breathed to Messrs. Landells and Last [the engraver +and printer]; for when the latter gentleman agreed to enter into the +speculation, Mayhew had removed to Clement's Inn." But the writer, who +would appear to have inherited the paternal characteristic of "taking +everything for granted," has not considered that Hodder declared that +his visit to Hemming's Row, by which occasion it is alleged that the new +_Punch_ had sprung to Mayhew's brain, was "_in the summer_." As _Punch_ +appeared in the middle of July, and, according to the draft prospectus, +was first arranged to appear on June 10th (though this may possibly have +been a _lapsus calami_), it requires more than ordinary sanguineness to +accept the statement that not a word had been breathed to persons so +paramount in such a newspaper enterprise as the printer and +engraver--especially when the paper was to make its appearance in a few +days' time. And yet Mr. Mayhew adds that matters did not progress even +so rapidly as his authority, George Hodder, narrates. + +Yet although it was not, as will appear, Henry Mayhew who was the actual +initiator of _Punch_, it was unquestionably he to whom the whole credit +belongs of having developed Landells' specific idea of a "Charivari," +and of its conception in the form it took. Though not the absolute +author of its existence, he was certainly the author of its literary and +artistic being, and to that degree, as he was wont to claim, he was its +_founder_. + +From all these versions (which, after all, vary hardly more than the +accounts of other incidents of _Punch_ life[1]) it is not very easy at +first sight to sift the truth. There is a story of the tutor of an +Heir-Apparent who asked his pupil, by way of examination, what was the +date of the battle of Agincourt. "1560," promptly replied the Prince. +"The date which your Royal Highness has mentioned," said the tutor, "is +perfectly correct, but I would venture to point out that it has no +application to the subject under discussion." A like criticism might +fairly be passed on each existing reading of the genesis of _Punch_. It +has been worth while, for the first time, and it is to be hoped the +last, to collate and compare these statements, and ascertain the facts +as far as possible. Claims have been set up, variously and severally, +for Henry Mayhew, Mark Lemon, Joseph Last, Ebenezer Landells, and +Stirling Coyne; even Douglas Jerrold and Gilbert à Beckett have been +declared originators, though no such pretentions came directly from +them. Otherwise than in the spirit of the Scottish minister who +exclaimed, "Brethren, let us look our difficulties boldly and fairly in +the face--and pass on," I propose to take those portions of the stories +which tally with the facts I have ascertained and verified beyond all +doubt, and, disentangling the general confusion as briefly as may be, to +present one consistent version, which must stand untainted by claims of +friendship, by pride of kinship, or filial respect. + +It had occurred to many of the wits, literary and artistic, who well +understood the cause of mortality in the so-called comic press that had +gone before, that a paper might succeed which was decently and cleanly +conducted. It might be as slashing in its wit and as fearless in its +opinions as it pleased, so long as those opinions were honest and their +expression restrained. Their idea was founded rather on Philipon's Paris +"Charivari" than on anything that had appeared in England; but they +plainly saw that to attract and hold the public the paper which they +imagined must be a weekly and not a daily one. The Staff which was +brought together consisted of Douglas Jerrold, Thackeray, Laman +Blanchard, Percival Leigh, and Poole, author of "Paul Pry"--authors; and +Kenny Meadows, Leech, and perhaps Crowquill--artists; with Orrin Smith +as engraver. The whole scheme of this new "London Charivari" was in a +forward state of preparation, even to pages of text being set up, when +it suddenly collapsed through a mistaken notion of Thackeray's that each +co-partner--there being no "capitalist" thought of--would be liable for +the private debts of his colleagues. The suggestion was too much for the +faith of the schemers in one another's discretion, and "The London +Charivari" was incontinently dropped; yet unquestionably it had some +indirect influence on the subsequent constitution and career of Mr. +Punch. + +[Illustration: EBENEZER LANDELLS.] + +For some years the success of the Paris "Charivari" had attracted the +attention of Mr. Ebenezer Landells, wood-engraver, draughtsman, and +newspaper projector. He had been a favourite pupil of the great Bewick +himself, and had come up to London, where he soon made his mark as John +Jackson's and Harvey's chief lieutenant and obtained an entrance into +literary and artistic circles. A man of great originality and initiative +ability, of unflagging energy and industry, of considerable artistic +taste, and of great amiability, he also had the defect of the creative +quality of his mind, so that, owing to that lack of business talent +which the public generally associates with the artistic temperament, he +did not ultimately prove himself more than a moderate financial success. +As Jerrold, Thackeray, and the rest had done before him, he believed in +a "Charivari" for England, and pondered how the Parisian success might +be emulated and achieved. In his house at 22, Bidborough Street, St. +Pancras (where most of the early _Punch_ blocks were cut), he had a +ready-made staff of engravers that included some names destined to +become better known--Mr. Birket Foster; Mr. Edmund Evans, best known +nowadays in connection with Miss Kate Greenaway's delightful children's +books; J. Greenaway, her father, who became a master engraver himself; +and William Gaiter, who afterwards took Orders; while "outside" were +Edward and George Dalziel, T. Armstrong, and Charles Gorway. With these +young men the handsome, tall engraver was extremely popular; they called +him "the Skipper," or "Old Tooch-it-oop" behind his back, in token of +his Northumbrian accent, but to his friends he was generally known as +"Daddy Longlegs," or "Daddy Landells." + +So Landells took the idea, which he determined upon carrying out, to one +or two well-established publishers, Wright of Fleet Street amongst them, +but none could see the germ of a first-rate property in it. It was +objected that the temperament of the English people so differed from +that of the French that they certainly would neither appreciate nor +encourage the requisite style of writing, even supposing--which they did +not believe--that the necessary talent were forthcoming. Moreover, they +would not credit that a comic paper could succeed without the +scurrility, and often enough the indecencies, that had distinguished +earlier satirical prints; and although the popularity of Hood's "Comic +Annual" and Cruikshank's "Comic Almanac" was pointed to, they would have +nothing to do with a weekly, however much it professed to supersede +previous ribaldry with clean wit and healthy humour. + +As it happened, early in 1841 Landells was concerned, with his friend +Joseph Last, printer, of 3, Crane Court, Fleet Street, in projecting a +periodical known as "The Cosmorama," an illustrated journal of life and +manners of the day, and to him Landells imparted his conviction that +such a journal as he imagined would certainly succeed. The enterprising +printer lent a readier ear than others had done (perhaps, in view of his +limited capital and still more limited ideas of speculation, altogether +too ready an ear), and agreed with Landells to take up so excellent a +notion. Now, in the little world of comic writing a brilliant humorist +was at work--Henry Mayhew, one of several brothers of ability, a man +whose resource was equal to his wit. He was already known to Last as the +son of the leading member of the firm of Mayhew, Johnston, and Mayhew, +of Carey Street, his legal advisers. He was residing at the time at +Hemming's Row, over a haberdasher's shop, and, with F. W. N. Bayley and +others, he had been secured as writer on "The Cosmorama." Landells, +introduced to him by Last, approached him on the subject of the +"Charivari." Mayhew grasped the conception at once, and, as the sequel +proved, saw it more completely, and perhaps appreciated its literary and +artistic possibilities more clearly, than either its material originator +or his ambassador had done. He immediately advised dropping "The +Cosmorama," and directing on to the new comic all the energy and +resources that were to have been put into the more commonplace +publication. In due course he imparted the new idea to his friend +Postans, who shared his room, and to other visitors; but he forgot to +mention how the idea had been brought to him, so that his friends not +unnaturally counted it as another of Harry's many happy, but usually +impracticable, thoughts. But in this instance Mayhew made his +personality felt, for the character of the paper, instead of partaking +of that acidulated, sardonic satire which was distinctive of Philipon's +journal, on which it was to have been modelled, took its tone from +Mayhew's genial temperament, and from the first became, or aimed at +becoming, a budget of wit, fun, and kindly humour, and of honest +opposition based upon fairness and justice. + +As for the Staff of such a paper as he imagined, Mayhew urged that he +could secure the services of Douglas Jerrold, Gilbert à Beckett, Mark +Lemon, Stirling Coyne, and others, in addition to those already engaged; +and then adjournment was proposed to Mark Lemon's rooms in Newcastle +Street, Strand. "The Shakespeare's Head," in Wych Street, had +previously been Lemon's place of business. It was the meeting-place of +the little "quoting, quipping, quaffing" club of fellow-workers in +Bohemia; and Lemon, it was explained, had dabbled both in verse and the +lighter drama, efforts which were "not half bad." Little did the writer +dream that his modest Muse had marked him out for the editorship of the +greatest comic journal the world has seen! To the duties of +tavern-keeper Lemon, who was enamoured of literature and the drama, had +been condemned by a fate more than usually unkind. He had found himself +nearly penniless when Mr. Very, his stepfather, offered him a clerical +position in his brewery in Kentish Town. But the brewery failed, and +with it Lemon's livelihood, and he was only rescued by a jovial +tavern-keeper named Roper, one of his stepfather's customers, and by him +put into charge--disastrously for both--of the Wych Street public-house. +Then he married, having borrowed five pounds to do it with, and by his +wife's advice kept in touch with his literary acquaintance; and by the +acceptance of a five-act comedy by Charles Mathews at Covent +Garden--which was to be played by a cast including the great comedian's +self, Mme. Vestris, and "Old" Farren--he received a hundred pounds down, +and was tided over his difficulties until the starting of _Punch_ gave +him permanent employment. + +So to Mark Lemon they went, and a full list was quickly drawn up. Mayhew +undertook to communicate with Douglas Jerrold, who, then better known to +the public as the successful dramatist than as the great satirist, was +staying at Boulogne for the sake of his young family's education; and a +charming picture has been drawn by his son of how, on the visit of à +Beckett, Charles Dickens, and the rest, he would throw off his clothes +and swim with them in the sea, or challenge them to a game of leap-frog +on the sands--a curious contrast to his own declaration that the only +exercise he cared for was cribbage.[2] + +Stirling Coyne, Daily, W. H. Wills, H. P. Grattan (H. Plunkett, otherwise +"Fusbos"), Henning, Henry Baylis, and "Paul Prendergast"--whose "Comic +Latin Grammar" had been attracting much attention--were proposed, and +Hodder was told off to wait upon the latter. At the adjourned meeting at +the "Edinburgh Castle" tavern in the Strand, Somerset House, Postans, +William Newman, Baylis (afterwards president of the "_Punch_ Club"), +Stirling Coyne, Henning, Mayhew, Landells, and Hodder were present. +The latter then explained that "Prendergast" was a young medical man, +Percival Leigh by name, who preferred to wait before giving his adhesion +until he was satisfied as to the character of the publication; and "Phiz" +had returned a similar reply to Mark Lemon--though later on he was +glad enough to accept little commissions in the way of drawing initial +letters for the paper. + +Henning was then nominated cartoonist; Brine, Phillips, and Newman, +artists-in-ordinary; and Lemon, Coyne, Mayhew, à Beckett, and Wills, the +literary Staff, until the advent of the others, whose adhesion was +anxiously awaited. Henry Mayhew, Mark Lemon, and Stirling Coyne were to +be joint editors; Last, of course, was to be printer, and Landells +engraver; and W. Bryant publisher. Several more meetings were held--at +the "Crown" in Vinegar Yard, at Landells' house, and elsewhere--and in +due course Mark Lemon produced the draft prospectus, consisting of three +folios of blue paper, which probably contains a good deal more of Mayhew +and Coyne than of Mark Lemon. Edmund Yates estimated its chemical +composition thus:-- + + Henry Mayhew 95 + Stirling Coyne 3 + W. H. Wills 1.5 + Mark Lemon .5 + ------ + 100 + +And his estimate was probably correct. This interesting document is here +shown in reduced facsimile:-- + +[Illustration: _THE HISTORY OF "PUNCH."_ + +DRAFT OF THE _PUNCH_ PROSPECTUS, IN MARK LEMON'S HANDWRITING (REDUCED).] + +[Illustration: _THE DRAFT PROSPECTUS._] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE _PUNCH_ PROSPECTUS. + +(_Original size of page 5-1/4 x 3-3/4 inches._)] + +At the head of this announcement there was a woodcut of Lord Morpeth, +Lord Melbourne (Prime Minister), and Lord John Russell, who were then in +office, but were popularly, and correctly, supposed to be in imminent +danger of defeat. The price originally proposed was twopence--the usual +price of similar papers of the day--but it was altered to "the +irresistibly comic charge of threepence!!" and the title was being +given as "The Fun----," when the writer stopped short and erased it. It +is generally believed that the intention was to call the paper "The +Funny Dog--with Comic Tales," as appears in the final line of the +prospectus; a title, moreover, that was employed in 1857 for a book in +which more than one _Punch_ man co-operated. A reduced copy of the now +rare leaflet as it was printed and circulated by tens of thousands is +given on the previous page. "Vates," it should be explained, was the +_nom de plume_ of the notorious sporting tipster then attached to +"Bell's Life in London." + +As to the origin of _Punch's_ name, there are as many versions as of the +origin of _Punch_ itself. Hodder declares that it was Mayhew's sudden +inspiration. Last asserted that when "somebody" at the "Edinburgh +Castle" meeting spoke of the paper, like a good mixture of punch, being +nothing without Lemon, Mayhew caught at the idea and cried, "A capital +idea! We'll call it _Punch_!" Jovial Hal Baylis it was, says another, +who, when refreshment time came round (it was always coming round with +him), gave the hint so readily taken. Mrs. Brezzi, wife of the sculptor, +lays the scene of the first meeting in the "Wrekin Tavern," Broad +Street, Longacre, and writes that the founders were only prevented from +calling the paper "Cupid," with Lord Brougham in that character on the +title-page [presumably a mistake for Lord Palmerston, who subsequently +was so shown in _Punch_ by Brine, picking his teeth with his arrow] by +the sight from Joseph Allen's window of a Punch and Judy show in the +north-eastern corner of Trafalgar Square. Mrs. Bacon, Mark Lemon's +niece, informs me that she distinctly remembers being seated among the +gentlemen who met at his rooms in Newcastle Street, and hearing Henry +Mayhew suddenly exclaim, "Let the name be 'Punch'!"--a fact engraven on +her memory through her childish passion for the reprobate old puppet. +Mr. E. Stirling Coyne claims that it was his father who suggested the +title at the memorable meeting at Allen's. This, at least, in Lemon's +words, is certain: "It was called _Punch_ because it was short and +sweet. And Punch is an English institution. Everyone loves Punch, and +will be drawn aside to listen to it. All our ideas connected with Punch +are happy ones." The decision was not set aside when it was found that +Jerrold had edited a "Punch in London" years before, proposed to him a +few months earlier by Mr. Mills (of Mills, Jowett, and Mills). But the +favour with which the title was received was not universal. "I +remember," Mr. Birket Foster tells me, "Landells coming into the +workshop and saying, 'Well, boys, the title for the new work is to be +_Punch_.' When he was gone, we said it was a very stupid one, little +thinking what a great thing it was to become." + +[Illustration: SIGNATURES ON DOCUMENT BY WHICH _PUNCH_ WAS FOUNDED. + +(_See Appendix I._)] + +The business plan was to be a co-operative one. Mayhew, Lemon, and +Coyne, it was finally agreed, were to be co-editors and own one-third +share as payment.[3] Last was to find the printing and own one share, +and Landells was to find drawings and engraving, and own one share. The +claims of outside contributors (among whom were Jerrold and à Beckett) +and the paper-maker's bill were to be the first charge on the proceeds; +and if these were not enough, Landells and Last were to make up the +deficiency. So, on the same plan as the first abortive attempt of a +"London Charivari," the new paper was embarked on, by men who with but +little capital ("it was started with £25--which I found!" says Landells) +yet threw themselves into it, and became their own publishers. +Advertising to the extent of £111 12s. was ventured on, including +"billing in 6 Mags.," "page in 'Master Humphrey's Clock' twice," 100,000 +of the prospectuses reproduced on p. 23,[4] and 2,000 window-bills that +bore the design which Henning drew for _Punch's_ cover, after a rough +sketch by Landells. + +It was a busy fortnight; and it may well be doubted if any other journal +of such great eventual popularity has ever been launched with so little +preparation. Every technical detail identical with what was employed up +to recent years was settled; Henning drew his ill-composed cartoon of +"Parliamentary Candidates under Different Heads," roughly done, but not +ill-cut; and Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Henry Grattan, Joseph Allen, F. +G. Tomlins, Gilbert à Beckett, and W. H. Wills (the biting epigram "To +the Black-balled of the United Service Club," _i.e._ Lord Cardigan, was +his), all contributed to the first number. It is an axiom of newspaper +conductors that "the first number is always the worst number," and +_Punch_ did nothing to disprove the rule. Nevertheless, it was a great +success. The tone and quality were far higher in dignity and excellence +than was common to an avowedly smart and comic paper--far different from +what is suggested by the word "Charivari;" and the public admitted that +here was a novel school of comic writing, by a motley moralist and +punning philosopher, and hailed with pleasure the advent of a "New +Humour." + +[Illustration: COVER OF THE FIRST VOLUME OF _PUNCH_. + +(_Designed by A. S. Henning._)] + +"Out came the first number," wrote Landells. "I shall never forget the +excitement of that first number! It was so great that Mr. Mayhew, Mr. +Lemon, and myself, sat up all night at the printer's, waiting to see it +printed." When "our Mr. Bryant," as the publisher was called, opened the +publishing office on that memorable 17th of July, at 13, Wellington +Street, Strand, the unexpected demand for the paper raised the +expectations and enthusiasm of the confederates to the highest pitch. +Mayhew, with Hodder and Landells, walked up and down outside the office +and in the neighbouring Strand, discussing the paper and its prospects, +and constantly calling to hear from Bryant how things were progressing. +At news of each fresh thousand sold, their spirits rose, and their +anxiety became satisfaction when the whole edition of five thousand had +been taken up by the trade, and another like edition was called for, +and, on the following day, was sold out. Ten thousand copies! Ten +thousand proofs, they took it, of public sympathy and encouragement. + +Such is the outline of _Punch's_ conception and birth, based on many +original documents and a mass of evidence, as well as on the independent +testimony collected from survivors. In the words of Mr. Jabez Hogg, +"Landells and Henry Mayhew were certainly the founders"--the former +conceiving the idea of the paper which was presently established, and +the latter developing it, as set forth, according to his original +views--founding the tradition and personality of "Mr. Punch," and +converting him from a mere strolling puppet, an irresponsible jester, +into the laughing philosopher and man of letters, the essence of all +wit, the concentration of all wisdom, the soul of honour, the fountain +of goodness, and the paragon of every virtue. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] An example of these amusing and confusing contentions is the +popular--I might almost say classic--witticism which is often +resurrected at the expense of _Punch_. Once in a company of choice +spirits Somebody suggested, when "our leading comic" was being +discussed, that it would surely be an original idea and a good +speculation to "start a _comic_ Punch." Douglas Jerrold, says one +writer, aimed the dart at Mark Lemon. Mr. W. S. Gilbert, according to a +world-travelled newspaper paragraph, let off the gibe at his friend Mr. +Burnand. Laman Blanchard, says another journalist, surprised Jerrold +into silence with the taunt. Mark Lemon, declares another, threatened +his proprietors with it in a moment of anger; while Mr. Walford told me +that it was certainly first spoken of by George Grossmith, senr., of +humorous memory. But Hodder and Vizetelly agree in fathering it on +Blanchard's son, Sidney, at the time when Gilbert à Beckett's "Comic +Blackstone" and comic histories were delighting all true connoisseurs of +burlesque. Sidney Blanchard, Hodder reminds us, was possessed of a +quaint wit, which was wont to deliver itself in a manner such as that in +which he referred to a cashier who was never behind his desk when money +was to be paid out: "Compared with him," said he, "the eel is an +adhesive animal." + +[2] This little conceit greatly pleased its author. He makes Mrs. Caudle +exclaim, when protesting against her spouse's lapse into +billiards--"There's the manly and athletic game of cribbage!" + +[3] So ignorant were their immediate successors of the events I am +relating that in a letter written in confutation of the assertion that +Gilbert à Beckett had been an editor of _Punch_, Shirley Brooks said: +"From the first the editorship was in the hands of my predecessor, Mark +Lemon; the opening address was from his pen, and he was sole editor from +July 17th, 1841 (the day of the birth of the publication) until May +23rd, 1870, the day of his lamented death." In the Jubilee number of +_Punch_ this misconception was confirmed upon the authority of this +statement of Shirley Brooks. + +[4] These prospectuses cost a penny for twenty; they are now worth a +guinea each. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +_PUNCH'S_ EARLY PROGRESS AND VICISSITUDES. + + + Reception of _Punch_--Early Struggles--Financial Help Invoked--The + First Almanac--Its Enormous Success--Transfer of _Punch_ to + Bradbury and Evans--Terms of Settlement--The New Firm--_Punch's_ + Special Efforts--Succession of Covers--"Valentines," "Holidays," + "Records of the Great Exhibition," and "At the Paris Exhibition." + +The public reception of the first number of _Punch_ was varied in +character. Mr. Watts, R.A., once told me that the paper was regarded +with but little encouragement by the occupants of an omnibus in which he +was riding, one gentleman, after looking gravely through its pages, +tossing it aside with the remark, "One of those ephemeral things they +bring out; won't last a fortnight!" Dr. Thompson, Master of Trinity, +informed Professor Herkomer that he, too, was riding in an omnibus on +the famous 17th of July, when he bought a copy from a paper-boy, and +began to look at it with curiosity. When he chuckled at the quaint wit +of the thing, "Do you find it amusing, sir?" asked a lady, who was +observing him narrowly. "Oh, yes." "I'm so glad," she replied; "my +husband has been appointed editor; he gets twenty pounds a week!" One +may well wonder who was this sanguine and trustful lady. Mr. Frith +describes how, having overheard Joe Allen tell a friend, in the gallery +of the Society of British Artists, to "look out for our first number; we +shall take the town by storm!" he duly looked out, but was disappointed +at finding nothing in it by Leech; and how when he went to a shop for +the second number, to see if his idol had drawn anything for it, the +newsman replied, "'What paper, sir? Oh, _Punch_! Yes, I took a few of +the first number; but it's no go. You see, they billed it about a good +deal' (how well I recollect that expression!), 'so I wanted to see what +it was like. It won't do; it's no go.'" + +The reception by the press was more encouraging--that is to say, by the +provincial press, for the London papers took mighty little notice of the +newcomer. The "Morning Advertiser," it is true, quaintly declared in +praise of the "exquisite woodcuts, serious and comic," that they were +"executed in the first style of art, at a price so low that we really +blush to name it;" while the "Sunday Times" and a number of provincial +papers of some slight account in their day professed astonishment at the +absence of grossness, partisanship, profanity, indelicacy, and malice +from its pages. "It is the first comic we ever saw," said the "Somerset +County Gazette," "which was not vulgar. It will provoke many a hearty +laugh, but never call a blush to the most delicate cheek." They vied +with each other in their vocabulary of praise; and as to _Punch's_ quips +and sallies, his puns, his propriety, his "pencillings," and his +cuts--they simply defied description; you just cracked your sides with +laughter at the jokes, and that was all about it. + +Yet, notwithstanding all this praise, the paper did not prosper; but +whether it was that the price did not suit the public, although the +"Advertiser" really blushed to name it, or that _Punch_ had not yet +educated his Party, cannot be decided. The support of the public did not +lift it above a circulation of from five to six thousand, and on the +appearance of the fifth number Jerrold muttered with a snort, "I wonder +if there will ever be a tenth!" Everything that could be done to command +attention, with the limited funds at disposal, was done. No sooner was +Lord Melbourne's Administration defeated and discredited (for the +Premier was angrily denounced for hanging on to office), than _Punch_ +displayed a huge placard across the front of his offices inscribed, "Why +is _Punch_ like the late Government? Because it is JUST OUT!!" And no +device of the sort, or other artifice that could be suggested to the +resourceful minds in _Punch's_ cabinet, was left untried. Things were +against _Punch_. It was not only that the public was neglectful, +unappreciative. There was prejudice to live down; there were stamp duty, +advertisement duty, and paper duty to stand up to; and there were no +Smiths or Willings, or other great distributing agencies, to assist. + +While Bryant was playing his uphill game, _Punch_, written by educated +men, was doing his best not only to attract politicians and lovers of +humour and satire, but to enlist also the support of scholars, to whom +at that time no comic paper had avowedly appealed; and it is doubtless +due to the assumption that his readers, like his writers, were gentlemen +of education, that he quickly gained the reputation of being entitled to +a place in the library and drawing-room, diffusing, so to speak, an +odour of culture even in those early days of his first democratic +fervour. We had a German "Punchlied," Greek Anakreontics, and plenty of +Latin--not merely Leigh's mock-classic verses, but efforts of a higher +humour and a purer kind, such, among many more, as the "Petronius," and +the clever interlinear burlesque translations of Horace which came from +the pen of H. A. Kennedy. Then "Answers to Correspondents" were +maintained for a while inside the wrapper, which were witty enough to +justify their existence. But it was felt that something more was wanted +to make the paper "move;" and the first "Almanac" was decided upon. + +The circulation meanwhile had not risen above six thousand, and ten +thousand were required to make the paper pay. Stationer and contributors +had all been paid, and "stock" was now valued at £250. That there was a +constant demand for these back numbers (on September 27th, 1841, for +example, £1 3s. 4-1/2d.-worth were sold "over the counter"), was held to +prove that the work was worth pushing; but it seemed that for want of +capital it would go the way of many another promising concern. The +difficulties into which _Punch_ had fallen soon got noised abroad, and +offers of assistance, not by any means disinterested, were not wanting +to remind the stragglers of their position. Helping hands were certainly +put out, but only that money might be dropped in. Then Last declined to +go on. He had neither the patience nor the speculative courage of the +Northumbrian engraver, and money had, not without great difficulty and +delay, been found to pay him for his share--which had hitherto been a +share only of loss. The firm of Bradbury and Evans had been looked to as +a _deus ex machinâ_ to take over the printing, and lift _Punch_ out of +the quagmire by acquiring Last's share and interest for £150. The offer +was entertained, and an agreement drafted on September 25th, when, on +the very same day, Bradbury and Evans wrote to withdraw, on the ground +that they found the proposed acquisition "would involve them in the +probable loss of one of their _most valuable_ connections." Landells, +who always regarded this action--without any definite grounds that I can +discover--as a diplomatic move to involve him and his friends still +more, so that more advantageous salvage terms might be made, hurriedly +cast about for other succour, and alighted on one William Wood, printer, +who lent money, but whose agreement as a whole was not executed, as it +was considered "either usurious or exorbitant" by their solicitors, who +characteristically concluded their bill thus:--"Afterwards attending at +the office in Wellington Street to see as to making the tender, and to +advise you on the sufficiency thereof, but you were not there; +afterwards attending at Mr. H. Mayhew's lodging, but he was out; +afterwards attending at Mr. Lemon's, and he was out; and we were given +to understand you had all gone to Gravesend"--showing the one touch of +nature which made all _Punch_-men kin. + +In due course Landells acquired Last's share, and the printing was +executed successively by Mr. Mitchell and by Mills, Jowett, and Mills, +until it slid by a sort of natural gravitation into the hands of +Bradbury and Evans. Landells had endeavoured to interest his friends in +the paper, but soon discovered the fatal truth that one's closest +friends are never so close as when it is a question of money. + +Then came the Almanac, upon which were based many hopes that were +destined to be more than realised. It has hitherto been considered as +the work of Dr. Maginn, at that time, as at many others, an unwilling +sojourner in a debtor's prison. But H. P. Grattan has since claimed the +distinction of being, like the doctor, an inmate of the retreat known as +Her Majesty's Fleet, where he was visited by Henry Mayhew. Mayhew, he +said, lived surreptitiously with him for a week, and during that time, +without any assistance from Dr. Maginn, they brought the whole work to a +brilliant termination. Thirty-five jokes a day to each man's credit for +seven consecutive days in the melancholy privacy of a prison cell is +certainly a very remarkable feat--hardly less so than the alleged fact +that Mayhew, who proposed the Almanac, as he proposed so many other good +things for _Punch_, should have gone to the incarcerated Grattan for +sole assistance, when he and his co-editors had so many capable +colleagues at large. The claim does not deserve full credence, +especially in face of Landells' declaration that "everyone engaged on it +worked so admirably together, and it was done so well, that the town was +taken by surprise, and the circulation went up in that one week from +6,000 to 90,000--an increase, I believe, unprecedented in the annals of +publishing." The Almanac became at once the talk of the day; everybody +had read it, and a contemporary critic declared that its cuts "would +elicit laughter from toothache, and render gout oblivious of his toe." + +Now, although Bradbury and Evans had hesitated to become proprietors, +they had had no objection to act as printers and publishers, and when +the editors approached them they lent a ready ear. "It was Uncle Mark," +said "Pater" Evans at the "Gentleman's Magazine" dinner in 1868, "who +was the chief conspirator when they brought _Punch_ to Whitefriars; it +was his eloquence alone that induced us to buy _Punch_. Jerrold did not +say much, but he supported his friend, you may be sure. They talked us +over very easily." They bought the editors' share for £200, which they +advanced on the security of the whole. Into the circumstances of the +subsequent squabbles between Landells and the firm it is not needful to +enter. He bitterly complained that he could obtain neither statements of +accounts nor satisfactory arrangement, while the firm withheld their +favourable consideration of the agreements his solicitors sent them to +sign. The negotiations proceeded wearily from April, 1842, to December +24th, with rising wrath on the part of the good-hearted, impatient +Northumbrian, who could neither understand nor brook the repeated +delays, and fairly boiled over with indignation, suspicion, and wrath. +In despair, so Landells recorded, that his lawyers could get no +satisfaction, and yet "not willing to put the whole thing into +Chancery," he blurted out that he should buy back Bradbury and Evans' +share or they acquire his. As cool business men they promptly asked his +price. He named £450, ultimately reducing it to £400, and further to +£350, on the understanding, he says, that he should continue to act as +engraver; and great were his anger and humiliation when he found after +the second week of the new _régime_ that the engraving was taken from +him. But it is only fair to say that in his lawyer's instructions there +is evidence that Bradbury and Evans persistently declined to give up +their freedom in the matter of the engraving. The transfer then took +place.[5] On December 23rd, 1842, the firm was already speaking with +some authority; the voice was the voice of the printers, but the tone +was the tone of proprietors. And that was the passing of _Punch_. +Earlier in the year Landells had made an effort to save the paper by +persuading those who worked for it to take shares. With a few he was +successful; others were less speculative, so the writer was informed by +the late H. G. Hine. "Landells," he said, "asked me to take a share in +the paper, but, not being a business man, I declined. When the paper +changed hands, Bradbury and Evans bought it for so small an increase on +the actual losses and debts, that each man, when the profits were +divided, received two-and-sixpence each." Not long after Landells ceased +his connection with _Punch_, Douglas Jerrold met Vizetelly, and +acquainted him with the turn of the tide. "_Punch_ is getting on all +right now," he said; and added, in his saturnine way, "It began to do so +immediately we threw that engraving Jonah overboard!" Yet Jerrold was +glad enough to take advantage of the engraving Jonah's influence the +following year, when Landells, with Herbert Ingram, N. Cooke, T. +Roberts, W. Little, and R. Palmer started the "Illuminated Magazine," +and installed him as editor at a handsome salary. + +The following page from Landells' rather rough-and-ready accounts will +give some idea of how financial matters stood between the parties at the +time of the transfer:-- + + + B. & E. CASH RECD. | B. & E. CASH PAID. + | + £ s. d. | £ s. d. + | + Accts. 1,278 6 9 |Cash paid to Artists, + Editors, Artists, paid 507 4 6 | Editors, etc. 507 4 6 + ----------- |B. & E. for printing 605 10 6 + 771 2 3 | + B. & E. acct. 605 10 6 | + ----------- | + Balance in hand £165 11 9 | + ------------------------------------+---------------------------------- + E. LANDELLS. | LEMON, COYNE, AND MAYHEW. + | + £ s. d. | £ s. d. + | + To Engravings 315 4 0 |To Editing 400 0 0 + Cash 25 0 0 |1/2 debt 100 0 0 + Paid contributions at | --------- + £6. 0. 0 per week 120 0 0 | 300 0 0 + --------- | + 460 4 0 | 400 0 0 + 1/2 debt 100 0 0 | 100 0 0 + --------- | --------- + 360 4 0 | 300 0 0 + --------- | 120 0 0 + Cash received 57 0 0 | --------- + --------- | 180 0 0 + £303 4 0 | 25 0 0 + | --------- + | £155 0 0 + + + + [_Note._--The schedule of documents and legal papers connected with + the matters here dealt with, now in possession of Messrs. Bradbury, + Agnew and Co., Ltd. (which confirm the particulars derived from + Landells' papers) are:-- + + 1. The original Agreement between the original founders of _Punch_ + already enumerated. This is dated July 14th, 1841--only three days + before the appearance of the paper. It is printed at length as + Appendix 1 to this volume. + + 2. Agreement between Bradbury and Evans and "Punchites," whereby in + consideration of a loan of £150 the printing of the paper is + assured to the firm. This is dated Oct., 1841, the signatories + being E. Landells, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, and Stirling Coyne, + with W. H. Wills and G. Windsor as witnesses. + + 3. The assignment to Landells of _Punch_ and the stock-in-trade by + Lemon, Mayhew, and Stirling Coyne. Dated December 6th, 1841. + + 4. Assignment to Bradbury and Evans by Landells of his two-thirds + share of _Punch_. Dated, July 25th, 1842. + + 5. Assignment of his remaining one-third to Bradbury and Evans by + Landells, in consideration of £100 cash and their acceptance for + £250 due Jan. 31st, 1843, their mortgage on this share to be + cancelled. This deed is dated Dec. 29th, 1842, and is in the terms + of Landells' letter of agreement of the previous 24th.] + +The new proprietors, when they acquired their interest in _Punch_, were +not then distinguished publishers such as they soon became; they were +essentially printers, and had few connections to assist them in making +it into a paying property. They had, however, W. S. Orr & Co. (the +London agents of Chambers, of Edinburgh), who had fallen into financial +difficulties, and looked to Bradbury and Evans to help them out; and +through their organisation _Punch_ was taken up by the trade "on sale or +return." To work up the sale of a threepenny publication was at that +time a formidable task; but Orr certainly accomplished it, and for a +time _Punch_ undoubtedly owed more to his efforts than to Jerrold's pen +or Leech's pencil. The head of the firm, in both senses, was William +Bradbury, the keenest man of business that ever trod the flags of Fleet +Street, and the founder of a dynastic line nearly as long and eminent as +that of John Murray himself. His portrait may be seen in _Punch_ more +than once--for example, in Tenniel's drawing of the Staff at play at the +beginning of Vol. XXVII, 1854, where his tall, imposing figure contrasts +with that of his partner, Frederick Mullett ("Pater") Evans, who appears +with shining spectacles, beaming countenance, and convex waistcoat. +Jolly old "Pater," who died in 1870, was the model of Leech's +_pater-familias_; and it is remembered to his credit that he never +resented the liberty taken with him by Thackeray in "The Kickleburys on +the Rhine." It has always been the graceful and feeling practice of +_Punch_, ever since the death of Dr. Maginn, to whom a kindly obituary +was devoted in 1842, to do honour in his pages to each of his +lieutenants as they drop out of the ranks, recognising misfortune and +death--both "devil's inventions," as Ruskin calls them--as toll-gates on +the path of life, with sorrow as the tax; so that these more solemn +articles and mortuary elegies seem to mark the way, like milestones set +by loving hands. To Evans one of these was raised, and we read in it +that "they who inscribe these lines to his memory will never lament a +more kind, more genial, or more loyal friend." + +[Illustration: F. M. EVANS. WILLIAM H. BRADBURY. +WILLIAM BRADBURY. F. M. ("PATER") EVANS. + +(_From Photographs by A. Bassano Limited._)] + +The next head of the firm was William Hardwick Bradbury, who had been at +school with Mr. Justice Romer, the husband of Mark Lemon's daughter; and +the house then became Bradbury, Evans & Co. He married the daughter of +Mr. Thomas Agnew; and when, in 1872, Mr. F. M. Evans (the son of +"Pater") left the firm, after having attended the Dinner for five years +as the son of his father, and sat for another seven years at the tail of +the Table by right of proprietorship, the business was reinforced by the +inclusion of the house of Agnew. It then became Bradbury, Agnew & Co., +and it has been thought that Sir William Agnew's personality has tended +to colour _Punch_ up to a certain point with just a shade of his own +Liberal political opinions. Messrs. W. H. Bradbury, William Agnew, +Thomas Agnew, and John Henry Agnew were then the members of the firm, +which a few years since was converted into a limited company; and on the +death of the first-named, Mr. W. Lawrence Bradbury took his father's +place as managing head of the house, with Mr. Philip Agnew as colleague: +young men, surely, to succeed to the direction of a house which had been +the publisher of Thackeray and Dickens, founders of "The Field," "The +Army and Navy Gazette," printers of the "Family Herald" and "London +Journal," of the "Daily News," the "English Encyclopedia," and other +huge undertakings. With the advent of the younger generation came some +of those technical alterations and improvements which have brought the +production of _Punch_ abreast of the times; but the older traditions, in +particular that great institution of the _Punch_ Dinner, have been +reverently and lovingly retained in all their admirable features. + +[Illustration: THOMAS AGNEW. JOHN HENRY AGNEW. +SIR WILLIAM AGNEW, BART. PHILIP L. AGNEW. W. LAWRENCE BRADBURY. + +(_From Photographs by A. Bassano, Limited._)] + +It is not surprising that after the striking success of the experiment +the Almanac became a permanent annual institution. Into so important a +publication did it develop, commercially speaking, that a special +"Almanac Dinner" has up to recent years always been considered +necessary, at which its chief contents are arranged, just as at the +ordinary weekly Dinner. Hine, Kenny Meadows, and others assisted in the +production of the first two or three Almanacs; but after that, and for +many years, practically the whole of the illustrative work usually fell +on the broad and entirely competent shoulders of John Leech, especially +after Doyle's secession. From time to time experiments have been made in +the direction of novelty. Thus in 1848, in consequence of the great +popularity of the issue, a luxurious edition was prepared, at the price +of five shillings for the coloured and half that sum for the uncoloured +copies, wherein, it was claimed, "full effect is given to the artists' +designs." It was certainly an imposing affair, with meadows of margin, +and printed on one side only of the thick paper; and it now commands a +price in the bookshops of five or six times its original cost. + +Humour for private as well as for public consumption has always been a +rule in the _Punch_ circle; and in 1865, a year in which influenza colds +were extremely prevalent, this pleasing faculty was given full scope. +Most of the Staff that Christmas were afflicted with severe colds; so +with amiable consideration the copies of the Almanac provided for them +and for some of the chief contributors were printed upon linen--lest +their supply of handkerchiefs should run short. They were charming and +cheerful in appearance, being handsomely bound and stitched with red, +and presented unusual advantages in the way of utility and +entertainment. Of recent years the Almanacs have had admirably drawn +wrappers, specially designed. In 1882 Mr. Burnand tested the powers of +our humorous painters outside, in addition to _Punch's_ own Staff, +including Mr. Stacy Marks, R.A., Mr. G. A. Storey, A.R.A., and Sir John +Gilbert, R.A.; but the result was an argument in favour of Staff-work +over outside contribution. Among other experiments, colour was tried +with a view to rendering further homage to Sir John Tenniel's cartoon, +by printing it on a tinted background, in the manner of Matt Morgan's +famous designs in the "Tomahawk." But the idea, which originated with +the late Mr. Bradbury, did not answer expectations, and the attempt was +abandoned. + +The success that immediately attended the Almanac naturally attracted +the attention of the pirates, and hatched the brood of spurious and +coarse imitations given forth by such notorious printers and publishers +as Goode, Lloyd, and Lyle. But _Punch_ had a short legal way with him +that soon scared them off, and the merry Hunchback is now left supreme +in his own sphere. He not only, as the "Times" said, "commences the +winter season for us with the 'Almanac,' but he continues the tradition +of Charles Dickens by retaining for Christmastide much of the fine +hearty old flavour which the great novelist imparted to it--that jovial, +tender, charitable, roast-goose spirit that exhales from it, the Spirits +of Christmas Present and Christmas Past." "Christmas without the +Christmas number of _Punch_," exclaimed the "Saturday Review" not long +ago, "would be a Christmas without plum-pudding, mince-pies, turkey, and +children's parties--it would not be Christmas at all!" + +Another result of the constant search for freshness was the changing of +the design on the cover of each consecutive volume. Any change from that +of Henning could only be a change for the better, so a second +application was made to Hablôt Knight Browne ("Phiz") for his +collaboration. Well satisfied by this time with the tone of the paper, +he gladly responded. The result was a refined and artistic page, crowded +with figures, rather graceful and quaint than funny; and although, to +Leech's horror, a barrel-organ figured in it, it served its purpose +admirably. + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ SECOND WRAPPER, DESIGNED BY "PHIZ." JANUARY, +1842.] + +[Illustration: PROPOSED WRAPPER FOR THIRD VOLUME. SKETCH BY H. G. HINE. +NOT ADOPTED.] + +For the next volume a sketch was made by H. G. Hine, based on a slighter +one by Landells. It was not used, however, as intended, but adapted as +the index-heading; and William Harvey, the Shakespearian illustrator, +was requested to undertake a design to replace it. This, though yet +more graceful than Browne's, was less suitable than ever. Babes like +_amorini_ toying with Punch's cap and _bâton_, bells and mask, were very +pretty and charming, but a good deal too much in the style of Rubens or +Stothard; and what was thought more unsuitable still was the price. Mr. +Birket Foster has borne witness to the consternation in the office when +the charge of twelve guineas was sent in with the design--nearly half +the total capital with which Landells a year before had begun the +concern! + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ THIRD WRAPPER, DESIGNED BY WILLIAM HARVEY. +JULY, 1842.] + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ FOURTH WRAPPER. DESIGNED BY SIR JOHN GILBERT. +JANUARY, 1843.] + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ FIFTH WRAPPER, DESIGNED BY KENNY MEADOWS. JULY, +1843.] + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ SIXTH WRAPPER, DESIGNED BY RICHARD DOYLE. FIRST +DESIGN. JANUARY, 1844.] + +Six months later Sir John Gilbert--then a youth doing great things for +the "Illustrated London News"--was commissioned to draw another front +page. This was subsequently used until recent years as the pink cover +of _Punch's_ monthly parts. A cover was produced by Kenny Meadows, and +then for January, 1844, Richard Doyle, the latest recruit, whose merit +had been quickly gauged, was employed to execute the new one. This +wrapper was far more in accord with the true spirit of _Punch_. More +sportive and rollicking, and with less attempt at grace, it threw over +the style of the "Newcastle School"--of which Landells was a +member--and gave the general idea of the latest of all covers. This was +not executed until January, 1849, when several changes of detail were +made, including the substitution of the smug lion's head for that of +Judy in the canvas--the whole so successful that it may safely be +predicted that it will never be superseded. + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ SIXTH AND LAST WRAPPER, DESIGNED BY RICHARD +DOYLE. SECOND DESIGN. JANUARY, 1849.] + +Such are the covers--comprising what Mr. W. Bradbury used to call "our +wardrobe of old coats"--which, though interesting enough in themselves, +certainly included nothing to equal the last design, by which Doyle's +name is best known throughout the artistic world. + +Guided by the success of the first Almanac, the conductors decided to +work the same oracle by publishing "extra numbers" at every promising +opportunity. "Mr. Mayhew, Mr. Jerrold, and I," says Landells, "happened +to spend a few days in the summer at Herne Bay, and there '_Punch's_ +Visit to the Watering Places' was projected. These articles gave _Punch_ +another great lift. Messrs. Mayhew, Mark Lemon, Douglas Jerrold, and I, +did Herne Bay, Margate, Broadstairs, and Ramsgate, and I never enjoyed +myself more than on this, to me, memorable occasion. Albert Smith did +Brighton. _Punch_ thenceforth became an established favourite with the +public, and the weekly circulation averaged over 30,000." + +Just before this lucky stroke, another not less fortunate as a _succes +d'estime_, if nothing more, was "_Punch's_ Valentines"--at that time +considered a most remarkable production; for there were no fewer than +twelve half-page engravings within its full-page borders--a generous +amount that puzzled the public far more than ten times as much and as +good would do to-day. Kenny Meadows, "Phiz,"[6] Leech, Crowquill, +Henning, and Newman, contributed each two "valentines," which were +addressed to various sorts and conditions of people, accompanied by +verses of considerable humour and more than average merit. Thus, to the +lawyer--whom "Phiz" has represented as a mixture, in equal parts, of +Squeers, Brass, and Quilp--the lines begin in a manner not unworthy of +Hood himself:-- + + "Lend me your ears, thou man of law, + While I my declaration draw, + Your heart in fee surrender; + As plaintiff I my suit prefer, + 'Twould be uncivil to demur, + Then let your plea be--tender." + +The invocation which follows, to a gorgeous footman, by some +love-smitten serving-maid, ends-- + + "But now fare thee well!--with your ultimate breath, + When you answer the door to the knocking of Death, + On your conscience, believe me, 'twill terribly dwell, + If now you refuse to attend to the _belle_!" + +In August, 1850, in the extra number called "_Punch's_ Holidays," that +was done for the outskirts of London which eight years before had been +done for the watering-places. It was illustrated by Leech and Doyle, +and, it may be added, the Hampton Court section was written by +Thackeray. Then when the great Shakespeare Tercentenary was being +celebrated, with singularly little _éclat_ so far as the Shakespeare +Committee itself was concerned, _Punch_ produced his "Tercentenary +Number." It was in all respects admirable, and Tenniel's double-page +cartoon was a striking success--as might have been expected from a Staff +so remarkably well versed in Shakespeare. In that cartoon the poet's +triumphal car, drawn by twin Pegasi and driven by Mr. Punch, is followed +by a motley procession, in which Mark Lemon, in the character of John +Bull, appears adapted as Prospero (one of the best of the many portraits +of the editor that have appeared in the paper), while a typically +malignant organ-grinder is Caliban, and all the leading statesmen and +sovereigns are represented in Shakespearian character appropriate to the +circumstances; the "Standard" and "Morning Herald," two of _Punch's_ pet +aversions and journalistic butts, bringing up the rear as the Witches in +"Macbeth," Mesdames Gamp and Harris. The illustrators of this +exceptionally happy number were--besides Sir John Tenniel--Charles +Keene, Mr. du Maurier, and Mr. Fairfield. + +Then came the unwieldy "Records of the Great Exhibition, extracted from +_Punch_" on October 4th, 1851. _Punch_ had made a dead-set against the +exhibition in Hyde Park (until his friend Paxton was appointed its +architect, subsequently earning £20,000 by the work), and, according to +Mr. Justin McCarthy, "was hardly ever weary of making fun of it ... and +nothing short of complete success could save it from falling under a +mountain of ridicule. The Prince did not despair, however, and the +project went on." And when it was a _fait accompli_, _Punch_, good man +of business that he was, at once put it to the best possible advantage, +by issuing his enormous "extra" of nine previously-published cartoons by +Tenniel and Leech, and many other cuts besides--the whole, in point of +its double-folio size, more suitable for street display than library +reading. The price was sixpence, and with all the special matter it +contained it was one of the cheapest productions ever issued from that +office. + +With the special Paris Exhibition number, produced in celebration of the +Exhibition of 1889, the list of extra numbers issued by _Punch_ for +general circulation comes to a close. Nearly the whole of the Staff, +including the proprietors, travelled to Paris together--how luxuriously, +Mr. Furniss's drawing of their dining-saloon gives a good notion; it +contains (with Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Lucy) portraits of all who were +present. Charles Keene had stayed at home; he felt unequal to the jaunt, +and was, in fact, sickening for the mortal illness which soon had him in +its grip. The "Paris Sketches" in the number that bear his signature +were--like the "war correspondence from the front" concocted in Fleet +Street--quietly drawn at home down at Chelsea. One thing primarily the +number showed: that _Punch's_ national prejudices have mellowed with +time, and that a Frenchman may be accepted as a cultivated gentleman and +a genial companion--a very different being to him whom Leech habitually +drew as a flabby-faced refugee in Leicester Square, "with _estaminet_ +clearly written across his features," while Thackeray applauded the +conception in his most righteous hatred and contempt for all things +vile. + +Two other special means has _Punch_ adopted with the view of pleasing +his constituents and confounding his enemies, exclusive of the mock +Mulready envelope known as the "Anti-Graham Envelope" and the "Wafers," +which are elsewhere referred to. The first of these was the music +occasionally printed in his pages from the hand of his own particular +maestro, Tully, the well-known member of the _Punch_ Club, whose musical +setting of "The Queen's Speech, as it is to be sung by the Lord +Chancellor," appeared in 1843; the polka, at the time when that dance +was a novel and a national craze, dedicated to the well-known +dancing-master, Baron Nathan; "_Punch's_ Mazurka," in Vol. VIII. (1845); +and one or two other pieces besides. The other was a coloured picture +representing a "plate"--a satire on the poor and inartistic "coloured +plates" then being issued by S. C. Hall's "Art Union." It was a clever +lithographic copy of an ordinary "willow pattern" plate; a homely piece +of crockery, broken and riveted, beneath which is inscribed: "To the +Subscribers to the Art Union this beautiful plate (from the original in +the possession of the Artist) is presented, as the finest specimen of +British Art, by _Punch_." It was designed by Horace Mayhew; but the +edition was extremely limited--not a hundred copies, it is +understood--on account of the expense, which it was thought was not +justified by the excellence or the likely popularity of the joke. + +Such have been some of _Punch's_ efforts outside the usual routine, and +the result has been the continual popularisation of the paper. Volume +after volume, too, in various forms, has been republished, culminating +in the "Victorian Era," "Pictures from _Punch_," and "Sir John Tenniel's +Cartoons;" and each one has but served to attract the favourable notice +of the public to the ordinary issue. So _Punch_ has developed his power +and his resources. To him one might almost apply what a Welshman said of +his friend: "I knew him when he wass a ferry poor man--quite a poor man +walking about in the village; and now he drives in his carriage and +twice!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] When the purchase was completed, a curious making-up of accounts +proceeded between the parties as to the wood-blocks which were to +accompany the paper. These accounts, referring to the titles of the +engravings, read curiously enough. Here is a specimen:-- + + + No. 22. £12 10 6 + Deduct Collared Beef 4 6 + --- --- + £12 6 0 + + No. 25. + + Brown's wrapper (_i.e._ Frontispiece + drawn by "Phiz"--Hablôt + K. Browne) 15 12 6 12 12 0 + Deduct 2 7 0 + --- --- + 13 5 6 + No. 32. + + _Deduct._ £ s. d. _Add._ £ s. d. + Bald Head 0 8 0 Concert-piece 0 5 0 + Great Sale in Beer 0 4 0 Collared Beef 0 4 6 + Highwayman 0 5 0 All round my hat 0 10 0 + Leg of Mutton 0 5 0 Tall Lady 0 8 0 + Turning over a Page 0 3 0 Adder-up 0 5 0 14 18 0 + Betrayed 0 5 0 + Letter P 0 15 0 + --- --- + £2 7 0 + +These cuts were for the most part drawn by Brine, Hine, and Newman. + +[6] It is a curious fact that the biographer of Hablôt K. Browne is +altogether silent on his _Punch_ work, although it lasted with intervals +over a quarter of a century. The particulars of this work are referred +to further on, when _Punch's_ artists are passed in review. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "Here let us sport, + Boys, as we sit; + Laughter and wit + Flashing so free. + Life is but short-- + When we are gone, + Let them sing on, + Round the old tree." + + _--Thackeray's "Mahogany Tree."_ + + + + +THE _PUNCH_ DINNER AND THE _PUNCH_ CLUB. + + Origin and Antiquity of the Meal--Place of Celebration--The + "Crown"--In Bouverie Street and Elsewhere--The Dining-Hall--The + Table--And Plans--Jokes and Amenities--Jerrold and his "Bark"--A + Night at the Dinner--From Mr. Henry Silver's Diary--Loyalty and + Perseverance of Diners--Charles H. Bennett and the _Jeu + d'esprit_--Keene Holds Aloof--Business--Evolution of the + Cartoon--Honours Divided--Guests--Special Dinners, "Jubilee," + "Thackeray," "Burnand," and "Tenniel"--Dinners to _Punch_--The + _Punch_ Club--Exit Albert Smith--High Spirits--"The Whistling + Oyster"--Baylis as a Prophet--"Two Pins Club." + + +Among the Parliaments of Wits and the Conclaves of Humorists the weekly +convention known as "the _Punch_ Dinner" holds highest rank, if +importance is to be judged by results and pre-eminence by renown. For +three-and-fifty years have these illustrious functions been held, fifty +to the year. And those two thousand six hundred and fifty meals mark +off, week by week, the progress of English humour during the Victorian +era--not the humour of literature alone, but the humour, as well as the +technical excellence, of one of the noblest and most vigorous and +delightful of all the sections of English art. + +This solemn festivity, therefore, has a solid claim to being included +among the scenes of English artist-life. If it be conceded, as I think +it must, that _Punch_ has been for half a century an effective, even a +glorious, school of art--of drawing in black-and-white and of +wood-cutting alike--it follows that the weekly repast which has helped +to bring these things about claims attention and respect among the Diets +of the world, and demands a first place in virtue of public service and +by right of artistic performance. + +But it is not in the spirit nor with the fashionable view of the Royal +Academicians and their imposing banquet that the members of the _Punch_ +staff hold their weekly junket. "We English," said Douglas Jerrold, +"would dine to celebrate the engulfing of England." Yet if "the +Punchites" share the feeling of old Timon that "we must dine together," +it is neither for purposes of self-congratulation, nor yet of +hospitality. Though good-fellowship is near the genesis of the +institution, work and serious aim are at the root of it all, and in the +midst of all the merry-making are never for a moment forgotten. + +Nevertheless, conviviality, you may be sure, counted for something in +the arrangement when Queen Victoria's reign was young. Clubs there were +not a few about Fleet Street and the Strand, where the men who founded +_Punch_, and their friends and enemies alike in similar walks of life, +would hob-nob together, and where the sharp concussions of their +diamond-cut-diamond wit would emit the sparks and flashes that were +remembered and straightway converted into "copy." In those early days +the flow of soul was closely regulated by the flow of liquor, and the +most modest of Dinners was food at once to body and to mind. "What +things," wrote Beaumont in his Letter to Ben Jonson-- + + "What things have we seen + Done at the 'Mermaid'! Heard words that have been + So nimble and so full of subtile flame, + As if that every one from whom they came + Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, + And resolved to live a fool the rest + Of his dull life." + +As in Elizabethan times, so in the days of Victoria. The _Punch_ +Dinners of the last few decades would, in their excellence and +refinement, have astonished the merry crew of old; but the entertainment +is now but the prelude to business, and not, as in the earlier +struggling months, the powder that served to fire off the great guns of +humour. The weekly Dinner was evolved from the gatherings that were held +nearly every evening, as well as Saturday-nightly, in the anxious days +that preceded--and immediately succeeded, too--the laboured birth of +_Punch_. The first of these--the very first "_Punch_ Dinner," strictly +so-called--was held at "La Belle Sauvage," Ludgate Hill, on the spot now +occupied by the publishing firm of Cassell and Company. Hine was one of +those present at this historic feast, having been already impressed by +Landells into the service of the paper. I may add, as a matter of minor +history, that Mr. Price, the owner of the hostelry, advertised his house +in the early numbers of _Punch_: a fact which suggests (perhaps +unjustly) a mysterious financial understanding on the score of his +bill--especially as Mr. Price was a brother-in-law of Bradbury the +First. These tavern repasts were soon divided up between those who +wished to work and those who wished to play; and the _Punch_ Dinner and +the "_Punch_ Club" were in due course established as separate +institutions. For all that, the meetings of both were held in the "Crown +Inn" in Vinegar Yard, just off Drury Lane, and the "Club" was not +long after (1843) celebrated in the pages of _Punch_ itself by +the "Professor," Percival Leigh, in his choicest dog-Latin--his most +elegant _latin de cuisine_--or, as he himself called it, +"Anglo-Græco-Canino-Latinum." The lines, a parody of Goldsmith's +"Retaliation," begin thus:-- + + "Sunt quidam jolly dogs, Saturday qui nocte frequentant + Antiqui [Greek: Stefanon] qui stat prope moenia Drurî, + [Greek: Boulomenoi] cum prog distendere rather, + Indulgere jocis, necnon Baccho atque tobacco..." + +--lines which, with a few of the succeeding ones, I may render thus, the +spirit and the text being followed as closely as may be:-- + + "Some jolly dogs on Saturdays at fall of night are fain + To haunt the 'Crown' beside old Drury, hard by Drury Lane; + Their object, to expand themselves with dainties of the feed + And give the hour to jest and wine, and smoke the fragrant weed. + Such fellows, sure, ne'er graced before that jovial mundane hole. + To them I sing this song of praise--those mighty men of soul, + Whose fame henceforth shall spread abroad, so long as time shall roll. + + "The 'Crown' stands in a quiet yard, yet near the noisy street; + 'Tis their local habitation--in its dining-room they meet. + The massive table, brightly spread, groans with the mighty feast. + The viands change. To-day 'tis beef with Yorkshire pudding dressed; + Next week perchance the dish that Hodge will grinningly define + As 'leg o' mutton, boiled, with trimmings.' Heartily they dine. + Here flows the Double X, and flows the Barclay-Perkins brew; + Nor is there lack of modern sack that best is known to you + When waiters call it 'off-n-off'--which waiters mostly do." + +Here it was that the wits of pen and pencil first laid their heads +together in the service of Mr. Punch; and when they left for more +private, if not more venerable, quarters, the room was occupied, first, +by comrades of the same order of wit--among whom Augustus Mayhew, James +Hannay, Watts Phillips, and others started a short-lived comic +broad-sheet called "The Journal for Laughter;" and then by "The Reunion +Club"--a côterie which, in 1857, was to become far more widely known +under the style and title of the "Savage Club." It was situated next +door to the "Whistling Oyster," and faced a side entrance to Drury Lane +Theatre--a fairly large first-floor room, looking larger by reason of +its low ceiling, but well lighted by its three high windows. When I +visited it in 1893, the wooden staircase had been replaced by a steep +stone-way; but the approach and the ascent were still steep enough to +make one wonder how the portly Lemon could, without difficulty or fear +of accident, scale the classic heights, and twist his body to the +needful turns. + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ FIRST DINING-ROOM, "CROWN INN," VINEGAR YARD.] + +Although, as I have said, conviviality and convenience were essentially +identified with the _Punch_ Dinner, especially in its embryonic stage, +when frequent interviews were necessary and the daily occupations of +many of the Staff precluded an earlier attendance, it was quickly seen +that the chief practical use and effect of the Dinner was to broaden the +men's view of things, to produce harmony of tone and singleness of aim, +to keep the Editor constantly in touch with his whole Staff, and through +them with the public; and thus to secure the fullest advantage which +their combined wit and counsel could afford. When the transfer of the +paper was completed from Ebenezer Landells to the house of Bradbury and +Evans, the regular Dinners were soon established at No. 11, Bouverie +Street, E.C., now given over to the Posts and Telegraphs. The second +floor was considered not too undignified for the purpose; but the +descent to the first was made in good time, Mark Lemon taking the +vacated room for his editorial office; and when in 1867 a general +removal was effected to No. 10, the present dining-room--or +Banqueting-Hall, as it was finely called--was specially constructed for +its high purpose. At first these repasts were held on Saturday night, +when the paper was made up and sent away to press. But when the true +value of the meetings became apparent, the day was changed to Wednesday. +The Dinner was established ostensibly for the discussion and determining +of the "big cut," and the function became as exclusive and esoteric as a +Masonic initiation. From that day to this it has, with few exceptions, +been held _januis clausis_; and beside it the Literary Ladies' Dinner +and Bluebeard's Chamber are as open to the world and free from mystery +as the public streets at noon. + +[Illustration: _PUNCH'S_ PRESENT DINING-HALL IN BOUVERIE STREET, +WHITEFRIARS.] + +The room in which it was held, so long the Temple of the Comic Muse, had +little in itself to command the attention of the superficial observer. +The stairs which Thackeray trod, and which resounded to the quick light +step of Jerrold and to the heavier tread of Leech, exist no longer; but +the classic shrine is practically as it was when the "Fat Contributor," +pushing roughly past the young 'prentice engraver who opened the door to +his ring, gave no thought to him who was soon to make the name of +Birket Foster famous in the land. + +[Illustration: MARK LEMON'S MONOGRAM, CUT ON THE _PUNCH_ TABLE.] + +To-day a large--one might say an imposing--apartment on the first floor +looking upon the street is approached, as most front offices in London +City are approached, from a landing leading through an open office. Upon +the table are a water-jug and a couple of goblets of cheap and +distinctly unlovely Bohemian glass. A tobacco-box, hardly less ugly +(coëval, one would say, with the room itself), a snuff-box, and long +pipes serve to recall that respect for the past and for tradition which +is one of the most delightful, as it is one of the most successful, +elements in _Punch's_ composition. Here you may see Sir John Tenniel's +long churchwarden, with his initials marked upon it, and Charles Keene's +little pipe--for these two men would ever prefer a stem between their +teeth to a cigar-stump. Statuettes in plaster of John Leech and of +Thackeray, by Sir Edgar Boehm, as well as a bust of Douglas Jerrold, +decorate the mantelpiece or the dwarf-cupboard; and on the walls are +many frames of abiding interest. + +[Illustration: PERCIVAL LEIGH'S MONOGRAM.] + +Here you have the portraits of the four editors--that of Mark Lemon +painted by Fred Chester, son of his life-long friend George Chester, and +the likenesses of Shirley Brooks, Tom Taylor, and Mr. Burnand in +photography. The portraits of the Staff, taken by Bassano in 1891 at Mr. +William Agnew's request, to the number of fourteen or fifteen, hang +separately in their dark frames. The original of one of Tenniel's +Almanac designs; a masterly drawing, two feet long, by Keene, bought by +the late Mr. Bradbury at a sale--the (unused) cartoon of Disraeli +leading the principal financiers of the day in hats and frock-coats +across the Red Sea ("Come along, it's getting shallower"); the original +of Leech's celebrated "Mr. Punch's Fancy Ball," and a series of the +enlarged coloured prints of his hunting sketches; a caricature of Mr. +Furniss by Mr. Sambourne, made in Paris; another of Mr. Sambourne by Mr. +Furniss; and a third of Mr. Sambourne by himself; a caricature in +pen-and-ink and colour of the _Punch_ Staff marching along in Paris, by +Mr. Furniss; a black-and-white sketch by the same artist of the same +distinguished company in the train on the return journey; and another +souvenir of the Paris trip by Mr. du Maurier, including the portraits of +himself, Mr. Burnand, Mr. Arthur à Beckett, and Mr. W. Bradbury. The +trophy-frame of specimen proofs of some of the finest of Swain's cuts of +the artistic Staff's best work, gathered together for show in one of the +great exhibitions, has been removed to make room for photographs of +Gilbert à Beckett, "Ponny" (Horace) Mayhew, Charles Keene, Tom Taylor, +Percival Leigh, Charles H. Bennett, R. F. Sketchley, John Henry Agnew, +Thomas Agnew and William Bradbury, Mr. Fred Evans and Sir William Agnew; +while photographic groups of the Staff and a fine autotype of Thackeray +complete the wall decoration of one of the most interesting apartments +in London City. + +[Illustration: JOHN LEECH'S INITIALS AND CYPHER.] + +[Illustration: W. M. THACKERAY'S MONOGRAM] + +And in the corner, on the locker farthest from the street, besides a +little _papier-mâché_ figure of a Japanese Punch--sent by an admirer in +the Land of the Rising Sun--and a group charmingly modelled from Sir +John Tenniel's beautiful cartoon of "Peace and the New Year," stands the +statue of the Great Hunchback himself, which in a fit of enthusiasm a +young German sculptor, named Adolph Fleischmann, wrought and presented +to the object of his admiration. It is a work of no little grotesqueness +and ingenuity (well modelled and coloured, and fitted with springs that +permit of the working of arms and eyes and head), which, endowed with a +white favour, has played its part in the decoration of the publishing +office on the occasion of certain royal weddings and public rejoicing, +and during the blocking of Fleet Street has been utilised in the +direction of comic self-advertisement. + +[Illustration: HORACE MAYHEW'S INITIALS.] + +Then there is a real "Royal Patent" appropriately framed, "hereby +appointing Master Punch unto the Place and Quality of Joke Maker +Extraordinary to her Majesty," duly signed and sealed by the Lord +Chamberlain, and countersigned "J. A. N. D. Martin." It is undoubtedly a +genuine certificate--up to a point; but how it was obtained, and how +_Punch's_ name came to be filled in, remains to this day a mystery. Such +is the room, with its pleasant decoration of red and black and gold, +with its large windows and its sunlight gaselier; but, take it for all +in all, it is about as unlike Mr. Sambourne's classic representation of +the Roman atrium in his Jubilee drawing as well could be imagined. + +[Illustration: TOM TAYLOR'S INITIALS.] + +And the Table itself--_the_ Table--the famous board of which we all have +heard, yet none, or but very few of us, have seen--I myself amongst the +fortunate few! As a piece of furniture this hospitable, but rather +primitive, piece of joinery is not of much account, the top being of +plain deal (_pace_ Thackeray's "_Mahogany_ Tree"), oblong in shape, with +rounded ends. But its associations render it a treasure among treasures, +a rich and priceless gem. For at this Table nearly every man upon the +Staff has, from the day it was made, sat and carved his initials upon +it with a penknife, when officially elevated to _Punch's_ peerage. As +each has died, his successor has taken his place--just as the Institut +de France creates Immortals to fill the chairs made vacant by death--and +he has cut his initials or his mark close by those of the men who +occupied the place before him. There they are, staring at you from the +Table like so many abecedarian skeletons at the feast; and if you take a +furtive and hasty peep from the doorway and lift the green protective +cloth you catch sight nearest you of a "D. M." in close company with a +beautifully-cut "W. M. T." and a monogrammatic leech inside a bottle +flanked by a J. and an L.; and you gaze with deep interest on the +handiwork of them and of the rest, many of whom have carved their names, +as on that Table, deep into England's roll of fame; and of others, too, +who, with less of genius but equal zeal and effort, have a strong claim +on the gratitude and the recollection of a kindly and laughter-loving +people.[7] + +[Illustration: SIR JOHN TENNIEL'S MONOGRAM.] + +[Illustration: SHIRLEY BROOKS' MONOGRAM.] + +For more than forty years, then, this Table has week by week, with few +exceptions, been surrounded by the Staff of the day; and the chair, the +self-same old-fashioned wooden editorial armchair, has been filled by +the reigning Editor. "With few exceptions," I said; for Bouverie Street +has not invariably been the hatching-place of the Cartoon, nor have its +walls resounded with absolute regularity to the laughter and the jests +of the merry-makers. During the summer the Dinner has been, now and +again, and still is, held at Greenwich, at Richmond, Maidenhead, or +elsewhere--Hampton Court and Dulwich rather frequently of old, as well +as once at Harrow, and sometimes at Purfleet, Windsor, and Rosherville. +Sometimes, when occasion has demanded--in the "dead season," maybe, when +the attendance at the Table has dwindled, though for no sustained period +(it is even on record that the "Dinner" has consisted of a _tête-à-tête_ +between Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Arthur à Beckett)--not more than three +or four consecutive weeks, certainly--the "Sussex," or more often the +old "Bedford Hotel," or latterly the "First Avenue," has been the scene +of the feast; while "special dinners" (and they have been many) have +been held in special places. And not invariably has the weekly repast +been a "dinner" at all, be it observed; for on certain rare occasions, +when some important Parliamentary matter has intervened, a luncheon has +been held instead. Once, in September, 1845, it was postponed from the +Saturday night at the intercession of Charles Dickens, so that a new +play by Macready might be produced with the full advantage of the +_Punch_ men's presence. And the Dinner was once more made a movable +feast, and was held on the Tuesday instead of the Wednesday, on the +occasion of the production of Mr. Burnand's and Sir Arthur Sullivan's +opera of "The Chieftain" in December, 1894. + +[Illustration: WILLIAM BRADBURY'S INITIALS.] + +[Illustration: F. M. EVANS' INITIALS. (Unfinished)] + +In the "Bedford Hotel"--beloved of Thackeray, for in it he wrote much of +"Henry Esmond," and stayed there when his house was in the painters' +hands--the room occupied was that known as the "Dryden." Here the Staff +would make no attempt at self-repression; and I have been told how the +idle and the curious would congregate outside upon the pavement and +listen to the voices of the wits within, and wait to gape at them as +they passed in and out. + +[Illustration: HENRY SILVER'S INITIALS.] + +The places at Table once occupied by the members of the Staff are +nowadays regarded as theirs by right. But in earlier days the places +were often shuffled, as at a game of "general post." Proof of it may be +had from the following plans of the Table between 1855 and 1865--perhaps +the most interesting years in the history of _Punch_, as demonstrating +the transitional stage, when the ancient order of things was rapidly +developing into the modern as we know them to-day. In 1855, then, the +disposition was as follows:-- + + WILLIAM BRADBURY* + DOUGLAS JERROLD JOHN LEECH + TOM TAYLOR W. M. THACKERAY + GILBERT À BECKETT SHIRLEY BROOKS + HORACE MAYHEW MARK LEMON + PERCIVAL LEIGH JOHN TENNIEL + F. M. EVANS* + +--only two artists and a half (Thackeray being a commixture of writer +and draughtsman) to seven writers and a half! + +Five years later--in 1860--the places had changed, partly through death, +partly through rearrangement:-- + + WILLIAM BRADBURY* + W. M. THACKERAY (when he came) JOHN LEECH + TOM TAYLOR HENRY SILVER + HORACE MAYHEW CHARLES KEENE + SHIRLEY BROOKS JOHN TENNIEL + PERCIVAL LEIGH MARK LEMON + F. M. EVANS* + + Here the artistic element is seen to be asserting itself to + some extent, the proportion between artist and writer being + further readjusted after the lapse of another five years: for + in 1865 the constitution of the table became-- + + F. M. EVANS* + TOM TAYLOR G. DU MAURIER + W. H. BRADBURY* HENRY SILVER + (his father seldom came now) + HORACE MAYHEW CHARLES H. BENNETT + CHARLES KEENE F. M. EVANS, JR.[9] + F. C. BURNAND SHIRLEY BROOKs + PERCIVAL LEIGH JOHN TENNIEL + MARK LEMON + +--the editor for the first time taking his proper place at the table, +although, it is true, it was only at the foot. + +To-day the number of the staff has been increased, and the right +proportion struck between the pen and the pencil--the editor, too, +presiding. + + MR. F. C. BURNAND + SIR JOHN TENNIEL MR. F. ANSTEY + MR. LINLEY SAMBOURNE MR. HENRY LUCY + MR. ARTHUR À BECKETT MR. E. T. REED + MR. R. C. LEHMANN MR. BERNARD PARTRIDGE + MR. HARRY FURNISS + (until Feb. 1894) MR. PHIL MAY + MR. DU MAURIER MR. E. J. MILLIKEN + SIR WILLIAM AGNEW (sometimes) + MR. LAWRENCE BRADBURY or + MR. PHILIP AGNEW + + =* Proprietors= + +In the decade or so following the death of Douglas Jerrold--roughly +corresponding with the period within which the arrangements varied as i +have shown--six new appointments were made to the table. These were: Mr. +Henry Silver, In August, 1857; Charles Keene, February, 1860 (after a +nine years' probationership); Mr. F. C. Burnand, June, 1863; Mr. G. Du +Maurier, November, 1864; Charles H. Bennett, February, 1865 (though +ill-health prevented him from taking his place until the following +June); and Mr. R. F. Sketchley (till 1894 of the South Kensington +Museum), January, 1868. The present Staff, I may add, since Mr. du +Maurier's accession, have taken their places at the Table in the +following order: Mr. Linley Sambourne, Mr. Arthur à Beckett, Mr. E. J. +Milliken, Gilbert à Beckett, Mr. Reginald Shirley Brooks (until 1884), +Mr. Henry Lucy, Mr. F. Anstey, Mr. R. C. Lehmann, Mr. E. T. Reed, Mr. +Bernard Partridge, and in February, 1895, Mr. Phil May. As Mr. Punch +approached man's estate, and arrived at years of artistic discretion, he +cultivated a pretty taste in epicurism; until to-day, if report be true, +the Dinners (prepared and sent in by Spiers and Pond), the Ayala, and +the cigars, are all worthy of the palates of the men whose wit it is +theirs to stimulate and nourish. To summon the Staff to these feasts of +reason it was in later years the practice to issue printed notices, +which after 1870 were superseded by invitation cards drawn by Mr. du +Maurier--the design representing Mr. Punch ringing his bell, while the +faithful fly hurriedly to respond to the behest. But owing to the number +of portraits it contained of old friends now departed, and the painful +recollections it consequently aroused, its later use has been +discontinued. + +[Illustration: F. C. BURNAND'S INITIALS. + +_(1) On joining the Table, and (2) on appointment as Editor._] + +[Illustration: GEORGE DU MAURIER'S MONOGRAM.] + +[Illustration: LINLEY SAMBOURNE'S MONOGRAM.] + +But when our Democritus boasted fewer years, there was not so much +ceremony in his banquet, neither was there so much state; nor was the +friendship less keen or the intimacy less enjoyable in Leigh's humbler +days of "off-n-off." A wonderful company--a brilliant company; with +flashing wit and dazzling sallies, with many "a skirmish of wit between +them." From more, the quieter flow of genial humour. And among the rest, +the listeners; men--some of them--who prefer to attend than to talk, +even to the point of reserve and almost of taciturnity. Such men were +John Leech, Richard Doyle, and Charles Keene--whose silence, however, +masked subtle minds that were teeming with droll ideas, and as +appreciative of humour as the sprightliest. What jokes have been made, +what stories told that never have found their way into print! What +chaff, what squibs, what caricatures--which it surpasses the wit of a +Halsbury or a MacNeill to imagine or condone! + +Of what the _Punch_ Dinner was at the time when Thackeray was still of +the band, an idea may be formed from the following extract from Mr. +Silver's Diary, with which I have been favoured by the writer, who for +several years sat at it by right. He calls it-- + + + "A NIGHT AT THE ROUND TABLE." + + SCENE: _Mr. Punch's Banquet Hall at No. 11, Bouverie Street._ + + TIME: _Wednesday, March 2nd_, 1859, _six o'clock p.m._ + + F. M. EVANS W. M. THACKERAY JOHN LEECH HORACE MAYHEW TOM TAYLOR + SHIRLEY BROOKS HENRY SILVER PERCIVAL LEIGH JOHN TENNIEL MARK LEMON + + 'Turbot and haunch of venison--what a good dinner!' says Tenniel, + reading _menu_. Tantalising to Tom Taylor, who has to dine + elsewhere; and Thackeray leaves early, to go to an 'episcopal + tea-fight,' as he tells us--a jump 'from lively to severe,' to + Fulham Palace from the _Punch_ Table. + + [Illustration: 40, Bouverie Street, E.C. July 15th 1871 + + The pleasure of your company is requested on Wednesday next, the + 10th just at half-past Six sharp. + + An answer, if unable to come, will oblige. + + _PUNCH_ DINNER INVITATION CARD. DRAWN BY G. DU MAURIER. + + + CHARLES KEENE, R. F. SKETCHLEY, F. C. BURNAND, SHIRLEY BROOKS, TOM + TAYLOR, HORACE MAYHEW, PERCIVAL LEIGH G. DU MAURIER, JOHN TENNIEL] + +Tom merely looks in 'to hear what you fellows say about the Reform +Bill,' which Dizzy introduced on Monday. So we begin discussing politics +even with the venison. 'Ponny' Mayhew condemns the Bill: does nothing +for the working man, he says. Tom thinks that people look to _Punch_ for +guidance, and that we ought to be plain-speaking, and take a decided +course. 'Professor' Leigh and Mark agree in thinking that we rather +should stand by awhile, and see how the stream runs. All seem of opinion +that Walpole acted as a man of honour in resigning, not being rich +enough to make money of no matter to him. + +'Seria mista jocis' being Mr. Punch's motto (though it never has been +sanctioned by the Heralds' College), Shirley, apropos of money, asks, +'Why is Lord Overstone like copper?' 'Because he is a Lloyd with tin.' +Whereat Thackeray laughs heartily. + +[Illustration: ARTHUR À BECKETT'S INITIALS.] + +Odd that there should now be three old Carthusians in Mr. Punch's +Council of Ten. Thackeray observes this to the other two of them [J. L. +and H. S.], and proceeds to say, 'I went to Charterhouse the other day. +Hadn't seen School come out since I left. Saw a touching scene there--a +little fellow with his hands held tenderly behind him, and a tear or two +still trickling down his rosy cheek, and two little cronies with their +arms around his neck; and I well knew what had happened, and how they'd +take him away _privily_, and make him show his cuts!' + +[Illustration: E. J. MILLIKEN'S INITIALS.] + +'Talking of cuts, Mark, how about the Large one?' Thackeray suggests +Lawyer, Doctor, and Schoolmaster, standing in a row as prize boys, and +Dizzy presenting them with votes. I propose Diz trying to launch a +lop-sided 'Reform' ship, with the title 'Will it Swim?' Mark suggests D. +joining hands of artisan and yeoman, giving each of them a vote. +Thackeray thinks of workman coming among gentlemen of Parliament and +asking, 'What have you done for _me_?' Professor Leigh considers +situation might be shown by Bright and Dizzy poking up the British Lion, +for clearly he wants rousing. 'Yes,' says Shirley, 'and when he's +roused, you know, we can have another picture of him with his tail and +monkey up.' Idea gradually takes shape, and is approved,[8] though +Tenniel hardly likes it, and Leech wants to know if Ponny (Mayhew) would +not prefer a good old-fashioned tragic cartoon of the virtuous and +starving British Workman, with ragged wife and children, and Death a +ghastly apparition in the background. + +This leads to a little spar between Ponny and 'Pater' Evans. Ponny lets +fly with great vigour: '_Punch_ is standing still now; used to take the +lead, but no longer dares to do so. _Avançons!_' waving hand excitedly. +Pater calmly answers that the times are altered, and that _Punch_ is +going with them. Strong words have done their work, and there's no +longer need of them. Nobody now talks about the trampled working man, +nor goes trumpeting abroad the dignity of labour. Then Ponny shifts his +ground, and complains that many clever fellows who are workers with the +pen are now hardly earning more than many workers with the pickaxe. +'Well, it's their own fault,' says Pater; 'they might easily earn more +if they were not so idle.' Penny replies they don't want luxuries, being +men of simple tastes, and anything but Sybarites. 'So am I,' cries +Leech; 'my tastes are very simple. Give me a good day's hunting, and +some good claret after it--nothing can be simpler, and I'm really quite +contented.' + +[Illustration: GILBERT À BECKETT'S INITIALS.] + +But Ponny harks back to his 'deuced clever fellows,' applauding one of +them especially, a Bohemian friend of his, who, he says politely, is far +cleverer a fellow than any at the _Punch_ Table. 'But what has he done?' +asks Leech. 'Tell you what he doesn't do,' says Shirley; 'he may write a +lot, but he certainly doesn't wash much.' Somebody wonders, if he were +proposed for White's Club, whether members would blackball him: and +Shirley quotes Charles Lamb's remark, 'What splendid hands he'd hold, if +only dirt were trumps!' Then Ponny shouts indignantly, 'There, never +mind his hands: think what a clever head he has.' + +[Illustration: HARRY FURNISS'S INITIALS.] + +Here Professor gives a little lecture on phrenology, impelled thereto by +Penny's capital allusion. Talking like a book, as his frequent manner +is, he expounds in fluent phrase his deeply-rooted faith in this +neglected science. To give idea of its importance, he vows he wouldn't +keep a housemaid who had a bad head. 'No more would I,' says Shirley; +'I'd send her to the doctor.' 'I mean, a head ill-shapen,' explains +Professor blandly, being 'the mildest-mannered man that ever cut a +throat'--in argument. 'A well-proportioned head betokens a fine brain: +whereas a skull that is cramped contains probably a mean one.' Avows +belief not so much in the localisation of organs as in their general +development. Here Leech, who hates street music, professes horror at the +possible development of organs, and wishes they were localised where +nobody could hear them. Paying no heed to this flippancy, Professor +explains gravely that peculiar formations incline to special acts, and +that the development of certain cranial organs--vulgarly termed +'bumps'--may be lessened or augmented in the course of early schooling. +'Well, I do believe in "bumps,"' says Shirley, speaking with solemnity, +'yes, even in schoolboys' heads--if you knock them well together.' + +[Illustration: H. W. LUCY'S INITIALS.] + +Mark next has an innings, and tells some of his stage stories. He tells +them very funnily, and imitates Macready and many other actors in their +vocal mannerisms. And he mimics operatic singers capitally, with +sonorous words in mock Italian basso recitative. Among his tales is one +of a half-tipsy actor playing in the 'Corsican Brothers' and explaining +their fraternal peculiarity--'My brother in Paris is now +feeling--hic--precishly shame senshations--hic--as myshelf!' Also tells +of his once bringing out a farce called 'Punch' at the Strand Theatre, +wherein a parrot played a prominent part. One night a new parrot took +its place, and used most dreadful language when the curtain rose. + +Story-telling being now the order of the evening, Silver tells of the +gun trick being tried in the Far West. One day, just as the conjuror had +caught the bullet in his teeth, another whizzed close to his head, and a +voice came from the gallery, 'Guess, I nearly had you then, old hoss!' +At the next performance a placard was displayed, and gentlemen were +begged to leave their rifles with the doorkeeper. Shirley enjoys this, +and says, 'Now, don't cry "_connu_" Ponny! You're always crying +"_connu_" when anyone says anything. And you're always cracking up your +chums. If a world was wanted anywhere, you'd say your brother had +discovered one and had better be consulted.' + +[Illustration: ANSTEY GUTHRIE'S INITIALS.] + +Ponny then breaks out again with his bilingual vehemence and Parisian +gestures. (Some people never can talk French without trying to shrug +shoulders.) Brandishing his dessert-knife, he shouts, 'Avançons, mes +amis! go ahead, my boys! En avant! Excusez-moi,' and scatters scraps of +French about, till Leech cries, 'There, don't talk like a lady's-maid, +Ponny; why can't you speak English?' And, to change the talk, he tells +of a French sport'man taking his first fences here, with rather a fresh +horse which has been lent him. After coming a couple of bad 'croppers,' +which he conceives to be the usual style of leaping here in England, he +says a little sadly, 'My friend, I t'ank you for your 'orse, bot I t'ink +dat I s'all jomp no more at present.' + +[Illustration: E. T. REED'S INITIALS.] + +Somebody caps this with tale of a 'Mossoo' who manifests deep sorrow at +the death of an old hare, slain by an English visitor. 'Hélas! il est +mort enfin! Mon pauvre vieux! I have shot at him for years! He was all +the game I had!' + +And Leech tells another story of a foreigner of distinction hunting in +the Midlands, and hearing the cry 'Stole away!' and shouting out +excitedly, 'Aha, stole a vay, has he, de old t'ief! Den I suppose we +s'all not find a vay to him, and so we must go home!' ... Which we do. + +[Illustration: R. C. LEHMANN'S INITIALS.] + + * * * * * + +Thus, for half a century has Wednesday evening been passed in the +editorial office of _Punch_, just when its readers are discussing the +merits of the previous week's issue; and according to the verdict of +those readers was attuned the merriment of the Staff. It is on record +how Douglas Jerrold would go radiant to the Dinners as "Mrs. Caudle" was +sending up _Punch's_ circulation at a rapid rate; "and was one of the +happiest among them all." Thackeray, too, first tasted the delights of +wide popularity in the success of his "Snob Papers," and he showed the +pleasure he felt in his demeanour at the board. At one time these two +men sat side by side, and there was as little love as space between +them; but with the good-humoured philosophy which is a tradition of that +institution, the occasional differences of opinion, and the harder +knocks of wit, and sometimes, even, the still sharper encounters of +temper, were all glossed over. As Thackeray so truly remarked +himself--"What is the use of quarrelling with a man if you have to meet +him every Wednesday at dinner?" Nevertheless, in course of time he +changed his seat from between Jerrold and Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, and, +crossing over, faced his friend the enemy, while Mark Lemon, watchful +and alert beneath the cloak of geniality, was quick to cast a damping +word on inflammable conversation and--so far as he could persuade them +to listen to a man so greatly their inferior in genius and intellect--to +stem the threatened outburst. As a matter of fact, Jerrold always +regarded Thackeray as a bit of a snob and viewed his entrance into +Society--against which Jerrold had for years been hurling his bitterest +darts--with very grave suspicion. "I have known Thackeray," he would +say, "for eighteen years, and I don't know him yet"--almost in the +despairing words in which I have heard a distinguished Academician speak +of his still more distinguished President. On the other hand, Mr. Arthur +à Beckett has declared to me, "I never knew my brother so well as when I +met him at the _Punch_ Table." + +[Illustration: J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE'S INITIALS.] + +[Illustration: PHIL MAY'S INITIALS.] + +[Illustration: COMMENCEMENT OF C. H. BENNETT'S MONOGRAM.] + +In the earliest weeks of _Punch's_ existence Kenny Meadows had been the +Nestor of the least; but when Jerrold joined the Staff three months +later, he took by force of character and wit, and power of lung, a +leading position on the paper and at the Table--a position which he +never resigned. Notwithstanding his biting sallies, we may be sure that +it was not Jerrold's primary object to make his victims wince. There is +no doubt that the "little wine" that so stimulated him to witty and +brilliant conversation full of flash and repartee, sometimes turned sour +upon his lips, and changed the kindness that was in his heart into a +semblance of gall. Mr. Sidney Cooper has gravely set it on record how on +leaving the _Punch_ Dinner Jerrold would tie a label with his name and +address upon it round his neck, so that, should he in his homeward +course be tempted to stray into the path of undue conviviality, he might +sooner or later be safely delivered at his destination. Although the +statement is in a measure confirmed in the memoirs of Hodder and of +Blanchard Jerrold himself, one cannot help being struck at the conflict +between it and the story of Jerrold's reply to the drunken young sparks +who met him in the street at midnight, and asked him the way to the +entertainment known as "Judge and Jury"--"Straight on, straight on as +you are going, young gentlemen--you can't miss them!" He was himself +greatly pleased with his milder witticisms, and, it is said, chuckled +complacently at the neatness of his conceit when toasting Mr. Punch, at +one of the Wednesday Dinners, in which he declared that "he would never +require spirit while he had such good Lemon-aid." He loved the paper as +few others loved it, and very, very rarely missed the weekly +gathering--attending it, indeed, up to within a week or so of his death. + +Not less scrupulous in his attendance was Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, who, +when residing at holiday-times at Boulogne, would regularly come up to +town for their Cabinet Council; and if ill-chance unavoidably prevented +his wished-for presence, he would write--after the custom adopted by +many of his colleagues--a full explanation and apology. But the +necessity very seldom arose. True son of his father, Gilbert à Beckett +was equally faithful to the Table, and in spite of the paralysis of the +legs from which he suffered (and for which he was for a time duly +chaffed by the advice of Percival Leigh, lest there might be hysteria +about the disease) he attended the Wednesday gatherings with what +regularity he could up to within a fortnight before he died. Thackeray, +too, for many years after he ceased writing for _Punch_ would weekly +join the Staff, and always received a cordial and affectionate welcome. +The gentle Leech--who, according to Shirley Brooks, attended the Dinner +for more than twenty years without uttering an unkind or an angry +word--was at the Table within a few days of his death, but, in Brooks's +words, "scarcely seemed to understand what was going on." And yet +another member of the Old Guard, who stood by his post to the end, was +"The Professor," Percival Leigh, whose sense of wit was dulled with age, +but whose mind was otherwise as bright as ever. But at the Dinners the +genial, courteous old gentleman was listened to, as ever, with deference +by his younger collaborators, and from them he never had cause for +suspicion that his powers were failing-- + + "Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee, + At all his jokes, for many a joke had he." + +Another of _Punch's_ favourite sons was Charles H. Bennett. His life was +a hard yet happy one, and his career was short, though not too short for +fame; and the last two years during which he sat at the Table were +perhaps the merriest of them all. But his attendances, really owing to +the illness which ultimately bore him down, were irregular. This +irregularity, combined with his habit--then commoner even than now among +artists--of wearing his hair very long, brought him one day a letter +from his friends and fellow-diners in the following terms:-- + + "Punch" Council, October 24th, 1866. + + Present:--LEMON W. H. BRADBURY + EVANS G. DU MAURIER + HORACE MAYHEW EVANS FILS + TOM TAYLOR S. BROOKS + LEIGH TENNIEL + + "Resolved"-- + + That this meeting deeply sympathises with C. H. Bennett + on the state of his hair. + + That this meeting appreciates the feeling which detains + the said Bennett from the Council until his hair shall + have been cut. + + That this meeting deplores the impecuniosity which prevents + the said Bennett from attending a Barber. + + That this meeting, anxious to receive the said Bennett + to its bosom, once more organises a subscription to + enable him to attend the said Barber. + + That this company, having (limited) confidence in Mr. + Mark Lemon, entrusts him with the following subscriptions + in aid of the above object, and requests him + to communicate with the aforesaid Bennett to the end + that he may have his dam hair cut and rejoin the + assembly of the brethren. + + £ s. d. + (Signed) MARK LEMON 0 0 1 + FREDERICK EVANS 0 0 1 + PERCIVAL LEIGH 0 0 1 + HORACE MAYHEW 0 0 1 + TOM TAYLOR 0 0 1 + W. H. BRADBURY 0 0 1 + GEORGE DU MAURIER 0 0 1 + F. M. EVANS 0 0 1 + SHIRLEY BROOKS 0 0 1 + J. TENNIEL 0 0 1 + -------- + Stamps enclosed £0 0 10 + ======== + +And these ten penny stamps, together with the letter, are to this day +treasured by the artist's son. + +It was not surprising that Bennett was missed; his animal spirits and +his bright good-humour counted for a good deal at the Table; and when he +died, his colleagues organised elaborate theatricals and collected a +large sum for those whom he loved and left behind in the pinch of +poverty. + +If for some time before his death Charles Keene deserted the +dinner-table, it was owing, as he has himself confessed, in no slight +measure to political motives which developed about the time of the +Russo-Turkish War. Keene was what Tories call a patriot and Liberals a +"Jingo;" and in his quiet way he felt so deeply that he thought it best +to stay away--not that he loved _Punch_ less, but he loved his +convictions more. "I am sorry to say," he wrote, with doubtful accuracy, +"_Punch_ is 'Musco' to a man except C. K., so he keeps away from that +Liberal lot at the present conjunction." There certainly was, however, +another reason, quite independent of politics, which kept Keene from the +Table during the latter years of Mr. W. H. Bradbury's life. He was not, +as his biographer, Mr. Layard, has pointed out, of much use in +suggestion at the business function of the Dinner, and he looked less to +his colleagues than to his friends outside for the jokes to which he +drew his pictures; so that his presence was not a necessity. +Nevertheless, he would attend, now and again, until age began to tell +upon him; and his companions love to think of him, clutching his +short-stemmed pipe to his mouth, puffing gravely, saying little, +thinking much, quick at appreciating a joke, slow at making one, with an +eye full of humour, and its lid and corresponding corner of his mouth +quickly responsive to any quip or crank that might let fly. Eclectic in +his humour as in his art, disposed to condemn any cartoon suggestion not +thoroughly thought out as "damn bad," he was in the weekly assembly at +the Table like the 'cello in the orchestra--not much heard, yet when +there indispensable to the general effect and the general completeness, +even though he only went "for company." + +I have lingered, perhaps unduly, over the social side of the _Punch_ +Dinner, for the company is of the best, and the subject an entertaining +and a pleasant one. But serious business has to be discussed and +transacted--and transacted it is, whatever jokes and ebullitions of +_bonhomie_ may form the running accompaniment to the work in hand. In +Mark Lemon's time the Dinner began at "six sharp," and in Shirley +Brooks's and Tom Taylor's a half-hour later; but when Mr. F. C. Burnand +took up the reins of power, the hour was advanced to seven o'clock, and +on its stroke the Staff are generally found in their places. From all +parts they come, just as their predecessors used to speed from Boulogne, +from Herne Hill, and from the Isle of Wight, so that their absence +should not be felt nor their assistance lacking at the Gathering of the +Clan. Sir John Tenniel comes from Maida Vale, most likely, or from some +spot near to London--which he has hardly quitted for a fortnight +together during the last forty years, save when, in 1878, he went to +Venice with Mr. Henry Silver and left Charles Keene _malgré lui_ as +cartoonist-in-chief. Mr. Sambourne arrives, perhaps, from a yachting +expedition or from the moors; Mr. du Maurier from his beloved Whitby or +from a lecturing tour; Mr. Lucy hurries in from the House of Commons; +Mr. Furniss, up to the time of his resignation, from some distant spot +where he "entertained" last evening, and whence he would expect to be +three hundred miles away on a similar errand on the morrow. But not for +some time past, it must be said in passing, had either Mr. du Maurier or +Mr. Furniss been so regular at the Table as in earlier days--Mr. Furniss +by reason of his touring, and Mr. du Maurier on account of the distance +of his home, and the evil effect of tobacco-smoke on his eyes and +nerves. + +Then when dinner is over and coffee finished, and paper and pens brought +in--at half-past eight, as near as may be--the cigars come on and the +waiters go off (including at one time the crusted Burnap, an original +worthy of "Robert" himself); and not more rigidly was the Press excluded +from the Ministerial Whitebait Dinner in the good old times, than are +Cabinet Ministers interdicted from the Dinner of Mr. Punch to-day. Then +the Editor, who has been presiding, invites ideas and discussion on the +subject of the "big cut," as the cartoon is commonly called; and no two +men listen more eagerly to the replies--suggestions that may be +hazarded, or proposals dogmatically slapped down--than Mr. Burnand, who +is responsible for the subject, and Sir John Tenniel, whose duty it will +be to realise the conception. The latter makes few remarks; he waits, +reflects, and weighs, thinking not so much, perhaps, of the political or +social, as of the artistic possibilities of the subjects as they are +brought up, and other points that recommend themselves both to the +artistic and literary members of the Staff. All the while, perhaps, the +Editor has a fine subject up his sleeve, and only brings it forth when +the discussion has begun to wane. Or a proposal may be made at the very +first by one member of the Staff that is accepted at once with +acclamation--an event, however, of the utmost rarity; or again, as is +usually the case, the final decision may be gradually and almost +painfully evolved from this symposium of professional wits and literary +politicians. This is the time when the men are apt to lay bare their +political beliefs (if any such they have) or their lack of them; and I +wager that if poor Keene could once more be present at a _Punch_ Dinner, +he would no longer charge it against the Staff that it is "'Musco' to a +man." + +Indeed, at the present time _Punch_ may be considered to represent the +old Whig feeling. Sir John Tenniel, Mr. Anstey, and Mr. Arthur à Beckett +are credited with Tory bias; Mr. Milliken, Mr. H. W. Lucy, Mr. R. C. +Lehmann, and Mr. Reed represent the Radicals; Mr. Sambourne is Unionist; +and Mr. Burnand, as behoves him who holds the scales, confesses to no +political sympathies or antipathies whatever. + +Thus the subject of the cartoon is settled--often by the aid of the +latest editions of the evening papers; and being once settled, is very +rarely revived on any pretext whatever. On one occasion, however, when +Mark Lemon was Editor, and Shirley Brooks was recognised as the best +suggestor, an exceptional incident took place. The subject was duly +decided upon, and Brooks went home. After he was gone, and none but Mark +Lemon, Charles Keene, Sir John Tenniel, and Mr. Henry Silver were left, +Keene, to the surprise of the rest, made a suggestion in connection with +the American War then being waged, that was immediately accepted as +vastly superior to that which had previously been adopted; and the +future Editor was much astonished as he opened his paper on the +following Tuesday and his eyes fell on a different and wholly unexpected +cartoon. Yet, though Brooks was practically the Suggestor-in-Chief, it +would be unfair to pass over the curious fitness of Leech's proposals. +They were always marked with equal judgment and taste, and, as it was +admitted, his suggestions invariably were "just right." + +When the "big cut" has been decided on, the question of a single-page or +double-page engraving sometimes comes up; and then the legend has to be +settled. This (irreverently known as "cackle" by those who produce it) +is largely the work of Mr. E. J. Milliken, who nowadays occupies a good +deal of Shirley Brooks's old position of "suggestor," and who, like him, +is living testimony of the truth of John Seddon's saying that "wit and +wisdom are born with a man." For many years Mr. Milliken has suggested +the greater number of the cartoons, and he is generally the first asked +for a proposal for Sir John Tenniel's cut. He usually has several +subjects, carefully considered and as carefully written out, in his +pocket-book, and fitted with peculiarly felicitous quotations. He is +also mainly responsible for the Almanac cartoons--subjects for both the +great _Punch_ satirists--Sir John, and Mr. Linley Sambourne. All, +however, share with him the duty and the credit of the difficult art of +cartoon-suggesting, and, no matter by whom it may be proposed, no +subject is passed without full discussion. Every possible objection is +heard and considered. Although Mr. Milliken may bring in his Bill, +amendments are always proposed, and are either rejected or carried; and +then the Bill as amended becomes the subject of the cartoon. The title +and legend are written on a piece of paper, which, enclosed in an +envelope, is then handed over to the cartoonist. It was at this moment +that Shirley Brooks used to throw down his knife in order to "cut" any +further discussion, and after that symbolic act a more desultory +conversation on the other men's work would follow. Not on Leech's, +however; for he was left greatly to himself--a piece of masterly +inactivity and non-interference on the Editor's part which speaks +volumes for Lemon's prudence and shrewd discrimination. + +Under Mr. Burnand's _régime_ the course of events is a little altered. +For even while Sir John has begun to think out the composition and the +technical details of the subject which the Council has determined, and +is scheming maybe in his own mind how best he may arrange his figures so +that when he draws them the heads will not come across a join on the +wood-block where its segments are screwed together; or, again, how so to +arrange an exceptionally elaborate subject that Mr. Swain may still have +it ready for engraving in good time on the Friday evening, the attention +of the Staff is now turned to the "Cartoon junior"--the second +cartoon--to which for some years Mr. Linley Sambourne has been giving +some of the finest and most ingenious work of his life. This is +discussed somewhat like the first, and often enough raises the +draughtsman's interest in the work he has to do to a point of genuine +artistic enthusiasm. But there appears to be no finality about the +second cartoon so far as the Dinner is concerned, and it is no unusual +thing in lively times for the subjects to be given at the last moment by +telegram to Mr. Sambourne; so that his condition of mind during the +Thursday following the Dinner may not inaptly be compared to that of an +anxious fireman waiting for a "call." The contributions of the rest of +the artistic Staff--Mr. du Maurier, Mr. Bernard Partridge, and Mr. E. T. +Reed--do not form the subject of Wednesday's cogitation; nor is it true, +as has publicly been stated, that when jokes fail it is customary to +draw them from a pot into which, written on slips of paper, they have +been deposited on the many occasions when Mr. Punch's cistern of wit has +overflowed into the jar in question. + +Such is the simple function of "the _Punch_ Dinner." The Editor +presides--or, in his absence to-day, Mr. Arthur à Beckett, just as it +was Douglas Jerrold and Shirley Brooks in Lemon's time, and Tom Taylor +in Brooks's (the duty of vice- or assistant-editor never falling to an +artist)--inviting suggestions, "drawing" his artists, and spurring his +writers, with rare tact and art; and he challenges comparison with any +of his predecessors, just as Sir Frederic Leighton excels all previous +Presidents of the Royal Academy. Some of those who sit around the Table, +as I have already set forth, have attended for many years; and it is +they who secure to _Punch_ that quality of tradition and healthy sense +of prestige which strengthen him against every assault, whether of man +or of Time himself. To this traditional sense of ancient glory and +present vigour Sir John Tenniel has of course contributed more than any +other living man; not Leech, nor Thackeray, nor Jerrold, nor Doyle, +served _Punch_ more loyally or effectively, and he has secured that the +dignified spirit of the paper has suffered no deterioration. To him it +falls, also, to see that the subjects of cartoons are not repeated. The +tenderness of the Staff for the honour, good name, and pre-eminence of +_Punch_ is delightful and touching to behold; the sentiment of a great +past animates them all, and kindles in them the hope and ambition for as +great and as proud a future. + +The exclusiveness of _Punch_ notwithstanding, he has not always been as +inhospitable (if that is the word to use of an essentially business +meeting of a private nature) as some of his friends would have us +suppose. There are many who claim the distinction of having dined at +_Punch's_ Table, but few who can sustain their pretension. Some, +however, there are--a very few, it is true; but more than have been +officially recognised as _Punch_ diners. Mr. Harry Furniss has publicly +contended that his aunt, Mrs. Thompson, was one of these. As the lady, +before she married Dr. Thompson, is said to have been originally engaged +to Landells, the first _Punch_ engraver, this might well be; for about +the time of the transfer of the property from him to Bradbury and +Evans--and Landells, it will be remembered, did not give up the whole of +his share till some time afterwards--the rules and regulations were not +by any means so stringent as they ultimately became. In any case, the +claims of "Mr. F.'s Aunt" have in her time been as strenuously insisted +upon as ever they were at the Finchings'. Then came Charles +Dickens--whose presence, I believe, is not contested. Before his quarrel +with Mark Lemon and Bradbury and Evans, because _Punch_ declined to +print a justification of himself in connection with his purely domestic +circumstances, he was the guest of _Punch's_ publishers, who were his +own publishers, and who were also the publishers of the "Daily +News"--upon the preparations for which Dickens, as first editor, was +then engaged. Moreover, Dickens was an intimate friend of Douglas +Jerrold, whose influence on _Punch_ at that time was paramount; so that +the double circumstance is amply sufficient to account for Dickens's +presence at No. 11, Bouverie Street. Much the same considerations may be +held to explain Sir Joseph Paxton's frequent attendance. The great +gardener--it was _Punch_ who christened his big exhibition building "The +Crystal Palace," "What shall be done with the Palace of Crystal?"--was +the intimate of Mark Lemon. He had also the most cordial relations with +the Staff, some of whom he would entertain in the gardens of Chatsworth, +where he acted as the agent of the Duke of Devonshire, grandfather of +the present duke, and himself on the best of personal terms with Mr. +Punch. And I have proof that he exerted all his influence in favour of +Bradbury and Evans's great new venture, through the intermediary of +Charles Dickens. "Paxton," writes Dickens in one of his letters bearing +upon the subject that lie before me, dated October, 1845--a few months +before the launching of the "Daily News"--"has the command of every +railway and railway influence in England and abroad, except the Great +Western; and he is in it heart and purse." What more likely, then, that +Dickens, at work at Whitefriars, should be invited by his friends, his +publishers, to dine with his friends of the _Punch_ Staff?--though he +possibly did not stay to the Cabinet Council; and what more reasonable +than for them to value Paxton's considerable influence at the price of a +graceful privilege, seeing that the "Daily News" thought it, in those +early days, worth while to appoint a "Railway Editor" at a salary of +£2,000 a year? Moreover, Paxton was interested with Bradbury and Evans +in "The Gardeners' Chronicle" (in whose columns he had first published +the "Cottagers' Calendar"), to say nothing of his "Flower Garden," which +he and Dr. Lindley edited for them. Sir Joseph Paxton, then, was a +constant and appreciative attendant at the _Punch_ Table until the year +1865, the date of his death. + +Mr. Peter Rackham, too, was another guest--the guest, again, and valued +friend of the publishers--well understood to have given financial +assistance in respect to the founding of the "Daily News." He was a +highly esteemed friend of Thackeray and Dickens both, and the novelists +and their publishers would send him presentation copies of their new +works. The former, by the way, presented him with a copy of his +"Virginians" when it appeared, inscribing it to Mr. Rackham in this +characteristic manner:--"In the U. States and in the Queen's dominions +All people have a right to their opinions And many don't much relish The +Virginians. Peruse my book, dear R., and if you find it A little to your +taste I hope you'll bind it." Mr. Rackham ceased his visits to the Table +in 1859, in which year, I understand, he died. Another visitor, as all +the world now knows, was Dean Reynolds Hole, who has recorded in his +"Memories" his impressions of that famous Dinner of February 15th, 1860. +To me, also, he has given an idea of the effect wrought upon him by the +frolic of the meal--an impression certainly not dimmed by time nor faded +in his imagination. He says: "There was such a clash and glitter of +sharp-edged swords, cutting humour, and pointed wit (to say nothing of +the knives and forks), the sallies of the combatants were so incessant +and intermixed, the field of battle so enveloped in _smoke_, that there +was only a kaleidoscopic confusion of brilliant colours in the vision of +the spectator, when the signal was given to 'cease firing.'" Who would +not attend a _Punch_ dinner after that? + +A frequent visitor was Mr. Samuel Lucas--known to his fellow-workers as +plain "Sam Lucas"--who was then editing the newly-founded "Once a Week" +for Bradbury and Evans. His attendance, which was constant enough +between the years 1860 and 1864, was--like that of his sub-editor, Mr. +Walford--doubtless a great convenience to all concerned, for most of the +_Punch_ artists and writers were also contributors to the more serious +magazine, and arrangements could obviously be more quickly and +effectively made at a single meeting than by a number of special +interviews. Sir W. H. ("Billy") Russell, too, "dined on several +occasions at the _Punch_ Table, when Mr. Mark Lemon and Mr. Shirley +Brooks were the Editors of the paper;" the introduction, it is +understood, being at the time when he was correcting the proofs of his +Crimean book, which Bradbury and Evans were printing. + +And, lastly, Sir John Millais--himself a contributor to _Punch's_ +pages--was once a Dinner guest. "I certainly dined once," he wrote to me +a year or two ago, "at an hotel in Covent Garden ['Bedford Hotel'] when +Mark Lemon was editor of _Punch_, and I have always been under the +impression it was one of their Dinners. The Staff only were present, and +Lemon was in the chair, and I sat beside Leech. There were ten or twelve +dining beside myself, and it was on a Wednesday." + +This point settled, then, as to Dinner guests--among whom, says the +proprietress of the "Bedford Hotel" (the niece, by the way, of Mark +Lemon), Peter Cunningham should also be included--other visitors there +are to be considered. If _Punch_ does not rigidly obey the Biblical +behest, and when on duty bent is not wholly "given to hospitality," he +at least has allowed hospitality to sit with gladness when the business +of the evening is done. From time to time outside friends were +introduced, and, according to one witness, whose testimony I am unable +to confirm, Tom Hood, Barham ("Tom Ingoldsby"), and Charles Knight have, +at intervals, been entertained "after business hours." The Staff, at +such times, would go into Committee over cigars and drinks and literary +talk and jokes, and Leech would rumble out in his splendid great bass +voice Barry Cornwall's "King Death." This was the only song of his which +his friends remember; and Ponny Mayhew would seek to emulate it with the +musical setting of Thackeray's "Mahogany Tree." He sang that song in +chorus, all upstanding, that sad Christmas Eve when Thackeray died, +among his friends of the Kensington côterie. He had brought in the fatal +news to the jovial party, and then, says Mr. Frederick Greenwood, he +proceeded: "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll sing the dear old boy's +'Mahogany Tree;' he'd like it." "Accordingly we all stood up, and with +such memory of the words as each possessed ... and a catching of the +breath here and there by about all of us, the song was sung." + +Then come the special _Punch_ dinners, official and otherwise. In 1863 +there was the Shakespeare dinner, that was held to arrange the +Shakespeare Tercentenary number of _Punch_; and a quarter of a century +later there was the Paris junketting that resulted in the Paris +Exhibition number. Then there was the yearly festival celebrated by Sir +William Agnew, and the "Almanac Dinner," which was usually held about +the month of September--in olden times, from 1850 to 1885--always at the +"Bedford," but lately discontinued; and there is the Annual Dinner to +the printers and the rest given by the firm--the first of which, under +the name of "wayzgoose," took place at the "Highbury Barn Tavern." At +these entertainments the Staff would sometimes attend and fraternise +with printers and engravers, and would make a point of congratulating +those "wood-cutters" whose recent work had specially delighted them. + +_Punch_ has always been strong on Jubilees, and his "boys" have done +their best to maintain them as a sacred tradition. On January 3rd, 1853, +Jerrold celebrated his fiftieth birthday with a dinner given to the +whole of his colleagues. Baily, the sculptor, was one of the "outside" +guests on the occasion, and was so charmed with the brilliancy and +jollity of the company that he offered, and in due time redeemed his +promise, to execute its hero's bust. That work, one of the finest of the +old Academician's portrait-busts, now, if I mistake not, belongs to the +nation's collection of its great men's portraits. On Wednesday, June +27th, 1866, the memorable picnic and dinner took place at Burnham +Beeches, to celebrate Mr. Punch's fiftieth volume, when the popular +Editor received from his proprietors a purse of a hundred guineas and a +tankard, and from them and the Staff a gold watch and chain of eleven +links, with a lock in the form of a book, as recounted in the sketch of +Mark Lemon's life. + +Then, again, there was Thackeray's "Atonement Dinner," if I may call it +so, for the slight he had unthinkingly cast upon the Staff. In his now +celebrated laudatory essay on John Leech in the "Quarterly Review" he +had written: "There is no blinking the fact that in Mr. Punch's Cabinet +John Leech is the right-hand man. Fancy a number of _Punch_ without +Leech's pictures! What would you give for it? The learned gentlemen who +write the work must feel that, without him, it were as well left alone." +Picture the indignation in the office, imagine how strongly would be +resented this _faux pas_ of Thackeray, in which he allowed his +enthusiasm for one friend to overlook, and that not inoffensively, the +feelings of the others! The writer was abroad at the bursting of his +little bomb, and no one was more distressed than himself at the result +of the explosion or readier to admit the fault. He wrote a handsome +letter of apology to Percival Leigh--he explained how "of all the slips +of my fatal pen, there's none I regret more than the unlucky half-line +which has given pain," and declared that it was more than his meaning; +and he begged furthermore that the memory of the lapsus--painful equally +to him and to Leech--might be wiped out in a dinner given by himself to +the confraternity. And they all came to his house in Kensington Palace +Gardens, and Thackeray was duly chaffed and teased--"and who can doubt," +says Trollope, "but they were very jolly over the little blunder?" + +Then there was the Staff dinner at the Crystal Palace to inaugurate the +new series of "The Gentleman's Magazine," when _Punch_ and _Punch_ +history were greatly to the fore; and the great dinner at the "Albion" +to celebrate Mr. Burnand's accession to the editorial chair--when not +only the Staff, but for the first time since the early days all +"outside" contributors to _Punch_ were invited, when, although the +subject of the cartoon had previously been settled, a certain amount of +business was gone through, just to show "how it was done." And who that +was there on that great occasion will forget the speech of Mr. +Blatchford--an artist who was the natural successor to Colonel +Howard--he who signed his drawings with a trident?--or Mr. Sala's +sallies, in the funniest of orations, at the expense of Mr. Sambourne, +who had expressly not donned evening dress? Still more important than +this was the Jubilee dinner held on July 19th, 1891, just +five-and-twenty years after the Burnham Beeches picnic--in honour of Mr. +Punch's hundredth volume. The "Ship" at Greenwich was the place of +venue. With Mr. Burnand in the chair, the members of the Staff seated as +represented in Mr. Sambourne's well-known drawing of "The Mahogany +Tree," with Mr. W. H. Bradbury and Sir William Agnew at one end of the +table, with toasts to Mr. Punch himself, to Sir John Tenniel, to Mr. +Burnand, and to the proprietors, the enthusiasm "first grew warm and +then grew hot;" and when a presentation of a silver cigar-box had been +made to the Editor, it was duly resolved to meet again, the same company +in the same place, fifty years hence! + +The last state event in the world of _Punch_-politico-rejoicings was the +dinner to Sir John Tenniel on the occasion of his knighthood. Then the +banquet was held at Hampton Court, and the "Mitre" was the scene of the +ceremony. All the enthusiasm of the Jubilee revels reappeared in an +intensified form. For not only was it all focussed upon one man, but in +his case there was a great personal triumph, a national recognition of a +great work and of a splendid career, and in the eyes of the world the +justification of that mighty art of black-and-white, which through the +printing-press is a greater vital force than any other existing form of +art--though despised till now in all official quarters--the art by which +_Punch_ rose to his pinnacle of greatness. And added to all this was the +emotional note that prevailed throughout the harmony of the feast, for +not even Leech himself had captured more hearts than Tenniel--that Grand +Old Man of _Punch_ for whom not one member of the staff but entertains +an affection of the warmest and the most cordial character, which even +respectful esteem has had no power in moderating. But one event, and +only one, could call forth greater enthusiasm and greater emotion, and +that, I apprehend, is when in six years time _his_ Jubilee on _Punch_, +by the kindness of Fate, comes to be celebrated by his loving and +admiring colleagues. + +Such are the chief semi-official dinners that have been held; but the +list would be swelled were those other occasions included when these +men--never sated, it would really seem, with each other's company--would +invite the rest of the Staff, or most of it, to dine at their private +houses. How many of these entertainments were offered by Leech to the +light-hearted and frisky band who + + "Judicious drank and greatly daring dined"! + +How many anecdotes might be told of such _réunions_, as they swooped +down on Landells or on Lemon at Herne Bay, or, in the rollicking days of +youthful indiscretion, would adjourn at midnight to serenade the +snoringly unconscious Hine away in the wilds of Hampstead! + +Certain complimentary dinners offered to the _Punch_ Staff should find a +record here, if only on the ground of completeness. The first public +recognition was the Mansion House dinner which, under the title of +"Literature and Art," included the _Punch_ Staff, together with Charles +Dickens, the members of the Royal Academy, and a few newspaper men. +Dickens has left it upon record how his feelings were hurt at the +tactless way in which the well-meaning Lord Mayor, Sir James Duke, +Bart., M.P., imparted to his guests the pleasure it was to him to meet +with mere talent after being satiated with blood and rank in the persons +of Royalties, Dukes, and Cabinet Ministers. He made them feel, in +fact--and resent not a little--how hitherto the Mansion House had drawn +its line at them, an error which Sir Stuart Knill in 1893 had the better +taste to avoid. Somewhat of a similar blunder was made by Lord Carlisle, +who invited Thackeray, Jerrold, and others of the _Punch_ men to meet +one or two of their own set, firmly persuaded that he was about to revel +in brilliant conversation, entirely forgetful of the fact that in all +probability they were perfectly familiar with the others' stories and +had their tricks of humour by heart. The result, as might have been +expected, was an entertainment of conventional dulness. How could you +expect, at a meal so pretentiously forced, of such affected joviality, +to hear Jerrold ask the butler for "some of the old, not the elder, +port"? as he would in the sanctity of their own precincts; or retort on +one who declared his liking for calf's-tail, "Extremes meet!" or (when +the dish was calf's-head), "What egotism!" and yet again, "There's +brotherly love for you!" Not at my Lord Carlisle's, as in Bouverie +Street, would you hear Shirley Brooks ask the famous two-edged riddle +which Dean Hole reminds us of--"Why is Lady Palmerston's house like Swan +and Edgar's? Because it's the best house for muzzling Delane +(_mousseline de laine_)"--Delane being then unjustly suspected of having +been "nobbled" during his visits to my lady's _salon_, at the expense of +the "Times," of which he was at that time the editor. Nor would you +enjoy the discomfiture of a disputant of "Master Douglas" (as Thackeray +rather testily named him), who, after chaffing the great wit for the +unsteadiness of hand through which he broke a glass--which, he declared, +_he_ never did--received for reply an incredulous stare, and the cutting +enquiry, "Yet I suppose you look into one every morning?" + +The latest outside _Punch_ dinner of importance which history has +thought well to set upon record is that given by Mr. Lucy ("Toby, M.P.") +in order to bring together for the first time Mr. Gladstone and the +members of that Staff which, as a body, had rendered him such steady and +invaluable support for nearly half a century. What wonder, then, that +the meeting was a great success, and that everyone present was on the +best of all possible terms with his fellow-diners? Yet "Moonshine," +commenting on the event, declared with malicious good-humour that "It is +said that _Punch_ has been entertaining Mr. Gladstone. We don't believe +a word of it, as we can't conceive that _Punch_ ever entertained +anybody!" The object of this fair hit, the Editor of _Punch_, forthwith +sought out the epigrammatist, in the belief that here was a new humorist +whose services he might employ. He, however, who might have enlightened +him, wrongly believing that the motive of the quest was less friendship +than resentment, declined to give the desired information. But Mr. Punch +appropriately avenged the insult--by subsequently absorbing it as a +joke of his own, illustrated by the hand of Mr. Reginald Cleaver. + +Perhaps to these revels of the merry clan should be added the jovial +meetings of the Moray Minstrels under the hospitable direction of Mr. +Arthur Lewis. And yet a stronger claim on the memory of those who now +bear Mr. Punch's _bâton_ between them are the meetings referred to in +the letter from the late Sir A. H. Layard, which I received shortly +before his death: "I was intimately acquainted with Tom Taylor, R. +Doyle, and other contributors to _Punch_, and constantly met them at +Taylor's table; but I do not remember to have dined at a '_Punch_ Table' +on one of the Wednesday evenings. You may probably be aware that they, +like myself, were in the habit of spending Sunday with Sir Alexander and +Lady Duff Gordon, in their house at Esher, where many articles and jokes +and sketches which appeared in the periodical were discussed." These +meetings, however, must have taken place before the time of the "Papal +Aggression," and some little while, consequently, before Sir John +Tenniel was enlisted as a recruit. + +Who will say, in the face of all this, that _Punch_ has not learned the +secret of combining pleasure with business, practising the art with +infinite satisfaction to himself and with the applause of succeeding +generations? "Where Macgregor sits, _there_ is the head of the table," +said the Scottish chieftain. Where Mr. Punch sits, say those of a later +day, there is the flow of wit and of laughter--there the fountain of +that fun which has stamped his journal as representative of what is most +characteristic and best in English humour--there the source of the art +which has been the greatest school of wood-drawing and cutting, and of +true caricature, that this country has ever seen. Good-nature is the +quality rarest and most remarkable in a political and social journal. +How much of _Punch's_ excellent temper, I wonder, is not to be +attributed to his meat before grace? Whether "the Dinner" be the sole +cause, I do not venture to pronounce, though I submit the question for +the consideration of mankind; but is it not imaginable that high living +goes for something in the sum of _Punch's_ high thinking? and may it +not almost be said of him, as Moore sang of Sheridan, that his wit + + "... in the combat, as gentle as bright, + Ne'er carried a heart-stain away on its blade"? + +For a short time only the _Punch_ Club flourished. "Its object," writes +Landells, "was to form a little society amongst ourselves to talk over +and settle upon subjects for the paper of the coming week. It was not +strictly confined to the _Punch_ writers and artists, for friends and +well-wishers were admitted, and had here an opportunity of entertaining +their ideas in a sociable and agreeable manner. Besides those on the +regular Staff of _Punch_, there were members of the club Mr. Grieve the +scene-painter, Mr. Henry Baylis, Mr. Tully the composer,[9] Mr. Joseph +Allen the artist, and I have seen in addition Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. +Stanfield, Mr. Frank Stone, Mr. Landseer, and other celebrities, in that +little snug and comfortable room. Here the inimitable Douglas Jerrold +was in his glory, showing off his ready sparkling wit, his joyous hearty +laugh ringing out above them all. Alas! several of this once brilliant +company have now passed away, but those who remain will ever remember +the many happy hours spent in the old _Punch_ Club." + +In his "canino-classic" poem already mentioned--entitled "Sodalitas +Punchica, seu Clubbus Noster"--Percival Leigh gives some further +particulars of the membership of the Club--lines which I translate +somewhat freely, perhaps, yet with all the reverence due to their +academic beauty: + + "The names of some of our greatest men the Poet now indites-- + Old Mark and Henry Mayhew, two of _Punch's_ brightest lights-- + (The first beats Aristotle blue; the second, Sophocles): + _Then enter_ Douglas Jerrold's self, our greatest wit and tease-- + Who treats his friends like Paddy Whack, his love for them to prove; + And Tully great, whose talent flows in just as great a groove; + Then Hodder, of the "Morning Herald," sheds the light he brings, + And Albert Smith the mighty--and the Poet's self who sings. + O'er these our ancient Nestor rules, who lived when lived Queen Anne, + And even knew old Japhet--or 'twas so the story ran." + +H. G. Hine, who was afterwards to become the Vice President of the Royal +Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, was elected a member; but his +taste lay neither in the direction of Clubs nor in the absorption of +strong drink. And least of all did he love Bohemia. "I only dined with +them once," he wrote to me, "and then at the 'Belle Sauvage.' The dinner +was given by the proprietors of _Punch_ to the Staff. They found the +Club already in existence, and desired to have some part in it, or, as +was said at the time, to place their finger in its pie. I believe this +to have been the only Dinner held at the 'Belle Sauvage.' I may mention +in connection with the _Punch_ Club (whose meetings, which were not +Dinners generally, were held on Saturdays) that much chaff and practical +joking were indulged in, and that was one reason for my non-attendance. +On one occasion when Albert Smith wanted his hat and umbrella on leaving +the Club, the attendant presented him pawn-tickets for the articles. He +was extremely annoyed, sent the man for a policeman, and gave the whole +Club into custody; and they had to pay the redemption price, besides +looking very foolish. It was Horace Mayhew told me of this." It has been +said that this was the last straw on Smith's back, and settled his +withdrawal from _Punch_. But it is only fair to add that the indignity +of which Albert Smith complained was thoroughly in accordance with the +spirit of the practical joking that went on at the time, while the +reason of the pledging was said to be the forcing of the unwilling, +hyper-economical Smith to "stand punch round," as all the others did +from time to time, he taking his full share of the liquor, though he +declined to entertain in his turn. + +Albert Smith, indeed, during the time he was connected with _Punch_ was +usually the butt of the jokers, particularly of Douglas Jerrold, but +rarely did he so completely turn the tables on his tormentors as on this +occasion. Yet he was not averse to chaff, particularly when he applied +it to others. One day, at the Club, Mark Lemon had been remarking that +he had no peculiarities, at least not more than other men, and certainly +none that he knew of. "For example," said he, "many men have some +peculiarity in shaving--some shave with the right hand, others with the +left, or some with either indifferently." "What do _you_ shave with?" +asked Albert Smith. "With my right hand," replied the Editor. "Then +that's your peculiarity, Uncle Mark," said Smith; "most people shave +with a razor." + +No doubt the fun was often a little rough, and that the members were a +little ashamed of it; for when Mark Lemon introduced there Mr. Catling, +the editor of "Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper," he picturesquely warned his +guest to be prepared for "an awful set of blackguards." On the night in +question, however, the fun was flatter, and Kenny Meadows, the Father of +the Feast, distinctly peppery. + +On the occasion of Mr. R. J. Hamerton's visit Jerrold was in high +feather, and, waxing eloquent on the growing influence of _Punch_, cried +for silence while he proclaimed its ingredients. Gilbert à Beckett, he +declared, was the spirit, and John Leech the sugar; Albert Smith was the +water; himself, he confessed, was the acid; and Mark Lemon--the spoon. +And among other little witticisms of the Punchites which memory has set +on record is a conversation among them on the subject of the payment of +income-tax. With most of them there was in the earliest days little +income and less tax, and strange were the stories told. At last one, +whose name has not been preserved, quietly asserted that he honestly +filled in the declaration each year, and honourably paid the demand +which was regularly served upon him. The company's surprise had +increased to contemptuous incredulity, when their Quixotic friend +proceeded: "I don't think I lose by it, I always take the average of +three years, according to the regulation; so I take the present year +and the two future ones--_and you fellows know what a pessimist I am_!" + +It was usually at the "Whistling Oyster" that the meetings of the Club +were held. The little house was conveniently situated, as already +explained, next door to the "Crown"--now Number 12 or 12A Vinegar Yard. +At this place a Mr. Pearkes had opened an oyster shop nearly twenty +years before, and his little rooms were frequented by the most talented +of the denizens of Bohemia--literary, theatrical, and artistic. One day, +in the early 'Forties, the proprietor, to his amazement, heard one of +his oysters whistling--a continuous shrill little whistle, doubtless +through a hole in its shell. The fact was at once noised abroad, and +crowds visited his shop to listen to the sibilant mollusc, which not +only whistled, but, it was said with some truth, drew the town as +effectively as old Drury herself, on the other side of the court. + +The rain of jokes that followed was ceaseless, and _Punch's_ not the +worst. He celebrated the bivalve in his pages by picture and by word, +and his young men made the best of the incident. Douglas Jerrold, says +Walter Thornbury, suggested that it was one of the sentimental kind +which, having been crossed in love, took to whistling to keep up +appearances and show it didn't care. Thackeray declared in all +seriousness that he had heard an American in the shop, after listening +to the performance, gravely assert that at home in Massachusetts they +had a much cleverer oyster, which not only whistled "Yankee Doodle" from +beginning to end, but followed his master about like a dog. And it was +further suggested that, report having exaggerated the powers of the +performer into being able to whistle "God save the Queen," the +proprietor had been requested to take it to Windsor Castle, but that the +command had been summarily cancelled when it was ascertained _that the +musician was a "native!"_ The result to the fortunate proprietor was a +substantial one; his house became known and for many years kept up its +reputation on the deformity of a twopenny shell-fish. It is, therefore, +hardly surprising that "other vermin" took to music as well; that about +the same time a "singing mouse" made its appearance, duly touring in +London and the provinces; and that _Punch_ made the most of the engaging +little _virtuoso_. + +For some few years, then, the _Punch_ Club flourished. In Hal Baylis it +had an ideal chairman, roystering, jovial, witty, side-splitting--the +only man, in the opinion of many, who could draw his sword and maintain +his ground against Jerrold's cut and thrust. So good were his sayings, +or so adaptable to _Punch's_ purpose, that his position in the Club was +respected, and he was put upon the free list, and received his weekly +copy of the paper up to the day of his death. He was originally a +printer, then a newspaper proprietor and editor; but fate had been +unkind to him, and in the days of his presidency he had come to be an +advertisement canvasser. He ruled with royal dignity, but knew the limit +to his powers; and when Landells made his appeal to "the boys" at one of +the dinners to "see him righted" in connection with his quarrel with +Bradbury and Evans, he comforted the ex-engraver as best he could, and +skilfully passed to the "Order of the day." + +Of Baylis's judgment of character and capacity Landells has left the +following example: "One evening at the _Punch_ Club there had been more +than the usual amount of chaff going on between Henry Baylis and Douglas +Jerrold, when the former suddenly said, 'If you will give me a pen and +ink I will make a prophecy that shall be fulfilled within two years. It +shall be sealed up and given to Daddy Longlegs [myself] upon his +undertaking not to open it before the expiration of that time.' The +paper was handed to me, and carefully put by. Time passed, and I had +forgotten the circumstance altogether, when some years afterwards, +looking over some old pocket-books, I found a sealed letter addressed to +'Daddy Longlegs, Esq.--to be opened two years after date.' On breaking +the seal I found the following: 'I, Henry Baylis, do hereby prophesy +that within two years from this date Douglas Jerrold will write +something that shall be as popular as anything that Charles Dickens ever +wrote.'" Within those two years the "Caudle Lectures" had been produced +and Baylis's prophecy fulfilled. + +Nothing of the old Club now remains--it passed away with the Old Guard +of _Punch's_ youthful days; and just as _Punch_ himself from a mere +street-show puppet rose to reigning wit and arch-philosopher, so +practically has his Club-house been lost to Drury Lane and instead lends +dignity to Garrick Street. + +One other club--essentially also a _Punch_ côterie--remains to be +mentioned: the "Two Pins Club." A riding club in the first instance, it +consists of not a dozen members, who periodically jogg off to Richmond +or elsewhere to take exercise and lunch together in riding-breeches and +good-fellowship. Of these the chief members have been Lord Russell of +Killowen (who on his elevation to the Bench as Lord Chief Justice sent +in his resignation, as you may see in Mr. Linley Sambourne's cartoon of +July 14th, 1894, by the letters on the scroll Lord Russell holds: +"P.P.C.--T.P.C."), Mr. Burnand, Sir John Tenniel, Mr. Linley Sambourne, +Mr. E. T. Reed, Mr. Harry Furniss, Sir Frank Lockwood, the Hon. Mr. +Russell, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Mr. John Hare, Sir Edward Lawson, Mr. +George Alexander, and Mr. C. H. Matthews. But the savour of _Punch_ is +over it all, and though outsiders are of it, it is as much a _Punch_ +club of _Punch_ origin as the one that went before. It has been said +that there is difference of opinion as to the source of its name, it +being supposed that it arose from one of the founders declaring that "it +didn't matter two pins what name it bore." The simple truth is that it +was christened after the names of two great riding worthies--at least +one worthy, the other unworthy--of English literature: John Gil_pin_ and +Dick Tur_pin_; of the latter of whom Thomas Hood tells us that when the +romantic malefactor was righteously hanged, after a spirit-swilling +career, he died of having had "a drop too much." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] The initials and monograms appear in the following order round the +Table: 1, Mark Lemon; 2, F. C. Burnand (second carving, after stencil by +Prof. Herkomer, R.A.); 3, John Tenniel; 4, Shirley Brooks; 5, Arthur à +Beckett; 6, R. C. Lehmann; 7, W. M. Thackeray; 8, Henry Silver; 9, Harry +Furniss; 10, John Leech; 11, G. du Maurier; 12, W. Bradbury; 13, Douglas +Jerrold; 14, E. J. Milliken; 15, F. M. Evans; 16, Tom Taylor; 17, Linley +Sambourne; 18, Phil May; 19, J. Bernard Partridge; 20, E. T. Reed; 21, +H. W. Lucy; 22, F. C. Burnand (first carving); 23, Gilbert à Beckett; +24, Anstey Guthrie; 25, Horace Mayhew; 26, Percival Leigh. Charles H. +Bennett died before he could complete his monogram, and Mr. R. F. +Sketchley neglected the duty--an omission he ever after regretted. + +[8] See _Punch_ cartoon, "Who will Rouse Him?" (March 12th, 1859). + +[9] Who subsequently put Hood's "Song of the Shirt" to music (published +from the _Punch_ office, price 2s. 6d.), as well as the "Songs for the +Sentimental," "_Punch's_ own Polka" (printed in _Punch_ September 7th, +1844), and probably also "The Queen's Speech, as it is to be sung by the +Lord Chancellor" (_Punch_, Feb., 1843). + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +_PUNCH_ AS A POLITICIAN. + + _Punch's_ Attitude--His Whiggery--And Sincerity--Catholics and + Jews--Home Rule--European Politics--Prince Napoleon--_Punch's_ + Mistakes--His Campaign against Sir James Graham--His Relations with + Foreign Powers--And Comprehensive Survey of Affairs. + + +The social and political attitude of _Punch_ to-day is a very different +thing from what it was when the paper first claimed public attention and +support. "When we are impecunious," says Mr. du Maurier, "we must needs +be democratic." And democratic _Punch_ was in Jerrold's era, although +from no mercenary or unworthy motive. Later on, the club and the +drawing-room frankly recognised the power wielded by the paper, and, by +that very acknowledgment, influenced it to an obvious degree. Then came +the sentiment of Church and State, and the Palmerston patriotic pose +that was most to the taste of the threepenny public; and for a long time +the plucky, cheery, careless, "_Civis-Romanus-Sum_," "hang-Reform" +statesman was the special pet of _Punch_, and more particularly of +Shirley Brooks. When that Editor died, Tom Taylor imparted a decidedly +Radical, anti-Beaconsfield, anti-Imperial turn; but since the _régime_ +of Mr. Burnand a lighter and more non-committal attitude has been +adopted and maintained. + +Speaking generally, the prevailing _Punch_ tradition with regard to +matters political--at least, in the belief of its conductors--has been +to hold the balance fairly between the parties, to avoid fixed and +bitter partisanships, to "hit all round" as occasion seemed to demand, +and to award praise where it appeared to be deserved. If there was to be +a general "list" or "lean," it was to be towards a moderate +Liberalism--towards sympathy with the popular cause of freedom both of +act and speech, and enthusiastic championship of the poor and oppressed. + +If, especially within recent years, _Punch_ has claimed one merit more +than another, it is to as fair a neutrality as is possible to a +strong-minded individuality with unmistakable political views. +Conservatives have long since protested against what has been called its +"hideous Gladstonolatry and bourgeois Liberalism," and declaimed against +the occasional partisan spirit of the "Essence of Parliament." "There is +a popular periodical," said Mr. Gladstone, in his Edinburgh speech of +September 29th, 1893, "which, whenever it can, manifests the Liberal +sentiments by which it has been guided from the first. I mean the +periodical _Punch_." Indeed, to that party has always been given the +benefit of the doubt. But one of the chief organs of Radicalism[10] has +complained of an attack on a Liberal Cabinet as "merely a pictorial +insult;" and the professional Home Ruler has denounced with +characteristic emphasis the representation by _Punch_ of the Irish +voter, bound hand and foot, terrorised and intimidated by his priest, +who exclaims: "Stop there till you vote as I tell you, or it's neither +marry nor bury you I will!" From all of which it may fairly be deduced +that _Punch_, with occasional lapses of an excusable kind, has, on the +whole, fairly upheld his character for the neutrality proper to one who +is accepted as the National Satirist, even though--like the Irish +judge--"he is most just when he lanes a bit on my soide." + +"The Table" has always shown an amalgam of Conservative and Liberal +instincts and leanings, though the former have never been those of the +"predominant partner." The constant effort of the Staff is to be fair +and patriotic, and to subordinate their personal views to the general +good. This is the first aim. For, whatever the public may think, neither +Editor nor Staff is bound by any consideration to any party or any +person, but hold themselves free to satirise or to approve "all round." +Disraeli they quizzed and caricatured freely; but they always admitted +his fine traits and brilliant talents. Gladstone they more consistently +glorified for his eloquence, high-mindedness, and skill; but from time +to time they would trounce him roundly for his vacillations or other +political shortcomings. + +In the earlier days of _Punch_ it was more common to make a dead-set at +individuals--as at Lord Brougham, "Dizzy," Lord Aberdeen, and, during +his earlier career, John Bright. But many things were done forty years +ago which nowadays "the Table" would neither tolerate nor excuse--such +as certain attacks upon defenceless royalty (more particularly upon +Prince Albert) as being both unfair and in bad taste. The courteous +high-mindedness of Sir John Tenniel has made greatly for this mellowing +and moderation, to the point, indeed, that many complain that _Punch_ no +longer hits out straight from the shoulder. This peaceable tendency +obviously arises from neither fear nor sycophancy, but from an anxious +desire to be entirely just and good-natured, and to avoid coarseness or +breach of taste. + +Much of the change in _Punch_ has simply been the inevitable +accompaniment of change in the times--in the tastes, manners, social +polish, and sensitive feelings of the courteous and urbane. It is so +easy to be strong in the sense in which an onion is strong; but _Punch_ +has long since cast away that kind of force. Many and many a time an +admirable "subject" for a cartoon has been rejected--pointed, +picturesque, or droll, as the case may be--because some one has raised +the question, "But would that be quite fair?" Jerrold was bitterly +caustic and sometimes neither just nor merciful in his Quixotic tilting +at upper-class windmills; and Leech, in his earlier work, was often +fiercely drastic. But there was more democratic outspokenness, more +middle-class downrightness, and less of the Constitutional Club and +drawing-room element in those ante-du Maurier days. But men and artists +alter, and become moulded and modified by their environments, and it may +safely be said that there is to-day no effort on _Punch's_ part to be +"smart," anti-popular, anti-bourgeois, or anti-anything, save +anti-virulent and anti-vulgar. + +In no department of public affairs has _Punch_ shown greater advance +than in that of the public Faith. _Punch_ the Religionist--I use the +expression in all seriousness--while sturdily maintaining his own +ground, and as the representative of "the great Protestant middle-class" +swiftly denouncing the slightest show of sacerdotalism, has displayed an +increasing tolerance and liberal-mindedness that were not his most +notable characteristics in his youthful days. High Church and Low, +bishops and clergy, Protestant and Catholic, from the Pope to Mr. +Spurgeon, have all at times come under his lash. + +Mr. Punch has ever kept his eye attentively on the affairs of the +Church. In his first volume he supported the agitation against the +old-fashioned, high-panelled, curtained pew, at the same time cordially +endorsing the Temperance movement of the young Irish priest, Father +Mathew. The cause of the curate he has always upheld with a zeal that +has betrayed him on more than one occasion into injustice to the +bishops; wherein he has erred in company with his fellow-sage, the Sage +of Coniston. And the cause of the poor man, up to the point of Sunday +opening of museums and picture galleries, has always been an article of +his religious creed, although in a pulpit reference the Rev. A. G. +Girdlestone declared that _Punch's_ policy was temporarily reversed +during one editorship in consequence of its being found that the men on +the mechanical staff of the paper were themselves opposed to the +movement. + +In _Punch's_ first decade Pope Pius IX. was popular with Englishmen and +with _Punch_ by reason of his liberalism. But towards the end of 1850 +the cry of "Papal Aggression" broke out, and the popular excitement, +already aroused over Puseyism, was fanned to an extraordinary pitch. The +situation at that time is described in subsequent chapters dealing with +Richard Doyle and Cartoons; but reference must here be made to the +violence with which _Punch_ caught the fever--how he published a cartoon +(Sir John Tenniel's first) representing Lord John Russell as David +attacking Dr. Wiseman, the Roman Goliath.[11] In due time, however, the +excitement passed away. Dr. Wiseman received his Cardinal's hat, Lord +John was satisfied with having asserted the Protestant supremacy, +Richard Doyle left the paper, and nobody, except _Punch_, seemed a penny +the worse, save that the popular suspicion, once aroused, was not for +several years entirely allayed. The "Papal Aggression" agitation +smouldered on for a year or two in the paper; but _Punch_ was not too +much engrossed to be prevented from giving his support to Mr. Horsman's +Bill for enquiry into the revenues of the bishops of the Established +Church, whom, in one of Leech's cartoons, he represented as carrying off +in their aprons all the valuables on which they could lay their hands. + +Thenceforward _Punch's_ religious war was directed chiefly against +Puseyism and its "toys"--by which were designated the cross, +candlesticks, and flowers. The Pope was still with him an object of +ridicule, and in one case at least of inexcusably coarse insult; but he +was by this time (1861) shorn of his temporal power, and had become the +"Prisoner of the Vatican;" and his "liberalism," so much applauded in +his ante-aggressive days, was all forgotten. Nevertheless, some of +_Punch's_ references were harmless and innocent enough, such as that in +which he asks, in 1861: "Why can the Emperor of the French never be +Pope?" and himself replies, "Because it is impossible that three crowns +can ever make one Napoleon." + +Less fierce, but much more constant, was the ridicule meted out to the +Jews. The merry prejudice entertained by John Leech and Gilbert Abbott à +Beckett alike against the Jewish community was to some extent shared not +only by kindly Thackeray himself, but even by Jerrold, and was +expressive no doubt of the general feeling of the day. Mark Lemon +certainly did nothing to temper the flood of merciless derision which +_Punch_ for a while poured upon the whole house of Israel, and some of +Brooks's verses are to this day quoted with keen relish in anti-Semitic +circles. In his campaign against the sweaters in the early 'Forties a +picture appeared in the Almanac for 1845 in which such an employer was +represented by Leech as a Jew of aldermanic proportions, rich and +bloated in appearance and of monstrous ostentation and vulgarity. Yet +_Punch's_ hatred was really only skin-deep, or, at least, was directed +against manners rather than against men; and this fact, curiously +enough, gave rise to one of those misunderstandings of which the paper +has from time to time been the subject. In the spring of 1844 the +"Morning Post" was vigorously denounced by _Punch_ for suggesting such a +possibility as a "gentleman Jew," and proposed that the "accursed dogs" +had more than their rights in being spoken of as "persons of the Hebrew +faith." Thereupon a Jewish reader, considering that _Punch's_ expression +bordered upon rudeness, and that the sufferance which was his tribal +badge need not under the circumstances seal his lips, wrote to protest +against the "malice and grossness of language"--for he had failed to +appreciate _Punch's_ robust irony and too carefully veiled championship. +Then, in one of those generous moods which often directed Jerrold's pen, +_Punch_ explained. (Vol. VI., 1844, p. 106.) He pointed out how his +article had been directed against the "bygone bigotry and present +uncharitableness" of the "Morning Post;" he quoted Defoe's "Short Way +with Dissenters," in which the author satirically advocated their social +rights, as an example of how one may be misunderstood by the men they +desire to serve; he reminded his readers how, when "Gulliver's Travels" +was published, a certain bishop publicly proclaimed that he didn't +believe a word of it; and he asked if he--_Punch_--should complain, +then, when his advocacy of common rights and liberties of the Hebrew is +"arraigned of malice, prejudice, and jealousy." But the Jewish +Disabilities Removal Bill had not at that time been introduced. + +It was in 1847 that this measure was brought in, and _Punch_ was nearly +as much alarmed as he subsequently was at the "Papal Aggression." +_Punch_ for a time was as strong on the subject as the fanatical Sir +Robert Inglis himself; and Leech's cartoon of Baron de Rothschild +trying to force his nose--the "thin end of the wedge," he called +it--between the doors of the House of Commons was regarded as a very +felicitous and brilliant hit. But even then _Punch_ was willing to let +the other side of the question be heard; and in an ingenious adaptation +of Shylock's soliloquy (p. 247, Vol. XIII., 1847) dedicated to Sir +Robert Inglis--beginning "Hath not a Jew brains?" and ending, "If we +obey your government, shall we have no hand in it? If we are like you in +the rest, we ought to resemble you in that"--the whole case of Lord John +Russell and the supporters of the measure was clearly put forth. +Similarly, when at the very time that _Punch_ was making the most of any +fun that could be got out of his Jewish butt, the "Strangers' Friend +Society" appealed for funds on the ground that the urgency of their +charitable needs would "dissolve even the hardest, the most magnetic +astringent Jewish mind," _Punch_ vigorously protested against the +quaintness of that virtue and charity which would batten upon the +faithful by tickling their pet prejudice against the Jews, and declared +that "the Society's healing goodness would be none the worse for not +spurting its gall at any portion of the family of men." And in more +recent times _Punch_ has carried his sympathy to its furthermost point +by the powerful cartoons published during the great persecutions of the +Jews in Russia, by which--for representing the Tsar, Alexander III., as +the New Pharaoh--he attained exclusion from the Holy Empire, and from +the mouthpiece of the Jewish community "gratitude in unbounded measure +for this great service in the cause of freedom and humanity." + +In like manner, _Punch_ has displayed equal kindliness of feeling for +the Irish, though Home Rule never offered strong attraction to his +imagination or statesmanship. From the beginning he always showed a +genuine sympathy for what he considered genuine Irish sentiment and +suffering; but agitation, as material for political speculation, seldom +recommended itself to him. In 1844 (p. 254, Vol. VII.) a cartoon by +Leech was published (originally to have been called "Two of a Trade"), +in which the Tsar and Queen Victoria are chatting at a table. On the +wall behind the autocrat hangs a map of Poland; near the Queen, one of +Ireland; and she, holding up her forefinger in gentle self-admission of +error, and in friendly remonstrance with her august visitor, says +softly, "Brother, brother, we're both in the wrong!" Soon afterwards +_Punch_ became, it was said, "anti-Irish;" or, as he himself declared, +he could not confound Irish misdeeds with Irish wrongs; and it was with +that view that he was wont to picture the Irish political +outrage-mongering peasant as a cross between a garrotter and a gorilla. +Of course, in their rivalries Daniel O'Connell and Smith O'Brien were +satirised as the "Kilkenny Cats;" but when the "Great Agitator" died in +1847, _Punch_ showed how sincere was his sympathy with a people who, +rightly or wrongly, were mourning the death of their leader, and who at +the time were dying in thousands from the famine that was then black +over the land. Nevertheless, he applauded with delight the thumping +majority that negatived in Parliament the motion for Repeal of the +Union. Then came a Coercion Bill, and continued seething discontent; but +the sad, sweet face of Hibernia then as ever claimed all the beauty that +lay in the cartoonist's pencil. And a year later, when the Queen visited +Ireland, and a Special Court of Common Council was held to consider the +propriety of purchasing estates there, _Punch_ showed "Gog and Magog +helping Paddy out of the Mess," and "Sir Patrick Raleigh"--a handsome +Irish peasant of the right sort--laying his mantle across a puddle, and +smiling as he prays, "May it please your Majesty to tread on the tail of +my coat." + +So _Punch_ in his Irish, as in his English, home policy became, and +maintained the attitude of, an Old Liberal, an elderly member of the +Reform Club, with just enough desire for reform to be written down a +Radical by Tories, and enough Conservatism and patriotism to be +denounced as a Jingo, or its equivalent, by their opponents. But he went +steadily on; and when Mr. Gladstone became converted to Home Rule, +_Punch_ declined to be committed to the policy. He maintained his +independence and his Whiggery, in spite of the personal feeling and +friendship of the chief proprietor of the paper for the aged statesman. +Private sentiment was sacrificed to public need, and the position of +_Punch_, and his character for political stability, were thereby further +assured. + + * * * * * + +At the time of _Punch's_ birth the Queen had sat four years upon the +throne, and had recently entered into happy wedded life, Louis Napoleon +was living a life in London not at all upon the Imperial plan; Señorita +de Montijo, the future Empress, was a young lady of small expectations +in Spain--the daughter of the Comtesse de Montijo, of the Kirkpatrick +family; and the Emperor William, who was destined in the fulness of time +to crush them both, was a political star of at most the fourth +magnitude. Bismarck, Gladstone, and Disraeli were names already known to +the public--Mr. Disraeli, indeed, being of those who took part in the +debate the result of which was to turn out Lord Melbourne's Government +(August, 1841) and send in Sir Robert Peel's, in which Mr. Gladstone +took his place as Vice-President of the Board of Trade and Master of the +Mint. But, like _Punch_, they were but beginning life; Mr. Gladstone was +a Tory and High Churchman; Free Trade and the Corn Law Repeal were as +questions hardly yet "acute;" and neither Bright nor Cobden had entered +the House of Commons. _Punch_, therefore, entered the field at an +interesting moment, and began by boldly proclaiming his impartiality: + + "POLITICS.--'PUNCH' has no party prejudices--he is conservative in + his opposition to Fantoccini and political puppets, but a + progressive Whig in his love of _small change_." + +When Disraeli, equally with his rival, changed his party, the fact was +recorded in a happy parody of Hood's well-known verses:-- + + "Young Ben he was a nice young man, + An author by his trade, + He fell in love with Poly Tics, + And soon an M.P. made. + He was a Rad-ical one day, + He met a Tory crew, + His Poly Tics he cast away, + And then turned Tory too." + +Soon he was leader of the little "Young England Party," and was to be +seen in _Punch's_ cartoon as a viper gnawing at the "old file," Sir +Robert Peel. Then came the triumph of Free Trade, duly celebrated by +John Leech in one of his most light-hearted cartoons. + +The fatal year of 1848 opened with the memorable letter of the Prince de +Joinville, at that time a young man of thirty, which set half Europe +looking to their national defences, but which pretended to be aimed only +at an invasion of England. There was, of course, a scare, not to say a +panic, in official circles; but _Punch_ was one of the few who kept +their heads, making capital galore out of the situation. He never tired +of deriding the fiery young prince, who was only too glad a little later +on to "invade" England in the character of refugee. The French army, he +declared (by the pen of Percival Leigh), would land, after suffering all +the tortures of sea-sickness, carefully watched by the Duke of +Wellington from a Martello tower. Arrived in London, the invaders would +arrest M. Jullien, lay siege to 85, Fleet Street, but raise it forthwith +on the appearance of Mr. Punch and Toby, who would follow the fugitives +in hot pursuit. Although _Punch_ ridiculed the matter thus, he yet +proposed the formation of a Volunteer Corps, to be called "_Punch's_ +Rifles;" and it is to be observed that he thus forestalled by four years +the actual establishment of the Exeter Volunteers. Nevertheless, _Punch_ +seriously threatened the movement when it did come with his "Brook Green +Volunteer;" yet a few years later, when the idea was revived by the +starting of Rifle Clubs, with the subsequent notion of transforming them +into regiments, _Punch_ lent his aid. He would chaff them, of +course--for it was his business so to do--but he was proud of them all +the same, and loudly applauded the spirit that inspired them. The +Volunteers, as he told the French, were "the boys who minded his shop;" +and more than one of his Staff enrolled themselves in the patriotic +cause. + +Chartism, though in its programme and aspirations respected by _Punch_, +was despised for its management and mismanagement, and was made the +subject of much excellent fooling. But the stormy European outlook gave +him far more concern. In one of his cartoons all the Sovereigns are +shown in their cock-boats, storm-tossed in the Sea of Revolution, the +Pope--still in the full enjoyment of his temporal power--being the only +one really comfortable and really popular. As the Champion of Liberty +the Pontiff is at various times portrayed as pressing "a draught of a +Constitution" on the kings of Sardinia and Naples and the Duke of +Tuscany, dealing a knock-down blow to the "despotism" of Austria, and +spitting her eagle on a bayonet; altogether justifying his reputation +(for how short a time to last!) for stability, magnanimity, and love of +progress. + +In this same year of 1848 Prince Louis Napoleon made his second descent +upon France, and _Punch_, mindful of the fiasco of the first, prepared +to give him a warm reception. His treatment from the beginning of the +Pretender and Prince-President was that of an unblushing adventurer and +charlatan. In course of time, as the Emperor became of importance in his +day, he relaxed his severity to some extent, and at times at least +showed him the respect due to an ally. On other occasions he would +relapse into his original practice of violent and scornful attack--to +such a point, as is seen elsewhere, as to extort the vigorous protests +of Thackeray and Ruskin. "It is a tradition," it is said, "that when, +during the _entente cordiale_, the Emperor and Empress paid a visit to +Her Majesty in London, two cartoons were suggested at the _Punch_ Table +to celebrate the event. The first was heroic, representing Britannia +welcoming the nephew of the great Napoleon to her shores; the second, a +'brushed-up,' refugee-looking individual ringing at the front-door bell +of Buckingham Palace, with the legend 'Who would have thought it?' The +second was selected." + +The Prince-President as "The Brummagem Bonaparte out for a Ride" (the +cartoon which helped to lose Thackeray to _Punch_), galloping a blind +horse at a precipice, was certainly in the spirit of English popular +feeling; and even the coronation of the prince made for a time but +little difference in _Punch's_ demeanour. But when the Russian +difficulty came in sight, and "the Crimean sun rose red," Napoleon III. +was treated with a certain measure of begrudged courtesy; and when the +war broke out, the tone was even cordial, and the sovereign of our +allies was actually represented as a not altogether undesirable +acquaintance. The close of the war, however, left matters much where +they were, for the peace, in spite of all rejoicings, was thought to +come too soon, in order to suit the convenience of the Emperor. Once +more he was distrusted in his Italian campaign. The sincerity of his +intimate letter to the Comte de Persigny, the French Ambassador to +England, was received with little credence, and John Bull replies to its +tenor thus:-- + + "What _has_ been _may_ recur. Should a Brummagem Cæsar + Try a dash at John Bull, after conqu'ring the Gauls, + I intend he shall find the achievement a teaser, + What with Armstrongs, long Enfields, and stout wooden walls." + +The visit of the Empress Eugénie to the Queen at Windsor Castle, and the +abolition of passports for Englishmen in France (which _Punch_ accepted +as a latch-key, "to come and go as he liked"), disposed the paper a +little more kindly towards the Emperor; but it was for the +Franco-Prussian War to bring out the full strength and the true +perspicuity of _Punch's_ judgment. There was little fooling here. His +warning was serious and solemn; he followed every act of the great drama +with breathless interest and with unsurpassed power of apprehension and +pictorial demonstration; and his sympathy for the misfortunes of "la +grande nation," and his horror at the terrors of the Commune, did not +prevent his pity going forth to the broken leader who had played and +lost, and who returned to England in a plight far sadder and more +desperate than that in which he had lived his Bohemian life thirty years +before. + +In considering _Punch's_ attitude during his long career, it must be +borne in mind that he has always aimed at representing the sentiments of +the better part of the country--seeing with London's eyes, and judging +by London standards. _Punch_ is an Englishman of intense patriotism, but +primarily a Citizen of London, and a far truer incarnation of it--for +all his chaff of aldermen and turtle--than the Lord Mayor and Chairman +of the County Council put together. "But the aspects under which either +British lion, Gallic eagle, or Russian bear have been regarded by our +contemplative serial," says Ruskin, in a passage which to some extent +bears out this contention, "are unfortunately dependent on the fact that +all his three great designers (Tenniel, Leech, and du Maurier) are, in +the most narrow sense, London citizens. I have said that every great man +belongs not only to his own city, but to his own village. The artists of +_Punch_ have no village to belong to; the street-corner is the face of +the whole earth, and the only two quarters of the heavenly horizon are +the east and west--End." Especially did _Punch_ represent English +feeling during the great reforms of the 'Forties and 'Fifties. Of course +he made mistakes, and many of them. "He who never made a mistake never +made anything." He ground the No-Popery organ; he defended the +Ecclesiastical Titles Act; he ridiculed the Jewish Disabilities Bill; he +fostered the idea of relentless vengeance on the Indian mutineers and +rebels, and bitterly opposed Lord Canning's more humane policy;[12] he +issued cartoons during the Secession War--to use the words of Mr. Henry +James--"under an evil star;" he aimed poisoned shafts at Louis Philippe; +he scoffed, at first, at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and seriously +retarded its progress; he failed to appreciate Lord Aberdeen's +statesmanship, like the rest of his contemporaries, during the Crimean +War; he joked at Turner, and sneered at the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; +he attacked Bright and Cobden for their attitude during the Chinese +War; he denounced Carlyle's "Latter-day Pamphlets" as mere "barking and +froth;" he ridiculed Joseph Hume with a cruel persistence that called +forth a passionate protest from the "Westminster Review" against the +scurrilous attack on one who was "too good" for it, for which _Punch_ +handsomely apologised on Hume's death (March 10th, 1855); and generally, +in his own words, "at this early date Mr. Punch in his exuberance wrote +much that he would now hesitate to commit to paper, and for which, if it +did appear, he would certainly be taken severely to task by a hundred +correspondents, of whom a majority would be of the strait-laced order, +and the minority would be largely recruited from North Britain." + +[Illustration: LEECH'S ORIGINAL SKETCH FOR "PEEL'S DIRTY BOY."] + +[Illustration: "PEEL'S DIRTY LITTLE BOY." +_Dame Peel:_ "Drat the boy! He's always in a mess." +(_From the Cartoon by Leech in "Punch," Vol. VIII., p. 145. March 29th, +1845._)] + +But the politician who suffered most from _Punch_--and perhaps the most +undeservedly--was that most unpopular of a long line of unpopular Home +Secretaries, Sir James Graham. He had joined Peel's Cabinet in 1842, on +the fall of Lord Melbourne's Ministry, and nothing that he did could +command the approval of his critics, especially those on _Punch_. His +capital offence was directing the opening of certain of Mazzini's +letters in consequence of the statements made to our Government by that +of Naples, to the effect that plots were being carried on--of which the +brilliant and popular Italian refugee was the centre--to excite an +insurrection in Italy. "The British Government," reported the House of +Commons Committee of Inquiry afterwards appointed, "issued a warrant to +open and detain M. Mazzini's letters. Such information deduced from +these letters as appeared to the British Government calculated to +frustrate this attempt was communicated to a foreign Power." + +Thereupon Mr. Duncombe, M.P., upon the complaints of Mazzini, W. J. +Linton (the well-known Chartist, and more distinguished wood-engraver), +and others, that their letters had been secretly opened, charged Sir +James Graham with the violation of correspondence (June 14th, 1844), and +though not at first eliciting much information, succeeded in obtaining +the appointment of a Committee, though a "secret" one; and Lord Radnor +effected the same object in the Lords. The result was favourable to the +Minister; but the popular feeling roused by it was intense, and _Punch_, +up in arms at once at this supposed violation of the rights of the +subject, fanned the excitement he shared. He immediately published, on +July 6th, the most offensive attack he could devise. This consisted in +the famous "Anti-Graham Envelope" and "Wafers"--the latter _extra +strongly gummed_. + +The former was drawn by John Leech--a sort of burlesque of the Mulready +envelope--and was afterwards appropriately engraved by Mr. W. J. Linton, +whose share in the agitation was a considerable one. The circulation +attained by this envelope was very wide, and although I have not +ascertained that many were actually passed through the General Post +Office, it certainly brought a flood of bitter ridicule on the +unfortunate Minister. In addition to this, there was published, on the +clever initiation of Henry Mayhew, the sheet of "Anti-Graham +Wafers"--an instrument of diabolical torture for the unhappy Secretary, +who already figured as "Paul Pry" in half a hundred of the more +important papers. In this sheet, 10 inches by 7-3/4 inches in size, +drawn by H. G. Hine, there were printed sixteen wafers, in green ink, in +the midst of a witty design, in brown, that bore the devices of a snake +in the grass, a cat-o'-nine-tails, a kettle steaming the fastening of a +letter, and other suggestive personalities. These were supposed to be +cut up and used as wafers on envelopes, and that they were so used is +probable, in view of their extreme rarity at the present day. They were +issued at twopence the sheet; and their epigrammatic cuts and +accompanying legends were in _Punch's_ best vein. + +[Illustration: THE ANTI-GRAHAM ENVELOPE. + +(_Designed by John Leech._)] + +_Punch's_ example was promptly followed by that class of publisher who +lives by trading on the ideas of others, and in the windows of many +booksellers of the commoner class, envelopes in the shape of padlocks +were offered for sale, the motto on them running "Not to be Grahamed." +_Punch_ itself followed up the scent, and gave drawings of "Mercury +giving Sir James Graham an insight into Letters" (with the aid of a +steam-kettle), of "The Post Office Peep-Show, a Penny a Peep," in which +foreign sovereigns, on paying their money to Showman Graham, are +permitted to violate the secrecy of British correspondence; while a +notice from St. Martin's-le-Grand informs his Continental clients that +"on and after the present month the following alterations will take +place in the opening of letters:"-- + + Letters + + Posted at Opened at + + 9 A.M. 10 A.M. + 10 A.M. 11 A.M. + 12 A.M. 2 P.M. + 2 P.M. 4 P.M. + 4 P.M. 6 P.M. + +Of course, this was all very unfair and savagely amusing, but much was +forgiven for the cleverness of the hits, and the liberty-loving notions +that inspired them. + +The "railway mania," which had been developing during these years, had +from the first been viewed with alarm by _Punch_, who, with his +customary level-headedness, foresaw the crash and the reaction that were +soon to follow. And when they came, in 1849, he pointed solemnly to the +truth of his teaching, and to the sadness of the moral, with the picture +of "King Hudson off the Line." Nothing could represent the situation +more eloquently or more concisely. + +A noteworthy incident occurred in connection with the Greek question of +1850, when the English fleet threatened to blockade the Piræus. _Punch_ +was indignant at this high-handed show of strength towards the little +kingdom, and taking the mean-looking, grovelling British Lion by the ear +(in his cartoon) asks him, "Why don't you hit someone of your own size?" +With the exception of the occasion when he disrespectfully represented +the noble beast as stuffed and moth-eaten, this is the only "big cut" +wherein the Lion has been unworthily treated, or on which, in foreign +politics, _Punch_ has failed to back up his own Government. + +[Illustration: THE ANTI-GRAHAM WAFERS. + +(_Designed by H. G. Hine._)] + +When Kossuth visited London in 1851, _Punch's_ heart, like that of the +rest of England, went out to the patriot. "It was not Louis Kossuth +whom the thousands gazed upon and cheered," wrote _Punch_. "It was +Hungary--bound and bleeding, but still hopeful, resolute, defying +Hungary;" and it may be observed that for many years _Punch_ sided, for +one reason or another, with Austria's successive adversaries. + +It was in the same year that Lord Palmerston first appeared on _Punch's_ +scene, and then in his own selected _rôle_ of "Judicious Bottle-holder." +He was represented as officiating thus at the little affair between +"Nick the Bear" and "Young Europe." From that time forward he always +appeared as a sporting character, and rather gained than lost in popular +favour by the treatment. Another début the following year, among the +repeated appearances of "Dizzy," Napoleon, Pam, and Lord John, was that +of John Bright. He is shown in Quaker costume, examining the new-born +baby (the new Reform Bill) through an eye-glass, while Lord John, its +parent, stands by and hears the dry verdict that it is "not quite so +fine a child as the last." This eye-glass perplexed John Bright a good +deal, because, said he, he had "never worn such a thing in his life." He +did not see that the glass had here, no doubt, not so much reference to +him, as to the smallness of the birth examined by its aid. + +Protection was still a subject of debate, but not for long. In 1852 +appeared the admirable cartoon in which Cobden--suddenly come very much +to the fore in _Punch's_ pages--is represented as Queen Eleanor, who +advances on Disraeli, a grotesque "Fair Rosamond," with a poison-bowl of +"Free Trade" in one hand and the dagger of "Resignation" in the other. +Disraeli accepted the former, and _Punch_ and the Free Traders rejoiced. +But in their triumph they did not spare the feelings of the convert, +whom they had dubbed "The Political Chameleon;" but at least they +admitted the importance of the man, who is no longer sneeringly alluded +to as "Benjamin Sidonia," no more represented as an ill-bred schoolboy +made up of impudence and malice--unprincipled, vicious, and conceited. + +In the following year _Punch_ sounded his first note of warning of the +approaching "Eastern Question," when in the cartoon of "The Turkey in +Danger," the Sick Bird is shown in the powerful hug of the Russian Bear; +and "The Emperor's Cup for 1853" illustrates still further the +prescience of _Punch_. Nevertheless, as has been said, he could not +appreciate a _suaviter_ policy, and in a cartoon entitled "Not a Nice +Business" (p. 271, Vol. XXVI.) Lord Aberdeen, the Premier, is shown +engaged in cleaning the boots of the Tsar. + +How the Crimean War was followed by _Punch_ in a magnificent series of +pictures, chiefly from the hand of Sir John Tenniel, as well as in that +culminating effort of Leech's, "General Février," there is no need here +to explain. But during the peace negotiations--which were delayed +through the Russians firing on a truce-party, called "The Massacre of +Hango"--the representation was unjustly made by _Punch_ that the King of +Prussia was a confirmed toper, and the charge was offensively maintained +by pen and pencil. This so angered the King that none of the English +newspaper correspondents (one of whom he supposed to be the original +perpetrator of the libel) was after that allowed within the precincts of +the palace, until at last Mr. T. Harrington Wilson, one of _Punch's_ +draughtsmen, was admitted on behalf of the "Illustrated London News." + +No sooner was the Crimean War at an end, than the reprisals which +developed into the Chinese War involved this country in an expense of +four millions. In spite of the importance and gravity of the +undertaking, _Punch_ vigorously supported Lord Palmerston in his +campaign, and mockingly showed "The Great Warriors Dah-Bee and Cob-Den" +vainly trying to overturn his Government. He made good sport of the +Celestials, as a matter of course, but his mortification was extreme on +learning that the incidental outlay would delay the hoped-for repeal of +the paper duty. He found a small outlet for his feelings in the cartoon +representing a Chinese mandarin as "The New Paper-weight" (p. 20, Vol. +XXXIX.), but in the end was entirely conciliated by the terms of the +Chinese Convention, and the payment of a handsome indemnity--the subject +of his first cartoon in 1861 being "A Cheer for Elgin." + +Italy's successful struggle for independence received great attention +and sympathy from _Punch_--the greater, no doubt, since the "Papal +Aggression" had taught him to look askance at the Vatican; but he +regarded with extreme and well-justified scepticism the genuineness of +Louis Napoleon's alleged disinterestedness in the interests of peace. He +is ironically shown (October 13th, 1860) as "The Friend in Need" +advising the Pope, "There, cut away quietly and leave me your keys. Keep +up your spirits, and I'll look after your little temporal matters." +Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel were regarded by _Punch_ with the greatest +favour (just as the latter was said to be regarded privately by the +Pope), and United Italy was enthusiastically hailed by him (March, 1861) +as "The Latest Arrival" at the European Evening Party conjointly +presided over by John Bull and Britannia. + +From first to last _Punch_ has always been an Imperialist--Imperial +Defence being warmly taken up at periodical intervals, and Imperial +Federation during these latter years adopted as one of the planks of his +Punch-and-Judy platform. Imperial Defence as a cry and a scare, begun in +1848 on the action of the Prince de Joinville, was continued in 1860 +(cartoon, August 4th), when a large sum was spent upon arsenals and +dockyards--to some extent, no doubt, in view of Napoleon's +double-dealing in the matter of Nice and Savoy. "Ribs of steel are our +ships, Engineers are our men," he sings, under the new order of things +in naval construction-- + + "We're steady, boys, steady, + But always unready; + We've just let the French get before us again." + +The American War of Secession; the throne of Greece put up to auction; +Poland in chains, defying the Russian Bear; the ghost of Charles I. +warning the King of Prussia, by the block to which he points, of the +punishment that awaits the would-be despot; Napoleon crushing the +prostrate figure of France; the wars between "father-in-law Denmark," +Germany, and Austria, and between the latter two (as Robbers in the +Wood); Reform; Irish Church Disestablishment; "Dizzy" as the +Premier-Peri entering the gates of Paradise, or, bound to the Ixion's +wheel of "Minority," hurled forth by Hercules-Bright, with the severe +approval of Juno-Britannia and Jupiter-Gladstone; the Franco-Prussian +War; the Royal marriages; the occupation of Egypt; and the creation of +the "Empress of India;"--all the subject-matter, indeed, of home and +foreign politics, and of general public interest, have been touched upon +by _Punch_ as they occurred, lightly, but often probed _à fond_. His +attitude seldom caused much surprise, for his opinions and views could +generally be foretold. It was the manner in which they were put forth +that carried weight and influence; they were the nation's ideas + + "... to advantage dressed, + What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed." + +The student of the times, if he would know how public affairs struck the +public mind during that period, can assuredly find no truer, no more +accurate indication than is offered by the perusal of _Punch's_ pages. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] "Daily Chronicle," August 26th, 1892. + +[11] This, with the Pharaoh pro-Jewish picture at the time of the +Russian persecutions, is said to be the only cartoon founded on a +strictly Biblical or Scriptural subject ever published in _Punch_. + +[12] _See_ p. 108, Vol. XXXIII.:-- + + "And woe to the hell-hounds! Right well may they fear + A vengeance--ay, darker than war ever knew; + When Englishmen, charging, exchange the old cheer + For, 'REMEMBER THE WOMEN AND BABES WHOM THEY SLEW!' + + * * * * * + + "And terrified India shall tell to all time, + How Englishmen paid her for murder and lust; + And stained not their fame with one spot of the crime + That brought the rich splendour of Delhi to dust." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"CHARIVARIETIES." + + _Punch's_ Influence on Dress and Fashion--His Records--As a + Prophet--As an Artist--As an Actor and Dramatist--Benefit + Performances--Guild of Literature and Art. + + +The man who glances at _Punch's_ current number and throws it aside can +have but little appreciation of the influence of the paper, not only in +matters political, but in social subjects of every kind. That the Baron +de Book-Worms can make or mar the success of a new book, as completely +as the "Times," "Athenæum," or "Spectator," has been testified to by Mr. +Hall Caine and others; and in some quarters at least _Punch's_ +bâton-strokes are as effective as ever, and recall the times when he +could, and did, drive a semi-public man into obscurity, which, but for +the fame of his onslaught, would have been absolute oblivion. + +But it is in dress, in fashion, and in manners that _Punch_ has gained, +if anything, in weight and influence. In such subjects, treated as +"charivarieties," as Mr. Arthur Sykes has called them, he has always +been supreme, and fulfils an unquestioned destiny. John Leech determined +that there should be no Bloomerism in the land, and there was +none--only, by the charm of his drawings, he came very near making it +popular, and converting British young womanhood to Turkish trousers. Mr. +du Maurier thought that it would look pretty if every little lady in the +land were to wear black stockings; and every little lady did: as +unfalteringly as when Miss Kate Greenaway imposed upon them smocks and +poke-bonnets, or when Mrs. Hodgson Burnett clad mothers' darlings in +black velvet Fauntleroy suits, with bright-coloured sashes wound round +their middles. As the volumes are examined, the reader becomes aware of +the enduring value of _Punch_ as a History of Costume in the Victorian +Era. Even men's dress is noted with minute truthfulness--the violently +variegated shirts of 1845; the Joinville ties, with their great fringed +ends, out of which Thackeray made such capital in 1847; the pin-less +cravats and cutaway coats of 1848; the ivory-handled canes of 1850, for +sucking purposes--the fashion which came round thirty years later with +the advance of the "crutch and toothpick brigade;" the big bows and +short sticks of 1852; the frock-coats and weeping whiskers of 1853, with +the corresponding inability to pronounce the "r" otherwise than as a +"w," or to converse but with a languid, used-up drawl; the smaller ties +and growing collars, when a wasting youth complains that "She is lost to +him for ever" (_she_, the laundress!); the schoolboy's Spanish hat of +1860, that was soon developed into the "pork-pie," and was to be adopted +generally for country wear with baggy knickerbockers; the full-blown +Dundreary of 1861, with long weeping whiskers, long coat, long drawl, +and short wits; with the sudden change for the better in the following +year. All this is to be found clearly recorded year by year, season by +season, with all the peculiarities of "form;" of umbrella and +umbrella-carrying; of dancing, energetic and invertebrate; of +handshaking, sensible and high-level (which was invented, of course, by +the ballroom girl who was holding up her train in the dance); of hirsute +adornment and æsthetic craze--every shade of fashion is followed in its +true development and in its wane--down to the recent phase of 1893 and +1894, when the swell lets out his collar for an advertisement hoarding, +or, safe in the perfection of its starching, marches quietly across the +desert while fierce Orientals turn the edges of their swords in vain +across his linen-shielded neck. + +And the ladies! The coal-scuttle bonnet and the incipient crinoline of +1845; the growing crinolines of 1851, larger in 1860, largest of all in +1864; the hair in bands or side-curls of 1852, and in nets in 1862; the +bonnets worn almost off the head in 1853, more so in 1854, until Leech +drew a picture of two ladies walking out, with footmen carrying their +headgear behind them; the "spoon-shaped bonnet" of 1860--"the latest +Parisian folly," which the street-boys mistake for "a dustman's 'at;" +the archery of 1862, the pork-pie hat, the croquet, the tennis, the +golf--every sport, every habit and custom, every change of dress, down +to the minutest detail--all is recorded with faithfulness and humour, +first by Leech's pencil, and then, in chief measure, by Mr. du +Maurier's. + + * * * * * + +It is curious in turning over _Punch's_ volumes to see how on occasion +he could use his power of prophecy with an accuracy that spoke well for +the common-sense, sometimes even the statesmanship, to be found among +the Staff. "There is but one Punch, and he is his own prophet." It is +rather as a social reformer than as a politician that he has exerted his +gift, though an example of the latter class of foresight may be pointed +to in the cartoon of Sir John Tenniel of April 7th, 1860. This was +entitled "A Glimpse of the Future: A Probable and Large Importation of +Foreign Rags," in which King Bomba of Naples, the Emperor Louis +Napoleon, and the Pope were shown landing on British shores in very +sorry plight. And in due time England was to see--at least, as far as +the two monarchs were concerned--the realisation of the oracular couplet +combined:-- + + "The time will come when discontent + Will overthrow your Government." + +Then the number of inventions and innovations forestalled by _Punch's_ +pen are many. In December, 1848, much is made of a proposed "opera +telakouphanon"--a forecast of the telephone, phonograph, and +theatrophone combined:-- + + "It would be in the power of Mr. Lumley," says _Punch_, "during the + aproaching holiday time to bring home the Opera to every lady's + drawing-room in London. Let him cause to be constructed at the back + of Her Majesty's Theatre an apparatus on the principle of the Ear + of DIONYSIUS.... Next, having obtained an Act of Parliament for the + purpose, let him lay down after the manner of pipes a number of + Telakouphona connected--the reader will excuse the apparent + vulgarism--with this ear, and extended to the dwellings of all such + as may be willing to pay for the accommodation. In this way our + domestic establishments might be served with the liquid notes of + JENNY LIND as easily as they are with soft water, and could be + supplied with music as readily as they can with gas. Then at a + _soirée_ or evening party, if a desire were expressed for a little + music, we should only have to turn on the _Sonnambula_ or the + _Puritani_, as the case might be," etc. + +--a thirty years' prophecy. The following year he represented a lady +listening to music by telegraph; and the kinetoscope is only now waiting +to fulfil Mr. du Maurier's forecast of many years ago. If Mr. Edison has +not yet done quite all that Mr. Punch foretold, is not that rather Mr. +Edison's than _Punch's_ fault? + +In an unhappy moment in 1847 _Punch_ proposed the use of umbrellas and +house-fronts for advertising purposes, and the hint was promptly taken. +In the previous year he foretold the use of the Thames Tunnel as a +railway conduit; and his sketch of a zebra harnessed to a carriage in +the streets of London was realised forty years later. The great "Missing +Word Competition" of 1892 was forestalled by _Punch_ by four-and-thirty +years (p. 53, Vol. XXXV., August 7th, 1858). Leech's "Mistress of the +Hounds," too--how fantastic the idea was thought in those days, and +laughed at accordingly!--has since become a hard, astraddle, +uncompromising fact; and the lady's safety riding-skirt, that attached +itself to the saddle when the lady lost her seat, anticipated by thirty +years the patent for a similar contrivance taken out in 1884. Indeed, +_Punch's_ picture of November, 1854, was put in as evidence before Mr. +Justice Wright in April, 1893, when an action between two sartorial +artists turned upon the point of anteriority, and the picture won the +case. + +Common-sense, and shrewdness of observation and judgment, which are at +the root of amateur prophecy, brought as much honour to _Punch_ as ever +Old Moore obtained through one of his lucky flukes. In December, 1893, +the Prince of Wales opened the Hugh Myddleton Board School, the finest +in London, which had been erected on the site of the old Clerkenwell +prison; and on the invitation card to the ceremony appeared a +reproduction of the _Punch_ picture of May, 1847, which accompanied an +altercation between "School and Prison, who've lately risen As +opposition teachers." This was published nearly a quarter of a century +before Mr. Forster's Education Act, and concludes with the prophecy +curiously fulfilled in the case of this particular institution. To this +picture, in which the county gaol, untenanted, looks scowlingly at the +crowded school, the Prince feelingly referred when he spoke of the +scepticism with which the statement was regarded, that the institution +of "free" schools would shut the prisons up. But a volume might be +filled with instances of the occasions on which _Punch_ has seen with +his eyes, and thought with the front of his brain--how his demands for +necessary innovations (such, for example, as fever carriages in 1861) +were quickly acted upon, and how his serious mood has enforced the +respect which mere geniality might have failed to secure. + +He is not, of course, entitled to invariable congratulation for his +attitude towards art; but he has suffered as well as acted ill. When he +derided the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and joined in the storm of +ridicule that swirled round the heads of Rossetti and his devoted and +courageous friends, he doubtless acted within his _rôle_; but he utterly +failed to see below the surface of the apparent affectation of the +artists, and all he had to say of Sir John Millais' "Vale of Rest," in +the lines descriptive of the year 1859, was + + "Year Mr. Millais came out with those terrible nuns in the + graveyard." + +In the following year, however, Mr. Eastlake, afterwards of the National +Gallery, made his mark in the paper as "Jack Easel," and a more +intelligent view of art prevailed. + +But neither has Art, as personified by the Royal Academy, recognised +_Punch_, save by a couple of seats at the annual banquet. It is true +that several of its members have drawn for it--Sir Frederic Leighton, +Sir John Millais, Sir John Gilbert, Mr. Briton Riviere, Mr. Stacey +Marks, Mr. G. A. Storey, and Fred Walker. But _Punch's_ art has gone +unnoticed, otherwise than by a square yard or two of wall space in the +Black-and-White room at the annual exhibition. While the Academy has +canonised many members whose names half a century later are forgotten, +or are remembered only to be called up with a smile or a shrug, it has +persistently ignored those who have employed the pencil instead of the +brush, or have used ink instead of misusing paint. But it is unnecessary +to pursue the subject farther; that the names of Keene, Leech, and +Tenniel are not on the roll of the Academy is surely far more to the +discredit of the institution than of the artists themselves, who +presumably, from the Academic point of view, are "no artists." As Mr. du +Maurier has pointed out, _Punch's_ artists will have their revenge: "If +the illustrator confine himself to his own particular branch, he must +not hope for any very high place in the hierarchy of art. The great +prizes are not for him! No doubt it will be all the same a hundred years +hence--but for this: if he has done his work well, he has faithfully +represented the life of his time, he has perpetuated what he has seen +with his own bodily eyes; and for that reason alone his unpretending +little sketches may, perhaps, have more interest for those who come +across them in another hundred years than many an ambitious historical +or classical canvas that has cost its painter infinite labour, +imagination, and research, and won for him in his own time the highest +rewards in money, fame, and Academical distinction. For genius alone can +keep such fancy-work as this alive, and the so-called genius of to-day +may be the scapegoat of to-morrow." + +[Illustration: THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S REVENGE. + +(_Drawn by George du Maurier._)] + +_Punch_ was born, so to speak, upon the stage, between the four canvas +walls of his own and Judy's show. His heart and soul were with and of +the drama, and plays have rained from the prolific pens of his literary +Staff. Many of his contributors acted in public--a few professionally, +most of them as amateurs--and more than one has linked his life with a +lady who had trodden the stage or concert platform. From the first he +proclaimed that Music and the Drama were to be amongst the most +prominent features of the work; and to that declaration he has ever +since faithfully adhered. As a record of the London stage, the pages of +_Punch_ are fairly complete; as a dramatist he has, through the members +of his Staff, been prolific, and on the whole highly successful; as an +actor he has at least enjoyed himself; and just as Falstaff was the +cause of wit in others, he has unwittingly served the pirates of the +stage, and to better purpose, too, than they deserved. + +With "readings," lectures, and "entertainments," the members of +_Punch's_ Staff have often come strikingly before the public; so much +so, indeed, that they have stepped from their studies and studios on to +the platform as by a natural transition. Albert Smith's "Overland Mail" +and "The Ascent of Mont Blanc," with the extraordinary success that +attended them, doubtless set the fashion to the band of men who were +always, in one sense at least, before the public. Thackeray's "Four +Georges" and the "English Humorists" raised the standard of quality at +once; and to that standard more than one of his contemporaries and +successors has aimed at attaining, even though they never hoped to +succeed. Every Editor of _Punch_--except perhaps Stirling +Coyne--delivered such lectures in his day. Henry Mayhew took for his +subject that of which he had a complete mastery, "London Labour and +London Poor." Mark Lemon, whose knowledge of the metropolis was probably +even more extensive and peculiar than Sam Weller's own, lectured on it +in "About London," and gave recitals of "Falstaff" with a certain +measure of success. Shirley Brooks spoke, as he was so well qualified to +do, on "The Houses of Parliament;" and discourses were similarly +delivered by Tom Taylor. Mr. Burnand's bright "Happy Thoughts" readings +could be forgotten by none that heard them. James Hannay, laying humour +aside, lectured on the more serious aspects of literature; and Cuthbert +Bede talked of the literary and artistic friends of his Verdant Green +career. Mr. Harry Furniss, with his delightful entertainments on +"Portraiture" and "The Humours of Parliament," achieved a success +undreamed of by the earlier _Punch_ reciters; and Mr. du Maurier in his +"Social Pictorial Satire" touched a literary and critical height that +charmed every audience by its humour, its delicacy, and its admirable +taste. + +The theatrical stars of half a century march through _Punch's_ pages in +long procession, and matters of high theatrical politics engage the +attention from year to year. _Punch's_ interest in theatricals is hardly +surprising when it is remembered how closely identified with the drama +have been many members of the Staff. Douglas Jerrold was a successful +playwright before ever _Punch_ was heard of, and as the author of +"Black-Eyed Susan" and "Time Works Wonders" he made his name popular +with many who had hardly heard of his connection with "the great comic." +It has been computed that the _Punch_ writers, from first to last, have +contributed no fewer than five hundred plays to the stage; and it may be +mentioned as a curious fact that to "German Reed's" each successive +Editor of _Punch_ has contributed an "Entertainment." The Staff has on +several occasions been seen upon the boards; and on countless occasions +_Punch_ has figured there, usually against his will. It but sufficed for +_Punch_ to make a hit for hungry provincial actors, either of stock +companies or on tour, to pounce upon it and work it up into a play or an +entertainment. Jerrold's brother-in-law, W. J. Hammond, who was at one +time manager of the Strand Theatre, travelled with what must be +considered the authorised show, thus described: + + * * * * * + + "A new Entertainment, called a + + NIGHT + + with + + PUNCH! + + +Founded on the Series of Celebrated Papers of that highly humorous +Periodical, from the pens of the acknowledged best Comic Writers of the +day. Adapted and Arranged by R. B. Peake, Esq. As performed by Mr. W. J. +Hammond Forty-two successive nights at the New Strand Theatre.... After +which, a Monopolylogue entitled the + + LAST MAN; + + or, + + PUNCH OUT OF TOWN" + +--with five characters, all performed by Hammond, the whole reaching its +climax when _Punch_, in _propria persona_, appeared and sang an +"Epilogue Song." + +But it was Mrs. Caudle, of course, that offered a bait too tempting to +be resisted. There was Mrs. Keeley's authorised "Mrs. Caudle" in town; +but simultaneously Mrs. Caudles cropped up in every town in the country. +One of these was enacted by Mr. Warren, and his playbill of the Theatre +Royal, Gravesend, dated August 7th, 1845, is before me as I write. "The +REAL MRS. CAUDLE," he asserts, "having received an enthusiastic welcome +from a Gravesend audience, and being pronounced far superior to any of +the _counterfeit Representatives_, will have the honour of repeating her +Curtain Lecture this and to-morrow evenings." "Mrs. Caudle at Gravesend" +was, in fact, a "Comic Sketch" by C. Z. Barnett; and the programme +decorated with a common engraving in impudent imitation of Leech's +immortal cut, contained all the _dramatis personæ_ of Jerrold's little +domestic drama, including "Mrs. Caudle (the Original from _Punch's_ +Papers), Mr. WARREN." + +Six years later Mr. Briggs himself was lifted from _Punch_ on to the +stage (amongst others) of the Royal Marylebone Theatre, which then +assiduously cultivated the equestrian drama. On November 14th, 1851, for +the benefit of a lady called MRS. MORETON BROOKES, there was played a +"new grand dramatic equestrian spectacle, entitled the MAID OF +SARAGOSSA; OR, THE DUMB SPY AND STEED OF ARRAGON--realising Sir David +Wilkie's Celebrated Picture." As the Arragon Steed remained on the +premises when the curtain fell on the first piece, it was obviously a +pity to waste him; so, after he had finished realising Wilkie's picture, +and had rested awhile, he stepped out of romance into high comedy, or, +as the playbill simply put it--"After which will be presented from +Sketches furnished from PUNCH'S Domicile, Fleet Street, a New, Grand, +Locomotive, Pedestrian, Equestrian, Go-ahead Extravaganza, entitled + + =MR. BRIGGS=! + + Or, HOUSE KEEPING _versus_ HORSE KEEPING"-- + +in which Mr. Briggs was played by Mr. Crowther, and Mrs. Briggs by the +fair _beneficiaire_. + +The first dramatic effort of _Punch_, in his individual quality and +personality as a jester, was the pantomime of "King John, or Harlequin +and Magna Charta." _Punch_ had at that time become so popular, and was +so generally regarded as the incarnation of all that was witty, that a +commission was given for a pantomime that was to surpass for wit and +humour any pantomime that had ever been written or thought of before. +"They have given out," said Alfred Bunn in his vituperative "Word with +Punch," "in distinct terms that none but themselves can write a +pantomime, and modestly entitled the one they _did_ write '_Punch's_ +Pantomime' ... which they laboured so lustily, but so vainly, to puff +into notoriety." It was written in 1842, by Lemon, Jerrold, and Henry +Mayhew; but when it was read by the first-named to the Covent Garden +Company, by whom it was produced, it was found to contain a great deal +of wit, but very little fun. It was extensively amended in response to +the representations of the pantomimists, and W. H. Payne managed to make +a good deal of his part. The wit, however, militated greatly against the +"go" and success of the piece, the prestige of its writers did not help +it, and the experiment of a "_Punch's_ Pantomime" was accordingly not +repeated. + +The cordial sympathy that has bound together so many of _Punch's_ Staff +in life has more than once taken the form of kindly charity in death or +misfortune. To the performance given on behalf of the unhappy Angus +Reach reference is made where the man and his work are considered. For +Leigh Hunt--although he was not of the band--a theatrical performance +was also given, and realised a large sum, and the benefit in aid of +Charles H. Bennett's widow and children was even more successful. That +interesting event is described later; but for the sake of history it may +be well to reproduce the programme here:-- + + AMATEUR PERFORMANCE AT THE THEATRE ROYAL, MANCHESTER, + + (kindly placed at the disposal of the committee by John Knowles, + Esq.,) + + MONDAY EVENING, JULY 29, 1867. + + To commence with an entirely new and original Triumviretta, in one + act and ten tableaux (being a lyrical version of Mr. Maddison + Morton's celebrated farce of "Box and Cox"), by Mr. F. C. BURNAND, + entitled-- + + COX AND BOX; + OR, THE LONG-LOST BROTHERS. + + The Lodging, including the Little Second-floor Back Room, has been + furnished with + + ORIGINAL MUSIC by Mr. ARTHUR SULLIVAN. + + John Cox, a Journeyman Hatter Mr. QUINTIN + James Box, a Journeyman Printer Mr. G. DU MAURIER. + + Bouncer, late of the Hampshire Yeomanry, + with military reminiscences Mr. ARTHUR BLUNT. + + Scene--An elegantly furnished apartment in Bouncer's Mansion. + +[Illustration: FOR CHARLES H. BENNETT'S BENEFIT. (See p. 132) + +MR. ARTHUR LEWIS MR. TWISS SIR JOHN TENNIEL R. T. PRITCHETT +SHIRLEY BROOKS MARK LEMON ARTHUR CECIL (BLUNT) HENRY SILVER +SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN MISS ELLEN TERRY MR DU MAURIER MISS KATE TERRY +TOM TAYLOR + +(_By Permission of the London. Stereoscopic Company._)] + + Tableaux--1. Cox at his looking-glass.--2. Cox and Bouncer, the + trial of the hat.--3. The beauties of bacon.--4. Revenons à nos + moutons.--5. The stranger!--6. The duel!!--7. The gamblers. The + hazard. The false die.--8. "Reading of the will."--9. (A classical + study.) Penelope.--10. Knox! et præterea nil. + + Mr. SHIRLEY BROOKS will deliver an ADDRESS. + + After which will be performed Mr. Tom Taylor's popular Drama, + + A SHEEP IN WOLF'S CLOTHING. + + Colonel Percy Kirke, of Kirke's Lambs Mr. MARK LEMON. + + Colonel Lord Churchill, of the Life Guards Mr. JOHN TENNIEL. + + Master Jasper Carew Mr. TOM TAYLOR. + + Kester Chedzoy Mr. F. C. BURNAND. + + Corporal Flintoff } { Mr. HORACE MAYHEW. + Hackett } of Kirke's Lambs { Mr. HENRY SILVER. + Rasper } { Mr. R. T. PRITCHETT. + + John Zoyland, a Locksmith Mr. SHIRLEY BROOKS. + + Dame Carew, Wife of Jasper Carew (by the kind + permission of B. Webster, Esq.) Miss KATE TERRY. + + Dame Carew, Mother of Jasper Carew Mrs. STOKER. + + Sibyl, Daughter of Jasper Carew Miss FLORENCE TERRY. + + Keziah Mapletoft, Servant to Anne Miss ELLEN TERRY (Mrs. Watts). + + To be followed by J. Offenbach's Bouffonnerie Musicale, + + LES DEUX AVEUGLES. + + Stanislas Giraffier Mons. G. Du Maurier. + + Giacomo Patachon Mons. Hal. Power. + + To conclude with Mr. John Oxenford's Farce, in one Act, + + A FAMILY FAILING. + + Characters by Messrs. ARTHUR BLUNT, MARK LEMON, TOM TAYLOR, HENRY + SILVER, and Miss ELLEN TERRY. + + Tickets for the Dress Circle and Stalls, One Guinea each, may be + obtained from any Member of the Committee; at the Theatre Royal; + from Messrs. Hime and Addison, and Mr. Slater, St. Ann's Square; + and Messrs. Forsyth, St. Ann's Street. + +On this occasion, says an anonymous writer, "The celebrated cartoonist +received the reception of the evening. The audience rose _en masse_ and +cheered. Tom Taylor, playing in his own piece the principal character, +was, comparatively speaking, nowhere. The most interesting personality +of the _Punch_ Staff was unquestionably Tenniel." + +Affiliated with _Punch_, in its membership at least, was that "Guild of +Literature and Art" of which Charles Dickens was the father. Its +theatrical career began in 1845 at the Royalty Theatre, Soho, at that +time called Miss Kelly's, the initial performance being Ben Jonson's +"Every Man in his Humour," with Mark Lemon as Brainworm and Dickens as +Bobadil. (_See p. 137._) On May 15th, 1848, much the same company, in +aid of the fund for the endowment of the perpetual curatorship of +Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon, gave the "Merry Wives of +Windsor," when Dickens played Shallow; George Cruikshank, Pistol; John +Leech, Slender; Mark Lemon, Falstaff; and other characters were +represented by George Henry Lewes, John Forster, Dudley Costello, +Augustus Egg, R.A., and Mr. Cowden Clarke--a goodly company. Mr. Sala +says that Lemon's conception of Falstaff (which was also known to the +public through the jovial editor's "readings"), though well understood, +was "the worst he ever saw;" but Mrs. Cowden Clarke declared it "a fine +embodiment of rich, unctuous raciness, no caricature, rolling greasiness +and grossness, no exaggerated vulgarisation of Shakespeare's +immortal 'fat knight,' but a florid, rotund, self-indulgent +voluptuary--thoroughly at his ease, thoroughly prepared to take +advantage of all gratification that might come in his way, and +thoroughly preserving the manners of a gentleman accustomed to the +companionship of a prince. John Leech's Master Slender," she continues, +"was picturesquely true to the gawky, flabby, booty squire.... His mode +of sitting on a stile, with his long ungainly legs dangling down ... +ever and anon ejaculating his maudlin cuckoo cry of 'Oh sweet Ann Page,' +was a delectable treat." Without disrespect to Leech's memory, it may be +said that others of his friends did not form a similarly favourable +opinion of his histrionic powers. + +A company quite as notable in its way was that which played "Not so Bad +as We Seem," by Lytton (with whom _Punch_ had made his peace), at +Devonshire House, on May 27th, 1851, before the Queen and the Prince +Consort, at the instance of the Duke of Devonshire. The playbill +deserves to be preserved here, although the only _Punch_ names among the +actors are those of Jerrold, Lemon, and Tenniel--the last-named of whom +is the only survivor of them all. + + MEN. + + The Duke of Middlesex { Peers Attached To the Son } Mr. Frank Stone, + A.R.A. + The Earl of Loftus { of James II., Commonly } Mr. Dudley Costello + { Called the First Pretender + + Lord Wilmot { a Young Man at the Head } Mr. Charles Dickens + { of the Mode More Than a } + { Century Ago, Son To Lord } + { Loftus } + + Mr. Shadowly Softhead { a Young Gentleman From the } Mr. Douglas Jerrold + { City, Friend and Double } + { of Lord Wilmot } + + Mr. Hardman { a Rising Member of } Mr. John Forster + Parliament + { and Adherent To Sir } + { Robert Walpole } + + Sir Geoffrey Thornside{ a Gentleman of Good Family } Mr. Mark Lemon + { and Estate } + + Mr. Goodenough Easy { in Business, Highly } Mr. F. W. Topham + Respectable, + { and a Friend of Sir } + { Geoffrey } + + Lord le Trimmer } Frequenters of Wills' { Mr. Peter Cunningham + Sir Thomas Timid } Coffee House { Mr. Westland Marston + Colonel Flint } { Mr. R. H. Horne + + Mr. Jacob Tonson a Bookseller Mr. Charles Knight + + Smart Valet To Lord Wilmot Mr. Wilkie Collins + + Hodge { Servant To Sir Geoffrey } Mr. John Tenniel + { Thornside } + + Paddy O'sullivan Mr. Fallen's Landlord Mr. Robert Bell + + Mr. David Fallen { Grub Street Author and } Mr. Augustus Egg, + { Pamphleteer } A.R.A. + + Lord Strongbow, Sir John Bruin, Drawers, } Coffee House Loungers + Newsmen, Watchmen, &c. &c. } + + WOMEN. + + Lucy { Daughter to Sir Geoffrey } Mrs. Compton + { Thornside } + + Barbara Daughter to Mr. Easy. Miss Ellen Chaplin + + The Silent Lady of Deadman's Lane. + + Date of Play--The Reign of George I. + Scene--London. + +Time supposed to be occupied, from the noon of the first day to the +afternoon of the second. + + +And, lastly, may be mentioned the performance of Ben Jonson's play at +Knebworth, in which, says Vizetelly, Douglas Jerrold, as Master Stephen, +showed real talent and power. But the piece is not an entertaining one, +as Lord Melbourne--with his bad habit of thinking aloud--bore +disconcerting witness in his stall: "I knew well enough that the play +would be dull, but not so damnably dull as this!" + +KNEBWORTH. + +ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18th, 1850, + +WILL BE PERFORMED + +BEN JONSON'S COMEDY + +OF + +EVERY MAN + +IN + +HIS HUMOUR. + +Costumiers. Messers. NATHAN, of Titchborne Street. Perruqiuer. Mr. +WILSON, of the Strand. + +Knowell, (_an Old Gentleman_) Mr. DELME RADCLIFFE, +Edward Knowell, (_his Son_) Mr. HENRY HAWKINS, +Brainworm, (_the Father's Man_) Mr. MARK LEMON, +George Downright, (_a Plain Squire_) Mr. FRANK STONE, +Wellbred, (_his Half-brother_) Mr. HENRY HALE, +Kitely, (_a Merchant_) Mr. JOHN FORSTER, +Captain Bobadil, (_a Paul's Man_) Mr. CHARLES DICKENS, +Master Stephen, (_a Country Gull_) Mr. DOUGLAS JERROLD, +Master Matthew, (_the Town Gull_) Mr. JOHN LEECH, +Thomas Cash, (_Kitely's Cashier_) Mr. FREDERICK DICKENS, +Oliver Cobb, (_a Water-bearer_) Mr. AUGUSTUS EGG, +Justice Clement, (_an old merry Magistrate_) The HON. ELIOT YORKE, +Roger Formal, (_his Clerk_) Mr. PHANTOM, +Dame Kitely, (_Kitely's Wife_) Miss ANNE ROMER, +Mistress Bridget, (_his Sister_) Miss HOGARTH, +Tib, (_Cob's Wife_) Mrs. MARK LEMON, + (Who has most kindly consented to act, in lieu + of Mrs. CHARLES DICKENS, disabled by an accident.) + + +THE EPILOGUE BY MR. DELME RADCLIFFE. + +To conclude with MRS. INCHBALD'S Farce of + +ANIMAL MAGNETISM. + + The Doctor Mr. CHARLES DICKENS, + La Fleur Mr. MARK LEMON, + The Marquis de Lancy Mr. JOHN LEECH, + Jeffery Mr. AUGUSTUS EGG, + Constance Miss HOGARTH, + Lisette Miss ANNE ROMER. + +Stage Manager, MR. CHARLES DICKENS. + + +The Theatre will be open at HALF-PAST SIX. The Performance will begin +precisely at HALF-PAST SEVEN. + +=GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!= + +FOR THE GUILD OF LITERATURE AND ART. (_See p. 135._) + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +_PUNCH'S_ JOKES--THEIR ORIGIN, PEDIGREE, AND APPROPRIATION. + + "The Unknown Man"--Jokes from Scotland--"Bang went + Saxpence"--"Advice to Persons about to Marry"--Claimants and True + Authorship--Origin of some of _Punch's_ Jokes and + Pictures--Contributors of Witty Things--A Grim Coincidence--"I Used + Your Soap Two Years Ago"--Charles Keene Offended--The + Serjeant-at-Arms and Mr. Furniss's Beetle--Mr. Birket Foster and + Mr. Andrew Tuer--Plagiarism and Repetition--The Seamy Side of + Joke-editing--_Punch_ Invokes the Law--Rape of Mrs. Caudle--_Sturm + und Drang_--Plagiarism or Coincidence?--Anticipations of the + "Puppet-Show" and "The Arrow"--Of Joe Miller--And + Others--_Punch_-baiting--Impossibility of + Joke-identification--Repetitions and Improvements. + + +It may fairly be said that not three per cent.--probably not one per +cent.--of the jokes sent in to _Punch_ "from outside" are worthy either +of publication as they stand, or even of being considered raw material +for manipulation by the editor or his artists. In this low estimate, of +course, are not included the work of the few regular contributors who +are recognised, though "unattached," as well as of the others who make a +practice of sending every good new joke they hear to such a friend as +they may happen to have on the Staff. These two classes are not +numerous; but they are, and have for years formed, a little body of +bright-witted, laughter-loving persons, to whom _Punch_ and _Punch_ +readers are under an equal debt of gratitude. + +In the United States the providing of jokes for illustration in the +comic press is to some extent a recognised, if a limited and illiberal, +profession, he who follows it being commonly described as the "Unknown +Man." Endowed with natural wit and invention, but denied the gift of +draughtsmanship, this "dumb orator" is supposed to turn out jokes as +other men would turn out chair-legs, and sends them in priced, like +gloves, at so much a dozen, "on approval--for sale or return," with a +suggested _mise en scène_ complete, which the illustrator is +recommended to adopt. How far the system answers its purpose I am +unable to judge; but if the experience of Mr. Phil May may be taken as +an example, there is every reason why the Man should remain Unknown. +For, at the suggestion of a fellow-artist, he ordered five dollars-worth +of original jokes, the price being quoted at a dollar per joke. His +order was executed with punctuality and despatch, when Mr. May found, to +his amusement and dismay, that three of the jokes were former _Punch_ +friends, and the remaining two were old ones of his own invention! + +In the United Kingdom the joke-contributor is as a rule a disinterested +person, usually seeking neither pay nor recognition; and so far as his +estimate bears upon the value of his contribution, it must be admitted +that his judgment is generally sound. But of the accepted jokes from +unattached contributors, it is a notable fact that at least seventy-five +per cent. come from North of the Tweed. Dr. Johnson, ponderous enough in +his own humour, admitted that "much may be made of a Scotchman if he be +caught young;" and it is probable that to him, as well as to +Walpole--who suggested that proverbial surgical operation--is owing much +of the false impression entertained in England as to Scottish +appreciation of humour and of "wut." Some may retort that it is just the +preponderance of Scotch collaboration that has rendered _Punch_ at times +a trifle dull. Certain it is that _Punch_ is keenly appreciated in the +North. In one of the public libraries of Glasgow it has been ascertained +that it was second favourite of all the papers there examined by the +public; and it has been asserted that in one portion of the moors and +waters gillies have more than once been heard to say, "Eh, but that's a +guid ane! Send that to Charlie Keene!" + +Nevertheless, it must be admitted that _Punch's_ dialect has not always +pleased up there, where "the execrable attempts at broad Scotch which +appear weekly in our old friend _Punch_" have before now been +authoritatively denounced. Under the heading of "Probable Deduction" +_Punch_ had the following paragraph:--"A pertinacious Salvation Army +captain was worrying a Scotch farmer, whom he met in the train, with +perpetual inquiries as to whether 'he had been born again of Water and +the Spirit.' At last McSandy replied, 'Aweel, I dinna reetly ken how +that may be, but my good old feyther and mither took their toddy +releegiously every nicht, the noo." Referring to this story--first +cousin surely to Lover's joke in "Handy Andy" of the Irish witness who, +when pressed as to his mother's religion, promptly replied, "She tuk +whuskey in her tay!"--the critic remarks, "It is pretty wit; for +_Punch_. But McSandy ought to speak in the Scottish tongue. Now, if +'night' is 'nicht,' why is 'right' 'reet'--either 'the noo' or at any +other time? Hoots awa." Yet _Punch_ has usually taken great pains to +verify his dialects, and Charles Keene--to whom the legends usually came +from his friends ready-made and carefully elaborated--would, as a rule, +seek to have them confirmed by one or other of his Scottish friends in +town. + +Perhaps the greatest service that any Scot ever rendered to _Punch_ +(apart from drawing for it) was the "puir bodie" who explained that he +found Lunnon so awfu' extravagant that he hadna been in it more than a +few hours "_when bang went saxpence!_" The reader will be interested to +learn that this expression--which may truthfully be said to have passed +into the language--did really issue from the lips of a visitor from the +neighbourhood of Glasgow. It was Sir John Gilbert who heard it, and +repeated it to Mr. Birket Foster while they were seated resting from +their labours of "hanging" in the galleries of the Royal Water Colour +Society. On the private-view day that followed, Mr. Foster tried the +effect of the joke on two ladies whom he accompanied into Bond Street to +take tea; and as they exploded with laughter, he concluded that it was +good enough for his friend Keene, to whom he thereupon sent it. The +immediate success of the joke was amazing; and Mr. Foster was therefore +the more surprised and amused a year afterwards to overhear a young +"masher" calmly inform a barmaid serving on the Brighton pier that he +was the originator of it, and that he possessed the original drawing! + +Another favourite Scotch picture of Keene's is that in which a drunken +workman, remonstrated with by the parson, protests that the latter is +always blaming him for his drinking, but "You forget my droth!" This +incident really occurred at Pitlochrie, and was told by the minister +himself to Mr. Birket Foster, who handed it on to Keene; but--and here +comes out one of the charming qualities of Keene's character--the real +offender was not a man, but a woman. It was a chivalrous practice of +Charles Keene's never to show a woman in a really undignified position; +and when he was remonstrated with on the subject, on the ground that he +distorted the truth unnecessarily, he would reply that "he could not be +hard on the sex." But though "bang went saxpence" is a notable _Punch_ +joke--and it may be remarked that it is not less beloved of the +political economist than of the Saturday Reviewer--it is not quite the +best known. That position is easily attained by what is undoubtedly the +most successful (that is to say, the most popular) _mot_ of its kind +ever composed in the English language. + +It appeared in the Almanac for 1845 under "January," and, based upon the +ingenious wording of an advertisement widely put forth by Eamonson & +Co., well-known house furnishers of the day, ran as follows:-- + + +WORTHY OF ATTENTION. + +ADVICE TO PERSONS ABOUT TO MARRY,--Don't![13] + +It is doubtful whether any line from any author is so often quoted as +"_Punch's_ advice." It crops up continually, almost continuously, though +not exactly when least to be expected, as experience teaches us to +expect it always; and I may assert from my own observation that it +appears in one or other of the papers of the kingdom on an average twice +or thrice a week. Perhaps what has lent additional piquancy to _Punch's_ +piece of quaint philosophy is the mystery hitherto surrounding its +authorship. An inquirer who endeavoured a few years ago to solve the +problem set on record the result of his researches, by which, according +to a Scotch authority, he is said to have found the author in (1) a +policeman of Glasgow, (2) a bricklayer of Edinburgh, (3) a railway +official at Perth, (4) a compositor in Dundee, (5) an hotel-keeper in +Inverness, and (6) a "Free Press" reporter in Aberdeen. English and +Irish evidently had no chance. A letter, professing to explain the whole +mystery, which lies before me from a medical correspondent, under date +April 7th, 1895, runs as follows: "When in practice as a medical man at +Neath, in S. Wales, it was well known to have been written by Mr. +Charles Waring, a Quaker living at 'The Darran,' near Neath Abbey. Mr. +Waring removed from there to the neighbourhood of Bristol about +twenty-two years ago. The proprietors of _Punch_ were so pleased, they +sent him a _douceur_ of £10 for the contribution!" Further inquiry shows +that the late Mr. Waring was merely in the habit of quoting, not of +claiming, the joke. + +Hearing Charles Keene's emphatic opinion that the author was a Miss +Frances D----, who many years ago was living in a remote village in the +North of England, and who had been paid £5 for the line, I appealed to +the Post Office for help to trace the lady out; and through the kindly +assistance of the officials at St. Martin's-le-Grand and elsewhere, +although nearly half a century had elapsed, I discovered her in another +village equally remote, the Post Office having courteously obtained her +permission to place me in communication with her. But the information +was of a negative kind. She was, she protested, quite innocent of the +credit of _Punch's_ Monumental Cynicism, and consequently had never been +the recipient of the fantastic payment of £5 per line. But since that +time chance has placed in my possession the authoritative information; +and so far from any outsider, anonymous or declared, paid or unpaid, +being concerned in it at all, the line simply came in the ordinary way +from one of the Staff--from the man who, with Landells, had conceived +_Punch_ and shaped it from the beginning, and had invented that first +Almanac which had saved the paper's life--Henry Mayhew. + +To trace the history of much of _Punch's_ original humour would hardly +be desirable, even were it possible. But there are many examples of it +which, while essentially original to _Punch_, have yet sprung from +circumstances independent of it, and are in themselves amusing enough to +be related, or which otherwise present points of interest. To some of +these I call attention, for they illustrate _Punch's_ own aphorism that +"it is easier to make new friends than new jokes." + +There is a capital story in Mr. Le Fanu's "Seventy Years of Irish Life," +in which the author tells of a man who was accidentally knocked down by +the buffer of a locomotive near Bray Station. He was not seriously hurt, +and but partially stunned; and the porters who quickly ran to the spot +determined to take him to the station at once. The hero of the accident, +overhearing where they were carrying him, imagined that he was being +given in charge. "What do you want to take me to the station for?" he +asked. "You know me; and if I've done any damage to your d----d engine, +sure I'm ready to pay for it!" This story of Mr. Le Fanu's reached +Keene's ears long before the author incorporated it in his book, and +with the change of hardly a word it illustrated one of the best drawings +the artist ever drew. + +Though undoubtedly many of _Punch's_ jokes are deliberately +manufactured, or else improved from actual incidents, a vast +number--like that quoted just now--are used with but slight textual +editing, just as they occurred. Thus Joe Allen it was--the light-hearted +artist who contributed an article to _Punch's_ first number--who +provided Mr. du Maurier years afterwards with that "social agony" in +which a great lover of children, invited to a juvenile party, bursts +into the room with the cry of "Here we are again"--walking in on his +hands like a clown--to find that he had come to the wrong house next +door, and was scandalising a sedate and stately dinner party. Henry +Mayhew had a story of which a facetious police officer of his +acquaintance was the hero. The latter was driving "Black Maria" along +the street when he was hailed by a waggish omnibus-driver who affected +to mistake the depressing character of the passing vehicle. "Any room?" +he asked. "Yes," replied the officer, with a grin, "we've kept a place +on purpose for you. Jump inside!" "What's the fare?" inquired the +humorist, a little "non-plushed," as Jeames expressed it, at the +unexpected retort. "Same as you had before--bread and water, and skilly +o' Sundays!" The joke duly appeared in _Punch_ after a long interval +(Vol. XLVI.), illustrated by Charles Keene, under the title of +"Frightful Levity." + +Another omnibus story, printed just as it occurred, was that in which a +conductor replies to an old gentleman in the south of London, whose +destination was the "Elephant and Castle." "Yus--you go on to the +Circus, and change into a Helephant." "Oh, mamma!" exclaims a little +girl seated near the door, "do let's go too!" "Go where?" "To the +circus, and see the old gentleman change into an elephant!" A similar +incident, it may be observed, was illustrated by Eltze's pencil in 1861, +when a passenger in the "Highbury Bus" asks the conductor to "change +him into a Hangel." Jack Harris has often appeared in _Punch_. He was a +driver beside whom Mr. Edmund Yates often rode--"a wonderfully humorous +fellow, whose queer views of the world and real native wit afforded me +the greatest amusement. A dozen of the best omnibus sketches were +founded on scenes which had occurred with this fellow, and which I +described to John Leech, whose usually grave face would light up as he +listened, and who would reproduce them with inimitable fun." + +The horrified swell of Leech's who is implored by an onion-hawker to +"take the last rope" was in reality his friend Mr. Horsley, R.A., by +whom the artist was provided with a number of humorous subjects. The +unfailing advantage taken by Leech of all such contributions, which his +friends assured him were "not copyright," has been universally +recognised. Among the subjects suggested to him by Dean Hole was that in +which his coachman, "unaccustomed to act as waiter, watched, with great +agony of mind, the jelly which he bore swaying to and fro, and set it +down upon the table with a gentle remonstrance of 'Who--a, who--a, +who--a,' as though it were a restive horse." By a curious coincidence, +as I have heard from the lips of a member of one of the great brewing +firms, on the very day before the appearance of Mr. du Maurier's +drawing[14] the identical incident had occurred in his own house, and it +was hard to believe on the following morning that the subject of his +plunging blanc-mange, similarly apostrophised, had not been imported by +some sort of magic into _Punch's_ page. A similar coincidence, far +graver in its first suggestion, has been given me by Mr. Arnold-Forster. +A friend of his sent in to _Punch_ a comic sketch of the Tsar travelling +by railway, while he sent a decoy train _in the opposite +direction_--which was blown up! The paper containing the sketch was +printed by the Monday, and before it was published that had really +occurred which _Punch_ had playfully invented. Until the following week, +when an explanation was published, a certain section of the public +criticised, with justifiable severity, what they took to be the bad +taste and ill-timed fooling of the Jester. + +From Mr. Harry Furniss's pen came an oft-quoted drawing (lately used as +an advertisement), the idea of which reached him from an anonymous +correspondent. It is that of the grimy, unshaven, unwashed, +mangy-looking tramp, who sits down to write, with a broken quill, a +testimonial for a firm of soap-makers: "I used your Soap two years ago; +_since then I've used no other_." A further point of interest about this +famous sketch was that Charles Keene was deeply offended by it at +first--in the groundless belief that it was intended as a skit upon +himself. It must at least be admitted that the head is not unlike what +one might have expected to belong to a dissipated and dilapidated +Charles Keene. But the nature of Mr. Furniss's work was of such a kind, +and the artist himself has always overflowed with so prodigal a flood of +original quaintness, that comparatively few sketches were ever sent in +to him, or, being sent, were used. The origin of one of his +creations--that of the Sergeant-at-Arms as a beetle--is an example of +the lightness and quickness of his fancy. This representation, it has +been said, was generally supposed to bear some spiteful sort of +reference to the shape of Captain Gosset's legs, which in breeches and +silk stockings did not perhaps appear to the best advantage; and, +further, that the idea was suggested by the appearance on the floor of +the House of Commons, in the course of a particularly wearisome debate, +of a monster black-beetle marching slowly across under the eyes of the +Representatives of the People, breaking the monotony of the proceedings, +and arousing altogether disproportionate interest among the yawning +members; that the "stranger" was quickly spied by the artist, who about +this time had to complain that certain facilities had been refused him +by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and who, in retaliation, professed +thenceforward to believe that the two creatures were identical. But the +insinuation was untrue. For the Sergeant was already an established +insect in _Punch_ before the appearance of the genuine black-beetle; +and, moreover, so little did he resent it, that he used to stick the +amusing little libels all round his mantelpiece. + +The national practice of sending in alleged jokes to _Punch_--a +practice, I imagine, of which the result is sufficient to prove how +deficient in wit, if not in humour, is the English people considered as +a community--is doubtless a convenient one to the many persons who live +upon a fraudulent reputation of being "outside," and of course +anonymous, _Punch_ contributors. "How clever of you!" said a lady in one +well-authenticated case to just such an impostor; "how very clever you +must be! And what is it you write in _Punch_?" "Oh, all the best things +are mine." The difficulty which Thomas Hood actually experienced in +establishing his authorship of "The Song of the Shirt" is recorded in +its proper place; while, among other things, Mr. Milliken's "Childe +Chappie" was claimed, as was afterwards ascertained, by a literary ghoul +whose strange taste it was to batten upon the comic writings of others, +and to use his borrowed reputation to ingratiate himself with the fair +and trusting sex. + +Not a few of _Punch's_ jokes have been sent in by men who were destined +a little later on to become members of the Staff and diners at the +Table. Mr. Furniss's first drawing, as is duly explained elsewhere, was +re-drawn by Mr. du Maurier, and Mr. Burnand's initial contribution--a +little sketch of 'Varsity life--was re-drawn by Leech. But quite a +number of non-professional wits and humorists have acted as +disinterested friends, whose benevolent assistance has gone far to +colour _Punch_ with the characteristics of their own _vis comica_. The +chief of these no doubt is Mr. Joseph Crawhall, of Newcastle, whose +devoted service to his friend Charles Keene was an important factor in +the artist's _Punch_-life. From his other friends, Mr. Birket Foster and +Mr. Andrew Tuer, Keene was in receipt of a great number of jokes--from +the latter they came almost as regularly as the weekly paper. It was +also from Mr. Tuer that he received, among many others, that happy +thought, so happily realised, of the gentleman who one day paid an +unaccustomed visit to his stables to give an order, and asking his +coachman's child, "Well, my little man, do you know who I am?" received +for answer, "Yes, you're the man who rides in our carriage." This story +was quoted seven years later by Lord Aberdeen in a public speech, in +which he attributed the adventure--though on what grounds did not +appear--to "a celebrated physician," apparently Sir Andrew Clark. + +After Charles Keene's death Mr. Tuer's humorous vein was turned on to +others of the Staff. One of his contributions may be quoted as +illustrating how unintentional are the originals of some of _Punch's_ +jokes. In 1889 appeared a picture entitled "A New Trade," in which a +country maid, on being asked what her last employer was, replied, "He +kept a Vicarage." The circumstance had actually taken place in Mr. +Tuer's own house. When the number appeared, the legend was read out to +the maid, and it was explained to her that it was _her_ joke. She showed +no enthusiasm, not even appreciation; but on seeing the others laugh, +she said, with perfect gravity, yet still with hopeful perseverance, +"Well, I must try and make some more!" + +To Canon Ainger, also, among a crowd of willing helpers, has Mr. du +Maurier often been indebted--for jokes rather scholarly than farcical, +such as the parody spoken by a wretched passenger leaving the +steamboat-- + + "Take, O boatman, thrice thy fee-- + I've been as ill as any three!" + +Most, perhaps, resembling the "Unknown Man" of the United States already +spoken of is Mr. Henry Walker, of Worcester, a gentleman of wit and +artistic knowledge. It had for many years been his practice, whenever +inspired with a good idea for a humorous drawing, to make a sketch of it +in his album; and thus he had collected a goodly number. At first he +would send his sketches to Keene from time to time, receiving due +pecuniary acknowledgment in return, but later on he left the whole book +with Mark Lemon to draw from as he listed. Altogether, between the years +1867 and 1869, Keene made fifteen drawings from Mr. Walker's book, in +some cases keeping close to the original designs, in others entirely +altering them; but in that re-drawn by Mr. du Maurier from the sketch +here reproduced, the original has been greatly departed from and +improved. + +[Illustration: "MUSICAL." + +_Eminent Musician:_ "You play, I believe?" + +_Swell Amateur:_ "Ya-as!" + +_Eminent Musician:_ "The concertina?" + +_Swell Amateur:_ "No--the comb!" + +(_From the Sketch by Henry Walker._)] + +It may be added that when _Punch_ artists re-draw and touch up an +outsider's sketch, it is their usual practice not to sign their +drawings, but to leave them without any indication of their authorship. + +Apart from these willing contributors are those from whom the Editor, +always on the look-out for new blood and fresh wit, invites +contributions, having seen good work of theirs elsewhere. + +[Illustration: + + _Eminent Musician:_ "You play, I believe?" + + _Swell Amateur:_ "Ya-as!" + + _Eminent Musician:_ "Concertina?" + + _Swell Amateur:_ "No--comb!" + +(_Reduced from the Drawing by G. du Maurier in "Punch," 20th June, +1868._)] + +It is often thus that _Punch's_ ranks are recruited, and that Mr. Lucy, +Mr. Lehmann, Mr. Partridge, Mr. Phil May, and others have been drawn +into the agreeable vortex of Whitefriars. + +On at least one occasion, however, _Punch_ threw his kerchief in vain, +for Mr. Bristed tells us, in his "Five Years at an English University," +how the Epigram Club, of Oxford, was invited by the Editor to send its +productions to _Punch_, but that "with true English reserve" the Society +came to an agreement that all their transactions should remain in +manuscript. + +Beside the editor of a comic journal stalks a demon on either hand--the +Belial of Plagiarism and the Beelzebub of Repetition. The public looks +to him to be a wit and a humorist, with a knowledge of every witticism +that ever was made. If he suffer an old joke to appear, some "constant +reader" will surely find him out, and publish the fact abroad with +malignant glee. There are few vices so deeply resented as the telling of +an old joke; in an editor it is recognised as amounting to crime. But +those who judge so severely have clearly never made a scientific study +of the Joke. It is not sufficient to analyse a witticism and dissect it, +in the cold spirit of that terrible book called "A Theory of Wit and +Humour," till its humour flies, like the delicate bouquet from uncorked +wine. The genealogy of jokes and twists of humour and of thought, of +form and application, must be traced; and the student will find that in +respect to a great proportion of our verbal jests of to-day they may be +tracked up to the Middle Ages, back to Classic times, and lost perchance +in the Oriental recesses of a jocular past. It is not only a case of +mere unconscious repetition or of brazen-faced plagiarism that is the +principle involved; it has its root in the chameleon-like variety of +aspect possible to a piece of fooling or a flash of wit. Jokes are as +adaptable to times and circumstances, as the human race itself; and to +identify them and pin them down on a specimen card, one must be another +Pastor Aristæus, alert and skilful, in pursuit of a lightning Proteus, +infinitely various and hopelessly volatile. + +But even that is not enough. Suppose the editor to be a scholar, deeply +read in the Classics and in Oriental writings, and endowed besides with +a memory so prodigious as to be able to recognise every joke that turns +up, he has still to guard against the contributor, on whom he is to a +considerable extent dependent. The jest-purveyor may be honest when he +unwittingly sends in a joke that has already gone the rounds, and has +appeared perhaps in some country paper; or he may be deliberately +dishonest; or he may simply be impatient at not seeing his contribution +printed (perhaps, after all, it is only being kept back for an +illustration to be drawn to accompany it), and may send it off +elsewhere--anticipating its publication in the paper of his original +choice. Or a group of jokes may form the stock-in-trade of a newly +accepted contributor, who, as the seaside landladies say, "must have +brought them in his portmantel." And then there are recurring events +that naturally give recurring birth to jokes they almost necessarily +suggest. There is thus no standard, no system of identification for the +thousand disguises in which a joke may lurk; and unconscious plagiarism +and repetition deserve greater indulgence than that which they commonly +receive. Mr. Burnand, probably the most prolific punster of the age, +once wrote to a contributor, "For goodness' sake, send no more puns; +_they have all been made_!" Indeed, _Punch_ has given us more +"pre-historic peeps" of humour than he or Mr. Reed have any notion of. +"Bless you," said _Punch_ in his third number, "half the proverbs given +to Solomon are mine!" + +It was the fashion when _Punch_ was young for the comic papers to +indulge in fierce recrimination and bitter charge and counter-charge of +plagiarism. At that time it was thought that a satirical paper could be +launched into public favour on its abuse of rivals--so that all the +drowning journals caught at the straws of the others' reputations. +Nowadays they more practically apply for an injunction. _Punch_, in +point of fact, has sought the protection of the law on more than one +occasion. As early as 1844 the Vice-Chancellor's Court was the scene of +the action of the Proprietors of _Punch_ _v._ Marshall and Another, when +Mr. Bethell, afterwards Lord Westbury, complained that the defendants +had published a "_Punch's_ Steamboat Companion" (an excessively vulgar +production) with intention to deceive the public. The judge brilliantly +remarked, "Well, this certainly is an excuse for the Court taking punch +in the morning. (_Great laughter._) I think you have made out a +sufficient case for your injunction, Mr. Bethell;" and the injunction +was accordingly granted. In the following year (July, 1845) steps had to +be taken to protect Mr. and Mrs. Caudle from the wholesale piracy to +which they were subjected on every side. Mr. Bethell again made a comic +speech, directed primarily against the "Hereford Times" and the +"Southport Visitor," in which the eighth and ninth lectures, +illustrations and all, had been coolly reproduced, without a word of +acknowledgment. As before, the serio-comic pleader was successful, and +obtained the desired injunctions. Again, in 1872 Mr. J. C. Hotten was +stopped from publishing "The Story of the Life of Napoleon, told by the +Popular Caricaturists of the Last 30 Years," inasmuch as the compiler +had annexed from _Punch_ all he desired for the work. (Law Reports 8, +Exchequer 7.) Sir Henry Hawkins was for _Punch_, and Serjeant Parry +defended. The judge, Lord Bramwell, and jury, too, believed in the +sacred rights of property, and a farthing damages was awarded in +addition to the forty shillings paid into Court. So _Punch_ won his case +and gained his costs--and Hotten went on publishing his book just as if +nothing had occurred. Another case, against the "Ludgate Monthly," need +only be mentioned for the sake of a rival's remark that the idea of +_Punch_ having published a joke worth copying and going to law about was +the greatest joke of all. + +During his minority _Punch_ made and sustained many an open charge of +plagiarism. They were the amenities of comic literature, of which, +however, the public soon tired; and _Punch_, recognising that newspaper +readers will not be troubled to take part or sides in an Eatanswill +warfare that does not concern them, practically dropped a campaign with +which the rest continued to persevere. But _Punch's_ silence was +misunderstood. At any rate, it was presumed upon. When he could stand +the audacity of the poachers no longer, he broke out, as recounted, in +the summer of 1844, again in the following year, and once more in 1847, +into a practical prosecution. Douglas Jerrold's caustic pen had full +play in his all-round denunciation of the pilferers, and in _Punch's_ +name he let fly at big game. "First and foremost," he declared, "the +great juggler of Printing-House Square walks in like a sheriff and takes +our comic effects;" and Newman's pencil added point to the +comprehensiveness of the assault. Of numerous frauds, too, _Punch_ had +to complain. "_Punch's_ Almanacs" of a vile and indecent sort, with +which he had nothing in the world to do, had been issued to his +detriment, and several papers were produced in close imitation of his +own; but it was the circumstance of his stolen jokes that wounded him +most of all, and caused him to lay his bâton about him with lusty +vigour. The incriminated journals, thoroughly in their element, retorted +with well-feigned indignation. Prominent among them "Joe Miller the +Younger" had professed for him at first a particular friendship which, +when contemptuously rejected, turned, like the love of a woman scorned, +to hate. It might have been retorted that _Punch_, in the words of his +prospectus, had frankly owned that he would give "asylum for +superannuated Joe Millers," and even that Mr. Birket Foster had been +actually employed in 1842 in "adapting" and anglicising Gavarni's +drawings for _Punch's_ pages. Instead, "Joe Miller" defended the size of +his page, which was, he said, like _Punch's_ own, copied from the +"Athenæum," and protested against any attempt at monopoly, pointing out +that the sub-title "Charivari" was itself a plagiarism. If anyone, he +went on, could prove that he bought a _Punch_ in mistake for a "Joe +Miller," he would willingly pay £5 for each copy so sold, in order "to +compensate the _Punch_ purchaser for his disappointment." + +From this moment until his death he never left _Punch_ alone, and +constantly pointed out many of his delinquencies, plagiarisms apparently +so gross and frequent that it can hardly be doubted that some intrigue +was afoot. For example, on August 2nd, 1845, there appeared in both +papers a cartoon almost identical, with the attitudes reversed, entitled +"The Political Pas de Quatre"--after the existing ballet at Her +Majesty's Theatre, danced by Grisi, Taglioni, Grahn, and +Cerito--representing four ballet-skirted _danseuses_ in a grotesque pose +or tableau. Those in the _Punch_ cartoon (which, by the way, was +suggested at the Table by Gilbert à Beckett, and was executed by Leech) +were impersonated by Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, +and Daniel O'Connell; while in the other appeared Lord Brougham, the +Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and Daniel O'Connell; but, unless +carefully compared, the one might certainly be mistaken for the other. +The "Joe Miller" block was drawn by A. S. Henning, who had quitted the +service of _Punch_ three years before; and it was claimed by his paper +that the original drawing was exhibited in their window a week before +_Punch's_ appeared. But abuse of _Punch_ for this and other curious +coincidences did not save him, and "Joe Miller the Younger" soon +announced his metamorphosis into "Mephystopheles," which proved an +inferior and still shorter-lived concern. + +[Illustration: CARTOON ENTITLED "THE POLITICAL PAS DE QUATRE." + +(_Drawn by A. S. Henning. From "Joe Miller the Younger," 2nd August, +1845._)] + +Then followed the bright and able little monthly "The Man in the Moon," +from which _Punch_ had some of the hardest knocks he ever received, for +on its Staff were to be found most of the clever men of the day +(including Shirley Brooks) for whom _Punch_ could find no room. Month +after month examples were given of _Punch's_ alleged pilfering, which +really only proved how the minds of humorists run in grooves, especially +when dealing with topical subjects; and a cutting representation of +Punch as an old clo'man begging bits of comic manuscript, with the +plaintive cry of "Any Jo', Jo'--any old Jo'?" scored a great success. +"The Man in the Moon" chaffed Bulwer Lytton on his initials, +"E.L.B.L.B.L.B.," and Thackeray followed in _Punch_ with +"E.L.B.L.B.L.B.B.L.L. B.B.B." And one of Leech's sketches of "The Rising +Generation"--a small boy saying, "Aw--hairdresser, when you've finished +my hair, just take off my beard, will you?" (Vol. XII., p. 104, +1847)--was also represented as a gross infringement. The title of a +poem, "What are the Wild Waves Saying?" (with the reply, "We'd better +have stayed at home"), issued in "The Man in the Moon," was seen in +_Punch_ soon after; while the superiority of our "New Street-Sweeping +Machines" over those then in use abroad (by which, of course, cannon was +intended) appeared in _Punch's_ pages a fortnight afterwards. It is an +interesting fact that this self-same idea of the Street-Sweeping +Machines gave Charles Keene the subject for his first _Punch_ drawing +just three years later. + +[Illustration: CARTOON ENTITLED "THE POLITICAL PAS DE QUATRE." + +(_Drawn by John Leech. From "Punch," 2nd August,1845._)] + +But, apart from charges of direct plagiarism, "The Man in the Moon" +certainly anticipated _Punch_ in some of his well-known cuts. The +"Patent Railway-Director Buffer," which consisted in the tying of a +railway director on the front of the locomotive, was certainly the +"Moon's" invention in February, 1847. In March, 1853, Leech showed the +world in his cartoon "How to Ensure against Railway Accidents," by +lashing a director across the engine _à la Mazeppa_; and as late as 1857 +(p. 24, Vol. XXXIII.) Sir John Tenniel showed a "Patent Railway Safety +Buffer" precisely similar to the original device. Again, in "The Man in +the Moon" (January, 1848) the little joke--_Park-keeper (St. James's +Park):_ "You can't come in!" _Boy:_ "Vot do yer mean? Ain't it us as keeps +yer?"--is surely related to Sir John Tenniel's cut (p. 181, Vol. XXXII., +1857), in which a delightful Hodge gazes open-mouthed at the sentry at +the Horse Guards, and replies, when asked what he's staring at, "Wy +shouldn't I stare? I pays vor yer!" + +The "Puppet Show," too, kept up a running fire at _Punch_, and delighted +in retorting upon his charge of "picking and stealing" by printing their +jokes and his alleged belated ones in parallel columns. Among the +pictures, too, the "Puppet Show"-man was sometimes first, as in the +sketch of the fat old lady who enters an omnibus and, sitting down +promiscuously somewhere between two gentlemen, says, "Don't disturb +yourselves; I'll shake down"--an idea textually repeated in _Punch_ in +1864 by Mr. Fred Barnard. The "Puppet Show" (1848) is also to be +remembered for its joke of the choleric old gentleman, indignant at the +delay of an omnibus in which he has taken his seat, crying impatiently +to the conductor, "_Is_ this omnibus going on?" and being quietly +answered, "No, sir; it's stopping perfectly still"--a joke illustrated +by Mr. du Maurier in _Punch_ for 1871 (p. 208, Vol. LXI.); and for the +picture of the City clerk in pink, who, surprised by his employer, is +accosted with the significant words, "So that's the costume you are +going to your uncle's funeral in?" Charles Keene used a similar joke +forty-one years later, only with time the festival had changed into that +of an aunt. In the "Showman's" pages, too, first appeared the Frenchman +who accounts for his sore-throat by explaining that "Yesterday morning I +have wash my neck!" And the Duke of Wellington, in one of the cartoons +(May, 1849), cries, "Cobden, spare that tree," just as Beaconsfield +pleaded with Gladstone in Tenniel's picture of thirty years later. +Again, a man with a gorgeous black-eye enters a room, and when it is +remarked on, expresses his surprise that anyone should have noticed it. +Six years later Leech repeated the idea in _Punch_. In his parting shot +the "Showman" says, "The _Punch_ writers say they can't understand our +jokes. We feel assured that the world will admit that they _take_ them +fast enough"--itself a pun, _by_ the way, which _Punch_ had himself used +in the postscript to his first volume: "Ours hasn't been a bed of +roses--we've had our rivals and our troubles. We came as a great hint, +and everybody took us." + +In "The Arrow," a clever fortnightly rival which existed (it cannot be +said to have "flourished") in the year 1864, _Punch_ was severely +handled for "plagiarising" two of that journal's jokes two or three +weeks after their original publication. One of these had reference to +the "Fight with Fate," which was then being played at the Surrey +Theatre; and as Mr. Banting and his famous cure (the stout undertaker +lived but two doors from Leech, in The Terrace at Kensington, and struck +up a pleasing friendship with the artist) were then the talk of the +town, "The Arrow" suggested a revised version, "A Fight with Fat," with +a disciple of Mr. Banting as the chief character. _Punch_ followed suit +with the entire idea. Thereupon the rival editor, Henry S. Leigh--the +lines are manifestly his--apostrophised Mr. Banting thus:-- + + "Take mental exertion--fight shy of diversion + (Remember, the proverb says 'Laugh and grow fat'); + You may venture securely on _Punch_, because surely + There can't be much fear of your laughing at _that_." + +Anyone who possesses the original "Joe Miller's Jest-book" will be able, +if he cares to look, to recognise a goodly number of the most popular +jokes of the day, even including a number of _Punch_ jokes. He will +there find set forth in quaint terms the retort of the non-churchgoer +that if he is not a pillar of the church, he is certainly one of the +buttresses, for he stops outside--used in due time by Charles Keene; he +will find the repartee placed by _Punch_ in the drawing by the same +artist (May 4th, 1872) in the mouth of an Irish beggar-woman who had +been refused alms by a pug-nosed gentleman, "The Lord preserve your +eyesight, for you've no nose to carry spectacles;" as well as that +witticism usually ascribed to Curran when addressing a jury in the face +of a dissenting judge, "He shakes his head, but _there's nothing in +it_;" besides other favourite jokes of similar antiquity and renown. +Robert Seymour, too, in whose work, strangely enough, Leech is said to +have found no humour, shines out posthumously now and again from +_Punch's_ pages. "Move on--here's threepence," says a butler. +"Threepence?" retorts the street-flutist contemptuously, "d'you think I +don't know the value of peace and quietness?" That was originally +Seymour's, together with the drawing of an Englishman's notion of "A +Day's Pleasure"--a labouring-man dragging a cartload of children up a +steep hill on a hot Sunday--an idea which was afterwards the subject of +a _Punch_ cartoon. + +Two jokes which from their universality of treatment and the unfailing +welcome accorded them at every reappearance might almost be considered +classic and generic jests, were greatly assisted in their popularity by +Seymour's pencil, before _Punch_ obtained for them still wider +recognition. The first represents a fat man, between whose legs the dog +he is whistling to has taken his faithful stand. The old gentleman +whistles and whistles again, anxiously exclaiming, "Wherever can that +dog be?" After Seymour had done with it, Alfred Crowquill took it up; +and in 1854 (p. 71 of the second volume) Sir John Tenniel introduced it +into _Punch_ under the title of "Where, and oh where!" It was not yet +worn out, however, though it doubtless had seen its best days; and so +the "Fliegende Blätter" revived it in 1894 as a typical example of +recent German humour. For the other joke two men are required: the one +an unmistakable ruffian, a grim and dirty robber, and the other a weak, +nervous, timid youth of insignificant stature, the scene representing +the entrance to a dark lane as night closes in. "This is a werry lonely +spot, sir," says Seymour's footpad; "I wonder you ain't afeard of being +robbed!"--and the young man's hair stands on end, and lifts his hat +above his head. Leech in 1853 (p. 100, first volume) alters the dialogue +for _Punch_ by introducing the pleasing possibility of a greater +tragedy, by the footpad asking the youth to buy a razor; and Captain +Howard the following spring makes the ruffian inquire if he may +accompany his victim "to hear the nightingale." In "Diogenes" (December, +1854) the pristine simplicity is restored by the _naïf_ request that he +"may go a little way" with the young gentleman; and finally, in 1857, +Leech once more resurrects and renovates it with his astonishing talent +and freshness for use in the Almanac. + +"Are you comin' home?" asks an indignant wife of her tipsy spouse, in +Mr. Phil May's admirable drawing of February 16th, 1895. "I'll do +ellythik you like in reasol, M'ria (_hic_). But I won't come 'ome." In +the previous year, however, the following had appeared in "Fun":--"_Guid +Wife._-'Come hame, Jock; ye'll be doing nae guid here.' +_Jock._--'Onything in reason, Jenny, ma woman, but hame I wall nae +gang!'" On the other hand, in the "Echo," in March, 1895, appeared the +following item of news:--"There is a curious report of a dialogue in a +Chinese medical paper:--Doctor: 'H'm. You are run down, sir. You need an +ocean voyage. What is your business?' Patient: 'Second mate of the _Anna +Maria_, just in from Hong Kong.'" But more than a quarter of a century +before, _Punch_ had treated his readers to the same.--"Doctor Cockshure +(_advising a nervous patient_): 'My good sir, what _you_ want is a +thorough alteration of climate; the only thing to cure you is a long +sea-voyage.' Patient: 'That's rather inconvenient. You see, I'm only +just home from a sea-voyage round the world!'" + +It is amusing for one endowed with a taste for the history of humour, +and gifted with the requisite memory, to follow some of these +interesting revivals or re-births of comic ideas. Sir John Tenniel's +vision of "The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street," in the "Pocket Book" of +1880, was a familiar conception to those who remembered "Cruikshank's +Omnibus" of 1841; while Leech's sea-sick Frenchman, in p. 76 of the +second volume for 1851, was almost the counterpart of "Glorious +George's" important etching "A very good man, no doubt, but a Bad +Sailor." Again, one of the most brilliant things that ever appeared in a +comic journal was the short dialogue supposed to pass between an +inquiring child and his philosophical though impatient parent:-- + +"What is mind?" "No matter." + +"What is matter?" "Never mind." + +"This well-known definition," says Dr. Furnivall, "according to the +'Academy,' was by Professor T. Hewitt Key; he sent it to _Punch_, and of +course it was printed forthwith--I suppose, somewhere about the +'Sixties." But as a matter of fact this _mot_, which has also been +attributed to Kenny, had already been published in "The Month" as early +as August, 1851 (page 147, Vol. I.); and I may add that though I +remember hearing Professor Key quote it more than once, I never heard +him pretend to its authorship. + +Then, the belated Foozle returning home drunk, and offering to fight his +aggressive-looking hat-stand, appeared in H. J. Byron's "Comic News" +(October 3rd, 1863), as well as in _Punch_ by Keene's pencil (1875); and +the humorous chess-problem in the latter paper, in which White had to +mate in a certain number of moves, if Black interposed no serious +obstacle, was an echo of "White to play and check if Black doesn't +prevent him" in "The Man in the Moon" of 1847, and of "White to play and +check if Black doesn't mate him before" in "The Month" of October, 1851. +Mr. Sambourne's famous "cartoon junior" of Mr. Gladstone in the +character of the child in the soap advertisement, who "Won't be happy +till he gets It" (_i.e._ the cake of Home Rule, just out of his reach), +was found, to his subsequent annoyance and surprise, to have been +anticipated by a week or two by the now defunct "Funny Folks;" and Sir +John Tenniel's cartoon representing Mr. Goschen, then Chancellor of the +Exchequer, as a hen sitting on her eggs--an idea which was not new even +to him, as he had used it in 1880, ten years before--appeared some days +after a similar one had been issued in the "Pall Mall Budget;" though, +of course, _Punch's_ picture had, in accordance with the mechanical +routine of the office, been decided on a week before publication. + +_Punch's_ advice to vocalists, "Take care of the sense, and the sounds +will take care of themselves" (November, 1892), had, curiously enough, +been spoken years before by the eccentric Duchess in "Alice in +Wonderland;" and his conceit that there is no fear for the prosperity of +Ireland under Home Rule "so long as her _capital's D(o)ublin'_" dates +from still earlier times. Then there was the fine old Scotch joke of a +Glasgow baillie who, replying to the toast of the "Law," remarked that +"all our greatest law-givers are dead--Moses is dead, Solon is dead, +Confucius and Justinian are dead--_and I'm nae feelin' that vera weel +mysel'_," which in March, 1893, _Punch_ republished, adapting it, +however, to modern literature--the speaker quaintly including George +Eliot amongst our deceased "best men." More recently a precisely +parallel anecdote has been attributed to Dr. McCosh, apropos of +Leibnitz's theory of evil ("Westminster Gazette," January, 1895). And +again, there is an old story of Baron Rothschild, who when very busy +received the visit of a business acquaintance. "Take a chair," quoth the +Baron. "Can't," said his visitor, "I'm in a hurry." "Then take two +chairs," suggested the Baron, still engrossed. In 1871 the same joke was +sent in to _Punch_ in a remodelled form, and duly published. "Call me a +cab!" says an excited gentleman. "You're too late, sir," replies the +servant; "a cab couldn't do it." "Confound you!" cries the other, "call +two cabs, then!" + +In 1892 a catastrophe befell _Punch_, a double _faux pas_. An excellent +child story had been printed in "Vanity Fair" of October 15th, in which +a little girl at a Sunday-school class was asked to define a parable: +"Please, miss," replies the child, "a parable's a 'eavenly story with no +earthly meaning!" A fortnight later _Punch_, who had been victimised, +had the misfortune, not only to come out with the same joke, but by a +typographical slip to spoil it by making the child define a parable as +"a heavenly story with an earthly meaning"--the result being to evoke a +pæan of exultation from the few papers whose favourite sport it is to +keep a malevolent weather-eye on _Punch_ in perpetual hope of catching +him tripping. Just such a little chorus of mischievous delight greeted +the publication of Mr. du Maurier's joke in which an old maid complains +that a serious drawback to the charming view from her windows is the +tourists bathing on the opposite shore. It is true, as her friend +reminds her, that the distance is very great--"_but with a telescope, +you know!_" But years before, Charles Keene had illustrated the same +idea, taking, however, a cricket dressing-tent instead of a bathing +shore; and long before that it had been scoffed at for its antiquity. + +In like fashion another _Punch_-baiter complained a quarter of a century +ago that an American paper printed a joke which _Punch_ duly used as a +"social," and which has since been revived as follows: "Harriet Hosmer +tells of an incident which occurred in her studio, where her statue of +Apollo rested. An old lady was being shown around, a Mrs. Raggles, and +she paused before this masterpiece a long time. Finally she exclaimed, +'So that's Apoller, is it?' She was assured that it was. 'Supposed to be +the handsomest man in the world, warn't he?' The surmise was assented +to. Then turning away disgustedly, 'Wal,' she said, 'I've seen Apoller +and I've seen Raggles--an' I say, Give me Raggles!'" + +One of the stories told of Dominique was once printed in _Punch_ as +original. This was when he took a bath by the doctor's order, and being +asked how he felt, replied, "Rather wet." The jokelet, curiously enough, +had already been printed in "Mark Lemon's Jest-Book," and was so far a +classic that it is to be found in the "Arlequina" of 1694. Again, the +story of the boy who, when ordered by a "swell" to hold his horse, asked +if it bit, or kicked, or took two to hold, and when reassured on each +point, replied, "Then hold him yourself," is older still; for it is to +be found in "Mery Tales, Wittie Questions and Quicke Answeres Very +pleasant to be Readde" (published by H. Wilkes in 1567), under the +heading, "Of the Courtier that bad the boy holde his horse, xliii." This +little book, by the way, is included in Hazlitt's collection of +Shakespeare's Jest-books. + +In drawing attention to these incidents in _Punch's_ career--examples +of which might easily be multiplied--it is not my purpose to expose +shortcomings, but rather to insist on the difficulty of the humorist's +path and the pitfalls that beset genuine originality. "The late Mark +Lemon," wrote Mr. Hatton, "had a kind of editorial instinct for an old +joke. He could identify the spurious article as easily as an expert +detects counterfeit money. Lemon's soul was in _Punch_, and he had a +keen memory for every line that had appeared in its columns. He edited a +book of humorous anecdotes, but even he overlooked numerous doubles, and +left not a few errors for the detection of the critics;" in fact, was +fallible too, as in the nature of things he was bound to be. And Shirley +Brooks, although with his wide knowledge of comic literature and "happy +thoughts" he was successful too, had nevertheless humiliation to bear +for blunders not a few. Tom Taylor neither knew nor cared; as Mr. +Labouchere severely said, "he had no sense of humour," and the jokes had +to take their chance. But to-day a careful eye is kept to this question +of originality, and so far as cartoons are concerned, Sir John Tenniel +has always been trusted to see that subjects for cartoons are not used +over again. + +Although _Punch_ has tripped now and again, he has been the comic quarry +which the nation and the nation's press have worked for half a century, +quoting, borrowing, stealing, a thousand times to his once. His best +ideas are enjoyed and used, and in due time are sent back, often quite +innocently, for re-issue. Nay, even what is popularly known in England +as "modern American humour" has been claimed as a leaf out of _Punch's_ +book, quaint exaggeration forming its staple feature, as in the case +where we are told that "a young artist in Picayune takes such perfect +likenesses that a lady married the portrait of her lover instead of the +original." + +Lastly, a couple of drawings by Mr. du Maurier may be referred to +(second volume for 1872, and first volume for 1894), which created a +good deal of amusement at the time of their publication. In the first +case a visitor calls to inquire after the condition of a happy mother. +And the babe, is it a boy? "No," says the page. Ah! a girl. "No," +repeats the lad. What is it, then? asks the startled visitor. "If you +please," replies the intelligent retainer, "the doctor said it was a +Heir!" Now, this joke almost textually reproduces a circumstance +attending the birth of that Earl of Dudley of whom Rogers wrote the +epigram which Byron thought "unsurpassable":-- + + "Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it; + He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it." + +The second drawing reproduces a story (long since forgotten) of the +first Duke of Wellington, who joined a notorious gambling club, with the +express view, it was said, to black-balling his son, the Marquis of +Douro, a likely candidate--and then went complacently and told him so. + +Much the same difficulty attending the identification and indexing of +the jokes of the past is experienced in respect to _Punch_ itself. +Consider for a moment. That work consisted in the summer of 1895 of 108 +volumes. At the moderate estimate of four jokes per column, attempted +and made, we reach a grand total of nearly 270,000 jokes--a total +bewildering in its vastness, and representing, one would think, all the +humour that ever was produced since this melancholy world began. The +mind refuses to grasp such a mass of comicality; how, then, would you +classify this prodigious joviality and sarcasm? How detect a joke that +may reappear under a hundred disguises of time, place, condition, and +application--yet the same root-joke after all? Is it surprising that the +same ideas recur--and, recurring, sometimes escape the shrewd eye of +_Punch's_ investigation department? + +It has already been said that to Sir John Tenniel it has fallen to +prevent the repetition of subjects in respect to the cartoons. Yet it +must not be imagined that others on the Staff are not as earnest +students of _Punch's_ pages, that they have not graduated as Masters of +his Arts. Yet, for all their vigilance, repetitions have often recurred. +You remember Tenniel's superb cartoon of the noble savage manacled with +the chains of slavery taking refuge on a British ship with clasped hands +uplifted to the commander? It was at the time of Mr. Ward Hunt's +slavery circular, and was entitled "Am I not a Man and a Brother?" A +like subject with the same title was contributed by Leech on June 1st, +1844, when a manacled negro appeals to Lord Brougham, who, making "a +long nose," hurries off to the Privy Council Office. Similarly have we +had two "Vigils"--one in the spring of 1854, and the other thirty-four +years later. And _Punch's_ exclusion from France, figuratively at Calais +Pier, has been the subject of two drawings--the first in 1843,[15] and +the other, by Mr. Linley Sambourne, on January 12th, 1878. The +repetitions at such long intervals lose, of course, any such +significance as the critical might feel inclined to attribute; but in +_Punch's_ nonage the self-same engravings have more than once been +actually used a second time, such as "Deaf Burke"--the celebrated +prize-fighter of Windmill Street--who was shown twice in the first +volume, certainly not for his beauty's sake; a drawing by Hine, which +was similarly employed in the same year; and in 1842 a cut by Gagniet, +which had been bought from a French publication. Perhaps the nearest +modern approach to this was when in 1872 Mr. Sambourne practically +repeated his figure of Mr. Punch turning round from his easel to face +the reader. + +At the time when the Russo-Turkish War was drawing to a close, one of +the most powerful of Tenniel's cartoons--which made a great impression +on the country, as giving keen point to Mr. Gladstone's agitation +against Lord Beaconsfield's attitude at that period--was the drawing of +the Prime Minister, leaning back comfortably reading in his armchair, +declaring that he can see nothing at all about "Bulgarian Atrocities" in +the Blue Books, though the background of the picture itself is all +violence and butchery. Yet nobody recalled the fact that the artist had +made a similar cartoon of Cobden and Palmerston in the spring of 1857. + +Charles Keene certainly had not studied his _Punch_ as he ought. Of that +there is abundant proof; for although the care he took to obtain good +and original jokes was conscientious in the extreme, he over and over +again re-drew his own and other people's drolleries. The British +grumble of the British farmer who under no circumstances can be appeased +or contented was typified by Leech in a picture wherein the farmer was +represented as looking at a splendid field of heavy golden corn (p. 96, +Vol. XXVII, 1854), but was not satisfied even then. "Ah!" he grumbles, +"see what it'll cost me to get it in!" The idea tickled Keene so greatly +when he heard it that, entirely unmindful of Leech's page, he made a +drawing of the same subject on p. 268 of the first volume for 1878; and +then, forgetting all about it, eleven years later (p. 35 of the second +volume for 1889) he actually did it all over again! + +"What do you mean by coming home at this time of night?" asks an +indignant wife of her tipsy husband. "My dear," replies the prodigal, +with a generous attempt at candour and conciliation, "all other places +shu'rup!" Keene drew this admirably in 1871 (p. 71, Vol. LXI), and Mr. +du Maurier most delightfully again in 1883 (p. 14, Vol. LXXXIV.). These +and many more examples of unconscious receptivity and reproduction by +professional humorists will strike the attentive reader of _Punch's_ +pages. He will see how to both Leech and Mr. Ralston occurred the idea +of an over-dressed vulgarian in morning clothes protesting in angry +dismay against the opera-house officials' suggestion that he is +not in "full dress;" how both Miss Georgina Bowers (1870) and +Mr. du Maurier were tickled by the retort to the economical dictum +that it is extravagant to have both butter and jam on a slice of +bread--"Extravagant? _Economical!_--same piece of bread does for both!"; +how "Childe Chappie's Pilgrimage" of our day was preceded by "Child +Snobson's Pilgrimage" of 1842; how Mr. du Maurier in November, 1888, and +again in the Almanac for 1895 repeated the joke of a husband declaring +that he would be "extremely annoyed" if in the event of his death his +wife did not invite certain of his particular friends to his funeral; +how Poe's "Bells" maintain their power to attract the parodist; how +curiously tempting to the punster is the idea of a bashful policeman in +the National Gallery being asked where "the fine new Constable is" (for +Mr. Burnand, Charles Keene, and Sir Frank Lockwood have all done it, in +the order indicated); and many other amusing slips of the sort. And he +must not on any account miss those twin jokes--for they are both of them +good and in their essence identical--of John Leech and Mr. du Maurier. + +In Mr. du Maurier's version we have a poor woman touting for a bottle of +wine for her sick husband. The doctor had recommended port, she +says--"and it doesn't matter how _old_ it is, sir!" In Leech's the host +is impressing on his youthful guest that "that wine has been in my +cellar four-and-twenty years come last Christmas--four-and-twenty years, +sir!" And the guileless youth gushingly makes answer, in the belief that +he is making himself remarkably pleasant, "Has it really, sir? _What it +must have been when it was new!_" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] Compare Shirley Brooks's couplet (1857):-- + + "MARRY (AND DON'T) COME UP. + + "A fellow that's single, a fine fellow's he; + But a fellow that's married's a _felo de se_." + +[14] See _Punch_, p. 235, Vol. LXI., 1861. + +[15] See p. 191. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +CARTOONS--CARTOONISTS AND THEIR WORK. + + The Cartoon takes Shape--"The Parish Councils + Cockatoo"--Cartoonists and their Relative Achievements--John + Leech's First--Rapidity in Design "General Février turned + Traitor"--"The United Service"--Sir John Tenniel's Animal + Types--"The British Lion Smells a Rat"--The Indian Mutiny--A + Cartoon of Vengeance--_Punch_ and Cousin Jonathan--"Ave + Cæsar!"--The Franco-Prussian War--The Russo-Turkish War--"The + Political 'Mrs. Gummidge'"--"Dropping the Pilot," its Origin and + Present Ownership--"Forlorn Hope"--"The Old Crusaders"--Troubles of + the Cartoonist--The Obituary Cartoon. + + +In describing the _Punch_ Dinner I show how the merry meeting lapses, by +a natural transition, from pleasure to work, and ends with the evolution +of the cartoon; how the mist of talk, vague perhaps and undecided at +first, slowly develops a bright nebulous point, round which the +discussion revolves and revolves, until at last it takes form, slowly +and carefully, though changed a dozen times, and finally, after being +threshed and threshed again, stands in the ultimate form in which next +week it meets the public eye. + +For when the meal is done, and cigars and pipes are duly lighted, +subjects are deliberately proposed in half-a-dozen quarters, until quite +a number may be before the Staff. They are fought all round the Table, +and, unless obviously and strikingly good, are probably rejected or +attacked with the good-humoured ridicule and withering scorn distinctive +of true friendship and cordial intimacy. Then is each fully and formally +debated, every tussle advancing it a stage, and none finally accepted +until all the others have fallen in the battledore-and-shuttlecock +process to which they have been subjected. Then, when the subject is +settled, comes the consideration of the details--what should the +grouping be? what the accessories? how many figures?--(during the +hunting season John Leech would decline to introduce more than two, as +his week-end would otherwise be spoiled)--and other minor yet still +important considerations; and then each man's opinion has its proper +weight in the Council of _Punch_. In this year of grace Mr. Lucy is +listened to with the respect due to his extraordinary Parliamentary +knowledge; Mr. Milliken is the chief literary authority since "the +Professor" (Percival Leigh) went to his rest; and so each man is counted +upon for the special or expert knowledge he may bring to bear on the +particular subject then before the meeting. + +And when the subject of the cartoon is a political one, the debate grows +hot and the fun more furious, and it usually ends by Tories and Radicals +accepting a compromise--for the parties are pretty evenly balanced at +the Table; while Mr. Burnand assails both sides with perfect +indifference. At last, when the intellectual tug-of-war, lasting usually +from half-past eight for just an hour and three-quarters by the clock, +is brought to a conclusion, the cartoon in all its details is discussed +and determined; and then comes the fight over the title and the +"cackle," amid all the good-natured chaff and banter of a pack of +boisterous, high-spirited schoolboys. + +More than once it has happened that notwithstanding a subject being well +on the way to becoming a cartoon--the raw material of an idea having +been almost hammered into a presentable political missile or social +criticism by the heads of the company--a side remark may arrest further +labour, and turn attention in an entirely different direction. Such was +the case with one of the most successful cartoons of recent years. The +topic of the week was the Parish Councils Bill, which was then before +the Lords, and was receiving severe handling in that House. In the +course of discussion came an "aside" from Mr. Arthur à Beckett, to the +effect that "Gladstone is having a deuce of a time." "Like the +cockatoo," assented Mr. Lehmann, referring to the story of the unhappy +bird which was left for a short while alone with a monkey, and which, +when the owner returned to the room and found his bird clean plucked of +its feathers by the monkey--all but a single plume in the tail--looked +up dejectedly, and croaked in tones of almost voiceless horror, "I've +been having a doose of a time!" The remarks were caught at by Mr. +Burnand as a happy thought, and the new idea was tossed like a ball from +one to another until there issued from it the well-known design of the +monkey in its coronet, as the House of Lords, having plucked the +cockatoo-Bill of most of its feather-clauses--a drawing which, under the +title of "The Parish Councils Cockatoo," hit off the situation with +singular felicity, and reaped the reward of the public applause. In a +similar manner there developed Mr. Sambourne's peculiarly happy "Cartoon +Junior," representing Mr. Gladstone, newly retired, looking up from the +perusal of the first speech made by Lord Rosebery on his promotion to +the Premiership--a speech some of the points of which he afterwards had +to withdraw or explain away--with the words, "Pity a Prime Minister +should be so ambiguous!" In the arrangement of these second cartoons, +which, as is elsewhere described, immediately follows the handing of the +written-out subject of the main picture to Sir John Tenniel, a contrast +is always the first thing sought for. If the first deals with foreign +politics, the second must treat of home matters, political or social; if +the "senior" is social, the "junior" will be political; if Sir John is +realistic, Mr. Sambourne is idealistic. And if it is impossible so to +differentiate them, the prominent figures at least which appear in the +one are carefully avoided in the other. + +But in the early years of _Punch_ the method was not so democratic. The +matter was discussed, but the preponderance of two or three of the Staff +made their opinions felt to such a degree that when a subject was +proposed by one of them, that subject, when it appeared, was +unmistakably theirs and nobody else's. I have before me the full details +of these matters during a considerable period, and I find that on the +whole Douglas Jerrold was the most prolific of suggestors, while Henry +Mayhew (so long as he remained), Gilbert Abbot à Beckett, Mark Lemon, +and Horace Mayhew, roughly speaking, divided the honours between them. +Thackeray seldom made a suggestion, and it is not very often that the +entry "Leech _solus_" is credited to the great cartoonist before 1848. +During the years 1845, 1846, and 1847, for instance, Leech alone +proposed eleven subjects, Mark Lemon thirty-five, Henry Mayhew twenty, +Horace Mayhew fifteen, Douglas Jerrold sixteen, Thackeray four, Tom +Taylor four, Gilbert à Beckett two, and Percival Leigh two, leaving the +rest to be shared by the united Staff. + +The men who have borne the title of _Punch's_ Cartoonist are fifteen in +number. Taking them in the chronological order of their first +contribution, not of drawings, but of cartoons to the paper, they are: +1841, A. S. Henning, W. Newman, Brine, John Leech, and Birket Foster; +1842, A. "Crowquill," Kenny Meadows, H. G. Hine, and H. Heath; 1843, R. +J. Hamerton; 1844, R. Doyle; 1851, John Tenniel; 1852, W. McConnell; +1864, Charles Keene; and 1884 and 1894, Linley Sambourne.[16] + +From March 4th, 1843, to September 30th, 1848 (after which, with the +exception of one cartoon in 1849 from Newman, and a few from McConnell +in 1852, John Leech and John Tenniel shared the cartoon-drawing +absolutely between them--no other hand making one at all for +six-and-thirty years), there appeared 314 cartoons in about 286 weeks. +It sometimes happened that _Punch_ appeared without a cartoon at all, +especially in those parlous cashless days of 1842, and again in 1846 and +1848; but, on the other hand, two cartoons were frequently given in the +same number, usually from different hands, though occasionally Leech +would do both. The 314 designs were made up thus:-- + + J. Leech 223 + + R. Doyle 53 + + Kenny Meadows 14 + + R. J. Hamerton 10 + + H. G. Hine 8 + + W. Newman 6 + + ---- + 314 (exclusive of the Almanacs) + +--Hamerton having taken Hine's place, Doyle having superseded Hamerton, +and Meadows, after 1844, having disappeared. Roughly speaking, from the +commencement of _Punch_ to the end of 1894, there have been 2,750 +cartoons in all, and these have been contributed approximately thus: + + Sir John Tenniel 1,860 + + John Leech 720 + + R. Doyle 70 + + Other Cartoonists 100 + + ---- + 2,750 + +--representing an amount of thought and artistic achievement colossal in +the aggregate, and perfectly appalling in the case of Leech and Tenniel. + +Does it not speak well for the good sense and good digestion of these +men that in all these hundreds and thousands of skits--satires going by +their very nature into personal motives and perhaps into private +actions--that the lapses and the mistakes have been nearly as rare as +great auks' eggs? Mr. Gladstone had good reason to say, as he did one +day at dinner, that "in his early days, when an artist was engaged to +produce political satires, he nearly always descended to gross personal +caricature, and sometimes to indecency. To-day he noted in the humorous +press (speaking more particularly of _Punch_) a total absence of +vulgarity and a fairer treatment, which made this department of warfare +always pleasing"--which is all very true if we admit that the function +of ridicule and banter as political weapons is to be merely "pleasing." +At any rate, if it be so, it is the knell of all great satire--with the +corresponding effect of making the more caustic and grosser sides of men +like Swift impossible. Yet, on the other hand, so late as 1860, +according to Sir Theodore Martin, _Punch_ more than any other paper +reflected the national feeling in such matters as our naval defences; so +that in its support of Lord Lyndhurst in his patriotic agitation it +greatly assisted in strengthening the hands of the Government. + +It is interesting, when you know your _Punch_ as you should your Bible, +to lean back in your chair and recall the most striking and important +among the three thousand designs, more or less, that stand out as +landmarks in _Punch's_ pages. + +The first, of course, for association's sake, is that pageful of +"Foreign Affairs" which introduced Leech to _Punch's_ readers. It +appeared in the fourth number, on August 7th, 1841. The "Foreign +Affairs" consist chiefly of groups of foreign refugees to be seen at +that time, and even now in some measure, in the vicinity of Soho and +Leicester Square--the political scum of Paris ("Parisites," may they not +be called?) and of Berlin. The scroll bearing the title in the middle of +the page is fully signed, with the addition of the artist's sign-manual, +which was afterwards to become known throughout the whole artistic and +laughter-loving world--a leech wriggling in a water-bottle. This début +did little justice to Percival Leigh's introduction, for the block was +delivered so late that, containing as it did a considerable amount of +work, it made it impossible for the engraver to finish it in time for +the ordinary publishing hour. The usual means of publication and +despatch were consequently missed, and the result was a very serious +fall in that week's circulation. For some time after that Leech drew no +more, learning meanwhile the elementary lesson that large blocks take +longer to cut than small ones--or, at least, did then, before Charles +Wells had introduced his great invention of a block that could be taken +to pieces in order that each small square might be given to different +hands to engrave. Nevertheless, even to the end Leech always had a +tendency to be late with his cartoons, and half Mark Lemon's time, +according to Edmund Yates and others, was passed in hansom-cabs bowling +away to Notting Hill, Brunswick Square, or to Kensington, where in +succession Leech resided. + +Yet he could be astonishingly rapid when he liked, and often would he +complete a cartoon on the wood while his Editor smoked a cigar at his +elbow. Such a drawing--such a feat--was that remarkable block of +"L'Empire c'est la Paix" (1859), representing Louis Napoleon as a +hedgehog bristling with bayonets, admirable in expression and execution, +yet not original in idea--though it is as likely as not that Leech had +never seen, or else had forgotten, the cartoon in the "Puppet Show" +(June, 1854), wherein the Tsar Nicholas appears in a manner precisely +similar. The Dinner had by exception been held on Thursday (March 10th, +1859) instead of on the previous day; every moment was precious; and +Leech proposed the idea for the cartoon, drew it in two hours, and +caught his midday train on the following day, speeding away into the +country with John Tenniel for their usual Saturday hunt. + +But in accordance with that strange law of memory that horror, ugliness, +and power should spring to the mind before humour, grace, or beauty, it +is the tragic side and passionate purpose of _Punch's_ career as shown +in his cartoons that first arise in one's recollection. And it is (with +but one or two exceptions) exclusively in his cartoons that Leech showed +his tragic power. "The Poor Man's Friend" (1845), in which Death, gaunt +and grisly, comes to the relief of a wretch in the very desolation of +misery and poverty, tells as much in one page as Jerrold's pen, with all +its strength and intensity, could make us feel in a score. Ten years +later the same idea was splendidly developed and magnificently realised +in the cartoon entitled "General Février turned Traitor," which not more +than once or twice in the whole of _Punch's_ history has been surpassed +either in loftiness of conception or depth of tragedy, or in the +tremendous effect that immediately attended its publication throughout +the country. + +During the Crimean War the winter of 1854-55 was terrible in its +severity, and the sufferings of our soldiers were appalling. The +suspense at home increased the country's emotion as to the terrors they +knew of in the field. The callous statement of the Tsar, therefore, +about that time reported, that "Russia has two generals in whom she can +confide--Generals Janvier and Février," struck indignation and disgust +into every British soul. On February 2nd the news arrived of the death +of the Emperor. Popular excitement was intense. Consols rose 2 per +cent., and the foreign market was in a state of such confusion that +brokers refused to cite even a nominal quotation. Eight days later +appeared Leech's cartoon, with its double meaning of superb power, +though it was, no doubt, not the most favourable specimen of the +draughtsman's art. Received by most with wild enthusiasm, by others with +condemnation as a cruel use of a cruel fate, it none the less +electrified the country. "Never," writes Mr. Frith, "can I forget the +impression that Leech's drawing made upon me! There lay the Tsar, a +noble figure in death, as he was in life, and by his side a stronger +King than he--a bony figure, in General's uniform, snow-besprinkled, +who 'beckons him away.' Of all Leech's work, this seems to be the finest +example. Think how savage Gillray or vulgar Rowlandson would have +handled such a theme!--the Emperor would have been caricatured into a +repulsive monster, and Death would have lost his terrors." + +[Illustration: GENERAL FEVRIER TURNED TRAITOR. + +(_Reduced from the Cartoon by John Leech. "Punch" 10th February, 1855._)] + +Ruskin compares this cartoon for impressiveness in the perfect +manifestation of the grotesque and caricature in art with Hood's "Song +of the Shirt" in poetry. "The reception of the last-named wood-cut," +says he, "was in several respects a curious test of modern feeling.... +There are some points to be regretted in the execution of the design, +but the thought was a grand one; the memory of the word spoken and of +its answer, could hardly in any more impressive way have been recorded +for the people; and I believe that to all persons accustomed to the +earnest forms of art it contained a profound and touching lesson. The +notable thing was, however, that it offended persons _not_ in earnest, +and was loudly cried out against by the polite journalism of Society. +This fate is, I believe, the almost inevitable one of thoroughly genuine +work in these days, whether poetry or painting; but what added to the +singularity in this case was that _coarse_ heartlessness was even more +offended than polite heartlessness." + +Just before this Tenniel had given us a fine drawing of England and +France--the new allies--as typified by two splendid specimens of Guards +of both nations, standing back to back in friendly rivalry of height; +and the cut achieved such popularity that, under its title of "The +United Service," it was reproduced broadcast on many articles of use, +and decorated the backs of playing-cards. + +The following year Sir John Tenniel (who though hardly more convincing +than Leech, yet by his power of draughtsmanship and bigness of +conception could be far more imposing) produced the earliest of his +magnificent studies of what may be called his "Animal Types" in "The +British Lion Smells a Rat" (1856). This heralded what are in some +respects his masterpieces, the Cawnpore cartoons (1857), the chief of +which is "The British Lion's Vengeance on the Bengal Tiger." Once this +fine drawing is seen, of the royal beast springing on its snarling foe, +whose victims lie mangled under its paw, it can never be forgotten. It +is a double-page cartoon, splendidly wrought by the artist at the +suggestion of Shirley Brooks; and while it responded and gave expression +to the feelings of revenge which agitated England at the awful events +that had passed at the time of the Indian Mutiny, and served as a banner +when they raised the cry of vengeance, it alarmed the authorities, who +feared that they would thereby be forced on a road which both policy and +the gentler dictates of civilisation forbade. Vengeance was the cry; and +the wise and humane counsels of Lord Canning met only with contempt and +anger, and rendered him the most unpopular man of the day. + +Soon it was Tenniel's destiny to shine alone in the cartoons of _Punch_. +Leech, in the last few years of his life, tired with the strain of +over-work and ill-health, withdrew more and more from the making of "big +cuts," till towards the end they were left almost entirely in the hands +of his well-loved colleague. Tenniel rose to the position and to the +full height of the great events that courted his pencil. The great +American struggle of North and South gave unlimited opportunity, and for +four years _Punch_, first taking sides hotly against slave-trading, +became at times simply pedagogic in his attitude towards both the +combatants. From the time (January 26th, 1861) when there was published +"Mrs. Carolina asserting her Right to Larrup her Nigger," down to the +crowning cartoon of "Habet"--the combatants as gladiators before the +enthroned and imperial negroes ("Ave Cæsar!")--many fine cartoons were +issued; but the last-named has been held by many to be the finest that +has ever issued from the artist's pencil. But, in sentiment at least, a +greater was to come--one which helped to melt for us in a measure the +hardened heart of the American nation, at that time distrustful of +England, and righteously indignant at many a taunt that had been +launched against her. This was the affecting picture of Britannia's +tribute and _Punch's_ _amende honorable_, called simply, "Abraham Lincoln: +Foully Assassinated April 14th, 1865," while Shirley Brooks's verses +which accompany them take highest rank among poetry of its kind--lines +which, rugged perhaps in themselves, come straight from the heart, and +speak to a whole nation with true emotion and deep sincerity. + +[Illustration: THE "PAS DE DEUX." + +From the "Scène de Triomphe" in the Grand Anglo-Turkish _Ballet +d'Action_. (_The Finished Sketch by Sir John Tenniel for the Cartoon in +"Punch," 3rd August, 1878._)] + +Then came "A Leap in the Dark" (1867)--Britannia on her hunter, Dizzy, +"going blind" through the hedge of Reform; and soon after the series on +the Franco-Prussian War and the situation that immediately preceded the +outbreak of hostilities, more particularly that (proposed by Mr. du +Maurier) in which the shade of the great Napoleon stands warningly in +the path of the infatuated Emperor; while those that illustrated the +close of the struggle, aroused a deeper sympathy for France than all the +leading-articles and descriptive essays put together. Tenniel's +hell-hounds of war, who menace the fallen figure of France distraught, +are again seen in the series, almost as fine, that accompanied and +followed the Russo-Turkish struggle. A few months later heroics were +once more set aside for humour, and the celebrated cartoon representing +the successful termination of the Berlin Treaty was given forth--"The +_Pas de Deux_" (1878)--in which Lords Beaconsfield and Salisbury in +official dress are executing their _pas de triomphe_ with characteristic +grace and ineffable mock-seriousness of mien. + +Another cartoon that attracted general attention for its exquisite +fooling, and that still haunts the mind of those who can appreciate a +completely happy adaptation of text to subject and situation, is "The +Political 'Mrs. Gummidge'" (May, 1885). Mr. Gladstone, as Mrs. Gummidge, +sits in the Peggotty boathouse by the fire, on which a pot of Russian +stew is simmering, while her knitting, marked "Egypt," has fallen from +her weary hands, and, the very picture of misery, moans out: "I ain't +what I could wish to be. My troubles make me contrairy. I feel my +troubles, and they make me contrairy. I make the House uncomfortable. I +don't wonder at it!!!" To which Mr. John Peggotty-Bull, pointing with +his pipe-stem at the portrait of Beaconsfield on the wall, mutters +(deeply sympathising, aside), "She's been thinking of the old 'un!" It +was proposed by Mr. Burnand. + +But Sir John Tenniel's greatest success of all in recent +years--artistically and popularly successful--is undoubtedly the great +picture illustrative of Prince Bismarck's resignation in 1889, entitled +"Dropping the Pilot." The subject, it may be stated, was not a +suggestion made at the Table, but it was handed in from the late +Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, who was too ill to attend the Dinner--(he died +very soon after)--and who thus, as so many other _Punch_ contributors +have done--Thomas Hood, Artemus Ward, Leech, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, +Charles Bennett, and others--sent in one of the most valuable of all his +suggestions just as his career was drawing to its close. The idea was +immediately accepted, and its excellence fully appreciated. It was +decided that it should occupy a double-page; and Sir John Tenniel, who +has always risen to a great occasion, did the fullest justice to the +subject. When the paper was sent round to the Staff, as it always is, on +the Monday night, they foresaw with delight that here was a great +_coup_, and their conviction received ample confirmation on the +publishing-day from the country at large. There was a world of pathos in +the weather-beaten old mariner who goes thoughtfully, full of doubt and +care, down the side of the ship he had originally designed and had since +piloted so long and so well--now discharged as no longer wanted; and +there was a world of meaning in the ambitious and self-reliant young +Commander who looks over the ship's bulwark and gazes at the bent figure +of his departing counsellor. The cartoon, said Mr. Smalley, pleased +equally the Emperor and the Prince, for there was that in it which both +felt and sought for. The original sketch for the drawing on the wood was +finished by the artist as a commission from Lord Rosebery, who then +presented it to Prince Bismarck. In acknowledging the drawing the +ex-Chancellor declared, "It is indeed a fine one!" "The Hidden Hand"--a +criticism on Irish political crime and its incitement--was another of +Gilbert à Beckett's most striking suggestions. It appears on p. 103, +Vol. LXXXIV., 1883. + +Next I would mention--besides Mr. Sambourne's admirable Jubilee picture +of "The Mahogany Tree," in which the Proprietors and Staff are gathered +round the Table as they toast triumphant _Punch_ (_see_ +Frontispiece)--another cartoon which, nobly conceived, if not quite so +fine in execution, under the title of "Forlorn Hope" (October, +1893--proposed by Mr. Milliken), has been held by some as second only to +"Dropping the Pilot." It is the pathetic picture of Mr. Gladstone at +the moment of his retirement leading the attack against the House of +Lords. A grand old fortress crowning an enormous cliff stands out +strongly in evening light against the distant sky, and the grand old +warrior, in coat of mail, is struggling up the steep and slippery +side--a hopeless task, eloquent of the courage of despair. + +[Illustration: THE POLITICAL MRS. GUMMIDGE. + +(_The finished Sketch by Sir John Tenniel for the "Punch" Cartoon, 2nd +May, 1885. By Permission of Gilbert E. Samuel, Esq._)] + +Last of all upon this list, on May 15th, 1895, was the grand design, +also suggested by Mr. Milliken, entitled "The Old Crusaders!"--Mr. +Gladstone and the Duke of Argyll "brothers-in-arms again" in their +crusade against the Turkish persecutions in Christian Armenia--the full +significance being insisted on by parallel dates--"Bulgaria 1876: +Armenia 1895." There is an air of unsurpassable dignity in the design of +the two old comrade-statesmen, mounted knights armed _cap à pie_, riding +forth, representative of Christendom and the nation's conscience. +Immediately on seeing the week's _Punch_ the Marquis of Lorne +telegraphed from Windsor to Sir John Tenniel, asking to be allowed to +acquire the original drawing; but he had been forestalled by the other +Champion's son, Mr. Henry Gladstone, who was then in town, and had +secured the prize for his family an hour or two before. + +It must not be imagined that the _Punch_ cartoons have always been +matters, so to speak, of routine. The unexpected has more than once left +_Punch_ in a terribly awkward fix. On one occasion, in 1877, it was +confidently expected that Lord Beaconsfield's Government would be thrown +out on the Monday night or Tuesday morning, when, of course, it would be +too late to begin to think of drawing and engraving a cartoon; besides, +the matter was a foregone conclusion. So Beaconsfield was represented in +his robes, leaning back "in a heap" upon his bench, his chin on his +breast, and his hands thrust deep into his breeches pockets, the very +picture of a beaten Minister. But, as it happened, the Government was +_not_ defeated--and there was the cartoon! Providentially, however, the +Government had been severely badgered about some matter of trivial +importance, such as the amount of sealing-wax employed in Her Majesty's +Stationery Office, and the cartoon was used with a legend to the effect: +"After all the big things I have been in, to be pulled up for _this_!" +The public wondered, and thought that _Punch_ had taken the situation a +little too seriously; but it was a _pis-aller_, and the best had been +made of a shocking bad job. + +Mr. Linley Sambourne, writing on this very matter in the "Magazine of +Art," tells something more of _Punch's_ tribulations: "Difficulties in +the production of cartoons sometimes arise in the impossibilities of +foretelling what, not a day only, but a week may bring forth. In +December, 1871, when His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to the +profound sorrow of the entire nation, hovered between life and death, +Tenniel drew two cartoons, to be used as events might dictate. To the +intense relief and joy of all, the one that was issued was called +'Suspense,' with some beautiful verses entitled 'Queen, People, and +Princess: "Three Hearts in One";' while the other, a grief-stricken +figure of Britannia, lay almost forgotten in the engraver's bureau, but +was remembered, and had unhappily occasion to appear thirteen years +after, on April 5th, 1884, to note the sudden loss of His Royal Highness +the Duke of Albany. _Punch_ is not infallible. The most serious slip he +ever made in the 'cock-sure' line was a cartoon appearing on February +7th, 1885, representing the lamented General Gordon shaking hands with +General Sir Henry Stewart (who himself lay stiff and cold after glorious +action) _inside_ the fated city of Khartoum. When the number appeared +(although at the moment unconfirmed), Gordon himself had been butchered +by the Mahdi's fanatics; and another whole week had to elapse before it +could be corrected by a cartoon of baffled Britannia, with the heading +'Too Late!' I well remember being inside a picture gallery in Bond +Street with the Editor, and hearing newsboys shouting without; the +Editor turned to me and smilingly said, 'All right for our cut. There! +they're shouting "The fall of Khartoum"!' When we got outside, our faces +fell on finding the boot was on the other leg with a vengeance." + +A more recent example of the tricks played upon _Punch_ by Fate was on +August 11th, 1894 (p. 66, Vol. CVII.), when Sir William Harcourt was +represented as an artilleryman mowing down the host of amendments put +upon the paper against the Irish Evictions Bill with a Gatling gun +labelled "Closure." Closure had, indeed, been promised, and upon that +the cartoon was based; but the Tory tactics threw out all calculations, +for the party declined to move their amendments, and took no further +part in the proceedings, so that there was no question whatever of +closure. The Bill passed _en bloc_, and the Gatling remained silent. + +Finally, there is that class of cartoon always graceful in intention, +and invariably received by the public with respect and approval--the +Obituary Cartoon. It was invented by _Punch_ when Wellington died. The +nation was overpowered with a sense of its loss, and _Punch_, with his +finger, as ever, on the public pulse, reflected the national emotion +with a deep and noble sincerity that was gratefully felt and recognised. +From that day onwards the great occasions of a people's loss--either of +our own mourning or of our sympathy with that of others--have been +touched with a dignity and grace in accord with their lofty and solemn +purpose, in drawings which have rarely failed to touch a responsive +chord in the people's heart, and which, judged as compositions, have +often marked the highest point to which Sir John Tenniel's art has +reached. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[16] Contributed one cartoon on July 12th, 1884, and another November +3rd, 1894, when the expected death of the Tsar Alexander III., on the +subject of which Sir John Tenniel's cartoon had been prepared, did not +occur. "Cartoon Junior" was then promoted to "Cartoon Senior." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CARTOONS AND THEIR EFFECT. + + Origin and Growth of the Cartoon--Origin of its Name--Its + Reflection of Popular Opinion--Source of _Punch's_ Power--_Punch's_ + Downrightness offends France--Germany--And Russia--Lord Augustus + Loftus's Fix--Lord John Russell and "No Popery"--Mr. Gladstone and + Professor Ruskin on _Punch's_ Cartoons--Their Effect on Mr. + Disraeli--His Advances and Magnanimity--Rough Handling of Lord + Brougham--Sir Robert Peel--Lord Palmerston's Straw--Mr. Bright's + Eye-glass--Difficulties of Portraiture--John Bull _alias_ Mark + Lemon--Sir John Tenniel's Types. + + +Were you to ask the Editor, Staff, or Proprietors of _Punch_ whether +they regarded the political or the social section of the paper as the +more important, from the public point of view and their own, the answer +would probably be--that they could not tell you. Power and popularity, +even in a newspaper--_especially_ in a newspaper--are not synonymous +terms, and a great circulation does not necessarily carry influence +along with it. It may safely be taken that while the social section of +_Punch_, artistic and literary combined, earned for him his vast +popularity, his power, which at one time was great almost beyond present +belief, was obtained chiefly by his political satires with pen and +pencil. Nowadays, no doubt, their relative importance is more evenly +balanced, and what preponderating interest the cartoon may have for +"_Pater_" is equalled by the special fascination exercised by the social +picture over "_familias_." + +It has been the mission of _Punch_, as of many another great and +original writer, to invent and import into the language words and +expressions which are surely destined to remain. It has already been +recorded how it was he who christened the great conservatory now at +Sydenham "The Crystal Palace"--though he was not so complimentary until +he had cultivated the personal friendship of Sir Joseph Paxton over the +"Daily News" affair. It is he who, in his most laconic manner, has +given his immortal counsel for all time to intending _mariés_; it is he +who has crystallised the exaggerated idea of Scottish thrift and economy +in "bang went saxpence"--to the circumstances of all of which I have +already referred. Mr. Punch, in short, has left the English language +richer than he found it, not only in word, but in idea. So, again, the +present application of the word "cartoon" is in reality a creation of +_Punch's_. + +At the birth of the modern satirical print--that is to say, in the reign +of Charles I.--we see it called "A Mad Designe;" eighty years later, +when George II. was King, it was known as a "hieroglyphic;" and then +onwards, through the caustic and venomous days of the mighty Gillray and +Rowlandson, and even of George Cruikshank, and their contemporaries, +"caricature" was the term applied to the separate copper-plate +broadsides that were issued, crudely coloured, from the famous shops of +Mrs. Humphreys, of Ackermann, of Fores, and of McLean, and displayed in +their windows to the delight and savage applause of a laughing crowd. +Then "HB" had followed, Dicky Doyle's clever father, whose political +lithographs had begun to appear in 1830, and continued until +1851--ceased, that is to say, when _Punch_ was ten years old. The wonder +about them was that, even before the days of photography, the likenesses +of his subjects were so admirable, and his thrusts so happy, while his +art, criticised strictly, was so very poor and amateurish. But as +exaggeration found no trace in his designs, and his compositions aimed +at raising little more than a suspicion of a smile in the beholder (save +in the subjects of them), the word "cartoon" was more applicable to them +than to any that preceded or have followed them. Mr. Austin Dobson, it +is true, speaks of them as "caricatures;" but their publisher more +correctly defined them as "Political Sketches." + +Then, after the little wood-cut "caricatures" by Robert Seymour, came +_Punch_ with his full-page designs. Announced also as "caricatures," for +a long while they were known as "pencillings;" but it was some time +before they became an invariable feature of the paper. For several +consecutive weeks, indeed, in 1843 there was no full-page cut at all, +until John Leech recommenced them with a series of "Social Miseries," +the first of which represented "Thoughts during Pastorale." But the most +successful and the best remembered was "The Pleasures of Folding Doors" +when "The Battle of Prague" is being thumped out relentlessly on the +other side. + +Now in July of 1843 the first great exhibition of cartoons for the +Houses of Parliament was held. These gigantic designs handled the +loftiest subjects, executed in the most elevated spirit of the highest +art, with a view to ultimate execution in fresco on the walls of the +palace of Westminster. It was not in nature for _Punch_ to allow so +excellent an opportunity to pass by without taking sarcastic advantage +of it. He--conformably with his rôle of Sir Oracle, omniscient and +omnifarious--must have his "cartoons" too; and so on p. 22 of the second +volume for the same year (No. 105 of the journal) he appeared with No. 1 +of his series. It was from Leech's pencil, entitled "Substance and +Shadow," with the legend "The Poor ask for Bread, and the Philanthropy +of the State accords--an Exhibition." The cartoon represents a humble +crowd of needy visitors to the exhibition of pictures on a suggested +"free day," in accordance with the recommendation of the Government. +This design, a suggestion of Jerrold's, affords an excellent example of +the warm-hearted, wrong-headed sympathy with the poor which led him so +often cruelly to misjudge and misrepresent the acts and lives of persons +in authority whose views were not, like his own, spontaneously, kindly, +and impulsively unpractical. The series of six cartoons was directed +against abuses, the last, dealing with the subject of duelling, being +entitled "The Satisfaction of a Gentleman"--in which two duellists +appear attended by seconds wearing caps and bells, while the hangman +awaits the victor in one corner, and Death digs a grave for his victim +in the other. + +After this series _Punch_ for a long while dropped the word "cartoon," +but the public remembered it, and has clung to it ever since. It is a +remarkable thing that while the "Encyclopædic Dictionary" entirely +ignores the word in its modern application to satirical prints, Dr. +Murray's monumental lexicon has as its earliest use of the word a +reference made by Miss Braddon to Leech's cartoons in the year 1863--or +twenty years after it was first coined! + +But the very first number of _Punch_, as we have seen, rejoiced in a +cartoon as we now understand it--that is to say, a large full-page or +double-page block of a satirical nature, usually placed in the middle +opening of the paper, and for the most part still further dignified by +being "unbacked" by other printing. It has been stated that Henry Mayhew +at the very beginning insisted on this being a special feature of the +paper, defeating the opposition of "Daddy" Landells, who was all for a +number of little "coots," as he pronounced them, sprinkled plentifully +over the pages. But inasmuch as Landells was an engraver, who would have +delighted in the opportunity offered to his apprentices by a "big cut," +as he was anxious above all things to follow the Paris "Charivari" (the +very _raison d'être_ of which was the large political cartoon), and as, +moreover, the original "dummy" of the paper makes provision for such a +cartoon, the statement is not to be accepted. + +It was really a poor thing, that first cartoon--"Candidates under +Different Phases;" but it possessed over the little "caricatures" by +Robert Seymour in Gilbert à Beckett's "Figaro in London," that had gone +before, the important advantage of size. It was smaller than the +hideously vulgar cuts in the "Penny Satirist," but--in tone, at +least--this harmless satire on Parliamentary candidates displayed a +refreshing and a highly appreciated decency and moderation. And since +that time, whether satirical or frankly funny, sarcastic or witty, +compassionate or denunciatory, eulogistic, sympathetic, indignant, or +merely expository, the cartoons have rarely overstepped the boundary of +good taste, or done aught but express fearlessly, honestly, and so far +as may be gracefully, the popular feeling of the moment. + +It is just this happy ability of _Punch's_ to reflect the opinion of the +country that gave it the great power it attained and won it the respect +of every successive Government. It is true that of late years Mr. Punch +has rather followed public opinion than led it; and it is equally true +that he now represents a higher stratum of society than at first, when +Jerrold week after week pleaded the cause of the poor. Yet the +Governments of the day might have applied to him Addison's words-- + + "In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, + Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow; + Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee, + There is no living with thee, nor without thee"-- + +and esteemed themselves happy when _Punch_ smiled upon them. "What +_Punch_ says" appears to be a good deal to the Great Ones of our world, +thick-skinned though they be; for even outside politics, they have, +generally speaking, accepted as an axiom "Vox Punchii, vox Populi;" +while Cabinet Ministers, from the Premier downwards, have hoped from his +benevolence and feared from his hostility! When Mr. Mundella publicly +declared that "_Punch_ is almost the most dangerous antagonist that a +politician could have opposed to him--for myself I would rather have +_Punch_ at my back in any political or social undertaking than half the +politicians of the House of Commons," he was merely expressing a +conviction on the part of statesmen that many of them have given +evidence of. It is another proof of the power of the caricaturist--a +very proper respect for the smile which brings popularity and for the +ridicule which kills. + +We all know the effect of Gillray's, Rowlandson's, and George +Cruikshank's etching-needles upon their victims--how these latter would +writhe under a stab that was often virulent in its brutality, merciless, +scurrilous, and cruel. We know how money passed--at least, in their +earlier years--to influence the political opinions of the caricaturists, +less in the hope of damaging "the other side" than with the view to +diluting with a little milk of human kindness their etchers' aquafortis; +and we know how Cruikshank's sudden abandonment of political caricature +has been generally attributed (without drawing forth any denial) to a +very special communication of a remunerative sort from Windsor Castle. +That, however, was owing rather to his remorseless gibbeting of the +follies and scandals of the Court than to political attack or personal +persecution; but other circumstances of a more serious, because of an +international, character have now and again attended the publication of +a caricature. For example, like the Hi-Talleyrand episode, Leech's +famous cartoon of "Cock-a-doodle-do!" (February 13th, 1858) promised at +one time--less directly, it is true--to bring unpleasant consequences in +its train. In the spirit of the Prince de Joinville, whose bombastic +language towards England in 1848 had set an example not to be resisted, +were the fire-eating words of a few French officers, who offered to +"unsheathe their swords and place them at their sovereign's disposal," +and so forth. Leech replied with a cartoon of a Gallic cock, capped and +spurred, flapping its epaulettes and crowing its loudest, while Napoleon +the Third curses the "Crowing Colonel" under his breath. "_Diable!_" he +says, "the noisy bird will awake my neighbour;" and the point is +emphasised by a quotation from the _Moniteur_. The hit, if not quite +original (for Doyle had made a precisely similar sketch of "Le Coq +Gaulois" twelve years before in "The Almanac of the Month") was, at any +rate, a fair one. But some unscrupulous British patriot so took the +matter into his own scurvy hands that the following advertisement was +published in "The Times" of March 10th:-- + + "_Fifty Pounds Reward._--It having come to the knowledge of the + Committee of the Army and Navy Club that a caricature, with most + coarse and vulgar language appended thereto, was sent to an officer + in command of a French regiment, accompanied with a forged message + from the club, the above reward will, within six weeks from this + date, be paid by the Secretary of the Club on the conviction and + punishment of the offender." + +And so the affair was amicably settled, but not before correspondence of +a lively character had passed between both the insulted parties, and it +was feared that the matter might be taken up as "an insult to the French +Army." + +Many a time has _Punch_ been excluded from France--beginning as early as +February 11th, 1843--by reason of his political cuts. In the first +half-volume for that year a cartoon entitled "_Punch_ turned out of +France"--showing a very sea-sick puppet received on Boulogne quay at the +point of a bayonet--first made public the severity of his struggle with +Louis Philippe. There is no doubt that his denunciations approached +about as near to scurrility as ever he was guilty of; and it is equally +true that the French King winced under the attacks made with such +acerbity upon his well-known parsimony. In due time, on April 7th, the +embargo was lifted, but again in the following year an article by +Thackeray, entitled "A Case of Real Distress," in which _Punch_ offers +to open a subscription for the poor beggar, with a cut by the same hand +representing the King as a "Pauvre Malheureux," had the effect of a +fresh exclusion. _Punch_ responded vigorously, his first proceeding +being to advertise, "Wanted--A Few Bold Smugglers" in order that he "may +continue to disseminate the civilisation of his pages throughout +benighted France." + +And so on several occasions, especially during the period of his long +hostility to Napoleon III., was _Punch_ turned back from the French +frontier, though later on the authorities permitted him to enter, on the +condition that, like a Mahometan who leaves his slippers at the temple +door, he tore out his cartoon before he passed inside. Of late years, +however, _Punch_ has on the whole been on excellent terms with "Mme. la +Republique," chiefly through his own forbearance during the period of +what promised to be the Anglo-Congolese Difficulty. It is true that the +cartoon of November, 1894, showing the French Wolf about to spring upon +the Madagascar Lamb, aroused fine indignation in Paris at this English +version of the methods of French colonial expansion; and that the famous +picture of Marshal MacMahon of a score of years before, in which the +President was shown stuck fast in the political mud, obstinately +satisfied with his impossible position ("J'y suis!--J'y reste!"?), gave +equal offence on the boulevards; and although in the latter case the +fairness of the hit was acknowledged, _Punch_ was again, as he had +several times recently been, placed under ban. Again, at the time of the +Franco-Russian _rapprochement_ and consequent _fêtes_, the drawing of +the Bear and Republic in cordial _tête-à-tête_, the former disclosing +the true source and object of his new-found affection by hinting, with a +sly wink and a smirk, about a "little loan," gave rise to real anger, +and was deeply resented--probably with the more annoyance that the +cutting truth with which _Punch_ had hit off the situation was secretly +and unwillingly recognised. But save on one occasion no official +expulsion or repulse has in recent times been _Punch's_ lot. Moreover, +his splendid series of cartoons, nobly conceived and full of generous +sympathy, which he published towards the close of the Franco-Prussian +War, are still remembered with some approach to gratitude in a country +which has rarely, if ever, returned us the compliment of kindliness or +friendship, or even of courtesy, in its satiric press. + +Even in Germany, though _Punch_ has not often been denied admittance, he +has had at least one distinguished door closed against him. This was +when in March, 1892 (p. 110 in the first half-yearly volume), Mr. Linley +Sambourne's "cartoon junior" was published, satirising the German +Emperor in "The Modern Alexander's Feast; or, The Power of Sound"-- + + "With ravished ears + The Monarch hears; + Assumes the god, + Affects to nod, + And seems to shake the spheres." + +The German Army Bill agitation--the struggle between Emperor and +Reichstag, which was followed with so much interest in England--was then +at its height; and the monarch had no mind for trivialities. _Punch's_ +candour in illustrating the title given him in this country of "The +Shouting Emperor," so it is alleged, annoyed him. "For nearly forty +years," said one authority, "_Punch_ has been regularly taken in at the +Prussian royal palaces in Berlin and Potsdam. The Emperor William has +just issued a private order that _Punch_ is to be struck off the list of +journals which are supplied to him; and the Empress Frederick, Prince +Henry of Prussia, and all the members of the Royal Family who are in the +habit of reading English journals, have been desired by their +aristocratic relation to discontinue the obnoxious periodical. It is +understood at Berlin that the Emperor's wrath has been excited by some +jocular allusions to his Majesty's oratorical indiscretions which +recently appeared in _Punch_." If the members of the Imperial Family +scrupulously obeyed the alleged command, they lost the enjoyment of a +hearty laugh over _Punch's_ retort--for it is _Punch's_ habit always to +retort in matters of this sort when his fun is misunderstood or his +irony, in his opinion, taken in ill-part. This was the much-talked-of +"Wilful Wilhelm"--representing the Emperor, _à la_ Struuwelpeter, as a +passionate fractious child, screaming amid his toy soldiers and drums: + + "Take the nasty _Punch_ away; + I won't have any _Punch_ to-day." + +Nor would he leave him alone for a while; but returning a year later to +the charge, and taking as a text the Emperor's words-- + + "It was impossible for me to anticipate the rejection of the Army + Bills, so fully did I rely upon the patriotism of the Imperial Diet + to accept them unreservedly. A patriotic minority has been unable + to prevail against the majority.... I was compelled to resort to a + dissolution, and I look forward to the acceptance of the Bills by + the new Reichstag. Should this expectation be again disappointed, I + am determined to use every means in my power to achieve my + purpose...." + +_Punch_ promptly produced his cartoon a third time, by Mr. Sambourne's +pencil, of "Nana would not give me a bow-wow!--A Pretty Little Song +for Pettish Little Emperors," as the latest Teutonic version of the +music-hall ditty then in vogue. And later on there was Sir John +Tenniel's contribution to the pretty little quarrel, in which in +"Alexander and Diogenes" (October, 1893) the Emperor asks, "Is there +anything I can do for you? Castle? or anything of that sort?" and +Bismarck Diogenes grunts his reply, "No--only leave me to my tub!" But +the Emperor's anger did not last long--if it ever existed at all--for it +was announced that he again received his _Punch_ regularly, but, to +save appearances, it arrived from London every week in an +official-looking envelope, which was opened by the Kaiser's own hands, +and by him duly stowed away in his library. + +If _Punch_, by his outspoken criticism, has succeeded in raising the ire +of two of the most civilised of the Great Powers, it was not to be +expected that he should escape the blacking-roller of the Russian censor +of the press. The touchiness of that official does credit rather to his +zeal than to his judgment--and, besides, he is obviously no humorist. +The Russians have had little opportunity of learning what is thought of +them and their governors at 85, Fleet Street. Time after time has the +cartoon been destroyed; and Mr. Sambourne, journeying in the country, +learned by personal experience that Moscow and St. Petersburg were not +as London and Paris. "Should it happen," he writes, "that any cartoon or +cut at all trenched on Russian subjects, and especially his Majesty the +Tsar, the page was either torn out or erased in the blackest manner by +the Bear's paw. I have seen some of Mr. Tenniel's cartoons so +maltreated, and have myself been frequently honoured in the same way." +It is therefore rather amusing that while such drawings as Sir John +Tenniel produced when the great Nihilistic wave was sweeping over +Russia, just before the renewed application of the repressive system +during the reign of Alexander III. and during the horrors of the Jewish +persecutions, _Punch_ would appear on the Tsar's table with cartoons far +more severe and humiliating than the majority of those which appealed to +the censor's sense of despotism. Of this Lord Augustus Loftus gives a +remarkable example--remarkable, too, for the Ambassador's diplomatic +ingenuity--his story referring to a period on the eve of the +Russo-Turkish War. + +"The Emperor had a favourite dog called Milord, which never left him. We +were dining at the palace, and it being a small party (there were only +the Imperial Family and Court attendants), we retired after dinner to +the Empress's private apartments. I suddenly heard the Emperor calling +'Milord!' and supposed that he was calling for me; but it was his dog +that was wanted, to receive the biscuits which his Majesty was in the +daily habit of bestowing on his favourite. I immediately hastened to his +Majesty, and learnt the explanation from the Emperor, who was highly +amused at the incident. + +"At the time his Majesty was seated in an inner saloon (a sort of +alcove), and placed near him was a small table, on which was a number of +_Punch_, with a cartoon representing the Sovereigns of Austria, Russia, +and Germany at a whist table, the Emperor of Russia holding down his +hand with a card. The Emperor put the paper in my hand, and said, +'_Expliquez-moi cela._' I felt the difficulty of the situation, and to +collect my thoughts asked to be permitted to study it. After a short +time I said-- + +"'Oh, sire, it is quite clear. The political European position is here +represented by a whist party, and your Majesty is represented apparently +as hesitating whether to continue the game.' + +"It was a perplexing question, and I felt very much as Daniel may have +felt when called upon to explain 'Nebuchadnezzar's dream!'" + +I was suggesting just now that to Cabinet Ministers the attitude of +_Punch_ is often a matter of very real concern--at least, that they seem +usually to have attached more importance to the matter than we who stand +outside would think to be reasonable; though, from a proper sense of the +ridiculous doubtless, Ministers have rarely turned upon _Punch_ to rend +him, for all they may have suffered at his hands. + +There is a pretty story of Lord John Russell that is at once a charming +proof to the statesman's magnanimity and of the paper's influence. When +the excitement, already referred to, of the so-called "Papal Aggression" +was at its height, in consequence of the action of the Pope in creating +Roman Catholic Archbishops and Bishops with English territorial titles, +Lord John, who was then in power, took an active part in the House of +Commons on the side of the scaremongers, by introducing the +Ecclesiastical Titles Bill--in respect to which he was strenuously +opposed by both Bright and Cobden--not in order to put repressive +measures into force against the Catholics, he assured the House, but +simply "to insist upon our ascendency." Or, as he explained in 1874, +"The object of that Bill was merely to _assert_ the supremacy of the +Crown. It was never intended to prosecute. Accordingly, a very clever +artist represented me, in a caricature, as a boy who had chalked up 'No +Popery' upon a wall[17] and then ran away. This was a very fair joke.... +When my object had been gained, I had no objection to the repeal of the +Bill." This gave Leech his chance, and he executed his famous cartoon of +'No Popery!' (March 22nd, 1851), which was among the greatest popular +successes ever published by _Punch_--even his smart young rival, the +"Man in the Moon," declaring that _Punch_ had with his cut "wakened up +those whom his letterpress had sent to sleep." + +In his Reminiscences the Rev. William Rogers, Rector of St. Botolph's, +Bishopsgate, tells the delightful sequel. When he called on Lord John, +the Minister began to talk about the Charterhouse. "He said that he had +lost his interest in the latter since his patronage had been taken away. +I thought this pretty good for Whig doctrine. 'No,' he went on, 'I never +abused my patronage. Do you remember a cartoon in _Punch_ where I was +represented as a little boy writing 'No Popery' on a wall and running +away?' I said that I did. 'Well,' he continued, 'that was very severe, +and did my Government a great deal of harm; but I was so convinced that +it was not maliciously meant that I sent for John Leech, and asked him +what I could do for him. He said he should like a nomination for his son +to Charterhouse, and I gave it him." This, surely, if it be true--for +Mr. Silver has a very different story--was a "retort courteous" that +would prove how deeply the cartoon went home. Were it true, it would +show how the independence of Leech could be in no wise affected--though, +going to the House one day, he was greatly struck with the extraordinary +dignity of the Minister during his speech in the great debate on foreign +policy (February 17th, 1854), when the Crimean War with Russia +threatened. + +In Mr. Gladstone's "great Edinburgh speech" of the autumn of 1893 the +veteran Premier said that _Punch_, "whenever it can, manifests the +Liberal sentiments by which it was governed from the first." And +naturally, as a consistent Liberal supporter, it as consistently +attacked the Tory party. Says Mr. Ruskin in one of his lectures on "The +Art of England:" "You must be clear about _Punch's_ politics. He is a +polite Whig, with a sentimental respect for the Crown, and a practical +respect for property. He steadily flatters Lord Palmerston, from his +heart adores Mr. Gladstone. Steadily, but not virulently, caricatures +Mr. D'Israeli; violently and virulently castigates assault upon property +in any kind, and holds up for the general idea of perfection, to be +aimed at by all the children of heaven and earth, the British Hunting +Squire, the British Colonel, and the British sailor." + +This persistent opposition to Disraeli throughout his whole career--an +hostility more bitter than perhaps might have been expected from +Ruskin's "polite Whig"--was esteemed at its full importance by the +object of it, though it was accepted by him, as similar attacks are +accepted by all great minds, in excellent part. Nevertheless, after only +three or four years of attack, he made a determined though unsuccessful +attempt to conciliate his pungent critic. Vizetelly, in his "Glances +Back through Seventy Years," tells the story with all the interest +belonging to a personal recollection. + +"In the summer of 1845," he says, "Mr. Disraeli took the chair at the +annual dinner of the 'Printers' Pension Society,' when the stewards, of +whom I was one, received him in the drawing-room of the 'Albion,' in +Aldersgate Street. Immediately after his entrance he posted himself in a +nonchalant fashion with his back to the mantelpiece, and his thumbs in +his waistcoat pockets, an attitude Thackeray was fond of assuming, and +began to chat familiarly with those near him. In a minute or two he +asked if Mr. Leech was present (Leech was one of the stewards), as if he +would like to make his acquaintance. The famous _Punch_ caricaturist +thereupon stepped forward, and was duly introduced. Disraeli showed +himself particularly gracious, and warmly congratulated the artist, +whose pencil had lately been employed in satirising him in a +disparaging fashion, depicting him as a nice young man for a small +party, _i.e._ the Young England party, as a Jew dealer in cast-off +notions, and as a young Gulliver before the Brobdingnag Minister (Sir R. +Peel). Disraeli tried his hardest to ingratiate himself with the +distinguished caricaturist, but Leech, proof against the wiles of the +charmer, rejoined some months afterwards with the famous cartoon wherein +Disraeli, who had lately proclaimed that, although the cause was lost, +there should be some retribution for those who betrayed it, figured as a +spiteful ringletted viper, and Peel as a smiling unconcerned old file. + +"During the dinner the chairman did his best to make himself pleasant, +and hobbed and nobbed unreservedly with his immediate neighbours.... +When the toasts had been drunk and the secretary had read out the list +of subscriptions and the quiet family-men had hurried off to catch the +last suburban omnibus, Mr. Disraeli showed no disposition to vacate the +chair. Seeing this, the remaining guests drew up to his end of the +table, and a lively discourse ensued, in which a casual allusion to +_Punch_ was made. Disraeli profited by this by rising to his feet, and +in a clever and amusing speech proposed the health of Mr. Punch, towards +whom, he protested, he felt no kind of malice on account of any +strictures, pictorial or verbal, which that individual might have passed +upon him. Everybody entered into the spirit of the joke, and after the +toasts had been drunk, calls were made indifferently upon Lemon and à +Beckett, both of whom were present, to respond. Mark, however, rose, and +in a brief and witty speech returned thanks for the honour that had been +done, as he neatly put it, to an absent friend. + +"Disraeli's amiable advances availed him nothing. For a long time +afterwards _Punch_ gave no quarter to the 'Red Indian of debate' who, as +Sir James Graham pithily phrased it, 'cut his way to power with a +tomahawk.' The time came, however, when Disraeli could show his +magnanimity. Leech, who had satirised him weekly, and so familiarised +everyone with his face and figure that an aristocratic little damsel, on +being presented to him, exclaimed, 'I know you! I've seen you in +_Punch_!'--Leech had had a pension given to him by the Liberals, and +when he died the pension would have died with him, had not Disraeli, who +had at last risen to power, interposed and secured it to the family." +And so Leech, who apparently _could not_ make an enemy, was indebted to +the generosity of his victims for two of the greatest services that were +rendered to him and his. + +Lord Beaconsfield himself acknowledged in his latest book, "Endymion," +his respect for _Punch's_ influence at that time, as well as his desire +to temper the ardour of its attacks if not to secure its silence, for he +there explains how the hero, who to some degree at least is to be +considered an autobiographical study, "flattered himself that +'Scaramouche'" would regard him in a more friendly spirit. _Punch_, with +pardonable pride, devoted a cartoon to this pointed reference, but +merely remarking, "H'm--he _did_ flatter himself," abated not one jot of +his caustic criticism. + +But for all the failure of his advances, and for all his +sensitiveness--so far as he could be said to be sensitive at +all--Beaconsfield kept a close eye on _Punch_, and kept many, if not +all, of the cartoons in which he figured. Similarly did Napoleon III. +love to collect all those of himself which he could obtain, and pore +over them at intervals, even in those sadly fallen times he spent at +Chislehurst. And he had material for reflection enough, for in no way, I +take it, can a public man learn what a world of savagery, hatred, +cruelty, and uncharitableness lies, not so much in man's mind, but in +that corner of it which we euphemistically term his "humour," as in +following the handiwork of the political caricaturist of France. Mr. +Spurgeon, too, used to keep all the cartoons and caricatures that sought +to turn him to ridicule; and Lord Beaconsfield, like the Prince Consort, +Lord Randolph Churchill (who possessed several of the original _Punch_ +drawings into which he had been introduced), among other politicians of +the day, kept these artistic instruments of political torture before +him, as a man treasures in his locket the hair of the dog that bit him. +A visitor to Hughenden gave, in the "Dublin Mail," an interesting +illustration of this tribute to the comic press. He was waiting in an +ante-chamber, "and while passing the time my attention was attracted to +a clever sketch of the then Prime Minister, depicted as Hamlet, seated +at a table covered with innumerable documents, the text quotation being, +'The time is out of joint. O Cursed spite, That [ever] I was born to set +it right!' I was smiling at the picture, which, I may add, was a cut out +of _Punch_, and framed, when the Prime Minister entered with the +gentleman who was to present me, and finding me gazing at the sketch +Lord Beaconsfield said, 'Yes, that is one of the best caricatures of me +that has yet appeared, and, strange to say, the artist has neither +presented me with donkey's ears nor cloven hoofs. I feel very much +flattered!' Lord Beaconsfield took an interest in all the caricatures +that appeared of him, and at the time he died he had several hundreds in +his possession." + +Mr. Gladstone, who, we have often been assured, has not the gift of +humour, has at least enjoyed _Punch's_ good-natured yet occasionally +severe raillery, and in the same Edinburgh speech to which reference has +already been made, he recalled with much relish how, in connection with +the rejection of the Paper Duty Bill, he was represented in a cartoon as +being decorated by the triumphant Lord Derby--the Lord Derby of that +day, who led the House of Lords--with an immense sheet of paper made +into a fool's-cap, which he dropped upon his head. Mr. Goschen took a +still more exalted view of _Punch's_ prestige when he declared (at +Rugby, November, 1881) that "he had since attained to the highest +ambition which a statesman can reach--namely, to have a cartoon in +_Punch_ all to himself." + +[Illustration: LORD BEACONSFIELD IN "PUNCH." + +_By R. Doyle, J. Leech, J. Tenniel, C. Keene, L. Sambourne, and H. +Furniss. (Re-drawn by Harry Furniss.)_] + +But hardly less important, in many a public man's opinion, than the +sardonic significance of _Punch's_ treatment of him in the cartoon, is +the degree of facial resemblance achieved by the artist. It is +undeniable that a likeness which is only half a likeness will often rob +an otherwise admirable cartoon of half its success, just as it was +oftentimes the excellence of the portraiture which more than +counterbalanced the weakness of HB's sketches. Lord Brougham always +flattered himself that _Punch's_ portraits of him did not do him +justice, and John Forster, in his "Life of Dickens," bears witness to +it. "Lord Carlisle repeated what the good old Brougham had said to him +of 'those _Punch_ people,' expressing what was really his fixed belief, +'They never get my face, and are obliged to put up with my plaid +trousers.'" But another writer, on the contrary, states that Lord +Brougham "himself admits that the _Punch_ likenesses are the best. Of +course, they are a little exaggerated, but not so much so as many with +whom I have chatted on the subject are apt to suppose;" while Motley, +the American Minister, declared, after an official meeting with the grim +old lord, "He is exactly like the pictures in _Punch_, only _Punch_ +flatters him. The common pictures of Palmerston and Lord John Russell +are not at all like, to my mind; but Brougham is always hit exactly." +Leech, indeed, enjoyed nothing more than caricaturing him, one of the +most precious butts _Punch_ ever took to himself, until he was twitted +in the "Puppet-Show" at the liberties he took: "The proprietors will be +compelled to widen the columns of their journal ... to show, as far as +space will admit, to what lengths a nose may go in the hands of an +unprincipled illustrator." But it was not only that _Punch_ delighted in +toying with Lord Brougham's cantankerousness and his peculiarities of +manner and diction--as in the famous cartoon of Lord Brougham as Mrs. +Caudle, of the original sketch for which a reproduction is given +opposite--but he steadily carried into execution his threat of earlier +days, to drag Lord Brougham "in the mire." He has been as good as his +word ever since the day when Dicky Doyle drew the famous cover which is +familiar to us all--that is to say, in 1849--for, as you will see if you +will refer to last week's _Punch_, a young faun in the grand procession +that appears as a _relievo_ upon the podium or base draws along the mask +of Brougham by a string. But without doubt one of the most successful +cartoons Leech ever drew, and the most humorous portrait of Brougham, +represented him as a clown at Astley's, going up to the splendid +ring-master, the Duke of Wellington (as Mr. Widdicomb of Astley's +Amphitheatre) and saying "Well, Mr. Wellington, is there anything I can +do for you--for to run, for to fetch, for to carry, for to borrow, for +to steal?" As Lord Brougham was suspected of undue complaisance towards +the Duke at the time, the neatness of the political allusion was +received with extraordinary favour by the public. + +Another admirable portrait, consistently good, was that of Sir Robert +Peel: so good, indeed, that when it was proposed to erect a statue to +the statesman, and the best of all likenesses was sought as a guide to +the sculptor--a resemblance truthful in feature and natural +expression--the choice fell on a cartoon by Leech, and according to that +drawing the head was modelled. Palmerston, too, was not a little +impressed when in Wales a postman spoke to him as though he knew him, +and replied, when questioned as to the recognition, "Seen your picture +in _Punch_, my lord." + +[Illustration: "THE MRS. CAUDLE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS." + +"What do you say? _Thank heaven! You are going to enjoy the recess--and +you'll be rid of me for some months?_ Never mind. Depend upon it, when +you come back, you shall have it again. No: I don't raise the House, and +set everybody in it by the ears; but I'm not going to give up every +little privilege; though it's seldom I open my lips, goodness +knows!"--_"Caudle Lectures" (Improved)._ + +MRS. CAUDLE, LORD BROUGHAM; MR. CAUDLE, LORD CHANCELLOR LYNDHURST. +(_From the original Sketch for the Cartoon drawn by John Leech at +Thackeray's suggestion._)] + +But _Punch_, it must be admitted, has often departed from the solemn +truth, both unintentionally and of malice aforethought. It was his +common practice to put a straw into Lord Palmerston's mouth. Palmerston, +of course, never did chew straws; but one was adopted as a symbol to +show his cool and sportive nature. Many a time has that straw formed +the topic of serious discussion by serious writers. Some have pretended +that it was designed to typify an expression used by one of his admiring +followers in the House--a tribute to his "stable character;" others have +said that it became his attribute from the time that he described +himself as "playing the part of judicious Bottle-Holder to the +pugnacious Powers of Europe;" and Mark Lemon declared that it was simply +used as a sort of trade-mark whereby he might be known again, just as +Mr. Harry Furniss invented Mr. Gladstone's collars, Lord Randolph +Churchill's diminutiveness, and exaggerated those complacent smiles and +oily rippling chins of Sir William Harcourt, continuing them long after +the time when Sir William could boast the local portliness no more. +However, it is certain that the sprig of straw, which really referred +only to his pure devotion to the Turf, from 1815 onwards, was first used +in 1851, just after the whimsical "Judicious Bottle-Holder" declaration, +and, as a matter of fact, added not a little to Palmerston's popularity, +as not only representing the Turf, but a Sam Weller-like calmness, +alertness, and good-humour. + +Similarly both Leech and Tenniel were in the habit of giving Bright an +eye-glass. "Some of us remember seeing him wear a coat with a stand-up +collar in the House of Commons," said a writer in the "Daily Telegraph," +"and a broad-brimmed hat; but 'why,' he used to ask with a merry face, +'did _Punch_ always put an eye-glass in _my_ eye? I never wore a single +eye-glass!'" That was just the point; for no doubt the simple reason was +that the addition of a monocle was supposed to lend a sort of rakish +appearance to the solemn Quaker, and belonged to the same genus of +perverse jocularity as that which suggested three hats as the humorous +covering for young Disraeli's head. Mr. W. H. Smith in like manner +genially protested at a complimentary dinner in 1877 against the +liberties taken with his person. "As to _Punch_," he said, "whose +remarks have been mentioned, I beg leave to say that I do not go to sea +in uniform, or exhibit those very queer expressions of face depicted by +_Punch's_ artists." + +There are some men whose physiognomies defy the deftest pencils. Such a +one was Cobden, whose views _Punch_ represented far more faithfully and +sympathetically than his face. At the Cobden dinner of 1884 Lord +Carlingford drew fresh attention to the point: "Cobden's was, for some +reason which I never heard explained, a most difficult face to sketch, +and _Punch_ was in despair at the impossibility of producing a +caricature that could be recognised without explanatory text. Many of +the artists tried Cobden, and were floored over him. Leech and Tenniel +both confessed that they could not hit the familiar expression. Somehow, +they never did hit it, though photography came by-and-by to their aid." +The statement is perfectly true, but the reason is not hard to find: +simply that a shaven face, without well-marked features or strong lines +of character, and, above all, without angularities, gives the artist +extremely little to "take hold of." For that reason such faces as those +of Lord Rosebery, Mr. Asquith, and Mr. John Morley (of the latter of +whom Mr. Furniss used to say the true characteristic expression is only +to be found in his red cravat) are as often failures as successes, in +even the skilfullest hands. It is the fault of neither the artist nor +the person misrepresented; according to Mr. Lucy--it is "the act of +God." + +Before the days of photography the work of the caricaturist was harder +than it is now. Draughtsmen had to be familiar with the faces of the +leading men of the day--even as Leech was, by "getting them" into their +sketch-books by hook or by crook, or else they would accept the portrait +already published by a brother-artist. Even to-day it sometimes occurs +that a man of importance has not been photographed. In that case he must +be sketched or remembered, or his portrait "faked up" on the block until +it bears some resemblance to the person required. But, passing from mere +portraiture to the realisation of ideas, the artist feels his liberty, +and gives his genius full rein. Thus it is that _Punch_ has always been +happy and successful in his "types." It is thoroughly in the spirit of +caricature that types should be established and adhered to in order to +express, in symbolic form, nations and even ideas. Not only is it +poetical, it is convenient; and has perforce been adopted in every +country where political caricature is employed, though with standards +and notions very different from our own. In Italy, for example, and in a +minor degree in Germany, John Bull, as the symbol of Great Britain, is +usually represented by a travesty of _Punch's_, with a brutal head and +bandy legs, and the whole figure bent in body to suggest a bull, horns +sometimes protruding beside the hat; while Russia is courteously +represented as a frantic Cossack of terrific mien, brandishing a knout +with violent and savage intent. We may claim that our types, as invented +by _Punch_, are of immeasurable superiority, whether of conception or of +realisation. Our John Bull--a lineal descendant probably of Gillray's +favourite representation of George the Third as "Farmer Gearge"--is a +fine noble fellow enough as drawn by Leech and developed by Tenniel; +indeed, in the drawings of the latter may often be seen the idealised +face of Mark Lemon, his jovial Editor. + +This view of the type of England has attracted the attention of Ruskin. +"Is it not surely," he asks, "some overruling power in the nature of +things, quite other than the desire of his readers, which compels Mr. +Punch, when the squire, the colonel, and the admiral are to be at once +expressed, together with all that they legislate or fight for, in the +symbolic figure of the nation, to present the incarnate Mr. Bull always +as a farmer--never as a manufacturer or shopkeeper--and to conceive and +exhibit him rather as paymaster for the faults of his neighbours than as +watching for opportunity of gain out of their follies?" And again, +"... considering _Punch_ as the expression of the popular voice, which he +virtually is, and even somewhat obsequiously, is it not wonderful that +he has never a word to say for the British manufacturer, and that the +true citizen of his own city is represented by him only under the types +either of Sir Pompey Bedell or of the more tranquil magnate and +potentate, the bulwark of British constitutional principles and +initiator of British private enterprise, Mr. John Smith?" + +[Illustration: MR. GLADSTONE IN "PUNCH." + +_(By J. Leech, J. Tenniel, L. Sambourne, and H. Furniss. Re-drawn by +Harry Furniss.)_] + +It is true that _Punch_ has imposed upon a nation a character which, as +depicted, is unknown in the land, and placed him in a line of business +notoriously dissimilar from that in which he really engages; and the +sum-total of it all is greatly to the credit of Mr. Punch's influence. +He has, in fact, "educated" a nation. For to this day, no sooner does +each succeeding Wednesday spread the new issue over the country than a +mass of newspapers, both in England and in the colonies, immediately +describe and discuss "This week's cartoon" for the edification of their +readers. And so we have come to accept these types until they have +almost grown into concrete ideas--conventions which have been given to +us chiefly by Sir John Tenniel--Britannia and Father Time, the New Year +and the Old, Cousin Jonathan (or Uncle Sam) and Columbia, Death and +Crime, Starvation and Disease, Peace and War, Justice and Anarchy, the +British Lion (might not the symbol nowadays be more appropriately the +British Racehorse?), the Bengal Tiger, the Russian Bear, the Eagle, and +all the rest. And could they well be bettered? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[17] it was on Cardinal Wiseman's door, not upon a wall. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_PUNCH_ ON THE WAR-PATH: ATTACK. + + _Punch_ lays about Him--Assaults the "Morning Post"--The Factitious + "Jenkins"--Thackeray's Farewell--Mrs. Gamp (the "Morning Herald") + and Mrs. Harris (the "Standard")--_Lèse Majesté!_--The "Standard" + Fulminates a Leader--The Retort--His Loyalty--Banters the Prince + Consort--Tribute on the Prince's Death--_Punch's_ Butts: Lord + William Lennox--Jullien--Sir Peter Laurie--Harrison + Ainsworth--Lytton--Turner--A Fallacy of Hope--Burne-Jones--Charles + Kean--S. C. Hall as "Pecksniff"--James Silk Buckingham and the + "British and Foreign Destitute"--Alfred Bunn--_Punch's_ Waterloo: + "A Word with Punch"--Bunn, Hot and Cross--A Second "Word" Prepared, + but never Uttered--Other Points of Attack. + + +Though for many years _Punch_ has claimed to be "everybody's friend," he +would certainly not have done so during the earlier part of his career. +Then he was constantly in the wars, not merely because he was +criticising public men, attacking abuses, and making sport of his +favourite butts; but because he had not yet learned to break away from +the journalistic duelling that prevailed. In these more sophisticated +days it is the usual aim of every prominent journal to ignore as far as +possible the existence of its rivals; then, it was thought that that +existence could be best undermined, if not absolutely cut short, by +direct attack. Party spirit ran very high; and to _Punch's_ undoubted +strengthen serious writing was added a power of pungent wit and sarcasm +unequalled by any rival. He thus became a very formidable adversary; and +he knew it. But he did not put forth his full strength until he felt +sure of his own firm establishment; nor did he turn his _bâton_ upon his +brothers in the press until he had made a lively start upon individual +statesmen and private persons, and formally set them up as his own +particular Aunt Sallies for private and public practice. + +His first onslaught on the daily press was made upon the "Morning Post" +(p. 126, Vol. IV.), by the hand, not of Thackeray, as has hitherto been +believed, but of Douglas Jerrold, under the title of "The 'Post' at the +Opera." The tone of that newspaper was irresistible to the democrats of +_Punch_; and Thackeray, Leech, and à Beckett took up the running with +great glee. Jerrold and Thackeray chose to personify the paper by the +creation of "Jenkins," and the "Jenkins Papers" soon became a recognised +feature and one of the standard jokes of the paper. Leech's +illustrations were every bit as good as the others' text; and even when +the gentle Hine was called upon to make sketches upon the same subject, +he found himself inspired like the rest. "Jenkins," the toady, and +"Lickspittleoff," his "Russian editor," were grand sport in the office, +and their example was followed--not a little to their disgust--by the +"Great Gun" and other papers. Soon after his first introduction (p. 123, +Vol. V.) "Jenkins" was cast aside as a joke played out, and Thackeray +took leave of him in the following amazing lines:-- + +"PUNCH'S PARTING TRIBUTE." + + "Oh! Jenkins, homme du peuple--mangez bien![18] + Désormais avec toi nous ferons rien, + Vous êtes tout usé--chose qui montre la corde,[19] + Nos lecteurs étaient mal de toi d'abord; + Allez-vous-en--votre bâton coupez vite, + En _Ponch_ jamais votre nom--désormais sera dite." + +But when the possibilities of "Jenkins" were fully realised, he was +revived, and for some years did excellent service as a subject for +humorous attack. + +A more serious campaign upon which _Punch_ now entered was that against +the "Standard" and the "Morning Herald." He had with some astuteness, +and doubtless not without sincerity, ranged himself on the side of the +"Times," and threw himself into the fray with all the zest and some of +the irresponsibility of the licensed jester.[20] "Martin Chuzzlewit" +had already seized upon the town, and the names of Mrs. Gamp and Mrs. +Harris were on everybody's lips. _Punch_ chose to assume that the +"Morning Herald" and the "Standard"--morning and evening papers then +which represented the Conservative party, both of them until 1857 +belonging to one proprietor--were edited respectively by the two ladies +aforesaid. The "Standard" was very wroth. It would not have been so sore +perhaps at being dubbed "Betsy Prig;" but, being in fact almost a +reprint of the "Herald," the suggestion of "Mrs. Harris"--a creature of +no existence, the mere reflex of Mrs. Gamp's own inane and besodden +brain--was too calmly provoking, as it was meant to be, to be borne in +silence. These two journals were highly unpopular at the time; for the +"Manchester School" was making headway, and Free Trade was already a +powerful and significant cry. So when _Punch_ laughed at them for +two--though really one--disreputable old women, and Leech's inimitable +pencil typified them as such, in mob-cap and pattens, the public laughed +with him, whatever their own political opinion might be. It should be +noted, however, that _Punch's_ first brush with the "Herald" was +personal, not political. In February, 1843, the latter journal had +fathered upon _Punch_ a poor joke of which he was entirely innocent, and +which he repudiated in an article entitled "Impudent Attempt at Fraud." +The quarrel thus begun in fun was continued in earnest, and soon the +"Herald," as a representative of public opinion, had no more damaging +assailant than "our humorous contemporary." + +Now, in November, 1845, there appeared a reference to "Mrs. Harris, +Editress of the Standard," as well as a drawing by Leech, called +"Maternal Solicitude," which was intended to satirise the snobbery of +persons who name their children after the Royal Family. It represents +the visit of one lady to another, while a pair of repulsive-looking +brats of one of them make up the group. "And the dear children?" asks +the friend. "Why," replies the fond mother, "Alexandrina Victoria is a +good deal better; but dear little Albert here is still very delicate." + +Thereupon the "Standard" opened the floodgates of its anger in a leading +article, the whole tone of which is a curious contrast to its dignity +and moderation at the present day. In the course of its outburst it +said:-- + + Still not one word from the "Times" in support of its charge of the + exercise of Court influence at the Windsor Election. As usual, + however, ... its _toadies_ are active and noisy.... To-day we, of + course, find _Punch_ the most abject, probably, of all the "Times" + _toadies_, discharging the duties of its mean avocation in an + article libelling the successful candidate, libelling the military, + libelling the young gentlemen of Eton, and ascribing Colonel Reid's + return to "kitchen-stairs influence" emanating from the Castle..... + If there were any fun in the article to which we refer, we might + forgive the malice and falsehood, as we are all too much disposed + to do, for the joke's sake; but dull as all the articles of _Punch_ + have been lately growing, this article on the Windsor Election is + the stupidest that we have seen in its columns--a mere display of + heavy spitefulness. We should probably have overlooked this piece + of impertinence had _Punch_ confined itself to letterpress in its + _toady_ vindication of the quarrel of the "Times;" but in the 222nd + page of the number which contains the Windsor Election article, + there is a disgusting caricature of the Queen and her family, the + most false and unjust in what it implies that it is possible to + conceive, and the most offensive to the feelings of a mother. The + effect of such an insult to a Sovereign the object of her people's + respect and love will, we imagine, be different from what the + "Times" and its _toadies_ anticipate. At all events, such insults + will not, in the absence of all proof, render credible the false + allegation of the exercise of Court influence, or enable the + "Times" to get rid of our challenge, which we again repeat--this is + a point from which we shall not be driven, until we have a direct + answer from the "Times" itself, not from its _toadies_. The Queen + may be libelled as the _Punch_, "Times," and "Examiner" libel her + Majesty, if Sir Frederick Thesiger permit; but our Sovereign shall + not be belied while we have the power to expose the fabricators of + falsehood and their fabrications. + +[Illustration: MATERNAL SOLICITUDE. + +"And the dear children?" + +"Why, Alexandrina Victoria is a good deal better; but dear little Albert +here is still very delicate." + +(_Drawn by John Leech. From "Punch," Nov. 23rd, 1845._)] + +One may well wonder whether the "Standard" was really serious, or only +"making believe" in order to strengthen its attack upon the "Times." But +it suited _Punch_ to take the outburst seriously, though with provoking +calmness. First retorting that it is well that the editress of the +"Standard"--he invariably referred to "the _editress_"--wears pattens as +a precaution which the nature of her walks renders very necessary, +although they are constantly tripping her up, _Punch_ quietly remarked +that "'Our Grandmother' must surely have taken an additional drop of +'something comfortable';" "and Leech parodied Phiz" etching of Mrs. Gamp +and Betsy Prig, in which "the editress" declares, "As for that nasty, +hojus _Punch_, I'm dispoged to scratch 'is hi's out a'most. What I ses, +I ses; and what I ses, I sticks to." The campaign was conducted with +considerable spirit by Gilbert à Beckett and Percival Leigh, with slight +assistance from Horace Mayhew; and was continued with remorseless gaiety +and bitterness for some years. In the pages here devoted to Thackeray +reference is made to the personal feeling which existed between him and +the "Morning Post" and to the effective retaliation on the part of that +newspaper. + +_Punch's_ loyalty, as a matter of fact, has always been above suspicion +and above proof. Democrat as he was, and independent in his views, he +was as indignant as the "Standard" itself when the half-demented Bean +made his attempt upon the Queen's life; yet gleeful to a degree when his +Liege Lady was called upon to pay income-tax precisely as all her +subjects did. The birth of the Prince of Wales, which coincided with +Lord Mayor's Day, provided _Punch_ with an opportunity for showing much +loyalty and more wit; and the interest with which he followed the +education and amusements of the Heir-Apparent, the anxiety with which he +made suggestions for the best appointments, in his nursery-household, to +the office of the "Master of the (Rocking) Horse," the "Clerk of the +Pea-Shooter," and so forth; the delight with which, by the hand of Leech +(1846), he published a charming cartoon of the lad as a man-o'-war's +man, thus popularising the dress of English boys, while the sketch +itself was widely reproduced as a bronze or plaster group--all this +proved the benevolent sentiments he entertained towards the Royal +Family. This benevolence has cropped up again and again--when the Prince +visited Canada and America (1860); when, in 1861, he went up to Trinity +College, Cambridge (the Mayor and Corporation coming in for severe +criticism, however, for their snobbish Address); when he married; when +he fell ill and recovered; and when he celebrated his Jubilee--on which +occasion _Punch_ declared that "the longer he knew him the better he +liked him"--a sentiment the genuineness of which could hardly have been +questioned by any but the blindest of critics. From first to last +_Punch_ has been a respectful godfather, and a wise and kindly guardian. + +Towards the Queen herself _Punch_ has shown unswerving chivalry and +reverence, even during the shouting days when democracy was more noisily +republican than it is to-day. The Queen figures often in the earlier +cartoons, and the care with which the draughtsmen sought to do justice +to the pure outline of her fair face is at least a tribute to their +good taste. _Punch_ never affected to regard her as a mere figurehead, +but always represented her in a position of authority, her Ministers in +character of domestic servants taking her instructions, and not at all +tendering advice; and every important incident in the life of the Queen +has been touched upon with the utmost respect and sympathy. + +But with the Prince Consort the case was somewhat different. As Mr. +Burnand and Mr. Arthur à Beckett have written[21]:-- + + "It is strange to note that, until the hour of his death, the man + whose memory is now universally respected was highly unpopular with + the general public. The Democritus of Fleet Street was, and is, + essentially representative, and the popular opinion of the merits + or demerits of H.R.H. is constantly shown. Only a few weeks after + the cartoon" [of the Prince Consort tying up his door-knocker on + the occasion of the birth of the Princess Beatrice] "Mr. Punch is + drawn looking at the portrait of the Prince Consort at a review at + the Royal Academy, and saying, "No. 24. A field-marshal; h'm--very + good indeed. What sanguinary engagement can it be?" That these + satirical observations were made simply at Prince Albert's expense, + and were not intended to reflect upon the Queen or the rest of the + Royal Family, is shown by the extremely hearty manner in which the + marriage of the Princess Royal was welcomed by Mr. Punch as + representing the English feeling. John Bull is heard saying, as he + hands over to the Imperial Princess of Germany her dowry, 'There, + my child! God bless you! And may you make as good a wife as your + mother.'" + +It is probable that the real source of the Prince Consort's unpopularity +was his foreign nationality, added to the ignorance of the people of his +enthusiasm and indefatigable efforts for the public weal. His rapid +promotion in military rank, already referred to, was not appreciated in +the country, and was mercilessly lampooned in _Punch_; and attention was +attracted to the fact that from that time forward the Duke of Wellington +always prefixed the initials "F.M." in his short, brusque third-person +letters. "H.R.H. F.M. Paterfamilias" was for some time one of the chief +of _Punch's_ stock jests. The Prince was pursued into his private +apartments, and shown as a _père de famille_ in not the most respectful +spirit. In one picture he is represented in his dressing-gown conferring +upon "P--pps the Fortunate" the Knighthood of the Shower Bath; in +others, the effect of Time upon his head and figure are dwelt upon with +real sardonic relish. The misapprehensions of the public were not +unnaturally reflected by _Punch_, and a cut was much applauded in which +the Prince was shown stopped by a policeman in Trafalgar Square when in +the act of removing a couple of pictures from the National Gallery. +_Punch_ pointedly inquires, "Taking them to Kensington Gore? Suppose you +leave 'em where they are, eh?" + +More justifiable perhaps, but still somewhat harsh, was _Punch's_ +protest (1854) against the Prince's supposed interference in State +politics. He is shown skating on the ice, warned off by Mr. Punch from a +section of it labelled "Foreign Affairs--Dangerous." And in the same +year he is attacked with extraordinary gusto by reason of the new hat he +had devised for the British army--or, at least, for the Guards. In 1843 +the first "Albert shako" had appeared, and Leech, in a cartoon called +"Prince Albert's Studio," exhibited it as a pretended work of art in the +most ludicrous light. Again, in 1847 the Prince had invented a similar +headgear, popularly christened "the Albert Hat," which _Punch_ converted +to his uses and worked to death. "The New Albert Bonnet for the Guards" +ridicules the idea unmercifully, and "the British Grenadier as improved +by His Royal Highness Prince Albert, decidedly calculated to frighten +the Russians," was another grotesque perversion of a praiseworthy +attempt with which Mr. Punch was in his heart a good deal in sympathy. +For his artists were as diligent as the Prince in trying to improve the +uniform of the British soldier, contrasting with its wretched +inconvenience the serviceability and ease of the sailor's. The drawing +in which a private, half choked by his stock, held helplessly rigid by +his straps and buckles, and unable to hold his gun as his "head's coming +off!" illustrates the fact that _Punch's_ views and Prince Albert's had +much in common. We have the authority of Sir Theodore Martin, in his +biography (Vol. II., p. 299), that the Prince Consort took _Punch's_ +humours in very good part, and made a large collection of the +caricatures of the day, in the belief that in them alone could the true +position of a public man be recognised. But it is said that soon after +this last crusade a hint was received from Windsor Castle to the effect +that a little less personality and a little more justice in respect to +the Prince would be appreciated, as much by the people as by the Court. +It is certain that after this time the attacks practically came to an +end. And when the Prince died, there were few truer mourners in the +land, and the widowed Queen had few sincerer sympathisers, than the +jester whose raillery had been so keen, and who felt too late a generous +remorse. + +"It was too soon to die," wrote Shirley Brooks in a poem called, simply, +"Albert, December Fourteenth, 1861"-- + + "It was too soon to die. + Yet, might we count his years by triumphs won, + By wise, and bold, and Christian duties done, + It were no brief eventless history. + + * * * * * + + "Could there be closer tie + 'Twixt us, who, sorrowing, own a nation's debt, + And Her, our own dear Lady, who as yet + Must meet her sudden woe with tearless eye: + + "When with a kind relief + Those eyes rain tears, O might this thought employ! + Him whom she loved we loved. We shared her joy, + And will not be denied to share her grief." + +_Punch_ always had a number of butts on hand--men whom he attacked for +their delinquencies, real or imaginary, or whom on account of +idiosyncrasies he thought to be fair game, just for the fun of it. One +of the first of these was Lord William Lennox, a nobleman of literary +pretensions, whose efforts, however, were said to be more pretentious +than literary. His novel of "The Tuft-Hunter" was quickly "spotted" by +the critics, and Hood was the first to declare that the book was little +else than a patchwork from his own "Tylney Hall," from "The Lion," and +from Scott's "Antiquary," though the "names and epithets" were changed. +"Such kind of borrowing as this," Milton has said, "if it be not +bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiarè;" and +as plagiarism of the most unblushing character _Punch_ adjudged it. Hood +himself contributed his mite to the discussion in the paper in the form +of the following:-- + +"EPIGRAM + +"_On the 'Tuft-Hunter,' by Lord William Lennox._ + + "A duke once declared--and most solemnly, too--That + whatever he liked with his own he would do; + But the son of a duke has gone further and shown + He will do what he likes when it isn't his own!" + +And it was Hood who inspired Jerrold with the idea of the biting article +headed "Daring Robbery by a Noble Lord-_Punch's_ Police." In this +instance _Punch_ was genuinely indignant, and he proceeded to make Lord +William's life a burden to him with such announcements as: "Shortly will +be published, in two volumes, 8vo, a new work, entitled 'Future and +Never,' by Lord W. Lennox, author of Carlyle's 'Past and Present,' etc. +etc., and of Wordsworth's 'We are Six and One';" and again "Prize Comedy +by Lord W. Lennox: 'Academy for Scandal';" while a portion of _Punch's_ +preface to his sixth volume (1844) was supposed to be written by Lord +William, and presented a most laughable compound of sayings and +quotations, with slight alteration, from well-known authors. But when +_Punch_ dropped him, the unhappy author was not left alone, for the +"Great Gun" and other journals picked him up, and played with what +remained of his literary reputation. + +It was in his second number that _Punch_ began his persistent ridicule +of Jullien, the famous _chef d'orchestre_ who introduced the Promenade +Concerts to Drury Lane, with such prodigious success. The poem, from the +pen of W. H. Wills, began characteristically--"One--crash! Two--clash! +Three--dash! Four--smash!!" and, not wholly without malevolence, +described the popular conductor as a + + "_ci-devant_ waiter + Of a _quarante-sous traiteur_ "-- + +thus laying the foundation for the charges of musical ignorance, +illiteracy, musical-"ghost"-employment, and other imposture, under which +he suffered in this country nearly all his life. Jullien indignantly +denied the hard impeachment, and declared that he began his musical life +as a fifer in the French navy, and had in that capacity been present on +a man-o'-war at the battle of Solferino in 1829. His assailant accepted +the statement as to his military achievement, adding the suggestion that +after working himself up to more than concert pitch, and "holding in his +hand one sharp, which he turned into several flats," Jullien withdrew +from the service on account of the discord of battle, particularly as +the shrieks of the wounded were horribly out of tune. + +_Punch_ fell back on Jullien's well-oiled ringlets, his general _tenue_ +and violent gesticulation, and, with better cause, on his "Row Polka," +and on those wild and frenzied quadrilles in which the music in one part +was "accentuated with a salvo of artillery." But _Punch_, ignoring the +better part of Jullien's musical ability, made no allowance for the +curious quality of his mind, which was evidently ill-balanced, and +indeed was finally overthrown. Jullien's vanity, for example, was +sublime, rivalling that of the Knellers and Greuzes of earlier days; and +his biographer sets forth how, in the scheme he imagined for the +civilisation of the world by means of music, he had determined (though +essentially a "dance musician") to set to music the Lord's Prayer. It +could not fail, said Jullien, to be an unprecedented success, with two +of the greatest names in history on its title-page! The musician +ultimately died through over-work, the consequence of an honourable +attempt to meet his liabilities. + +Sir Peter Laurie was another favourite quarry, who almost from the +beginning was singled out of the Corporation, of which he was really one +of the most efficient members, because he aimed at "putting down" by the +stern administration of justice what, perhaps, could only be dealt with +by sympathy. _Punch_ chose to interpret Sir Peter's views into regarding +poverty less as a misfortune than as _primâ-facie_ evidence of the poor +man's guilt or folly; but it was when the well-meaning alderman so far +"opened his mouth as to put his foot into it," by declaring, when trying +a case, "that it was his intention to put down suicide," that Jerrold's +pen stuck him on to _Punch's_ page, and heaped ridicule on him from +every point of view. Alderman Moon, the famous print-seller of +Threadneedle Street, was another butt--the more unjustly (though he +certainly did sometimes cut a ridiculous figure) as he rendered real +service to artists, and looked upon English art and its patronage in a +broad and patriotic way, even while he made his own fortune in doing so. +This, however, he did not succeed in retaining, and his acts and motives +were sneered at, and his "testimonial" fatally ridiculed. + +Then Harrison Ainsworth, as much for his good-looks and his literary +vanity, as for his tendency to reprint his romances in such journals as +came under his editorship, was the object of constant banter. An epigram +put the case very neatly:-- + + Says Ainsworth to Colburn,[22] + "A plan in my pate is, + To give my romance, as + A supplement, _gratis_." + Says Colburn to Ainsworth, + "'Twill do very nicely, + For that will be charging + Its value precisely." + +Harrison Ainsworth could not have his portrait painted, nor write a +novel of crime and sensation, without being regarded as a convenient peg +for pleasantry. Similarly did Tom Taylor fall foul of Bulwer Lytton (p. +91, Vol. IX.) by reason of the dedication of "Zanoni" to Gibson the +sculptor, in which it was said that the book was not for "the common +herd." The story of Lytton's castigation by Tennyson is duly related +where the Laureate's contributions to _Punch_ are spoken of. In Lytton's +case, at least, _Punch_ forgot to apply Swift's aphorism that a man has +just as much vanity as he has understanding. + +Of the artists, Turner perhaps lent himself most to _Punch's_ satire. +Ruskin had not yet arisen to champion the mighty painter's +ill-appreciated art; and Turner's colour-dreams, in which "form" was +often to a great extent ignored, were not more tempting to the satirical +Philistine than those extraordinary quotations from his formless epic, +called "The Fallacies of Hope," extracts from which he loved to append +to his pictures' titles. Nothing could be better in the way of satire +than the manner in which _Punch_ turned upon the poor painter, and +"guy'd" his picture with a burlesque of his own poetic "style." It was +in the Royal Academy of 1845 that the artist exhibited his celebrated +"Venice--Returning from the Ball;" and this is how _Punch_ received +it:-- + + "Oh! what a scene!--Can this be Venice? No. + And yet methinks it is--because I see + Amid the lumps of yellow, red, and blue + Something which looks like a Venetian spire. + + * * * * * + + This in my picture I would fain convey; + I hope I do. Alas! _What_ FALLACY!" + +Turner, unhappily, was acutely sensitive to these attacks; but _Punch_ +cared little for that, and probably--to do him justice--knew still less. +It is, however, notable that--doubtless on account of that very +common-sense which has nearly always kept him right on great +questions--_Punch_ has usually in art been nearly as much a Philistine +as the public he represents. When Sir Edward Burne-Jones burst forth +into the artistic firmament, _Punch_ joined, if not the mockers, at +least the severer critics. "BURN JONES?" said he; "by all means do." Of +the exquisite "Mirror of Venus" and "The Beguiling of Merlin" he ignored +the poetry, and saw little but the quaintness, his criticism being the +more weighty for its being clever. Of the first-named picture he +observed:-- + + "Or crowding round one pool, from flowery shelves + A group of damsels bowed the knee + Over reflections solid as themselves + And like as peasen be." + +While in the latter + + "... mythic Uther's diddled _son_ was seen + Packed in a trunk with cramped limbs awry, + Spell-fettered by a Siren, limp and lean, + And at least twelve heads high." + +No doubt, the grounds of _Punch's_ opposition were not only those which +are recognised as belonging to the humorist; they consisted not a little +in that healthy hatred of the affectation with which so much good art is +husked. In more recent times _Punch_ did not ignore the fine decorative +qualities of Mr. Aubrey Beardsley's art, though he plainly loathed the +morbid ugliness of much of its conception and detail. + +Perhaps no one was more heartily attacked than Charles Kean--"Young +Kean," it was the fashion to call him--probably because between Jerrold +and the actor there had been a serious quarrel. As to this, which took +its rise in the pre-_Punch_ days, nothing need here be said; it is fully +dealt with in the wit's biography. In the words of the present Editor: +"Only tardily was something like justice done to Kean's influence on the +drama of our time, by _Punch_, who had been one of the first to sound +the note of warning about that 'stage-upholstery' which was the first +sign of the growth of realism in dramatic art." _Punch_ loved to +contrast the younger Kean with his more gifted father, and had no +patience with the raucous voice and bad enunciation of the son; but his +sketch of the actor as Sardanapalus (1853), "with a wine-cup of the +period," sets on record one of the most perfect archæological revivals +that had ever been seen on the English stage. But it was Kean's +"Mephistopheles" (1854) that afforded _Punch_ his chance, for the +actor's realisation was so wide of Goethe's creation that it was a +Frenchified demon, played as a comic character. _Punch_ admitted the +beauty of the production, but said that "as a piece of show and +mechanism (wires unseen) it will draw the eyes of the town, especially +the eyes with the least brains behind them." Kean's performance was +denounced as devoid of life and beauty, but generous praise was accorded +to his newly made-up nose, to which the best part of the criticism was +devoted. "It has the true demoniacal curve," he said; "we never saw a +better view of the devil's bridge." And so, throughout, _Punch_ dogged +Kean's progress. But as time went on, his criticism lost the taint of +personal feeling; and Kean was recognised at last as our leading +tragedian, though to the end he was never accepted as a great actor. + +A pretty accurate estimate as to _Punch's_ pet "black beasts" and +popular butts at this time may be formed by the list drawn up in the +paper of those persons whom _Punch_ would exercise his right to +"challenge" if, in accordance with Mr. Serjeant Murphy's suggestion in +the House of Commons, _Punch_ were put upon his trial for conspiracy, +apropos of Cobden. From such a jury, we are told, there would be struck +off, in addition to those names already given, Mr. Grant (author of "The +Great Metropolis"), Baron Nathan the composer, Alderman Gibbs, D. W. +Osbaldiston (of the Surrey Theatre), Colonel Sibthorpe, and Moses the +tailor. + +In dealing with the work of Jerrold, I draw attention to the merciless +onslaught on Samuel Carter Hall, editor of the "Art Journal" and founder +of the "Art Union," as it was at first called. Hall was Pecksniff; the +"Art Union" was "The Pecksniffery;" and _Punch_ courted the libel action +which Hall threatened but failed to bring. That "the literary Pecksniff" +took this course could not but create a bad impression at the time, and +Hall has therefore been put down as one of the butts whom _Punch_ had +justly assailed. Of course his sententious catch-phrase of appealing to +"hand, head, and heart" was always made the most of, and _Punch_ +delighted in paraphrasing it as "gloves, hat, and waistcoat." + +But the two non-political persons whom _Punch_ most persistently and +vigorously attacked were Mr. James Silk Buckingham and Mr. Alfred Bunn; +and these two campaigns must, perhaps, be counted the most elaborate of +their kind which _Punch_ has undertaken in his career--though in neither +had he very much to be proud of when all was said and done. Mr. J. S. +Buckingham, sometime Member of Parliament, was a gentleman +philanthropically inclined and of literary instincts, a man who had +travelled greatly, and who in many of the schemes he had +undertaken--including the founding of the "Athenæum" in 1828--had +usually had the support of a number of the most reputable persons in the +country. His latest idea was the establishing of the British and Foreign +Institute--a sort of counterpart in intention of the present Colonial +Institute; but as all of Mr. Buckingham's schemes had not succeeded, and +as he retained chambers in the club-house of what _Punch_ insisted upon +calling the "British and Foreign [or 'Outlandish'] Destitute," the +journal was convinced that something more than a _primâ-facie_ case had +been made out against the promoter, who, being assumed to live upon the +members' subscriptions, was harried in the paper from its first volume, +chiefly at first by the slashing pen of Jerrold, and--in small +paragraphs--by the more delicate rapier of Horace Mayhew. These charges +of mal-administration and other offensive imputations against a +semi-public man whose chief faults seem to have been an over-sanguine +temperament and a slight disposition towards self-advertisement, +attracted wide notice, and _Punch_ devoted in all considerable space to +the prosecution of this mistaken campaign. Unfortunately for Buckingham, +a member of the Institute, a Mr. George Jones--who had published a good +deal of dramatic nonsense under the title of "Tecumseh"--came to his +support with a ridiculous, inflated letter, which _Punch_ promptly +printed with the signature engraved in facsimile. Thereupon Jones, +finding the doubtful honour of publicity unexpectedly thrust upon him, +denounced the letter as a forgery; so _Punch_, had it lithographed and +circulated among the members, "just to show how good the forgery was." +Jones forthwith began an action for libel, which _Punch_ defended. The +genuineness of the document, however, was established, and Jones +withdrew from the action, paying all costs. + +The sins of Jones were naturally added to Buckingham's account, and the +latter decided--as Leech once effectively threatened to do--to "draw" +and defend himself. He published a pamphlet entitled "The Slanders of +_Punch_" felicitously quoting as his motto from Proverbs xxvi. 18, "As a +mad man who casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, so is the man that +deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?"--he appealed for +justice to the public, and especially to "the 200,000 readers of +_Punch_" denouncing the persecution, and making known the fact that +Jerrold had originally applied for membership of his Institute, but had +failed to take up his election, whereupon his name was erased from the +books. Ten thousand handbills were circulated, and six thousand copies +of the threepenny pamphlet, in various editions, were sold. _Punch's_ +answer was a whole page of savage, biting satire from Jerrold (p. 241, +Vol. IX.), which, however, was too bombastic and "ultrafluvial" to be +wholly effective. Thackeray's page article on "John Jones's Remonstrance +about the Buckingham Business" (p. 261) was far more to the +point--amusing, politic, and shrewd--and drew the quarrel within its +proper limits, by imparting to it a more jocular tone. Addressing the +paper, he says, "At page 241 you are absolutely serious. That page of +_Punch_ is a take-in. _Punch_ ought never to be virtuously indignant or +absolutely serious;" and with these words, re-affirming the maxim which +_Punch_ had forgotten in his heat, he restored peace, patched up the +paper's reputation for good-humour, and with a skilful word covered its +retreat. + +But _Punch_ found his Waterloo, as it was considered at the time, at the +hands of Alfred Bunn. Bunn was the theatrical and operatic manager and +man of letters--or, rather, as the letters were so insignificant, the +"man of _notes_." As early as 1816 he had produced a volume of verse. +Such verse!--sentimental, washy, and "woolly" to a degree. Three years +later he put his name to 'Tancred: a Tale,' by the author of 'Conrad: a +Tragedy,' lately performed at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham--of which +he was manager for a spell before he came to London--and from time to +time he gave forth other works, such as "The Stage, both Before and +Behind the Curtain," three volumes of rather shrewd "Observations taken +on the Spot" (1840), and "Old England and New England" (1853). He +delivered lectures, too, at the St. James's Theatre, three times a week, +on the History of the Stage, and the Genius and Career of +Shakespeare--lectures which he also delivered in America. His verses, +though vapid balderdash for the most part, were well adapted to music, +and his ballads "When other Lips and other Hearts," "The Light of other +Days," "In Happy Moments Day by Day" (sung in Fitzball's "Maritana"), +enjoyed enormous popularity. + +Still, the whole attitude, the whole bearing of the man--his showy, +almost comic, appearance and his grandiloquence of expression--as well +as the tremendous character of the wording of his theatrical bills, +afforded points of attack from the moment that he caught the public eye, +that no caricaturist or humorist could resist. As early as 1832 Jerrold +was lampooning him in his "Punch in London." In the following year +Thackeray held him up to ridicule in his "National Standard," that was +fated to collapse a few months later, and honoured him with immortality +in "Flore and Zephyr;"[23] and soon after, Gilbert à Beckett satirised +him in "Figaro in London." In 1833 "Alfred the Little; or, Management! A +Play as rejected at Drury Lane, by a Star-gazer," was another satire of +distinct severity. + +It is not surprising, therefore, that as soon as _Punch_ was started the +wits combined to continue the game which they had already, separately +enjoyed, and which the public presumably found amusing. The other papers +joined in _Punch's_ cry, the "Great Gun" showing pre-eminent zeal in its +stalking of "Signor Bombastes Bunnerini." From the moment of _Punch's_ +birth onwards, Bunn was one of his most ludicrous and fairest butts. +When he wrote verse, he was "The Poet Bunn;" when he was annoyed at +that, or anything else, he was "Hot Cross Bunn." His deposition from the +management of Drury Lane and his appointment to the Vauxhall Gardens +were coincident with _Punch's_ appearance, and the publication of his +"Vauxhall Papers," illustrated by Alfred Crowquill, again drew attention +to himself. No sooner was the fierce controversy begun as to the +propriety of including a statue of Cromwell among the Sovereigns of +England in the new Palace of Westminster, a matter decided fifty years +later, than _Punch_ gravely mooted the question--"Shall Poet Bunn have a +Statue?" Then when his reign at Drury Lane was resumed, and opera was +his grand enterprise, Bunn became _Punch's_ "Parvus Apollo," while +Scribe's libretto to Donizetti's music was to be "undone into English" +by the Poet himself; and the persecuted manager was throughout the +subject of some of the happiest and most comic efforts of Leech's +pencil. + +At last, after supporting a six years' persistent cannonade, Bunn +determined to strike a blow for liberty. His plan was to issue a +reply--a swift and sudden attack, as personal and offensive as he could +make it--in the form of _Punch's_ own self, enough like it in appearance +to amuse the public, if not actually to deceive it. He secured the help +of Mr. George Augustus Sala, then a young artist whose pencil was +enlisted in the service of "The Man in the Moon," and who had as yet +little idea of the journalistic eminence to which he was to rise. He had +previously submitted sketches to Mark Lemon for use in _Punch_, which +had been summarily and, as he tells me, "unctuously declined," and in +his share of the work he doubtless tasted some of the sweets of revenge, +and richly earned the epithet which Lemon thereupon applied to him of +"graceless young whelp." + +If the front page of this production be compared with Doyle's first +_Punch_ cover on p. 47, the extent of the imitation will be appreciated. +The size was the same, and the _Punch_ lettering practically identical; +but otherwise the resemblance was of a general character. If the design +is examined, it will be seen that the groups are chiefly composed of +_Punch's_ victims and his Staff. At the top the "Man in the Moon" +presides; below, the "Great Gun" is firing away at the dejected +hunchback in the pillory. Toby is hanged on his master's own gallows; +and the puppets are strewn about. Thackeray leans for support against +Punch's broken big drum; Tom Taylor is beside him--Horace ("Ponny") +Mayhew lies helpless in his box; while next to him Gilbert à Beckett is +prone upon his face, leaving his barrister's wig upon the "block-head." +Jerrold, as a wasp, is gazing ruefully at the bâton which has dropped +from Punch's feeble hands; and Mark Lemon, dressed as a pot-boy, is +straining himself in the foreground to reach his pewter-pot. Around +float many of _Punch's_ butts, political and social. Wellington on the +left and Brougham on the right play cup-and-ball with him. Louis +Philippe has him on a toasting-fork, and Lord John Russell hangs him on +a gallows-tree. Palmerston, Prince de Joinville, Jullien, Sibthorpe, +Moses the tailor, Buckingham, and many more besides, are to be +recognised. It was inscribed "No. 1,--(to be continued if necessary)"--a +contingency, however, that did not arise. + +It is usually considered that Bunn engaged a clever writer to write his +text for him; but it is quite likely that he wrote the whole work +himself, simply submitting it to the "editing" of some more experienced +journalist, probably Albert Smith. Much of the manner is his own, and, +as Mr. Joseph Knight agrees,[24] it "has many marks of Bunn's style, and +is in part incontestably his." + +His "Word" is directed at _Punch's_ "three Puppets--Wronghead (Mr. +Douglas Jerrold), Sleekhead (Mr. Gilbert à Beckett), and Thickhead (Mr. +Mark Lemon)--formidable names, Punch! and, as being three to one, +formidable odds!" He refers to his friends having warned him not to +rebel against Punch's attacks, as he is + + a public character!! Pray, Punch, are not these, your puppets, + public characters? Have they not acted in public, laboured for the + public, catered for the public? Has not Douglas Jerrold been hissed + off the stage by the public? Have not à Beckett's writings! been + acted, and damned, in public? and as to Mark Lemon, there can be no + doubt of _his_ being a public character, for he some time since + kept a _public_-house!!! All ceremony therefore is at an end + between us.... There may be other misdemeanours of which they have + from time to time thought me guilty; but the grand one of all is, + that I have taken the liberty of attempting to write poetry, and + have produced on the stage my own works in preference to theirs.... + Did you ever see them act, Punch? Did you ever see Douglas Jerrold + in his own piece, entitled "The Painter of Ghent"? If not, I can + only say you are a devilish lucky fellow! Did you ever see him and + Mark Lemon act at Miss Kelly's theatre? and if so, did you ever see + such an awful exhibition?... and if, as _they_ say, they _did_ + "hold the mirror up to Nature," _I_ say it was only to _cast + reflections_ upon her!! Did you read, Punch, the criticisms written + _by_ themselves _upon_ themselves in the next day's papers? If you + did not, you have a treat to come. + +[Illustration: THE WRAPPER OF "A WORD WITH PUNCH." (_Designed by George +Augustus Sala._)] + +And so forth. Then, presenting the head of Jerrold on the body of an +unusually wriggling serpent, which he gives forth as being from +"portraits in possession of the family," he goes on to "say something" +of the man of savage sarcasm and "bilious bitings:"-- + + Now, with all his failings, let me record my opinion that it is to + Jerrold's pen you are indebted, Punch, for the fame you once + enjoyed; for, beyond any doubt, he is a fellow of infinite ability. + I have known him some years, and the last time but one I ever _saw_ + him was in 1842, when, meeting me in St. James's Street, he thanked + me for a handsome critique he believed me to have written on his + comedy of "Bubbles of the Day," and on that occasion he said a + better thing, Punch, than he has written in your pages. I said to + him, "What, you are picking up character, I suppose?"--to which he + replied, "There's plenty of it lost, in this neighbourhood." The + last time I ever _heard_ from him was during the first visit of + Duprez to Drury Lane Theatre, when I received the following note + from him:-- + + Wednesday. + "MY DEAR SIR, + + Will you enable me to hear your French nightingale--_do pray_, + + Yours very truly, + D. JERROLD." + + --which is the vilest pun ever perpetrated at the expense of that + eminent singer.... Unlike the other two of his party, he is a man + of undoubted genius; but all who admit this, at the same time + regret the frequent misdirection of his mind. He is one of the most + ill-conditioned, spiteful, vindictive, and venomous writers in + existence, and whatever honey _was_ in his composition, has long + since turned to gall.... Can it be possible [he adds, after digging + up and quoting some of Jerrold's feeblest verse] that it never + occurs to a wholesale dealer in slander and ridicule that he is + liable to be assailed by the very weapons he useth against others? + +Then comes the portrait of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, in wig and gown, +but with devil's hoofs and tail. On him the attack is savage in the +extreme, the details of his _early_ lack of financial success being +published, and the whole dismissed with the comprehensive remark: "a +very prolific person, this friend of yours, Punch!--editor of thirteen +periodicals, and lessee of a theatre into the bargain, and all total +failures!" After heavy-handed chaff he proceeds to abuse Mark Lemon, up +and down, in similar terms; and with a view to show that others write +verse as bad as his, reprints the weakest lines in his "Fridolin" and +"The Rhine-boat." In the course of his very effective attack Bunn +proceeds:-- + + In speaking of the Castle of Heidelberg, which _he_ says is on the + Rhine, although everyone else says it is on the Neckar, he thus + apostrophises it:-- + + "'Tis here the north wind loves to hold + His dreary revels, loud and cold, + The nettle's bloom's his daily fare, + The TOAD _the guest most welcome there_!!" + + Whether the last line _gives the reason why Thickhead visited + Heidelberg does not appear_. + +He then dots epigrams and so forth--all insults of various degrees of +offensiveness--about the remaining pages, virtually suggesting, in +Sheridan's words, that while _Punch's_ circulation has gone down +hopelessly, "everything about him is a jest except his witticisms." The +advertisements, too, are of a similarly satirical character, one of them +showing, as an illustration of a "patent blacking," Mark Lemon (as +pot-boy) looking at his own likeness in the polish of a Wellington boot +which reflects a rearing donkey. The last cut represents a medicine +bottle with a label inscribed "This dose to be repeated, should the +patients require it," and the "Notice to Correspondents" declares that +ample material is left for future use. Such further publication, +however, was never called for. _Punch_ attempted no reply--inexplicably, +one would think, for there must have been something left to say of Hot +Cross Bunn. _Punch's_ rivals were not slow to twit him on his defeat, +especially the "Puppet Show" and "The Man in the Moon," the latter of +which, in a comic report of the proceedings at the "Licensing Committee +for Poets," remarked, "Mr. Alfred Bunn was bitterly opposed on personal +grounds by a person named Punch; but Mr. Bunn having intimated his wish +to have a Word with Punch, the latter skulked out of court, and _was not +heard of afterwards_." + +"A Word with Punch"--which the _Punch_ men are said to have bought up as +far as possible--had a considerable sale, and an "édition de luxe" was +also issued, coloured. The engravings in it were made by Landells, a +modest piece of vengeance which must, however, have been gratifying, so +far as it went. It may be added that J. R. Adam, "the Cremorne Poet," +took up the cudgels unasked in _Punch's_ behalf in a reply entitled "A +Word with Bunn;" but this little octavo is as insignificant as its +author, and attracted little notice. + +Once again, in the early days of "Fun," _Punch_ came very near to being +startled with another such infernal machine. Mr. Clement Scott tells +me:--"We were offended with _Punch_ for some reason--it was in the Tom +Taylor days--and we meditated, planned out, and nearly executed a second +edition of 'A Word with Punch.' Tom Hood was furious. Sala was in our +conspiracy. In fact, all the 'young lions' of 'Fun' were 'crazy mad.' We +thought we could annihilate poor old _Punch_ with one blow. But we never +did it--because, I think, although we were plucky, we were impecunious! +We were very proud, but, alas! our pockets were empty; so the whole +company--Hood, Sala, Jeff Prowse, Harry Leigh, Brunton, Paul Gray, W. S. +Gilbert, W. B. Rands, Tom Robertson, Clement Scott and Co., had to knock +under." + +From Bunn's time may be dated the better taste and greater chivalry that +have since distinguished _Punch_, even in his most rampant moods. He has +always had his butts--from the soft-hearted and, at the time, +unpardonably hirsute Colonel Sibthorpe, to Sir R. Temple and Mr. +McNeill, Mr. Newdegate, Mr. Roebuck, Edwin James, ex-Q.C. (who was +disbarred for corruption and set up in New York, joining, as _Punch_ put +it, the "bar sinister"), Madame Rachel (the "beautiful for ever" +enameller, who had not yet been convicted), Colonel North, Sir Francis +Baring, Cox of Finsbury, Wiscount Williams of Lambeth, the Duke of +Buccleuch, Lord Malmsbury, and a host of others. But his attacks rarely +overstepped due limits; nor did _Punch_ ever find another aspiring Bunn +among them. Amongst the inanimate objects which at various times _Punch_ +made his mark were Trafalgar Square and its Fountains (or the "Squirts," +as they were scornfully called), the National Gallery, Mud-Salad Market, +Leicester Square, the Wellington Statue on the Wellington Arch, the +Great Exhibition, John Bell's Guards' Memorial in Waterloo Place, and +the British Museum Catalogue--all of which, so far as they represented +Londoners' grievances, have ere now been reformed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] _Mangez bien_, Jenkinsonian French for "fare well." + +[19] Jenkinsonian French for "thread-bare subject." + +[20] On the occasion of _Punch's_ Jubilee, July, 1891, the "Times" +remarked; 'May we be excused for noting the fact that he [Punch] has +generally, in regard to public affairs, taken his cue from the "Times"?' + +[21] "Fortnightly Review," December, 1886. + +[22] His publisher. + +[23] Edmund Yates believed that Bunn was Thackeray's model also for Mr. +Dolphin, the manager, in "Pendennis." + +[24] "Dictionary of National Biography." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +_PUNCH_ ON THE WAR-PATH: COUNTER-ATTACK. + + Satire and Libel--Mrs. Ramsbotham Assaulted--Attacks of "The Man in + the Moon" and "The Puppet-Show"--H. S. Leigh's Banter--Malicious + Wit--Mr. Pincott--_Punch's_ Purity gives Offence--His Slips of + Fact--Quotation--And Dialect are Resented--His Drunkards not + Appreciated by the U.K.A.--"_Punch_ is not as good as it was!" + + +Above the head of every editor the law of libel hangs like the sword of +Damocles. It is at all times difficult for a newspaper of any sort to +avoid the infringement of its provisions, vigilant though the editor may +be. But in the case of a confessedly "satirical" journal the danger is +enormously increased, for the margin between "fair comment" and flat +libel shrinks strangely when the _raison d'étre_ of the criticism is +pungency, and the object laughter. + +That _Punch_ has steered clear of giving serious offence, save on +occasions extremely few, must be counted to him for righteousness. It is +true that, as a Lord Chancellor once declared, "_Punch_ is a chartered +libertine." But for him to have won his "charter" at all proves him at +least to have been worthy of it, the tolerance and indulgence of the +nation having been in themselves a temptation. It is not so much that he +has not hit hard; it is rather that he has hit straight. Indeed, as we +have seen, he has struck hastily in many directions; but, save in his +years of indiscretion, he has scarcely ever been guilty of anything +approaching scurrility. At a time when the "Satirist" was flinging its +darts at the peculiarly vulnerable Duke of Brunswick, goading him into +the writing of his pamphlets, and into that crushing retaliation whereby +the paper was condemned in five thousand pounds damages, _Punch_ was +perhaps the most moderate public censor and _arbiter elegantiarum_ +amongst all those who used ridicule and irony as instruments of +castigation; and indulgence has been the reward that he has reaped. + +That Mr. George Jones and Mr. S. C. Hall dared not face the ultimate +ordeal of a court of law must be held to justify _Punch's_ persistently +caustic denunciations; while the case of Mr. Gent-Davis, then M.P. for +Kennington, served chiefly to confirm the fact that "abstractions" and +"imaginary personages" find their counterparts, in the opinions of some, +in real life. In this case one of the Staff, who lived in the member's +constituency, and had taken some interest in local politics, contributed +a humorous paper to a series on which he was engaged, and it was +published in _Punch(_November 13, 1886). In this essay a type of +suburban lady-politician--a "study from Mr. Punch's Studio"--was +satirised under the name of "Mrs. Gore-Jenkins." Forthwith a summons +against the Editor at the Mansion House police court was the result, for +the Member accepted the description as directed against his wife; but +the explanation that the article was intended as a mere political satire +on an "imaginary person" was held to be satisfactory, and the incident +was finally closed. + +On another occasion an unflattering poem on a "popular singer" was +illustrated, quite innocently by the artist, who probably never saw the +verses, with what appeared to be a portrait of Mr. Isidore de Lara; but +no sooner was the matter pointed out than any intention to offend the +musician was immediately disclaimed by the paper. At another time one of +_Punch's_ artists showed the little band of Socialists (Messrs. +Champion, Hyndman, and others), who were then before the law on a +political charge, as subjects of _Punch's_ traditional "summary +justice." But although _Punch_ was quickly brought to book, his victims +did not take the matter very seriously. Mr. John Burns, indeed, +confesses as much in a communication upon the subject. "On one +occasion," he tells me, "_Punch_ suspended me, pictorially of course, +from a gallows tree. This I, of course, regarded as Mr. Punch's humorous +desire to see me in an elevated position. On other occasions he has been +equally kind but less appropriate in his method of praise or censure." + +_Punch_ has altogether had some two-score actions commenced, or +threatened, against it, by business firms or aggrieved persons or, more +often still, by newspapers on the ground of libel and kindred +wrongdoing. But then, consider how many there are in the world, and in +England especially, who will not see a joke! + +A subject upon which _Punch_ has for some years been persistently +twitted is the personality of "Mrs. Ramsbotham"--Thackeray's Mrs. Julia +Dorothea Ramsbottom of "The Snob" (No. 7, May, 1829)--a homely sort of +Mrs. Malaprop, whose constant misquotations and misapplication of words +of somewhat similar sound to those she intends to use give constant +amusement to one section of _Punch's_ readers, and irritation quite as +constant to the other. She is the lady who suffers from a "torpedo +liver;" who complains of being "a mere siphon in her own house;" who +discharges her gardener because his answers to her questions are so +"amphibious;" and who does not understand how there can be "illegal +distress" in a free country where people may be as unhappy as they like. +There have, of course, been many originals to this unconscious +humorist--and are still. One lady, it has been declared, is not unknown +in society, who has held forth to a surprised circle of her +acquaintances on the operation of "trigonometry" (tracheotomy)--who, +when she imparted a bit of scandal would add, "but that, you know, as +the lawyers say, is _inter alias_"--and who wished that people would +always say what they meant, and not talk paregorically (metaphorically). + +"Mrs. Ramsbotham" is obviously descended, through Mrs. Malaprop, from +Dogberry, and has many a time been "condemned to everlasting +redemption," at least by the _genus irritabile_. One critic cast his +protest in the form of a poetic appeal to _Punch_, and published it in +an Oxford journal:-- + + "Of Mrs. Ram I wish to speak, + You dear old London Charivari; + Don't ram her down our throats each week. + Of sameness do be chary. Vary." + +A broader and severer hint was offered by the lively Poet of the London +"Globe":-- + + _To Mrs. Ramsbotham._ + + A few there be who still delight, + O Mrs. R., in _Punch's_ page, + Who like a joke to wear the blight + Of age. + + Who, if they find a grain of wheat, + Are well content to pass the chaff, + And, every week, at least complete + One laugh. + + But even they who swallow pun + Unmurm'ring, now and then declare, + Henceforward they must seek their fun + Elsewhere. + + It is when you have multiplied + Your misconceptions, Mrs. Ram., + That patience, sorely thus o'er-tried, + Says "----." + + My task is therefore plain: to hint + That you, true woman to the core, + Are, when you interfere with print, + A bore. + + I would not venture to suggest + The line of conduct to pursue; + I state a fact ... and leave the rest + To you. + +But, in spite of this bitter cry, the next week's number of _Punch_ +contained a quarter of a page of the lady's reminiscences and three +misapprehensions. "O," exclaimed the tormented Poet, "that some Abraham +would arise to do sacrifice!" Later on Mr. Furniss arose to the call, as +the murderous Barons responded to Henry's ejaculation. In "Lika Joko" +(November 3, 1894) there was printed an obituary notice of Mrs. +Ramsbotham (as nothing in her name had appeared in the previous week's +_Punch_), and a very comic death-bed scene was presented--reminding one +of a similar incident in "Joe Miller the Younger," when that paper, +like many of the public, grew tired of Mrs. Caudle, and, reporting her +"sudden death," published an engraving by Hine, wherein _Punch_ in +weepers is seen laying a wreath upon her monument, while Toby and his +bâton are both decorated with crape. In "Lika Joko's" presentation of +her "_momentum mori_," she babbles of things in general; she is nervous +as to the physic handed to her, and remarks that these medicine bottles +are as like to one another as the two Dominoes in the "Comedy of +Horrors;" she declares, as her mind wanders to the Chino-Japanese war, +that "the best remedy for political disorders is antimony, but things +may be different in horizontal nations;" and, finally, as she sinks +back in death, she fancies she sees a hand a'Becketting to her. +But _Punch_ ignored the attack; and the report of the death of his +lady-correspondent was duly recognised as a canard. + +But "Lika Joko" is by no means the only comic paper that has attacked +_Punch_, smiting him hip and thigh. The violent charges of plagiarism +which for many years it was the fashion to bring against him have +already been referred to. From the beginning the principal--as it is the +easiest--charge that has been made is the alleged heaviness of _Punch's_ +fun or his deficiency of wit; less often, it has been a legitimate +complaint of blunder or of journalistic wrongdoing. Some of the most +violent of these attacks came from the aforesaid "Joe Miller," and from +"The Great Gun"--the short-lived journal of distinct ability. In "The +Man in the Moon" the pens of Shirley Brooks, James Hannay, and other +wits made it distinctly uncomfortable for _Punch_--but nothing more. +Thus to a portrait of Mr. Punch, who is shown in the last degree of +misery, is appended the legend, "A CASE OF REAL DISTRESS.--'I haven't +made a joke for many weeks!'" (November, 1847). In the next number +appeared the brilliant verses, "Our Flight with _Punch_," from Shirley +Brooks's pen, as well as a sketch of a man speechless with amazement, +described as the "Portrait of a Gentleman finding a Joke in _Punch_." +Then there is the riddle, "Why is a volume of _Punch_ like a pot of bad +tea?--Because it is full of slow leaves;" and in the same number, a +biting satire in anticipation of a play written by some of the _Punch_ +Staff and produced at Covent Garden in aid of the family of Leigh Hunt, +ends with the words, "_Every_ resorter to the stalls and boxes will be +expected to purchase a copy of either 'Dombey,' _Punch_, or 'Jerrold's +Weekly Newspaper,' as, next to benevolence, it is in aid of those works +that the chief actors appear. N.B.--Strong coffee will be provided to +keep the audience awake throughout the performance. _Vivant Bradbury et +Evans!_" + +"The Puppet-Show" followed on the same lines, but its attacks were more +personal. Under the heading of "A Trio of Punchites" (April, 1848), +Thackeray, Douglas Jerrold, and Gilbert à Beckett were torn limb from +limb, and later on Mark Lemon and the rest were added to the holocaust; +yet, like the Cardinal of Rheims' congregation, nobody seemed a penny +the worse. The paper began its fusillade in the first number, and soon +came out with a large picture, well drawn and engraved in the manner of +the day, of Mr. Punch, much humiliated, receiving a lecture from Mr. +Bull:-- + +SHAMEFUL ATTEMPT AT OVERCHARGE! + + MR. BULL (_a commercial gentleman_)--"Hallo, Mr. Punch, threepence! + What do you mean by threepence? Why, the Puppet-Showman supplies a + better paper for a penny! You must mind what you are about!" + + MR. PUNCH--"Well, sir, you may think it too much, but really the + article is so very heavy I cannot sell it for less." + +On another occasion the same idea is carried a step further, in the form +of an advertisement: "NOTICE.--If the heavy joke, which was sent to the +'Puppet-Show' office last Monday, and for which two-and-ninepence was +charged, be not forthwith removed, it will be sold to _Punch_ to pay +expenses;" and later on it hints that the Parisians will do well to +import a few of _Punch's_ jokes as the best of all possible material for +the barricades they were then erecting (1848). A graver charge was +contained under the heading, "On Sale or Hire," and it ran: "We +perceive, by an advertisement in _Punch_, that the entire work can be +purchased for £4 10s. Judging from its ridiculous puffs of Her +Majesty's Theatre, we should say that it could always be bought by a box +at the Opera." This amiable paragraph appeared in a lively column which +was a weekly feature of the paper, and was headed "Pins and Needles." +"Pasquin," a rival "comic" edited by Mr. Sutherland Edwards, was always +"bandying epithets" with the Showman, and no sooner was the column +introduced than he drew pleasing attention to the fact in the following +paragraph: "The 'Puppet-Show' has started 'Pins and Needles.' We don't +wonder at it. 'Pins and Needles' are always a sign of a defective +circulation." + +From time to time, too, pamphlets have been directed against _Punch_, +such as the "Anti-Punch,"[25] published by the men who naturally fall +under the lash of a satirist, and resent its application. Of such was +the widely circulated "Phrenological Manipulation of the Head of +_Punch_," written by George Combe about 1845, in the form of an open +letter. It began, "Sir, you are not an honest man.... Practically your +benevolence is merely professional, it is only for the readers of +_Punch_. Why do you act like Toby in the manger?" But there is little +wit and less reason in these booklets to recommend, or to justify aught +but oblivion. + +A more able and important foe than these was Harry S. Leigh, who in 1864 +was editor of "The Arrow," with Mortimer Collins as verse-writer and +Matt Morgan as cartoonist. Leigh opened his attack with rhymes that were +greatly enjoyed at the time. They ran thus:-- + + +RHYMES FOR A BIG BABY. + + No. I. + + "Sad stuff of Lemon's," + Think the bells of St. Clement's; + "Not worth five farthings," + Sneer the bells of St. Martin's; + "Going down daily," + Grunt the bells of Old Bailey; + "_Once_ it was rich," + Hint the bells of Shoreditch: + "When could _that_ be?" + Ask the bells of Step-ney; + "Hanged if _I_ know," + Growls the big bell at Bow. + + No. II. + + Sing a song of threepence, + A paper full of trash; + Four-and-twenty "funny men" + Have made a pretty hash; + For when the paper's opened, + One soon begins to sing-- + "Oh! threepence is a dainty price + To pay for such a thing." + +And he returns to the charge later on in a set of verses in which he +pretends to pay tribute to _Punch's_ bygone force--"honest if +delicate"--and to Judy's and Toby's straightforward roughness. After +making charges of corruption, he proceeds: + + "Alas! how times and manners pass! + When no one fears a panic-- + When Scotland tolerates the Mass-- + And Spain is puritanic; + When Yankee 'anacondas' scrunch + The South's heroic leader-- + Then may we find a pleasant _Punch_, + And _Punch_ a happy reader." + +Nowadays the commoner form of humorous attack upon _Punch_ is the +assumption that it is a serious journal: a cold-blooded analysis of its +contents will be made, or the quotation of its best bits under the +ungrateful title of "Alleged Humour from _Punch_;" or a joke will be +printed and savagely "quoted" as "From _next week's_ PUNCH." When the +three "New Humorists," Messrs. Barry Pain, Jerome, and Zangwill, were +driven to despair (so says one of them) by the sneers of the Press, they +met in solemn conclave and swore never to make another joke. So Mr. +Zangwill set to work at a serious novel. Mr. Jerome took to editing a +weekly paper, and Mr. Pain _began writing for Punch_! Even when Mr. +Pincott, for thirty years the "reader" on the paper, committed suicide +the day after his wife was buried, a number of papers could not resist +the temptation that was offered. "Fancy having to read through all +_Punch's_ jokes week after week for years!" exclaimed one. "No wonder we +are a hardy race. No wonder the poor man shot himself." Mr. Pincott was +a man of great ability, of remarkable erudition, and extreme +conscientiousness. Although his bereavement was preying on his mind, he +saw the paper out, and did not commit the fatal act until he had sent +his usual letter to the Editor, wherewith he would relieve himself of +his week's responsibility. "I never met a man with so much information +and of so varied a character," writes one of his fellow-workers. "He +never passed a quotation without verifying it, and could give you +chapter and verse for everything. He knew his Shakespeare by heart, and +all the modern poets, and he was never at fault in his classics." He was +not, however, allowed to leave the world without a farewell gibe and a +laugh, for Wit knows no mercy. + +Another main charge laid at _Punch's_ door is that he is too little like +Hogarth in the past, too little like French satirists in the present. +Thackeray's proud boast that the paper had never said aught that could +cause a girl's cheek to mantle with a blush,[26] is acknowledged by the +naturalist and realist of the day as the severest condemnation that +could be brought against it. "We do not want in _Punch_ a moral paper +_virginibus puerisque_," says M. Arsène Alexandre, in effect, in his +important work "L'Art du Rire;" "_Punch_ is _un peu trop gentleman_. +What we want is to be enlightened." But _Punch_ has not chosen to cast +the beams of his search-light on to that side of "life" which is turned +towards vice; and if he determines that the _liaisons_ and all the +attendant world of humour that afford inspiration to the talent of the +Grévins, the Forains, the Guillaumes, and the Willettes of France, are +outside his field of treatment, who shall blame him? If there is any +moral at all to be gleaned from the work of the _Punch_ caricaturists, +it is argued, it is the never-ending sermon, though the sermon is a +humorous one, of the non-existence of immorality. Perhaps; but _Punch_ +does not aspire to reflect the savagery we call civilisation by painting +a Hogarthian "Progress," nor to preach virtue by depicting vice. It is +no doubt very appalling and amusing to hear a young girl-cynic say, as +she points to a hideous monkey in a zoological gardens--"He only wants a +little money to be just like a man!" _Ça donne à penser_; but _Punch_ +prefers wholesome jests to irony and repellent cynicism, and is content +to leave his impeachment in the hands of his spice-loving detractors, +even at the risk of being reminded year by year that "Gentle Dulness +ever loves a joke." + +Another fruitful source of adverse criticism is an occasional slip on +_Punch's_ part in respect to some point of fact. Then at once half a +dozen papers are on his track with an eagerness that suggests the idea +that they were lying in wait. First come the matters of detail, as when +the "Athenæum" (January, 1877) justifiably complained that the popular +conception of the imperial crown of the Empress of India as a +four-arched structure, like that of Germany, is due to the mistake of +_Punch_, "whose artists are always falling into this error in their +cartoons of the Empress of India." In 1879 Sir John Tenniel was +challenged by Mr. Sala on the correctness of the balloon in his +frontispiece to the seventy-sixth volume, and in March, 1893, Mr. du +Maurier was soundly rated for showing a group of Oxford undergraduates, +in the rooms of one of them, wearing cap and gown with perfect docility. +Yachtsmen fell foul of Mr. Sambourne for introducing an ensign on a +staff in his famous drawing of "The _Times_ Tacking;" for such a staff, +stuck on the taffrail with the boom touching it, was "an impossible +object," and would have been instantly snapped off, while, moreover, the +ensign should have been at the peak. In another admirable drawing +_Punch_ once showed a ship on the starboard tack while the helmsman is +steering on the port tack, and the ship, by what appears a miracle, is +lying over to the wind; and, again, Toby is actually shown in the +Almanac for 1895 drawing a cork from a champagne bottle with a +cork-screw! Then photographers are as resentful of inaccuracy as +bicyclists; and the fact that Mr. Hodgson in the second of his two +drawings, "To be well shaken before taken" (August, 1894), representing +an "'Arry on 'orseback" first whipping up his horse before being +photographed, and then posing before the "seaside tintype man," placed +the equestrian _between_ the sun and the lens, was warmly taken up; for +would not the result, forsooth, be "the loss of the picture in a flare +spot?" + +The literary error, too, is held to be inexcusable, and _Punch_ is +pointed at with scorn for a misquotation from Horace; or an incorrect +rendering in one of his drawings of an antiquarian inscription; or a +slip in a Shakespearean line; or an inaccuracy in slang or dialect. +Scottish, Irish, Suffolk, or Yorkshire must all be perfectly rendered, +or the natives will know the reason why. In August, 1894, Mr. Hodgson +sent from the Yorkshire moors a story of a keeper who, dissatisfied with +the calendar, replies to a sportsman's inquiries: "Well, sir, middlin', +pretty middlin'. But, oh dear, it's awk'ard this 'ere Twelfth bein' +fixed of a Sunday! Now might Mr. Gladstone ha' had hanything to do wi' +that arrangement, sir?" An outraged correspondent--a fluent Yorkshire +conversationalist, of course--at once corrected the original version and +translated it into the true vernacular: "Nobbut middlin', sir, nobbut +middlin'. But, ah lad, it's a fond business this puttin' t' Twelfth o' a +Sunday. Div ye think 'at owd Gladstone 'ad owt to do wi' it?" And again +_Punch_ rarely introduces "mon" (as an equivalent for "man") into his +Scotch jokes without producing a disclaimer against this alleged +"peculiarly British error." + +A third form of mistake commonly gloated over is that which touches some +general fact of economics or social matters. An example of this was Mr. +Linley Sambourne's drawing, entitled "An Embarras de Richesses," +graphically illustrating the glut of money in "the City" in the summer +of 1894. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is shown standing on a +pile of bags of bullion impatiently waving back the City men who are +pressing forward with more bags of gold, which bags are labelled +"Deposits." But the Bank of England allows no interest on deposits, as +suggested by the drawing and its accompanying verses; and the +draughtsman, explained one of the financial papers which gleefully +called attention to the misconception, "thought it was the Old Lady who +had reduced her deposit rates to one-half per cent." + +But what are considered the most heinous, as well as the rarest, of all +blunders are those of policy or important movements, which, of course, +concern large bodies of men, whether they constitute a party, a +constituency, or a strike. A case in point was the cartoon dedicated +(August, 1893) to the miners on strike in Northumberland and Durham: but +at that particular moment it was the miners of other districts who were +so involved. Another instance was the substitution of Mr. Logan, M.P., +for Mr. Leon, M.P. (December, 1893), in a Parliamentary picture that +illustrated an incident mentioned in the "Essence of Parliament." But it +may be taken that the error was rather a slip than a blunder that +represented "Toby barking up the wrong tree." + +It is natural, of course, that the "faddists" should be among Mr. +Punch's most impatient critics, because "fad" and "cant" have always +been _Punch's_ pet ground-game that he loves to run to earth. It is +perhaps from the Temperance party that he has had most sport, for he has +always taken delight in the pictures they dislike the most--the +incomparable drawings of Leech and Keene, which show the humorous, +instead of only the hateful, side of inebriety; and he chuckles as he +reads, now their protests against Mr. Bernard Partridge's excruciating +pictures of a drunken man's "progress," now the plaintive paragraph that +"in a recent issue of _Punch_ more than twenty-five per cent. of the +advertisements concerned hotels, wines, spirits, and mineral waters!" + +And, lastly, there is the critic who is always bewailing _Punch's_ +deterioration--an impending dissolution which has been announced from +the second number! + +People in Society seem curiously fond of expressing this opinion to the +members of the Staff themselves, if all the stories current are to be +believed. "Well, you know, Mr. Milliken," once remarked a lady, "I do +_not_ think _Punch_ is as good as it _used_ to be." "No," assented the +creator of 'Arry; "_it never was!_" + +For such as these there is and can be no comfort; for them there is no +excellence save in the past; no inferiority save in the present. The +perusal of humorous papers is of course but a poor occupation for +pessimists such as they, and it is hardly likely that it could ever +awaken in them sentiments other than those so tersely put by the +"Gentlewoman's" poet:-- + + "In vain I search for humour each + And every 'comic' 'neath the sky. + Alas! I fear the busy Leech + Has sucked the vein of humour dry!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[25] "Anti-Punch, or the Toy-shop in Fleet Street; a Romance of the +Nineteenth Century." By the Author of "Anti-Coningsby." 16mo. 1847. + +[26] This declaration, if not absolutely accurate, has often been +repeated, and was confirmed at the Church Congress of 1893 by Dr. +Welldon, who held up _Punch_ as the one clean paper for the rest of the +Press to follow! + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. + + Mr. Joseph Swain supersedes Ebenezer Landells--His Education as + Engraver--Head of His Department--Engraving the Big Cut: Then and + Now--Printing from the Wood-blocks--Leech's + Fastidiousness--Impracticability of Keene--Thackeray's Little + Confidence--A Record of Half a Century. + + +[Illustration: JOSEPH SWAIN.] + +It was in 1843 that Mr. Swain engraved his first block for _Punch_. It +was a drawing by Leech, on p. 50 of the fourth volume, to illustrate one +of Albert Smith's "Side-Scenes of Society." The services of Landells, it +will be remembered, had been suddenly dispensed with by the +proprietors--for reasons of business jealousy according to Landells, +though the proprietors gave out, in some quarters at least, for lack of +proper excellence in his work. When they had decided to give Landells +his _congé_, Bradbury and Evans looked about for another to replace him, +and offered the engraving to one of the brothers Jewett. By him the task +was readily undertaken, although he was, as he knew, wholly unable to +carry it out; and when a block with one of Leech's drawings upon it was +sent to him as a test, he offered the execution of it to his young +acquaintance, Joseph Swain. So pleased was Leech with the result that he +strongly recommended that the man who had cut such a block should, in +place of the middleman, be installed as manager of the engraving +department; and from that time forward that important portion of the +work has remained in the hands of one of _Punch's_ most faithful, loyal, +and talented servants, of whom _Punch_ has happily had so many. + +Mr. Swain had been brought up by his father from Oxford, his natal +town, when he was nine years of age, and five years later had been +placed with N. Whittock, a draughtsman of Islington, to learn the art +and craft of wood-cutting. But though Mr. Whittock was something of an +artist, he was less of an engraver; and finding after a few years that +he was making but little progress, young Swain applied for instruction +to Thomas Williams. That distinguished engraver was one of the few +excellent "facsimile men" of the day; and he agreed to accept the +applicant as "improver." At that time he was engaged in engraving the +blocks of an edition of "Paul et Virginie"--the well-known illustrated +edition which was published in Paris in 1838. For at that time there +were fewer facsimile engravers in Paris than in London, and what there +were, in point of ability, were not to be compared with the Englishmen; +so that it was no uncommon thing for the best work to be sent from +France to be executed in this country. On this particular work +Meissonier, Johannot, Horace Vernet, and others had been engaged; and +when that was finished, the series of works published by Charles Knight +provided endless work for the skilled gravers at Williams' command: +Harvey's "Arabian Nights," "Shakespeare," and the "History of Greece," +and other notable works. It was a great school of engravers that existed +then, both of masters and pupils, and included, besides Thomas Williams +himself, his brother and sister, Samuel and Mary Ann Williams (a +brilliant engraver she, who never gained her due of reputation), John +Thompson, Orrin Smith, W. J. Linton, John Jackson, Mason Jackson, W. T. +Greene, Robert Branston, Landells, the Dalziel Brothers,[27] and Edmund +Evans. Most of them were soon employed by W. Dickes, under whose +management the Abbotsford edition of Scott's works was being executed; +and to Dickes, Joseph Swain also transferred his services. In due course +the young engraver left that establishment, and had not long been on +the look-out for a satisfactory opening when he received from Jewett the +little commission which landed him in a very short time in the service +of _Punch_, in which he remained until he retired from business in +favour of his son, after a completed period of half a century. + +For some years Mr. Swain remained at the head of the _Punch_ engraving +department, devoting himself, and his six or eight assistants, +exclusively to _Punch_ work. He then pointed out to the proprietors how, +by conducting and extending the business on his own account, he could +carry out their work more economically while increasing his own field of +operations and doubling his earning powers. The suggestion was acted +upon, and the result proved satisfactory to both parties. For by this +time he had educated the necessary engravers to that style of facsimile +cutting in which he himself, and but few besides, had been specially +trained, and he was enabled to keep the weekly expense of engraving +_Punch_ down to an average of under thirty pounds, and at the same time +to spend his superfluous energies on many of the most famous illustrated +books of his day. + +For many years the boxwood blocks on which the drawings were made +consisted of a single piece; for, as already explained, Charles Wells of +Bouverie Street, at first a cabinetmaker of rare excellence, and later +on a boxwood importer, had not then invented the device which +revolutionised newspaper illustration--that of making a block in six or +more sections which could be taken apart after the drawing had been made +(and later on photographed) upon its surface and distributed among the +engravers, and then screwed together again when each man had completed +his own little piece. The invention which led to such an economy of time +was only introduced in 1860 or thereabouts. For nineteen years _Punch_ +had to see his big blocks cut on a single piece of wood, which was one +of the reasons why the earlier cartoons and "pencillings" were, as a +rule, so much more roughly drawn and hastily cut. In those early days a +single "round" of wood was used--a "round" that had been cross-cut from +the trunk of the tree. This was always kept seasoning until by natural +shrinkage it had split up to the centre, when a tongue-shaped piece of +box was fitted into the triangular vacancy and screwed firmly through. +Then the block was squared as well as its shape permitted, and when its +surface had been properly prepared, it was ready for the artist. + +As I find myself discussing technical details in _Punch_ production, it +may be well to go a step further, for such matters can hardly fail to +interest the reader. The cartoon, for reasons of economy of time, has +always, up to 1893, been drawn upon the wood[28]--not upon paper, as has +been possible to the rest of the Staff for a good many years past--and +is delivered into Mr. Swain's hands by Friday night. Twenty-four hours +later the engraving of the block is completed, and it is handed over to +the printers, who are already clamouring for it to be put in their +formes--for there is no time to electrotype it, nor of course to +stereotype the pages. Stereotyping, indeed, has been the latest of the +innovations on _Punch_--an innovation to be reckoned but a year or two +old--for _Punch_, in his own house at least, is a Conservative among +Conservatives. What was always present in the publisher's mind was that +the "foreign edition" had to be ready printed off by Monday morning, and +every moment was necessarily grudged during which the machines were not +running--even those few short minutes when a sheet or two of the paper, +at first starting, were taken to Mr. Swain to be judged as to the +printing of the cuts, or as to whether they wanted a little more +"colour," or a little pressure taken off. "To myself," Mr. Swain tells +me, "it has always been a pleasing reflection that during the whole time +of my connection with _Punch_, extending over fifty years, I have never +once failed to get my work done in time and without accident. Of course, +now and again it has been a very near thing, but it has always been done +somehow." + +It has ever been matter for surprise to outsiders that the conductors of +the journal could tempt Fate so recklessly as to put the original +wood-blocks on the machines. As has been seen, there was no +alternative. But the fact remains that they ran a continual risk for +fifty years which no other journal would care to face for a single week; +for an accident to a single block (and such accidents are all too +common) would have jeopardised the whole week's edition, as no other +original existed (as it exists nowadays) from which the damaged block +might be reproduced, or by which it might be superseded. + +So it was only after the printing of an edition that the blocks were +electrotyped. It is a curious fact that after 70,000 or 80,000 had been +printed these blocks were nearly always found as good as new so far as +the wood was concerned; only towards the end of the edition the blocks +would sometimes get so filled up that some of the fine work was entirely +lost, and the electros then taken suffered in consequence. An +examination of this substance would show that it consisted of lime and +pulp from the paper itself, compressed in a solid body so hard that it +almost defied the graver to remove it. + +Those early days were halcyon times for _Punch_ engravers. Mark Lemon +would come down two or three times a week to edit and make up the paper, +and would talk leisurely with Mr. Swain of such matters as concerned the +engraver. No block was hurried. If it could not be ready for one week, +it was held over for the next--a saving grace which the engraver has now +and again acknowledged by drawing an initial or other simple design on +the wood half an hour before going to press, when the Editor hurriedly +required such a decoration--possibly to supply an artist's omission. +Such sketches were "The Cabman's Ticket" in February, 1854, put upon the +wood from a scribble by Gilbert à Beckett--his sole artistic +contribution to _Punch_; "Broom _v._ Brush" in May, 1859; and "The +Turkish Bath" in 1880. And, above all, "process" had not yet held out +its alluring promise of nearly equal results, to the inexpert eye, at a +quarter of the cost of wood-engraving. + +In another way did Mr. Swain place his mark on the pages of _Punch_--by +the introduction of many a young artist to the Editor. It was he who +thus introduced Mr. T. Harrington Wilson to Mark Lemon, Mr. Ralston to +Shirley Brooks, R. B. Wallace (whose acquaintance he had made through +Mr. Frederick Shields) and Mr. Wheeler to Tom Taylor, and others, too, +to the various rulers of _Punch_. In some cases the artists themselves +approached the engraver; in others, it was the Editor who would ask him +to recommend some clever designer who could best execute this or that +little drawing which he wanted done. Further service rendered by him was +the share he took in educating several of _Punch's_ more imposing +personages for the work they had to do--such as Doyle, McDonnell, and +others. + +It has often been quoted of Leech that after he had shown a drawing on +the wood to any friend who might happen to be with him, he would add +with a sigh--"But wait till next week and see how the engraver will +spoil it!" This was a piece of unintentional injustice, for the fault +lay with the conditions of rapid printing (for _Punch_ has always been, +and still is, printed on a cylinder machine)--with the printer, the +ink-maker, and the paper manufacturer more than with the engraver, as a +glance at the proofs of the engravings will show. + +Speaking of this matter, Dean Hole says: "If the position of an eyelash +was altered, or the curve of a lip was changed, there might be an ample +remainder to convey the intention and to win the admiration of those who +never knew their loss, but the _perfection_ of the original was gone. +Again and again I have heard him [Leech] sigh as he looked over the new +number of _Punch_; and as I, seeing but excellence, would ask an +explanation, he would point to some almost imperceptible obliquity which +vexed his gentle soul." It is a curious fact that, in common with most +draughtsmen, Leech never became reconciled to the fact that black +printer's-ink cannot exactly render the tender grey tones of a hard lead +pencil; but to the fact that he had not much to complain of Mr. Frith +bears witness: "I once saw one of Leech's drawings on the wood, and I +afterwards saw it in _Punch_, and I remember wondering at the fidelity +with which it was rendered. Some of the lines, finer than the finest +hair, had been cut away or _thickened_, but the character, the vigour, +and the beauty were scarcely damaged." In connection with this subject +Mr. Layard, in his "Life of Charles Keene," compared a photogravure and +a wood-block of one of the _Punch_ pictures, with the principal, though +unintended, result of proving how indulgent are wood-engraving and the +tool of the skilled craftsman to the artist who inconsiderately persists +in using grey inks of varying intensities and subtle lines of indefinite +thicknesses on paper of various colour-patches, when reproduction upon +wood is his sole ultimate aim. + +As Mr. Swain lived for some time close to Thackeray's house, it was an +occasional custom of his to call on his way to the office to see if the +great "Thack" had any blocks ready that he might carry away with him. +The novelist was usually at breakfast when he called, and would request +that his visitor might be shown into the library. There he would +presently join him and, if he were behindhand with his work, would +request Mr. Swain to have a seat, a cigar, and a chat, while he produced +a _Punch_ drawing "while you wait." "Ah, Swain!" he said one day, +looking up from his block, when he was more than usually confidential, +"if it had not been for _Punch_, I wonder where I should be!" + +Mr. Joseph Swain retired in 1890 from the business he had formed, and +handed it over to his son, who had been many years identified with it, +and still continues the weekly engraving of the _Punch_ cartoon. +Wood-engraving has now been abandoned for all other illustrations, the +first process block tried on the paper being Mr. Linley Sambourne's +drawing called "Reconciliation, a scene from the new screaming farce, +the 'Political Box and Cox,'" on the 3rd December, 1892 (p. 273); but +that the innovation has been equally happy in the case of every artist I +am not prepared to maintain. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[27] Mr. George Dalziel writes to me: "For myself I was somewhat +intimately connected with the publication from its birth; being +associated with Landells as an engraver, it fell to my lot to engrave +... the first drawing contributed by John Leech, under the title of +'Foreign Affairs,' with many of the cartoons by Kenny Meadows, as well +as many of the drawings of every artist engaged upon the journal, so +long as Landells had anything to do with _Punch_." + +[28] With the exception of the Almanac cartoon, for which the engraver +has ample time. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1841. + + + Mark Lemon--As Others Saw Him--His Duties--His Industry--His Staff + and their Apportioned Work--Lemon as an Editor--And Diplomatist--A + Testimonial--And a Practical Joke--Henry Mayhew--His Great Powers + and Little Weaknesses--Disappointment and Retirement--Stirling + Coyne--Gilbert Abbott à Beckett--His Early Career--Tremendous + Industry--À Beckett and Robert Seymour--Appointed + Magistrate--Locked In--Angus B. Reach. + + +[Illustration: MARK LEMON + +(From a private photograph.)] + +Mark Lemon was thirty-one when he found himself co-editor of _Punch_. +His salary, it is true, was not more than thirty shillings a week; but +it was to rise before his death to fifteen hundred pounds a year--a +higher amount, it is said, than has been received by any other "weekly +editor," before or since. However, he had found financial salvation; for +although his playwriting had not been unsuccessful--and by the time he +died his pieces were to be numbered by the score--the drama in the days +of short runs was not a remunerative form of literature. His natural +_bonhomie_ stood him in good stead; it charmed his friends and +non-plussed his enemies. Of the latter, it must be admitted, he had more +than enough--or, at least, men to whom he was intensely antipathetic. +One eminent journalist--more eminent than Mark himself--writes him down +"a mealy-mouthed sycophant;" and another, hardly less popular, went +further still in his denunciation, and, if he were to be believed, Mark +Lemon must have been one of the most accomplished humbugs of his time. +"There was nothing good about Mark," said a distinguished draughtsman, +who worked with the _Punch_ Editor for many a long year, "but his +laugh." But against this criticism--which was that of men whose judgment +ought to be clear and sound, and was, moreover, shared by others--there +is an overwhelming mass of evidence in favour of Lemon's extreme +amiability, kindness, and geniality. He, naturally, was the butt of +rival comic papers, who would taunt him with his Jewish descent, with +the mildness of his jokes and humour, and the bitterness of his false +friendship. A favourite form was to print among supposed "Births" such a +line as this: "On Wednesday, the 26th ult., at Whitefriars, Mr. Mark +Lemon, of a joke, stillborn." + +But Lemon could well afford to ignore all such attacks. Mr. George +Chester, his life-long friend, pronounced him the prince of cronies, and +I have seen many letters from him instinct with affection and jovial +humour. One of them, by the way, gives information that "our nursemaid +has the chicken-pock, and we expect to see her throw out feathers +to-morrow." When he entered the composing-room he was invariably +received with a cheer by the men, whom he called "my Caxtonian Bees." +Charles Dickens believed in him as "a most affectionate and true-hearted +fellow," and so described him to Sir A. H. Layard (in whose interest +Dickens arranged for Tenniel's fine "Nineveh Bull" cartoon to be +published); and though he quarrelled with him, because Lemon had the +courage, chivalry, and uprightness to take Mrs. Dickens's side against +her husband, he brought the estrangement to a close with a kindly +message when Lemon first appeared as Falstaff. Mr. Joseph Hatton carries +his friendly admiration almost to the point of Lemonolatry; and the man +who could inspire such friendship must assuredly have been endowed with +sterling qualities and with a lovable nature. + +"Mr. Lemon impressed me," writes Mr. E. J. Ellis, "as the kindest and +most lovable elderly boy I had ever seen. He evidently accepted my +little sketches only for the promise, not the performance, of them. Some +were rejected. This was done so genially that I found myself hastening +to refuse my own drawings for him rather than put him to the effort of +sparing my feelings while doing so. 'Here I sit,' he said, 'like a +great ogre, eating up people's little hopes.' Then he showed me his +waste-paper basket, and added--'But what am I to do? Look here!' I +confess I never saw, except on pavement in coloured chalks, such +nerve-twisting horrors as the paper sketches people sent." It is obvious +from this that the writer never watched the pictures entering the Royal +Academy on Sending-in Day. + +Mark Lemon loved _Punch_; as well he ought. He refused to visit America +to give his readings on terms that were highly alluring, as he could not +find it in his heart to abandon the command, even for a time, nor bear +to miss his two days a week at Whitefriars. When he said truly that he +and _Punch_ were made for each other, and that he "would not have +succeeded in any other way," he might fairly have added, had he wished, +how hard he had laboured for that success. Mr. Birket Foster has drawn +me a vivid picture of how in those early days he had to visit Lemon in +his Newcastle Street lodgings, and, mounting to the topmost storey, +found him in an untidy, undusted room, sitting in his shirt-sleeves, +with Horace Mayhew by his side plying the scissors, working at the +weekly "make-up" of _Punch_ with the desperate eagerness that was, in +time, to bear so rich a harvest. + +How Mark Lemon helped to bring together the original Staff has already +been seen. It was, doubtless, his sound display of business capacity and +character, in addition to his literary aptitude, that induced Henry +Mayhew and Landells to nominate him as one of the co-editors--for that +was a quality in which both Henry Mayhew and Stirling Coyne were +confessedly deficient. "There are forty men of wit," says Swift, "for +one man of sense." So the paper was started, and the very first article, +"The Moral of _Punch_," was Lemon's;[29] but neither then nor after did +he write much for it, though he still contributed a certain amount of +graceful, serious verse, under the title of "Songs for the Sentimental," +with a farcical last line which affects the reader suddenly like a cold +douche. He wrote, as well, many short epigrams, paragraphs, and the +like, besides being a fairly prolific suggestor of the cartoons; but the +sum of his literary labours on the paper would not compare with that of +the members on the Staff. To him fell the organisation, administration, +and practical making-up of the paper. + +In the early days of _Punch_, during those infantile convulsions to +which the paper threatened to succumb, Mark Lemon assured his position +by the great zeal with which he carried out his duties; and at the +transfer of _Punch_ he was left sole Editor, by the fiat of the new +proprietors. Stirling Coyne left without real regret, though in +considerable dudgeon at his treatment; he had many other irons in the +fire, and the conditions of journal-weaning were unattractive to him. +But to Henry Mayhew it was a bitter disappointment. It was he who had +made _Punch_ what it was; he found himself ousted from his legitimate +position, and he considered, in his own words, that Mark Lemon "had +allowed himself to be bought over," so that a coolness sprang up between +the two men which was never quite removed. + +In his work Lemon did not spare himself. For a time Horace Mayhew was +his sub-editor, to whom fell the usual duties of the post--("Be it +yours," as a careless speaker in the office nicknamed "Heavens!" is +traditionally said to have advised, "Be it yours, 'Orace, to hurge the +hartises [artists] hon!")--but before long Lemon took that duty upon +himself, driving round to the chief contributors one day in the week to +satisfy himself that their drawings and "copy" would be to time. The +story goes that he always employed the same driver, and that when the +man was about to replace the old vehicle with a new one, he suggested to +Lemon, with glowing pride at the brightness of the idea, that he should +have a figure of _Punch_ emblazoned on the panels. In later years +Lemon's son Harry acted as his secretary, and sometimes, though +unofficially, as his sub-editor, and generally undertook the +"travelling" for his father. + +It was in Lombard Street, Whitefriars, of classic memory, that Bradbury +and Evans carried on the practical part of their business; and here Mark +Lemon might often be seen, radiant and effulgent as the circulation +rose. In May,1843, _Punch_ had removed from Wellington Street, Strand, +to 194, Strand, an office which he gave up to his young rival, "The +Great Gun," in January, 1845, in order to remove to 92, Fleet Street. +Here he only remained for a couple of months, and, migrating in March of +the same year, he set up for good and all in 85, Fleet Street, on the +very site in St. Bride's Churchyard of the tailor's house where Milton +once kept school. In the editorial office the _Punch_ Staff would often +write their articles, Thackeray especially taking advantage of the +convenience. "In three hours more," he wrote to Mrs. Brookfield in 1850, +"Mr. W. M. T. is hard at work at _Punch_ office." + +The management of the weekly "copy," the arrangement for series, and the +dealing with outside applications of all sorts, quite apart from +artistic contributions, were together no light task for the Editor, +especially when one or other of the writers failed him, and the +illustrations that were to accompany their articles had to be retaken +into consideration. From the beginning outside contributions were +remorselessly discouraged; yet some remarkable poems and sketches have +come to _Punch_ unsolicited from famous and brilliant pens, as will +subsequently be seen. Still, the paper has always been a fairly close +borough--as, after all, it has a perfect right to be; and by that means +has been enabled to keep its distinctive colour--in contrast with the +"Fliegende Blätter," for example, whose staff may truly be said to +consist of the whole German people. To each writer was allotted a +certain space, which he was expected to fill; and when there was a +deficit in the amount of his contribution--which there generally was, +and a heavy one--it was duly entered up. Thus for a long while Douglas +Jerrold's half-yearly total was theoretically 162 columns (or a weekly +average of six and a quarter); Gilbert à Beckett's, 135 columns (five +and a quarter); Percival Leigh's, Tom Taylor's, and Horace Mayhew's, 54; +and Thackeray's, 46 columns; but few of them ever came up to their +proper total. In earlier days, before Albert Smith left, the following +were the weekly tasks: Jerrold, five columns; Gilbert à Beckett, four; +Smith and Leigh, two each; and after Smith's departure à Beckett +succeeded to Jerrold's figures. + +The records of the Staff's contributions were kept as follows, their +relative proportions being exactly shown. I take one volume at random, +the seventh, that for the second half-year of 1844:-- + + -------------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+------- + | | | | | | |Total | + | | |Septem-|Octo- |Novem- |Decem- |of Six |Weekly + Contributors | July |August| ber | ber | ber | ber |Months |Average + -------------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+------- + Douglas | | | | | | | | + Jerrold |20-1/4|17-1/4| 23-1/2|27[30]| 20-1/4| 31-1/2|139-3/4| 5-1/4 + Gilbert | | | | | | | | + à Beckett |15-1/4|18 | 6-1/2|17-1/4| 17 | 19-3/4| 94-3/4| 3-1/2 + Percival | | | | | | | | + Leigh | 4-1/2| 8-3/4| 9 | 5 | 5-1/2| 6-1/4| 39 | 1-1/2 + Thackeray | 8 | 5-3/4| 6 | -- | -- | 4-3/4| 24-1/2| 1 + Horace Mayhew| 2-1/2| 2-1/2| 3-1/2| 2 | 2-1/2| 3-3/4| 16-3/4| 1/2 + T. Taylor | -- | -- | -- | -- | 3-1/4| 3 | 6-1/4| 1/4 + Ferguson | 1[31]| -- | -- | 3/4| -- | 1 | 1-3/4| -- + Editor[32] | 5 | 1-1/4| 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 20 | 3/4 + Oxenford | -- | 1-1/2| -- | -- | -- | -- | 1-1/2| -- + Laman | | | | | | | | + Blanchard | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1-3/4| -- | 1-3/4| -- + H. Wills | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1/2| 1/2| 1 | -- + -------------+------+------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+------ + Total of columns in volume 347 + ------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +A more comprehensive view may be had from a glance at the table on the +following page, which covers perhaps the most interesting period of +_Punch's_ early history. + +From this table it will be seen that Douglas Jerrold contributed as much +as 139 columns to Vol. VII. and Gilbert à Beckett 122 to the next; and +that the Editor's section after Vol. VI. was to some extent split up +under the names of the individual contributors who composed it. In +addition to these names during the period covered by the table, there +may be added those of Tom Hood (3-3/4), T. J. Serle, Charles Lever, +Horace Smith, and Doyle. + +Another source of trouble to the Editor was the holiday-time as it came +round, for the Staff would scatter itself and, though arrangements were +made of course beforehand, the paper was sometimes run in a +curiously undermanned condition. Thus, for example, on the week of +August 12, 1848 (No. 370), Jerrold was at Guernsey, Thackeray was at +Brussels, Horace Mayhew at Ramsgate, and Tom Taylor away on circuit. The +whole paper was in consequence written by three men--by Gilbert à +Beckett and Percival Leigh at home, and by Horace Mayhew, who +thoughtfully sent in more than four columns from the country, so that +his absence should not be felt. + + AMOUNT OF TEXT (IN COLUMNS) CONTRIBUTED BY THE WRITERS INDICATED FROM + VOL. VI. TO VOL. XIV. INCLUSIVE--FROM JANUARY, 1844, TO JUNE 24, 1848 + (NINE VOLUMES). + + KEY: + A - Douglas Jerrold + B - Gilbert à Becket + C - Percival Leigh + D - W. M. Thackeray + E - John Oxenfold + F - Editor + G - Horace Mayhew + H - Tom Taylor + + -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+ + Vol. | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | + -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+ + VI. | 81-1/4|113-1/4| 41-1/2| 36-3/4| 4-3/4| 49-1/2| -- | -- | + VII. |139-3/4| 94-3/4| 39 | 24-1/2| 1-1/2| 20 | 16-3/4| 6-1/2| + VIII. | 91-1/4|122-1/2| 36 | 24 | 1-3/4| 13 | 17-3/4| 11-3/4| + IX. | 91 |108-3/4| 32-3/4| 43-1/4| 4-1/2| 15 | 28-1/2| 12 | + X. | 71-3/4| 99-1/2| 39-3/4| 39-1/2| 2-3/4| 6-1/4| 20 | 18-3/4| + XI. | 77-1/4| 92 | 35 | 51-3/4| -- | 2 | 44-3/4| 28-3/4| + XII. | 70-3/4| 94-1/4| 43 | 46| --| -- | 47-1/2| 23-3/4| -- | + XIII. | 48-1/4| 95-1/4| 40-3/4| 30-3/4| -- | -- | 45 | 42 | + XIV. | 58-1/4| 80 | 39-3/4| 39-1/2| -- | -- | 59-1/4| 32-1/2| + Total |729-1/4|900-1/4|348-1/4|336 |15-1/4|105-3/4|270-1/2|175-3/4| + -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+ + Average| 81 |100 | 39-2/3| 37-1/3| -- | -- | 31 | 19-1/2| + per | | | | | | | | | + volume | | | | | | | | | + -------+-------+-------+-------+-------+------+-------+-------+-------+ + + + I - Ferguson + J - Laman Blanchard + K - W. H. Wills + L - Henry Mayhew + M - Higgins (Jacob Omnium) + N - Anonymous + O - Mark Lemon + P - MacGregor + + -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- + Vol. | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | -- + -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- + VI. | -- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- + VII. | 1-3/4|1-3/4|1 |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- + VIII. | 4 | 3/4| 1/4|-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- + IX. | 1-3/4| -- | 1/2|-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- + X. | 9-1/4| -- | -- |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- + XI. | 3/4| -- | -- |-- |2 | -- |-- | -- | -- + XII. | -- | -- | -- |-- |1-3/4| -- |-- | -- | -- + XIII. | -- | -- | -- |-- | -- | 4-3/4| 1/2| -- | -- + XIV. | -- | -- | 3/4|-- | -- |51-1/2|-- |3-3/4| -- + Total |17-1/2|2-1/2|3-1/4| 1/4|2 |12 | 1/2|3-3/4|2,931-1/4 + -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- + Average| -- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- |-- | -- | -- + per | | | | | | | | | + volume | | | | | | | | | + -------+------+-----+-----+----+-----+------+----+-----+--------- + +[Illustration: MR. PUNCH'S FANCY BALL. + +_Reduced from the Double-page Cartoon by John Leech (1847), showing the +Staff of "Punch" as Orchestra._ (See next page.)] + +[Illustration: W. NEWMAN. RICHARD DOYLE. JOHN LEECH. W. M. THACKERAY. +HORACE MAYHEW. MARK LEMON. PERCIVAL LEIGH. GILBERT À BECKETT. TOM +TAYLOR. DOUGLAS JERROLD. + +(_Detail of Portraits of the Staff in "Mr. Punch's Fancy Ball."_)] + +At no time was Lemon's position an easy one, for his team, brilliant as +it was, was sometimes wont to jib, and even to kick over the traces, or, +most serious of all, to fall ill; whereupon the fountain of inspiration +and supply would immediately dry up. When one failed, another would have +to be made to fill the space; and all the while susceptibilities had to +be nursed and respected as carefully as the well-being of the paper. +Thackeray would now and then send a letter of apology instead of his +"copy," and Jerrold would fail for a week or two together; and then +Gilbert à Beckett with important contributions, and Horace Mayhew with a +mass of little ones, were the men who, in the early volumes, would rush +quickly to the rescue. Lemon was patience itself--he had no alternative +perhaps--and could humour his Staff just as their humour demanded, for +he was a born diplomatist as well as editor. Moreover, he had an +unerring instinct as to what should and what should not appear in the +paper; not alone on the ground of "good taste," as it was then +understood, but of public feeling. This invaluable quality was +acknowledged by the rest of the Staff, and was probably the secret of +Lemon's ability to retain his position so long and with so much dignity, +and to impose his will--_suaviter in modo_ as was his habit--on men who +would brook such imposition from no one else. It was his moral balance +they admired--that judgment which in all his long career of satiric +criticism kept him practically free from any action for libel after he +had taken his share in piloting the paper through its sea of early +troubles. He was watchful and discriminating, both as regards the +contents of the paper and the discussions at the board--where he would +smooth over such an occasional storm as might threaten, and be deaf to +anything that a less skilful tactician than himself might have taken +notice of. Nevertheless, Lemon could take his own part if occasion +required, and face his opponents with all the vigour of his authority. +The Proprietors themselves once felt the strength of his character when +they sought to challenge him on a vital point. Mark Lemon quickly +assured himself of the support of his Staff, and, rising from his seat, +he said in a tone of command, "Boys, follow me!" and made to leave the +room. The struggle was over, and Lemon triumphed. Similarly did he make +a _casus belli_ of the attempt of the Proprietors on his editorial +rights and dignity, when he was requested to appear at their meeting +instead of their attending in his room. And he went so far as to instal +himself in a room on the other side of the way until his point was +conceded. He was, on the whole, a consummate Editor, who could cater for +all men, and yet keep his pages practically clean and irreproachable, +and almost free from blunder; all the while enlisting for it more and +more of popular sympathy, and daily increasing its influence. + +[Illustration: LID OF THE INKSTAND PRESENTED TO MARK LEMON BY THE +MEMBERS OF HIS STAFF IN 1845.] + +_Punch_ did not engage his exclusive energies. He was the first editor +of the "Field." Then he edited the "London Journal," and in trying to +improve its tone and quality of literature by the republication in its +pages of the Waverley novels he well-nigh ruined it. These and other +matters he embarked upon, together with a number of small works, such as +his volume of "Prose and Verse" (which Jerrold said ought to have been +called "Prose and Worse"), and his "Jest Book," on the strength of +which, it is said, Hans Christian Andersen, when in England, sought an +introduction to him and paid him the compliment of saying, "I am so glad +to know you, Mr. Lemon--you are so full of comic!" + +Moreover, Lemon acted as a sort of secretary to Herbert Ingram, whom he +served with great tact. Ingram was a good deal identified with the +_Punch_ circle, sometimes in a friendly and sometimes in a hostile way. +He was owner, before he sold it to William and Robert Brough, of "The +Man in the Moon," _Punch's_ arch-enemy, and in later years he started +the "Comic News," with Edmund Yates as editor, on purpose to oppose +him. Yet several of the _Punch_ men, notably Shirley Brooks, worked on +his "Illustrated London News," which was started in great measure to +push "Parr's Life Pills" (these were constantly mentioned and sometimes +attacked in _Punch_), and Douglas Jerrold found in him the capitalist +for the "Illuminated Magazine." Mark Lemon it was who took several of +his Staff down to Boston to speak for Ingram during his candidature, an +expedition that was a greater electoral than oratorical success; and he +again it was, so it is said, who persuaded Mr. Ingram to drop the "Comic +News," so that _Punch_ might be rid of what was already a troublesome, +and might have become a very damaging, rival. + +With equal zeal and skill and genial friendliness to recommend him, +Lemon became a great favourite in his own circle, for "Uncle Mark" was +always ready to do his friends a good turn. In 1845 the Staff combined +to present him with a silver inkstand--an interesting relic now in +possession of Mrs. F. W. W. Topham, his daughter--a reproduction of the +lid of which is here given; while the locket which, with a more +substantial gift, was presented in 1866 to celebrate the Jubilee of +_Punch_ (_i.e._ his fiftieth volume) and to mark the withdrawal of the +Heads of the firm, was inscribed as follows: "To Mark Lemon from his old +friends W. Bradbury and F. M. Evans, on their retirement, given at a +dinner at Maidenhead, June 27th, 1866. Present--W. H. Bradbury, Shirley +Brooks, Wm. Agnew, G. du Maurier, F. C. Burnand, J. H. Agnew, C. H. +Bennett, John Tenniel, Horace Mayhew, F. M. Evans (Jim.), Henry Silver, +T. Agnew (Jim.), Percival Leigh, Chas. Keene, Mark Lemon, Wm. Bradbury, +F. M. Evans." There is no doubt that, as time went on, Lemon became more +and more popular with his Staff, and each fresh appearance in _Punch_ of +his jolly face under the low-crowned hat of John Bull, or the +snow-sprinkled peak of Father Christmas, identified him more closely +with the paper and endeared him to his workers. Yet they liked to "score +off" him when they could, in return for the jokes he played on them. The +story is told how, when he had run down for a few days' holiday by the +sea, he received the paper by post, and, tearing off its cover, was +horrified to find, not the cartoon they had agreed upon, but another, +execrable in taste and vile in execution, while undoubted libels and +other offences were sprinkled with hideous liberality about the pages. +Moreover, the cartoon was awry, the date was wrong, and a paragraph was +upside down. Lemon turned cold all down his spine, and gasping "This +comes from my being away!" he determined to return to town without the +loss of a moment. From this point historians differ. Some say that Mark +rushed to the station, quickly bought up every copy of the awful issue +that was for sale, and jumped into the railway-carriage with the bundle; +and that not before he was well on his way did he dare to open a copy to +gaze again on the hideous production; and when he did--he rubbed his +eyes, for everything was just as it should be! Then the light broke in +upon him that he had been egregiously "sold," and he realised that a +copy had been specially prepared for his pleasing edification! Other +commentators assert that before Uncle Mark had time to leave for the +station a telegram came, mercifully explaining a joke which, it was +felt, ought not to be carried too far. The reader will remember a +similar incident occurring in "Esmond;" and one wonders if the idea of +that dummy copy of the "Spectator" was not suggested by the hour's +torture lovingly inflicted upon the Editor of _Punch_ by his +affectionate and respectful Staff. + +Mark Lemon died on May 23rd, 1870. He had been very ill on one or two +previous occasions; even as early as 1848 Jerrold had written to John +Forster that "Lemon has been at Death's door--but has kept on the +outside." For nine-and-twenty years he had been at the helm; and +although he may not have been as paramount on _Punch_ as some aver, +there can be no doubt that he entirely merited the compliment paid by +Mr. Gladstone to his memory when, awarding a pension of £100 from the +Civil List to Mrs. Lemon, he said that he had "raised the level of comic +journalism to its present standard." The proprietors, with generous +sympathy, recognising the immense services of their friend, at once set +about making a collection for the widow and unmarried daughters (for +Lemon had been unsuccessful in his investments and speculations) and, +with the ready help of the Staff, prosecuted it with so much energy and +goodwill that the sum of £1,500 was quickly raised. + +He was lowered to rest in a coffin simply inscribed "Mark Lemon--Editor +of _Punch_;" for in _Punch_ he had lived his life. "He believed," said +Mr. Hatton, "in one God, one woman, one publication," as his surviving +colleagues well knew. "If this journal," they wrote by the hand of +Shirley Brooks, "has had the good fortune to be credited with habitual +advocacy of truth and justice, if it has been praised for abstinence +from the less worthy kind of satire, if it has been trusted by those who +keep guard over the purity of womanhood and of youth, we, the best +witnesses, turn for a moment from our sorrow to bear the fullest and +most willing testimony that the high and noble spirit of Mark Lemon ever +prompted generous championship, ever made unworthy onslaught or +irreverent jest impossible to the pens of those who were honoured in +being coadjutors with him." And in the poem that follows, testimony is +borne that-- + + "... 'Twas his pride to teach us so to bear + Our blades, as he bore his--keep the edge keen, + But strike above the belt: and ever wear + The armour of a conscience clear and clean." + +[Illustration: HENRY MAYHEW. + +_From a Photograph by Bedford, Lemere and Co., Strand, W.C._] + +The character of Henry Mayhew, and his share in the production of +_Punch_, have already been somewhat fully set forth. An old friend of +his informs me that "he was lovable, jolly, charming, bright, coaxing, +and unprincipled. He rarely wrote himself, but would dictate, as he +walked to and fro, to his wife, whom he would also leave to confront his +creditors. She was deeply attached to him; and when his father died, she +found that the careful solicitor had left her a bequest of two pounds a +week, payable to _herself_." And Postans, after he had lost his sight, +would now and then exclaim--"Although he treated me so badly, I should +love to hear the sound of his dear voice again!" There can be no doubt +that Henry Mayhew was a genius, a fascinating companion, and a man of +inexhaustible resource and humour--though humour was but one side of his +brilliant mind. Indolence was his besetting sin; and his will was +untutored. + + "An admirable all-round talker," Henry Vizetelly wrote to me + shortly before his death, "Henry Mayhew was brimming over with + novel ideas on all manner of subjects, from artificial production + of diamonds to the reformation of ticket-of-leave men. He was + constantly planning some new publication or broaching novel ideas + on the most out-of-the-way subjects. He would scheme and ponder all + the day long, but he abominated the labour of putting his ideas + into tangible shape. He would talk like a book on any subject for + hours together if he could only find listeners, but could with + difficulty be brought to put pen to paper. Most of his books were + written from his ideas by his younger brother Augustus, or were + dictated directly to his wife, who acted as his amanuensis. + Although he made considerable sums by his writings, he never seemed + to have a shilling; and most of the letters he received were from + dunning creditors. These missives, however, never troubled him, for + he never broke the envelopes of one of them, but handed all his + correspondence over to his wife to do as she pleased with and + answer such letters as she thought necessary. He was very + temperate. Whether he smoked as a young man, I am not aware; but + he never smoked at the periodical evening gatherings at his house, + when the guests could hardly see each other for the clouds of + tobacco-smoke. On these occasions the most abstruse subjects were + often discussed, and all we young wiseacres present contributed our + modicum of knowledge towards the elucidation of problems that + sorely perplexed the thinkers of the epoch. Although Mayhew would + sit up till any hour as long as anyone would stay and listen to + him, he never allowed this to interfere with his early-rising + habits." + +The impression made by Mayhew upon his contemporaries was invariably +such as to command respect for his intellectual capacity. Considering +his deep, philosophic mind, says one critic, if his lines had been cast +in more serious places, he might have been a sociologist, the equal of +John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer. There is proof enough of this in +that wonderful encyclopædic work of "London Labour and London Poor," +which displayed his original mind and his power of research, as much as +other books displayed his marvellous invention, fancy, and initiative, +and it is the only one of his undertakings which he had perseverance +enough to carry through to a triumphant conclusion--so far as it can +claim finality. It was while he was engaged on this work that Landells +(according to a private letter) visited him and found him, in company +with his brother Augustus and William Jerrold, interviewing a +"coster"--"drawing him," while Horace Mayhew took down everything the +man said. + +Such was the man who conceived _Punch_ as it came to be, and who wrote +of it when it was established, "I smell lots of tin thereabouts; but our +Lemon requires a great deal of squeezing." What was his connection with +_Punch_, how he agreed with Lemon as to the transfer to Bradbury and +Evans, how he found himself replaced by (or, as he considered, outwitted +by) Mark Lemon in the editorship has already been recited. Nevertheless, +he was retained as "Suggestor-in-Chief"--an office which suited him well +enough, considering his hatred of the drudgery of writing. + + "Mr. Henry Mayhew," writes _Punch's_ ex-Printer, "the special + joke-provider for _Punch_, was a most jocular character. He would + stand beside the compositor while he was working at his case, and + closely watch every movement of his hand in picking up each letter. + He said he could not make out how ever the compositor could keep + the alphabetical order of each box in his memory. So to master the + mystery he set to work and learned the boxes for himself, and would + often find amusement, when waiting for a proof, in setting up a few + lines, very slowly at first, but, shifting the composing rule and + thoughtlessly laying down the stick the wrong way, generally upset + all his work, and so he gave it up in despair. This Mr. Mayhew was + very clever in creating and roughly sketching out many of the small + comic column illustrations, and would write the witty inscriptions + for them. These would then go to the artist, who sketched out the + idea and so completed it. In _Punch_, as in many other similar + works, the mind to invent the idea caricatured, and the hand that + pencils it, belong to two very different persons and capacities. + Mr. Mayhew was very clever in this way, and anything of a comic + nature he saw he would at once sketch off and then have a cut made + of it. Most of the inimitable cuts in the first few volumes of + _Punch_ are of his invention. He was always sketching and taking + rough notes of everything he saw. The great John Leech called him + his indispensable 'Jack-all, or broad-grin provider.'" + +In spite of his disappointment, Henry Mayhew remained with _Punch_ until +1845. His last literary contribution--"A Shaksperean Nursery Rhyme," on +the subject of Macready playing Shakespeare in Paris before Louis +Philippe and Prince de Joinville--appeared in February of that year; but +he still attended the Dinners and made suggestions for cartoons, of +which twelve were accepted in that year. With his proposal, however, of +the cartoon of "Don Roebucis," which was drawn by Leech (14th March, +1846), his last word was said; and from that time forward his connection +with _Punch_ ceased absolutely. He had given the paper its character and +tone; he had suggested its first great success, the Almanac; he had +supported its transfer, whereby it was firmly established; and he had +cracked its biggest joke--the joke which is universally quoted to this +very day.[33] He died in 1887, at the age of 75, and his old friend +celebrated him in verse, none too correctly, though in the kindliest +manner, ending thus:-- + + ".... Farewell! + The record of the age's course will tell + Of him whose name a double honour bore, + Comrade of _Punch_ and champion of the poor."[34] + +[Illustration: J. STIRLING COYNE. (_From a Photograph by Lombard and +Co._)] + +There was a fund of Irish humour in Joseph Stirling Coyne. He had proved +it by his plays long before he undertook his share of the co-editorship +which was offered him at that "Edinburgh Castle" meeting where so much +of _Punch's_ present and future was arranged. He was at that time +eight-and-twenty years of age; and although he was dramatic critic of +the "Sunday Times," the drama rather than the press was his natural +field of action--indeed, he wrote no fewer than five-and-fifty pieces of +various kinds, besides plays in collaboration, and was secretary of the +Dramatic Authors' Society, until his death. Nevertheless, he belonged in +a manner to the inner circle of the "_Punch_ set," and frequented the +taverns that were their clubs; and he even went in double harness with +Mark Lemon as co-editor, _vice_ "Alphabet" Bayley, of "The Bude +Light"--an English imitation of "Les Guêpes." He was, in fact, a man of +some celebrity who had already gained public reputation beyond the band +of men, brilliant, no doubt, but, for the most part, with their +successes yet to come--so that he was accorded the important rôle which +he filled with peculiar modesty. He wrote extremely little, but he seems +to have formed some distinct notion of his share in the foundation, for +Edmund Yates records how his father once came home and, throwing the +first number of _Punch_ on the table, said, "Here is Stirling Coyne's +new paper!" At last Coyne was charged by Lemon (who always referred +contemptuously to him as "Paddy") with stealing one of his "Puff Papers" +from a Dublin paper. At _Punch's_ transfer Coyne quietly, though +discontentedly, retired from duties which had hitherto brought him +neither reputation nor pleasure, and only a hundred pounds in cash from +Landells, and from Douglas Jerrold--as I learn from one who heard it--a +savage _mot_, referring to his somewhat uncleanly appearance, which will +undoubtedly adhere--"Stirling Coyne? _I call him Filthy Lucre!_" + +[Illustration: GILBERT ABBOTT À BECKETT.] + +From no choicer spirit than Gilbert Abbott à Beckett could Mayhew have +sought for assistance and literary support. He was the first applied to, +and of all the Staff he had had by far the most experience in the +production of "comic papers," although he was only thirty years of age. +His brother, the late Hon. T. T. à Beckett, has told how he and his chum +Henry Mayhew, his junior by a year, with a consolidated share capital of +three pounds and a mortgage to a printer of future profits, prepared to +start a "satirical paper," to be called "The Cerberus"--the joint +editors being then still young boys. As it happily befell, Mr. à +Beckett, senior, discovered a proof of the first number, and with his +solicitorial eye discovered some forty-three clear libels in the four +columns. He hastened to the address on the imprint, and set the matter +plainly before the printer, who was only too glad to cancel the whole +matter that had been "set" upon payment of the bill. So deeply were the +lads affronted by this unwarrantable interference with their +journalistic spirit and liberty of the subject that they ran away from +home to Edinburgh, walking all the way; but soon returned in a woeful +plight. From that moment, Gilbert turned journalist--it came to him as a +second nature--and thenceforward supported himself by his pen, while +establishing a very fair position at the Bar, thanks to the support of +his father's firm. + +It was in 1831 that he presented himself prominently before the public. +Jerrold's "Punch in London" had not yet begun its little life of +seventeen numbers, so that the moment was propitious for à Beckett to +embark on a venture of his own; and on December 10th it made its first +appearance. This was "Figaro in London," in which his youthful ardour +and plain speaking found energetic vent. He was always ready, in a +humorous, bombastic sort of spirit, to smash the aristocracy, to chaff +Alfred Bunn, to abuse low-class Jews, and to discuss the theatre. In +these agreeable vocations he hit the popular taste, and certainly +achieved a considerable circulation, which, Timbs declares, reached at +one time 70,000 copies. Small topical cuts, grandiloquently set down as +"magnificent caricatures," were well arranged as a rule, and things were +going well enough when editor and artist fell out; Robert Cruikshank +took Seymour's place--and à Beckett's monthly adulation of his old +"cartoonist's" work turned suddenly to contempt. + +All this was meant more than half in fun; it was too violently personal +to be serious. Anyway, à Beckett declared in the paper that "it is not +true that Robert Seymour has gone out of his mind--he had none to go out +of," and Seymour retaliated heartily with a "sharp _cut_." In due course +Seymour resumed his place on "Figaro," and retained it to the end. In +December, 1834, à Beckett had handed over the paper, in the height of +its prosperity, to Henry Mayhew, who continued it for a time, and in +1839 it came to an end. Yet on so slender a basis as this has been +brought against à Beckett the cruel charge that it was these assaults +which did at a subsequent period drive Seymour out of his mind and led +to his unhappy suicide. + +After "Figaro" died, and indeed partly during its continuance, à Beckett +launched out into an extraordinary series of extraordinary papers, +editing for other proprietors "The Wag," "The Evangelical Penny +Magazine," Dibdin's "Penny Trumpet," "The Thief" (under the engaging +frankness of whose title we may see the forerunner of "Public Opinion"), +"Poor Richard's Journal," and "The People's Penny Pictures;" while on +his own account he ran successively "The Terrific Penny Magazine," "The +Ghost," "The Lover," "The Gallery of Terrors," "The Figaro Monthly +Newspaper," "The Figaro Caricature Gallery," and "The Comic Magazine." +But in spite of all this ingenuity in title-devising, and of all this +dogged perseverance--though one can hardly call it seriousness--not one +of these journals obtained public support. As a matter of fact, they +were the journalistic wild oats of a born journalist and an exuberant +littérateur, who, as a youthful playwright and a budding barrister, now +had his hands quite full, yet--such was the fever of his industry--never +full enough. + +His first contribution to _Punch_, according to W. H. Wills' statement, +was "The Above Bridge Navy" (p. 35, Volume I., 1841); but it is +practically certain that "Commercial Intelligence" in the first number +is his. "I recollect well," says the Hon. T. T. à Beckett, in his +Reminiscences, "my brother--who wrote for it from the first number to +the last that appeared in his life-time--bringing me away from my office +on an assurance that if I accompanied him as far as the Strand, he would +show me something that would fill me at once with gratification and +amazement. He kept me in suspense until I reached Catherine Street, when +he stopped short and said, 'Now you shall see me draw a pound from +_Punch_, and if that don't amaze you and gratify you, you must have but +a poor sense of the marvellous and very little brotherly sympathy.'" + +Just about the period when the negotiations were being carried on with +Bradbury and Evans, à Beckett began to fall off in the amount of his +contributions, and for a time practically ceased altogether. At this +time he edited the "Squib" (28th May, 1842), a folio sheet published at +three-halfpence, very respectably conducted and printed, and owned by +Last _Punch's_ old printer, illustrated by Henning, Hamerton, and +Newman, _Punch_ artists, treating many of _Punch's_ pet subjects in the +_Punch_ spirit, including "Physiologies," which the older paper had made +its own. It was also stated that several of the _Punch_ Staff were among +its contributors. However this may be, the "Squib" went off in December +of the same year, and à Beckett thenceforward worked loyally for _Punch_ +for the rest of his life, and bequeathed moreover his two sons to +_Punch's_ service. + +His popular "Songs for the Seedy," a series of eight poems, were +published in this year in _Punch_, as well as "Songs of the Flowers;" +and soon his "Ballads of the Briefless" made a considerable stir in +_Punch's_ circle. À Beckett had been called to the Bar some time before, +so that his ballads as well as the articles from his hand which +appeared--and, from time to time, continued--over the signature of "Mr. +Briefless," had a touch of verisimilitude which went straight to the +soft places in the hearts and imagination of the Great Unbriefed. "Mr. +Briefless" became an institution in the paper, as, in other journals, +Mr. O. P. Q. Philander Smiff, and again, in a lower social scale, Mr. +Alfred Sloper, became recognised by a later generation. This unfortunate +gentleman of the Bar--a gentleman always, in spite of his weakness of +intellect and character--was shown in all the difficulties germane to +his barren profession, and in all the ludicrous situations that came +natural to the man. Many of his quaint aphorisms are still remembered, +such as that, elsewhere recorded--"As my laundress makes my bed, so I +must lie upon it," and "The clerk brings down his master's grey +horsehair wig in sorrow to the Court." Yet he was not without +self-respect, not to say vanity, for on the occasion of a great +political crisis, when the resignation of the Ministry was impending, +"Mr. Briefless" somewhat injudiciously left his retreat at Gravesend and +came up to London, in order to be on the spot should he be called upon +to form or to join the future Cabinet. The only summons he received, +however, was from his tailor, and, with the unfailing judgment and good +sense that characterised him, he withdrew once more into the country. +"Mr. Briefless" and "Mr. Dunup," his friend, were creations that were at +once recognised, and were welcomed during the fifteen years of their +occasional appearance. + +In 1843 his "_Punch's_ Heathen Mythology" followed Wills' chapters on +the same subject, and in the following year his "Comic Blackstone"--one +of the cleverest burlesques of its kind in the language--served another +purpose than to amuse his readers: it forced him to study the +commentaries--for the first time, it was facetiously said--and so made a +better lawyer of him, and helped to fit him for the magisterial bench, +to which he was soon to be summoned. His "Comic Bradshaw" was another +success, which Mr. Burnand repeated and improved upon years after in his +inimitable "Out of Town." Mr. Arthur à Beckett, speaking of his father's +work, tells me: "I remember on one occasion when my father had written a +drama descriptive of the mysteries of Bradshaw, Leech, to whom it was +sent for illustration, introduced a series of portraits of the author. +Lemon, noticing this, suggested that the drama should end by the hero +getting his head shaved, more clearly to understand the intricacies of +railway traffic. My father adopted the suggestion, and Leech followed +the 'copy.'" + +It was not in these series that his chief work lay, however, but in the +enormous mass of matter he turned into _Punch's_ pages month by month. +He was by far the most prolific of all the contributors, almost up to +the time of his death. Articles humorous and pungent on every variety of +topic, verse graceful, bright, and comic, sparkling puns innumerable, +with increasing thought and sense as the man grew older and realised +more and more the responsibility of his position and _Punch's_--all +flowed from him in an unceasing, easy stream, distinguished always for +its fun and facility. As his average contribution to each volume was a +hundred columns, it will be seen that in the time he was working for +_Punch_ his total of prose and verse amounted to three thousand feet, +or a column nearly as high as the Eiffel Tower! There was, besides, the +amount of "outside" work that came from his pen--he was leader-writer to +the "Illustrated London News," and as such was the literary father of +Shirley Brooks, the grandfather of Mr. Sala, and the great-grandfather +of Mr. James Payn. He was also leader-writer on the "Times," and on one +occasion actually wrote all the leaders of the day's issue. This strange +coincidence arose from his having had a leader "crowded out" from the +day before, which was naturally set down for use the next day, when he +contributed his usual article without any question arising; and then a +sudden appeal upon a subject with which he was specially familiar +brought into the paper a third article from him--and that in the days, +now fifty years ago, when the influence and position of the "Times" were +perhaps even greater, relatively, than they are to-day: at least, when +there was no competitor that could seriously pretend to share them. In +addition to this he edited Cruikshank's "Table Book," and wrote the +Comic Histories of England and Rome. It was, it is generally said, on +the occasion of the first of these books being announced that Douglas +Jerrold wrote to Charles Dickens: "_Punch_, I believe, holds its +course.... Nevertheless, I do not very cordially agree with its new +spirit. I am convinced that the world will get tired (at least, I hope +so) of this eternal guffaw at all things. After all, life has something +serious in it. It cannot all be a comic history of humanity. Some men +would, I believe, write a Comic Sermon on the Mount. Think of a Comic +History of England; the drollery of Alfred; the fun of Sir Thomas More +in the Tower; the farce of his daughter begging the dear head, and +clasping it in her coffin on her bosom! Surely the world will be sick of +such blasphemy!... When, moreover, the change comes, unless _Punch_ goes +a little back to his occasional gravities, he'll be sure to suffer." And +Dickens replied in a letter thanking him for sympathetic reviews, in +_Punch_--"Anent the 'Comic ----' and similar comicalities, I feel +exactly with you." + +Of course, with the exception of the latter part of Jerrold's outburst, +wherein he was undoubtedly right, all this protest is exaggerated +nonsense--at least, as applied to à Beckett. One would think that +neither Jerrold nor Dickens could bear a burlesque in good +taste--Jerrold of all men! But it is just as likely that Jerrold was not +referring to à Beckett at all, but to Thackeray, whose "Miss +Tickletoby's Comic History" had already made its appearance in _Punch_, +and had been incontinently stopped. In any case, the public did not +agree with him, for both works are still popular favourites. Moreover, +he liked à Beckett too well to harm him in the mind of a common friend; +and he was unquestionably aware that the loftiness of à Beckett's aims +and character rendered him unassailable against a charge of irreverence +or lack of respect. Certain it is, at least, that when à Beckett died at +Boulogne Jerrold felt the blow so deeply that he gave up that town +thenceforward as a place of residence, nor would he ever visit it again. + +It was at the early age of thirty-eight that à Beckett was appointed +police-magistrate, chiefly owing to the masterly report he drew up as +Poor-Law Commissioner in respect to the notorious Andover Union +Workhouse scandals[35]--"one of the best," said the Home Secretary, +"ever presented to Parliament." The appointment was much discussed, for +the general feeling had been educated in the views of Lord Selborne, who +asserted that no "person" connected with the Press nor any "gentleman in +the wine trade" could be permitted to attain to such an honour as the +Bench--an absurdity which has long since been dismissed. On one +occasion, it is said, when à Beckett lived at No. 10, Hyde Park Gate +South, Kensington Gore, he was instructed to hold himself in readiness, +as magistrate, to answer a summons to read the Riot Act in Hyde Park to +the unruly mob whose methods of protest against a popular grievance +constituted the "Beer Bill Riots" of 1855. That summons never came, +luckily for him; for later in the day he discovered, to his dismay, +that his careful and solicitous wife, with greater respect for her +husband's skin than for the needs of Government, Police, and Proletariat +combined, had gone out early, after securely locking the unconscious +magistrate in his library, and had prudently carried off the key. + +À Beckett had been one of the shyest and most nervous men that ever +lived, but his appointment to the police-court--first at Greenwich, then +at Southwark--removed much of his undue modesty, and he was recognised +as being energetic, sagacious, and humane. He was a tremendous worker, +incomparably quick, and above all was absolutely punctual in his +delivery of "copy"--a virtue quite sufficient to account for his +popularity with publishers, who also were attracted by his retiring and +distinguished manners. Though his conversation was bright, he preferred +to keep his witticisms for his public or private writings, as when, in +sending in a parcel of "copy" to Mark Lemon, he wrote on the outside:-- + + "Dear Mark--I do herewith enclose + Some 'copy' both in verse and prose. + 'Tis neither very bright nor terse-- + The verse is bad--the prose is worse. + But you, of course, will read and check it. + Yours ever, G. etcet'ra Beckett." + +This paper passed, as a wrapper, from Lemon to Mr. Birket Foster, and +from the hands of that gentleman to an autograph-hunter undiscoverable. + +À Beckett's wit was exceedingly nimble, and as a consequence he was a +facile punster. One of his happiest jokes of the kind has been set on +record. When the election of Louis Napoleon appeared likely, the policy +of _Punch_ in respect to it was anxiously discussed at the Table. One of +the Staff--Thackeray most likely--declared that it would be wisest to be +indefinite. "Nonsense," said à Beckett, "if you're not definite, you'd +better be dumb in it!" + +While occupied in writing a series of papers called "Mr. Punch's Guide +Books to the Crystal Palace," illustrated by Tenniel, Gilbert à Beckett +died at Boulogne from typhus fever, his youngest son Walter predeceasing +him by two days from the same complaint--the grief of any knowledge of +it, however, being happily spared the father. He was buried in Highgate +Cemetery, and the inscription engraved upon the tombstone was reproduced +in an abbreviated and modified form from the touching obituary notice in +which his brother-workers, through Jerrold's pen, testified to his +merits and to their affection: "Endowed with a genial, manly spirit; +gifted with subtlest powers of wit and humour, they were ever exercised +to the healthiest and most innocent purpose. As a Magistrate, his wise, +calm, humane administration of the law proved that the fulfilment of the +gravest duties is not incompatible with the sportiveness of literary +genius. 'His place knows him not,' but his memory is tenderly +cherished." + +The connection of Angus Bethune Reach with _Punch_ was not of very long +duration. With Albert Smith he had been joint editor of "The Man in the +Moon," and with Shirley Brooks was one of the special correspondents of +the "Morning Chronicle" in the South of France, as well as its +Parliamentary reporter. He had followed up Albert Smith's series of +"Natural Histories," of "The Gent," "The Flirt," and other specimens of +English Society, with "Bores" and "Humbugs," which ran through several +editions. He had joined "The Puppet Show" in 1848, while still quite a +youth; he had written "The Comic Bradshaw" (which found an echo in +_Punch_ years later) and one or two successful novels, and had with +Brooks laid siege to a position on _Punch's_ Staff. This, it might +almost be said, he carried, as Brooks did, by assault; and having given +up the editorship of "The Man in the Moon" with its twenty-eighth number +(1849), he was duly summoned to the _Punch_ Table. + +His life was at that time hardly a pleasant one, though his industry +(for the craze of work was upon him) was as great as his versatility, +and his field of labour as wide as his knowledge. When he came to the +_Punch_ Table, he found his haven; but he was heckled, of course, by +Douglas Jerrold, on the score of his name and its quaint pronunciation. +Concerning this name (pronounced Re-ach in the German manner, _anglice_ +Re-ack), Angus once asked his father, a Writer to the Signet, in the +hearing of my informant, the late H. G. Hine, what on earth it meant. +"As in Highland Scotch," was the reply, "'Dhu' means 'black' and 'Roy' +means 'red,' so Reach means half-and-half, or 'brown.'" He therefore +insisted on its proper pronunciation; with the natural result. Jerrold +delighted in teasing him about it, and at a Dinner at the "Ship" at +Brighton, where the _Punch_ Staff held one of their meetings, +Jerrold[36] leant forward at dessert and asked--"Mr. Re-ack, may I pass +you a pe-ack?" And on another occasion, when Reach protested against +Jerrold's persistent ill-treatment of his name, the wit replied, "Oh, I +see. Re-ack when we speak to you, but _reach_ when we read you!" + +At last, in 1854, Reach's incorrigible industry bore its Dead-Sea fruit; +broken down with over-work, his mind utterly gave way. Thereupon his +friends of the Fielding Club, reinforced by Albert Smith of "The Man in +the Moon," joined together to play for his benefit Smith's pantomime +burlesque, "Harlequin Guy Fawkes; or, a Match for a King," at the +Olympic Theatre, April, 1855. Arthur Smith, Albert's brother, played +pantaloon; Bidwell was harlequin; Joseph Robins, clown; Albert Smith, +Catesby; Edmund Yates, the lover; and Miss Rosina Wright ("always Rosy, +always Wright," wrote Smith) was columbine. The rush, said E. L. +Blanchard, was unprecedented, and stalls were cheap at ten pounds. The +great broadsword fight between Smith (Catesby) and Robins (Guy Fawkes), +in the rich traditions of the Surrey-Crummles School, was the hit of the +evening, and has been immortalised by Sir John Tenniel in his drawing +for _Punch_ (p. 149, Volume XXVIII.), entitled "The Amateur Olympians." +But Reach did not benefit long from the efforts of his friends, and died +before he was thirty. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] See p. 2. + +[30] Douglas Jerrold writes to Hodder under date September 9th:--"I have +been worked to death for _Punch_, having it all on my shoulders, Mark, à +Beckett, and Thackeray being away. Nevertheless, last week it went up +1,500." Jerrold, it may be added, would at that time undertake some of +the editorial as well as the literary work. + +[31] This was "The Little Frenchman's Second Lesson," an important poem +occupying a whole page. + +[32] Under "Editor" were entered all, except very special, contributions +coming from outside. + +[33] See p. 141. + +[34] An example of Henry Mayhew's quaint presentation of his own +experiences is to be found in the paragraph he contributed under the +title of "TAVERN CHARGES AT DOVER":--"Waiter! How much is my glass of +brandy-and-water?" "The bill, sir." "What! 10s. 6d.?" "Yes, sir, +brandy's 2s.; never charge less." "Well?" "Sugar 6d.; never charge +less." "Go on." "Waxlight and apartment, 5s." "Why, I've only been here +five minutes." "That's not our fault, sir; we never charge less." "Go +on." "Servants, 2s." "What?" "Me, boots and chambermaid; never charge +less." "Well, what next?" "The use of plate, glass, and linen, 1s." +"What do you mean?" "Teaspoon, tumbler, and table-cloth; never charge +less; but--we makes you a present of the biling water." "Very well, +there's your 10s. 6d., and I shall write to the 'Times.'" "Yes, +sir--pen, ink, and paper, 1s.; never charge less." + +[35] A "Petition," supposed to come from the inmates (written by +Percival Leigh), appeared in _Punch_ (p. 101, Volume IX.), in which the +petitioners begged that some of the kitchen refuse and pigs'-wash, +hitherto used to _over_fatten swine, might be reserved for them. This +petition had an admirable effect. + +[36] Hodder incorrectly gives the _mot_ to Thackeray. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1841. + + H. P. Grattan--W. H. Wills--R. B. Postans--Bread-Tax and + Tooth-Tax--G. Hodder--G. H. B. Rodwell--Douglas Jerrold--His + Caustic Wit--The "Q Papers"--A Statesman _pour rire_--His Sympathy + with the Poor and Oppressed--Wins for _Punch_ his Political + Influence--Ill-health--"_Punch's_ Letters"--The "Jenkins" and + "Pecksniff" Papers--"Mrs. Caudle"--Jerrold's Love of Children, + common to the Staff--He Silences his Fellow-wits--And is Routed by + a Barmaid--He sends his Love to the Staff--And they prove theirs. + + +The remaining contributors to the first number were Joseph Allen, H. P. +Grattan, and W. H. Wills. The contribution of the first-named has +already been indicated. H. P. "Grattan"--whose real name was Plunkett, +and whose occasional pseudonym was the familiar "Fusbos"--worked well +for the first numbers and for the Almanac. He was a witty versifier and +clever dramatist, but he soon tired of the paper and directed his +energies into other channels. W. H. Wills--"Harry Wills" he was always +called--was a more important and a more faithful contributor. His first +verses were "A Quarter-day Cogitation" (p. 5), and for some time he was +the regular dramatic critic of _Punch_, in which a considerable amount +of space was accorded to the review of amusements of all kinds, and not +a little to Charles Kean and his histrionic deficiencies. Besides +"_Punch's_ Theatre," he wrote paragraphs, verses, and criticisms +innumerable, including the series of "_Punch's_ Natural History of +Courtship," illustrated by the pencils of Sir John Gilbert, Newman, and +Gavarni; "_Punch's_ Comic Mythology," "_Punch's_ Information for the +People," as well as "_Punch's_ Valentines," and lively skits like "The +Burst Boiler and the Broken Heart," and the verses in praise of +pawnbrokers, "The Uncles of England." After helping the Almanac for +1846, his _Punch_ connection was interrupted for a period through his +being called to Edinburgh to edit "Chambers's Journal;" but on his +return to London two years later he resumed his position in a modified +form. He became secretary to Charles Dickens, who was then editing the +"Daily News," as well as his assistant editor on "Household Words," and +subsequently on "All the Year Round," so that little time was left him +for humorous composition--though he certainly found leisure to issue +"The Family Joe Miller." When he was in Edinburgh he married Robert +Chambers' sister--a lady possessed of true Scottish wit, some of whose +pithy remarks are still remembered, such as "The ladies who agitate for +women's rights are generally men's lefts." + +Of the other two writers who aided in the founding of _Punch_--Postans +and George Hodder--there is little to say. The first-named, indeed, has +already been sufficiently dealt with, but it may be added that his last +contribution was his verses--"A Contribution by Cobden"--on the subject +of the removal by Sir Robert Peel of the tax on artificial teeth. +Postans saw his chance, for the Repeal of the Corn Laws was already +being agitated, and the tooth-tax troubled his mouth less than the tax +on bread. His final verse ran-- + + "Reverse your plan," the Goddess [Commerce] said, + And smiling stood in all her beauty; + "Give me untaxed my daily bread, + And tax my teeth with double duty." + +Besides his ambassadorial assistance, and in spite of his presence at +the _Punch_ Club, Hodder was not of much account on the paper, either in +its formation or its literary production. He was, however, related to +_Punch_ by marriage, being the husband of Henning's beautiful daughter, +the niece of Kenny Meadows' wife. His last appearances in its pages were +in 1843, when four contributions (including "_Punch's_ Phrenology") came +from him; and then he resumed his usual work of journalist, became +Thackeray's secretary for a time, and died through the upsetting of a +coach in Richmond Park. + +Passing by Leman Rede and G. H. B. Rodwell (composer, playwright, and +ballad writer), neither of whom, so far as I have been able to +ascertain, has left any appreciable trace on _Punch_, we come to the +man to whom, more than to anyone else, the paper owed the enormous +political influence it once enjoyed, and to whom it is indebted for much +of the literary reputation it still retains--Douglas Jerrold. + +[Illustration: DOUGLAS JERROLD + +(_From the Portrait by Sir D. Macnee, F.R.S.A., in the National Portrait +Gallery._)] + +If he was not exactly the wit of his day--for his mind lacked the wider +sympathy, the greater grasp, and gentler refinement of Sydney +Smith's--he was certainly the most brilliant professional humorist of +his generation--"a wit, if not first, in the very first line." Something +of the bitterness and savagery of Gillray's rampant pleasantry afflicted +his _vis comica_; and when a happy thought, however unhappy and painful +for the hearer, came to the tip of his tongue, he could no more resist +slipping it off than he could wilfully have done him injury. + +Mark Lemon used to say, "_Punch_ and I were made for each other." With +far more reason could that notion of reciprocity be applied to Jerrold. +No man ever gained so much from the paper in which he worked. He simply +frolicked in its pages, that fitted his talent as accurately as his +genius suited the times in which he lived. It is doubtful whether he +would make the same mark in it were he alive to-day; he would have to +seek another publication and another public, or else adopt an utter +change of tone. But in those lively times, when, obeying the summons +addressed to him in Boulogne, he sent his first political +paper--beginning characteristically with the introduction of Peel, in +time for the second number--he gave his powers full play. And his +sparkle was the brighter for its setting and its surroundings. His wit +was for the most part caustic and saturnine, and in no other journal +could it have so completely identified itself with the _ensemble_ of +tone. Without _Punch_, Jerrold would certainly not have been so +distinguished a man; yet he somewhere says in one of his works, with a +touch of ingratitude: "If you'd pass for somebody, you must sneer at a +play, but idolise _Punch_"--as though this were the height of +priggishness. He was a keen judge of things, and might have held that +view; but it was hardly for him, of all men, to publish it. + +It is not surprising that, with the enormous reputation for wit which he +enjoyed, and up to which he lived with such triumphant ease, all the +smarter orphan-jokes of the day were fathered upon him. But there was a +ring about the true Jerroldian humour which the connoisseur could hardly +mistake. And the public soon became good enough judges of it too, +studying it regularly in _Punch_, and refusing for the most part to be +led away to look for it in the other journals which Jerrold edited, with +but indifferent success so far as their circulation went. Although his +fame was already established as a dramatist before _Punch_ was born, I +doubt, without _Punch_, he would ever have earned the reputation in pure +literature which his "Q Papers" helped to found. + +It was with these "Q Papers" that he began, and he threw into them some +of his strongest and most withering writing, and oftentimes some of his +weakest sense. With his soft heart melting for the poor, and his fiery +hatred of oppression warping his better judgment, he was led into that +unreasoning attack upon property and authority to which Thackeray +deprecatingly alludes. Because the poor are unhappy, according to his +philosophy, therefore are the rich, most of them, their direct +oppressors, and ruling bodies, tyrants. Fiercely upright and +aggressively impulsive in his championship of the lowly, he was anything +but sound and thorough in his premisses; and had he the power he might +have wielded later, his defects as a political economist would +infallibly have brought about disaster. "His Radicalism," his son has +told us, "was that of a humorist"--that is to say, all his power and all +his wit as a writer (and they had few, if any, equals in the press), all +his genius for invective and ridicule, and all his commanding influence +with the public, were directed against Society and the powers that were, +simply from a playful sense of humour! Luckily, the evil, or at least +the danger, thus found a corrective for itself; for although Jerrold's +power, and with it _Punch's_, grew with amazing rapidity among all +classes, his tirades were felt to come more from the humorist's heart +than from the statesman's brain. It is thus easy to draw a comparison +between Jerrold and Jean Paul Friedrich Richter, of whom Carlyle says: +"He is a humorist from his inmost soul; he thinks as a humorist, he +feels, imagines, acts as a humorist. Sport is the element in which his +nature lives and works.... A Titan in his sport, as in his earnestness, +he oversteps all bounds, and riots without law or measure." The words +might almost have been written of Jerrold himself. But, for all that, he +was generally recognised as a leading champion of the people's rights +and reformer of their wrongs; and to this passionate earnestness, to +this keen wit and shrewd sincerity of the unconsciously special pleader, +_Punch_ owed most of the early notice he obtained, and much of his +influence in the worlds of politics and Society. + +These papers, then, of which the first was "Punch and Peel" (July 24th, +1841), were, in fact, political leading-articles, satirical, ironical, +bitter, and more often demagogic than humorous, though of wit and humour +both there was a generous undercurrent. _Punch_ showed himself at once a +fighting man who meant to be in the thick of the fray, a politician as +impulsive as Macaulay; and though Jerrold did not begin to sign his +articles until the ninth week (which has given grounds to some writers +to assert that "Peel Regularly Called In" was the first of his +contributions), he soon succeeded in setting up "Q" as a personality +every bit as important and influential amongst his readers as _Punch_ +himself. The Court, the Church, the Political and Social arena, he +included them all in his comprehensive gaze, and not an injustice, a +sham, an affectation, or a blunder--or what he happened to regard as +such--but came in for exposure and castigation. It was fortunate for him +and for _Punch_, no doubt, that he was "a humorist;" for his own +blunders and misjudgments were regarded with the more indulgence for it, +or were condoned as the excusable excesses of a chartered jester running +playfully amok. But it must not be imagined that though a humorist he +was not desperately sincere. His own early struggles, his ghastly +experience, as he ever thought it, when as a midshipman in the Navy he +saw how authority had to be enforced by flogging, and witnessed all the +revolting horrors of the cockpit during an engagement, had imparted +intense earnestness to his mind; and he focussed all his brilliancy on +the opportunity _Punch_ afforded of tilting at the windmills in the +plain. The fact seems to be that Jerrold's heart, and sometimes his +logic and his judgment as well, were a good deal of a woman's; +distinguished by every estimable and admirable quality, but with little +statesmanlike perspicuity and moderation. Such may truly be said of +those early "Q Papers," by which, nevertheless, he was able to effect +much, then and thereafter, greatly to the good of the people, yet often +wrought some of that intolerance and injustice which he was too ready to +ascribe to others. + +It was he, more than anyone else, who forced on _Punch_ that admixture +of Radicalism with his Whiggery which did not wear off for the first +years of his life, and which was often enough preached with that +picturesqueness of expression which we nowadays would smile at as +"high-falutin." But the lofty ideas of the writer carried off this fault +of style. His creed was simple and clear: Cant was devilish and +Samaritanism godly; to him hypocrisy was the blackest of the vices, and +kindness the sum of all the virtues. It mattered little that that +kindness misplaced might bring a train of evils in its place; sympathy +was the one thing wanted; the quinine of stern justice (except against +the great and rich) should ever be watered down with mercy. It was, in +fact, the religion less of the practical politician and true reformer, +than of the worthy, upright, kind-hearted, unthinking Christian. His +very fearlessness made men fear him, as his motives and ability +compelled their respect; and the majority, who cared less for political +philosophy than for political fervour, applauded him blindfold, and in +due time accorded to _Punch_ a place in their esteem second only to that +enjoyed by the "Times." Of course, "bitterness" was expected in the +satirical papers of that day; and it is not pretended that Jerrold was +ever so unreasonable or so anarchical in the pages of _Punch_ as William +Brough revealed himself in the brilliant attacks on the propertied +classes in which he indulged in his Liverpool journal. He lost, of +course, no opportunity of assailing the Duke of Wellington, and Louis +Philippe, and the "Morning Post" (articles in which he attacked the +snobs of England before Thackeray did), and other of _Punch's_ permanent +butts; but his chief merit lies in his having set up the hereditary sins +of Society as targets, and shot his barbed darts into them with unerring +accuracy of aim. Of his bitterness it was said that it was +"healthy--healthy as bark," just as Thackeray--was it not?--had +previously said of his own writings in "Britannia." + +It was not till a year afterwards (1842) that he began his "_Punch's_ +Letters to his Son." They were tender enough, and show little evidence +that they were written in weakness and in pain. His health, indeed, gave +him periods of agony of a rheumatic character, pain in his hands so +great that at one time he could not write, and at another his whole +racked body practically paralysed, until a "cure" at Malvern gave him +back control of it. On another occasion, but that was in later years, +when he was asked how he was, he replied, "As one that is waiting and is +waited for," and he often wrote, said his son, when the movement of the +pen was fierce pain to him. We may see in this physical torment, +perhaps, the mainspring of much of his caustic humour. Mr. Cooper, R.A., +would ascribe to over-indulgence much of Jerrold's suffering. "His +countenance was open and bright (when sober!), and showed nothing of +that satirical bitterness for which he was so eminent.... In accordance +with the fashion of the time the man who could not drink his bottle and +remain sober, drank his bottle and got drunk." But the Academician, like +most teetotalers, would often see drunkenness where Jerrold saw merely +drink, and probably knew nothing of the latter's own feelings towards +undue indulgence. "Habitual intoxication," wrote Jerrold himself, "is +the epitome of every crime;" and elsewhere, "The bottle is the devil's +crucible." Yet it must be admitted that he was not averse to what in his +day was called "true conviviality," which, as I have heard it remarked, +never yet made a man a drunkard, though it may sometimes have made him +drunk. "If Bacchus often leads men into quagmires deep as his vats, let +us yet do him this justice--he sometimes leads them out. Ask your +opponent to take another glass of wine." And did not Thomas Hood +suggest, when he was told that by his love of wine he was shortening his +days, that anyhow he was lengthening his nights? + +What may be called the "Jenkins" and the "Pecksniff" papers belong to +the same year. The former were directed against the "Morning Post," +which, with other loyal journals, in those days adopted a tone towards +Court and Society hardly in keeping with modern ideas of manly +independence, and of course its politics were to match. Thackeray and à +Beckett joined later in the sport. But Jerrold, while believing in +Thackeray's hatred of the snob, more than suspected him of being a snob +himself; and Thackeray felt not less convinced of the hollowness of +Jerrold's "stalwartness." "Thackeray had neither love nor respect for +Jerrold's democracy," Vizetelly tells us. "I remember him mentioning to +me his having noticed at the Earl of Carlisle's a presentation copy of +one of Jerrold's books, the inscription in which ran: 'To the Right +Honourable the Earl of Carlisle, K.G., K.C.B., etc. etc.' 'Ah!' said +Thackeray, 'this is the sort of style in which your rigid, +uncompromising Radical always toadies the great.'" And yet both men were +honest toady-haters to the core. It was this very hatred of snobbism +which inspired Jerrold with his cutting retort to Samuel Warren, author +of "Ten Thousand a Year," who complained that at some aristocratic house +at which he had recently dined he could positively get no fish. "I +suppose," said Jerrold, "they had eaten it all upstairs!"[37] + +The "Pecksniff" papers, as already stated, very nearly involved _Punch_ +in its first libel action. The object of its criticism was, of course, +Samuel Carter Hall, who, tradition says, was the origin of Dickens's +immortal conception. This creation--the symbol of cant and +hypocrisy--was after Jerrold's own heart, and, thinking less of charity +this time than of justice, he smote the luckless editor of the "Art +Journal" hip and thigh, and revelled in his attacks. Hall's articles on +the industrial art of England were supposed to be dictated more by the +complacency and generosity of manufacturers than by the artistic +excellence of their wares. Sometimes Jerrold would use the image of +"Pecksniff" for other and more serious purposes than the baiting of Mr. +Hall and his little ways, as when, in 1844, he made this biting +onslaught on the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel: + +"We have heard that Mr. Charles Dickens is about to apply to the Court +of Chancery for an injunction to prevent Sir Robert Peel continuing any +longer to personate, in his character of Premier, the character of Mr. +Pecksniff, as delineated in _Martin Chuzzlewit_, that character being +copyright. We hope this rumour is unfounded, as the injunction would +certainly be refused. Sir Robert Peel is in a condition to prove that +the part in question has been enacted by him for a long series of years, +and was so long before any of Mr. Dickens's works appeared; in short, +that he, Sir Robert Peel, is the original Pecksniff." + +The year 1843 was a notable one in _Punch's_ calendar, for in it Jerrold +struck that note of sympathy and tenderness that was almost immediately +to culminate in Hood's tragic poem. "The Story of a Feather" was begun, +and was the greatest success the paper had scored up to that time, with +the exception of the first Almanac. Dickens, who watched for it and read +it as it came out, wrote privately to him that it was "a beautiful +book," and his verdict was endorsed by the ever-increasing circle of +_Punch's_ readers. "Our Honeymoon" was Jerrold's last series of the +year--a year which drew from him plenty of outside work. He edited Mr. +Herbert Ingram's admirable but short-lived "Illuminated Magazine," and +wrote for it the "Chronicles of Clovernook" and the "Chronicles of a +Goosequill." It is astonishing, in looking back at Jerrold's remarkable +work at this period, to think that the public reads his books no more, +and prefers to ruin its literary taste on fifth-rate romances rather +than on the virile novels of a recent past. + +For a little while nothing of special note, though still a great mass of +work, came from Jerrold's pen, until 1845, when, as prophesied by Hal +Baylis (_see_ p. 97), "Mrs. Caudle" burst upon the town. In common with +a few other things achieved by _Punch_, it created a national _furore_, +and set the whole country laughing and talking. Other nations soon took +up the conversation and the laughter, and "Mrs. Caudle" passed into the +popular mind and took a permanent place in the language in an incredibly +short space of time. + +"Some years after I had ceased my connection with _Punch_," says Landells +in one of his autobiographical papers now in my hands, "I met Douglas +Jerrold at the corner of Essex Street in the Strand. It was the time +when the first number of the 'Caudle Curtain Lectures' appeared. In the +course of conversation I remarked that I did not read _Punch_ regularly, +but I had by chance perused the opening chapter of his new subject, and +I thought, if he followed up the series in the spirit he had begun, they +would be the most popular that have ever appeared in its pages. He +laughed heartily and replied--'It just shows what stuff the people will +swallow. I could write such rubbish as that by the yard;' and he added, +'I have before said, the public will always pay to be amused, but they +will never pay to be instructed.' The Caudle Lectures did more than any +series of papers for the universal popularity of _Punch_, and there is +no doubt but they added greatly to Jerrold's reputation, although he +always affected not to think so." + +The origin of Mrs. Caudle--one of those women interminably loquacious +and militantly gloomy under fancied marital oppression, who (as Jerrold +said of another) "wouldn't allow that there was a bright side to the +moon"--was the result of no mental effort. Henry Mayhew's son has said +that the character was evolved from the relations of Mr. and Mrs. +Landells; but to anyone conversant with them the suggestion is palpably +absurd. Moreover, Jerrold, himself a good authority, one would have +thought, declared that she was "the result of no thought;" she was +merely "wafted into his brain." The reason of the immediate success of +these "Curtain Lectures" was said to be that every woman in the land +recognised in the lecturer a gratifying resemblance to someone in her +own circle. It was primarily, no doubt, the _intime_ character of the +papers, rather than their inherent humour, that tickled the public +taste--though at the same time it gave some offence. A reminiscence of a +literary _protégée_ of Jerrold's--Mrs. Newton Crosland--seems to bear +this out. In company with her mother, she was dining at Jerrold's house, +when, "towards the close of the meal, a packet arrived--proofs, I fancy; +at any rate, Douglas Jerrold opened a letter which visibly disturbed +him. 'Hark at this,' he said, after a little while; and he then +proceeded to read a really pathetic though not very well expressed +letter from an aggrieved matron, who appealed to him to discontinue or +modify the Caudle Lectures. She declared they were bringing discord into +families and making a multitude of women miserable." + +But they made a greater multitude of men merry, and _Punch_ proceeded +with them--indeed, he continued so long that his rivals protested +loudly, as well they might in their own interests. They published +engravings of handsome sarcophagi, and gave similar unmistakable hints +that they considered the interment of Mrs. Caudle's corpse a long time +overdue; while "Joe Miller the Younger" represented him as "The Modern +Paganini playing on One String: 'Caudle--without variations.'" But +Jerrold, who had lately moved from Regent's Park to his house, West +Lodge, at Putney Lower Common, continued there to write Caudle Lectures +"by the yard"--alternating the locale, according to Mark Lemon, with a +tavern in Bouverie Street. And he laughed to see how his papers were +translated into nearly every Continental language, and were transferred +to the stage both in London and the provinces. Mrs. Keeley made a +life-like Mrs. Caudle at the Lyceum--only perhaps a little too fresh and +charming; the character in the provinces being often undertaken by male +impersonators, such, for example, as Mr. Warren. John Leech executed +upon stone a couple of admirable portraits of the conjugal pair, which +were sold, coloured, for a shilling; but they were soon pirated and +hawked about the streets, and the unprincipled conductors of "The Penny +Satirist," and similar abominations, traded largely not only on the +identity of the Caudles, but on the words of Mrs. Caudle herself--so +freely that legal steps had to be taken to stop the nuisance. The latest +edition of this _jeu d'esprit_ is that which has been illustrated by +Charles Keene, and it can hardly be doubted that in his drawings he +often touches the high-water mark of his artistic execution. + +In due time Douglas Jerrold, as in duty bound, made the _amende +honorable_ to the sex he had maligned. He was invited to take the chair +at a great public meeting held at Birmingham in his honour, when the +whole audience rose at him. He was asked to speak without fear, "as +there was no Mrs. Caudle in Birmingham." He responded that he "did not +believe that there was a Mrs. Caudle in the whole world," and the +gracefulness of his reference set him at peace with womankind once more. +In point of fact, he was no more pleased, artistically, with the success +of Mrs. Caudle among his books than he was pleased with the position of +"Black-eyed Susan" among his plays, as he was well aware that he had +done much better work in both branches. But for _Punch's_ sake he was +delighted. So after the death of Mrs. Caudle, which in decency could no +longer be delayed, Jerrold attempted to carry on the idea by marrying +the widower to the lady of whom his wife had been so jealous; so that +Mr. Caudle--his head turned by his new-born liberty--might, in the +"Breakfast Talk" levelled at his second spouse, avenge the oppression +he had suffered from his first. But the experiment, which took place in +the Almanac of the following year, fell flat, and Mr. and Mrs. Caudle, +too, dropped out of Mr. Punch's doll-box for good and all. + +Then followed, in 1846, "_Punch's_ Complete Letter-writer," which in +consequence of the odium incurred a short time before by Sir James +Graham, the Home Secretary,[38] by the opening of certain letters while +they were passing through the post, Jerrold sarcastically dedicated to +the heckled baronet. He did this on the ground that Sir James, having +the whole run of the Post Office and the fingering of all the letters, +must therefore possess "a most refined, most exquisite taste for the +graces of epistolary composition," and could thoroughly appreciate them. +This was another version of Hood's lines-- + + "A daw's not reckon'd a religious bird + Because he keeps a-cawing from a steeple," + +and is the pattern on which Mr. Whistler's effort was founded--that the +mere company of pictures can impart no feeling or knowledge of art, else +the policeman in the National Gallery must be the best of critics. But +at this time better work of Jerrold's, "St. Giles's and St. James's," +was appearing in his "Shilling Magazine" (newly started by Bradbury and +Evans), as well as in the "Daily News," under the title of the "Hedgehog +Papers;" while "Time Works Wonders" raised his reputation higher than +ever upon the stage. + +In the same year appeared the commencement of the series "Mrs. Bibs' +Baby"--but it was not a success, and was entirely thrown into the shade, +as it appeared, by Thackeray's first triumph, the "Snob Papers." The +chief charm about "Mrs. Bibs' Baby" is that it was the outcome of +Jerrold's passionate love of children. This delightful trait in +Jerrold's character--as in Steele's, Fielding's, Goldsmith's, and +Dickens's--has been common to many of the _Punch_ Staff, as we know in +their lives and have seen in their works. We all know how Thackeray +never saw a boy without wanting to tip him--a practical form of sympathy +which found great approval. Leech loved all children, even the terrible +ones, and makes us feel it in his drawings. Mr. du Maurier adores the +nice and the pretty ones, and even has a fatherly sort of pity for the +stupid and the ugly. Mr. Harry Furniss's "Romps" reflects his keen +delight in young people, the wilder the better. Shirley Brooks loved to +read the "Jabberwock" to them, and Sir John Tenniel, like his old chief, +Mark Lemon, loved them for their childhood's sake--or he would never +have been able to give us "Alice in Wonderland." Of course, there may be +others on the Staff who have no particularly pronounced feeling in this +direction; but Jerrold would often go out of his way to introduce babies +into his serious articles. He speaks somewhere of something "sweeter +than the sweetest baby"--and once said that "children are earthly idols +that hold us from the stars." So he began "Mrs. Bibs' Baby," and felt +humiliated and disappointed when the public showed no glimmer of +interest in it, and he was soon induced by his own good sense and the +editorial hint to desert his latest offspring. + +Then came "The Female Robinson Crusoe," and the last (modified) success, +"Twelve Fireside Saints;" but outside undertakings were almost +monopolising his attention. His "Weekly Newspaper," founded on the +strength of his "Q Papers," had been born and was already dead. His +powerful novel "A Man Made of Money" made his next unqualified success; +then in 1850 he became attached to the "Examiner," and two years later +"Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper" brought him an editorship and a thousand +pounds a year--and he knew at last, and for the first time, the meaning +of freedom from care. He became, moreover, independent of the publishers +of _Punch_, to whom he was pecuniarily indebted, although they had more +than once raised his salary (once in order to enable him to dispense +with working for the "Pictorial Times"); but his indebtedness he felt as +a tie, which was none the less irksome that it was a golden fetter which +bound him to his friends. Still, to the end he sent in his satires, +couplets, and epigrams--stinging, brilliant, and original--jokes and +sarcasms by the score, but extremely few puns. + +Sometimes, reviving the memories of his early trade, he would enter the +compositors' room, and, while waiting for a proof, would seize a +"stick," set up some concluding lines or a fresh paragraph in type, and +even make his own corrections in proof, almost driving the "reader" out +of his mind, until he learned how the corrections and additions had been +effected. + +That Jerrold's wit ran in a higher groove than mere verbal quips and +cranks is proved by the retorts and epigrams that have been preserved +and ticketed in cases like a collection of brilliant butterflies. When +one March or April he tumbled backwards into water where, but for the +unseasonable weather, no water ought to have been, he suggested that the +accident was "owing to the backward spring;" reminding us of that +similar witticism of Henry Compton's, when fine hot weather followed +suddenly on March snows--"We have jumped from winter to summer without a +spring." His reply was characteristic to the poet Héraud's enquiry as to +whether he had seen his "Descent into Hell" (then newly published)--"I +wish to Heaven I had;" together with his well-known retort to Albert +Smith, who, before he left the paper, protested coaxingly against +Jerrold's merciless chaff, adding, "After all, you know, we row in the +same boat." "True," answered Jerrold, quick as thought, "but not with +the same skulls." + +But he did not always come off scot-free; and, like many a wit whose +tongue is feared, he could be silenced by a well-directed thrust which, +for want of practice and experience in defence, he knew not how to +parry. Mr. Charles Williams tells me the story, recounted to him by +Thackeray, of how, when one wet night they were all at a little +oyster-shop then facing the Strand Theatre, the barmaid Jane, thoroughly +out of humour at Jerrold's chaff, slapped down before the little man the +liquor he had ordered, with the words, "There's your grog and take care +you don't drown yourself;" with the effect of damping his spirits for +the rest of the night. When Alfred Bunn retaliated with "A Word with +Punch,"[39] Jerrold made no reply, to the astonished delight of the +rival press. No man had greater courage than he; but he probably found +that he had nothing more to say, seeing that from week to week for years +past he had written against Bunn all he knew or could think of. And when +Shirley Brooks struck at him in "The Man in the Moon" in the course of a +mock election-address beginning--"I hate the humbug of the 'wrongs of +the poor man' class of writing when any sneaking rascal is found +poaching and punished for it"--Jerrold held his peace, and in due time +voted to have the damaging assailant invited to join _Punch's_ Staff. +Mrs. Landells, without straining their friendship, called him "the +little wasp" to his face; but, as Leigh Hunt more justly said, if he had +the sting of the bee, he also had the honey. When Jerrold said in his +wife's presence that a man ought to be able to change a spouse like a +bank-note--change one of forty for two of twenty--he indulged in kindly +chaff which she well understood and could appreciate; and when, on the +occasion of a party at their house, he replied to a question as to who +was dancing with his wife, "Oh, a member of the Humane Society, I +suppose," she had no objection to Leech making it into a picture for +_Punch's_ pages. When Jerrold said anything witty he would always laugh +frankly and unreservedly at it, and, like Dickens, he would burst out +laughing as he wrote, when he struck upon a comic idea for _Punch_. + +The report that Mark Lemon said of Douglas Jerrold that "he was +doubtless considered caustic because he blackened every character he +touched" is probably apocryphal--though Jerrold's occasional treatment +of Lemon might perhaps have justified some sort of retaliation from his +genial Editor. Still, it was Jerrold's firm belief, as he declared to +Mr. Sidney Cooper, R.A., that he had never in his life said or written a +bitter thing of anyone who did not deserve it. But when he was on his +death-bed, the day before he died, he sent a last affectionate message +to his old comrades at the Table: "Tell the dear boys that if I've ever +wounded any of them, I've always loved them." Horace Mayhew was with him +when he passed away, and thence from the bedside brought the dead man's +love to them as a token to wipe out the sting of words which, if they +had not been forgotten, had been forgiven long ago. + +After 1848 Jerrold wrote less and less for _Punch_; but until 1857, the +year of his death, he faithfully attended at the Table, and exerted +himself in _Punch's_ behalf. And when he died--the greatest blow _Punch_ +had hitherto suffered by death (for Dr. Maginn was never on the +Staff)--Henry Mayhew (his son-in-law), Thackeray, Horace Mayhew, Mark +Lemon, and W. Bradbury were his pall-bearers, and Leech, Shirley +Brooks, Tom Taylor, John Oxenford, Percival Leigh, James Hannay, +Landells, Kenny Meadows, Albert Smith, and John Tenniel attended at his +graveside. Dickens took a prominent part in raising a fund for the +benefit of the widow, and with Thackeray and Dr. W. H. (now Sir William) +Russell gave readings, while Dickens' Amateurs made a public appearance, +and T. P. Cooke returned to the stage for the occasion--with a result +amounting to £2,000. Tom Taylor's feeling address, which was spoken at +the Adelphi Theatre by Albert Smith, between whom and Jerrold a kindlier +feeling had latterly sprung up, concluded thus:-- + + "... If one joy + From earth can reach souls freed from earth's alloy, + 'Tis sure the joy to know kind hands are here + Drying the widow's and the orphan's tear; + Helping them gently o'er lone life's rough ways, + Sending what light may be to darkling days-- + A better service than to hang with verse, + As our forefathers did, the poet's hearse. + + Two things our Jerrold left, by death removed-- + The works he wrought: the family he loved. + The first to-night you honour; honouring these, + You lend your aid to give the others ease." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[37] Dr. Strauss's attribution of this repartee to Robert Brough in +reproof of James Hannay appears to be quite without foundation. + +[38] See p. 113 _et seq._ + +[39] See p. 227 _et seq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1841-2. + + Percival Leigh--His Medical Shrewdness--Unsuspected Wealth--His + Ability and Work--His Decay--Kindness of the Proprietors to the Old + Pensioner--Albert Smith--Inspires varied Sentiments--Jerrold's + Hostility--"Lord Smith"--Parts Company--H. A. Kennedy--Dr. + Maginn--John Oxenford--W. M. Thackeray--His First + Contribution--"Miss Tickletoby" Fails to Please--He Withdraws--And + Resumes--Rivalry with Jerrold--As an Illustrator--A Mysterious + Picture--Thackeray's Contributions--And Pseudonyms--Quaint + Orthography--"The Snobs of England"--He Tires of _Punch_--His + Motives for Resignation--The Letter--Death of "Dear Old + Thack"--_Punch's_ Tribute to his Memory. + + +How Percival Leigh (otherwise called "Paul Prendergast" in those early +days) was sought out by George Hodder, on the strength of the "Comic +Latin Grammar," and how, after a judicious pause, he joined the Staff of +_Punch_, has already been made known. He was twenty-four when, in 1835, +he took his M.R.C.S. He had been a medical student of "Bart's," but had +already abandoned, in great measure, the lancet for the pen. He sent in +as his first contribution the article to accompany Leech's "Foreign +Affairs;" and though he became best known as a humorist, as a doctor he +was in his early days equally to be respected. Mr. Arthur à Beckett +tells the following stories of his powers in the direction of diagnosis +and surgery:-- + + Although he had given up practice for a number of years, he was an + excellent doctor. Sir James Paget has told me that when he and "the + Professor" [Leigh's nickname at the Table] were fellow-students at + "Bart's," the latter was considered quite the best man of his year. + He was admirable at diagnosis, and I shall never forget one of his + prognostications. He was in the company of a number of + _littérateurs_ and artists who were dining together. A well-known + dramatist was expected, and did not turn up to time. The absentee + was allowed ten minutes' grace, and then dinner was commenced + without him. After a while he came in full of apologies. He had + missed one train (he lived in the suburbs), and would have missed + another had he not run for it. And then he laughingly explained to + "the Professor" that he thought he had sprained his leg. Percival + Leigh, who had been looking at him with keen attention since his + entrance, asked him a couple of questions; and having received + replies to them, spoke as follows: "My dear fellow, if you will + take my advice, you will go home at once in a cab and get to bed. + Send for your doctor and make him overhaul you. But call special + attention to the sprain." The dramatist, who was one of "the + Professor's" oldest friends, obeyed orders and departed. Then the + rest of the company twitted the doctor on the clever ruse "of + getting rid of one who deserved to be punished for keeping the soup + waiting." Of course, it was only chaff, but "the Professor" took it + seriously. "No, my boys," he replied, very gravely, "I did not send + him away on our account, but in his own interest. Of course, while + there is life there is hope; but, unless I am very greatly + mistaken, we shall never see him again." And "the Professor" was + right. Within a month the dramatist had joined the silent majority. + + The second story about my dear old friend is not so grim as its + predecessor. + + Mr. Percival Leigh, when he was more than seventy years old, was + knocked down by a passing vehicle as he was crossing the road. He + was immediately picked up by a policeman and conveyed in a cab to + the nearest hospital. "The Professor," who was covered in mud, + asked to be taken home, but the constable would not listen to him. + So he was carried into the accident ward. After a while he was seen + by the house-surgeon and his assistant. The two medicos entirely + ignored "the Professor," and gave their exclusive attention to his + leg. "I think you are wrong," said Mr. Leigh, in a mild tone of + voice, after he had listened to their conversation for a few + moments. The doctors paid not the slightest attention to the + observation, and continued their investigations. Now "the + Professor" was the most mild and kindly of gentlemen--courteous to + a degree, and as polished as a traditional Frenchman--but when he + was roused he was--well, emphatically roused. He attempted a second + remonstrance, but with the same result. The two medicos calmly + ignored him. "Drop that leg, you confounded blockheads!" he + thundered out suddenly. "Can't you see, you idiots, that I have + fractured my ----," and then he supplied a highly technical and + scientific description of his accident. The two medicos stared at + "the Professor" in blank astonishment. Then "the Professor" + abandoned his incognito, and gave his name and quality. "You see, + gentlemen," he said, resuming his customary courteous tone, "I + venture to believe that I know more about my leg than you do. It + has been under my personal observation all my life, and I + consequently have given more time to studying its constitution and + idiosyncracies than you, naturally (with all your numerous + engagements), could afford to devote to such a purpose!" + +Leigh had a philosopher's head and a fine face. In later life he was +extremely careless in his person--so much so that when he died Mr. +Bradbury, with his usual thoughtfulness, went to the funeral with a +cheque-book in his pocket, intending, if necessary, to pay the +undertaker's expenses. His surprise, therefore, was great when he +learned that "the Professor" had died worth from ten to eleven thousand +pounds. Leigh, who lived for some years in Hammersmith Road, in a house +which, judged from its exterior, promised little comfort within, was a +profound Shakespearean and a good classical scholar, and from these +attainments he earned the sobriquet by which he was known. He vied with +Jerrold himself in his knowledge of the Bard, and was fond of spouting +the poets, classic and English, with the least possible excuse, breaking +out into verse with a loud voice, utterly oblivious of his companions. +It was he who introduced into the pages of _Punch_ the assumption of +scholarship in its readers, and so acquired at once for the paper a +position never held by any other humorous journal in this country. His +work, which for many years averaged a column and a half each week, +included nearly every sort of contribution known to _Punch_, including, +in 1845, his striking "Pauper Song"--the wail of the poor man who +prefers the prison to the workhouse, the second stanza running thus:-- + + "There shall I get the larger crust, + The warmer house-room there; + And choose a prison since I must, + I'll choose it for its fare. + The Dog will snatch the biggest bone, + So much the wiser he: + Call me a Dog;--the name I'll own:-- + The gaol--the gaol for me." + +In 1843 Leigh began his effectively satirical "_Punch's_ Labours of +Hercules," and in 1849 "Mr. Pipps's Diary" appeared as the text +accompanying Doyle's pictures of "Ye Manners and Customs of ye +Englyshe." The extraordinary success of this admirable parody was, +perhaps, the greatest he ever won, though he achieved many. He was +essentially a "safe man" at his work, and for that reason he would act +as _locum tenens_ to Shirley Brooks when that Editor was away; and the +only occasions on which he failed (so far as I can ascertain) except +towards the end, was in May, 1847, when his wife died, and in April of +the following year, when he lost his father. He always had a strong +feeling for art, both in subject and treatment, and was always very +fastidious about his work; he would touch up a poem over and over again, +and take the utmost pains with metre and "swing" until he was satisfied. + +But as he grew old it became evident that the "Professor" was beyond his +work, and although he attended the Table with the utmost regularity up +to the very end, the decay of nature robbed him of his value as a member +of the Staff. Then came an example of the kindliness of spirit that has +animated for so long the little côterie of humorists of Bouverie Street +and the generosity of the men for whom they work. For a long while +before his death "the Professor's" copy had been practically useless to +the Editor; yet everything was done to spare him the pain of rejection. +At first Mr. Burnand or Mr. Arthur à Beckett would rewrite the +paragraphs; and Leigh's delight when they were printed was sad to see. +But soon it was impossible to conceal the fact that they were utterly +useless; and so for some years it was the practice to set his "copy" up +in type and to send him proofs, which he duly corrected and returned. +But they never appeared in the paper, nor was ever question asked nor +explanation offered. Did the old gentleman forget all about them? Or was +he hoping against hope that some day room might again be found for him +in the pages to which he had contributed with so much applause? Or did +he appreciate the real motive and kindly feeling of the proprietors, +who, though they could not use his work, actually increased his salary? +Whatever the cause, "the Professor" to the last maintained a pathetic +silence. He died at Oak Cottage, King Street, Hammersmith, on October +24th, 1889, and was laid to rest in the Hammersmith Cemetery in the +presence of a circle of old _Punch_ friends. For one thing, at least, he +had laid the paper under a deep debt of gratitude--he had introduced to +it his hospital chum and life-long friend, John Leech, and that was a +service which could never be forgotten. + +[Illustration: ALBERT SMITH. +(_From an Engraving by Cook._)] + +The third of the medical trio was Albert Smith, a writer who was not +fortunate in making a good impression on the majority of his associates. +With Leech, with whom he had shared rooms in his "sawbones days," he +remained a steadfast friend; but it is probable that that friendship was +maintained by the artist by reason of the other's good nature, and in +spite of his manner. Henry Vizetelly, who evidently bore him no +particular goodwill, wrote to me his recollections of the man in these +words: "He was not the amiable person depicted by Yates in his +'Recollections.' He was vulgar and bumptious in manner until he became +polished by concerting with 'swells' after the success of his +entertainments. He always had a keen eye for the main chance, and never +neglected an opportunity for self-advertisement. Jerrold and Thackeray +detested him, though only Jerrold showed this openly--which he +occasionally did to Smith's face, in the most offensive manner. Albert +Smith retained his position on _Punch_ for some time after Jerrold's +animosity had declared itself--first, because his copy was always +certain; and secondly, because he and Leech were great friends, and +Leech was then a power--though not in the same degree as Jerrold, who +was almost absolute." These strictures are repeated in Vizetelly's +autobiography. Smith's "Physiologies," he says, which were some of them +enlarged from the _Punch_ sketches, brought him great popular favour, in +spite of their slight intrinsic worth. Thackeray was invited by +Vizetelly to produce similar sketches at a hundred pounds apiece--which +was double the amount he was then receiving for the monthly parts of +"Vanity Fair;" but he declined to do anything "in the Albert Smith +line," and he similarly refused to write for "Gavarni in London," of +which Smith was editor. "Pigmy as Jerrold physically was, Albert Smith +quailed before him;" for Jerrold's stinging attacks and repartees were +merciless. So Smith bought a toy-whip, which he playfully produced to +his friends with the explanation that he intended to apply it to "Master +Jerrold;" but he was never known to bring it out in his tormentor's +presence. Jerrold's "skull" witticism has already been recorded; and of +the same kind was his loud enquiry over the _Punch_ dinner-table--when +Smith's obtrusive foible of calling his acquaintances by their +abbreviated Christian names became intolerable--"I say, Leech, how long +is it necessary for a man to know you before he can call you 'Jack'?" +When Jerrold first saw Smith's initials, he had said that he believed +they were "only two-thirds of the truth"--and he continued to act upon +the assumption until Smith left _Punch_ and had become a successful +"Entertainer." Then a truce was called, for his Mont Blanc ascent and +the "Entertainment" he made out of it (of which Leech himself said, +"It's only bad John Parry") had made of Smith one of the lions of the +day, and of his St. Bernard, which had accompanied him, the most petted +beast in the metropolis. But to the end he remained, generally speaking, +the best-abused humorist of his day. He did not even succeed in escaping +the quiet scorn of his occasional companion, Dickens, whose literary +style it was reported he was trying to copy. The novelist, who much +enjoyed Albert's sobriquet of "Lord Smith," simply shrugged his +shoulders as he replied--"We all have our Smiths." It is believed by +those who should know best that the cause of the final rupture between +Smith and _Punch_ was the discovery that some of his articles were +simply adaptations from the French; and this belief is still current in +the _Punch_ office. + +Smith's connection with _Punch_ was through his engagement for the +"Cosmorama," on which Landells and Last committed infanticide at the +starting of _Punch_. He sent his first paper from his temporary rooms at +Chertsey; it was the burlesque, "Transactions and Yearly Report of the +Hookham-cum-Snivey Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics' Institute" (12th +September, 1841). This was succeeded in the following month, with the +opening of his "Physiology of a London Medical Student," which was +rather laughable in itself, while displaying a wonderful intimacy with +the rough and noisy world with which it dealt. The idea, however, had +already been sketched by Percival Leigh in "The Heads of the People." +Smith was now living at 14, Percy Street, Tottenham Court Road, in an +unpalatial lodging, where he nominally carried on the profession of +surgeon-dentist; but his best energies were thrown into his literary +work, and there is no doubt that that work was to the taste of the +_Punch_ readers. Mr. Walton Henning has told me how his father, A. S. +Henning, calling upon Smith concerning his work, found him like a +typical Bob Sawyer, with his heels upon the table, playing the cornet as +a grand finale to his breakfast. Then he would don his French workman's +blouse and scribble for dear life. The "Physiology of London Evening +Parties," which was originally written by him in 1839 for the "Literary +World," was illustrated by Newman, who was still a far more important +man on _Punch_ than Leech; and the series was followed by "Curiosities +of Medical Experiences," the less successful "Side-scenes of Everyday +Society," and "Physiology of a London Idler"--which, taken together, +were voted the most entertaining descriptions of social life that +_Punch_ was publishing, even at a time when _Punch_ was declared to be +vastly entertaining. Verse, epigram, jokelets, and articles on current +events came from Albert Smith's pen before the strained relations +between the parties and the irresistible hostility of Jerrold bore him +down, though it is probable that the practical joke on him described +among the proceedings of the _Punch_ Club had some part in bringing +matters to a head; and on January 7th, 1844, his last contribution +appeared--"Important and Telegraphic." _Punch_, in reply to a criticism +of the "Boston Atlas," declared that Smith left in December, 1843; but +Albert Smith himself wrote (November 20th, 1845) to Mr. James Silk +Buckingham (who was protesting to him against _Punch's_ attacks): "I +have not written or suggested anything for _Punch_ since January, +1844.... I withdrew in consequence of being unable to agree with Mr. +Mark Lemon, the editor. Indeed, I have been attacked since then through +my novel of 'The Marchioness of Brinvilliers' both in _Punch_ and in +'Jerrold's Magazine,' for which I do not care a straw." + +It was after his retirement from _Punch_ that, in conjunction with A. B. +Reach, he started "The Man in the Moon," with the express purpose of +making himself obnoxious to _Punch_ in general and Jerrold in +particular, in which laudable desire he in part, at least, succeeded; +while at the same time he turned his attention to the publishers by +bringing out a little Christmas volume entitled "A Bowl of _Punch_." But +in time all bitterness disappeared; Albert the Great, as Smith was +called, had "discovered" Mont Blanc and Chamonix, and peace prevailed, +though to the end Smith had no further access to _Punch's_ pages. + +The last regular contributor of the year 1841 whose name has been +preserved is H. A. Kennedy, whose parodies of Horace were as good as +anything Leigh ever did of the kind. The parody of Horace's "Donec +gratus" is worth preserving, and that (p. 20, Volume II.) of "Ad +Lydiam"--becomingly rendered into a tender ode "To Judy"--is hardly +less excellent. + +Dr. Maginn's connection with _Punch_ began with the first Almanac, while +he was, with James Hannay, in residence in the "Fleet." The doctor, as +one of the most versatile writers of the day, was looked upon by +the "Punchites" as useful for their purpose as he was for any of +the rival papers with which he was connected. "He would write a leader +for the 'Standard' one evening," it is said in J. F. Clarke's +"Auto-biographical Recollections," "answer it in the 'True Sun' the +following day, and abuse both in the 'John Bull' on the ensuing Sunday." +Such a man could not be without a sense of humour, especially with ample +gin and water to enrich it and poverty to point it. He was the brilliant +Morgan O'Doherty of "Fraser" and "Blackwood," and was nearly, but not +quite, "Captain Shandon" in "Pendennis." Thackeray had an affectionate +admiration for his talents. But the times and the doctor were out of +gear; he lost sympathy through his persecution of "L.E.L.," and his +misfortunes led him to follow a class of journalism out of all +consonance with his powers and better feeling; he is credited with +having been the forerunner of scurrilous society-journalism. But no hint +of these defects is apparent in his work for _Punch_, in which, perhaps, +he saw an opportunity for some degree of re-instatement; and he conveyed +his gratitude in a five-stanza poem in praise of the paper (p. 131, Vol. +II.), "Verses by a Bard--Much be-rhymed in _Punch_." But he was near his +end; and when he died a year afterwards, _Punch_ devoted to him the +first of his little black-bordered obituaries. + +The year 1842 was the stormiest and most threatening in _Punch's_ +history; so that, with an empty till and growing liabilities, there was +no disposition towards introducing new contributors involving the +principle of "cash down." Only three names belong to this year, but all +were men of great importance, each in his own line--John Oxenford, W. M. +Thackeray, and Horace Mayhew. In common with Coyne, Oxenford had a +stronger sympathy for the stage than for periodical literature, so that +after the tenth volume he ceased to be even an occasional contributor. +His first paper was "Herr Döbler and the Candle Counter." The popular +conjurer had advertised that to begin his performance and illumine his +stage he would light two hundred candles by a single pistol-shot. (This +was in the very early days of practical electricity.) The "Times" had +reported the entertainment, but complained that, having counted the +number of candles, they found there were only eighty-seven!--whereupon +Oxenford executed a literary dance upon the "Times" reporter. +Thenceforward, he contributed with some degree of regularity. After his +"Christmas Game" (January 6th, 1844) he was, on the 3rd of the following +year, accounted upon the regular Staff, although from that time he did +but little. Verse, clever and bright, burlesque, and the like, in the +true spirit of _Punch_, came from time to time; but there was not enough +of his work to place him in rank with the chief of the contributors. +"There is one," Mr. Jabez Hogg reminds me, "whose name is rarely +mentioned in connection with the early days of _Punch_ and the +'Illustrated London News.' I refer to John Oxenford. He did much good +work in his day, and his contributions to _Punch_ assisted greatly to +increase its reputation. He was a wit of the first water." + +[Illustration: JOHN OXENFORD. +(_From a Photograph by Fradelle and Young._)] + +The same number that introduced John Oxenford to the _Punch_ reader +presented also William Makepeace Thackeray--a connection that did not +immediately attract public notice, perhaps, though it soon bore the +richest fruit for both author and publisher. + +It was about seven years after the first abortive attempt to found a +"London Charivari" that Thackeray--who had been one of the +band--commenced that connection with _Punch_ which was to be of equal +advantage both to him and the paper. "It was a good day for himself, the +journal, and the world," said Shirley Brooks, "when Thackeray found +_Punch_. At first," continues his biographer, "I should gather that he +had doubts as to the advisability of joining in the new and, so far, not +very promising venture;" and on the 22nd of May, 1842, we find +Fitzgerald uttering a warning note, and writing to a common friend: +"Tell Thackeray not to go to _Punch_ yet." But his friend paid little +heed to the counsel, for within a month appeared what I am satisfied is +Thackeray's first contribution to _Punch_--"The Legend of +Jawbrahim-Heraudee" (p. 254, first volume for 1842) with a sketch +undoubtedly by his hand; and at the beginning of the very next volume, a +fortnight later, was begun the series entitled "Miss Tickletoby's +Lectures on English History." These, continued for a time, made no sort +of hit, and in due course they were discontinued; but there seems to +have been in them, and especially in the sketches, the germ of the idea, +so perfectly worked out a little later by Gilbert à Beckett and +Leech--though not for _Punch_: "The Comic History of England" and "The +Comic History of Rome." + +When Thackeray joined the _Punch_ circle--or, rather, when he first +wrote for it, for he was not on the Staff for some little time--he +entered, with the credentials of "Fraser" and the "Irish Sketch Book," +into a company of which several members were already his friends, who, +knowing him as a humorist with both pen and pencil, were glad to secure +so useful a man as contributor. "Very early in the work," writes +Landells in his private papers, which lie before me, "Mr. Mayhew was +desirous to secure his co-operation, and it was rather singular that the +first paper which the great man contributed to _Punch_ was rejected as +unsuitable." + +[Illustration: W. M. THACKERAY. +(_From a Private Photograph._)] + +This was hardly correct: it would be more accurate to say that the first +extended series was suddenly cut short. The circumstances of the +extinction of Miss Tickletoby are shown in the following letter by +Thackeray, which has been placed at my disposal by Messrs. Bradbury and +Agnew:-- + + Halverstown, Kildare, + Sept. 27, 1842. +GENTLEMEN, + +Your letter, containing an enclosure of £25, has been forwarded to me, +and I am obliged to you for the remittance. Mr. Lemon has previously +written to me to explain the delay, and I had also received a letter +from Mr. Landells, who told me, what I was sorry to learn, that you were +dissatisfied with my contributions to "Punch." I wish that my writings +had the good fortune to please everyone; but all I can do, however, is +to do my best, which has been done in this case, just as much as if I +had been writing for any more dignified periodical. + +But I have no wish to continue the original agreement made between us, +as it is dissatisfactory to you and, possibly, injurious to your work; +and shall gladly cease Mrs. [_sic_] Tickletoby's Lectures, hoping that +you will be able to supply her place with some more amusing and lively +correspondent. + +I shall pass the winter either in Paris or in London where, very +probably, I may find some other matter more suitable to the paper, in +which case I shall make another attempt upon "Punch."--Meanwhile, +gentlemen, I remain, your very obedient Servant, + +W. M. THACKERAY. + +Gradually, however, and by sure degrees, Thackeray fell into the spirit +of the paper, and became known to the general public first as a "_Punch_ +man," and then as "_the Punch_ man," and for some time recognised by +that, rather than by his work in other directions. He became more and +more highly appreciated as one of those who contributed to that +speciality of humour for which _Punch_ had already established a +reputation while creating a demand. All the while, during the first ten +years, he regarded the paper as a sort of stepping-stone to an +independent literary position; and he was not very long in using his +opportunity for making a reputation equal to that of Jerrold +himself--but a literary, and in no sense a political one. Jerrold, whose +influence was political quite as much as literary and dramatic, +undoubtedly did a good deal of unconscious service in spurring Thackeray +with the spirit of emulation. It has already been pointed out how little +love was lost between the two men at the weekly Dinner, and how Jerrold +sped his galling little shafts of clever personalities at Carlyle's +"half-monstrous Cornish giant;" how, in short, they were, and remained +to the end, the friendliest and most amiable of enemies. + +Vizetelly has recorded how Thackeray would tear the postal-wrapper +nervously from the newly-delivered _Punch_ in order to "see what Master +Douglas has to say this week"--(there is a world of dislike and scorn in +that courtesy-title of "Master")--and how, when he gave a lunch in +honour of the French humorous draughtsman "Cham," he invited "Big" +Higgins, Tom Taylor, Richard Doyle, and Leech, all _Punch_ men, to meet +him, but neither Mark Lemon nor Jerrold, for "Young Douglas, if asked, +would most likely not come; but if he did, he'd take especial care that +his own effulgence should obscure all lesser lights." It was not +Arcedeckne, I am assured by Mr. Cuthbert Bradley ("Cuthbert Bede's" +son), but Jerrold, who, in Mark Lemon's hearing, crushingly criticised +Thackeray's first public reading to the lecturer's face, with the +laconic remark, "Wants a piano!" Thackeray, as we all know, was free +enough himself in his criticisms of his own features, and his many +sketches of his dear old broken nose are familiar enough to every lover +of the man. Yet he was not best pleased when he entered the _Punch_ +dining-room a little late, apologising for his unpunctuality through +having been detained at a christening, at which he had stood sponsor to +his friend's boy, to be met with Jerrold's pungent exclamation--"Good +Lord, Thackeray! I hope you didn't present the child with your own mug!" +And still less was he flattered when he heard that, on its being +reported in the _Punch_ office that he was "turning Roman," simply +because he defended Doyle's secession, Jerrold tartly remarked that +"he'd best begin with his nose." (Jerrold, by the way, uses the same +conceit in a letter to Sir Charles Dilke when repeating a rumour of the +attempted conversion of the novelist by "Lady ----.") These and many more +sardonic thrusts would amply account for Thackeray's dislike; yet that +the men's relations were not half so disagreeable as has generally been +believed is shown by the fact of Thackeray coming up specially to town +from his lecturing tour in order to support Jerrold on the night of his +election at the Reform Club, and delightedly exclaiming, when the result +was known--"We've got the little man in!" Nor would he, perhaps, have +shown himself and Jerrold, in the accompanying cut, listening in +fraternal shame-facedness and disgust to a fellow-passenger declaiming +against the wickedness and profanity of _Punch_. + +[Illustration: PORTRAITS OF THACKERAY AND JERROLD. +(_Drawn by W. M. Thackeray._) + +AUTHOR'S MISERIES, NO. VI. + +Old gentleman. Miss Wiggets. Two authors. + +_Old gentleman:_ "I am sorry to see you occupied, my dear Miss Wiggets, +with that trivial paper _Punch_. A railway is not a place, in my +opinion, for jokes. I never joke--never." + +_Miss W.:_ "So I should think, sir." + +_Old gentleman:_ "And, besides, are you aware who are the conductors of +that paper, and that they are Chartists, Deists, Atheists, Anarchists, +and Socialists, to a man? I have it from the best authority that they +meet together once a week in a tavern in St. Giles's, where they concoct +their infamous print. The chief part of their income is derived from +threatening letters which they send to the nobility and gentry. The +principal writer is a returned convict. Two have been tried at the Old +Bailey; and their artist--as for their artist...." + +_Guard:_ "Swin-dun! Sta-tion!" (_Punch_, p. 198, Vol. XV., 1848.)] + +From the beginning, one of Thackeray's strong points on the Staff was +that he was a "pen-and-pencil man," that he worked indifferently as +artist or as writer, and not only as a writer, but as a prose-and-poem +man. It has been said, with authority, that Thackeray never illustrated +any articles but his own; but that is wholly incorrect. If you open +Volume VIII., at p. 266, you will find a drawing of his showing Jack Tar +and his Poll waltzing an accompaniment to an article on the "Debate on +the Navy," which was written by Gilbert à Beckett. To the same writer's +chapter on "The Footman," in his series of "_Punch's_ Guide to Servants" +(p. 40, Volume IX.), is a characteristic illustration by Thackeray, and +again on the following page to "The Gomersal Museum." A little farther +on, on p. 56, is a clever cut of a lovers' _tête-à-tête_ beside a +tea-table, to accompany Percival Leigh's ballad of "The Lowly Bard to +his Lady Love;" and many similar results will reward a more extended +search. + +Thackeray's own opinion of his powers as a draughtsman is not easy to +determine. We know, of course, from his own lips, his (? affected) +surprise at Dickens not finding his art good enough to illustrate +"Pickwick" _vice_ Seymour, deceased. But in the interval between this +application in 1836 and his later work he probably came to a more +critical estimate of the real value of his draughtsmanship--that work +which had been so laboriously and earnestly evolved from his studies in +the Louvre and elsewhere. When Vizetelly was engraving Thackeray's +designs to "Mrs. Perkin's Ball," which on account of their +unsophisticated artistic character, were re-touched by a clever young +draughtsman, the artist wrote that there was a "je ne sais quoi" in his +"vile drawing" which was worth retaining. "Somehow," he said, "I prefer +my Nuremberg dolls to Mr. Thwaites's superfine wax models." After Edmund +Yates had started that brilliant little journal or magazine, which was +not destined, however, to live as long as it deserved, Thackeray wrote +to him: "You have a new artist on 'The Train,' I see, my dear Yates. I +have been looking at his work, and I have solved a problem. I find there +_is_ a man alive who draws worse than myself!" Yet he continued to draw +for _Punch_ with zeal; but when an acquaintance told him, probably in +all sincerity, "but you _can_ draw," Thackeray brusquely put down the +compliment to the toadyism of a "snob." Trollope declares that Thackeray +"never learned to draw--perhaps, never could have learned;" but he did +not see that in the art of illustration, especially of a humorous +character, there is something more important than academic correctness +and technical mastery. He moved his pencil slowly, with a deliberate +broad touch, without haste, and with no more attempt at refinement than +was natural to him. Yet his hand was capable of astonishing delicacy of +touch; and I have seen the Lord's Prayer written by him one day at the +_Punch_ Table, within the space of a threepenny-piece, which is a marvel +of legibility. There is a character about Thackeray's work--his "je ne +sais quoi"--that makes us forgive him his glaring faults--indeed, we +almost come to love him for them--when once we have frankly recognised +that it was in great measure his facility in drawing that was his +artistic ruin. There is always something of the caricaturist in his most +serious and important sketches--most of all, perhaps, in his etchings. +It is in his smallest cuts that he is seen to the best advantage, and in +them he occasionally challenges comparison with Doyle and Leech himself. + +In the execution of his _Punch_ sketches, in nearly all the three +hundred and eighty of them, Thackeray was as summary as in the turning +of a ballad, and I describe elsewhere how he would make a drawing on the +wood while the engraver waited and chatted over a cigar. It was clearly +not his opinion that, as is nowadays adjudged to be the proper course, +elaborate studies should first be made from the life-model, even for +the execution of a simple _Punch_ picture. He preferred, when possible, +to confine his pencil to the illustration of his own text; but on +occasion he would produce a "social" cut--a drawing, that is to say, +with a joke printed beneath. Sometimes it would be in the manner of +Leech, as in the joke in Volume IX. (p. 3) called "The Ascot Cup Day," +wherein a hot-potato-seller asks a small boy with a broom, "Why are you +on the crossing, James? Is your father Hill?" and is informed "No. He's +drove mother down to Hascot." More personal was such work as "The Stags, +a Drama of To-day," in which a retired thimblerigger and an unfortunate +costermonger, under a magnificent alias, take advantage of the railway +mania to make their application for shares--for which they could not +pay, of course, if things went wrong--in accordance with the game of +"heads I win, tails I vanish," at that time extensively played +throughout the country. Later on (in Volume XV.), following "The +Heavies," he gave, in seven scenes, a panorama of an "Author's +Miseries." In 1847 (Volume XII., p. 59) Thackeray contributed a "social" +picture which is to this day a wonder to all beholders. It is entitled +"Horrid Tragedy in Private Life," and represents a room in which two +ladies, or a lady and a servant, are in a state of the greatest alarm. +What the meaning of it all is there is nothing whatever to indicate +(unless it be that something has fallen on the taller lady's dress); and +on its appearance the "Man in the Moon" offered a reward of £500 and a +free pardon to anyone who would publish an explanation. The reward was +never claimed; and Thackeray's contribution remains one of _Punch's_ +Prize Puzzles, unsolved, and, apparently, unsolvable. + +It was in No. 137--that notable part which contained "The Song of the +Shirt"--that Thackeray appeared in his own right, as belonging not only +to the Staff, but to the Table. The contribution was a "Singular Letter +from the Regent of Spain;" and with it Thackeray took his place at the +Dinner as an excellent substitute for Albert Smith. That writer, who had +found his successor "a very jolly fellow with no High Art about him," +and a charming companion at "the Cider Cellars," a month later +disappeared for ever from _Punch_ as a contributor, refiguring only in +its pages from time to time as an object of attack. + +Thackeray's work on _Punch_ covered every corner of _Punch's_ field. +Burlesques of history and parodies of literature, ballads and songs, +stories and jokes, papers and paragraphs, pleasantry and pathos, +criticisms and conundrums, travels in the East and raillery in the +West, political skits and social satire--from a column to a single +line--such was the sum of Thackeray's contribution to _Punch_. Less +prolific than either Jerrold or Gilbert à Beckett, he produced, +nevertheless, an enormous amount of "copy" that was always readable, +even when it was not his best. He wrote from Paris to his friend, Mrs. +Brookfield (September 2nd, 1849): "I won't give you an historical +disquisition in the Titmarsh manner upon this, but reserve it for +_Punch_--for whom, on Thursday [I have written] an article that I think +is quite unexampled for dulness, even in that Journal, and that beats +the dullest Jerrold. What a jaunty, offhand, satiric rogue I am, to be +sure--and a gay young dog!" But he did not think his work half so +uninteresting as he pretended; he even regarded with satisfaction that +which he produced when greatly out of the vein. "It is but a hasty +letter I send you, my dear lady," he wrote to the same correspondent, in +1850, "but my hand is weary with writing 'Pendennis'--and my head +boiling up with some nonsense that I must do after dinner for _Punch_. +Isn't it strange that, in the midst of all the selfishness, that of +doing one's business is the strongest of all. What funny songs I've +written when fit to hang myself!" + +His first contributions to _Punch_, after those already mentioned, were +"Mr. Spec's Remonstrance," Volume IV., p. 70 (omitting "Assumption of +Aristocracy," which has hitherto been credited to him, but was really +sent in by Gilbert à Beckett), "Singular Letter from the Regent of +Spain," with the three amusing cuts of sailors who, having found a +bottle at sea, speculate as to its contents as they open it--"Sherry, +perhaps," "Rum, I hope!" "_Tracts, by Jove!!_" Then, to select the chief +and longest series, came "The History of the Next French Revolution," in +nine parts (Volume VI.), contributions which were leavened by pleasant +attacks levelled at Lytton, and at "Jenkins" of the "Morning Post." Then +followed, in Volumes VII. and VIII., "Travelling Notes, by our Fat +Contributor" (for Thackeray loved to call himself so, or "Our Stout +Commissioner," or "Titmarsh," "Policeman X," "Jeames," "Paul Pindar," +or other whimsical pseudonym), and "Punch in the East"--the record of a +journey undertaken by Thackeray at the invitation of the P. and O. +Company, who offered him a free passage to Egypt. + +At this time the railway mania was at its height, and Thackeray took his +share in _Punch_ in stemming the fatal tide, so far as ridicule could be +used to do so. One of his first papers on the subject was the "Letter +from Jeames, of Buckly Square," signed by "Fitz-Jeames de la +Pluche"--the famous Jeames who, first created by Thackeray in the pages +of "The Britannia" in 1841, under the title of "Mr. Yellowplush, my +lord's body-servant," began in the same Vol. IX. (1845) his immortal +"Diary." One of the successes of this epistle was what, to Thackeray's +delight, was seriously complained of as the "deplorable" inaccurate +orthography of the illiterate flunkey. Thackeray was certainly not the +first to use the device, but he was the first to achieve great success +with it, and Arthur Sketchley, Artemus Ward, Mr. Deputy Bedford +("Robert"), and all the American humorists who have adopted the same +idea, are but followers where the great Titmarsh led. Jeames's weakness +became a strength in Thackeray's hands, and at one time was turned with +effect upon Sir Isaac Pitman's "Spelling Reform," which was then a novel +butt for the satirist. The incident has been thus gravely recorded in +the pages of the "Phonetic Journal":-- + + "Ten years ago Mr. Punch had meni a meri kakinashon at the ekspens + ov Mr. Pitman and the 'Phonetic News,' which he leiked tu kall the + 'Fanatic Nuz.' Here is wun of his sneerz:--'Voltaire sed ov the + Inglish that they save two ourz a day bei kontrakting all their + wurdz. The "Fonetic Nuz" woz not then in eksistens. If we save two + ourz,' kontiniuz the kaustik pupet, 'in the dayz ov Voltaire, we + must save siks ourz at least nou that we hav our improved plan ov + speling, az originali invented bei Winifred Jenkins, and karid to + its greatest heit bei Jeames, with the assistans ov Yellowplush and + Pitman.' But _Punch_, who, leik the 'Thunderer,' never goez agenst + publik opinion, sneerz no longer at the Speling Reform moovment, + and sensibel men, who ar not fonetik men at all, admit at last that + our prezent sistem ov orthografi is bei no meanz perfekt." + +There is little wonder that Thackeray seized on the comic side of this +movement, for whimsical spelling always delighted him. On one occasion, +indeed, he was so proud of an uncompromising cold that had "sat down" in +his head that he wrote to a friend in these terms:--"Br. Lettsob +(attaché to the Egglish Legatiob at Washigtol) has beel kild elough to +probise to dile with be ol _Bulday lext_ at 6 o'clock--if you would joil +hib aid take a portiol of _a plail joilt ald a puddl_, it wd. give great +pleasure." + +"The Snobs of England" began in the tenth volume, and continued through +fifty-one numbers well into the twelfth. The effect of these papers was +remarkable; the sensation they caused was profound. It may be compared +to that of Jerrold's "Caudle Lectures," save that they appealed to a +more cultivated and less demonstrative class, and were appreciated in +proportion to their superior merits. The circulation of _Punch_ rose +surprisingly under their benign influence, and Thackeray did not leave +the subject until he had handled it from every point of view and even +carried it abroad. He was, naturally, not a little proud of his first +great success, and in his unaffected manner was tempted to speak about +it in Society--where more than in any other quarter the papers were +appreciated. Unfortunately, according to Dr. Gordon Hake's memoirs, +Thackeray broached the subject to George Borrow. He had been trying to +make conversation with that strangely crotchety man, but had completely +failed. So, being somewhat embarrassed, he asked him abruptly, "Have you +read my 'Snob Papers' in _Punch_?" Borrow seemed to thaw. "In _Punch_," +he repeated sweetly. "It is a periodical I never look at." This was as +bad as the Oxford University magnate when Thackeray called upon him in +1857 in reference to his lecturing-tour and mentioned his connection +with _Punch_, the fame of which was great in the land, as a sort of +certificate of character--"_Punch_--_Punch_?" repeated the ignorant +scholar, "is that not a ribald publication?" Thackeray, I may add, in +order to impart local colour to his chapters on the Club Snob, with +characteristic shrewdness obtained an introduction from Mr. Hampton, the +secretary of the Conservative Club, to the Secretaries of the Reform +and the Athenæum, and begged their permission to inspect their +complaint-books--a fact which has not before been recorded; and from +them he gained such an insight into the failings of the snobbish +clubman, that that portion of the work is unsurpassed for its truth to +life. It is generally understood that he took Mr. Stephen Price, of the +Garrick Club, as the model for Captain Shandy, and that his type of the +sporting snob was Mr. Wyndham Smith. + +There is not much doubt that Thackeray was a little--if ever so +little--of a snob himself, and Jerrold's suspicion of him was to that +extent justified. He did not show it so much by going into Society, for, +as he said to a friend, "If I don't go out and mingle in Society, I +can't write"--just as Mr. du Maurier goes out in order to study his +world, and as Leech rode to hounds for the sake of his health and work. +But Thackeray, who was the writer of some of the most caustic articles +on "Jenkins"--(under which name _Punch_ habitually attacked the "Morning +Post," the aristocratic airs of which were to him a perpetual +provocation)--seemed to take a little more interest in Society than mere +curiosity or policy required; and was once thrown heavily in an +encounter with the "Post's" reporter. Henry Vizetelly retells the story +well in his "Looking Back through Seventy Years":-- + + A favourite butt for Hannay's savage satire was Rumsey Forster--the + Jenkins of the "Morning," or, as Hannay dubbed it, the "Fawning + Post"--who had supplanted the _ci-devant_ midshipman in the + affections of some pretty barmaid at a London tavern which they + both frequented. Forster was most energetic in his particular + calling, and is said on one occasion to have obtained admission in + the interests of the "Morning Post" to a Waterloo banquet at Apsley + House, by getting himself up as one of the extra servants out of + livery, called in to assist on these occasions. He was highly + indignant with Thackeray for the way in which he persistently + ridiculed him in _Punch_ under the cognomen of Jenkins; and I + remember, after the author of "Vanity Fair" had become a celebrity, + and began to be invited by other wearers of purple and fine linen, + besides Lord Carlisle, to their aristocratic _soirées_, being + highly amused by Forster telling me how he had taken his revenge. + + "You should know, sir," he said solemnly, "that at Stafford House, + Lady Palmerston's, and the other swell places, a little table is + set for me just outside the drawing-room doors, where I take down + the names of the company as these are announced by the attendant + footmen. Well, Mr. Thackeray was at the Marquis of Lansdowne's the + other evening, and his name was called out, as is customary; + nevertheless, I took very good care that it should not appear in + the list of the company at Lansdowne House, given in the 'Post.' A + night or two afterwards I was at Lord John Russell's, and Mr. + Thackeray's name was again announced, and again I designedly + neglected to write it down; whereupon the author of 'The Snobs of + England,' of all persons in the world [it must be candidly + confessed that Thackeray was himself a bit of a tuft-hunter], + bowed, and bending over me, said: 'Mr. Thackeray;' to which I + replied: 'Yes, sir, I am quite aware;' nevertheless, the great Mr. + Thackeray's name did not appear in the 'Post' the following + morning." + +In another version of the same story it is recorded that when Thackeray +pronounced his name to Rumsey Forster, the latter dramatically retorted, +"And I, sir, am Mr. Jenkins"--an account far more artistic, if somewhat +less faithful. + +After the "Snobs" were finished and the evergreen "Mahogany Tree," in +Volume XII., "_Punch's_ Prize Novelists" were begun in April, 1847. In +their way these parodies have never been excelled, and the fourth of the +series--"Phil Fogarty," by "Harry Rollicker"--was so excellent a +burlesque that Charles Lever, on reading this story of the hero of "the +fighting onety-oneth," good-humouredly declared that he "might as well +shut up shop;" and he actually did change, thenceforward, the manner of +his books. These "Prize Novels" continued into the following volume, in +which "Travels in London" were begun. These ran into Volume XIV., 1848, +in which year their author received from Edinburgh a testimonial from +eighty of his Scottish admirers. This took the shape of a silver +inkstand in the form of Mr. Punch's person, and greatly resembled that +which a similar subscription had already procured for Mark Lemon. It +drew from Thackeray a charming letter in acknowledgment. Then followed +"A Dinner at Timmins's" (Volumes XIV.-XV.) and "Bow Street Ballads" +(Volume XV.), 1848, "Mr. Brown's Letters to a Man about Town" (Volume +XVI.), and "Mr. Brown's Letters to his Son" (Volume XVII.), 1849; "The +Proser" (Volumes XVIII.-XIX.), 1850, and "Important from the Seat of +War" (Volumes XXVI.-XXVII.), 1854. These papers, with the exception of +"Mr. Punch to an Eminent Personage" (Volume XXVII., p. 110) and "A +Second Letter to an Eminent Personage" (Volume XXVII., p. 113), were the +last Thackeray ever wrote for _Punch_. The statement of his biographers +that in the year 1850, "If we except one later flicker in 1854, +Thackeray's long connection with _Punch_ died out," is totally +incorrect, for in 1851 there are forty-one literary items and a dozen +cuts to his credit. But from that time until 1854 he only contributed +"The Organ Boy's Appeal" (Volume XXV., p. 144), and thenceforward we +hear no more of "Policeman X," of Maloney and his Irish humour, of the +Frenchman on whom, in spite of himself, he was always so severe, no more +of Jeames, Jenkins, or the rest of the puppets who lived for us under +his manipulation.[40] + +[Illustration: INKSTAND PRESENTED TO THACKERAY BY HIS EDINBURGH +ADMIRERS.] + +The labour of producing his _Punch_ work was often irksome to him in the +extreme, and many a time would he put Mark Lemon off--now, because he +was so well in the swim with his novel then in hand that he begged hard +to be let off, and again, because the Muse was coy and would not on any +account be wooed. On one occasion he wrote explaining with what +weariness he had been battening rhymes for three hours in his head, and +could get nothing out: "I must beg you to excuse me," he ingeniously +added, "for I've worked just as much for you as though I had done +something." At other times he would break away from the company he was +in, in order to complete his regulation number of columns. His godson, +afterwards the Rev. Francis Thackeray, has told us how the great man +once took him to a conjuring entertainment and, having secured him a +good place, explained "Now, I must leave you awhile, and go and make a +five-pound note." And in such a manner, in haste and with +disinclination, was often produced what James Hannay calls "the +inimitable, wise, easy, playful, worldly, social sketch of Thackeray." + +Although, as a rule, Thackeray preferred social to political satire, he +would sometimes point an epigram with sharp effect. For example, in +1845, the disclosure in the "Freeman" of J. Young's letter, to the +discomfiture of the Whigs and Lord Melbourne, suggested to Thackeray the +line: "Young's Night Thought--Wish I hadn't franked that letter!" Its +appearance in _Punch_ caused Mr. Sparkes to buttonhole the writer at the +Reform Club, and excitedly dilate on the mischief that was being done to +the Party by such very public and sarcastic means. Thackeray burst out +laughing--"the mountain shook," says the historian--but felt a little +genuine pleasure at the circumstance all the same. + +As success and public recognition came to him for his novels--the +success for which he had worked so hard--his disinclination to work for +_Punch_ increased. No doubt the policy of the paper had something to do +with it; but there can be little question that the great fame and reward +he derived from novel writing made more occasional work distasteful to +him, and in 1854--the year of "The Newcomes"--Thackeray corrected his +last proof for _Punch_. He had foreseen it for some time, for in 1849 he +had written to Mrs. Brookfield from Paris, "What brought me to this +place? Well, I am glad I came; it will give me a subject for at least +six weeks in _Punch_" ["Paris Revisited," &c.], "of which I was getting +so weary that I thought I must have done with it." Five years afterwards +he wrote to the same lady: "What do you think I have done to-day? I have +sent in my resignation to _Punch_. There appears in next _Punch_ an +article so wicked, I think, by poor ---- [? Jerrold] that upon my word +I don't think I ought to pull any longer in the same boat with such a +savage little Robespierre. The appearance of this incendiary article put +me in such a rage that I could only cool myself with a ride in the +park." Writing a long while afterwards for the public eye, he said, +"Another member of _Punch's_ Cabinet, the biographer of Jeames, the +author of the 'Snob papers,' resigned his functions on account of Mr. +Punch's assaults upon the present Emperor of the French nation, whose +anger he thought it was unpatriotic to arouse"--being thus in Punchian +policy, if not in motive, in entire accord with Mr. Ruskin. + +A more complete and emphatic statement of the facts, as Thackeray viewed +them, will be found in the subjoined letter from the novelist to one of +the _Punch_ proprietors, which, by their courtesy, is here printed for +the first time:-- + + "March 24th, 1855. + "36, Onslow Sqre. + + "MY DEAR EVANS, + +"I find a note of yours dated Feb. 5, in wh. F.M.E.[41] states that my +account shall be prepared directly. F.M.E. has a great deal to do and +pay and think of, but W. M. T. has also his engagements. + +"I hope your 'Poetry of Punch' will not be published before my collected +Ballads--Now remember (you wrote me a letter expressly on the subject) +that the Copyright of all articles in 'Punch' were mine, by +stipulation--and my book would be very much hurt by the appearance of +another containing 3/4 of its contents. + +"I met Murray the publisher the other day, and cannot help fancying from +his manner to me that there is a screw loose with him too about that +unlucky Leech article. Lemon, answering one of my letters, said that he +personally complained that my account of leaving 'Punch' was not +correct. + +"There was such a row at the time, and I was so annoyed at the wrong +that I had done, that I thought I had best leave Lemon's remonstrance +for a while and right it on some future occasion. I recall now to you +and beg you to show to him and to any other persons who may have +received a different version of the story--what the facts were. I had +had some serious public differences with the Conduct of 'Punch'--about +the abuse of Prince Albert and the Chrystal [_sic_] Palace at wh. I very +nearly resigned, about abuse of Lord Palmerston, about abuse finally of +L. Napoleon--in all which 'Punch' followed the 'Times,' wh. I think and +thought was writing unjustly at that time, and dangerously for the +welfare and peace of the Country. + +"Coming from Edinburgh I bought a 'Punch' containing the picture of a +Beggar on Horseback, in wh. the Emperor was represented galloping to +hell with a sword reeking with blood. As soon as ever I could after my +return (a day or 2 days after), I went to Bouverie St., saw you and gave +in my resignation. + +"I mention this because I know the cause of my resignation has been +questioned at 'Punch'--because this was the cause of it. I talked it +over with you in, and Leech saw me coming out of your room, and I told +him of my retirement. + +"No engagement afterwards took place between us; nor have I ever been +since a member of 'Punch's' Cabinet, so to speak. Wishing you all +heartily well, I wrote a few occasional papers last year--and not liking +the rate of remuneration, wh. was less than that to wh. I had been +accustomed in my time, I wrote no more. + +"And you can say for me as a reason why I should feel hurt at your +changing the old rates of payment made to me--that I am not a man who +quarrels about a guinea or two except as a point of honour; _and_ that +when I could have had a much larger sum than that wh. you gave me for my +last novel--I preferred to remain with old friends, who had acted +honourably and kindly by me. + +"I reproach myself with having written 1/2 a line regarding my old +'Punch' Companions--which was perfectly true, wh. I have often said--but +which I ought not to have written. No other wrong that I know of have I +done. And I think it is now about time that my old friends and +publishers should set me right. + + "Yours very faithfully, dear Evans, + + "W. M. THACKERAY. + + "F. M. Evans, Esq." + +[Illustration: THACKERAY IN HIS STUDY. (_From Portion of a Painting by +F. M. Ward, R.A., in the Possession of Richard Hurst, Esq._)] + +Yet, though he resigned, he would still from time to time attend the +Dinners, at which he was always made welcome by the publishers and his +late colleagues. When, during this period, he was pleading for +assistance for the family of one of the Staff who had passed away, he +took pleasure in admitting that--"It is through my connection with +_Punch_ that I owe the good chances that have lately befallen me, and +have had so many kind offers of help in my own days of trouble that I +would thankfully aid a friend whom death has called away." So, although +he was no longer to be identified with the paper, Thackeray--"the great +Thackeray" he had become--was bound to it and to several members of the +Staff by ties of intimate affection, and his sudden death came with +stunning force upon them all. To Leech it was as his own death-knell; +and when he, Mark Lemon, Shirley Brooks, Tom Taylor, Horace Mayhew, +"Jacob Omnium," and John Tenniel stood round his grave, they felt, I +have been told, as if the glory of _Punch_ had been irremediably dimmed. +No verses ever penned by _Punch's_ poets to the memory of one of their +dead brethren ever breathed more love or more beauty of thought than +those in which Thackeray was mourned, and defended against the charge of +cynicism--" ... a brave, true, honest gentleman, whom no pen but his own +could depict as those who knew him could desire":-- + + "He was a cynic: By his life all wrought + Of generous acts, mild words, and gentle ways; + His heart wide open to all kindly thought, + His hand so quick to give, his tongue to praise. + + "And if his acts, affections, works, and ways + Stamp not upon the man the cynic's sneer, + From life to death, oh, public, turn your gaze-- + The last scene of a cynical career! + + "Those uninvited crowds, this hush that lies, + Unbroken, till the solemn words of prayer + From many hundred reverent voices rise + Into the sunny stillness of the air. + + "These tears, in eyes but little used to tears, + Those sobs, from manly lips, hard set and grim, + Of friends, to whom his life lay bare for years, + Of strangers, who but knew his books, not him." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[40] The inclusion of the article entitled "A Plea for Plush," in the +volume of "Contributions to _Punch_" in "Complete Works," published by +Smith, Elder & Co., is a mistake. The article in question was by +Thackeray's friend, "Jacob Omnium." + +[41] Mr. Frederick Mullet Evans. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1843-51. + + Horace Mayhew--"The Wicked Old Marquis"--A Birthday Ode--R. B. + Peake--Thomas Hood--"The Song of the Shirt"--Its Origin--Its Effect + in the Country--Its Authorship Claimed by Others--Translated + throughout Europe--A Missing Verse--Hood Compared with + Jerrold--"Reflections on New Year's Day"--Dr. E. V. Kenealy--J. W. + Ferguson--Charles Lever--Laman Blanchard--Tom Taylor--Passed over + by Shirley Brooks--Taylor's Critics--Mr. Coventry Patmore--"Jacob + Omnium"--Tennyson _v._ Bulwer Lytton--Horace Smith--"Rob Roy" + Macgregor--Mr. Henry Silver--Introduces Charles Keene--His Literary + Work--Service to Leech--Retirement--Mr. Sutherland Edwards--Charles + Dickens and _Punch_--Sothern Earns his Dinner--Reconciliation of + Dickens and Mark Lemon--J. L. Hannay--Cuthbert Bede. + + +[Illustration: HORACE MAYHEW. +(_From a Photograph by Bassano._)] + +_Punch_ had been running about eight months when, in Wills's words, "a +handsome young student returned from Germany and was heartily welcomed +by his brother, Mr. Henry Mayhew, and then by the rest of the +fraternity." This was at the particular _Punch_ meeting at which Mr. +Hamerton was present. Horace Mayhew's diploma joke consisted, I believe, +of "Questions addressées au grand concours aux élèves d'Anglais, du +Collége St. Badaud dans le Département de la Haute Cockaigne" (Vol. III. +p. 89). Regular occupation was forthwith found for him as sub-editor, +his duties being to collect the cuts from the artists, to act as medium +of communication between the writers and draughtsmen, and to assist Mark +Lemon in making-up the paper; and for these services he received one +pound a week. Soon, however, it was found that the editor could very +well perform all such duties for himself, and the post of "pony" was +abolished. Horace--or "Ponny," as he was invariably nicknamed--became +one of the accepted writers. He was most prolific as a suggestor, and +never failed of point and pith in his own numerous little paragraphs. As +a proposer he had much of the talent of his brother, but little of his +genius. "The Life and Adventures of Miss Robinson Crusoe," written by +Douglas Jerrold, was "Ponny's" suggestion; but he carried out his +conceptions entirely in such papers as his extremely amusing "Model +Men," "Model Women," and "Model Couples;" and his "Change for a +Shilling" and "Letters left at a Pastrycook's" are still remembered. + +"Ponny" had not a seat "in the Cabinet" until January 11th, 1845, before +which time he had no separate existence as a contributor, all his "copy" +being entered indiscriminately to the Editor. For a long while his +average contribution was thirty-one columns in each volume; but his main +value lay in the short articles and paragraphs of a playful and +whimsical character. Thus, when the "Birmingham Advertiser" declared +with grovelling snobbishness that "in these days it is quite refreshing +to pronounce the name of the Duke of Newcastle," "Ponny" suggested that +during the summer months "the name of his Grace should be written up in +every public thoroughfare." He was, in fact, in the words of an old +friend, "bright, good-natured, and lively, not very clever, but always +letting off little jokes;" "a social butterfly," adds Mr. Sala, "who +never fulfilled the promise of his youth." + +He was a strikingly good-looking man, and was justifiably proud of +Thackeray's greeting as they met at Evans's--"Ah, here comes Colonel +Newcome!" "From his aristocratic mien and premature baldness," says +Vizetelly, "Wiltshire Austin christened him 'the wicked old Marquis.' +The keeping of late hours was Ponny Mayhew's bane. For a quarter of a +century--save an annual fortnight devoted to recruiting himself at +Scarborough or elsewhere--he scorned to seek repose before the milkman +started on his rounds, and during the greater portion of the year never +thought of rising until the sun had set, when he would emerge from his +Bond Street rooms as spruce and gay as a lark." He had been engaged to a +daughter of Douglas Jerrold (whose other daughter, it will be +remembered, was the wife of Henry Mayhew), but on the ground that "one +Mayhew is enough in the family," Jerrold would not hear of it, and the +young people remained faithful to each other to the end. Living first +with Joseph Swain, the engraver, he afterwards took up his residence for +a time with the Lemons at King's Road, Chelsea. + +"Ponny's" portrait, it has often been said, may be seen in the White +Knight in "Alice in Wonderland;" but "the resemblance," says Sir John +Tenniel, "was purely accidental, a mere unintentional caricature, which +his _friends_, of course, were only too delighted to make the most of. +P. M. was certainly handsome, whereas the White Knight can scarcely be +considered a type of 'manly beauty.'" He was a great favourite with the +Staff, by reason of his many charming qualities. What they thought of +him may be in a measure deduced from one or two of the verses borrowed +from Shirley Brooks's Birthday Ode, here reproduced from Mr. Hatton's +"True Story" in "London Society":-- + + "Is he perfect? Why, no, that is hardly the case; + If he were, the _Punch_ Table would not be his place; + You all have your faults--I confess one or two-- + And we love him the better for having a few. + + "He never did murder, like--never mind whom, + Nor poisoned relations, like--some in this room; + Nor deceived the young ladies, like--men whom I see, + Nor even intrigued with a gosling, like--me. + + "No; black are our bosoms, and red are our hands, + But a model of virtue our Ponniboy stands; + And his basest detractors can only say this, + That he's fond of the cup, and the card, and the kiss. + + "A warm-hearted fellow--a faithful ally, + Our Bloater's[42] Vice-Regent o'er _Punch's_ gone by; + He's as true to the flag of the White Friars still + As when he did service with Jerrold and Gil. + + "Here's his health in a bumper! "_Old_" Ponny--a fib; + What's fifty? A baby. Bring tucker and bib. + Add twenty; then ask us again, little boy, + And till then may your life be all pleasure and joy!" + +"Ponny" Mayhew, who did not actually write anything for some years +before his end, died in May, 1872; and on p. 191 of the sixty-second +volume a graceful obituary notice pays tribute to his long and faithful +service and his gentle good-nature. + +By this time _Punch's_ established reputation brought a great number of +anonymous contributions, only a very few of which were ever used, and of +fewer still was the authorship placed upon record. Early in 1843, +however (p. 82, Vol. IV.), Mr. Blackwood, of Edinburgh, sent in one of +the earliest of Scottish witticisms, a conundrum; Joseph O'Leary, a +reporter of the "Morning Herald," is said to have contributed a poem on +"The English Vandal;" and R. B. Peake, who had adapted "A Night with +_Punch_" for W. J. Hammond, began his little series of "_Punch's_ +Provincial Intelligence," of which the most notable is a humorous report +of the University Boatrace of the year; and then the elder Hood began +his short but brilliant career. + +[Illustration: THOMAS HOOD +_From an Engraving by W. Hole, after the Painting by Lewis._] + +Thomas Hood had forgiven and forgotten the annoyance he had felt on +seeing in the first number of _Punch_ a bogus advertisement ascribed to +him under the title of "Lessons in Punmanship," at which he "could only +express his amazement that his name should be paraded with apparent +authority in a paper of the very existence of which he was not aware;" +and within two years he became a fairly constant contributor, after +writing to Dickens, "You will be glad to hear that I have made an +arrangement with Bradbury to contribute to _Punch_, but that is a secret +I cannot keep from you. It will be light occasional work for odd times." +So he began with a sketch re-drawn by H. G. Hine, accompanying a "Police +Report of a Daring Robbery by a Noble Lord"--the first of his stinging +attacks on Lord William Lennox, one of _Punch's_ favourite and, it must +be admitted, legitimate butts. Then followed at different times a score +or more of conundrums in the true Hoodian vein under the title of "Whys +and Whens," fair specimens of which are these: "Why is killing bees +like a confession? Because you unbuzz 'em." "Why is 'yes' the most +ignorant word in the language? Because it doesn't no anything." "What's +the difference between a soldier and a bomb-shell? One goes to wars, the +other goes to peaces." "When is a clock on the stairs dangerous? When it +runs down." A couple of sketches and "A Drop of Gin," an important poem +of seventy-six lines somewhat in the manner of the latter portion of +"Miss Kilmansegg" were followed--enclosed within a comic border!--by his +greatest popular effort, "The Song of the Shirt." This appeared, not in +the "Almanac," but in the "Christmas Number," on p. 261 of the second +volume for 1843. + +The particular incident by which this immortal poem was suggested was +one which had called forth a powerful leading-article in the "Times." It +was the "terrible fact" that a woman named Bidell, with a squalid, +half-starved infant at the breast, was "charged at the Lambeth +police-court with pawning her master's goods, for which she had to give +£2 security. Her husband had died by an accident, and had left her with +two children to support, and she obtained by her needle for the +maintenance of herself and family what her master called the 'good +living' of _seven shillings a week_." + +_Punch_ was at once aglow with red-hot indignation, and in an article +entitled "Famine and Fashion!" proposed an advertisement such as this +for the firm that employed her-- + + "_Holland coats_ from two-and-three are shown + By Hunger's haggard fingers neatly sewn. + _Embroidered tunics_ for your infant made,-- + The eyes are sightless now that worked the braid; + _Rich vests of velvet_ at this mart appear, + Each one bedimm'd by some poor widow's tear; + And _riding habits_ formed for maid or wife, + All cheap--aye, ladies, cheap as pauper-life. + For _mourning suits_ this is the fitting mart, + For every garment help'd to break a heart." + +The subject touched Hood more powerfully perhaps than others, for his +nature was essentially grave and sympathetic. As he himself had said, +it was only for his livelihood that he was a lively Hood--although he +was always brimming over with comicalities; and he never felt more +deeply the dignity of his profession and his own force and weight than +when he was engaged on serious work. So Hood conjured up his "Song of +the Shirt," moved by the revelations of poor seamstresses who received, +as it appeared, five farthings a shirt, out of which sum they had to +find their own needles! Mark Lemon told Mr. Joseph Hatton that Hood had +"accompanied the poem with a few lines in which he expressed the fear +that it was hardly suitable for _Punch_, and leaving it between his +discretion and the waste-paper basket." It had, said Hood, already been +rejected by three papers, and he was sick of the sight of it. Mark Lemon +brought the poem up at the Table, where the majority of the Staff +protested against its inclusion in a comic paper. But Lemon was +determined; and, after all, was it not for a Christmas number that he +destined it--a number in which something serious, pathetic, with a note +of pity and love, was surely not out of place? + +The effect on its publication was tremendous. The poem went through the +land like wild-fire. Nearly every paper quoted it, headed by the +"Times;" it was the talk of the hour, the talk of the country. It went +straight to John Bull's kind, _bourgeois_, sympathetic heart, just as +Carlyle declared that Ruskin's truths had "pierced like arrows" into +his. The authorship, too, was vigorously canvassed with intense +interest. Dickens, with that keen insight and critical faculty which had +enabled him almost alone among literary experts to detect the sex of +George Eliot, then an unknown writer (though doubtless he was helped in +the case I now speak of by Hood's letter to him just quoted), was one of +the few who at once named the writer of the verses. And it was well for +Hood that he had proof positive of the authorship, for one of the most +curious things connected with the poem was the number of persons who had +the incomprehensible audacity to claim it. One young gentleman was +mentioned by name, either by his friends or himself, and I find a letter +in a volume of newspaper cuttings to this effect: "I have just read, to +my great surprise, the announcement in your paper that Mr. Hood wrote +'The Song of the Shirt,' because _I know positively_ that what I before +stated to you is the fact." So hard pressed, indeed, was Hood, that he +wrote a private letter in February, 1845, in the following terms:-- + + "As I have publicly acknowledged the authorship of the '_Song of + the Shirt_,' I can have no objection to satisfy you privately on + the subject. My old friends Bradbury and Evans, the proprietors of + _Punch_, could show you the document conclusive on the subject. But + I trust my authority will be sufficient, especially as it comes + from _a man on his death-bed_." + +Had these literary vultures had their way, Hood would have been brazened +out of his verses altogether. + +_Punch_ shared handsomely in the glory of the poet, and its circulation +_tripled_ on the strength of it. And Mrs. Hood, poor soul, triumphed in +her prophecy; for had she not said, and maintained in spite of each +successive rejection from foolish editors--"Now mind, Hood, mark my +words; this will tell wonderfully! It is one of the best things you ever +did!" + +And so this song, which, in spite of its defects, still thrills you as +you read, achieved such a popularity that for sudden and enthusiastic +applause its reception has rarely been equalled. It was soon translated +into every language of Europe--(Hood used to laugh as he wondered +how they would render "Seam and gusset and band," into Dutch); +it was printed and sold as catchpennies, printed on cotton +pocket-handkerchiefs, it was illustrated and parodied in a thousand +ways; and the greatest triumph of all, which brought tears of joy to +Hood's eyes, before a week was out a poor beggar-woman came singing it +down the street, the words set to a simple air of her own. The greatest +delight of Hood--"the darling of the English heart," as he was called, +who was literally dying when he wrote the song, and so fulfilled the +sole condition which Jerrold said was all that was needed to make him +famous--was the conviction that the interest which the nation was taking +in his lines would turn to the real advantage of those in whose cause he +pleaded. He felt that he had touched not only the nation's heart but +the nation's conscience, and he deeply appreciated Kenny Meadows' and +Leech's efforts in the same direction, such as are to be seen in the +cartoons of "Pin Money, Needle Money," and many more besides. + +Speaking of the "Song of the Shirt," which brought letters to _Punch_ +from every part of the globe, Mr. Ruskin declares it the most impressive +example of the most perfect manifestation of the temper of the +caricaturist, the highest development of which is to be found in Hood's +poetry; and he compares it to Leech's "General Février turned Traitor." +There certainly can be no doubt that its force is amazingly assisted by +its plainness and simplicity of language. + +It is a curious fact that one verse of the poem was not printed by Mark +Lemon, although it appeared in the original manuscript; nor is it +included in the reprinted "Works." I imagine that its omission was +simply a matter of make-up, as it would be hard to compress the poem +into the space allotted to it, without using a much smaller type than +was usual in _Punch_; and an odd number of verses is a serious matter +for a sub-editor to wrestle with when he has to arrange a poem into +double columns of a given depth. The missing verse, which, to do Mark +Lemon justice, is the one most easily spared, runs as follows:-- + + "Seam, and gusset, and band, + Band, and gusset, and seam, + Work, work, work, + Like an Engine that works by Steam! + A mere machine of iron and wood, + That toils for Mammon's sake, + Without a brain to ponder and craze, + Or a heart to feel--and break!" + +In the same number that contained the "Song of the Shirt" was another +impressive poem by Hood, "The Pauper's Christmas Carol," in seven +stanzas; but it was entirely overshadowed and eclipsed by its +fellow-song, so that it lay, as it has done for the most part since, +almost unknown, unhonoured, and unsung. Yet it was as ringing and true +as any of Jerrold's most stirring efforts in his championship of the +poor. But the two friends were essentially different in their treatment +and methods. Hood's satire was never personal, as Jerrold's was; and, +unlike Jerrold, Hood would never tolerate the idea, much less practise +it, of placing "a wide moral gulf between Rich and Poor, with Hate on +one side and Fear on the other." He sought to help the poor by awakening +the love and sympathy of Society, and for that reason he selected his +epitaph in reference to his poem, for he would never have chosen this as +technically his finest work. He was altogether out of harmony with +Jerrold's policy of stinging the rich into charity and justice by biting +satire and illogical sarcasm, warm-hearted and well-meant though it was. + +At this time Hood was fast approaching his end; and he wrote for _Punch_ +on his death-bed. Though still young, he was becoming more and more +afflicted with physical ailments. Amongst other troubles, he was getting +stone deaf, he said; but consoled himself with the reflection that his +friend Charles Landseer was _two stone deafer_. And all the while his +rollicking fun, and quaintly sudden turn of word and idea were +transporting his readers, as he somewhere says, "from Dull-age to +Grin-age." His humour was effervescent, continuous, and effortless--not +like Jerrold's wit, intermittent flashes called up at need--but +overflowing in a rich stream of joke, pun, hit, crank, and quip, +covering a field far wider than Jerrold's, and more genial. + +The next contribution was his poem "The Drama," apropos of the State +trials in Ireland, and the Fair Maid of Perth, with allusion to the +Fighting Smith in either case--a poem of 108 lines. Then followed +"Reflections on New Year's Day" (January 6th, 1844), from which a couple +of specimen verses may well be quoted:-- + + "Yes, yes, it's very true and very clear! + By way of compliment and common chat, + It's very well to wish me a New Year; + But wish me a New Hat. + + "Oh, yes, 'tis very pleasant, though I'm poor, + To hear the steeple make that merry din; + Except I wish one bell were at the door + To ring new trowsers in." + +After a column on "The Awful State of Ireland" Hood was, on the 3rd of +March, 1844, editorially reckoned on the Staff. But the decree of Fate +was against him, and he only contributed two more pieces altogether. +_Punch_, as he acknowledged, was the one bright meteor that had flashed +across his milk-and-watery way in his latter years, and gave him, +together with Sir Robert Peel's tactful and charming bestowal of a +pension, his last delight. But already death, he said, had thrown open +wide its door to him, and he was "so near to it that he could almost +hear the hinges creak." And when he died, there were engraved upon his +tombstone, at his own desire, the simple words, "He Sang the Song of the +Shirt." + +The first arrival of 1844 was Dr. Edward Vaughan Kenealy, who, many +years after, acted for and defended the historic "Claimant," the +self-confessed Orton, _alias_ Castro, _alias_ "Sir Roger Tichborne," +with so much violent ability, lost his balance and came to utter grief. +In his youth one of his scholarly relaxations was to translate English +verse of various sorts into various languages--Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, +Hindustani, and the like, for he was a remarkable linguist. His unique +_Punch_ contribution was the rendering of "The King of the Cannibal +Islands" into Greek, and very good Greek too. The _jeu d'esprit_ is to +be found on p. 79, Volume VI., as well as in his volume of verse +dedicated to Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, whom he was destined +afterwards to waste his life in vilifying, while shattering his own +career in his savage and ineffective assaults. + +In the following month T. J. Serle struck up an ephemeral connection. He +had been Macready's secretary, and acting manager of Drury Lane, and had +written "The Shadow on the Wall," and other successful plays; and +Jerrold's eldest son was named Thomas Serle, after him. His first paper +was "A Fine Lady," on the 10th of March; but after one further +contribution, two months later, he appeared no more. About the same time +there was printed "The Magnitia," by Frank Moir (May 3rd, No. 199). + +J. W. Ferguson was a far more important and more useful contributor, +whose work was full of talent, whose versification was clever and +pointed, and whose topical "_Punch's_ Fairy Tales" (with obtrusively +obvious morals) are models of their kind. His "Little Frenchman's First +Lesson" (May 18th, 1844) purports to be a translation of a French poem +with which patriots are supposed to implant hatred of England in the +minds and hearts of their children the refrain being "Car ce sont là des +perfides Albionnais!"--and the "Second Lesson," which replies to a +French attack, were important efforts. His "Lays of the Amphitheatre +(Royal), by T. B. Macaulay," "Cyinon and Iphigeneia," and similar +contributions justified his inclusion in the Staff (April, 1845); but +after the autumn of 1846, by which time he was represented by a score of +columns, he disappeared from _Punch's_ scene. + +A letter from Charles Lever (6th June, 1844), under the title of "A +Familiar Epistle," and over the signature "Archy Delany," for a moment +brought that distinguished novelist into contact with Thackeray--a +circumstance that was not forgotten by either writer, when the latter +paid his rather stiff Dublin visit some time afterwards to the "Harry +Rollicker" whom he so brilliantly parodied in his "Prize Novelists." +Then Mr. W. P. Bull, of Nuneaton, sent in half a column of mock-heroic +verse--"A Soliloquy"--which purported to be the commencement of a scene +from an unpublished drama entitled "The Chemist," a contribution of +which Lemon thought very highly. No further items, however, came from +that quarter. + +Three recruits appeared with the month of October. A writer named +Jackson forwarded a couple of pieces ("Irish Intelligence" and "The +Polka Pest"--the latter well describing the craze with which the new +dance inoculated the whole country); and then Laman Blanchard, Jerrold's +life-long friend and fellow-worker from the beginning, made a début +that was almost coincident with his death. His "Royal Civic Function" +showed what a hand had been lost to _Punch_; but it was his delightful +"New Year's Ode: To the Winner of the St. Nisbett--Season, 1844," that +was the best of his rare contributions. It was at once an elegy of Mrs. +Nisbett, and a prayer and prophecy that she might again be seen on the +boards. The last verse runs:-- + + "Who weds a mere beauty, dooms dozens to grieve; + Who marries an heiress, leaves hundreds undone; + Who bears off an actress (she never took leave), + Deprives a whole city of rational fun. + But farewell the glances and nods of St. Nisbett; + We list for her short ringing laughter in vain, + And yet--bereaved London!--What think you of _this_ bet? + A hundred to one we shall see her again!" + +The prophecy was only partly fulfilled; Mrs. Nisbett was certainly seen +again upon the stage, but Blanchard was not there to enjoy the sight. He +died within the same year, to the passionate grief of Douglas Jerrold. + +[Illustration: TOM TAYLOR. +(_From a Photograph by Bassano._)] + +The last and most important accession of the year was Tom Taylor, for +six-and-thirty years a Staff officer of _Punch_, and for the last six of +them commander-in-chief. He was twenty-seven years old when he sent in +his first two contributions--"_Punch_ to Messieurs les Rédacteurs of the +French Press" and "Startling and most Important Intelligence" (October +19th, 1844). According to John Timbs, "Landells in one of his artistic +visits to Cambridge met with Mr. T. Taylor, who, having completed his +University studies, came to London to embark in the profession of +letters, his first contribution being to Douglas Jerrold's 'Illuminated +Magazine,'" just at the time when Landells ceased his connection. +Bristed, in his record of English University life, foretold of +"Travis," generally accepted as a literary portrait of Taylor, "perhaps +he will be a nominal barrister and an actual writer for _Punch_ and the +magazines. Perhaps he will go quite mad and write a tragedy:" a capital +example of a prophecy after the event, so far as it goes--for "Five +Years" was published in 1851. + +[Illustration: JOHN LEECH, TOM TAYLOR, AND PART OF HORACE MAYHEW. +(_Drawn by R. Doyle._)] + +Tom Taylor prided himself on the classic verve of his prose and verse, +and undoubtedly assisted in maintaining _Punch's_ literary standard. His +work for the paper went on increasing--from six columns in Vol. VII., to +forty-two in Vol. XIII.--and soon won him his seat at the Table. For a +long while, however, he did not shine as a cartoon-suggestor, the first +being "Peel's Farewell" (July 14th, 1849), and the second in the +following May, the extremely happy burlesque on the picture in the +National Gallery--"Leeds Mercury instructing Young England." As time +went on and he became known as a writer of taste and versatility, as a +dramatist and adaptor of plays, French and English; art critic of the +"Times;" artist biographer; and Civil Servant (he attained to the +secretaryship of the Local Government Board), the weight of his +increasing responsibility and influence seemed to get into what should +have been his humorous work. To counteract it, Thackeray, up to the time +of his resignation, struggled to maintain the spirit of jollity and the +lightness of touch which had formerly been _Punch's_ true note. But in +1874, when Shirley Brooks died, Tom Taylor, who had been identified with +the paper ten years before Brooks had joined it, was promoted, as by +right of service, to the supreme command. + +It cannot be said that his editorship was a success. His fun was too +scholarly and well-ordered, too veiled, deliberate, and ponderous; and +under him _Punch_ touched its lowest point of popularity. + + "In humour slow, though sharp and keen his mind; + His hand was heavy, though his heart was kind." + +His popularity among the outsiders was great, as I have learnt from many +of his old contributors; for he loved to extend his hospitality to young +men at his house, Lavender Sweep, at Wandsworth, and to send kindly +notes of encouragement and promises of future help. Nevertheless, he was +ever the butt of rival publications. In one of them a cartoon, entitled +"An Editor Abroad," was published, showing Mr. Burnand and Mr. du +Maurier helping him and his _Punch_ Show out of the mud in which he had +stuck; in another he was represented as "The Trumpet Blower;" while in +an article in "The Mask" (April, 1868), before he had assumed his sway, +Mr. Punch is supposed to point to "Mark Lemon's Triumphal Car" and, +referring to Taylor, to say: "He is our seraph.... His adaptations, I +assure you, are delightful. You must be well up in Michel Levy's +_répertoire_ to find him out. He is so very artful." + +A peculiar feature of Tom Taylor's editorship was the hieroglyphical +character of his handwriting. His missives of instructions to artists +and writers came as a terror to the receivers, who could make little of +them. "Mr. Tom Taylor's letters," Mr. Swain informs me, "were often very +difficult to decipher. His writing was peculiar, and he would also +continue the letter if necessary in any odd corner that was vacant. I +remember his writing some instructions to an artist one day in this +fashion, while I stood at his table, and, while blotting it, saying, +'You can send it off, but I don't think he'll be able to make it out.'" +To this experience may be added my own--that I have been the first to +decipher one of these notes addressed to an unattached artist, now +understood for the first time, nearly twenty years after it was written. +To the compositors he was a perpetual tribulation; and it is doubtful +if he could not have given points to Horace Greeley. That his son helped +him, towards the end, in a secretarial sort of way, was no doubt a +saving mercy. + +His was one of the busiest literary and journalistic careers of the day; +and when he died he left a void--great, it is true, yet in one respect +easily enough filled. But it was little to his friends that his humour +was not of the brightest and lightest, for his heart was of the warmest, +as Mr. George Meredith set forth in the October number of the "Cornhill +Magazine," to which he contributed a noble tribute--"To a Friend +Recently Lost, T. T."--a sonnet beginning:-- + + "When I remember, Friend, whom lost I call + Because a man beloved is taken hence, + The tender humour and the fire of sense + In your good eyes: how full of heart for all; + And chiefly for the weaker by the wall, + You bore that light of sane benevolence:" + +The _Punch_ men, themselves, in a whole-page obituary (July 24th, 1880), +bore graceful testimony to his personal worth. "That he is not with us," +they said, "is hard to imagine.... A cultivated man of letters, an +admirable scholar, he was as free from pedantry as he was incapable of +idleness. From first to last he was, in the highest and best sense, +'Thorough.' ... Quick to detect and appreciate talent, he was ready in +every way and on all occasions to hold out a helping hand to a +beginner." Thus feelingly they spoke of "the dear friend" they had lost. +For in his death they forgot the little annoyances they had suffered +from the tampering with their lines and spoiling their points, of which +they had sometimes had occasion to complain; with other drawbacks +belonging to an essentially fidgety nature. It may safely be said, that +if he left a hard task to his successor to work up the reputation of +_Punch_ as a comic paper, he did not at least render it difficult for +him to make his mark by comparison. + +No new humorist appeared in the volumes for 1845, although a poet of +eminence found expression on a single occasion. To one Kelly is to be +credited some humorous verses on "Dunsinane;" to J. Rigby, an Irish +Song; to Leech, his Harlequinade verses (which do not aspire even to the +dignity of a "trifle" or doggerel); to Watts Phillips, a few articles of +little importance; and to J. King, the verses in which an "Exiled +Londoner" (p. 147, Vol. IX.) apostrophises his beloved Babylon. The one +contribution of importance was that of Mr. Coventry Patmore. + +This was written in hot indignation of generous youth (he was but +twenty-two years old) at the French atrocity in Algiers, when, during +the campaign, General Pelissier filled with straw the mouth of the caves +of Dahra, wherein the opposing Arabs, with their women and children, had +taken refuge, and set fire to the mass. This foul act of the future Duke +of Malakoff caused a thrill of horror to pass through Europe, and the +gentle author of "The Angel in the House" was moved by the scandal to +the composition of his eight-stanza poem, of which Douglas Jerrold +procured the insertion on the 16th of August (p. 73, Vol. IX.):-- + + "Rush the sparks in rapid fountains + Up abroad into the sky! + From the bases of the mountains + Leap the fork'd flames mountain-high! + The flames, like devils thirsting, + Lick the wind, where crackling spars + Wage hellish warfare, worsting + All the still, astonished stars! + Ply the furnace, fling the faggots! + Lo, the flames writhe, rush, and tear + And a thousand writhe like maggots + In among them--_Vive la guerre!_" + +The poem follows the details of the massacre, sickening but for the +power the lines display. It continues: + + "And now, to crown our glory, + Get we trophies, to display + As vouchers for our story, + And mementoes of this day! + Once more, then, to the grottoes! + Gather each one all he can-- + Blister'd blade with Arab mottoes, + Spear-head, bloody yataghan. + Give room now to the raven + And the dog, who scent rich fare; + And let these words be graven + On the rock-side--_Vive la guerre!_" + +It was Mr. Patmore's sole contribution, his Muse never again being +startled into any other poetical demonstration of the sort in _Punch's_ +pages. The following year he became assistant-librarian at the British +Museum. + +"Jacob Omnium's" first appearance, curiously enough, was with a short +article which, in the reprinted works of Thackeray, has been ascribed to +the novelist. This was "A Plea for Plush" (July 20th, 1846), +appropriately signed "[Greek: Philophlynkês]," dealing, it is true, with +Jeames's nether garments on a hot day, but still with no internal +evidence of style to warrant its ascription to the "Fat Contributor." +Henceforward his other few papers were entered to him in his own name of +Matthew J. Higgins. He was a great friend of the _Punch_ Staff, +particularly of Thackeray and Leech. Of him the former had written in +the "Ballad of Policeman X"-- + + "His name is Jacob Homnium, Exquire; + And if _I_'d committed crimes, + Good Lord! I wouldn't ave that mann + Attack me in the _Times_!----" + +while Leech took his part against Lord John Russell on the occasion of +Higgins's "Story of the Mhow Court Martial." He was shown as a tall, +self-possessed gentleman, saying to the little fellow, who is sparring +up to him--"Pooh, go and hit one of your own size." Higgins's height, +indeed, was greater than that of either Thackeray or his friend Dean +Hole--six feet eight; and when the three friends walked abroad, the +sensation among the passers-by was considerable. On Thackeray and Dean +Hole measuring heights once in the house of a common friend, it was +found that they were practically equal. "Ah, yes," exclaimed the Dean; +"the cases are about the same, but one contains a poor dancing-master's +fiddle, and the other a Stradivarius." + +_Punch's_ sensation of the year was the fierce revenge taken by Tennyson +in its pages on Bulwer Lytton. Bulwer, as is explained elsewhere, had +been set up by _Punch_ as one of its pet butts from the very beginning; +and when Tennyson's sledge-hammer onslaught was brought to them, so it +is said, by a distinguished man of letters--a particular friend of both +parties--they rejoiced exceedingly. Tennyson's broadside had not been +unprovoked. Years before, in 1830, he had published, through Effingham +Wilson, "Poems, chiefly Lyrical," which contained the poem "To a Darling +Room," afterwards suppressed. Seizing on this, Lytton had re-echoed in +his "New Timon: A Romance of London," the strictures which Christopher +North has so severely, though good-naturedly, passed upon it in +"Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine" for May, 1832, and furthermore taunted +the Laureate with the pension of £200 which had just been conferred upon +him. The attack was just the sort to extort a violent reply. + + "Not mine, not mine (O, muse forbid!) the boon + Of borrowed notes, the mock-bird's modish tune, + The jingling medley of purloined conceits + Out-babying Wordsworth, and out-glittering Keats, + Where all the airs of patchwork pastoral chime + To drown the ears in Tennysonian rhyme. + + * * * * * + + "Let school-miss Alfred vent her chaste delight + On darling rooms, so warm and bright;[43] + Chant 'I am weary' in infectious strain, + And 'catch the blue-fly singing on the pane;' + Though praised by critics and adored by Blues, + Though Peel with pudding plumb the puling muse; + Though Theban taste the Saxon purse controls, + And pensions Tennyson while starves a Knowles." + +_Punch_ (p. 64, Vol. X.) had rushed in to the rescue with the clever +retort:-- + +_"The New Timon" and Alfred Tennyson's Pension._ + + "You've seen a lordly mastiff's port, + Bearing in calm, contemptuous sort + The snarls of some o'erpetted pup + Who grudges him his 'bit and sup:' + So stands the bard of Locksley Hall, + While puny darts around him fall, + Tipp'd with what TIMON takes for venom; + He is the mastiff, TIM the Blenheim." + +But Tennyson's was not by any means "the lordly mastiff's port." He was +stung by the contemptuous reference to the pension, and proved the truth +of Johnson's aphorism-- + + "Of all the griefs that harass the distrest, + Sure the most bitter is the scornful jest"-- + +and he straightway wrote the ten verses that appeared under the title of +"The New Timon, and the Poets" (p. 103, Vol. X.), signing them +"ALCIBIADES":-- + + "We know him, out of SHAKESPEARE'S art, + And those fine curses which he spoke; + The old TIMON, with his noble heart, + That, strongly loathing, greatly broke. + So died the Old: here comes the New. + Regard him: a familiar face: + I _thought_ we knew him: What, it's you, + The padded man that wears the stays-- + + * * * * * + + "What profits now to understand + The merits of a spotless shirt-- + A dapper boot--a little hand-- + If half the little soul is dirt? + + * * * * * + + "A TIMON, you! Nay, nay, for shame: + It looks too arrogant a jest-- + The fierce old man--to take _his_ name, + You bandbox. Off, and let him rest." + +This crushing rejoinder was cordially welcomed by Thackeray and the +rest of the Staff, who loved to castigate the fopperies of the conceited +poetaster, and Lytton, it is said, was not a little astonished at the +virility of "school-miss Alfred." But Tennyson's anger soon cooled; +perhaps his conscience smote him; for the very next week he toned down +the savagery of his first verses in an "Afterthought," in which he said: + + "And _I_ too talk, and lose the touch + I talk of. Surely, after all, + The noblest answer unto such + Is kindly silence when they brawl." + +The first set of verses are not to be found in the poet's collected +poems; but the second are included, only "kindly silence" is replaced by +"perfect stillness." After that Tennyson broke silence no more; and +Lytton subsequently made what was put forward as an _amende honorable_, +in a speech at Hertford (October, 1862), when he said that "we must +comfort ourselves with the thought so exquisitely expressed by our Poet +Laureate," and so forth. The quarrel between _Punch_ and Lytton faded, +first into a truce, and then into friendship; and in 1851 we find +several of the Staff playing "Not so Bad as we Seem"--written specially +for them--at Devonshire House, before the Queen and the Prince Consort. +It may not inappropriately be mentioned that when Woolner's bust of +Tennyson was presented to Trinity College and the authorities excluded +it from the chapel and library on the ground that there was no precedent +for paying so much honour to a living person, _Punch_, by the hand of +Shirley Brooks, published one of the finest parodies extant of the +Laureate's style, beginning with the line-- + + "I am not dead; of that I do repent." + +In January, 1847, Horace Smith, the brother of James ---- they of the +"Rejected Addresses"--contributed a column "Christmas Commercial +Report;" and John Macgregor--"Rob Roy"--began his acknowledged series of +papers and sketches with "Costumes for the Commons" and "Meeting of the +Streets," the pecuniary results of which he devoted to police-court +poor-boxes. He was hardly more than a lad at the time; but he was +already a strong writer, and his references to the French Revolution +have the intrinsic merit that they were written by one who was in Paris +at the time when the "Citizen King" took flight to England. + +[Illustration: HENRY SILVER. +(_From a Photograph by Elliott and Fry._)] + +Mr. Henry Silver, ex-_Punch_ Staff officer, first appeared anonymously +in _Punch_ in February, 1848, with an obituary notice, sent from +Norwich, where he was articled to Sir William Foster, Bart., solicitor. +It was called "The Death of Mr. Wimbush's Elephant"--the Jumbo of the +period, which had died at the age of eighty-four. He was then only +twenty years of age, and, encouraged by this success, he began +contributing trifles to "The Month." This publication was edited by +Albert Smith in 1851; but although it was illustrated by Leech, and was +one of the most genuinely humorous works of its kind, it ran for only +six months. When "The Month" came to a sudden stop, the articles +remaining unpublished were turned over to Mark Lemon to see what use he +could make of them. Some were by Mr. Silver, who was forthwith summoned +from his anonymity by a line in _Punch_: "'Naughty Boy' has not sent his +address." Mark Lemon was not kept waiting for the answer, and after +paying him for several of his previous contributions (an attention +highly appreciated) he at once installed the young man as a writer at +the rate of one guinea per column. This, in due course, was raised to +thirty shillings, and at that remained until 1881, when he received a +weekly stipend of six guineas, which the Editor declared to be the +maximum then payable to a _Punch_ writer. Some years previous to this, +and soon after the death of Douglas Jerrold, Mr. Silver had been +summoned to occupy the place at the Table left vacant by the great +satirist. "My chief work," he writes in answer to my inquiry, "was in +the decade ending with the 'Sixties, though it by no means ceased then. +I often filled four or five columns a week, and contributed '_Punch's_ +History of Costume'" (illustrated by Tenniel), "'Our Dramatic +Correspondent,' 'Our Dramatic Spectator,' with a great amount of prose +and verse, and sundry pages of the 'Essence of Parliament' when Shirley +Brooks was away." + +Perhaps Mr. Silver's greatest service to _Punch_, as elsewhere +explained, was his introduction of Charles Keene, with whom he was very +intimate for more than forty years. His friendship with Leech, a +fellow-Carthusian, though of course greatly his senior, is another +interesting passage of his life, testified to by the many hunting +sketches which, with a score or more of Keene's, decorated the billiard +room of the fine old house in Kensington where Leech had died, and which +Mr. Silver subsequently occupied until it was pulled down in 1893. + +At Leech's death Mr. Silver was invited by Mark Lemon to apply to the +Governors of Charterhouse for the gift of an admission into "Gown-boys" +for the son of the great draughtsman who had been so good a friend. +After many fruitless efforts he was at length successful, and received +the welcome present from the hands of Lord John Russell--as is set forth +elsewhere. On the death of Lemon, Mr. Silver severed his regular +connection with _Punch_. + +The advent of the brilliant journalist Mr. Sutherland Edwards was the +other event of 1848. "I was engaged on _Punch_," he says, "at the +recommendation of Gilbert à Beckett, who had thought well of satirical +verses and poems contributed by me to a paper called 'Pasquin.' Douglas +Jerrold, however, had been attacked rather severely in 'Pasquin;' not by +me, but by James Hannay. Hannay and myself wrote the whole of 'Pasquin' +up to the time of my quitting that publication in order to write for +_Punch_; and we considered ourselves jointly responsible for what +appeared in its columns. Jerrold was away in the Channel Islands at the +time of my being engaged on _Punch_; and on his return to London he +showed himself annoyed (not unnaturally, perhaps) at the Editor, Mark +Lemon, having engaged me. 'Two youths,' he was reported to have said, +'throw mud at me, and because one of them hits me in the eye you clasp +him to your bosom.' Mark Lemon now asked me to give up writing for +_Punch_, but to contribute as much as I liked to a magazine he was about +to start with the assistance of the contributors to _Punch_. It was to +have been called 'The Gallanty Show;' but it never came out. After I had +contributed to _Punch_ for some weeks, I wrote a few articles for one of +'_Punch's_ Pocket-Books;' then finding I was not wanted, I ceased to +send in contributions, and my engagement came to an end.... I resumed my +connection with _Punch_ when Mr. Burnand became Editor (thirty-two years +afterwards), and still write for it from time to time, but only as an +occasional contributor." In this year Richard Doyle made a slight +literary appearance in the paper, with an article on "High Art and the +Royal Academy." + +Charles Dickens is supposed to have contributed to _Punch_ in the +following year (1849) an article entitled "Dreadful Hardships Endured by +the Shipwrecked Crew of the _London_, Chiefly for Want of Water"--a +criticism on the scandalous condition of the suburban water supply. Mr. +F. G. Kitton has examined the original manuscript preserved by Mrs. Mark +Lemon in her autograph album. Mr. Hatton found it among Lemon's papers, +bearing on the outside, in the Editor's handwriting, the inscription, +"Dickens' only contribution to _Punch_!" But the alleged contribution is +absolutely undiscoverable in the pages of the paper. The explanation is, +in Mr. Kitten's words, that "about the time the manuscript was written, +several pictorial allusions to foul water in suburban London appeared in +_Punch_, which bear directly upon the subject of Dickens's protest, and +it is surmised that the Editor, on the receipt of Dickens's +contribution, considered that greater prominence would be given to the +matter to which they referred by means of a cartoon than by a few lines +of text. Hence we find the rebuke enforced by the pencil of the artist, +instead of the mere literary lashing which Dickens intended to inflict +upon that particular public grievance." It may safely be suggested that +this was the only occasion on which, after his reputation was made, +Dickens was ever "declined with thanks." This MS., it may be added, was +sold at Sotheby's on the 9th of July, 1889, and was knocked down for +£16. + +[Illustration: CHARLES DICKENS' SOLE (AND REJECTED) CONTRIBUTION. +(_By Permission of Mr. F. G. Kitton and Mr F. Sabin._)] + +The curious fact remains that Dickens, who was the intimate friend of +_Punch's_ Editor for the best part of their working lives, whose +publishers were _Punch's_ proprietors as well as the publishers and part +proprietors of the "Daily News," which Dickens edited, never contributed +to _Punch_, nor was in any way identified with it, save, indeed, with +its Dinner-Table. At that function he was at one time a frequent +visitor, and also was he present when at the Prince of Wales's wedding a +brilliant company assembled at the publishing office to see the +_cortège_ go by. It was on that occasion that Sothern, one of the +invited guests, arrived on the other side of the way, but, owing to the +denseness of the crowd, was utterly unable to force his way across. His +friends caught sight of him, and pointed to a policeman. Sothern took +the hint. "Get me through," he whispered, "and I'll give you a +sovereign." "Afraid I can't," said the man regretfully, "but I'll try." +A prodigious effort was made, but unsuccessfully, loud protests going up +from the packed crowd. Sothern was at his wits' end; he could not bear +the thought of losing such a dinner in such a company, but his invention +did not fail him. "Look here," he said to the constable; "put your +handcuffs on me, drag me through, and land me at that door, and I'll +give you _two_ pounds." The man seized the idea and Sothern together; he +slipped on the handcuffs, and with a loud "Make way, there!" dragged his +prize through a mass of humanity that was only too happy to assist the +law as far as might be; and after a few moments of crushing, pushing, +and general rough handling, the dishevelled comedian was successfully +landed at _Punch's_ publishing door. "You'll find the money in my +waistcoat pocket," said Sothern. But he did not observe that, after the +policeman had secured it, a stealthy addition was made to the money in +the constabular palm by one of his _Punch_ friends; and only when the +man disappeared in the crowd did Sothern realise that a timely bribe had +left him to mix with his friends for the rest of the day and to eat his +dinner with hands firmly secured in his manacles! + +It is said that Dickens held aloof from _Punch_ on account of +Thackeray's success in it. If so, the jealousy must have been all on +Dickens' side; for Thackeray's well-known exclamation, when he hurried +into the _Punch_ office and slapped down before Lemon the latest number +of "Dombey and Son" containing Paul Dombey's death, "It's stupendous! +unsurpassed! There's no writing against such power as this!" was that of +a generous and magnanimous man. Bryan Proctor ("Barry Cornwall"), +writing to E. Fitzgerald in 1870, said, "I saw a good deal of Thackeray +until his death.... I did not observe much jealousy in Thackeray towards +Dickens, nor _vice versâ_. They travelled pretty comfortably on their +dusty road together. Each had a quantity of good-nature, and each could +afford to be liberal to the other." The probable explanation is that +Dickens simply did not care to interrupt his triumphant career of +novelist in order to write occasional articles in a paper in which +anonymity was the rule and rejection so painfully possible. + +Once, however, by the hand of Leech, Dickens made an appearance in +_Punch_, and, curiously enough, only once. This was in the drawing of +the awful appearance of a "wopps" at a picnic (p. 76, Vol. XVII.), where +the novelist appears as the handsome, but not very striking, youth +attendant on the young lady who is overcome at the distressing +situation. It must be admitted that the portrait is hardly recognisable. + +But a serious quarrel broke out between Dickens and the _Punch_ men, +publishers and Editor alike--a quarrel wholly on Dickens's side. So +great had been his intimacy and his influence that he could cause the +insertion of a cartoon and even bring about the alteration of the Dinner +day. But now, on the unhappy differences between himself and his wife, +trouble arose between old friends. Mark Lemon had naturally leaned +towards the wife, from chivalry and sense of right, and the publishers +preferred to take no share in a quarrel in which they certainly had no +concern. On May 28, 1859, the whole of the back page of _Punch_ was +given to an advertisement of "Once a Week," which was to follow +"Household Words," and to an explanation of the position of affairs +between "Mr. Charles Dickens and his late Publishers." The following +paragraphs are all that it is needful to quote from the statement:-- + + "So far as 1836, Bradbury and Evans had business relations with Mr. + Dickens, and, in 1844, an agreement was entered into by which they + acquired an interest in all the works he might write, or in any + periodical he might originate, during a term of seven years. Under + this agreement Bradbury and Evans became possessed of a joint, + though unequal, interest with Mr. Dickens in 'Household Words,' + commenced in 1850. Friendly relations had simultaneously sprung up + between them, and they were on terms of close intimacy in 1858, + when circumstances led to Mr. Dickens's publication of a statement, + on the subject of his conjugal differences, in various newspapers, + including 'Household Words' of June 12th. + + "The public disclosure of these differences took most people by + surprise, and was notoriously the subject of comments, by no means + complimentary to Mr. Dickens himself, as regarded the taste of this + proceeding. On June 17th, however, Bradbury and Evans learnt from a + common friend, that Mr. Dickens had resolved to break off his + connection with them, because this statement was not printed in the + number of _Punch_ published the day preceding--in other words, + because it did not occur to Bradbury and Evans to exceed their + legitimate functions as proprietors and publishers, and to require + the insertion of statements on a domestic and painful subject in + the inappropriate columns of a comic miscellany. No previous + request for the insertion of this statement had been made either to + Bradbury and Evans, or to the editor of _Punch_, and the grievance + of Mr. Dickens substantially amounted to this, that Bradbury and + Evans did not take upon themselves, unsolicited, to gratify an + eccentric wish by a preposterous action.... Bradbury and Evans + replied that they did not, and could not, believe that this was the + sole cause of Mr. Dickens's altered feeling towards them; but they + were assured that it _was_ the sole cause, and that Mr. Dickens + desired to bear testimony to their integrity and zeal as his + publishers, but that his resolution was formed, and nothing could + alter it." + +So this foolish estrangement went on until, years afterwards, Clarkson +Stanfield on his death-bed besought Dickens to resume his friendship +with the man with whom, after all, he had had no cause of quarrel. So +Dickens sent to Lemon (whom he doubtless suspected of having written +the publishers' damaging defence just quoted) a kindly letter when +"Uncle Mark" appeared as Falstaff before the public, and when Stanfield +was buried the two men clasped hands over his open grave; and later on, +when Dickens died, some of the most touching and beautiful verses that +ever appeared in _Punch_ were devoted to his memory. + +[Illustration: JAMES HANNAY. +(_From a photograph by T. Rogers._)] + +In 1850 appeared James Hannay, Mr. Sutherland Edwards' associate in +"Pasquin," and founder (I am informed by his cousin, Mr. J. L. Hannay, +the police magistrate) of "The Puppet Show." It was when he was +approached by the proprietors of this periodical (the Vizetelly +brothers), and was asked to write for it as well--"Something in the +manner of Sterne, with a dash of Swift"--he replied that in that case +his remuneration would have to be "Something in the manner of +Rothschild, with a dash of Baring." Hannay was at that time on the +"Morning Chronicle," after having, like Jerrold and Stanfield, given a +trial to the Royal Navy and found it wanting. He literally fought his +way into _Punch_, just as Shirley Brooks did a few years subsequently, +and was assisted from within by the kindly appreciation of Thackeray. +Perhaps Jerrold was reconciled to the accession in view of Hannay having +started "The Puppet Show" with the main object of violently assaulting +his old friend and chum Mr. Edwards, who, in spite of all journalistic +amenities, remained his chum, for these assaults were only attacks _pour +rire_. + +For a time Hannay's pen was of the utmost value to _Punch_. His earliest +contributions were notes on a tour in Scotland--his native country--he +describing himself as "The Scotchman _who went back again_." But he did +not remain very long with _Punch_; besides being a wit, he was a scholar +with a very serious side to his character, and the amusement of the +public became, in his eyes, less important than their instruction. He +was only twenty-three when he produced his first novel of "Singleton +Fontenoy, R.N.," which so pleased Carlyle that it induced the old +philosopher to invite him to his house. Then he turned lecturer on +literary subjects, became "Quarterly" reviewer, married a daughter of +Kenny Meadows, took to diplomacy in a small way, and was appointed Her +Majesty's Consul at Barcelona, where he died in 1873. Mr. Holman Hunt, +one of the band of wits and youthful geniuses of whom Hannay was the +wittiest of all, writes to me of him as "a contributor of great power +who might with self-control have gained a great position--a friend who +used to come on our nocturnal boating expeditions up the river. He was +one of the dear crew who in different capacities and with varied powers +once manned life's larger boat with me." + +Sir John Tenniel contributed a few pieces in 1851 (p. 56, Vol. XX.) and +later, but they were of little importance. Cuthbert Bede was as much a +writer as a draughtsman, as he showed by his parody of the "High-mettled +Racer." Then came another of _Punch's_ stars of the first magnitude, +Shirley Brooks. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] Mark Lemon. + +[43] The author here quotes in a footnote a few lines from the poem, +beginning + + "O, darling room, my heart's delight"---- + +and then observes: "The whole of this _Poem_ (!!!) is worth reading, in +order to see to what depths of silliness the human intellect can +descend." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1852-78. + + Shirley Brooks--His Wit and Humour--Training--Lays Siege to + _Punch_--And Carries him by Assault--"Essence of + Parliament"--William Brough--Mr. Beatty Kingston--F. I. + Scudamore--M. J. Barry--Dean Hole--Mr. Charles L. Eastlake--Mr. + Francis Cowley Burnand--His Little Joke with Cardinal + Manning--"Fun"--"Mokeanna"--Its Success--Thackeray's + Congratulations to _Punch_--"Happy Thoughts"--And Other Happy + Thoughts--Mr. Burnand _as_ a Ground-Swell--Promoted to the + Editorship--The Apotheosis of the Pun--Mr. J. Priestman + Atkinson--Mr. John Hollingshead--Mr. R. F. Sketchley--"Artemus + Ward"--A Death-bed Ambition--H. Savile Clarke--Locker-Lampson + and C. S. Calverley--Miss Betham-Edwards--Mr. du Manner's "Vers + Nonsensiques"--Mr. A. P. Graves--Rev. Stainton Moses--Mr. Arthur + W. à Beckett--"A. Briefless, Junior"--Mortimer Collins--Mr. E. + J. Milliken--"The 'Arry Papers"--Gilbert à Beckett--"How we + Advertise Now"--Mr. H. F. Lester--Mr. Burnand and the Corporal. + +[Illustration: SHIRLEY BROOKS. +(_From a Photograph by Lombardi and Co._)] + +Shirley Brooks--he dropped his first names of Charles William--was +perhaps the most brilliant and useful all-round man who ever wrote for +_Punch_. His rapidity was extraordinary. The clergyman who boasted that +he could write a sermon in an hour "and think nothing of it" courted the +reply that probably the congregation thought nothing of it either. But +the single hour in which Brooks began and finished the composition of +his "Rime of the Ancient Alderman" (1855)--a poem of fifty stanzas, that +fills nine pages in his volume of selected work--brought him criticism +of a different sort. His facility was not less astonishing, and I have +heard repeated some of his flashes of epigram enclosed in polished verse +which it would be hard to believe were extempore but for the +circumstances under which they were inspired. Indeed, his fancy, like +himself, was a diamond of great fire and high polish, and rich by +bounteous favour of nature. He was as witty as Jerrold without the +sting; but, when he chose, he could strike as hard, and, as he himself +once said, never care "a horse's mamma." + +He had been articled to a solicitor, but he preferred the comic muse, +and _Punch_ on "Joe Miller" was more to him than Coke upon Littleton. +His humorous prose and graceful witty verse were cast upon the waters of +the comic press. He was thirty-two before he had his best chance of +making himself widely known in the line he especially loved. This was in +1847, when he began to write for the "Man in the Moon," which was just +started under the editorship of two _Punch_ men--Albert Smith and Angus +B. Reach. For the latter he had a close and tender friendship. When +Reach fell ill, Brooks did all his journalistic work for months, and +would touch not a penny of the money; as the cheques arrived, they were +immediately forwarded for the benefit of the sufferer. He was his +colleague on the "Morning Chronicle," for which Brooks was +gallery-reporter in the House of Commons for five sessions as well as +leader-writer, and when Reach was sent through France on an expedition +of inquiry into the condition of the agricultural classes, Brooks was +despatched through South Russia, Asia Minor, and Egypt. And in 1852 he +wrote in conjunction with him "A Story with a Vengeance," which was +partly illustrated by Charles Keene; but the artist was at that time so +little known that it was not considered worth the publisher's while to +mention his name. + +Under Reach's editorship, then, he appeared in the "Man in the Moon," +and the next year (1848) in Hannay's "Puppet Show." It was for the pages +of the former (November, 1847) that Brooks wrote one of the severest +assaults on _Punch_ ever published--the more severe for the excellence +of its quality. It was entitled "Our Flight with _Punch_" (in imitation +of Tom Taylor's "Flight with Russell" and his far less happy "Flight +with Louis Philippe," in _Punch_, August and October, 1847, Volume +XIII.), in which the "Man in the Moon" was supposed to fly, genie-like, +with _Punch_ over the land which at one time he ruled with his wit; and +the "Dreary Hunchback," as he was apostrophised, was caustically +besought to awake and stem the tide of his supposed degeneration. It is +hardly surprising that this poem, clever as it is, was not reprinted in +the posthumous collection of the writer's poems. + +But not immediately did he conquer his position. There were still years +to wait, which were occasionally occupied with a pleasing attack on +_Punch_, one of which, it is said, drew from Leech his picture of two +little "snobs" in a low coffee-house. "_Punch_ is very dummy and slow +this week, I think," says the first disreputable-looking "fast man." "So +do I," replies the other. "It's their own fault, too, for I sent 'em +some dem'd funny articles, which the humbugs sent me back." "That's just +the way they served me," resumes his friend--"the great fools!" But at +last, at the end of 1851, his first contribution to _Punch_ was +received, and he was soon invited to join the Staff. He was not long in +making a mark with "Miss Violet," but it was not among his strongest +contributions. Nevertheless, "Epicurus Rotundus" was now a made man on +the highway to success. + +It was his charm and grace as much as his vigour that compelled the +admiration of his fellows and their admission that he was the most +valuable accession that the Staff had ever received. At the dinner given +to Thackeray in 1856, Jerrold, in proposing Brooks's health, pronounced +him "the most rising journalist of the day," and Mark Lemon declared +openly that "Shirley's pen is the gracefullest in London." It was, in +fact, the general opinion at the time that his verses combined much of +the technical merit of Pope's with the keen sarcasm of Swift; and of +such verse he contributed not fewer than six hundred pieces in the +course of his _Punch_ career. One of their merits was the unexpected +spontaneity of their humour--the faculty that is distinctive of some of +the best of his _mots_, such as that when looking at Edmund Yates's +book-shelves which caused him to pause before one of the volumes and +read off "Homer's Iliad," and murmur, "Homer's--Yes--_that is the +best_." On one occasion he, with Mr. George Chester (my informant), was +on a visit to Mark Lemon at Crawley, and at the breakfast-table a +discussion arose between the two men upon noses, their shapes and +characteristics. Turning kindly to one of his host's little daughters, +and looking at her delicate little _nez retroussé_, he said, "When they +were looking about for a nose for you, my dear, they chose the first +that turned up"--a joke often since repeated and well-nigh worked to +death. + +The contribution by which he will certainly be best and most gratefully +remembered is his "Essence of Parliament"--a work which was entirely his +own conception, and which was continued for twenty years from week to +week while Parliament was sitting, with cleverness, refinement, truth, +and humour that are invaluable to the historian and delightful to the +general reader. For this work his experience and training as the +"Chronicle" reporter were invaluable to him. Brooks was essentially a +politician in feeling, full of suggestion--apt, happy, and +ingenious--and yet could turn with ease and equal facility to social, +literary, poetical, or art-critical work, to his daily "leader" or +weekly article for the "Illustrated London News." He was in his time the +cartoon suggestor-in-chief, and towards the end of Mark Lemon's life +rendered great assistance in the editorship of the paper; although +Percival Leigh was the recognised _locum tenens_. Lemon had been dead +but just a week when Brooks wrote (June 1st, 1870) from the _Punch_ +office to a friend:-- + + "Yesterday I accepted the Editorship of _Punch_. It will be a tie, + and give me trouble, but I seem to have been generally expected to + take the situation, and it is not good to disappoint General + Expectations, as he is a stern officer. Wish me good fortune--but I + know you do. + + "I was offered a seat on a four-horse coach, for the Derby, + alongside M. Gustave Doré. But I am here. Who says I have no + self-denial?" + +--which shows that he was already in harness. + +In his editorship he took the utmost pride, and he would defend his +paper with spirit. When an ill-mannered acquaintance told him "that of +all the London papers he considered _Punch_ the dullest," Brooks +replied, "I wonder you ever read it." "I don't," said the other. "So I +thought," retorted the Editor, "by your foolish remark." + +Shirley Brooks fell ill with a complication of disorders, and Mr. +Burnand did him the same service on _Punch_ that he had done for Lemon, +and that Leigh did for himself and Tom Taylor. When he was near his end, +and a newspaper acquaintance called persistently to inquire how he was +progressing, "Tell him," said the sick man, with a shrewd smile about +his lips, "that he shall have his 'par' in good time." He was engaged in +writing "Election Epigrams" and "The Situation" on his death-bed; and +died in February, 1874, before their publication. He was buried in the +cemetery of Kensal Green, close to where Thackeray lay by Leech, and +within whose walls, though at some distance apart, Doyle was to sleep, +and Henry Mayhew. + +Neither Robert nor William Brough ever drew for _Punch_, but it is the +belief of their brother, Mr. Lionel Brough, that they were both at one +time literary contributors. Of this, however, I have no record. William +was brother-in-law to Mark Lemon, but the two men were not on the best +of terms. Robert, a provincial Jerrold, with all Douglas's power of +sarcasm and some of his genius, had started the "Liverpool Lion," and +was a brilliant comic draughtsman. It was the success of his play, "The +Enchanted Isle," that brought him to London, where he wrote burlesques +and so forth; but he will be remembered for his clever illustrations to +most of _Punch's_ rivals of his time, as well as his creation of "Billie +Barlow"--the "Ally Sloper" of the day; and it was not to _Punch's_ +advantage that he did not enlist Brough's humorous talent. + +In the year 1854--or it may have been a few months later--Mr. W. Beatty +Kingston made an early appearance with a cockney ballad on the subject +of the admission of female searchers to the penetralia of H.M. Record +Office, of which at that time he was a "flickering light" at £100 a +year. Soon he took service under the Hapsburgs, and left England +afterwards for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1883 he resumed comic +operations on the invitation of Mr. Burnand, and continued, until June, +1887, to contribute a good deal of verse, illustrated by Mr. Sambourne +and Mr. Furniss. Many of these pieces have since been republished in "My +Hansom Lays;" while of those which have since appeared some, such as "A +Triplet" and "The Wizard's Curse," have passed into the category of +"stock recitations." + +Then F. I. Scudamore, still remembered for his _vers de société_, was a +passing contributor. But in 1855 he joined "The Comic Times," with other +of old _Punch_ outsiders, and then obtained an appointment in the +Government Telegraphs, and, with a Companionship of the Bath, the +superintendence of the Constantinople Post Office. + +Mr. Ashby-Sterry's name belongs to the following year, but he appeared +solely as a draughtsman; his literary connection, which began +twenty-four years later, will be spoken of in its proper place. Michael +John Barry was another who at this time (1857) shed no little brilliancy +on _Punch_; and to him is now credited the admirable "Peccavi" +despatch--perhaps the most finished and pointed that ever appeared in +_Punch's_ pages, and certainly one of the most highly appreciated and +most loudly applauded:-- + + "'_Peccavi!_ I've _Scinde_,' said Lord Ellen[44] so proud-- + Dalhousie, more modest, said '_Vovi_, I've _Oude_!'" + +This brilliant couplet, according to the "Times," is said to have been +contended for by "both _Punch_ and Thomas Hood;" and it never was +finally decided which of the two great humorists followed the other. +Their claims, indeed, are not irreconcilable. Latterly, the credit has +been claimed, with some show of authority, for Barry, who was generally +regarded in his day as one of Jerrold's peers in wit. It is curious to +observe that in the House of Commons debate on the Candahar question, +Mr. P. J. Smyth was reported to have referred to "the unexampled brevity +of the General's despatch after he had won his great victory on the +Indus," in the quaint belief that the first half-line of the epigram was +Lord Ellenborough's actual report. + +The Very Rev. Reynolds Hole, Dean of Rochester, always a spoilt child of +_Punch's_, and the intimate friend of Leech, was more of a _Punch_ man +than most contributors, as he was one of the very few outsiders who were +ever entertained at the Wednesday Dinner.[45] "Some six-and-thirty years +ago," he informed me, "Mark Lemon wrote to me, '_Punch_ is proud of such +a contributor,' and I have his letter. I wrote a few short paragraphs +about Oxford, and some longer articles in verse, entitled 'The +Sportsman's Dream' and 'My Butler.' Leech told me, 'You are an honorary +member of our weekly meetings, and will be always welcome.'" His +charming book, "A Little Tour in Ireland," written "by an Oxonian," had +the advantage of Leech's pencil, and by his friendship with that artist, +as well as with Thackeray and others of the Staff, he was for a time +identified in some measure with _Punch_ itself, besides obtaining +recognition as the beau-ideal of "the genial, jolly parson." That he did +not become a regular contributor to the paper was due, it is believed, +to a subsequent misunderstanding. + +In "Jack Easel," the writer of a number of delightful letters upon +artistic and social topics at home and abroad, it is difficult to +recognise Mr. Charles L. Eastlake, the able Keeper of the National +Gallery. From 1859 to the autumn of 1862 Mr. Eastlake contributed +eight-and-twenty articles of importance, one of them in verse, and the +majority headed "Our Roving Correspondent." "Jack Easel on the +Continent" and "The Royal Academy Exhibition" were the subjects of many +of them, and their note was lively enough to cause his papers to be +looked forward to by _Punch's_ readers. + +Mr. Francis Cowley Burnand, when he first appeared in _Punch_, in 1863, +was no mere recruit; he was a proved humorist, though of short standing, +and his début was an astonishing success. His début, that is to say, as +a _Punch_ writer, for eight years previously he had sent up from +Cambridge a couple of drawings which Leech had made artistically +suitable for publication. + +Mr. Burnand was born in 1837--having been too gallant, it was said, to +come into the world before his Queen had ascended the throne, and too +loyal and zealous to delay his appearance after she had taken her place. +He was sent to Eton, where, however, he did not care much for football, +being, as he expressed it, "more shinned against than shinning;" and +thence, at the age of seventeen, he went into Trinity College, +Cambridge. In three years he had graduated and had founded the still +flourishing "A.D.C.;" at the same time, he determined to enter the +Church. He placed himself under the Rev. H. P. (afterwards Canon) +Liddon; but soon left for the seminary of the Oblates of St. Charles, at +Bayswater, the head of which was Dr. (Cardinal) Manning. While there his +passion for playwriting was too strong to be resisted, and before he +left Dr. Manning confessed that he feared his young friend had no +"vocation," _i.e._ for the ecclesiastical state. Mr. Burnand, taking a +wider view of the term, entirely acquiesced with Dr. Manning, and added +rather timidly that he "thought he had a vocation for the stage." Dr. +Manning raised his eyebrows, wrinkled his forehead, sniffed, and then +said: "A 'vocation' concerns the spiritual welfare. You cannot speak of +'going on the stage' as a 'vocation.' You might as well call 'being a +cobbler' a 'vocation.'" "Well, yes, Dr. Manning," rejoined Mr. Burnand +very nervously; "but--if I were a cobbler I should still have the cure +of soles." + +[Illustration: F. C. BURNAND. +(_From a Photograph by F. T. Palmer, Ramsgate._)] + +An unsuccessful trial of the stage at Edinburgh, and a call to the Bar +in 1862, indirectly shaped Mr. Burnand's career, and, throwing him into +playwriting and humorous journalism, led him quickly into a talented +circle. With Mr. W. S. Gilbert, H. J. Byron, Matt Morgan, Jeff Prowse, +and others, Mr. Burnand helped to strengthen Tom Hood's additional staff +of "Fun," then newly established, under the proprietorship of a +looking-glass maker, named Maclean--whom, by reason of his expansive +smile and shining teeth, Byron used to call "Maclean teeth." Mr. +Burnand's fresh and bright productions sparkled on the pages and caught +the eye of Mark Lemon; but it was an unusually happy and original idea +that was to bring the two men closely together. Mr. Burnand had +conceived a series of burlesque stories, satirising the sensational +style of the day, to be accompanied by an equally burlesque imitation of +the illustrations that were to be seen in publications such as the +"London Journal." To his own daughter, as "one of his oldest friends," +Mr. Burnand once confided the following facts and circumstances for +publication:-- + + "The astute proprietor of 'Fun,' in which I had achieved some + success, observed that 'Mokeanna' wouldn't do. I am not sure but + that he was right; but if he had been a literary editor he would + have seen the idea in a rough copy, and would have suggested + improvement. This good he did me, however--I read it to a friend, + who thought some of it good and most of it the contrary, and so, in + a temper, I burnt the entire manuscript, and, being quite sure of + the humour of the idea, commenced rewriting it. Then I communicated + with Mark Lemon; he jumped at the idea--determined to say nothing + to anybody, except those who had to illustrate it, and the first + number of 'Mokeanna' appeared on February 21st, 1863, with an + illustration by Sir John Gilbert, burlesquing his own style, whilst + the page in _Punch_ was, in arrangement, a facsimile of the 'London + Journal.' The proprietors rushed down to the office, terrified with + the thought that, by accident, the 'London Journal' had been sewn + up with _Punch_, and it took a lot of explanation in Mark Lemon's + best manner to make them see the joke in its right light. The + success of the experiment was immediate. Thackeray was supposed to + have perpetrated the burlesque imitation, but Thackeray knew + nothing whatever about it, though, as I have since learnt, he was + greatly tickled by it and, subsequently, was personally most kind + to the 'New Boy,' as he called me, on the _Punch_ Staff." + +The illusion was complete, and the fun most apt and full of spirit. The +various artists ("Phiz," Charles Keene, Mr. du Maurier, and Sir John +Millais) each drew a picture for it, in every case burlesquing his own +style and trotting out his peculiarities. The public laughed +heartily--first, at itself for having been deceived by the +verisimilitude to the "London Journal," and then at the work upon its +merits; and "Mokeanna, or the White Witness" became the talk of the +hour, and one of the good things of _Punch_. Charles Dickens was among +those who most admired the execution of the _jeu d'esprit_, and he +displayed considerable interest in the writer. + +In due time Mr. Burnand was called to the Table. "My first appearance," +he tells me, "was at the Inn at Dulwich where _Punch_ sometimes dined in +the summer in those days. Thackeray drove there, and left early. He had +come on purpose to be present on this occasion, and before quitting the +room he paused, placed his hand on my shoulder, and said, 'Gentlemen, I +congratulate you on the "New Boy!"' I felt, and probably looked, very +hot and uncomfortably proud; and then he shook me warmly by the hand." + +Mr. Burnand's next success--a phenomenal success, too, on which his +reputation as a humorist will stand unshaken--was "Happy Thoughts." For +popularity and for immediate advantage to the paper this clever series, +with its exquisite fooling and keen appreciation of humour, was second +only to the "Caudle Curtain Lectures," and among the greatest hits that +_Punch_ has ever made. It has since been admirably translated into +French by M. Aurelien de Courson under the title of "Fridoline!"--"happy +thought!" being, however, somewhat inadequately rendered "ingénieuse +pensée!" Then followed his imitations of popular writers--including +"Strapmore," by "Weeder," and "One-and-three," by "Fictor Nogo"--"Happy +Thought Hall," with illustrations by himself, "More Happy Thoughts," +"Out of Town," and many others, which are still to be found on the +bookstalls. His, too, was the song "His 'Art was true to Poll," which +achieved so great a success when Mrs. John Wood introduced it into "My +Milliner's Bill" many years after it first appeared in _Punch_. + +And in addition to the mass of work he has contributed to _Punch_, there +are "The Incompleat Angler," "The New History of Sandford and Merton," +"The Real Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," more than a hundred +burlesques--beginning with his exceedingly popular perversion of +Jerrold's "Black-Eyed Susan"--and a number of comedies and adaptations: +a total rivalling, and in some cases surpassing, the industry of the +most hard-working of his predecessors in _Punch's_ editorial chair. +Moreover, he has been a lecturer with "realistic notions," as he proved +on the occasion when he was giving a public reading dealing with a +yachting cruise, and, as he stood behind his reading-desk, stooped and +rose with a regular maritime motion, relieved by an occasional roll, +until the more susceptible among his audience began seriously to ask +themselves if they were good enough sailors to sit out the reading to +its ground-swell, breezy end. + +In August, 1880, after the death of Tom Taylor, Mr. Burnand, who had +been acting-editor in his last illness, was called upon to take up the +task of restoring to _Punch_ its ancient reputation for liveliness and +fun, and with a dinner to every contributor, outside as well as Staff, +the proprietors inaugurated the new era. Mr. Burnand at once made great +changes among the outside contributors, and introduced new blood upon +the Staff. For himself, he showed his chief strength as a punster of +extraordinary ability; probably no one before him ever tied so many and +such elaborate knots in his mother-tongue as he. "Mr. Burnand's puns are +generally good, and sometimes very good," said a critic in the +"Spectator;" "but they are really too plentiful.... When it comes to be +a question of a volume of four hundred pages, with an average of ten +puns to a page, the reader is likely to suffer from an indigestion ... +a cake that is all plums is likely to lie rather heavily on the person +who eats it." But he was constrained to admit artistic merit in the +humour of such passages as this: "There was a dead pause in the room. +How long it had been there it was impossible to say, for it was only at +this minute that the three became aware of it. And the Bishop sniffed +uncomfortably, as though there was something wrong with the drainage." + +But there was something of greater import brought in by Mr. Burnand's +editorship than the literary tone. It was tolerance, political and +religious, and wider sympathy than had lately been the case. The heavy +political partisanship of Tom Taylor gave way to the more beneficent +neutrality of Mr. Burnand--a personal neutrality, at least, even though +Whig proclivities still coloured the cartoons to a certain, yet not +unreasonable degree. And a larger religious tolerance and warmer +magnanimity developed in _Punch_, such as comes chiefly from quarters +where oppression has been known. + +So he who has been called "the Commandant of the Household Brigade of +British Mirth" has marched gaily along in _Punch's_ service for more +than thirty years. Prodigal of his jokes, he sometimes makes the best of +them outside the pages of his paper. Thus in November, 1893, he wrote to +the press in contradiction of the statement made by a police-court +prisoner named Burnand, that he was the brother of the editor of +_Punch_: "I beg to say that I have no brother, and never had any +brother. I have two half-brothers (this man is neither of them), but two +half-brothers don't make one whole brother." And people chuckled as the +little joke was copied from one paper to another all over the +English-speaking world, and applauded the excellent quaintness of +_Punch's_ Aristophanes. So, when a fictitious dinner of the _Punch_ +Staff at Lord Rothschild's was reported in the press, Mr. Burnand +briefly dismissed the matter with the remark that the only dish +was--_canard_. + +Again, in the autumn of 1894, when he fell ill, alarming reports were +spread. One of his colleagues on the Staff received a request for a +column obituary notice of the dying man from the editor of a leading +daily newspaper. But Mr. Burnand was much better, and was greatly +cheered on learning the particulars. "Really," he said, "that's more +than I expected. A column! Why, that's what they gave to Nelson and the +Duke of York!" + +Mr. J. Priestman Atkinson's literary achievements in _Punch_ are spoken +of in the chapter where "Dumb Crambo's" pictorial contributions are +treated. From August, 1877, to October, 1880, they are frequent, and +consist for the most part of fanciful verse accompanied by cuts from the +same hand. There is a charming prose story, however, in the Pocket-Book +for 1879, seasonably entitled "The Invention of Roast Goose." But with +Mr. Burnand's editorship Mr. Atkinson's energies were exclusively +concentrated on humorous sketches and "Dumb Crambo" eccentricities. + +In 1864 Mr. John Hollingshead--"Practical John"--was dramatic critic of +the "Daily News." His notices attracted the attention of Shirley Brooks, +with the result that he was invited to contribute to _Punch_. But it was +in 1881 that he was taken on the salaried outside Staff, writing for the +paper for several years, chiefly on the subject of social reform. He is +the inventor, to whom Londoners should be grateful, of "Mud-Salad +Market" and the "Duke of Mudford;" and the "Gates of Gloomsbury," "The +Seldom-at-Home Secretary," and "The Top of the Gaymarket," are also his. +It was with his pen that _Punch_ attacked so lustily our licensing +system--or want of system; and from him, too, came the burlesque +"Schopenhauer Ballads," and other contributions, which, many of them, +have been reprinted in "Footlights," "Plain English," and "Niagara +Spray." + +In the same year came Mr. R. F. Sketchley, late Librarian of the Dyce +and Forster collection in the South Kensington Museum, who was destined +to become one of _Punch's_ Staff officers. "I find," he writes, "that I +became a contributor to _Punch_ in 1864. At the beginning of 1868 I was +honoured with an invitation from Mark Lemon to join the Table. I served +also under his successors--Shirley Brooks, Tom Taylor, and Burnand; and +finally retired of my own accord in 1880. I have seen it stated that in +an illness of Shirley Brooks I did some of the 'Essence of Parliament.' +If I had been called on to take up the pen of that most brilliant man of +letters, I should have been in despair. All I did was to turn the +Queen's Speech on the opening of Parliament into verse. + +[Illustration: R. F. SKETCHLEY. +(_From a Photograph by Hills and Saunders, Oxford._)] + +"I was never a prominent member of the Staff, but I am, and always shall +be, proud of having been connected with _Punch_. I wrote both prose and +verse--more of the former than the latter--and my contributions ranged +in extent from a column down to a single line. My subjects were +generally 'topical,' sometimes 'imaginary,' and the verse included a +good many parodies." Mr. Sketchley, it should be observed, is one of the +few members of the inside Staff--at least, within the last forty +years--who have ever resigned their appointments, Richard Doyle, Mr. +Henry Silver, and Mr. Harry Furniss being the others. His strong point +was prose parody, the best, perhaps, being the quaint quasi-Gulliverian +sketch called "A Fortnight in Sparsandria," which he contributed to +_Punch's_ Pocket-Book. Sober in judgment and wise in counsel, he was +greatly missed when his genial companionship was lost to _Punch's_ +Knights of the Round Table. + +Passing over Mr. W. S. Gilbert's connection with the paper--which is +described in the section devoted to artistic contributors--we find +another humorist, equally distinguished, who identified himself with the +paper the same year, Charles F. Browne, better known as "Artemus Ward." +He had arrived in England early in the year, and soon after his arrival +he was invited by Mark Lemon to contribute. Ward was at that time in +failing health, and, according to his secretary and manager Mr. +Kingston, two or three of the papers produced in accordance with the +understanding that was entered into were written with painful +effort--the reason, no doubt, why so little of his usually rollicking +humour is to be found in them. Nowadays many Americans profess to regard +_Punch_ with a sort of scornful amusement, and "Life," with an +assumption of lofty disdain, is for ever sneering at it as a survival of +the unfittest; and the same line is taken in England by New Journalists +and Newer Critics. Not that the New American Journalist was unknown in +Ward's day. He had already declared that "Shakespeare wrote good plase, +but he wouldn't have succeeded as the Washington correspondent of a New +York daily paper. He lacked the reckisit fancy and imagination." Anyhow, +he did not live so near to the _fin de siècle_; nor was he ashamed to +own that for years it had been his pet ambition to write for the "London +Charivari." Unhappily, its realisation came too late to permit him to do +justice to his talent and his humour; and he himself was only too +conscious of his sad shortcoming, or, rather, of his failing powers. +Only eight papers had come from his hand when it closed in death. In +September the first of his papers was published--"Personal +Recollections;" the last in November--"A Visit to the British Museum;" +they are garrulous and discursive, and a good deal of the humour they +contain was repeated from earlier works. That they should have contained +any at all, under the circumstances, is the wonder; indeed, one is +irresistibly reminded by them of his own humorous reference to one of +the burlesque "pictures" illustrative of his "Lecture." "It is by the +Old Masters," he said, in his quaint, sad way; "it is the last thing +they did before dying. They did this, and then they died." + +[Illustration: "ARTEMUS WARD." +(_From a Photograph by S. A. Walker._)] + +It is, indeed, curious how many of _Punch's_ most valued contributors +were working for the paper up to within a few hours, a few minutes, of +being called away--Jerrold, Thomas Hood, C. H. Bennett, John Leech, +Shirley Brooks, and Artemus Ward; and many a time have the public +laughed aloud at jokes and pictures wrought when the hand was stiffening +in death, when the brain that had imagined them had already ceased to +think. + +[Illustration: H. SAVILE CLARKE +(_From a Photograph by the Woodburytype Company._)] + + +H. Savile Clarke, previously a "Fun" contributor, and a disciple of +James Hannay, made his _Punch_ début with a set of verses in August, +1867; but he did not follow them up, except in a very small way, until +Mr. Burnand's editorship, in 1880, encouraged him to write regularly. +This he soon began to do, his main work being Society verse, mostly +bearing on medical and scientific subjects, for he was brought up as a +doctor. "Songs of the Sciences," "Lyrics in a Library" (verse on books), +verse on the minor picture exhibitions, clever trifles like the "Carmen +Culinarium" (December, 1891), and the important and strikingly able and +successful parody, "Modern Life in London, or Tom and Jerry Back Again," +illustrated by Mr. Priestman Atkinson--these formed the staple of his +_Punch_ work. But he was not enthusiastic about writing for the paper, +as the chance of gaining reputation by unsigned contributions was very +small. "I feel strongly," he wrote to me years ago, "as many writers do +on the paper, as to the inequality of authors and artists. It keeps very +good men off it." + +"Berkeley Square, 5 p.m." was a poem of five stanzas that formed +Frederick Locker-Lampson's sole contribution to _Punch_; it was +published at the same time as Savile Clarke's maiden effort (August, +1867), and was illustrated by Mr. du Maurier. It was Locker-Lampson, it +may here be mentioned, who sent in C. S. Calverley's ewe-lamb--a +charade--to _Punch's_ pages. + +On the 25th of July, 1868, a lady-contributor made her début in +_Punch's_ pages. This was Miss M. Betham-Edwards, who was already well +known as the authoress of "A Winter with the Swallows," and whose travel +"Through Spain to the Sahara," dealing with much the same scene, was +then expected from the press. In the earlier part of the year a friend +had shown to Mark Lemon a clever skit by the young lady, and the Editor +forthwith commissioned her to write a series of papers to be called +"Mrs. Punch's Letters to her Daughter"--a sort of belated sequel to +Jerrold's "Punch's Letters to his Son." These letters, which ran through +six numbers--the last in November 7th of the same year--are +contributions of the worldly-wise order, cynical, satirical, and shrewd. +Two years later Mark Lemon died, and Miss Betham-Edwards dropped out of +the outside Staff position which she was by courtesy supposed to occupy. +Certain contributions she sent in were returned; she took the hint, and +the connection was severed. + +It was about this time that Mr. du Maurier wrote his admirable "Vers +Nonsensiques," and proved the literary talent which he afterwards +displayed in so striking a manner in his lecture on "Social Satire" and +in his novels. But, as has already been pointed out in several other +cases, he is not by any means alone in having used both pen and pencil +in the paper. Thackeray is the principal example of the twin-talent; but +others, in very various degrees, are Cuthbert Bede, Watts Phillips, +Thomas Hood (a single cut, and a wonderful one, too), Richard Doyle (a +single contribution), John MacGregor, with Sir John Tenniel, and Messrs. +Alfred Thompson, Ashby-Sterry, W. S. Gilbert, W. Ralston (one literary +effort), J. Priestman Atkinson, J. H. Roberts (one poem), Harry Furniss +(a dramatic criticism), and Arthur A. Sykes. As a rule, however, artist +and author has kept strictly within his own field, although a bold +experiment of a curious kind was once proposed. On that occasion the +literary Staff had been complaining, with malicious frankness, +that the drawings in a certain issue--(it is not necessary to +particularise)--were not up to the mark. They were at once challenged by +the artists, who declared that they would strike--that _they_ would do +the text, and allow the literary men to do the pictures. The idea was +seized upon; the result, they thought, would be screamingly funny. But +the Editor would not hear of it; he imagined, not without reason, that +the public, who would be called upon (but would probably decline) to +pay, would not see the point of the joke. Years after a similar +discussion arose; and those who heard it are not likely to forget the +mock-philosophic-gastronomic blank verse composed by Mr. Sambourne on +the spur of the moment just to illustrate how very easy clever +verse-writing really is. + +Whilst _Punch_ has been greatly indebted for much of its humour to +Scotsmen, several Irishmen also have contributed not a little to its +success. Mr. Alfred Perceval Graves is one of these, although it is long +since he wrote for the paper. "I contributed to _Punch_" he says, +"during Shirley Brooks's editorship. Tom Taylor was then secretary to +the Local Government Board, and I was private secretary to the +Parliamentary Under Secretary for the Home Office, Mr. Winterbotham. +Meeting on business, we struck up a friendly acquaintance, and, _Punch_ +being then a close borough, Taylor smuggled in verses and jokes of mine +for a while, till he thought I had established a claim to introduction +to Shirley Brooks. My work only went on from 1871 to 1874, as I became +so engaged on literary work of a severer kind, and educational work as +an Inspector of Schools, that I had not time for _Punch_; and when I +cared to return to it Taylor had gone, and the present Editor was +surrounded by fresh men, so I have not resumed my connection with it." + +Mr. Graves--the author of the popular "Father O'Flynn," perhaps the best +of all his Irish songs--wrote for _Punch_ "The Tea-Table Tragedy," "The +Ballad of the Babes in the Wood," and those admirable "Lines of Farewell +to the Irish Humorist, Baron Dowse, on leaving the House of Commons"-- + + "Dick Dowse, Dick Dowse, + Is it lavin' the House?" + +Then there is "On St. Patrick's Day falling on a Sunday," and in +_Punch's_ Pocket-Book the lines on "A Frog," and "A Cauliflower"--a +parody of "The green, immortal Shamrock." But another merit in Mr. +Graves was his coaching of Charles Keene on the subject of his Irish +jokes, for which the former was greatly responsible in the years of his +_Punch_ connection. + +Nursery jingles newly adapted and applied to the morals and manners of +the day are always a favourite vehicle of satire with the public, and +have been freely used by professional humorists. _Punch_ offers many +instances of happy examples of the work. The first of a long series of +"Nursery Rhymes for the Times" was begun by Mr. Charles Smith Cheltnam +on January 9th, 1875, as well as in the Almanac of the same year. The +writer forthwith became a busy contributor. About fifty of these rhymes +appeared in _Punch_ in quick succession, and there were many other +pieces besides. "The Infallible Truth," a comment in verse on the +passage at arms which was then (November 13th, 1875) taking place +between Lord Redesdale and Dr. Manning on the subject of infallibility, +showed that _Punch's_ "papal aggression" was still rankling in his +bosom. Mr. Cheltnam remained a contributor until the death of Tom +Taylor, when he transferred his pen to the service of "Fun." + +On April 1st, 1872, the Rev. F. D. Maurice died, and _Punch_ contained a +set of verses to his memory, in which the beauty and the strength of his +character were set forth with deep sympathy, and not without power or +poetical thought. They were from the hand of the Rev. Stainton Moses, of +Exeter College, Oxford, for seventeen years an assistant master at the +University College School. He was the editor of the leading London organ +of Spiritualism. The more ribald of his pupils and acquaintance declared +that his spiritualism was of another sort; but there is no doubt that he +was very popular with all men, and exercised great influence among the +faithful. + +Eighteen years after the death of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, his son, +Arthur W. à Beckett, restored the family name to _Punch's_ Staff. He had +been nominated to the War Office by Lord Palmerston, but he soon found +that he could walk in no other path but that which his father had +trodden. Like him, he became an editor at twenty, by assuming for a +space the direction, relinquished by Mr. F. C. Burnand, of an evening +paper called the "Glow-Worm"--whose light, after Mr. à Beckett left it, +steadily refused to burn with the requisite effulgence. Mark Lemon was +then approached; but he would have nothing to say to--or, rather, +nothing to do with--the sons of his old friend, who thereupon sought +elsewhere the encouragement they had hoped for in _Punch's_ show. Mr. +Arthur à Beckett started a satirico-humorous paper of great ability and +promise, the staff including himself and his brother, Matt Morgan, +Frederick Clay, and Frank Marshall, with Messrs. Alfred Thompson, +Austin, T. G. Bowles, and T. H. Escott--most of them Civil Servants. But +in the full tide of its success its financial foundations were weakened +by one in the managerial department, and the whole thing came to the +ground. After a few years of an active journalistic career he was +invited by Tom Taylor, who had succeeded to the command, to contribute +to _Punch_. A curious success attended his opening chapters. His first +paper on a "Public Office" (p. 226, Vol. LXVI.), as well as the twelve +following--that is to say, his contributions to thirteen consecutive +numbers--were all of them quoted in the "Times," though whether or not +through Taylor's intermediary did not appear. After the fourth number +Mr. à Beckett was put on the salaried Staff, and in August, 1875, was +invited to join the Table. Since Mr. Burnand's promotion to the +editorship Mr. à Beckett has acted as his _locum tenens_, just as +Shirley Brooks did to Lemon, and Percival Leigh to Brooks. + +[Illustration: ARTHUR À BECKETT. +(_From a Photograph by A. Bassano, Limited._)] + +Being called to the Bar in 1881, Mr. à Beckett was enabled to revive the +humours of his father's "Mr. Briefless," by the filial creation of the +happily-named "A. BRIEFLESS, Junior." The "Papers from Pump Handle +Court" from this self-sufficient, inflated, and utterly hopeless Junior, +have been a feature in _Punch_ for years past, and by them the author +has--so says an expert--"charmingly illuminated the legal profession by +his queer fancy." One of the best papers in the collection is an account +of a visit to the studio of a well-known firm of West-End photographers +in the character of a legal celebrity, which is wittily called "A Matter +in Camera." Up to December, 1894, he had contributed to a thousand and +eighty consecutive numbers, his work including many "series," besides +the usual topical subject-articles. + +Mortimer Collins became an occasional, and by no means a prolific, +contributor of verse from the year 1874. The sonnet in _Punch_ on p. +237, Vol. XI. (December, 1846), has been ascribed to him, but there is +no ground for the statement (he would then have been only nineteen years +of age), nor did he contribute otherwise than from 1874 to 1876. His +light lyric touch may be traced in many a poem. In "Where shall we go?" +(p. 105, Vol. LXIX., September 11th, 1875) his dainty pen is to be +recognised; as in "Lady Psyche's Garden Party," and various other verses +of similar style and pleasant flavour. The attack on Mr. Whalley and +"Crede Byron" (July 20th, 1875) are his, and the verses on the Burnham +Beeches, and, in September, "Causidicus ad Canem." The charming "Sonnets +for the Sex" (June 17th, 1876) and, on July 8th, the humorous prose in +praise of goose-quill and sealing-wax, entitled "Mr. Oldfangle's +Opinion," were full of pleasing turns of thought--little presaging the +writer's death three weeks later. When he died, _Punch_ contained an +obituary notice of the writer (p. 57, Vol. LXXI., August 12th, 1876), in +which it is said, "He wrote the 'Secret of Long Life,' to teach men to +live a century, and himself died at forty-nine." He was in this respect +a curious echo of Thomas Walker, who wrote his "Art of Attaining High +Health" in his paper "The Original," and did not survive the completion +of his task; and the prototype of the Duke of Marlborough, who died +while engaged on an essay on the "Art of Living" for the "Nineteenth +Century." Had he lived, he would certainly have been promoted to the +Staff; and the fact that his funeral was officially attended by Tom +Taylor, Percival Leigh, and Mr. Arthur à Beckett, on behalf of _Punch_, +is testimony of the respect in which his co-operation was held. + +The literary post on _Punch_ which corresponds with that of Chief +Cartoonist has for years past been occupied by Mr. Edwin J. Milliken. +The position is an onerous one, and carries great responsibility with +it. He who fills it is at once "the _Punch_ Poet" _par excellence_ and +the big drum, so to speak, of the political orchestra. For many years +Mr. Milliken has written the letterpress explanatory of the Cartoon, +either in verse or prose, as well as the preface to each succeeding +volume. To his pen, too, we have owed during the same period those +verses which it has been the graceful practice of _Punch_ to devote to +the memory of distinguished men. Remarkable for their tact, dignity, and +good-sense--instinct with lofty thought and deep feeling--these poems +are often masterpieces of their kind, models of taste and generous +sympathy. In particular, those published upon the deaths of Lord +Beaconsfield, John Bright, and Lord Tennyson, may be remembered as +worthy of the men they were designed to honour, as well as for the +felicity with which they set down what was in the heart of the nation, +and the eloquence with which its sentiment was expressed. + +On January 2nd, 1875, there appeared in _Punch_ some lines entitled "A +Voice from Venus," the planet's transit having at that time just +occurred. They were Mr. Milliken's first contribution--a bow drawn at a +venture--for he was entirely unknown to anyone connected with the paper. +Tom Taylor asked for a guarantee of the originality of the verses--in +itself a flattering distrust--and, receiving the necessary assurance, +printed them forthwith. From that time forward the young writer +contributed with regularity, and for two years was put severely through +his paces by the Editor, who, in order to "try his hand," as he said, +gave him every sort of work to do. Then came a personal interview of a +gratulatory nature, in which Taylor promised to invite Mr. Milliken to +the Table as soon as a vacancy occurred. At the end of the second year +of probation this promise was fulfilled, and early in 1877 "E. J. M." +cut his initials on the board. + +It is worthy of remark that the successful career of Mr. Milliken is in +direct opposition to his training, for he began life, much against his +will, as a man of business in a great engineering firm. But literature +was his goal, and the appreciation of the editors of a few magazines and +journals to some extent satisfied his ambition. In point of fact, Mr. +Milliken, in respect to his work, is the most modest and retiring of +men; and the only contribution to which his name appeared, for years +before or after, was the set of memorial verses to Charles Dickens which +were printed in the "Gentleman's Magazine" in 1870. + +[Illustration: E. J. MILLIKEN. +(_From a Photograph by Messrs. Bassano._)] + +Without a doubt "The 'Arry Papers" are the most popular and best known +of Mr. Milliken's contributions, although "Childe Chappie's Pilgrimage," +"The Modern Ars Amandi" (1883), "The Town" (1884), "Fitzdotterel; or, +T'other and Which" (a parody of Lord Lytton's "Glenaveril"), 1885; +"Untiled; or, the Modern Asmodeus" (1889-90), and "The New Guide to +Knowledge," have successively loomed large in _Punch's_ firmament. But +it is the great creation of 'Arry for which Mr. Milliken is most +applauded--and least understood. It is generally supposed that the 'Arry +of Mr. Milliken corresponds to the similar character conceived by +Charles Keene and Mr. Anstey. But the author means him for a great deal +more. 'Arry with him is not so much a personage as a type--as much an +impersonal symbol as Mr. Watts's Love, or Death, or other quality, +passion, or fate, without individuality and, in spirit at least, without +sex. + +It is often suggested that Mr. Milliken's 'Arry is the survival--or, at +least, the descendant--of the "gent" of Leech and the "snob" of +Thackeray and Albert Smith. He is nothing of the sort. The gent and the +snob had at least this merit; they aspired, or imagined themselves, to +be something more and better than they really were. But 'Arry is a +self-declared cad, without either hope or desire, or even thought, of +redemption. Self-sufficient, brazen, and unblushing in his irrepressible +vulgarity, blatant and unashamed, he is distinguished by a sort of +good-humour that is as rampant and as offensive as his swaggering +selfishness, his arrogant familiarity and effrontery, and his sensuous +sentiment. He is a mean-souled and cynical camp-follower of the army of +King Demos, every day expanding, every day more objectionable in his +insolent assurance. Originally designed as an illustration of the +'Arryism of the rougher classes, then promoted to be characteristic of +the low sort of shop-lad and still lower kind of mechanic "with views" +of a clear-cut kind within the narrow limits of his materialistic +philosophy, he has developed into a type of character--almost, indeed, +into a type of humanity. And as 'Arryism is rife in every walk of +society, so 'Arry's experiences have become more informed, but not for +that reason more cultivated or more refined. And therein lies the one +inevitably weak point of Mr. Milliken's invention. Like Frankenstein, he +seems to have created a Monster, who has outgrown the purpose he was +originally intended to serve. For when he finds himself considering the +'Arryism of the "upper classes," he is bound, by his otherwise admirable +convention, to retain the Cockney slang of which he is such a master, +even though the speaker is supposed to have advanced so far in his views +and knowledge of life as to be able to discuss matters of art, science, +and literature. For, be it observed, a bank-'oliday at the Welsh 'Arp, +"wich is down 'Endon wy," is no longer a spree for him, however +uproarious the "shindy," and however ready his "gal" may be to sit on +his knee and "change 'ats" to the accompaniment of cornet and +concertina. He travels--on the cheap, of course--but still he travels, +and discusses Venus of Milo, and 'Igh Art, and the philosophic questions +of the "dy," and resolves all his meditations into the "motter" that +"Socierty's all right." Without soul, without ideality, without +aspiration, save of the baser sort, he represents no good quality nor +redeeming virtue but physical health--the promise, it may at least be +hoped, of a posterity that in the future, perchance, may justify his +existence. He is the raw, the offensively raw, material from which +respectable and useful descendants may eventually be made. At present +Mr. Milliken shows the 'Arryism that is permeating and fouling all +classes, almost to the highest; but there the convention fails--only +because it _is_ a convention--for 'Arry is made to fill the part which +has more recently, and perhaps with greater fitness, been accorded to +the Bounder.[46] + +But, apart from the satirical creation, 'Arry is a most amusing +personage--his forms of speech, the quaint turns of his vulgar thought, +being in themselves irresistibly laughable--their grossness merged in +their genuine humour, and in the art so well concealed. 'Arry alone has +stamped Mr. Milliken as a satirical humorist of the front rank, and has +gone far towards making the public forget his other phase--the graceful +and sympathetic poet. The philologists, too, proclaim their debt of +gratitude to the author as the most complete collector of modern English +slang, with suitable context and situation. Dr. Murray's great "New +English Dictionary" accepts 'Arry as a name "used humorously for: A +low-bred fellow (who drops his _h's_) of lively temper and manners," +and quotes "'Arry on 'Orseback" in _Punch's_ Almanac for 1874 as his +début in print. And, finally, Herr C. Stoffel, of Nijmegen, has +published a philological volume on the "'Arry Letters" in _Punch_, from +1883 to 1889, examining the cant words with the utmost elaboration, +gravity, and knowledge, and producing one of the most valuable treatises +on the subject that have hitherto been published. + +In addition to the work already indicated, Mr. Milliken (as shown in the +chapter on cartoons) devotes a great deal of attention to the devising +of Mr. Punch's "big cuts," both for Sir John Tenniel and Mr. Linley +Sambourne. The Almanac double-page cartoons, too--usually very elaborate +designs--have been planned by him for a good many years, as well as most +of Mr. Sambourne's fanciful calendars and "months" in the Almanacs. It +will thus be seen that--with all his work in prose and verse, from a +paragraph to a preface, and from a series to an epigram--Mr. Milliken is +Writer-of-all-work and "General Utility" in the best sense; and a more +loyal and devoted servant _Punch_ has never had. + +[Illustration: GILBERT À BECKETT +(_From a Photograph by Messrs. Bassano._)] + +Alfred Thompson's work, which began in 1876, is considered with that of +_Punch's_ artists. Then came Gilbert Arthur à Beckett, who after a short +spell of regular work was summoned to the Table. His first contribution +had, in fact, been published by Mark Lemon, but immediately afterwards +that Editor treated him just as he had treated his brother; and not for +some years did he receive the call. Tom Taylor it was who, attracted by +the quality of the work which the brothers were doing elsewhere, sent +the coveted invitation.[47] In 1879--five years after his brother +Arthur--Gilbert à Beckett joined the salaried Staff, and three years +later he was appointed to the Table. He had a very quaint humour and a +wonderfully quick and startling sense of the incongruous. He was sadly +hampered by his affliction, but he was an accomplished, high-principled, +sensitive fellow, of whom one of his companions declared that "he was +the purest-minded man I ever knew." Under more favourable conditions of +health he would probably have made a greater mark; but as it was, he did +good work. He was a happy parodist, and a very neat and smart +versifier--at the age of fifteen he had gained the prize for English +verse at Westminster, which was open to the whole school--and in the +wildly absurd yet laughable vein of his bogus advertisements (of which +he did many under the head of "How we Advertise Now"--a continuation of +Jerrold's early idea) none of his _Punch_ brethren could touch him. He +was, perhaps, best known to the world as part author of the famous +political burlesque of "The Happy Land;" less, perhaps, as part author +of "The White Pilgrim;" and least of all as a musical composer, as it +was under the pseudonym of "Vivian Bligh" that he put forth his songs +and his music for the "German Reeds' Entertainment." But his work on +_Punch_ was always relished, and, considering his sad physical +afflictions, he held his own on the Staff. He contributed both prose and +verse, smart and apt of their kind. He wrote--in part, at least--the +admirable parody of a boy's sensational shocker (p. 119, Vol. LXXXII., +March 11th, 1882). With the exception of this and the comical +"Advertisements" he did very few "series," but his contributions were +always varied and excellent in their way, and himself appreciated as a +useful and clever man. Perhaps his chief claim to recollection was his +suggestion, as explained elsewhere, of the famous cartoon of "Dropping +the Pilot." The Dinners were his greatest pleasure, and he attended them +with regularity, although the paralysis of the legs--the result of +falling down the stairway of Gower Street Station--from which he +suffered (in common with his uncle Sir William à Beckett, and with one +of the Mayhew brothers as well) rendered his locomotion and the +mounting of Mr. Punch's stairway a matter of painful exertion. Although +he did useful work for _Punch_, he never became a known popular +favourite; yet when he died--on October 15th, 1891--a chorus of +unanimous regret arose in the press, for he was one of those few men who +count none but friends among their wide circle of acquaintance. + +[Illustration: "Punch's" Family Trees. +(NOTE.--The names of the workers for _Punch_ are printed in capitals.)] + +Mr. Horace Frank Lester, late of Oxford University, afterwards +barrister-at-law, author and journalist of the first rank, but at that +time unknown to _Punch_, first appeared on January 5th, 1878, with a +slashing satire on busybody amateur statesmen which greatly tickled Tom +Taylor's fancy. But his first real hit was in September, 1880, with a +form of contribution then comparatively new. It was a "Diary of the +Premier at Sea," when Mr. Gladstone was on board the _Grantully Castle_, +and, so far from "husbanding his energies," as his doctor directed, was +supposed to receive deputations, make speeches, convert the +man-at-the-wheel from Toryism, and try to cut down the mainmast with his +axe. Then followed political diaries, parodies (such as "'The Entire +History of Our Own Times' by Jestin Machearty," and innumerable poems), +comic Latin verse, "Journal of a Rolling Stone," "Advice Gratis," "Queer +Queries," legal skits, and so on. An amusing incident occurred in +respect to one of the "Advice Gratis" series. Mr. Lester had spoken of a +mythical book called "Etiquette for the Million: or, How to Behave Like +a Gentleman on Nothing a Year, _published at this Office_." A corporal +stationed at Galway Barracks wrote and asked for the price of it, "as I +am extremely anxious to have the book referred to." Mr. Burnand's reply +was simply, "_Sold_." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] Lord Ellenborough. + +[45] See p. 85. + +[46] I have been fortunate in ascertaining Mr. Milliken's own estimate +of 'Arry in a private letter to a friend. Although it was not written +for publication, I have received permission to quote the following +sentences:-- + +"'Arry--as you say--the essential _Cad_, is really appalling. He is not +a creature to be laughed at or with. My main purpose was satirical--an +analysis of and an attack on the _spirit of Caddishness_, rampant in our +days in many grades of life, coarse, corrupting, revolting in all. I +might have confined myself to the 'Humours of 'Arry,' when my work would +have been more genial, and, to many, more attractive. But then I should +have missed my mark. On the other hand, I might have made it a more +realistic study, but then I should have got very few readers, and +certainly no place in the _Punch_ pages. So it was a compromise; not a +consistent study of an individual Cad, but of the various +characteristics of Caddishness. It has been said that an ordinary cad +could not have done or said or known all that my 'Arry did. Quite true, +quite well known to me while writing; and indeed I forestalled the +objection in the preface of the book.... As to 'Arry's origin, and the +way in which I studied him, I have mingled much with working men, +shop-lads, and would-be smart and 'snide' clerks--who plume themselves +on their mastery of slang and their general 'cuteness' and 'leariness.' I +have watched, listened, and studied for years 'from the life,' and I +fancy I've a good memory for slang phrases of all sorts; and my 'Arry +'slang,' as I have said, is very varied, and not scientific, though most +of it I have _heard_ from the lips of street-boy, Bank-holiday youth, +coster, cheap clerk, counter-jumper, bar-lounger, cheap excursionist, +smoking-concert devotee, tenth-rate suburban singer, music hall 'pro' or +his admirer," etc. etc. + +[47] Connection with _Punch_ has run strangely in families--as the +reader may see by reference to the "Family Trees" on the next page. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1880-94. + + "Robert"--Mr. Deputy Bedford--Mr. Ashby-Sterry--Reginald Shirley + Brooks--Mr. George Augustus Sala--Mr. Clement Scott--The "Times" + Approves--Mr. H. W. Lucy--"Toby, M.P."--Martin Tapper and Edmund + Yates--Mr. George Grossmith--Mr. Weedon Grossmith--Mr. Andrew + Lang's "Confessions of a Duffer"--Miss May Kendall--Miss + Burnand--Lady Humorists--Mr. Brandon Thomas and Mr. Gladstone--Mr. + Warham St. Leger--Mr. Anstey--"Modern Music-hall Songs"--"Voces + Populi"--Mr. R. C. Lehmann--Mr. Barry Pain--Mr. H. P. Stephens--Mr. + Charles Geake--Mr. Gerald Campbell--R. F. Murray--Mr. George + Davis--Mr. Arthur A. Sykes--Rev. Anthony C. Deane--Mr. Owen + Seaman--Lady Campbell--Mr. James Payn--Mr. H. D. Traill--Mr. A. + Armitage--Mr. Hosack--Arthur Sketchley--Henry J. Byron--_Punch's_ + Literature Considered. + + +[Illustration: JOHN T. BEDFORD. +(_From a Photograph by E. J. Stoneham._)] + +"Robert, the City waiter" made his low-comedy bow in 1880. "Robert's" +literary father is Mr. Deputy John T. Bedford, whose opportunities for +studying the ways of the City waiter have necessarily been many and +excellent. The result of his keen observation was introduced to _Punch_ +through chance. "My introduction to _Punch_," Mr. Bedford informs me, +"arose from the quite accidental circumstance that Mr. Burnand and +myself were introduced at the same time, by Mr. F. Gordon, on the +directorship of the 'Grand Hotel' at Charing Cross; and very shortly +afterwards ... on the appointment of Mr. Burnand as Mr. Tom Taylor's +successor, I ventured to congratulate him, when he said to me, 'If any +fun is to be found in the City, I shall expect you to bring it to me.' I +replied that I had sometimes thought that there was some to be got out +of a City waiter, as waiters were not quite so deaf as was generally +considered. I tried my hand, and my first attempt was very kindly +received; it was printed on p. 64, Vol. LXXIX. (August 14th, 1880), +under the title of 'Notes from the Diary of a City Waiter.' ... There is +no truth in the statement that Robert was based upon a certain waiter. +He is certainly imaginary"--a statement which disposes of the assertion +that the famous old "Cock Tavern" is famous nowadays for the original of +"Robert" in the person of its head-waiter. Since 1880 Mr. Deputy Bedford +is to be credited with more than two hundred contributions, of which, +however, only a proportion belong to the "Robert" series. "You will find +some of them," writes Mr. Bedford, "signed J. Litgué, a _nom de plume_ +that puzzled Mr. Burnand himself, until I revealed the secret that it +was French for 'Bed-ford'; and he, with his excellent knowledge of +French, was thoroughly sold." "Robert" has been republished in book +form, and has attained an extraordinary circulation, though some of Mr. +Bedford's critics have declared that the chief attraction has been the +admirable illustrations by Charles Keene with which the little book is +embellished. For severe critics there are; one of whom, in order to +prove that "Robert" was not a humorous creation at all, took the curious +course of translating one of his articles into good, well-spelt English, +and then triumphantly asking--"Where is the humour now?" + +[Illustration: J. ASHBY-STERRY +(_From a Photograph by Samuel A. Walker._)] + +A complete contrast to Mr. Bedford became a contributor to _Punch_ a +fortnight after him--Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry. Twenty-nine years had passed +since his boyish drawings had been accepted; and during the interval he +had relinquished the pencil for the pen, had become a well-known +journalist, and the author of sundry volumes of light literature. He was +one of the first to be summoned by the new Editor, and he responded +nobly to the call. Since August 28th, 1880, he has contributed as +largely as any outsider to _Punch's_ pages. Innumerable picture-shows, +new books, articles of all kinds, and countless verses of every +description on every possible topic, with paragraphs long and short, +are, so to speak, the _hors d'oeuvres_ of his contribution. Many +series of poems and papers are his, of which the best-known is that of +the "Lays of a Lazy Minstrel" (begun August 28th, 1880), with their +riverside idylls and love-carols; but to his hand also are to be +credited "Simple Stories for Little Gentlefolk," "Holiday Haunts, by +Jingle Junior on the Jaunt," "Club Carols," "Uncle Bulger's Moral +Tales," "Songs of the Streets," "Rambling Rondeaux," and "Paper-knife +Poems." But it is his fluent, melodious, and unpretentious verse that +has made him popular in _Punch_. + +Reginald Shirley Brooks, the son of Mr. Burnand's brilliant predecessor, +was working for _Punch_ in 1880, and the following year he was called to +the Table, and remained there without much distinction until 1884. He +wrote some smart papers, but his groove was not that of the sober and +respectable Fleet Street Sage. He preferred wilder spirits, and he +accordingly retired, taking with him the sympathy of his companions. He +died soon after. + +After the escapade of Mr. George Augustus Sala in respect to Alfred +Bunn's quarrel with _Punch_ and the resultant "Word with Punch" of half +a century ago (which was illustrated by Mr. Sala's lively pencil, as is +explained in another chapter), none would ever have thought that his pen +would have been driven in _Punch's_ service. Lemon had declared him a +"graceless young whelp," and nothing that Mr. Sala ever cared to do had +tended to change that opinion. Shirley Brooks and Tom Taylor carried on +the sentiment as a sort of dynastic vendetta, and Mr. Sala's name was +kept on _Punch's_ Index Expurgatorius until the accession of Mr. +Burnand. _Punch_ was then no longer the close borough, and the new +Editor sought talent where he could find it. He invited Mr. Sala to +contribute, and the invitation has been responded to whenever anything +"Punchy" has occurred to the writer--as in the rhymed travesty of +Tennyson's opening verses of "The Princess." It is an amusing fact that +on one occasion Mr. Sala contributed a skit on himself--felicitously +entitled "_Egos_ of the Week"--with the startling and satisfactory +result that one or two papers, taking the thing _au sérieux_, commented +on the fact, and expressed their pleasure that "at last Mr. George +Augustus Sala has had the drubbing by _Punch_ he has so long and so +richly deserved"! + +Mr. Clement Scott, the _doyen_ of the dramatic critics, Civil Servant +(like so many of the _Punch_ Staff), member of the clever band that +nurtured "Fun" into life, and brother-in-law of Mr. du Maurier, also had +to wait till Mr. Burnand was Editor before he was given the opportunity +to write for _Punch_. "It struck him," writes Mr. Scott, "that he might +mingle among the essentially comic pages an occasional poem that might +ventilate some grievance in a pathetic manner or describe some heroic +subject in the ballad style.... The first subject Burnand sent me was +the overworked and underpaid clerks in London. It took my fancy, and in +three hours after I received his letter I sent him 'The Cry of the +Clerk!' To my intense surprise, the morning after it appeared in _Punch_ +I found it quoted _in extenso_ in 'The Times'--an unusual honour. I +believe Dr. Chinery the instant he read the poem clipped it out with his +own scissors and said, 'I don't know if this has ever been done before, +but we must quote the poem to-morrow morning.' The sub-editor was +aghast, but the poem was printed as from _Punch_." + +These verses, indeed, struck people's consciences, as Thomas Hood had +struck them years ago with "The Song of the Shirt." It brought into +relief the enforced "respectability" of the men who earn but a few +shillings a week, and yet are supposed to be "above charity." + +It was the last verse that most struck home:-- + + "Why did I marry? In mercy's name, in the form of my brother was I not + born? + Are wife and child to be given to him, and love to be taken from me + with scorn? + It is not for them that I plead, for theirs are the only voices that + break my sorrow, + That lighten my pathway, make me pause 'twixt the sad to-day and grim + to-morrow. + The Sun and the Sea are not given to me, nor joys like yours as you flit + together + Away to the woods and the downs, and across the endless acres of purple + heather. + But I've love, thank Heaven! and mercy, too; 'tis for justice only I bid + you hark + To the tale of a penniless man like me--to the wounded cry of a London + Clerk!" + +Then he took the part of the shop-girls who are never allowed to sit +down ("Weary Womankind"); of the London children who cry for fresh air +("The Children's Cry"), and described as well many a deed of daring by +sea and land, in which sailors, soldiers, engine-drivers, policemen, +life-boatmen, and coastguardsmen were concerned. In his little volume of +"Lays and Lyrics" nearly a score of these _Punch_ poems are republished. + +The Parliamentary phase of _Punch_ is the one which has remained +constant from the beginning of the paper. All else has been subject to +change--the quality of its satire, the character of its literature, the +intention of its art, and the class of its humour. But in his attendance +upon Parliament _Punch_ has been persistently assiduous and consistently +frank, neither awed by its majesty nor sickened by its follies. +Parliament has always been regarded in his pages in the spirit of +benevolent patronage and control, which, though unquestionably +pedagogic, has always been just and sympathetic in tone. It was in order +to continue the chain forged by Shirley Brooks and Tom Taylor in their +"Essence of Parliament," without the dropping of a link, that Mr. +Burnand's first Staff appointment was made with a view to filling the +place that had been left vacant by Tom Taylor's death. His attention, +like that of many others, had long been attracted to the brilliant +weekly articles in the "Observer," entitled "From the Cross +Benches"--papers that dealt with the week's Parliamentary proceedings +with singular cleverness, humour, and originality--and at the proper +moment he sought out the author of them, Mr. Henry W. Lucy, of the +"Daily News." + +Mr. Lucy had already graduated as the Pepys of Parliament; for he had +been known in gallery and lobby of the House for the past ten years, and +was acting as chief of the Parliamentary Staff for his paper. He was, +therefore, considered particularly well-fitted for the new post on +_Punch_, and he readily accepted the invitation. His first contribution +was a sort of prospectus of Toby's Diary, which was published on January +8th, 1881. Thenceforward Mr. Lucy became known as "Toby, M.P.;" and when +a puzzled Member of Parliament, familiar with his face, would +occasionally ask him in the Lobby, "By the way, where are you member +for?" he would answer "_Barks_" and pass on. It is not uncommon to find +unregenerate members taking to themselves the credit of the witticisms +which Toby puts into their mouths; so that there is perhaps excuse for +the biographer of Lord Sherbrooke (Robert Lowe), who attributed to his +subject the capital exclamation with which Mr. Lucy endowed him. When he +saw a deaf member get his ear-trumpet into position in order to listen +to a tedious orator, he remarked (according to Toby): "What a pity it is +to see a man thus wasting his natural advantages!" And Lowe has had the +credit of it ever since. + +[Illustration: H. W. LUCY. +(_From a Photograph by Walery, Limited._)] + +No one in the House knows its members so well as Mr. Lucy; no one out of +it is so well acquainted with its procedure; and when for a short time +he reluctantly filled the editorial chair of the "Daily News," he was +unhappy till he got back to Toby's "kennel" in the gallery of the House +of Commons. + +But the Essence of Parliament as distilled by "Toby" is by no means the +only, hardly even the most voluminous of Mr. Lucy's _Punch_ work. In the +recess he is a constant contributor as Mr. Burnand's deputy in the +character of _Punch's_ reviewer--"The Baron de Book-Worms," through +whose personality "My Baronite" appears from time to time; while among +his serial articles have been "The Letter-bag of Toby, M.P.," and the +set of Interviews with Celebrities at Home, parodies of the "World's" +articles, which delighted none so much as Edmund Yates himself.[48] Mr. +Lucy joined the Table on his return from Japan in 1884. + +But it is as "Toby" that he has gained most of his popularity. He showed +the way about the House of Commons to Mr. Harry Furniss; and, up to the +withdrawal of the latter, his "Diary" was always illustrated by that +artist. Later on Mr. Edward J. Reed took the place Mr. Furniss resigned, +and the pair continue to set before the world their humorous +versions--perversions, it would be hardly fair to say--of Parliamentary +proceedings. Mr. Lucy's touch is light and original, imparting an +appearance of interest and entertainment to the dullest debate, and of +verisimilitude to the most doubtful statements. Yet the "Diary" is not +without its value as a record, while it remains an amusing commentary +upon the work of the Session, and an entirely inoffensive caricature of +the men and speeches with whom it deals. + +In 1884, when the entertainer's platform was offering inducements +superior to those of the stage, Mr. George Grossmith began a series of +sketches in _Punch_, entitled "Very Trying," the fourth article of which +contained a skit of Mr. Flowers, the Police Magistrate at Bow Street, +under the heading of "The Good-humoured Magistrate," and another dealt +with Mr. Vaughan. Then came his funny musical sketches, with a few bars +of absurd music sprinkled here and there in imitation of the London +concert books. A few songs he also contributed to the paper, "The Duke +of Seven Dials" becoming "popular even unto Hackney." Then, in +collaboration with his brother, Mr. Weedon Grossmith, he produced "The +Diary of a Nobody." It was a domestic record of considerable length, +which dealt in an extremely earnest way with Mr. Samuel Porter, who +lived in a small villa in Holloway, and had trouble with his drains, and +was sometimes late at the office, with similar circumstances of striking +interest and concern, which seemed to him to call for public notice. The +"Diary" was afterwards republished in book form. + +The light and dainty touch of Mr. Andrew Lang has not been denied to +_Punch_. A number of trifles in verse appeared in 1883 and the two +following years, the most important of them being a sonnet to Colonel +Burnaby--the one contribution, it may be said, that the author has +thought well to republish. Some years later he produced the laughable +series "The Confessions of a Duffer"--papers so humorous that it is +difficult to accept Mr. Lang's disclaimer that "a comic paper is a thing +in which I have no freedom to write." + +Besides Mr. W. Ralston, with his single contribution of "K.G.--Q.E.D." +(November 22nd, 1884), Miss May Kendall was the chief comer of the year +1885. This lady helps to make up _Punch's_ bevy of lady literary +contributors--Miss Betham-Edwards, Mrs. Frances Collins, Lady Campbell, +Miss Burnand (an occasional reviewer, or "Baronitess"), Miss +Hollingshead, and Mrs. Leverson, being the others. She is one of the few +lady humorists of any consequence in her day. Women, as a rule, are +humorists neither born nor made. Often enough they are wits, more +frequently satirists. They can make, we are told, but they cannot take, +a joke; at any rate, they are usually out of their element in the comic +arena. Moreover, as butts for the caricaturist they are unsatisfactory, +for in proportion as his efforts are successful, his sense of chivalry +is outraged; and we have seen how Keene and others recoiled from the +idea. Only on one occasion did Mr. Furniss make the attempt, and that +indirectly and in a sense unintentionally--and the circumstance brought +a miniature storm about his ears. No woman has ever yet been a +caricaturist, in spite of the fact that her femininity befits her +pre-eminently for the part. That she has desisted is a mercy for which +man may be devoutly thankful. At the present time the rule here laid +down as to lady humorists is proved by an exception in the person of +Miss Murphy, a lady, it is said, of much beauty, who worked her way up +from a subordinate position to the editorship of "The Melbourne Punch," +a really comic production; but the unequal battle that would follow any +extensive imitation of her example is altogether too painful to +contemplate. + +Miss Kendall's first poems, which were introduced to the notice of +_Punch_ by Mr. Andrew Lang in sincere admiration of their cleverness, +were "The Lay of the Ancient Trilobite," and "Ballad of the +Ichthyosaurus," which were printed in the numbers for January 24th and +February 14th, 1885. It is Miss Kendall's peculiar talent that she is +able to extract delicate humour out of the most unpromising subjects, +and even in these lays, which together constituted her maiden effort, +the characteristic is clearly shown. One verse may serve as an example; +it is from the poem which shows how the Ichthyosaurus aspires to a +higher life, and how the all-absorbent Ether remains in triumph after we +have played out our little parts to their puny end:-- + + "And we, howsoever we hated, + And feared, or made love, or believed, + For all the opinions we stated, + The woes and the wars we achieved, + We too shall lie idle together-- + In very uncritical case; + And no one will win--but the Ether + That fills circumambient space." + +Quaintly humorous ideas are spread among her score of contributions--and +tenderness, too; but it is as a humorous versifier of refinement and +originality that she has appealed strongly to _Punch_ readers, although, +as she herself says, "it seemed very wonderful to be _in Punch_, which +I had venerated from my youth up." + +The single contribution of Mr. Brandon Thomas has a rather interesting +story. It was a patriotic song of a stirring sort, called "Britannia's +Volunteers," composed at a time--in 1885--when patriotism was thick in +the air. It was put to music by Mr. Alfred Allen; and two days after it +was written, Mr. Thomas was at the house of Mr. Woodall, M.P., and there +he sang the song. An old gentleman, who covered his mouth and chin with +his hand, sat in the front row, and levelled a piercing look at the +singer, listening with intense interest. During the second verse Mr. +Thomas, who was much affected by the gazer, sang straight at the aged +owner of the wonderful eyes:-- + + "They were no conscripts Marlbro' led, + But freemen--Volunteers, + A free-born race from fathers bred + That won for us Poictiers; + No conscript names were on the roll-- + All heroes dead and gone-- + That blazoned bright on Victory's scroll + The name of Wellington: + And Inkerman's immortal height + Will tell for many a day + How sternly sons of Freedom fight, + Let odds be what they may. + Thus Liberty scorns vain alarms, + And answers back with cheers! + _No conscript legions flogged to arms + Have yet flogged Volunteers!_" + +Then the masking hand was removed, and the face of Mr. Gladstone was +revealed. The sight of him seemed to stimulate the singer, an +enthusiastic Conservative, and as he gave forth the last verse, with +singular effect, his eyes so filled with tears that he could hardly see +the piano keys:-- + + "They think to crush old England, + And take her mighty place! + When they wipe out from ev'ry land + The language of her race; + When Justice meekly sheathes her sword, + And Freemen ne'er make laws; + When Tyrants rule by force and fraud + And dead is Freedom's cause; + When Liberty shall see her home + Low levelled with the turf, + And watch each son in turn become + A tyrant-driven serf; + When Freedom's sacred name's forgot + Within the hearts of men-- + They'll crush us to the earth, but not-- + By Heav'n!--but not till then!" + +When it was finished, Mr. Gladstone applauded vigorously, as though +unconscious of the pointed way in which the verse had been sung at him, +or respectful perhaps of the sincerity of the singer; and Mr. Burnand, +who was present, and had been watching the scene with much amusement, +enquired, aside, "Who wrote that?" "I did." "When?" "Two days ago." +"Have you sent it anywhere?" "No." "Then let me have it." So with the +metre slightly changed it appeared in _Punch_ on May 23rd. + +Some of the most delicate and humorous _vers de société_ of the day have +come from Mr. Warham St. Leger, and some of the best have appeared since +the end of 1886 in the pages of _Punch_. "The Lay of the Lost Critic" +was the first of his contributions, and it was sent in, not by its +author, but by a friend who had read it. So well was it thought of that +Mr. St. Leger was invited at once to become a contributor, and +accordingly he sent in many poems during the four years that followed, +together with odd papers in the form of letters, especially on +pseudo-scientific lines. All these poems were collected into a volume +entitled "Ballads from _Punch_" in which perhaps the most striking are +that "To my Hairdresser," and the irresistibly comic satire on modern +ordnance, in which during a naval battle, after all the fighting has +been done by ramming, "the last stern order of the brave" is whispered +through the ship: "We're going to fire the guns!!" This desperate course +is taken and described--the air grows thick and dark with broken +breech, flying tube, and disrupted armour-plate, and when all was over-- + + "... They punished the seven survivors + For wasting the ordnance stores." + +[Illustration: F. ANSTEY. +(_From a Photograph by Messrs. Bassano, Limited._)] + +Mr. Anstey (Guthrie) was already famous for his little series of +successful books, "Vice Versâ," "The Giant's Robe," "The Tinted Venus," +"The Black Poodle," and "A Fallen Idol," when he was invited to +contribute to _Punch_. In each and all of these stories there had been a +clear and original idea, worked out with ingenuity and invested with +rich and delicate humour. Their author was clearly a man for _Punch_. So +thought Mr. Burnand, and Mr. Anstey shared the opinion. On November 4th, +1885, therefore, appeared his first contribution "Faux et Preterea +Nihil." His work was consistently good, and at the end of 1886 he was +called to the Table, taking his place and eating his first Dinner in +January, 1887. + +Mr. Anstey's writings attracted attention from the beginning, and in +their reprinted form have been no less successful--the truest test of +quality. Among the most delightful of these was the "Model Music Hall +Songs"--songs and dramas _virginibus puerisque_, adapted to the +requirements of the members of the London County Council which sought +out and found indecency in a marionette's pursuit of a butterfly. The +idea opened up to Mr. Anstey a comic vista, which he has developed for +our delectation. The songs and dances, with their words and directions, +are for the most part screamingly funny, consisting partly in the +perfectly realised absurdity and inanity of the performance, and partly +in that quality of absolute truthfulness to life which we are forced to +realise in the presentation of them. Laughter is often produced by the +mere faithfulness of an imitation, whether the thing copied is funny or +not. Simple mimicry has the power to make us laugh; and over that power, +in all its phases of motive, act, and talk, Mr. Anstey has absolute +control. In addition, he has a genius for plot-making and verse-writing, +be it original or parody, which in its own line is unsurpassed in modern +literature. In his analysis of character and motive he seems to set +before us our own weak selves laid bare, until his _voces populi_ become +_voces animi_, the voice of the people speaking unpleasantly like the +voice of conscience. + +In this comic reproduction of actual experience Mr. Anstey has travelled +over the road pointed out by Mr. Burnand in his "Happy Thoughts" and +"Out of Town;" but, adding greatly to the scientific truth of it, he +seems to have lost something of the geniality and joviality of the form. +Mr. Anstey has placed Society on the dissecting-table, and probing with +a little less of the sympathy shown by Mr. du Maurier, he carries his +observation, consciously or unconsciously, to a much farther and more +merciless point. Not that he has no kindly feeling for his subjects; he +has--but he reserves it for his good people. Towards his snobs and cads +and prigs he is pitiless; he turns his microscope upon them, and with +far less mercy than is to be found in a vivisector he lays bare their +false hearts, points to their lying tongues, and tears them out without +a pang of remorse. It is all in fun, of course; but it is unmistakable. +Still, who shall find fault with what is the essence of justice and +truth, which mercy only interferes with to weaken? + +The burlesques in the "Model Music Hall Songs" are often as good as +their originals--just as some of the Rejected Addresses by the Smiths +were as good as the genuine poems they parodied; and the representation +of them is placed before the reader with more than photographic truth. +In "So Shy!" we see the lady "of a mature age and inclined to a +comfortable embonpoint," who comes forward and sings-- + + "I'm a dynety little dysy of the dingle, + So retiring and so timid and so coy-- + If you ask me why so long I have lived single, + I will tell you--'tis because I am so shoy." + +It is a notable fact that songs of this sort were driven off the +better-class music-hall stage about this time, and there is little doubt +that Mr. Anstey, to whom Mr. Bernard Partridge afterwards rendered +artistic help, took yeoman's share in the campaign. More certain it is +that with "Mr. Punch's Young Reciter" he effectively suppressed the +drawing-room spouter. No one with a sense of humour who has read that +series can now stand up and recite a poem of a sentimental or an heroic +nature from the pens of Mr. Clement Scott or Mr. G. R. Sims without +genius to back him; and no one who heard it could retain his gravity to +the end. "Burglar Bill" melted almost to repentance by the innocent +child who asked him to burgle her doll's house, and whose salvation was +finally wrought by the gift of the baby's jamtart--killed the Young +Reciter by dint of pure ridicule and honest fun. He has made an +unsophisticated reciter as impossible as a sympathetic and sentimental +audience. + +And in "Voces Populi"--the popular dramas in dialogue, in which the +conversation accurately and concisely describes the character, +temperament, and tastes of the speaker--there is a humorous verbal +photography of extraordinary vividness. 'Arry is no longer a symbol and +a type, as he is in Mr. Milliken's hands; he is a definite person in one +particular position in life and no other, and what he says could not, we +feel, possibly have been said in any other way, nor by any other person. +And so along the whole gamut of the classes through which Mr. Anstey +leads us. The humour is penetrating, and it is difficult to say where +the truth ends and the caricature begins. Who can forget the visit to +the Tudor Exhibition, when Henry VIII's remarkable hat was on view? +"'Arry," says 'Arriet to her escort; "look 'ere; fancy a king goin' +about in a thing like that--pink with a green feather! Why, I wouldn't +be seen in it myself!" 'Arry, who is clearly _farceur_, replies with a +pretty wit: "Ah, but that was ole 'Enery all over, that was; he wasn't +one for show. He liked a quiet, unassumin' style of 'at, he did. 'None +o' yer loud pot'ats for Me!' he'd tell the Royal 'atters; 'find me a +tile as won't attract people's notice, or you won't want a tile +yerselves in another minute!' An' you may take yer oath they served him +pretty sharp, too!" And so it is all through; the talk of the people, of +everybody in all sorts of positions in life, is recorded in these +"Voces," and in all there is the same quality of nature. + +In "Travelling Companions," nearly as amusing and quite as observant, we +are made to feel that the two heroes detest each other hardly more than +Mr. Anstey detests Culcherd, the more unsympathetic and contemptible of +the two. They are nearly as despicable as they are funny, and their +creator has little pity for them on that account. There is a "plentiful +lack of tenderness," but an abundance of humour to excuse it. This +quality is not visible in "Mr. Punch's Pocket Ibsen"--a parody so good +that we sometimes wonder if the part we are reading is not really from +the hand of the Norwegian master. Nothing, surely, could be truer, +nothing touched with a lighter hand than "Pill-doctor Herdal"--an +achievement attained solely by a profound study of the dramatist. Again, +in "The Man from Blankley's" and in "Lyre and Lancet" we have social +satires grafted on to a most entertaining plot--a creation in both cases +which may be compared with Keene's drawings for observation, and with +Goldsmith's and Molière's plays for the happy construction of these +comedies of errors. The plots assuredly would have extorted the +admiration of Labiche himself, so complicated and ingenious are they. +Besides, everything seems so natural, so inevitable, "so much of a +lesson," that it is hardly to be wondered at that "The Man from +Blankley's" was on more than one occasion actually given out as the text +for a sermon delivered from the pulpit. + +Another excuse for music-hall treatment of an exquisite sort is afforded +by the story of "Under the Rose," which is inimitable. For example:-- + + THE SISTERS SARCENET (_on stage_): "You men are deceivers + and awfully sly. Oh, you _are_!" + + MALE PORTION OF AUDIENCE (_as is expected from them_): + "No, we _aren't_!" + + THE SISTERS S. (_archly_): "Now you _know_ you are! + + You come home with the milk; should your poor wife ask why, + 'Pressing business, my pet,' you serenely reply, + When you've really been out on the 'Tiddle-y-hi!' + Yes, you _have_!" + + MALE AUDIENCE (_as before_): "No, we've _not_!" + + THE SISTERS S. (_with the air of accusing angels_): "Why, + you _know_ you have!" + +It is sometimes objected that the root of Mr. Anstey's success lies near +the surface, and is nothing but the vividness of his dialogues. It is a +great deal more; it lies in the truth of his characters, subtly drawn, +but irresistible, and, now and again, tenderly pathetic. Thus may you +see the optimist and pessimist, and the link between them, in the +following scene in the Mall on Drawing-Room Day:-- + + CHEERY OLD LADY (_delighted_): "I could see all the coachmen's 'ats + beautiful. We'll wait and see 'em all come out, John, won't we? + They won't be more than a hour and a half in there, I dessay." + + A PERSON WITH A FLORID VOCABULARY: "Well, if I'd ha' known all I + was goin' to see was a set o' blanky nobs shut up in their + blank-dash kerridges, blank my blanky eyes if I'd ha' stirred a + blanky foot, s'elp me dash, I wouldn't!" + + A VENDOR (_persuasively_): "The kerrect lengwidge of hevery flower + that blows--one penny!" + +In the composition of his "Voces" and kindred work, it has been the +practice of Mr. Anstey to visit the needful spot, where he would try to +seize the salient points and the general tone, the speakers and the +scene, trusting to luck for a chance incident, feature, or sentence that +might provide a subject. Sometimes he would have to go empty away; but +as a rule he would find enough to provide the rough material for a +sketch. Sometimes, too, he would combine hints and anecdotes received +from his acquaintance with his own experience and invention; on rarer +occasions he would happen upon an incident which could be worked up into +a sketch very much as it actually occurred, though with strict selection +and careful elaboration. On the whole it may be taken that the +conversations are mostly what _might_ have happened, but that they never +were shorthand reproductions of overheard talk; and the incidents are +almost invariably invented. Occasionally something in an exhibition or +show would suggest a typical comment, or a casual remark might provide +an idea for a character; but a good deal is certainly unconscious +reminiscence and fragmentary observation, and the residue pure +guess-work. + +Of the artistic quality of Mr. Anstey's work there can be no +question--neither of its humour, nor of its value as a complete +reflection of English, and especially of Cockney, life. Old-fashioned +people may and do denounce it as newfangled; but does anyone doubt the +sort of welcome that would have been accorded to it by Jerrold and +Thackeray and Gilbert à Beckett if they had had the good fortune to have +an Anstey in their midst half-a-century ago? + +[Illustration: R. C. LEHMANN +(_From a Photograph by Elliott and Fry._)] + +Mr. R. C. Lehmann, grand-nephew of W. H. Wills, one of _Punch's_ early +crew, had a good reputation as a Cambridge wit before Mr. Burnand +captured him for _Punch_. In April, 1889, he began to edit "The Granta," +the clever "barrel-organ of the Cambridge undergraduates," satirical, +brightly humorous, and freshly youthful. On the 14th of the following +December there appeared in _Punch_ his first contribution, a dialogue +entitled "Among the Amateurs," which has since been reprinted in "The +Billsbury Election." + +Mr. Lehmann lost no time in devising series of articles, which all +_Punch_ readers will remember. Such were "Modern Types" and "Mr. Punch's +Prize Novels" (one of the most successful, including parodies of a score +of the leading authors of the day), "In the Know," "The Adventures of +Picklock Holes," "Letters to Abstractions," "Lord Ormont's Mate and +Matey's Aminta," "Manners and Customs," and "Studies in the New +Poetry." Within four months of his first contribution Mr. Lehmann was +promoted to the Table--an unprecedentedly rapid promotion--and he has +ever since been one of the most diligent of contributors. Literary merit +apart, Mr. Lehmann's "Conversational Hints for Young Shooters" has +probably been received with greater favour throughout the country, on +account of its subject and its felicitous treatment, than any of the +young author's works. Country readers are essentially sportsmen--in +conversation, if not in fact; and nothing in humorous writing delights +them more than a clever burlesque on their favourite topic. You may hear +the book praised where one of the writer's more ambitious efforts may +pass unnoticed; and one of its passages is quoted with unction in many a +shooting party. "Johnson, who was placed forward, again stood under a +canopy of pheasants, and shot with brilliant success into the gaps.... +The only theory which is accepted as explaining the catastrophe is one +that imputes a malignant cunning to the birds." + +The year that saw Mr. Lehmann's appointment witnessed also the calling +of his kinsman, Mr. Barry Pain, one of the chief contributors to "The +Granta." His story of "The Hundred Gates," printed in "Cornhill," struck +Mr. Burnand as a work of promise; indeed, Mr. Burnand is reported to +have found it so funny that he thought he must have written it himself. +The annexing of the writer was at once effected. One of his earliest +contributions to _Punch_ was the amusing parody of Tennyson's +"Throstle," just before Christmas, 1889; and a collection of comic +Cambridge definitions in imitation of Euclid followed. Then came a set +of short stories called "Storicules," and a series of articles +constituting a mock guide to conduct for young ladies. Since 1892 Mr. +Pain's work has fallen away, probably only for a time; for _Punch_ has +proved well-nigh irresistible to every genuine humorist who is anxious +to bring his faculty to bear on the risibility of the English public. + +Mr. Henry Pottinger Stephens, one of the wits of the "Sporting Times," +the founder of the "Topical Times," and member of the staff of the +"Daily Telegraph," was for two or three years on the outside salaried +Staff of _Punch_. Contributing from 1889 to 1891, he wrote a series of +"queer tales" as well as some attacks on the then South Western Railway +management, under the title of "The Ways of Waterloo." Such dramatic +criticisms as were not undertaken by Mr. Burnand or relegated by him to +Mr. Arthur à Beckett, and numerous trifles besides, fell to him to do; +but on his departure for America the connection was broken, and not +afterwards resumed. + +Passing by Mr. C. W. Cooke, we find Mr. Charles Geake, member of the Bar +and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, as the chief recruit of the year +1890. To "The Granta" he had sent a casual contribution, and Mr. R. C. +Lehmann, appreciating his talent, proved his esteem by installing Mr. +Geake as the Cambridge editor of that paper. From "The Granta" to +_Punch_ has become a natural ascent, and on July 12th, 1890, Mr. Geake +made his first bow to London readers. Three months later a packet of +_Punch_ office envelopes announced that he had been placed on the +footing of a regular outside contributor, and that it was now his +privilege to send his work straight to the printer's. At first he wrote +nothing but verse--society verse, ballades, rondeaux, topical verse, and +parodies in verse and prose, and then burlesques of books, such as the +capital imitation of "The Tale of Two Telegrams" (a "Dolly Dialogue" in +the manner of "Anthony Hope"), p. 97, Vol. CVII., September 1st, 1894, +and "The Blue Gardenia" (October 20th, 1894, p. 185), with various skits +and topical matter. "Lays of the Currency" are among the chief of Mr. +Geake's poetical "series," and "Chronicles of a Rural Parish"--the +adventures and misadventures of a rural parishioner who wishes to +patronise the Parish Councils Act--his principal effort in comic prose. + +The year 1892 brought three new writers: Mr. Gerald F. Campbell, who +began by contributing (on April 23rd) poems of sentiment, such as "Town +Thoughts from the Country," and three months later "The Cry of the +Children" and "Alone in London;" R. F. Murray, the American-born author +of "The Scarlet Gown," who, through Mr. Andrew Lang's introduction, sent +in a few verses shortly before his death; and Mr. Roberts, who finds his +place among the artists. + +Mr. George Davies was an important accession of the following year. On +only half-a-dozen occasions had he ever been in print, and that in +obscure publications, when he composed an "Ethnographical Alphabet," +beginning "A is an Afghan." The writer, who is something of a +tsiganologue, emboldened by his success, followed up his alphabet, which +appeared January 21st, 1893, and within a year had placed to his credit +three-score contributions, most of them in verse--rather a remarkable +achievement for one heretofore considered a mere bookworm and dryasdust. + +Another Cambridge man of originality and ingenuity, mainly in verse, is +Mr. Arthur A. Sykes--a "Cantabard," as he himself would admit, +peculiarly skilled in "Cambrijingles." He began with "In the Key of +Ruthene" on May 6th, 1893, and followed it up with a laughable ode "To a +Fashion-Plate Belle." It was accompanied with a comic, though hardly +exaggerated, design of the female figure as depicted in ladies' +fashion-papers--the drawing being also by Mr. Sykes. Since then many +verses by him have appeared, in which quaint conception, sudden turn of +thought, and strange achievements in rhyming (as in "The Tour That Never +Was," August 19th, 1893) are the chief figures. Then came the promotion +embodied in the privilege of sending his contributions direct to the +printer before, instead of after, being submitted to the editorial eye; +and a good deal of prose work followed, such as the "Scarlet Afternoon," +a skit in dialogue suggested by Mr. R. S. Hichens' "Green Carnation." + +Light verse from the Rev. Anthony C. Deane began on August 20th, 1892 +("Ad Puellam"), but he was already a master of the art. Two months +before his little volume of "Frivolous Verses" had appeared, and so +struck Mr. Andrew Lang that he reviewed it in a "Daily News" +leading-article, invited the author to go and see him, and suggested his +writing for _Punch_. Mr. Deane had already been a "Granta" poet, and was +well known to Mr. Lehmann, who, finding that Mr. Lang had already +spoken to Mr. Anstey, gladly added a word of introduction to the Editor. +By such means as these, oftener than by promiscuous outside application, +is new blood found: the best men do not, as a rule, force forward their +own work. Mr. Deane at that time was not twenty-two, nor was he yet +ordained. He passed the necessary period at the same theological +college--Cuddesdon--that years before had sheltered Mr. Burnand, and +went on contributing verses to _Punch_, to the number (1894) of sixty or +seventy; so that the course of his _Punch_ love has run very smooth. + +Another literary godson of Mr. Lehmann's, and child of "The Granta," is +Mr. Owen Seaman. Through the good offices of the former, Mr. Seaman's +"Rhyme of the Kipperling," nearly filling the first page of _Punch_, was +inserted in the number for January 13th, 1894. This imitation of Mr. +Rudyard Kipling's "Rhyme of the Three Sealers" was its own +recommendation, and since that time Mr. Seaman has been one of the most +prolific outside contributors of the year. His series comprise +"She-Notes"--a skit on "Keynotes" and "Airs Resumptive"--of which the +fourth, "To Julia in Shooting-togs (and a Herrickose Vein)" is an +admirable specimen of its class. Art and political criticism in verse +and prose are employed to illustrate the writer's facility and classic +taste. + +To this list, necessarily incomplete, in spite of its length, a few +names remain to be added, and an incongruous party they form. Professor +Forbes; Mr. J. C. Wilson, mantle manufacturer; and Mr. J. J. Lushington, +of the Suffolk Chief Constable's Office, first a soldier and finally an +auctioneer (a giant of nearly six feet seven, who would have formed a +good fourth to Thackeray, "Jacob Omnium," and Dean Hole)--men of every +sort and condition, brought together by the universal brotherhood of +humour. Mrs. Frances Collins was a contributor, and her _Punch_ +utterance upon Judge Bayley's curious decision at Westminster County +Court in January, 1877, as to next-door music that is "intolerable," yet +not "actionable" ("Music hath (C)Harms"), is still remembered and +quoted. Another lady-wit of the present day is Mr. Lehmann's sister, +Lady Campbell, who wrote the women's letters in the series of "Manners +and Customs," while her brother took the male side of the +correspondence. Mrs. Leverson has been the contributor of numerous +clever prose parodies and general articles, the chief of which up to +June, 1895, has been "The Scarlet Parasol." Mr. James Payn has also +worked for _Punch_, but very little--only to the extent of placing some +little pleasantry at its service, and now and then suggesting a subject +for illustration. A set of rhymes by Mr. H. D. Traill, reprinted in his +volume entitled "Number Twenty," was his sole contribution, the +"Saturday Review" having had a sort of prescriptive right to all his +work of this description. It is the greater pity, for even the lightest +of his verses have the true ring and, according to some, much of the +vigour characteristic of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's work. Mr. Arthur +Armitage, too, was for many years a contributor. Being a solicitor in +practice, he kept his identity a secret. He was always known to the +Editor and Proprietors as "Mr. A. Armstrong," and up to this present +publication he never revealed the levity of his youth. His first +contribution was "Marriage Customs of the Great Britons," which was +inserted in the "Pocket-Book" for 1855. After writing regularly for this +offspring of _Punch's_, Mr. Armitage was, in 1861, specially invited to +contribute to the paper itself on topics political, social, and +commercial--only a satire on "The Baby of the Papal States" (Louis +Napoleon) being rejected, on the ground that, were it inserted, war with +France would be inevitable. On Mark Lemon's death Mr. Armitage ceased +his connection as an "outside regular," and five years later reprinted a +number of his most amusing _Punch_ verses and articles under the title +of "Winkleton-on-Sea." Frederick Gale--better known as "The Old Buffer" +and as the great cricket authority--wrote a short series for _Punch_. +Then Mr. Walter Sichel, since the beginning of 1892, has contributed +some prose and more verse, such as the series of "Men who have taken me +in--to dinner," "Lays of Modern Home," "Inns and Outs," as well as +"Rhymes out of Season," "The Diary of an Old Joke," and the original +"Queer Queries." The late magistrate, Mr. Hosack, too, contributed +several sharp police-court sketches; and "Arthur Sketchley" had a +capital story to tell, but spoiled it in the telling. Even H. J. Byron, +contrary to general belief, tried his hand as a _Punch_ contributor, but +he was somewhat dull. He admitted, in fact, that he wanted to keep all +his fun for his plays, and so starved his _Punch_ work of its legitimate +humour. Mr. Arthur E. Viles's verses on "Temple Bar" (December, 1877) +may be mentioned, and Mr. Leopold Godfrey Turner's name must not be +omitted. But, of the contributors of trifles, a number must remain +anonymous--as, indeed, many do from choice; inevitably so before 1847, +when it first became the practice to enter up outsiders' work in their +own names. And among these occasional contributors the present writer is +proud to range himself. + +In looking at the literature of _Punch_, we become sensible of a change +not dissimilar to that which we find to have taken place in its art. +There is nowadays no Jerrold, whose fulminating passion and fine frenzy +often came dangerously near to "high-falutin'." There is perhaps no +versifier at the Table with quite the same fancy or taste as Gilbert +Abbott à Beckett, Shirley Brooks, and Percival Leigh. But we have +instead a keener observation of the life and customs of the day, an +ingenuity and an elegance that go better with the taste and habit of +thought of the times. In the old days it was not uncommon in discussing +_Punch's_ poetry to urge in apology that-- + + Wit will shine + Through the harsh cadence of a rugged line. + +Nowadays, when comedy and rapier have to a great extent replaced farce +and sword, finish is accounted of greater importance than of yore, and +grace and daintiness are accepted where simple fun was formerly the +aim--an aim, by the way, which was as frequently missed as now. Let the +reader who is inclined to be as severe on latter-day _Punch_ as on +latter-day everything, take down one of the early volumes, and seek for +the side-splitting articles and epigrams, the verse apoplectic with fun, +which we are taught to expect there. He will learn that it is not so +much that the quality of _Punch_ has changed, despite the great names +of the past. He will find that the change is due rather to modern +fashion and to modern views than to any deterioration of _Punch's_. Good +things are there now, as then; and now, as then, many of the best +writers in the country contribute periodically to its pages. With verse +and article, epigram and parody, _Punch_ continues to be a record and a +mirror of his times--a comic distorting mirror perhaps, but still a +glass of fashion and of history, with fun for its mercury, which, +through its literature, pleasantly and agreeably reflects the deeds and +the thoughts of the people. What of it, if his verse now and again is +only passable? Sometimes it is fine--always acceptable, and rarely below +an elevated established standard; anyhow, some years ago, Mr. Joseph +Chamberlain's single offering was rejected on its demerits by the +"monument of British humour." Perhaps the Editor judged it as _Punch's_ +railway-porter judged an old lady's pet in accordance with railway +rules: Cats is "dogs," and rabbits is "dogs," and so's parrots; but this +'ere tortis is a hinsect, and there ain't no--need--for it. And the tone +of _Punch's_ more serious utterances is now that of the dining-room +rather than of the debating society and the vestry room. Mr. Ruskin, +among others, deplored _Punch's_ kid gloves and evening-dress, when +amiable obituary notices on Baron Bethell--(had he not been _Punch's_ +counsel in the old days?)--and the Bishop of Winchester were published. +"Alas, Mr. Punch," he wrote, "is it come to this? And is there to be no +more knocking down, then? And is your last scene in future to be shaking +hands with the devil?"[49] _Punch_ can still hit hard; though "knocking +down" is no longer his main delight. His text has become as refined as +his art--and that, of course, is the reason that it no longer commands +the chief attention of the class that once was led by it. At that time +its art alone carried it into circles that abhorred its politics, and it +is recorded that Mulready was driven to excuse himself to one of the +Staff for not reading the text by the lame confession that he was "no +bookworm!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] Having mentioned the name of Edmund Yates, I may here contradict +the statement that that distinguished journalist ever wrote for _Punch_. +The belief arose partly through Martin F. Tupper's "My Life as an +Author":--"I remember also how he dropped in on me at Albany one +morning, just as I happened to be pasting into one of my books a few +quips and cranks anent my books from _Punch_. He adjured me 'not to do +it! for Heaven's sake spare me!' covering his face with his hands. +'What's the matter, friend?' 'I wrote all those,' added he in earnest +penitence, 'and I vow faithfully never to do it again!' 'Pray don't make +a rash promise, Edmund, and so unkind a one too; I rejoice in all this +sort of thing--it sells my books, besides--I'se Maw-worm--I likes to be +despised!' 'Well, it's very good-natured of you to say so, but I really +never will do it again;' and the good fellow never did--so have I lost +my most telling advertisement" (p. 326). Considering, however, that +Yates was on the worst of terms with Mark Lemon, we may easily believe +that he did not contribute to his paper, and as during his early +friendship with Mr. Burnand he never hinted at writing for _Punch_ as an +outsider, the statement may be dismissed. Moreover, so fantastic is the +scene described that, if strictly accurate, it was most likely a +practical joke played off upon the egotistical old gentleman, whose +worst enemies never accused him of a sense of humour. + +[49] "Fors," 1874 (p. 125). + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1841. + + _Punch's_ Primitive Art--A. S. Henning--Brine--A Strange + Doctrine--John Phillips--W. Newman--Pictorial Puns--H. G. + Hine--John Leech--His Early Life--Friendship with Albert + Smith--Leech Helps _Punch_ up the Social Ladder--His Political + Work--Leech Follows the "Movements"--"Servantgalism"--"The Brook + Green Volunteer"--The Great Beard Movement--Sothern's Indebtedness + to Leech for Lord Dundreary--Crazes and Fancies--Leech's + Types--"Mr. Briggs"--Leech the Hunter--Leech as a Reformer--Leech + as an Artist--His "Legend"-Writing--Friendship with Dickens--His + Prejudices--His Death--And Funeral. + + +One of the peculiarities of _Punch's_ career is the increasing +preponderance assumed by the artistic section. It is said that when +George Hodder was introduced to a distinguished Royal Academician, he +could find nothing better to say, with which to open the conversation, +than the tremendous sentiment--"Art is a great thing, sir!" _Punch_ +gradually but surely realised, too, how great a thing art is, and for +many years past he has sought out artists to recruit his Staff, where +before he looked chiefly for draughtsmen. The statement may seem a +curious one to make, but it is an opinion shared nowadays by some of the +best artists on _Punch_ and off it, that were the drawings sent in +to-day which were contributed by the majority of the original artistic +Staff, not excluding the mighty Leech himself, they would be declined +without thanks, and--according to the somewhat harsh rule that has for +some time prevailed--without return of their contribution. There was a +promiscuous rough-and-ready manner about the drawing of comic cuts in +those early days, when intended for the periodical press, that would +offend the majority of people to-day. There was no photography then to +enable the artist to draw as big as he chose, and then to reproduce the +drawings on to the wood-block in any size he please. There were no +blocks which could be taken into sections and distributed among +half-a-dozen engravers at once for swift and careful cutting. There was +no "process," which permitted of reduction and reproduction of the +finest pen-and-ink work. There was no "drawing from the life" for these +little pictures of "life and character." The joke was the thing, not the +artistic drawing of it. Farce and burlesque had not yet developed into +comedy and comedietta, refined by degrees and beautifully æsthetic. +Nowadays, as Mr. du Maurier has publicly declared, everything must be +drawn straight from Nature, without trusting to memory or observation +alone. "Men and women, horses, dogs, seascapes, landscapes, everything +one can make little pictures out of, must be studied from life.... Even +centaurs, dragons, and cherubs must be closely imitated from Nature--or +at least as much as can be got from the living model!" It is, therefore, +more than likely that Leech would have been told that he must really be +more careful in his work before _Punch_ could publish it; and his first +contribution of "Foreign Affairs" would have been rejected as being +altogether too rough and with far too little point for its size. All +_Punch's_ pictures at this day, no doubt, cannot be said to surpass the +artistic achievement of some of the earliest cuts, but there is almost +invariably an artistic intention, technically speaking, which excuses +even the poorer work--a suggestion of the drawing-school rather than, to +use a modern expression, mere "dancing upon paper." + +Although from the beginning to the present day the artistic Staff which +has sat at _Punch's_ Table has numbered less than a score, and the +outside Staff, unattached (such as Captain Howard, Mr. Sands, Mr. +Pritchett, Mr. Fairfield, Mr. Atkinson, Mr. Ralston, and Mr. Corbould), +but very few more--the total number of draughtsmen whose pencils have +been seen in _Punch's_ pages amount to about one hundred and seventy. In +some cases sketches have been sent in anonymously; a few others I have +been unable to trace; but these, it must be admitted, are hardly worth +the trouble expended on them. + +[Illustration: A. S. HENNING. +(_From a Water-Colour by his son, Mr. Walton Henning._)] + +The earliest recruit was Archibald S. Henning, the first in importance, +as he was to be cartoonist, and first to appear before the public, +inasmuch as the wrapper was from his hand. He was the third son of John +Henning, friend of Scott and Dr. Chalmers, on the strength of his famous +miniature restoration of the Parthenon frieze, of which he engraved the +figures on slate in intaglio; and he was well known besides not only for +these copies of the Elgin marbles, but for his portrait-busts and +medallions. Precision in all things was one of his characteristics, and +even showed itself in the inscriptions in his family Bible, wherein he +set on record that his son Archibald was "born at Edinburgh, on the 18th +of February, at 30 minutes past 3 a.m." But this accuracy was not +inherited, although the son was brought up to assist his father on the +friezes which he executed on Burton's Arch at Hyde Park Corner, and on +the Athenæum Club-house. His drawing was loose and undistinguished; his +sense of humour, such as it was, unrefined; and his fun exaggerated and +false. He was a Bohemian, but not of the type of his brother-in-law +Kenny Meadows, preferring a class of entertainment less exalted than +those who so warmly welcomed his sister's husband. Mr. Sala tells me +that Henning painted the show-blind for the Post Office, and afterwards +steadily drifted down the stream of time; and Mr. Sala ought to know, +for he employed him in those impecunious but jolly days when the +editorship of "Chat" was in his hands. One of the early memories of Mr. +Walton Henning, Archibald's son, is being sent by his father to collect +the sum of one pound sterling from Mr. Sala, and, after sitting on the +office-stool from eleven in the morning until two, being sent back +without the money, but instead with a letter of apology and of +congratulation on possessing a son who could sit for three hours, like +Patience on a monument, smiling at an empty till. Henning remained with +_Punch_ till the summer of 1842, having contributed eleven cartoons to +the first volume and several to the second, the last of which was that +of "Indirect Taxation," on p. 201. He also illustrated Albert Smith's +social "physiologies" of "The Gent" and "The Ballet Girl"--not ill-done; +and when _Punch_ had no further need of his services he transferred them +successively to "The Squib," "The Great Gun," and "Joe Miller the +Younger," in each case taking the post of cartoonist. Later on he worked +occasionally on "The Man in the Moon" and on the "Comic Times," and died +in 1864. + +No greater loss was Brine, Henning's fellow-cartoonist, who remained +with _Punch_ until the beginning of the third volume, having drawn +nearly a dozen cartoons for each of the two volumes. He was a poor and +often a "fudgy" draughtsman, gifted with extremely little humour, who +had nevertheless worked a good deal at a Life Academy in the Tottenham +Court Road, along with Thomas Woolner, Elmore, Claxton, and J. R. +Herbert, and had even studied in Paris. He had some strange notions as +to figure-drawing, some of which he would impart to such young students +as cared to listen. One of these rules, which he sought to impress on +Mr. Birket Foster's 'prentice mind, was never to draw ankle-joints on +female legs; but Mr. Foster did not remain a figure-draughtsman long +enough to benefit by this valuable advice. Brine was poorly paid, some +of his smaller cuts commanding a sum no higher than three-and-six; but +it is impossible to say, looking at these sketches, that his efforts +were seriously underpaid. + +Another of the Old Guard was John Phillips--who is not to be confused +with Watts Phillips, a contributor of a later period. He was the son of +an eccentric old water-colour painter, well known in his day, and has +been identified as the scene-painter whom Landells introduced later to +the "Illustrated London News." Phillips, with Crowquill, illustrated +Reynolds' popular "continuation" of Dickens' Pickwick Papers, entitled +"Pickwick Abroad," and, like Brine, he received his _congé_ when the +transfer of _Punch_ to Bradbury and Evans took place. + +And then there was by far the most important and valuable draughtsman of +the quartette--William Newman. He was a very poor man, who in point of +payment for his work suffered more than the rest; and when he asked for +a slight increase in terms, he was met with a refusal on the ground that +"Mr. John Leech required such high prices." He was an old hand at +pictorial satire, and was one of those who drew the little caricatures +in "Figaro in London" several years before. He was brought on to _Punch_ +by Landells, but, owing to his lack of breeding and of common manners, +he was never invited to the Dinner, nor did any of his colleagues care +to associate with him. Unfortunately for him he was an extremely +sensitive man, and the neglect with which he was perhaps not unnaturally +treated preyed greatly upon his mind. For a considerable time he was the +most prolific draughtsman on the paper. Thus in 1846 there are no fewer +than eighty-seven cuts by him; in 1847, one hundred and twenty-seven; in +1848, one hundred and sixty-four; and in 1849, one hundred and +twenty-one. From the cut on _Punch's_ first title-page down to the year +1850 his work is everywhere to be seen, in every degree of importance, +from the little _silhouettes_ called "blackies," which usually +constituted little pictorial puns in the manner of Thomas Hood, and +which were paid--those of them which were good and funny enough to be +used--at the all-round rate of eighteen shillings per dozen. Instances +of his happy punning vein are the sketches of a howling dog chained to a +post, entitled "The Moaning of the Tide;" a portrait of a +villainous-looking fellow, "Open to Conviction;" a horse insisting on +drinking at a pond through which he is being driven, "Stopping at a +Watering-Place;" a hare nursing her young, "The Hare a Parent;" a man +wrestling with his cornet, "A most Distressing Blow;" and a street-boy +picking a soldier's pocket, "Relieving Guard." But he was soon promoted +to other work; and to the first and second volumes, at times of +pressure, he even contributed a cartoon. This service was four times +repeated in 1846, and again in 1847 and 1848, when Leech met with his +serious bathing accident at Bonchurch: on which occasion the great John +was put to bed, as Dickens explained it, with a row of his namesakes +round his forehead. The cartoon in question was that entitled "Dirty +Father Thames," and a glance at it will show how great was the +improvement in the draughtsman's art. Newman did not, however, confine +himself to _Punch_ all this while; he had worked as cartoonist to "The +Squib" in 1842; and again for the "Puppet-Show," "Diogenes," and H. J. +Byron's "The Comic News" in 1864. Then, disappointed at the little +advance he had made in the world, he emigrated to the United States, +where more lucrative employment awaited him. He had a greater sense of +beauty and a more refined touch than most of his colleagues; and though +he did not shine as a satirist, he was always well in the spirit of +_Punch_. + +[Illustration: H. G. HINE, V.P.R.I. +(_From a Photograph by E. Wheeler, Brighton._)] + +But the most interesting of _Punch's_ earliest men before the advent of +Leech was H. G. Hine, who up to 1895 was the octogenarian Vice-President +of the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, whose broad and masterly +drawings of poetic landscape have been the artistic wonder of recent +years. He began to draw for _Punch_ in September, 1841, and +thenceforward bore with Newman the brunt of the illustration. He was +really a serious painter--a water-colour artist of strong aim and +considerable accomplishment. Just before the starting of _Punch_ +Landells had, as has already been explained, launched a landscape +periodical called "The Cosmorama," and had commissioned Hine to go to +the London Dock and make a drawing on the wood. The work was not new to +him, as Wood, a master-engraver of the time, taking pity on the sense of +foolish powerlessness with which every beginner is afflicted, had +explained to him the secret of the craft. Landscape was thus his +acknowledged line when he found himself at the Docks with his round of +boxwood in his hand. He marked off a square upon it, and, in order to +"get his hand in," he made what would nowadays be called a _remarque_ on +the margin--a comic sketch of a dustman and his dog. The block was +finished, and carried to Landells, who looked at it in some surprise. +"Did you do that?" said the North Countryman, pointing to the dustman. +"Would you draw sketches like that for _Poonch_?" "But I'm not a +figure-draughtsman," objected Hine. "Yes, you are; and it's just what we +want for _Poonch_." So Hine was enrolled, and in his line became an +exceedingly popular draughtsman. He began by making batches of the +"blackies" aforesaid, designing them and their clever punning titles +with the greatest freedom, unhampered by editorial interference. He +worked for _Punch_ until 1844, and rapidly became a contributor of the +first importance, whose merits were fully appreciated. One cut in +particular delighted Mark Lemon--that of "A Long Nap," in which a toper +has fallen into a sleep so deep and protracted that a spider has spun a +strong web from the man's nose to the bottle and the table before +him.[50] "Upon my word!" cried Lemon on examining the block when it was +delivered, "Mr. Hine is really tremendous!" Hine had greater imagination +and ingenuity than Newman, a brighter fancy and keener wit; and to him +rather than to others would application be made for the realisation of +new ideas. At Landells' request he produced the accompanying "project" +for a _Punch_ medal or seal; which, however, was never carried into +execution. His, too, were the stinging Anti-Graham Wafers, to which +reference is made elsewhere; and many other designs that went far to +increase _Punch's_ popularity. + +[Illustration: DESIGN FOR "PUNCH" SEAL, BY H. G. HINE.] + +He was chief stock-artist, so to say; for Leech did not at once assume +the commanding position on the paper that was soon to be his. And while +Hine shared with him the honour of drawing "Punch's Pencillings," as the +cartoons were called--several of the series of "Social Miseries" being +from his hand--he produced from time to time the chief cut when it +aspired to the dignity of a political caricature. + +After a time, however, the amount of work sent to Hine was greatly +reduced. It was now some time since he had contributed the whole of the +cuts to the first "Almanac," but he was still an occasional cartoonist +(Vols. III., IV., and V.); so that he was the more surprised at being +roughly--and, as he proved, unjustly--accused of being late with a +block. Other unpleasantnesses, which seemed to him gratuitous, suggested +the idea that he might not be wanted on _Punch_. He put the point +blankly, and was reassured. Still, the quantity of work sent him +diminished; and as nothing came by Christmas, Hine accepted the offer of +Christmas-work by the publisher of "The Great Gun"--for which, by the +way, he never received payment. Then there suddenly arrived a mass of +blocks from _Punch_; but they were returned with the message that, not +hearing from his former proprietors, he had made other arrangements. And +that was the end of his connection. Later on he worked for "Joe Miller +the Younger," "Mephystopheles," and "The Man in the Moon," and used his +pencil, in the true Spirit of a genuine sportsman, in pointing his +well-barbed jokes against his old paper with as much enthusiasm as he +had before given to its service. On page 153 of the second volume of +_Punch_ may be seen a little cut entitled "Choice Spirits in +Bond"--being the portraits of himself and the lanky William Newman in +the dock of a police-court. Although fifty-four years had passed, the +strong resemblance of the little likeness could still be recognised by +those who knew the artist in the last few months of his life. + +After the collapse of "The Man in the Moon" Hine dropped out of comic +draughtsmanship. By this time, indeed, he was tired of the work, for he +had begun to think in jokes, to turn every thought to ridicule, and to +look upon conversation rather as raw material for pun-making than as a +means of expressing and interchanging ideas. The last straw was an +occasion when he spent half a night with Horace Mayhew in trying to make +a joke to complete a series for "Cruikshank's Almanack"--the very +situation in Pope's epigram:-- + + "You beat your pate, and fancy wit will come; + Knock as you please, there's nobody at home." + +Meanwhile another had arisen who was destined to overshadow for many +years the rest of his colleagues, and while he lived to be the life and +soul of the undertaking--Mr. Punch incarnate. This was John Leech, whose +signature first appears on page 43 of the first volume. + +When Mr. Frith, R.A., sought to persuade the overworked Leech to take a +holiday, he added, just to drive the matter home: "If anything happened +to you, who are the 'backbone of _Punch_,' what would become of the +paper?" At which Leech smiled, says his biographer, and retorted, "Don't +talk such rubbish! Backbone of _Punch_, indeed! Why, bless your heart, +there isn't a fellow at work upon the paper that doesn't think _that_ of +himself, and with about as much right and reason as I should. _Punch_ +will get on well enough without me, or any of those who think themselves +of such importance." In his life-time none would have been found to +share the speaker's views; nevertheless, _Punch_--for all Leech's +paramount importance to the paper--has maintained his prosperity, and +more than doubled his lease of life since Leech laid down his pencil. +Yet in his time he was as much the artistic _Punch_ as Jerrold was the +literary; and there are nearly as many who still believe that Leech at +one time was _Punch's_ Editor as accord the same unmerited honour to +Jerrold. + +[Illustration: JOHN LEECH. +(_From the Portrait by Sir John E. Millais, Bart., R.A., in the National +Portrait Gallery._)] + +The story of Leech's early life has been already told. How he was the +son of the luckless owner of the London coffee-house in Ludgate Hill; +how Flaxman saw his infantile drawings and declared he would be nothing +but an artist--nay, "he _was_ an artist;" how, at the Charterhouse, the +gentle, nervous lad was schoolfellow of Thackeray, with whom he formed a +passionate, life-long friendship; and of yet another hearty friend, Mr. +Nethercote; how, when he was medical student at Bartholomew's Hospital, +he contracted another evergreen friendship with Percival Leigh, and +formed an acquaintanceship, long maintained, but never fully ripened, +with another medico--Albert Smith, of Middlesex; how his father's +failure caused him to give up medicine and the knife in favour of art +and the pencil--by the exercise of which, when he was still under Dr. +Cockle, son of the pill-doctor, he had already fascinated his +fellow-students, and in particular Percival Leigh--on whose initiative +it was that the "Comic Latin Grammar" was carried into execution. All +this and more has ere now been recorded. But it all bears directly on +his _Punch_ career, and must not by any means be overlooked. + +In 1836, when he was but nineteen years of age, he had made a bid for +the unhappy Seymour's vacant place as Charles Dickens' illustrator; but +he had been already forestalled by "Phiz," and Leech was perforce +rejected, as Thackeray had been refused before him, and Buss dismissed. +Leech was already a good draughtsman on wood, having while resident with +Orrin Smith the wood-engraver--he who had previously tried to magnetise +the idea of a "London Charivari" into life--received many practical +hints of the greatest artistic value. For some time afterwards he worked +in harmony with his fellow-student of a literary turn, whose noble +brass-plate inscribed "Mr. Albert Smith, M.R.C.S., Surgeon-Dentist!" +once brought upon the artist, says Percival Leigh, the candid chaff, of +a vulgar street-urchin. "Good boy!" said Leech, appreciating the +attention and rewarding it with a penny. "Now go and insult somebody +else." He drew furthermore upon the stone, and distinguished himself in +"Bell's Life in London"--the paper to which several of the most eminent +comic artists of the day then contributed--and in 1841, five years after +his first-published "Etchings and Sketchings, by A. Pen, Esq.," he +issued in its complete form his "Children of the Mobility." It was at +that time that Percival Leigh, having satisfied himself of the character +and tone of the new comic paper, not only made his own début in it, but +introduced his friend and colleague, John Leech--with what distressing +result as to his full-page block of "Foreign Affairs" the chapter on +cartoons discloses. (_See_ p. 173.) And here it may be added that all +was not plain sailing between Leech and _Punch_ at the commencement; for +soon after he resumed work he struck for higher terms. Until he got his +way he did no more work for the paper--as the reader may satisfy himself +by turning to its pages; and when he did, his triumph was visited, as +has already been described, upon the heads of less talented +contributors. It may safely be assumed that Leech knew nothing of this, +for the gentleness of the man was such that he could not have suffered +the idea that his success meant others' disadvantage. + +Three things may be said to have brought Leech's powers as a humorous +draughtsman prominently before the public--his illustrations to the +"Comic Latin Grammar," the skit on the Mulready envelope (the most +successful of all the versions published), and his early _Punch_ work. +Mr. Frith tells of Mulready's indignation at Leech's drawing--not at the +caricature itself, but at the leech in a bottle, by which the +Academician took it for granted that the draughtsman meant to designate +him by innuendo as a "blood-sucker;" and of Leech's surprise and pain at +being so suspected, and how the two men became fast friends ever after. +Once a regular _Punch_ man, Leech immediately expanded, and as quickly +hit the taste and fancy of the public; and from that day forward rarely +did his hand or his humorous or tragic faculty play him false; nor did +the people falter in its praise or its allegiance. + +Although he expanded, he yet took some time to settle down. Not until +the sixth volume (1844) could he be considered paramount in what was +esteemed the higher walk of cartooning--a department which he +subsequently shared, first with Doyle, and then with Tenniel. But it was +in the social cuts that he excelled--in his pictures of low life that +are never low; in his great mastery in the delineation of character and +his gift of seeing humour in most scenes of everyday happening, and his +power of recording comic conceptions, unfailingly and irresistibly. It +is true that as Mr. Punch went up in the social scale Leech accompanied +him in the rise--if, indeed, it was not Leech, together with Thackeray's +powerful help, who elevated _Punch_. At the same time he sympathised +profoundly with the horrors of poverty and oppression, and looked kindly +on gutter-children and on honest dirt and misery; and to the end he +regarded the "snob," the 'Arry of his day, with the genial contempt he +had lavished on him at the beginning. Thackeray appreciated the change +in the paper, and recorded it, too; though he credits Jerrold with a +policy which was nought but the policy of a comic paper softened in its +asperities by time, and encouraged by the greater refinement of its +Staff and of its more cultivated public. + +"Mr. Leech," said Thackeray, "surveys society from the gentleman's point +of view. In old days, when Mr. Jerrold lived and wrote for that famous +periodical, he took the other side; he looked up at the rich and great +with a fierce, a sarcastic aspect, and a threatening posture, and his +outcry or challenge was: 'Ye rich and great, look out! We, the people, +are as good as you. Have a care, ye priests, wallowing on a tithe pig +and rolling in carriages and four; ye landlords, grinding the poor; ye +vulgar fine ladies, bullying innocent governesses, and what not--we will +expose your vulgarity; we will put down your oppression; we will +vindicate the nobility of our common nature,' and so forth. A great deal +was to be said on the Jerrold side, a great deal was said--perhaps, even +a great deal too much." And now, says Thackeray in effect, Leech looks +at all these people with a certain respect for their riches, with an +amiable curiosity concerning their footmen's calves. Nevertheless, to +the end he was not kinder to Dives' oppression, less sympathetic towards +the troubles of Lazarus, nor more indulgent to the vulgarity of the +snob; nor a whit more tolerant of viciousness, affectation, or meanness +of any kind. + +Of Leech's political work (for which at first he entertained so great a +dislike) I say perhaps enough in dealing with what may be called +_Punch's_ Big Drum--the weekly cartoon. Taken together, those designs +might be held to represent a life's good work; yet they represent but a +fraction of what he executed during his seven-and-twenty years' hard +labour. If after a close study of all his productions with pencil and +etching-needle, you ask yourself what constitutes his real life's-work, +you will probably choose to ignore his book plates--even those to the +Comic Histories of Rome and England, to the sporting novels of "Mr. +Sponge," and the rest--and point to his "Pictures of Life and +Character," as given forth in one continuous stream from 1841 to 1864. + +The "movements" and the "isms" and the creations of fashion, of nearly +all of which we have a whole series spread over a long, but none too +long a time, reflect in themselves alone the social history of our +day--development of intellect and its antithesis, fashion in dress and +language, art and literature, craze and affectation; in short, the whole +national evolution during a quarter of a century. It is amusing to +glance at some of them--a few out of the very many--and sample the +journalistic wit with which Leech eyed and illustrated the passing hour. + +The periodical wail of the British householder and his wife on the +subject of the great "domestic difficulty" gave Leech a fund of anecdote +that he was not slow to draw upon. He was himself a typical middle-class +British householder, who liked to have everything nice and neat about +him, including the pretty, amiable, zealous, h-less maidservant in nice +white apron and clean print-dress. He closed his eyes and ears to Sydney +Smith's discovery that _all_ the virtues and most of the graces are not +to be had for £7 a year. And so Leech gave us the series he entitles +"Servantgalism," harshly illustrative for the most part of the comic +side of what a later generation calls Slaveyism. And as _Punch_, chiefly +under the influence of Thackeray, raised his eyes from Bloomsbury to +Belgravia, and found equal fun and better sport in baiting the far more +contemptible airs and graces of John Thomas, "Flunkeiana" became a +fertile field from which he drew some of his most caustic productions. +He made them the severer, too, that during the Crimean War and the +dangers that threatened the land, Leech could not bear with patience the +sight of "pampered menials" passing their time in relatively idle +luxury, when they, together with linen-drapers' assistants and others +engaged in what is really woman's work, ought rather to have been +bearing arms, or at the very least drilling in the newly-formed force of +Volunteers. + +Yet the Volunteers had not to thank Leech for anything much but chaff +during the early years of the movement. If anything could snuff out +patriotism, "The Brook Green Volunteer," the laughable satire on the +Militia, would have done it, and the square into which that warrior +formed himself would assuredly have been broken and dispersed. And truly +this series, famous and still appreciated as it is, lost a good deal of +its force from the presence of a fault not often found in Leech's +work--grotesqueness of invention and undue exaggeration. In time Charles +Keene made us forget the unintentional injustice Leech had done to a +noble movement; and as fate willed it, Mr. G. Haydon, who had greatly +assisted the author of it, Sir J. C. Bucknill, became later an artistic +contributor to _Punch_ and a friend, not only of Leech, but of several +of the most distinguished of the Staff. + +And after the Crimean War was over, there was a social upheaval known as +"the great beard movement." Leech was very keen upon all this question +of moustaches, and held with many others that no one had a right to them +save the crack cavalry regiments. One day it happened that Leech, +Tenniel, and Pritchett were riding together, and, agreeing on the +subject, they arrived at cross-roads, where, holding their crops +together, they cried "We Swear!"--not to wear hair on lip or chin. In +1865 the unregenerate Mr. Pritchett went to Skye to practise +water-colour and--to let his moustaches grow! Returning in due time to +Tenniel's house, he said nothing, but merely opened the door, and thrust +in his face with an air of defiant resignation, and waited. Tenniel +started. "You scoundrel!" he exclaimed; "_then I must!_" And he did. But +Leech was proof against this example of degeneracy, and to the end +remained true to his views and his vow, although moustaches soon came +into regular fashion. + +Yet moustache, beard, and whiskers have been a mine of fun to +Leech--from the little Eton boy who tells the hairdresser, when he has +cut his curls, just to give him a close shave, and who ties the major's +whisker to his sister's ringlet; to the snobs who, "giving to hairy +nothings a local habitation and a name," flatter themselves that their +stubbly chins will get them mistaken for "captings" at the very least; +and to the military Adonises who may boast that their silken beards and +fierce moustaches lead a beauty by each single hair. One of the most +amusing results of Leech's drawings of whiskered swells was Sothern's +creation of "Lord Dundreary"--as the actor was always ready to proclaim. +But for the artist, this most comical character would have been nothing +but the ordinary stage-fool as it was at first designed, and the +playgoers of two generations would never have held their aching sides at +one of the most mirthful of modern _rôles_. + +Then the series of hearty laughs that, in 1851, accompanied his handling +of "Bloomerism"--that parent of our modern dress reform and the divided +skirt, and certainly the ancestor of the lady-bicyclist's costume ("A +skirt divided against itself cannot stand; it must sit upon a +bicycle")--served to kill the thing that the natural modesty of Leech +put down as unwomanly and his æsthetic sense as hideous. And the +crinoline, to which the American invention was to afford an antidote, +provides Leech with material for a hundred humorous points of view. For +it grew and grew in monstrousness and outrageous proportions until 1861, +when it began to dwindle, and by such refuge as a "hooped petticoat" can +afford saved its dignity as it made its welcome exit from the scene. + +And the Cochin-China Fancy, and the Table-Turning Craze (in respect to +which Mark Lemon declared that if Hope, the spiritualist, would give a +convincing _séance_ in Whitefriars, _Punch_ would recant), and the +Racecourse, and the Great Exhibition, and Horsetaming, and a score of +other subjects--whether pastime or fashion or phase--were all used by +Leech with unfailing humour. The Chartist period of 1848 was a great +opportunity, happily seized, and some of the artist's sketches were the +result of his personal observation; for he was himself sworn in. "Only +loyalty and extreme love of peace and order made me do it," he said; but +none the more did he enjoy his nocturnal patrol from ten o'clock till +one. + +And all his types--his _dramatis personæ_, so to speak--the gent and his +vulgar associates; the Greedy Boy and the Comic Drunkard; the _Enfant +Terrible_, soon, it is devoutly hoped, to be packed off to school, and +the dreadful Schoolboy home for the holidays; the Choleric Old Gentleman +and the comfortable Materfamilias; Miss Clara and the Heavy Dragoon; the +Italian Organ-grinder, Frenchman, Irishman, and Hebrew (Leech's four +_bêtes noires_); the Rising Generation; and all the rest--what a boxful +of puppets they were for Mr. Punch's show! And besides them the two or +three distinct personalities he created! There was Tom Noddy--the +ridiculous little man who in real life was the estimable Mr. Mike +Halliday, sometime clerk of the House of Lords, and latterly poet and +successful artist, who was as pleased as _Punch_ himself at the +distinction conferred upon him and his doings by the artist, while all +the time Leech was secretly flattering his kindly self that his model +could not by any means discover himself in pictures in which the +features were so carefully altered--for all personalities were hateful +to the considerate, sensitive humorist. And Mr. Briggs, the Immortal! Of +him whose creation is sufficient to render the year 1849 memorable in +the annals of the land much has ere now been written--that type of a +well-to-do British householder, delightful for his follies and endearing +by his pluck, something of a lunatic, it must be admitted, yet more of a +sportsman, and most of all a "muff"--_Punch's_ "simple-minded Philistine +paterfamilias." Many of his adventures, especially of house-keeping and +its terrors, were based upon Leech's own experiences. For it was Leech +who had those terrible builders, and who was taken for a burglar by a +policeman when trying to get in at his own window. Mr. Briggs' +never-to-be-forgotten sensations of a spill from his horse, as recorded +by Leech, were the result of the artist's own bewildering experience--as +he confessed to "Cuthbert Bede"--and many of his adventures in +salmon-fishing, grouse and pheasant shooting, and deer-stalking were +founded on his visits to Sir John Millais in Scotland. "All the pools on +the Stanley Water," says one authority, "are sacred to the memory of +Briggs, for it was Leech's favourite fishing-ground; and 'Hell's Hole,' +'Death's Throat,' 'Black Stones,' and many other cuts, may all be +recognised from his humorous pictures, the originals of which are in the +possession of Colonel Stuart Sandeman, the proprietor. The Stanley Water +begins below Burnmouth." Many of his fishing-sketches were made at +Whitchurch in Hampshire, when staying with Mr. Haydon aforesaid. + +Half Leech's popularity came, probably, from his sketches in the Row and +in the hunting-field. Even so hearty a hater of horse-flesh as +Ruskin--so far as he could hate animals at all--has declared that the +most beautiful drawing in all _Punch_ is Miss Alice on her father's +horse--"her, with three or four young Dians." Leech's sympathy for +horses was natural to the man, and had no little influence in toning +down those rampant ideas of Democracy and Socialism to which Thackeray +referred. In the opinion of many, not all the Conservative party, +landlords and House of Peers together, will, in the great coming +struggle with "King Demos," exert against him and his Socialism a +fraction of the power of resistance that will ultimately be found in the +national love of horses and of sport, whether in the hunting-field, on +the racecourse, or in the sporting column of the daily paper; and this +belief John Leech himself entertained. + +Leech, whose pecuniary resources were always being drained by relations +other than those of his own immediate household, and on behalf of whom +it is generally admitted that he worked himself to death, rode and +hunted, as he said, not from extravagance, but in order that he might be +fit and able to do his work. And his riding, which was a necessity to +himself, was not less indispensable to _Punch_, for a very considerable +amount of the Paper's support in the Country depends upon his "horsey +sketches." Without them English life would not be properly represented, +particularly in its most delightful and engaging of pastimes, and +without them English support--from that prosperous class to which +_Punch_ specially appeals--would hardly be forthcoming. + +But, for all his love of horses and the hunting-field, Leech was not a +particularly good rider, and a friend of his tells how he laughingly +insisted on buying from him a horse that was not sound in his wind, as +he could not run away. Yet he poked good-natured fun at the riding of +his friend Sir John Millais, and once told him that as he followed him +in the field he had conceived the original idea of drawing some +"triangular landscapes" as seen through Millais' legs. He satirised +himself with equal good-temper in the drawing in which a Cockney +horseman reins up at the edge of a steep hill--you might almost call it +a hole--down the side of which the rest are scampering, with the words +"Oh, if this is one of the places Charley spoke of, I shall go back!" +Indeed, in spite of all his sport, he almost agreed with Hood-- + + "There's something in a horse + That I can always honour, but never could _endorse_." + +Yet, like his great rival "Phiz," who rode with the Surrey hounds, he +loved the cover-side; but as time went on, and youthful ardour cooled, +he would rather attend the meet than follow in the chase. As he favoured +the Puckeridge hounds, it comes about that most of his landscape +backgrounds are views in Hertfordshire. And when he preferred the more +sober delights of the Row--not the same Row we now scamper along from +Hyde Park Corner, but the old one along by the Serpentine, and, for a +time, in Kensington Gardens--his tall graceful figure always attracted +attention; and when he mounted his pony, which he called "Red Mullett," +people who recognised him would turn and remark that Mr. Punch had come +out for a ride upon dog Toby. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT SOCIAL EVIL. + +TIME: Midnight. A Sketch not a Hundred Miles from the Haymarket. + +_Bella:_ "Ah! Fanny! How long have you been _gay_?" + +(From _Punch_, 12th Sept., 1857, Vol. xxxiii.)] + +But it was not by his comic faculty alone that John Leech helped to +make _Punch_ great, nor even by his political work. It was also by his +frank demonstration of that deep feeling which is often called +"passion," whether love, or sympathy, or hot indignation. His love of +children, even when he laughs at them, is surpassed by few other artists +or writers, even by those of Mr. Punch--that adorer of first youth and +green-apple and salad days. The enthusiasm with which he threw himself +into all attacks upon abuses showed him a hot-blooded philanthropist. It +was not for the first time that in his "Moral Lesson of the Gallows" he +used his Hogarthian power against the scandal and brutalising horror of +public executions. In the little "social" entitled "The Great Social +Evil," which so electrified _Punch's_ readers at the time, there appears +the hand of the reformer, perhaps; but primarily a whole heartful of +wide sympathy and pathos, from which, with true instinct, the artist has +banished every suggestion of humour, retaining only with a few skilful +strokes the sad and pathetic reality of the social problem. This +drawing was made some time before, but Mark Lemon, with less courage +than he showed in the publication of the "Song of the Shirt," hesitated +to insert it; and it is traditionally asserted that it was at the time +of the Editor's temporary absence through illness that Leech insisted +upon its publication. And who can forget the contemptuous drawing of the +brutalised dancers at Mabille (1847), or the other, made in full anger +and disgust at the sight of a Spanish bullfight "with the gilt off," +after he had attended one, when towards his life's end he visited +Biarritz for a few days in fruitless search of health? It is a terrible +page, and probably touches the limit of what is permissible in art. +Shirley Brooks called it "a grim indictment of a nation pretending to be +civilised;" and in England, at least, it met with a throb of responsive +emotion and of cordial approval. + +Passing from these things to a more pleasing one, we are struck with +Leech's exceptional love of beauty. Never did Nature seem more +delightful than in his cuts--in those dainty backgrounds in which the +loveliest scenery is so skilfully reproduced. "What plump young +beauties," cries Thackeray, "those are with which Mr. Punch's chief +contributor supplies the old gentleman's pictorial harem!" It is true, +they are nearly always the same girl, this ideal of _Punch's_--short in +stature, simple and pouting and laughing, with big eyes and rounded +chin, with bewitching dimples and pretty ringlets; but then this ideal, +this "little dumpling," was none other than Mrs. Leech! The artist had +seen her in the street in 1843, had fallen head over ears in love with +her upon the spot, followed her to her home, looked up the directory to +ascertain her name, obtained an introduction, and had straightway wooed +and won her. "Now I'll bet ten to one," he wrote to Percival Leigh, as +soon as he had been accepted, "that your reverence will think me the +oddest person in the world, at a moment like the present, to think of +writing to a friend; but I can't help sending you a line or two to say +that I have been made a 'happy man'.... Never laugh again at the union +of _2 soles_ (_i.e._, two flats); at any rate, don't expect me to join +in the guffaw." And so Miss Annie Eaton became Mrs. John Leech, the +object of her husband's devotion and of his inspired pencil. It is true +that his young ladies and his servants are all much of the same type; +but, in spite of Mr. Henry James' curious judgment that Leech had no +great sense of beauty, he has usually been otherwise adjudged, as in the +"poem" by Albert Smith and Edmund Yates--assuredly in harmony with most +men's views--where he is spoken of as + + "'Handsome Jack,' to whose dear girls and swells his life _Punch_ + owes." + +And so it comes about that _Punch's_ pages are eloquent with portraits +of Mrs. Leech, who, with her children, became the very "orchard" of +Leech's eye. The last block of all on which the artist was engaged was +one to be called "An Afternoon on the Flags;" it represented a +complimentary dog-fancier comparing the points of beauty in a dog with +those of the lady before him, but it was still unfinished when he fell +back in his bed, dead from the fatal breast-pang. + +Leech would never employ artists' models--partly because his _chic_ +drawing, like Sir John Tenniel's, came natural to his genius, and his +memory was extraordinarily retentive, and partly because when he began +to draw for _Punch_, and for a long while after, it was unheard-of for +black-and-white men on comic papers to do anything so seriously +academic. But though he said that he had not in his life made +half-a-dozen drawings from Nature, he was always sketching "bits" for +use, and trusted to his memory and imagination for the rest. On one or +two occasions he would ask Mrs. Hole, the wife of the Dean of Rochester, +to sit for him in her riding-habit--but this was the nearest approach he +ever made to the "model." He would make his first sketch and then trace +it on to the block, finishing his rapid drawing with considerable +deliberation, yet so quickly that he would often send off three drawings +before dinner-time. He was extremely particular about the drawing, and +the engraving, too, of his boots and feet, and expressed boundless +admiration of Tenniel's power in that direction. "Talk of drawing!" he +exclaimed to Mr. Frith; "what is my drawing compared to Tenniel's? Look +at the way that chap can draw a boot; why, I couldn't do it to save my +life!" Like all other artists, he was constantly asked by friends what +paper was the best and what pencils he used. "H.B.," he would reply; "if +you can't put it down with that, you can't put it down at all." His +simplicity of means matched the simplicity of his art, and both the +transparent simplicity of his character. His views relative to private +persons' privacy prevented him from including portraiture in his +drawings other than that of public men. But to get these, and especially +members of the House of Commons, he would take considerable trouble. I +have seen an extremely cordial letter addressed to him by Mr. Speaker +Denison, in which special facilities were accorded him to witness the +opening of Parliament. + +[Illustration: "LEECH'S 'PRETTY GIRL.'" +(_A Skit by Sir J. E. Millais, Bart., R.A. By Permission of W. W. Fenn, +Esq._)] + +As a draughtsman Leech has been admirably placed by Mr. du Maurier, who +calls him a perfect ballad-writer as compared with the more scientific +counterpointing of Charles Keene. And I would remark that it was above +all as a pencil and wood draughtsman that he excelled; his etchings--of +which he made two-score for the Pocket-Books--are not, technically +considered, up to the sustained level of either Cruikshank or "Phiz." +But his sense of freedom on the block he makes us feel; he revels in it, +and thereby imparts spontaneity to his drawings far beyond what we see +in his plates. Yet his composition is almost uniformly excellent, +whether in line or light and shade, and apparently as carefully thought +out as though an oil picture and not a _Punch_ cut was the work he had +in hand. The relation between his landscapes and his figures has often +been applauded; and a foreign critic has exclaimed, with unfeigned +surprise and admiration, "Leech and Keene could not only draw +light--they could even draw the wind!" And with all this he told his +story in his drawings more completely than any man of his day; he +appealed to every class of society, and touched them all with equal +facility, with equal good-humour, brightness, and beauty. His power of +legend-writing, too, was remarkable--his explanatory lines beneath the +drawings being as concise and happy as what they described. Says Mr. +Silver: "As brevity is the soul of wit, he always made his 'legends' as +terse as possible, first jotting them down hastily, and condensing while +he drew. I have, for instance, a slight drawing of a heavy pig-faced +farmer admiring with his wife a fat pig in its stye. Beneath the sketch +is scribbled 'There now; that's my style! I call him a perfect love!' As +the joke lay in the likeness of the owner to the pig, the last phrase +seemed redundant, and therefore was suppressed before the drawing went +to _Punch_." It is curious that with this gift, he should have +contributed only once, so far as I can ascertain, to the literary +portion of _Punch_, and then merely some mock "Verses for Pantomime +Music"--strictly speaking, for the harlequinade--(January 4th, 1845), +designed to show the fatuous idiotcy of those compositions. + +Contrary to what might have been expected in so prolific an artist, +Leech never for a moment entertained the sentiment not unusual among +comic artists--"je prends mon bien là où je le trouve." He was even +diffident about accepting a suggestion for a joke. His own observation +gave him the vast majority of his "pictures of life and character," but +he would occasionally accept with a quiet undemonstrative smile some of +the many proposals that were submitted to him. You might find it in +_Punch_ next week, or next year; but if the giver were an artist too, he +would hesitate to make use of it, lest he might wrong a brother-pencil. +He often figures in his own cuts, as in "The Dismay of Mr. Jessamy on +being told that he will spoil the whole thing [private theatricals] if +he doesn't Shave off his Whiskers" (Almanac, 1854--his own whiskers +which he always regarded with a sort of mock-tender pride.) To his own +little son we owe the delightful cut of the child who reminds the new +nurse that he is one of those children who can only be managed by +kindness, "so please get me a cake and an orange;" like that other +_Punch_ youngster who, aping mamma, faintly asks, "Is there such a thing +as a bun in the house?" "Astonishingly quick Leech was," says Mr. +Silver, "to seize on any sight or subject that seemed to have some +humour in it. I can call to mind, for instance, how I chanced to see a +chimney-sweep with his hand held to his eyes, as he was passing a +street-door while the mat was being shaken. I told Leech of the +incident; for, covered as he was with soot, the sweep seemed +over-sensitive. In a very few minutes the scene was sketched most +funnily, and was then drawn on the wood. The sketch hangs in my +billiard-room, and they who please may turn to _Punch_ and see the +drawing. Another time I recollect we noticed some big buoys which were +just the shape of fishing-floats, and which I said that Gulliver might +have seen so used in Brobdingnag. 'Not a bad idea,' said Leech, and he +made a hasty sketch then. Next morning the result appeared upon the +wood, and soon afterwards in _Punch_, with a 'legend' which I quote from +memory only:--'I s'pose you sometimes catch some biggish fish here, eh, +old Cockywax?' 'Why, yes; and them's the floats we uses; see, young +Cockywax'?" + +From Millais he had many a joke; and when the two close friends were +separated, the former would send him sketches of the idea. Several of +these Leech left behind him, having only taken advantage of two--the +protection that plaid is supposed to afford in the Highlands, when the +unhappy novice who puts it on wrestles with it in a high wind; and the +device of a couple of artists for defying the Scotch midges--a comic, +balloon-like envelope for the head. From Dean Hole came that immortal +joke of the yokel at a great country dinner, who on tossing off his +liqueur-glass of Curaçoa, the first he has ever tasted, calls to the +waiter that he'll "tak' some o' that in a moog;" and it was from a +passage in one of the Dean's letters to the effect that in a long run he +had only had three mishaps on his promising young chestnut, that Leech +invented the drawing of "A Contented Mind"--wherein the mud-bespattered +young hopeful has increased the number of falls to five. And he loved to +watch the sons of his colleague, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett--both of them +in due time called to the Table--and to base upon the mischievous +adventures and the characteristic invention of the young pickles many a +laughable drawing. They were the originals of the boys who, with a +ten-and-sixpenny box of tools and a sufficiency of nails, in the absence +of their parents put the furniture of the house in a state of thorough +repair!! And on a skating experience of one of them--Mr. Arthur à +Beckett--comes that well-known design of a youth at the mercy of a +skate-tout at the ice-edge. "Look out!" he cries; "_you_ are running the +gimlet into my heel!" "Never mind, sir," responds the man, persuasively; +"_better 'ave 'em on firm!_" + +From Charles Dickens, from Mr. Frith, Mr. Holman Hunt, and Mr. Horsley, +R.A., Leech also accepted happy thoughts; and from an "Eton boy," the +smart reply of a belle of a ballroom to the young Oxford man who +"couldn't get on there without women's society"--"Pity you don't go to +a girls' school, then!" The Eton boy claimed and received remuneration, +to the amount of a couple of guineas, which came out of Leech's generous +pocket, accompanied by a present and good counsel--a form of +acknowledgment, however, which was "not to be taken as a precedent." +Sometimes, too, Leech would re-draw or touch up sketches of good jokes +sent in by outsiders; but on such occasions he, according to the usual +practice of the _Punch_ men, never signed the drawing so made. + +The melancholy of Leech, which probably found relief in his more +sarcastic and serious drawings, was one of the predominant features of +his character. Sadness and dejection are often the birthwrong of the +humorist, as we have seen in the cases of Gillray, Seymour, André Gill, +and Labiche, and many others of _Punch's_ own day. But Leech's gravity +belonged to a mind too well-balanced to overreach itself, too genuine +for false sentiment. Moreover, he "could be a merry fellow when harmless +fun was demanded." So says Sir John Millais, who after Thackeray, and +perhaps Percival Leigh, was the friend Leech loved the best--far more +than any others of the _Punch_ Staff, cordial as his friendship with +them was. Sometimes his depression would make him think, says Dean Hole, +that he was "wasting his time on unworthy objects and an inferior +method," which was exactly what Kenny Meadows told him. It is true that +the said Bohemian had, in a soberer moment, assured him of his +immeasurable superiority to Kenny's self; but as the wine flowed, the +truth came out of it, it appeared that Meadows considered his own +illustrations of Shakespeare of vastly greater account than the mere +comic sketches of young John Leech. + +Leech, it seemed, could be as humorous as he pleased, and as whimsical. +When his children misbehaved, he would correct them by making a sketch +of their "naughty faces;" and he was always ready to turn a joke upon +himself. He made merciless fun of sea-sickness--yet what is there so +comic in sea-sickness, after all, that we always laugh at it, just as we +laugh at the toothache, which George Cruikshank was so fond of +caricaturing?--the suffering, in both cases awful beyond the power of +words to express. One would almost be led to believe that Leech shared +the immunity of the robust scoffers whom one usually sees behind a big +cigar on board the yacht or steamboat. Yet when he crossed to Boulogne +on a visit to Dickens, and was received with uproarious applause from +what Americans call the "side-walk committee," by reason of his superior +greenness and more abject misery, he was quite pleased, and said with +the utmost gratification that he felt he had made a great hit. His +companionship with Dickens was frequent; and when, in 1848, he was +overthrown by a wave while bathing at Bonchurch, and received a slight +concussion of the brain, the novelist rendered him the greatest medical +service. On that occasion and the week after the cartoons were executed +by Doyle and Newman respectively, while Thackeray filled the space +usually occupied by Leech's smaller cuts. + +His prejudices were to some extent the prejudices of Thackeray. That he +should have shared Gilbert à Beckett's dislike of Jews was perhaps to be +accounted for by his having in his youth been detained on two occasions +in "sponging-houses," though through no fault of his own; and visiting +the sins of the lowest upon the whole race, as is the orthodox practice, +he displayed towards them something of Alonzo Cano's ill-will and more +than his power of ill-doing. Similarly, towards Irishmen and Frenchmen +he showed the same hearty prejudice, not untinged, perhaps, with +patriotism; and of that Thackeray was led to write: "We trace in his +work a prejudice against the Hebrew nation, against the natives of an +island much celebrated for its verdure and its wrongs. These are +lamentable prejudices, indeed; but what man is without his own?" Yet +they were honestly entertained, and acted upon according to the lights +of _Punch_ which at that time were full aflame. + +[Illustration: JOHN LEECH'S HOUSE, KENSINGTON HIGH STREET (NOW +DEMOLISHED). + +(_Drawn by John Fulleylove, R.I._)] + +But these playful dislikes paled beside the hatred he bore to +organ-grinders--a hatred as unrelenting as the organ-grinders +themselves. For this he had only too sound a reason, for it was they +who, grinding his overworked nerves, were destined literally to play him +into his grave. As early as 1843 he began his campaign against them in +_Punch_, and he never relaxed it until his death. Morbidly timid of all +noise, he loved to stay at some quiet English seaside place, "where the +door-knockers were dieted to three raps a day;" but he writhed most +under the sound of the organ, and not Hogarth's Enraged Musician endured +half the torture that Leech suffered in physical and nervous agony. He +appealed with his pencil to the law; he ridiculed the barbarous persons, +such as Lord Wilton, who "rather liked it;" he portrayed the effect of +these tyrants of the street upon the sick and on the worker; and he +never spared the offenders themselves. Once, indeed, he was goaded into +showing one of these dirty persons leading a louse, like a monkey, by a +string; but after a few copies had been struck off (and included in the +parcel for Scotland), the printing-press was stopped, and the "realism" +was cut from the block. From the first contribution, in which an old +lady was supposed to advertise for a professor of mesmerism--a discovery +much talked about at that time--in order to mesmerise all the organs in +her street, at so much per organ, down to the end, some scores of +drawings were directed against his unnatural enemy, who literally drove +him from house to house. Even when he took final refuge at his +delightful residence, 6 The Terrace, Kensington--now, alas! removed to +make way for showy shops--and fitted it with double windows, he still +could get no rest. Standing with Mr. Silver under the tree beneath whose +shade Thackeray, Keene, and Leech loved to foregather round his _al +fresco_ dinner-table, I have hearkened to the pretty clink, clink, +clink, of a far-distant smith as he smote his hammer upon the anvil, +and, wondering that so sweet a sound could trouble any man, I have +realised how shattered must have been the sufferer's nervous system as +he neared his end. + +[Illustration: THE ASH-TREE IN THE GARDEN OF JOHN LEECH'S HOUSE, UNDER +WHICH LEECH AND THACKERAY USED TO DINE. + +(_Drawn by John Fulleylove, R.I._)] + +When Mr. M. T. Bass, M.P., brought in his private Bill to regulate +"street music," Mark Lemon sent him an eloquent letter of support, in +which he touchingly dwelt on the torments suffered by his friend. "The +effect," he wrote, "upon his health--produced, on my honour, by the +causes I have named--is so serious that he is forbidden to take horse +exercise, or indulge in fast walking, as a palpitation of the heart has +been produced--a form of _angina pectoris_, I believe--and his friends +are most anxiously concerned for his safety. He is ordered to Homburg, +and I know that the expatriation will entail a loss of nearly £50 a +week upon him just at present. I am sure I need not withhold from you +the name of this poor gentleman--it is Mr. John Leech." + +[Illustration: TWO ROSES. + +(_From a Sketch for "Punch" by John Leech._)] + +The artist only survived this appeal for half a year, and died before he +could enjoy any relief from Mr. Bass's meagre Bill. But the public was +loud in denunciation of the nuisance when they learned that he who had +made their lives so much merrier for a quarter of a century had been +harassed into the grave. "Carlyle," wrote Mr. Moncure Conway, "who +suffered from the same fraternity, mingled with his sorrow for Leech +some severe sermons against that kind of liberty which 'permitted +Italian foreigners to invade London and kill John Leech, and no doubt +hundreds of other nervous people who die and make no sign!'" Leech's +last drawing appears on p. 188 (November 5th, 1864), in which an +Irishman is shown thoroughly enjoying the after-effects of a fight, +his face having been pummelled out of all recognition. It is full of +fun and life and spirit, and gives no hint that he who drew it would +delight the world no more. + +[Illustration: MY LORD BROUGHAM AS SEEN AT MR. LUMLEY'S. + +(_From a Sketch by John Leech. By Permission of Henry Silver, Esq._)] + +And when the news went forth that John Leech was dead, a hush seemed to +fall on the country, as it had done ten months before, when Thackeray +died, and as it did again a few years after, on the death of Dickens. +The three men all died sudden deaths, and Leech felt and declared that +Thackeray's was the knell of his own. "I saw the remains of the poor +dear fellow," he said, "and, I assure you, I can hardly get over it. A +happy or merry Christmas is out of the question." What wonder, then, +that on hearing that Leech had followed, Mrs. Thackeray Ritchie should +have exclaimed, "How happy my father will be to meet him!" + +"I fancy Thackeray was tired of life," said Leech in his deep bass voice +to his _Punch_ colleague Mr. Henry Silver. "At these words I wondered +much," says the latter gentleman, "as any young man might who failed to +see beneath the surface of a loved and prospering life. 'I feel somehow +I sha'n't survive him long,' he added rather wearily; 'and I shouldn't +much care either, if it were not for my family.' Then, after a pause, he +said more cheerfully, 'But I can do some work yet. And at any rate, +thank Heaven! they needn't send the hat round.'" But they _had_ need, +and they did. After his death _Punch_ made sturdy, repeated, and +successful efforts, not only to collect a fund for the artist's family, +but also to make known the facts of his death-sale. + +_Punch's_ tribute to his mighty servant befitted the occasion: "The +simplest words are best where all words are vain. Ten days ago a great +artist in the noon of life, and with his glorious mental faculties in +full power, but with the shade of physical infirmity darkening upon him, +took his accustomed place among friends who have this day held his pall. +Some of them had been fellow-workers with him for a quarter of a +century, others for fewer years; but to know him well was to love him +dearly, and all in whose name these lines are written mourn for him as a +brother. His monument is in the volumes of which this is one sad leaf, +and in a hundred works which, at this hour, few will not remember more +easily than those who have just left his grave. While Society, whose +every phase he has illustrated with a truth, a grace, and a tenderness +heretofore unknown to satiric art, gladly and proudly takes charge of +his fame, they, whose pride in the genius of a great associate was +equalled by their affection for an attached friend, would leave on +record that they have known no kindlier, more refined, or more generous +nature than that of him who has been thus early called to his rest." + +He was taken to the cemetery in the same hearse that had carried Douglas +Jerrold to his last abode. Mark Lemon, Shirley Brooks, Tom Taylor, +Horace Mayhew, F. M. Evans, John Tenniel, Henry Silver, F. C. Burnand, +J. E. Millais, and Samuel Lucas were the pall-bearers; around his grave, +close to where Thackeray lay, stood the whole _Punch_ Staff and many +friends who loved him; and Dean Hole completed the Burial Service in sad +and broken tones. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[50] See _Punch_, p. 237, Vol. I. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1841-50. + + William Harvey--Mr. Birket Foster--Kenny Meadows--His + Joviality--Alfred "Crowquill"--Sir John Gilbert--Exit + "Rubens"--Hablôt Knight Browne ("Phiz")--Henry Heath--Mr. R. J. + Hamerton--W. Brown--Richard Doyle--Desires Pseudonymity--His + Protest against _Punch's_ "Papal Aggression" + Campaign--Withdraws--His Art--Epitaph by _Punch_--Henry Doyle--T. + Onwhyn--"Rob Roy" Macgregor--William McConnell--Sir John + Tenniel--His Career--And Technique--His Early Work--Cartoons--His + Art--His Memory and its Lapses--"Jack[=i]d[=e]s"--Knighthood. + + +Three other names belong to the year 1841: Ashley, William Harvey, and +Mr. Birket Foster--the second distinguished landscape artist who may be +said to have been raised upon _Punch_. Of the first-named, nothing need +be said, but that he contributed a single sketch and no more. William +Harvey, however, stands on a different footing, yet his employment on +_Punch_ is inexplicable. He had no real humour, and, what is perhaps +more to his credit, he pretended to none; nor did he take pains, as so +many do, to prove it. Kenny Meadows, we are told, used to rally him on +his excessive sense of gracefulness, which stood in the way of anything +like truthful representation. "Beauty," he would say, "is Harvey's evil +genius, and grace his damnation." It hardly required the couple of +initials ("A" and "E" on pp. 144 and 146 of the first vol.), conceived +and carried out in the Birket Foster manner, with landscape backgrounds +and field-sport symbols, to prove that Nature had not intended the +artist for a _Punch_ draughtsman. He was far better fitted for the +illustration of "Knight's Pictorial Shakespeare" than for comic +draughtsmanship. And when he had spread consternation in the office by +sending in a charge of twelve guineas for the third wrapper, which he +had been commissioned to design--money never being scarcer than at that +moment--the proprietors immediately became equally convinced that such +was not his vocation, and his connection with the paper ceased +forthwith. + +I said he drew "in the Birket Foster manner," for that young +draughtsman, who was at the time one of Landells' apprentices, had +already begun to draw initials on p. 85 of _Punch's_ first volume--an +"O," consisting of a laurel wreath with a Lifeguardsman charging +through. These initials--there were thirteen in 1841, eleven in the +following year, and two in 1843--were remarkable work for a boy of +seventeen; and still more remarkable was the fact that he should be +entrusted, even at a pinch, with the execution of a cartoon. It is true +that this was only an adaptation of Cruikshank's plate of "Jack Sheppard +cutting his name on the Beam"--a design highly appreciated at a moment +when the fortunes of Harrison Ainsworth's young housebreaker were being +followed with breathless interest by every section of society; and it is +not less a fact that the head of Lord John Russell was touched up by +Henning. Still the achievement is as remarkable as coming from an artist +of Mr. Birket Foster's temperament, as those other cartoons, executed in +"The Censor" at a later period, by Professor Herkomer. But this was not +all he did, for to him are to be credited also a few miscellaneous +illustrations, as well as those extremely French-looking designs which +he imitated, by order, from drawings by Gavarni for a novelette by +Lecourt (pp. 262, 263 and 275, Vol. I.). As an artist he was entirely +untaught, save for Brine's quaint advice, and for the counsel of +Crowquill that in figure-drawing he should make dots first for the head +and chief joints, as an assistance. For a time he followed these strange +indications on the royal road to drawing, and on them, perhaps, he based +to some extent the illustrations which he made for book-covers, together +with Charles Keene, for Mr. Edmund Evans--who, it may not be out of +place here to repeat, now so well known as the engraver and publisher of +Miss Kate Greenaway's picture books, was a fellow-pupil of Birket +Foster's with "Daddy" Landells. He, too, made a couple of drawings for +_Punch_ in 1842, when he was no more than sixteen: the first a +"blackie," entitled "Train'd Animals"--representing a trainful of wild +beasts (p. 108, Vol. III.), and the other an initial; and his name +appears as well as the engraver of one of "Phiz's" designs in "Punch's +Valentines." It occurred to him a little later on to buy up "remainders" +of unsaleable novels, to employ clever artists to illustrate some +stirring scene of love, adventure, or revenge, and with this design on +the boards to place the book for sale on the railway bookstalls. His +shrewdness met with a rich reward; the picture sold the book; and it +often happened that a book that had failed egregiously on its first +appearance, would run into two or three editions when presented as a +railway novel with a cover sufficiently startling or absorbing in its +interest. + +An unprecedented, and an unrepeated, incident occurred in 1842. In that +year there appeared a number of drawings by Gavarni (apart from those +re-drawn by Mr. Birket Foster), and something has been made by +commentators of the early enterprise of the Editor in inviting the +contributions of the eminent French master of caricature. But as a +matter of fact Gavarni was not invited at all, nor did he ever draw for +_Punch_. These blocks, and the one by Gagniet, had simply been bought up +by the publishers, and used after they had appeared in "Les Parisiens +peints par Eux-Mêmes" as well as in the English translation of 1840. The +use of _clichés_, it should be stated, has never since been resorted to. +When Gavarni did make a prudence-visit to England in 1847 he held aloof +from _Punch_, perhaps on account of his former connection with "The +Great Gun." His principal achievement here was to offend the Queen, +Thackeray, Dickens, and others, by coolly ignoring their proffered +hospitality and friendly advances. + +In this same volume first appeared a notable quintet--Kenny Meadows, +Alfred "Crowquill," W. M. Thackeray, Sir John Gilbert, and "Phiz" +(Hablôt Knight Browne). + +Few men of his day enjoyed so great a vogue as Kenny Meadows. His pencil +was for many years in extraordinary demand; and although as an artist he +could not stand against his great contemporary George Cruikshank, his +popularity--among publishers, at least--if not as great, was nearly as +extensive. His work is more than half forgotten now, but the memory of +his name survives; and to speak of "Kenny Meadows" is to recall the +typical art of the illustrator and (such as it was) of the comic +draughtsman of the first half of the century. + +[Illustration: KENNY MEADOWS. + +(_From a Water-Colour by Mrs. L. Bentley Smith._)] + +Kenny Meadows--he dropped the preliminary "Joseph" for reasons of +"professional distinction"--had first met Douglas Jerrold, in company +with Laman Blanchard, in Duncombe's shop, as early as 1828, and in due +time was employed to illustrate "Heads of the People," which Jerrold +edited in 1840, and for which he had secured the co-operation of +Thackeray, Leigh Hunt, Samuel Lover, William Howitt, and other literary +lights. Henry Vizetelly, who knew Meadows well, wrote to me but a few +months before his death of his acquaintance with the artist. "He was," +said he, "witty and epigrammatic in conversation. He was a singularly +incorrect and feeble draughtsman, but abounded with clever and often +highly poetic ideas. Like most of the members of the Mulberry and +Shakespeare Clubs, he knew all the principal passages in Shakespeare by +heart long before he became an illustrator of the plays. Like many +artists and literary men of the period, he was always in financial +straits. Every sixpence that he earned he handed over to his wife, a +quiet thriftful woman, sister of Archibald Henning, and she used to give +him a small sum whenever he spent his evenings abroad in company with +Macready, Laman Blanchard, John Forster, Jerrold, and others, at the +Shakespeare Club. He was a little man with a feeble frame, and much +addicted to convivial society." He was, indeed, a boon-companion, +generous and kind-hearted, and a delightful _raconteur_--"happy, +conversational Meadows," as Blanchard Jerrold calls him--when at the +club, and a jovial roystering Bohemian when he left it. + +About the time that _Punch_ was started, Kenny Meadows was living hard +by College Place, Camden Town, and one night gave a rollicking dinner to +the members of the newly-formed Staff; but Hine (from whom I had the +story), as a sober man of peace and quiet, declined the invitation, as +was his wont, and the next day, meeting Meadows, was surprised to +receive a very penitent apology for their behaviour of the previous +night. "What behaviour?" asked Mr. Hine, unconscious of any possible +cause of offence. "What! didn't you hear us? Where do you sleep?" "In +front. Why?" "Why? Because before breaking up at three this morning we +said, 'Let's give Hine three cheers to finish up with;' which we did, +with an unearthly noise, and danced a solemn dance on the pavement, and +sang you songs _fortissimo_, and altogether made a diabolical uproar." +"Never heard a sound," said Hine. Meadows turned sorrowfully on his heel +without a word, and for some days could not get over his disappointment +that, in spite of all their best endeavours, his young friend's rest had +been unbroken. + +When his first two drawings appeared in "Punch's Valentines"--"Young +Loves to Sell" and "The Speculative Mamma"--Meadows was already +fifty-one years old, with thirty-four more of conviviality before him; +he was, therefore, the Nestor of _Punch's_ Staff, as well as its most +distinguished member. "Meadows was essentially valuable to _Punch_," +says George Hodder, who by marriage had become his nephew, "for the +thoughtfulness of his designs, which were intended to portray something +more than a burlesque view of a current event or a popular abuse." His +delight when he made a hit was like that of a prize-winning boy; and he +used to pride himself that his drawing of a butterfly at the mouth of a +cannon, typifying peace--published in _Punch_ in February, +1844--inspired Landseer with his celebrated picture entitled "Peace," in +which, however, the butterfly was superseded by a lamb. + +Although he was excellent as a "general utility" man, who took as +naturally to tragedy as he did to farce, to subjects of squalor as to +grace of beauty, to Shakespeare as to _Punch_, he is not to be credited +with any great sense of humour, his _vis comica_ running rather to +grotesqueness than to real fun or wit. His intention was usually more +admired than his achievement--in his press work, at least; and the +symbolic treatment of his subjects in certain of the cartoons which he +executed in 1842-3-4, such as his "Temperance Guy Fawkes," his +Cruikshankian "Gin Drop" and "Water Drop," "The Irish Frankenstein," and +"The Bull Frog," are to be included among _Punch's_ early successes. But +better than this sort of design he enjoyed work of a more decorative +type, in which grace and humour, as he understood them, might be +introduced. Of this class is his wrapper used throughout the fifth +volume. (_See_ p. 46.) But his "poetic fancy and inventive genius," +which aroused the enthusiasm of many others besides the appreciative +John Timbs, were not in harmony with _Punch's_ character, nor was his +fun sufficiently pointed and robust. Whilst he remained he illustrated +Jerrold's "Punch's Letters to his Son" and "Complete Letter-writer," +which duly received the honour of a reprint; but he left in 1844, and +straightway betook himself to the hostile camp of "The Great Gun," which +aspired to be _Punch's_ chief rival, to "The Man in the Moon," and other +of the Jester's numerous thorns--for of such is the spirit of +caricaturists. + +[Illustration: ALFRED "CROWQUILL." + +(_From a Photograph by Clarkington and Co._)] + +The period of Alfred "Crowquill's" work corresponded with that of +Meadows. Although a versatile man, using his pen and pencil with equal +facility and ability--the former, perhaps, more successfully than the +latter--Forrester (for that was his real name) was but an indifferent +humorist. He was of those who thought that fun could be imparted to a +drawing by the simple expedient of grotesque exaggeration of expression; +and as a great admirer of Seymour's "Cockney humour," he was frequently +pointless and stilted. Personally he was highly popular with the Staff, +for he was philosophically happy and jovial, and sang good songs, and +was, moreover, greatly sought after at a time when comic artists were +few. He was cartoonist, too, in a small way, in the second, third, and +fourth volumes of _Punch_; but his chief merit lay in his _jeux de +mots_, for he was a good punster. Yet even his pictorial puns, good as +they were, constituted little claim on a paper which was steadily +improving its Staff; and when he left, in 1844, his place was easily and +advantageously filled. + +Passing over the name of Thackeray, who takes his place among the +literary contributors, we come to Sir John Gilbert. His work, though +slight, has spread over a longer period than that of any other _Punch_ +artist--save Sir John Tenniel, forty years later. His first contribution +was the frontispiece to the second volume for 1842, which also +constituted its wrapper, and was used as such for the monthly parts for +many years. He continued with a few drawings to "The Natural History of +Courtship" and "Punch's Letters to his Son," but his most ambitious +effort was that representing the late Duke of Cambridge, coronet in +hand, begging for public money as a marriage portion for his daughter. +But when Jerrold's fiat went forth, "We don't want Rubens on _Punch_" +young Gilbert turned his attention to the newly-started "Illustrated +London News," on which his services were warmly welcomed and +continuously employed, with such brilliant results to itself and to the +black-and-white art in England. I was one day conversing with a +distinguished foreign artist on the comparative merits of Gilbert and +Doré, whose fecundity in their art was equal, and I ventured to assert +the great artistic superiority of Gilbert. "You are right!" cried my +enthusiastic friend, with more judgment of art than accuracy of English +idiom; "Gilbert cocks Doré into a top-hat!" + +Not for twenty-one years did he reappear in the pages of the London +Charivari, until after an interval in which he built up his reputation +as the greatest draughtsman on wood that England, and perhaps any +country, has produced. Then he contributed the first illustration, in an +admirable spirit of caricature, to Mr. Burnand's "Mokeanna," and then +again, after another nineteen years, he made a full-page drawing for +the Almanac of 1882, representing the unhappy plight of a knight who, +summoned hastily to the wars, cannot induce his new suit of armour to +come together over his fattened frame, even with the combined assistance +of female relations and muscular retainers. + +[Illustration: HABLÔT K. BROWNE.] + +In this same year of 1842 Hablôt Knight Browne, overcoming his former +reluctance, began to draw for the paper. He drew its second wrapper +(_see_ p. 42)--an enormous improvement on Henning's--as well as some +beautiful little comic cuts exquisitely engraved (used to illustrate "A +Shillingsworth of Nonsense"), and a couple of "Punch's Valentines." In +one of these--the Lawyer--the original of Mr. Squeers may be seen in the +character of an orthodox pettifogging attorney perched upon a stool. But +_Punch_ could not support such twin stars as Leech and "Phiz," and the +latter left in 1844 for "The Great Gun," whose leading draughtsman he +became. In the pages of "The Great Gun" he illustrated Maxwell's +"Memoirs of a London Latch-key;" and then, in 1850, he drew for "Life, +the Mirror of the Million." In the _Punch_ volumes for 1842, 1844, and +1852, his hand may be traced; and again in 1861, after his great +illness, he turned once more to _Punch_. The brave worker, who would not +admit his stroke of paralysis, but called it rheumatism, could still +draw when the pencil was tied to his fingers and answered the swaying of +his body. In 1861 are eleven of his sketches--initials, most of them; in +1862, but one or two; in the following year, sixteen; in 1864, eleven; +in 1865, five; and again in 1866, 1867, 1868, seven cuts, and one in +1869; altogether, a little over three-score drawings, besides three +full-page cuts in the Pocket-book of 1850. But, for all that, "Phiz" +died more than half forgotten. His biographer, indeed, had never heard +of his _Punch_ work; and even the paper which had been so kind to him, +and dedicated on July 22nd, 1882, two graceful obituary stanzas to +"delightful Phiz--immortal Phiz," entirely forgot to mention that his +facile pencil had been employed in _Punch's_ service. + +A single cartoon came from Henry Heath (Vol. III.), who was well enough +known as a political caricaturist through having made many such plates +for Spooner, the publisher, in the Strand. Heath emigrated to Australia, +and Mr. R. J. Hamerton, who was soon to become a notable member of the +_Punch_ corps, filled the place he left, signing his "B. H." (Bob +Hamerton) to resemble as closely as might be the initials of the old +favourite. But when, later on, _Punch_ work came to Mr. Hamerton, the +Spooner caricatures were dropped. A couple of unimportant contributions +sent in under the initials "J. R." complete the record for 1842. + +It was through Jerrold's and Lemon's friend, Joe Allen, to whom he +handed some of his pen-and-ink drawings, that Mr. R. J. Hamerton secured +his footing on _Punch_. This was in the middle of the year, and in the +opening number of the new volume appear his first contributions. For +some weeks they were signed "Shallaballa"--the itinerant Punch's first +cry on his jumping up before the public in his show, and apparently an +appropriate pseudonym; but when the artist was reminded by Mark Lemon of +the real significance of the objectionable word, he abandoned it for the +better-known picture-rebus of his name--a Hammer on the side of a Tun. + +The only meeting of the _Punch_ men which he attended was that at the +"Whistling Oyster," next door to the "Crown," at the time when the +musical bivalve, as narrated in the description of the "Punch Club," was +the talk of the town. Mr. Hamerton, who was introduced by Mark Lemon, +and who made the fantastic portrait of it which was published in the +following number of _Punch_, remembers Douglas Jerrold reciting on that +occasion his version of the ingredients and constitution of _Punch_, +which was worked up and contributed by Horace Mayhew to the next volume, +but, of course, without the names attached, as here given:-- + + The Spirit is "The Comic Blackstone" (Gilbert à Beckett). + + The Acid is "The Story of a Feather" (Douglas Jerrold). + + The Sweet is The Great "Saxon Suggestor" (W. M. Thackeray). + + The Spice is "The Sub" (Horace Mayhew). + + The Water is The "Professor" (Percival Leigh). + + And the Spoon is The "Editor" (Mark Lemon). + +Where, then, was the art? + +[Illustration: R. J. HAMERTON. + +(_From a Photograph by E. Higgins, Stamford._)] + +Mr. Hamerton was one of the few Irishmen who have worked on the paper. +He had begun to teach drawing at a school in Co. Longford when he was +but fourteen, and came to London to draw upon stone under the eye of +Charles Hullmandel, the father of the lithographic art in England. With +the exception of occasional incursions into oil and water colour--he was +a popular member of the British Artists half-a-century ago--and a few +years' book-illustration for the London publishers, "it was stone, +stone, stone, till 1891, when the drawing on the huge stones became too +much for my old back." Like his life-long friend and contemporary, Hine, +he was not of _Punch_ Punchy--at least, in respect to conviviality; and +after a record of Staff service extending to 1844, with fitful +contributions up to 1848, he deserted the precincts of Whitefriars, and +soon after renounced wood-drawing in favour of his more lucrative +employment. He had, however, already contributed ten cartoons--striking +for their handling, if not at first for their finish. The majority of +his subjects were Irish--such as the "Irish Ogre Fattening on the +'Finest Pisintry,'" "The Shadow Dance," "King O'Connell at Tara," +"Bagging the Wild Irish Goose," and so forth--and terribly severe he +was, as only an Irishman could be, on Daniel O'Connell and Lord +Brougham. He illustrated à Beckett's "Comic Blackstone;" but his +masterpiece in wood-draughtsmanship was his illustration of John +Forster's "Life of Goldsmith" for Bradbury and Evans. Then after a +couple of contributions from "W. B."--W. Brown, whose "Comic Album" was +deservedly popular in its day, and whose "Statue to Jenkins" pleased +_Punch's_ readers greatly--and the cut signed "B," attributed to Thomas +Hood, and another anonymous contribution by "S," there came Richard +Doyle, one of the most notable acquisitions of the decade. He was the +second son of the famous "[HB]," and had done capital comic work of an +amateur character while still a boy. His "Comic English Histories," +executed when he was only fifteen years of age, were published after his +death; but he was still young when he first became known to the public. +He was possessed of an extraordinary power of fanciful draughtsmanship; +and his precocity is sufficiently proved by his comic illustrations to +Homer, wrought at the tender age of twelve, with real humour, wealth of +invention, and excellence of expression. His uncle, Mr. Conan, dramatic +critic of the "Morning Herald," showed his work to his friend Mark +Lemon, and Lemon forthwith requested Mr. Swain to instruct the youth in +wood-draughtsmanship. So the engraver set forth with blocks and pencils +to this "certain clever young son" of the once mighty "HB," who was now +in a fair way of falling out of public notice. Arrived at Cambridge +Terrace, he endeavoured to impart to Richard Doyle the art and mystery +of drawing on the wood--how to prepare his blocks, and so forth, and to +give such further information as might be required. But so nervous was +the youth, who was small and thin in person, and greatly agitated in +mind and manner, that he persisted in keeping his distance out of simple +shyness, and literally dodged around the dining-room table, altogether +too excited to lend the slightest attention to the words of his mentor. +In due course, Mr. Swain tells me, the first drawing was delivered, "and +a bad, smudgy thing it was, too, altogether different from the work he +almost immediately contributed for the Almanac of that year." Doyle's +first work in _Punch_ consisted of the clever comic borders to the +Christmas number, one of which enclosed Hood's "Song of the Shirt;" but +with the illustration to the rhymed version of "Don Pasquale" he made +his actual début. + +He was not promoted at once to the position of cartoonist; for the first +six months he contributed only one big cut to five of Leech's, and his +proportion during several years that followed did not exceed one in +three. His first cartoon, entitled "The Modern Sisyphus"--representing +Sir Robert Peel, as the tormented one, engaged in rolling the stone +(O'Connell) up the hill, with Lord John Russell and others, as the +Furies, looking on--appeared on March 16th, 1844; and from that time +onwards his work rapidly increased in volume. His initial-letters--an +invention further developed later on by C. H. Bennett, Mr. Ernest +Griset, and Mr. Linley Sambourne--and his cartoons were reinforced by +the famous series of "Brown, Jones, and Robinson," "Mr. Pips hys Diary," +"Bird's-eye Views of English Society," and "Ye Manners and Customs of Ye +Englyshe," their manner of presentation having been created by the +artist, who was forthwith dubbed by his comrades "Professor of Mediæval +Design." When Doyle was first called to the Table, his punctilious +father did not show any enthusiasm, being in some doubts, apparently, as +to the supposed wild recklessness of those savage orgies. He wrote to +the Proprietors, hoping that they would not insist upon it for a time, +as his son's health was not robust. A little later Doyle himself wrote +stiffly to protest against his real name having been printed on the +cover of _Punch_ contrary to his distinct request to Mark Lemon, who had +promised to retain the name by which he was already known to the +public--"Dick Kitcat"--as in the etched plates to Maxwell's "Hector +O'Halloran." But the demand was not persisted in. + +"Dicky" Doyle continued to work regularly for the paper, and his +monogram signature, with a "dicky" either perched upon the top or +pecking on the ground close by, was rarely absent from a single number, +when the Popery scare--which had seized the popular mind towards the end +of 1849--infected _Punch_ with extraordinary virulence. So long as Mark +Lemon confined his cartoons and his text to the general question of +"Papal Aggression," Doyle, who was a devout Irish Catholic, held his +peace; but when the very doctrine of the faith was attacked, and the +Pope himself personally insulted, he severed himself regretfully but +determinedly from the paper. Anterior to this, Doyle had remonstrated, +but had been reminded that he himself had been permitted to caricature +Exeter Hall and all its ways, so that he could not complain if the +tables were turned upon his own party. Jerrold and Thackeray, says Mr. +Everitt, sought to dissuade him in vain. "Look at the 'Times,'" they +argued; "its language has been most violent, but the Catholic writers on +its Staff do not, for that reason, resign. They understand, and the +world at large understands, that the individual contributor is not +responsible for the opinions expressed by other contributors in articles +with which they have nothing to do.' 'That is all very well in the +"Times,"' was Doyle's answer, 'but not in _Punch_. For the "Times" is a +monarchy [I believe, these were his very words], whereas _Punch_ is a +republic.' So when a week or so later an article, attributed to Jerrold +himself, jeeringly advised the Pope to 'feed his flock on the wafer of +the Vatican,' it was too much for Doyle.... So he wrote to resign his +connection with _Punch_, stating his reasons plainly and simply." + +But when Doyle resigned, for reasons which earned him the respect of all +who heard of them, it was not realised how strong was the undercurrent +of feeling within the _Punch_ office. It is true that at the bottom of +what I may call the "_Punch_ Aggression" were Jerrold and the +Proprietors; and that the onslaught of the one, with the encouragement +of the others, so profoundly wounded Doyle as to force him into +sacrificing lucrative employment, and condemning him in the result to a +life of toil. But for once in his career Doyle was guilty of behaviour +which, if not inexcusable in the circumstances, was certainly +indefensible. He left the paper in the lurch. His letter of resignation +was sent in on November 27th, he having allowed the Editor to think that +the blocks for the Almanac, already overdue, had all been completed; and +when it was discovered that they had not been done, and that nothing +was forthcoming, consternation reigned in the office. No doubt the +revenge was sweet, but it was ill-judged; for while no Catholic member +of the Staff has ever raised his voice in its justification, Doyle's +conduct served but to increase the bitterness of the anti-Catholic +feeling in _Punch's_ Cabinet, and perhaps to produce attacks more +intemperate than any that had gone before. And, moreover, it rendered +more difficult the position of others of the same faith who became +members of the Staff. + +So Doyle quitted the paper at the close of 1850, yet his hand was seen +in its pages in 1857, 1862 (four cuts), and 1864. This was a question of +"old stock"--a matter which often crops up in _Punch_: it is not a +unique circumstance to see a sketch appear many years after it was +drawn, and even when the hand that has drawn it has turned to dust. In +1883 there appeared a cut by Mr. Sambourne which was made fifteen years +before; and in 1894 there was published a sketch by R. B. Wallace (of +the late Lord Beaconsfield) a year after the artist died and fourteen +years after he had ceased to draw for the paper. + +But when Doyle left _Punch_ he would draw for none of its rivals. With +the exception of the single lapse already alluded to, his conduct was +always high-minded and generous; and his virtue and nobility of +character have been testified to by all his friends. He declined the +offer of a large sum to draw for a well-known periodical as he +disapproved of the principles of its conductors; and on similar grounds +he refused to illustrate a new edition of Swift. Mr. Holman Hunt has +recorded his testimony as to his sterling worth. "Dicky Doyle," he tells +me, "I knew affectionately. John Leech and Doyle were never very +cordial, Doyle's staunch Romanism separating them. While so rigid and +consistent a religionist, he was one of the most charitable of men, and +would never be a party to any scandal, however much it had been +provoked. I am afraid that no portrait was ever painted of him, +certainly none showing his delightfully amusing laugh, which always +seemed to be indulged apologetically--with the face bent into the cravat +and the double chin pressed forward." + +Doyle's great misfortune as an artist was that his father, cultivating +the son's fancy at the expense of his training, not only would allow him +no regular teaching, but would not permit him to draw from the +model--nothing but "observance of Nature" and memory-drawing. The result +was that Doyle remained an amateur to the end--an extremely skilful one, +whose shortcomings were concealed in his charming illustrations and +imaginative designs, but were startlingly revealed in his larger work +and in his figure-drawing. As a draughtsman he was usually feeble, +though graceful; his effects, technically speaking, were constantly +false, and his drawing often as poor as Thackeray's. He was saved by his +charm and sweetness, his inexhaustible fun and humour,[51] his +delightful though superficial realisation of character, and his keen +sense of the grotesque. When he died in December, 1883, _Punch_ devoted +to his memory a poem in which his artistic virtues are generously +appreciated, but not a word is said as to the parting of their ways. +From this tribute, this "reconciliation after death," I transcribe one +stanza:-- + + "Turning o'er his own past pages, + _Punch_, with tearful smile, can trace + That fine talent's various stages, + Caustic satire, gentle grace, + Feats and freaks of Cockney funny-- + BROWN, and JONES, and ROBINSON; + And, huge hive of Humour's honey, + Quaint quintessence of rich fun, + Coming fresh as June-breeze briary + With old memories of our youth, + Thrice immortal _Pips's Diary_! + Masterpiece of Mirth and Truth!" + +In 1844 the versatile artist-dramatist, Watts Phillips, first declared +himself in _Punch_ with a few examples of his art, which George +Cruikshank had fostered. They lasted up to 1846, but amounted to very +little. He gave more attention to "Puck," of which Chatto was the +editor; and when, a few years afterwards, he joined "Diogenes" as its +cartoonist, he gave full rein to his undoubted talent. + +In the same year Richard Doyle's brother Henry--better known as a +distinguished member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and best of all as +the grave and extremely able Director of the National Gallery of +Ireland--made a number of small cuts for _Punch_, which were published +in 1844 and the following years; but as I was informed, at the time of +his death, by his elder brother James, now also dead (the chronicler, +and the compiler of the "Official Baronage of England"): "The _Punch_ +episode was the merest child's play to him. His line, chosen years +before, was sacred or poetic art; and his illustrations to Telemachus, +done before this time, remarkable for invention and colour, were greatly +admired by Prince Albert. That he drew for _Punch_ at one time is, of +course, true; but the mention of it gives a false impression of his +taste and principal work at that period." Yet the spirit of humour was +strong within him, for he was one of the "Great Gunners" in 1845; and +from 1867 to 1869, when he was appointed to Dublin, he was cartoonist +for "Fun," signing with a Hen, or "Fusbos." + +Thomas Onwhyn, best known, nowadays, perhaps, by his "extra +illustrations" to "Pickwick" and "Nicholas Nickleby," and by his plates +to "Valentine Vox" and Cockton's other novels, began to contribute a few +blocks to _Punch_--a fact which has hitherto been denied. His first +drawing, published on p. 130, Vol. XIII. (1847), illustrates an article +by Gilbert à Beckett, entitled, "The Friends Reconciled." The next was a +"Social," on p. 230 of the same volume, representing a hatter's wiles +and their victim. But Onwhyn was better used to the etching-needle than +the pencil, and his drawing on wood was hard and unsympathetic, and his +figures were usually rather strained than funny. About this time he was +retiring from his position as a popular illustrator of books. Throne +Crick's "Sketches from the Diary of a Commercial Traveller," embellished +by Onwhyn, had just appeared; and the artist was beginning to bring out +his series of albums of plates, big and small, on all sorts of humorous +subjects. The time was, therefore, appropriate at which to embark on +independent illustration in _Punch_. But in the following year he +contributed not more than a sketch or two; and thenceforward, until he +finally laid down his pencil in 1870, he confined his artistic efforts +to his own happy ideas with but few exceptions--such as "Welcome, a +Charade; by W. Shakesides" (1850). Onwhyn died so late as 1886. + +For four years, if we except two or three unimportant cuts contributed +by E. J. Burton in 1847-8-9, no new name appears upon the draughtsman's +roll. Then John Macgregor--the celebrated "Rob Roy"--who had begun to +contribute paragraphs and short articles in 1847, commenced adding +sketches, such as his "Silence in the Gallery," in January, 1848. +"Prince Albert's Hat" was also his, and others besides; and it is worth +remarking that the proceeds of these sketches and articles were given to +the police-courts, wherewith the magistrates might assist poor cases. + +The year 1850 became of the first importance in the history of _Punch_. +Not that William McConnell and his gentle art would make the year +remarkable, for his early defection from _Punch_, and his premature +death from consumption, cut short a career which promised considerably +more than it achieved. Mr. Sala tells me that McConnell was a handsome +little fellow, bright, alert, and full of originality. He was always +exceptionally well-dressed--and with good reason, for his father, on +coming over from Ireland and settling in Tottenham Court Road, resumed +his trade of tailor. The youth sent in some sketches, which were highly +thought of by Mark Lemon. He was turned over to Mr. Swain for some +instruction in drawing on the wood, and subsequently took up his +residence in the engraver's house for a time; but, not living long +enough to prove his individuality, he remained to the end an imitator of +Leech. Perhaps that was the reason that he drew so small a salary from +_Punch_; at any rate, he always resented what he considered to be the +contumelious and shabby treatment meted out to him by Mark Lemon. But +for such money as he did receive, it must be admitted that he gave full +value in the fierceness of his cartoons on Louis Napoleon. He did much +book illustration, besides drawing for the Press, serious and comic--his +_Punch_ work including a couple of cartoons in 1852, among a great +number of "socials." His last appearance was in July of that year. He +was a good and improving draughtsman, especially of horses; and he +revelled in beggars, "swells," and backgrounds. + +[Illustration: W. McCONNELL. + +(_From a Photograph by Southwell Brothers, Baker Street._)] + + * * * * * + +The great acquisition of the year was John Tenniel. The paper had been +left by Doyle, as I have explained, without its Almanac blocks, and it +found itself, moreover, without a second cartoonist, and, what was quite +as important at the moment, without an artist of distinctly decorative +ability, who would provide the fanciful initial-letters, headings, and +title-pages which have always been a feature in _Punch_. The +circumstances of his joining the paper Sir John once recounted to me in +conversation, with that sort of apologetic humour and true modesty that +are characteristic of him:-- + +"I never learned drawing, except in so far as attending a school and +being allowed to teach myself. I attended the Royal Academy Schools +after becoming a probationer, but soon left in utter disgust of there +being no teaching. I had a great idea of High Art; in fact, in 1845 I +sent in a sixteen-foot-high cartoon for Westminster Palace. In the Upper +Waiting Hall, or 'Hall of Poets,' of the House of Lords, I made a +fresco, but my subject was changed after my work had been decided on and +worked out. At Christmas, 1850, I was invited by Mark Lemon to fill the +place suddenly left by Doyle, who with very good reasons for +himself--that of objection to the "Papal Aggression" campaign suddenly +severed his connection with _Punch_. Doyle had left them in great +straits--the Pocket-book and Almanac to come out--and I was applied to +by Lemon, on the initiation of Jerrold, to fill the breach. This was +on the strength of my illustrations to Æsop's Fables, which had recently +been published by Murray. I did the title and half-title to the +nineteenth volume, as well as the first page-border to the Almanac, +together with a few initials and odds and ends for the end of that +volume, and the first illustration to the next; but only the half-title, +title, and tail-piece were signed. My first cartoon was that facing page +44 in the twentieth volume; and, only signing occasionally for the first +month or two, I went on from time to time doing cartoons. + +[Illustration: SIR JOHN TENNIEL, R.I. + +(_From a Pen-Drawing by Himself._)] + +"As for political opinions, I have none; at least, if I have my own +little politics, I keep them to myself, and profess only those of my +paper. If I have infused any dignity into cartoon-designing, that comes +from no particular effort on my part, but solely from the high feeling I +have for art. In any case, if I am a 'cartoonist'--the accepted term--I +am not a caricaturist in any sense of the word. My drawings are +sometimes grotesque, but that is from a sense of fun and humour. Some +people declare that I am no humorist, that I have no sense of fun at +all; they deny me everything but severity, 'classicality,' and dignity. +Now, _I_ believe that I have a very keen sense of humour, and that my +drawings are sometimes really funny! + +"I have now been working regularly at the weekly cartoons for _Punch_ +for close on thirty years (from 1862),[52] missing only two or three +times from illness. In all that time I have hardly left London for more +than a week; yet I enjoy wonderful health, doubtless to be attributed to +regular riding. I carry out my work thus: I never use models or Nature +for the figure, drapery, or anything else. But I have a wonderful memory +of _observation_--not for dates, but anything I see I remember. Well, I +get my subject on Wednesday night; I think it out carefully on Thursday, +and make my rough sketch; on Friday morning I begin, and stick to it all +day, with my nose well down on the block. By means of tracing-paper--on +which I make all alterations of composition and action I may consider +necessary--I transfer my design to the wood, and draw on that. The +first sketch I may, and often do, complete later on as a commission. +Indeed, at the present time I have a huge undertaking on hand, in which +I take great delight--the finishing of scores of my sketches, of which I +have many hundreds. They are for a friend--an enthusiastic admirer, if I +may be permitted to say so. Well, the block being finished, it is handed +over to Swain's boy at about 6.30 to 7 o'clock, who has been waiting for +it for an hour or so, and at 7.30 it is put in hand for engraving. That +is completed on the following night, and on Monday night I receive by +post the copy of next Wednesday's paper. Although case-hardened in a +sense, I have never the courage to open the packet. I always leave it to +my sister, who opens it and hands it across to me, when I just take a +glance at it, and receive my weekly pang. My work would be difficult to +photograph on to the wood, as it is all done in pencil; the only +pen-and-ink work I have done, so far, being for the Almanac and +Pocket-book.[53] + +[Illustration: ROUGH PENCIL SKETCH FOR "ARTHUR AND GUINEVERE," FOR +"PUNCH'S POCKET-BOOK."] + +[Illustration: "WILL IT BURST?" + +_Captain of Gun:_ "Ram 'em all down, my lads! She'll stand it safe +enough!!!" + +(_From Sir John Tenniel's Rough Sketch for the Cartoon in "Punch," 14th +Feb., 1870--p. 67, Vol. LXXVIII._)] + +"As I never have a model, I never draw from life, always when I want a +portrait, a uniform, and so on, from a photograph, though not in quite +the same spirit as Sambourne does. I get a photograph only of the man +whom I want to draw, and seek to get his character. Then, if the +photograph is in profile, I have to 'judge' the full face, and _vice +versá_; but if I only succeed in getting the character, I seldom go far +wrong--a due appreciation is an almost infallible guide. I had the +opportunity of studying Mr. Gladstone's face carefully when he did me +the honour of inviting me to dinner at Downing Street, and I have met +him since; but I fancy, after my 'Mrs. Gummidge' cartoon and 'Janus,' I +don't deserve to be honoured again! His face has much more character and +is much stronger than Mr. Bright's. Mr. Bright had fine eyes and a +grand, powerful mouth, as well as an earnest expression; but a weak +nose--artistically speaking, no nose at all--still, a very intellectual +face indeed." + +Thus it was not only Nature, but the Pope, who marked out Tenniel for +the position of _Punch's_ Cartoonist--the greatest "Cartoonist" the +world has produced. Had the Pope not "aggressed" by appointing +archbishops and bishops to English Sees, and so raised the scare of +which Lord John Russell and Mr. Punch really seem to have been the +leaders, Doyle would not have resigned, and no opening would have been +made for Tenniel. Sir John, indeed, was by no means enamoured of the +prospect of being a _Punch_ artist when Mark Lemon made his overtures to +him. He was rather indignant than otherwise, as his line was high art +and his severe drawing above "fooling." "Do they suppose," he asked a +friend, "that there is anything funny about _me_?" He meant, of course, +in his art, for privately he was well recognised as a humorist; and +little did he know, in the moment of hesitation before he accepted the +offer, that he was struggling against a kindly destiny. + +John Tenniel was only sixteen years old when his first oil picture was +exhibited at the Suffolk Street Galleries, and he soon became +recognised, not only as a painter, but as a book and magazine +illustrator of unusual skill. But he and Keene had already proclaimed +themselves the humorists they were by the production of the "Book of +Beauty," to which much public attention was drawn when the sketches +contained in it were exhibited and sold. They had been fellow-students +at the life class, and in the year 1844 were both intimate visitors at +the house of their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Barrett. After dinner, when the +lamp was brought in, the two young artists would amuse themselves, +together with their host, by making drawings in coloured chalks. Mr. +Barrett, it may be said, was a thin man, signing himself "5-12ths," in +recognition of the nobler proportions of Mrs. Barrett, unquestionably +his "better half." Keene chose the "Signs of the Zodiac," to begin with, +as the subject of his admirable burlesques, Tenniel having already +selected quotations from Shakespeare, history, poetry, and so forth, the +humour which he infused into them being equal to anything he afterwards +produced in _Punch_. But it may interest the present owners of these +highly-prized productions to know that those who produced them thought +very little of them as art, while Sir John expressed the greatest +surprise that in their rubbed condition they should attract any notice +whatever. As early proofs, however, of the comic faculty of two of +_Punch's_ giants, they were interesting and valuable designs; while, so +far as Sir John's work was concerned, they were the forerunners of the +extremely humorous illustrations of Shakespearian quotations with which +he advanced his reputation and his position on the paper. + +No sooner had the severe young classicist determined to accept the +position offered him in _Punch's_ band, than Mr. Swain was requested to +wait upon him in Newman Street, and instruct him in the art of drawing +upon wood. But he found that Tenniel, the illustrator of the Rev. Thomas +James's edition of Æsop's Fables, published by John Murray in 1848, was +already a brilliant expert. The accomplished young draughtsman soon took +keen delight in the smooth face of a block, and at once began--and +ever continued--to demand a degree of smoothness that was the +despair of Swain to procure. Tenniel, indeed, always drew with a +specially-manufactured six-H pencil--which appears more impressive with +its proper style of "H H H H H H"--and so delicate was the drawing that, +firm and solid as were the lines, it looked as if you could blow it off +the wood. The result is that Swain has always _interpreted_ Sir John +Tenniel's work, not simply facsimile'd it, aiming rather at producing +what the artist intended or desired to have, than what he actually +provided in his exquisite grey drawings. So Swain would thicken his +lines while retaining their character, just as he would reduce Mr. +Sambourne's, particularly in the flesh parts, and otherwise bring the +resources of the engraver's art to bear upon the work of the masters of +the pencil. Doubtless the artists might deplore the "spoiling" of their +lines; but pencil greys are not to be reproduced in printer's ink--they +must be "rendered." And though, as artists, draughtsmen may groan under +the transitional process, they realise that in submitting their work to +the wood-cutter's craft, they must take its drawbacks along with its +advantages. + +[Illustration: ROUGH SKETCH FOR "THOR" FOR "PUNCH'S POCKET-BOOK."] + +The first drawing by Tenniel in the bound volume is, as he says, the +frontispiece to the second half-yearly volume for 1850, but his actual +first contribution the initial on p. 224 of that volume. Perhaps the +most notable thing about it is the extraordinary resemblance between +the artist's work at the beginning and at the end of his career. Of +course, it is much "tighter;" it is much younger. But the hand and +method are strangely unchanged. It is beautiful in its exquisite +precision and its refinement, and altogether superior in its character +to what its creator, in a spirit of severe self-criticism, chooses to +believe. "My first cartoon," he wrote to me, "was 'Lord Jack the +Giant-Killer'--and awfully bad it is; in fact, all my work, at that +particular time, NOW seems to me about as bad as bad could be, and fills +me with wonder and amazement!!" But this cartoon, continuing the Papal +campaign so hateful to Doyle, by showing Lord John Russell with his +sword of truth and liberty attacking the crozier-armed Cardinal Wiseman, +was greatly inferior to the smaller contributions. His improvement, +however, was rapid. Tenniel's first "half-page social" is on p. 218 of +the same volume; while in 1852 we have his first superb Lion, and his +first obituary cartoon. Gradually he took over the political big cut, +which Leech was happy to place in his hands; but during the long years +that they worked together the two men were admirable foils to one +another. Leech sketched and Tenniel drew; Leech gave us farce and drama, +and Tenniel, high comedy and tragedy; and the freedom of the one +heightened the severer beauties of the other. And when Leech died, his +friend continued the labour alone. Except in 1864, 1868, and 1875-6-7-8, +in which last-named year he took his first holiday from _Punch_ work and +went with Mr. Silver to Venice--(during his illness or absence Charles +Keene contributed thirteen cartoons[54])--and again in 1884 and 1894 +(when Mr. Sambourne twice took over the duty), he has never, from that +day to this present time of writing, missed a single week. Nearly two +thousand cartoons, initials innumerable, "socials," double-page cartoons +for the Almanac and other special numbers, and two hundred and fifty +designs for the Pocket-books--such is the record of the great satirist's +career; and the only change has been in the direction of freedom of +pencil and breadth of artistic view. + +[Illustration: "HUMPTY-DUMPTY!" + +(_From Sir John Tenniel's First Rough Sketch for the Cartoon in "Punch" +20th July, 1875--p. 18, Vol. LXXV._)] + +Of his work little need be said here, for in its main bearings it has +already been fully considered. But acknowledgment must at least be made +of how, with all his sense of fun and humour, Sir John Tenniel has +dignified the political cartoon into a classic composition, and has +raised the art of politico-humorous draughtsmanship from the relative +position of the lampoon to that of polished satire--swaying parties and +peoples, too, and challenging comparison with the higher (at times it +might almost be said the highest) efforts of literature in that +direction. The beauty and statuesque qualities of his allegorical +figures, the dignity of his beasts, and the earnestness and directness +of his designs, apart from the exquisite simplicity of his work at its +best, are things previously unknown in the art of which he is the most +accomplished master, standing alone and far ahead of any of his +imitators. The Teutonic character and the academic quality of his work, +modified by the influence of Flaxman and the Greeks, are no blemishes; +one does not even feel that he draws entirely from memory. Indeed, the +things are completely satisfying as the work of a true artist, and--a +quality almost as grateful and charming as it was previously rare--of a +gentleman. + +Yet this practice of drawing from memory has its drawbacks; for the +things remembered are apt to grow old-fashioned. The Flying Dutchman was +running when Sir John's locomotive still had the odour of Puffing Bilfy +about it. His indifference to that "actuality" which is the +characteristic of Mr. Sambourne has often raised the howl of the +specialist. When in an excellently drawn cartoon full of point +(November, 1893), entitled "A Bicycle made for Two," he grafted the +features of a modern roadster on to the type of 1860, the cycling world +fluttered in a manner that must have been very encouraging to the +artist. His machine, they said, was the most wonderful one ever placed +on the market. Sir H. H. Fowler, it was said, was sitting on a +half-inch tube without a saddle, and "working with his heels on pedals +shaped like a Mexican gaucho's stirrup"--but his critics had clearly +never seen a gaucho's stirrup. "Nor has the lady--riding behind, instead +of in front--better accommodation, being in suspension over a frame that +lacks a backstay, and above a wheel that buckles under her weight; while +the handles are thrown up instead of down, and their bars so slender +that they must inevitably break." The gear-case is on one side of the +frame and the chain on the other, and the frame itself was a marvel of +ingenuity misapplied. Thus did the cyclists moan in many newspapers, +taking the matter _au grand sérieux_, with quite unusual regard for +mechanical accuracy, and a total disregard for the political allusion +and point. Similarly in January of the same year the "Forlorn Maiden" of +trade was shown lying across the railway lines while an engine is +bearing down upon her. But "there are five rails in sight, all at equal +distances apart, though the railway gauge is four feet eight inches and +a half, and the locomotive is running on the six-foot way." The girl, +too, stretches across it, and spans it from waist to ankles, not +counting a bend at the knees, so that at the lowest estimate she is ten +feet high. This violated the public conscience even more than the fact +that the engine rushes along the inside line of the two sets of rails; +and they declared that never before had the maxim _ars longa_ been more +triumphantly indicated than in the maiden's figure. But what of it all? +Is it not a striking commentary on our English temperament, that while +an inaccuracy of a purely mechanical description raises the protests of +thousands who have no idea beyond the parts of a bicycle or the width of +a railway gauge, a score of artistic beauties pass unnoticed and +unchallenged? + +And so Tenniel worked his way upwards. The fact that in a fencing bout +he had partially lost his sight, through the button of his father's foil +dropping off, whereupon he received the point in his eye, was not the +slightest deterrent. He regarded it merely as an annoying, though not a +very important, incident. Being satisfied that the Almighty had only +given us _two_ eyes as a measure of precaution, to provide against such +vexatious little accidents as he had experienced, he went on working as +if nothing had happened. "It's a curious thing, is it not," he said one +day to the writer, "that two of the principal men on _Punch_, du Maurier +and I, have only two eyes between them?" Yet it only made him the more +careful. Free from mannerism, he never allowed carefulness to interfere +with fun, and his cartoon of Britannia discovering the source of the +Nile, and of Lord Beaconsfield as a peri entering the Paradise of +Premiership, are among the memorably funny things of _Punch_. His +elevation to the leading position on the paper has thus been gradual and +certain; not of his own assumption, however, but the ready tribute of +his colleagues, who have always regarded him not only as the great +artist, but as the link incarnate of the tradition of _Punch_ of the +present with the past. So he is the favourite of the band, to whom he is +the beloved "Jack[=i]d[=e]s" of Shirley Brooks's christening. It was +Mark Lemon who, at the Dinner, first applied to him the burlesque +line--"No longer Jack, henceforth Jack[=i]d[=e]s call;" but it was +Brooks who confirmed the practice of according to him the _sobriquet_ +which _Punch_ (p. 148, Vol. XLV.) had previously conferred on Lord John +Russell, "England's Briefest Peer." + +It was a startling proof of his extraordinary, and by him +half-unsuspected, popularity, that when Tenniel's knighthood became +known the honour was received with loud and general applause--with an +enthusiasm quite unusual in its command of popular approval. "I am +receiving shoals of letters and telegrams," he wrote to me on the day of +the announcement; "I suppose you know the reason Y." It is said that +Lord Salisbury had intended to make the recommendation himself, but that +the nomination was delayed and forgotten; but when Mr. Gladstone came +into office the new Premier repaired the neglect of the old, and at the +same time acknowledged the steady support which _Punch_ had offered to +the Whig policy. By the general public it was regarded as an +appreciation of the man who was the personification of the good-humoured +and the loftier side of political life--who had brought the _Punch_ +spirit round to something a good deal better and higher than he found +it, blending fun with classic grace, and humour with dignity. To the art +world it was the recognition of that "Black-and-white" drawing which has +been the glory of England and the Cinderella of the Royal Academy of +Arts. It was in this sense that Sir John Tenniel accepted the +distinction. But it was to "Jack[=i]d[=e]s" that the _Punch_ Staff drank +when Mr. Agnew proposed his health at the Dinner following the +announcement of the nomination; it was "dear old John Tenniel" that the +Arts Club toasted when, with Mr. Val Prinsep, R.A., in the chair and Mr. +du Maurier in the vice-chair, the new knight was the honoured guest of +his club, and received its congratulations with the modest dignity and +kindly good taste characteristic of him. And it was "good Sir John," the +cartoonist--who has also been, at extremely rare intervals, a _Punch_ +writer too (see _Punch_, p. 56, Vol. XX.)--who was celebrated by the pen +of Mr. Milliken--"the Pride of Mr. Punch and the delight of the British +Public." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[51] It may be stated that Doyle contributed a ewe-lamb of literature to +_Punch_ (May 13th, 1843), entitled "High Art and the Royal Academy" +(Vol. XVI., p. 197). + +[52] This conversation took place in April, 1889. + +[53] Since 1892, I may explain, Sir John Tenniel and _Punch_ have moved +with the times. Sir John now draws his cartoons upon the +Chinese-whitened surface of cardboard, and they are photographed on the +block in the usual way. + +[54] But when, in 1866, Keene contributed three cartoons, Sir John +Tenniel's appeared side by side. This was the result of a revived +experiment to add to the attractions of the paper by giving two +cartoons--an experiment resumed in later years in the case of Mr. +Sambourne and Mr. Furniss. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1850-60. + + Captain Howard--Receipt for Landscape Drawing--Earnings, Real and + Ideal--George H. Thomas--Charles Keene--His Training--Introduction + to _Punch_--Called to the Table--Uselessness in Council--A Strong + Politician--Inherits Leech's Position--Keene as an Artist--Where He + Failed--His Joke-Primers--Torturing the Bagpipes--Good Stories, + Used, Spoiled, and Rejected--"Toby" as a Dachshund--Death of + "Frau"--Keene's Technique--His Inventions and Creations--And what + He Earned by Them--Charles Martin--Harry Hall--Rev. Edward Bradley + ("Cuthbert Bede")--"Verdant Green" or "Blanco White"?--Double + Acrostics--George Cruikshank Defies _Punch_--Mr. T. Harrington + Wilson--Mr. Harrison Weir--Mr. Ashby-Sterry--Alfred Thompson--Frank + Bellew--Julian Portch--"Cham"--G. H. Haydon--J. M. Lawless. + + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN H. R. HOWARD. +(_From a Photograph by Lambert Weston and Son._)] + +An amateur who signed with cross-pipes, and who appeared five times in +the following year, was the one other contributor of 1850; and then 1851 +was distinguished by the enlistment of the prolific draughtsman who at +first used three running legs--quaintly accepted as the Manx arms--as +his sign-manual. This was Captain Henry R. Howard, the son of a country +gentleman, born at Watford, where he lived in the same house for over +fifty years. He was always sketching from a child; and being persuaded +by his friends to "do some of those for _Punch_," he sent a few samples +to the Editor, but without much hope of success. They brought an +immediate invitation to call upon Mark Lemon, who told him, after seeing +his pencil sketches, that he might draw for them, but not on paper, on +wood; and learning that he had had no such experience, referred him for +instruction to the courtesy of Leech and Tenniel, whose senior he was by +six years. He was not entirely without artistic education, having +studied in Hanover under a pupil of Benjamin West's. "You must draw +skeletons," said Herr Ramburg. "But I only want to draw landscapes," +pleaded the youth. "Then you must draw skeletons first," replied the +artist; "it is the only way to draw landscapes." + +After securing Lemon's favour Captain Howard drew scores of comic +humanised beasts and birds in the form of initials and decorations. At +last, after some years, Lemon proposed a change, when Howard quietly +remarked, "I've been wondering how long you'd go on taking those things; +I should have thought you were sick of them. I am." Meanwhile he had +changed his signature of the Manx legs--he had just been sojourning in +the island when he adopted them--as Lemon represented it as Leech's +opinion that it was sometimes unnecessarily like his own wriggling +signature; and he had adopted in substitution the little trident that +figured in the paper for fifteen years. When Leech died, Captain Howard +aspired to be--in part, at least--his successor; but although he was now +drawing figure-subjects, and had an inexhaustible stock of jokes and +fun, he was told, to his bitter disappointment, that new blood was +wanted; and the great mantle which had fallen was now drawn round the +shoulders of Charles Keene and Mr. du Maurier. Captain Howard then +practically retired. Although in the first year of his contributions he +was £30 out of pocket by his _Punch_ work, as he bought his own blocks +instead of claiming them from Swain, he was soon making £100 a year from +the paper. Just before he retired an officer recently returned from +India expressed the desire to draw also for _Punch_ as a profession. "I +hear," said he, "that Leech makes £1,500 a year out of it." "So that you +would be satisfied with £1,200?" asked Captain Howard. His friend +admitted that even the inferior sum would be acceptable. "Very well," +replied Howard encouragingly; "come and dine with me, and I'll show you +by my books that my _Punch_ income last year was just twelve pounds!" + +Captain Howard's work, though clever and ingenious, was weak. Its +humour, often fresh enough, was never very pronounced; nor did the +draughtsman's hand ever become that of a master. In 1853 he had made no +fewer than sixty-six cuts, and about doubled that number each year up to +1867, when, with only two drawings in the volume, he finally vanished +from _Punch's_ pages. Three years later there was printed an initial by +him, representing a comic hammer-fish (p. 265, Vol. LIX.), but this +belonged to "old stock;" and it marks the failure of its author's +long-sustained effort to obtain a recognised position in the front rank +of the artistic Staff. He died 31st August, 1895. + +A contemporary of his was G. H. Thomas, brother of one of the founders +of the "Graphic," and a popular painter of the day, who received much +employment from the Queen. Mark Lemon was very anxious to secure the +services of so admirable a draughtsman; but Thomas, who was trying to +shake himself free from wood-drawing in favour of oil-painting, showed +little responsive enthusiasm. He did, however, contribute a couple of +drawings--one of them a large head-piece to the preface, representing a +feast given to _Punch_ on his twenty-first volume day. In it he is +supported by the Queen and Court, and at the round table are the +representatives of the nations. It is not a happy effort, and is clearly +inspired by Doyle--whose fancy the Editor was still seeking to replace; +and, moreover, it is poorly engraved; but it is as full of figures as of +incident. Then came C. H. Bradley, who seldom got beyond initials and +trifles of large heads on little bodies, being only once or twice +promoted to "socials" during the nine years of his connection with the +paper. On occasion he showed real humour, while his artistic merit seems +to have owed most of what excellence it possessed to the study of +Tenniel's work. Bradley, whose monogram might easily be mistaken by the +unwary for that of C. H. Bennett, who followed eight years later, +executed but five-and-thirty cuts between 1852 and 1860. + +[Illustration: CHARLES S. KEENE. + +(_Drawn by J. D. Watson. By Courtesy of "Black and White."_)] + +_Punch_ was ten years old when the hand of Charles Keene, but not +Charles Keene himself, was introduced to the Editor, through the +instrumentality of Mr. Henry Silver. Keene had at first been intended +for the law, and afterwards had spent a short period in an architect's +office. But he decided to throw himself into art; and in order to learn +engraving and drawing on the wood, he followed the practice of the day +(such as had been adopted by Leech, William Harvey, Fred Walker, Mr. +Birket Foster, Mr. Walter Crane, and other of _Punch's_ artists), and +apprenticed himself to an engraver--Whymper, for choice. Then he studied +along with his comrade Tenniel and other incipient geniuses at the +Clipstone Street Academy, and as early as 1846 produced with his +friend--who was soon to be his fellow-giant on _Punch_--the "Book of +Beauty," already referred to. He took a studio in the Strand--a +sky-parlour renowned for its dust and inaccessibility--and lived, as all +good Bohemians should, chiefly on art, song, and smoke: an existence +sweetened by a few warm but eclectic friendships. He worked desperately +hard, and having, through his fellow-shireman Samuel Read, become +connected with the "Illustrated London News," he made for it many +drawings of the sort now called "actuality." + +By that time Mr. Henry Silver had contracted with Keene an +acquaintanceship which was to grow into a warm friendship, and it was +under the shadow of that intimacy that his earlier contributions were +made. As Mr. Silver himself explains in his statement written for Mr. +George S. Layard's admirable "Life and Letters of Charles Keene of +_Punch_" (p. 47): "It may seem a little strange that Keene at first +showed some reluctance to let his name be known where it was finally so +famous. Still, it is the fact that while his earliest _Punch_ drawings +were of my devising, he steadily declined to own himself the doer of +them. I was writing then for _Punch_ as an outsider, but my ambition was +to draw, and for this I had no talent. As for working on the wood, I +soon 'cut' it in despair, and, like a baffled tyrant, I knew not how to +bring my subjects to the block. Keene very kindly undertook the labour +for me, and the first design he executed was 'A Sketch of the New Paris +Street-sweeping Machines'--a couple of cannon, namely--which was +published in December, 1851, immediately after the bloody _coup +d'état_." + +This was the barest sketch, childish and shaky in execution, which, +however, is explained in the legend as being due to the "Special Artist" +being in the line of fire. Mr. Layard asserts that when Keene made the +drawing he thought the joke "a mighty poor one;" and he might have +added, as is made clear in the chapter dealing with "Plagiarism," not +even a new one, for _Punch_ himself had used the idea before (p. 166, +Vol. XV.), and was then accused of theft by the "Man in the Moon." Mr. +Silver proceeds:-- + +"His next two drawings illustrate an article of mine, and appear on the +second page of the next volume. His fourth, a far more finished drawing, +like these, saw the light in 1852, and may be found in Vol. XXIII., p. +257. It shows a gentleman engaged in fishing in his kitchen, and is +entitled 'The Advantage of an Inundation,' the autumn of that year being +very wet. Mark Lemon wrote to me commending it, and asking me to try and +draw a little more for him. I showed Charles the letter, and said that +now, of course, his name must be divulged, for I clearly was obtaining +_kudos_ under false pretences. However, he deferred the disclosure for a +while, and it was not until the spring of 1854 that his 'C. K.' first +appeared (_vide_ initial 'G,' Vol. XXVI., p. 128)--a modest little +monogram, quite unlike his later and so well-known signature. In the +interim he marked his drawings with a mask, which was a device of mine +for hiding his identity." + +For nine years Keene worked steadily on _Punch_, improving artistically +in an amazing manner, and in 1860 he was called to the Table--they +served long terms of probation then--and ate his first Dinner on +February 20th. It was a notable company that he used to meet, all the +chief "rising stars" of _Punch_ being still upon the Staff, save Douglas +Jerrold, who had died three years before. There were Mark Lemon, +Thackeray (nominally retired), Tom Taylor, Horace Mayhew, Shirley +Brooks, Percival Leigh, John Leech, Henry Silver, and John Tenniel; and +into this brilliant assemblage, on the evening in question (when, +however, Thackeray was absent, and Sir Joseph Paxton was present as a +visitor), he was received with a cordial welcome. But neither at that +time nor thenceforward did he take a prominent part in the discussions +over the cartoon, although on one occasion he did astonish the company +with an excellent though belated suggestion. He had, in fact, no +originality of a literary or humorous kind. He knew the exact value of a +joke when it was made, and could usually display its point to +incomparable advantage; but joke-creation was not one of his strong +points, even though he was often forced to it by necessity. +Occasionally, however, he would miss a point entirely, as in the joke +sent him by Mr. Alfred Cooper[55]:-- + + "VISITOR (_having shot a hare at the usual seventy yards_): 'Long + shot that, Johnson.' + + "KEEPER: 'Yes, sir; Master remarked as it were a wery long shot.' + + "VISITOR (_gratified_): 'Ah! Oh, he noticed it, did he?' + + "KEEPER: 'Yes, sir; Master always take notice. When gen'lemen makes + wery long shots, they don't get asked again!'" + +"Why," asks Keene, "would 'Master' object to this long shot? Burnand ... +is sure to want to know I don't know either! Will you kindly explain, so +that I can answer him as if I were an expert." As if even a +non-sportsman would fail to see the point! + +But at the Table, delightful as Keene personally was--he was lovingly +addressed as "Carlo"--he was not a leading conversationalist. He +proposed little; yet when his opinion was asked, he gave it, with +judgment and taste, tersely expressed. His work, besides, was rarely +discussed at the Table, for he usually had to seek his material outside. +Moreover, he was, as he expressed it, a "hot Tory," and so strongly +antipathetic did he profess himself towards the Liberal tendency of some +of the Staff of that day that he would declare with a wink that he +positively preferred to stay away; and on the occasion of the accession +of Mr. Anstey, wrote this sturdy Conservative "I hope he's a Tory. We +want some leaven to the set of sorry Rads that lead poor old _Punch_ +astray at present." But few independent readers, and fewer still of +Keene's personal friends, will take very seriously his sweeping +assertion and political pronunciamentoes--at least, as regards _Punch_, +for whom and for his colleagues he retained to the end feelings of the +warmest affection. + +When John Leech died in 1864, it was Keene who received the main +heritage of his great position as the social satirist of the paper, and +with it the heaviest share of work and artistic responsibility. Not only +did his work increase in the ordinary numbers, but extra drawings--such +as the etched frontispieces to the Pocket-books--fell also to his lot; +and a good deal against the grain--for he hated any approach to +personality, even though his target was a public man and his shaft was +tipped with harmless fun--he executed fourteen cartoons, as is explained +elsewhere. In addition to his ordinary "socials" and the formal +decorations of each successive volume, Keene re-illustrated "Mrs. +Caudle's Curtain Lectures" with a marvellous series of drawings, and Mr. +Frank C. Burnand's "Tracks for Tourists," which made their first +appearance as "How, When, and Where" (1864) and were ultimately +republished in "Very Much Abroad." Of his outside work for "Once a +Week," published by Messrs. Bradbury and Evans, and other publications, +no mention need here be made. + +It is doubtful if the public will ever realise how great an artist Keene +was. His transcendent merit has, however, for a long time been the +wonder and admiration of his brother-craftsmen and of the critics. The +stream of his genius continued to flow for six-and-thirty years in the +most amazing manner. His drawings are in the highest form of +Impressionism, reproducing every phase of fleeting expression and +suddenly-arrested action with a certainty and accuracy which are +absolutely unsurpassable. His power of composition, of breadth of +handling, chiaroscuro, and suggestion of colour and form, was perfect +within the range of his medium; and in that medium he gave us, not paper +with pen-lines on it, but a perfect sense of light, form, and +expression. He was as careful, too, in his "comic cuts" as the most +conscientious of painters could be in his canvas; and drawing invariably +from the model--even if that model were simply an old shoe--he would +often journey into the country for a background of, say, a turnip-field, +or in search of any other detail or local colour. + +In one direction alone did he fail, or choose to fail--in the portrayal +of facial beauty, elegance, and respectability. A pretty woman lurked +but rarely about the point of his pencil, as she does so delightfully +about those of his principal collaborators on _Punch_; and an elegant +woman--save by accident--never. You may point to the Brittany peasant in +the number for September 20th, 1856; to the very Leechy young lady on p. +188, Vol. XXXVI. (May 7th, 1859), who, it must be admitted, really is a +"lady;" and to one or two more. But these pretty women serve rather to +accentuate the ugliness of all his other women, when they should have +been most beautiful; while elegance is with him a virtue that very +rarely saves. Keene, indeed, misrepresented his countrywomen as much as +M. Forain libels his. Keene's "swells," and even his gentlemen, are +snobs; his aristocracy and his clerks are cast in the same mould; his +city young men are like artizans; and his brides are forbidding--models +of virtue, no doubt, but lacking every outward feminine charm. These +shortcomings, of course, are to a certain extent to be accounted for by +his own nature. Living in the strictest economy and temperateness, he +hated anything like ostentation. He despised "Society" and the whole +fabric of fashion, and held the world of Burke and Debrett in +good-natured abhorrence. Like Leech and Dickens, he had given his heart +to the middle and lower-middle classes, and among them he found his best +models and most admirable _motifs_. + +No _Punch_ artist was ever so dependent upon his friends for "subjects" +as he, and none received such continuous and delightful support. From +Messrs. Joseph Crawhall, Andrew Tuer, Walker, Clayton, Birket Foster, +Sands, Pritchett, Savile Clark, Ashby-Sterry, Chasemore, and others, he +was under constant friendly, and fully-acknowledged, obligation. Not but +that he made constant effort to secure "jokes" of his own. He was ever +on the look-out, and often very hard-pressed, for them. One day he told +Mr. Pritchett that he had determined to join a riding class at Allen's +Riding-school, and seek inspiration there. His friend amiably suggested +that he (Mr. Pritchett) should attend as observer and reporter, and tell +Keene all the ridiculous things he did on horseback and the amusing +appearances he cut. But the idea did not seem to commend itself to +Keene, who merely replied that he thought he should choose a +hearse-horse to ride, as being at once more stately, decorative, and +safe. + +Amongst Keene's own subjects are to be included the greater number of +those series of drawings dealing with artist and volunteer life; but it +must be recognised that to a great extent Keene was frankly the +illustrator of other men's ideas, and often of other men's "legends." +These legends, or "cackle," were often touched up by Keene; but +sometimes they were entirely original. And though it must be admitted +that they are not concise as Leech's, they are, as a rule, more +life-like, more truthfully Impressionistic--just as his drawings are. +The "legend," by the way, Keene used to term the "libretto"--a +reflection, as it were, of his passion for music (a passion he shared +with Gainsborough and Dyce and Romney, and so many more of our most +eminent artists). This love of music he indulged at the meetings of the +Moray Minstrels, in the Crystal Palace Choir during the Handel +Festivals, and in the depths of the country, wherein he would bury +himself in order to torture the bagpipes, without testing too severely +the forbearance of his fellow-men. + +When he secured a good story--which he loved to impart with an ecstatic +wink to one or other of his closest friends--he would look as carefully +to the "libretto" as to the drawing, as in the case of the British +farmer who, crossing the Channel for the first time--in great discomfort +at the roll of the boat--"This Capt'n don't understand his business. +_Dang it, why don't he keep in the furrows?_" or the story--older, by +the way, than Keene had any knowledge of--of the Scotchman who was asked +by a friend, upon whom he had called, if he would take a glass of +whiskey. "No," he said, "it's too airly; besides, I've had a gill +a'ready!" + +[Illustration: CHARLES KEENE TORTURING THE BAGPIPES. + +(_From a Pen-Drawing by Himself. By Permission of Henry S. Keene. +Engraved by J. Swain._)] + +And when his legends were altered by the Editor he would fret for a +week. Once when Tom Taylor altered the good Scotch of a "field preacher" +(Almanac for 1880) he declared himself "in a great rage," and swore that +he would "never forgive" the delinquent. On other occasions, too, he +fumed at the desecration of his "librettos;" and when the word "last" +was accidentally omitted from his joke--"Heard my [last] new song?" "Oh, +Lor! I hope so!!" he mourned over the loss of the point. Yet he might +have been comforted; for had the word been retained, the further charge +of plagiarism could have been sustained against him. + +[Illustration: FROM CHARLES KEENE TO HIS EDITOR.] + +But his sorest point against _Punch_--to which, after all, he was +sincerely attached--was not the alteration, but the total suppression of +some of his work. Two such cases are duly recorded by Mr. Layard--both +of them admirable jokes in their way, though perhaps of questionable +taste. The first deals with a "Bereaved Husband's" opposition to the +"Sympathetic Undertaker's" remorseless insistence that the chief mourner +should enter the first carriage with his mother-in-law. "Ah! well," he +sighs, with resignation; "_but it will completely spoil my day!_" + +The second story--to which an excellent drawing was made--tells of a +widow who looks with sorrowful resignation upon a portrait of her +husband that hangs above the fireplace, and says to her sympathising +friend: "But why should I grieve, dear? I know where he passes his +evenings now!" The first of these Mark Lemon--ever anxious to avoid +giving offence--declined on the ground that it was too hard upon +mothers-in-law; and the second because, in Keene's own words, "Our +Philistine Editor ... said it would 'jar upon feelings'!" He surely +could not have borne completer testimony to the care, the ultra-respect +for others' sentiments, which has usually distinguished _Punch_, to the +disgust of critics of less refinement and consideration. + +On another point, too, he was not at one with _Punch_, and that was +"Toby." The form and face of Mr. Punch, as rendered by him, was hardly a +classic rendering; but this was forgiven him. But Keene's Toby was +neither the cur represented by some, nor the Irish terrier affected by +others, but a _dachshund_! And he persisted in so drawing him to the +end, not because he thought it right, but because "it _might_ have +been!" and because the original of the beast was his own much-loved pet +"Frau," which he survived not many days. (See next page.) + +To this drawing particular interest attaches, for it is the very last +that ever came from his hand--a loving tribute to an old friend that had +passed away. Concerning it, Mr. Henry S. Keene writes to me: "The +history of the dog is shortly this. She was a favourite old dog of my +brother's, and has figured a good many times in his drawings as the dog +of the 'typical' _Punch_, and was of the breed of the 'dachshund.' She +was very old and full of infirmities, and my brother consented, with +some reluctance, to put the poor thing out of its misery. When it was +dead, he had it put on a chair in his room, and made the sketch. This +was about three months before he died, and was the last thing he drew. +It required an effort on his part, as he had entirely left off doing any +work since the beginning of last year [1890]." + +More than any other man on _Punch_, Keene suffered at the hands of the +engraver. But it was wholly his own fault. He took no heed whatever of +the engraver, and set before him problems to which there was no +solution. Thus, he loved to make his drawings on old rough paper, which +by its grain gave a wonderfully charming but irreproducible quality to +his ragged lines, and which by stains of age would impart effects wholly +foreign to the art of the wood-cutter. + +[Illustration: "FRAU," ALIAS "TOBY," LYING IN STATE. + +(_Keene's Last Drawing._)] + +Moreover, he would manufacture his own inks in varying degrees of +greyness, and even of different colours, and then set them before the +cutter (not the _engraver_, mind) to translate into black-and-white. Yet +there are some who blame the craftsman for not reproducing what it was +an absolute impossibility to reproduce by printer's ink and graver! But +Keene was engrossed in his art; and I have seen a drawing, at Mr. Birket +Foster's house at Witley, which was the _seventh_ attempt he made before +he was satisfied. This was the drawing entitled "Ahem!" representing a +man kissing a girl, while someone, with the familiar inconsiderateness +of humanity, is approaching. The background for this drawing is Mr. +Foster's house. + +But although Keene was not a man of ideas, his merits as a creator--as a +realiser of types--were supreme. Many of his _dramatis personæ_ no doubt +became old-fashioned in a sense; but who can deny the truth to life of +the Kirk Elder, the slavey, the policeman, the fussy City man, the +diner-out, the waiter (did he not invent "Robert"?), the cabman, the +hen-pecked husband, the drunkard, the gillie, the Irish peasant, the +schoolboy, and the Mrs. Brown of Arthur Sketchley's prosaic muse? The +wealth of his limited fancy, and his power of resolving it into +well-ordered design, and presenting it with strange economy of means, +invested these puppets of his with a vividness which is often startling. +With greater force and subtlety, if with less refinement and grace, than +Leech--though not, like him, the genial sketcher of the genial side of +things--he has recorded, in the five or six thousand designs that make +up the sum of his contribution, the character of "the classes" of our +day, and that with such intensity of truth that we derive our delight in +his work even more from the faithfulness of its representation than from +the fun of the joke and the comic rendering of the subject. One writer +has been found who sees in his pictures nothing but degradation, and who +condemns the one which shows a tippler who has returned late and thrown +himself upon the bed beside his wife fully clad and with his umbrella +open, as "obscene, and it is matched by many another equally odious!" +But everybody else will endorse Sir Frederic Leighton's enthusiastic +testimony that "among the documents for the study in future days of +middle-class and of humble English life, none will be more weighty than +the vivid sketches of this great humorist."[56] In praising Keene's +"feeling of out-of-doorness," in the "Magazine of Art," Mr. William +Black criticised truly when he declared, "Ever and again we come upon a +bit of a turnip-field, a hedge-row, even the corner of a London street, +the vividness of which is a sudden delight to the eyes." This estimate +was well thrown into verse a few months later, when _Punch_ in its +bereavement sang the praises of its greatest artist:-- + + "... Nor human humours only; who so tender + Of touch when sunny Nature out-of-door + Wooed his deft pencil? Who like him could render + Meadow or hedge-row, turnip-field or moor? + + Snowy perspective, long suburban winding + Of bowery roadway, villa-edged and trim, + Iron-railed city street, where gas-lamps blinding + Glare through the foggy distance, dense and dim?" + +Keene's simple, kind, and somewhat lonely life are too well known to +call for recapitulation here--his tenderness and chivalry towards women, +his unconventionality, his love of ancient pipes and virulent +"dottle"-smoking, his quaint story-telling and singular modesty, his +sensitiveness (he never would ask his nephew, Mr. Corbould, to sit as +model to him again after a bantering inquiry of how much he was going to +pay), his Conservatism, his humour, his gentle hobbies, and, lastly, his +stern economy. Indeed, by his thrift, when he died, he was found to have +accumulated over £30,000, chiefly out of his _Punch_ work, in spite of +the fact that he would never receive a salary: all this is accessible +elsewhere. For some time before he died he ceased to draw for the paper, +so broken was he; and it is worth noting that the last sketch that +appeared from his hand was "'Arry on the Boulevards," in the Paris +Number of _Punch_ (1889), although he was not able to join the rest of +the Staff in their trip to the Universal Exhibition. + +He died on the 10th of January, 1891, and was buried in Hammersmith +Cemetery, in the presence of most of his colleagues, who mourned their +friend-- + + "Frank, loyal, unobtrusive, simple-hearted, + Loving his book, his pipe, his song, his friend; + Peaceful he lived and peacefully departed, + A gentle life-course with a gracious end." + +Charles Martin--a son of the distinguished painter of Biblical +catastrophes, of boundless halls, and illimitable space, John +Martin--made three drawings for _Punch_. "The Bonnet-maker's Dream" was +an effort to enlist sympathy for one class of women-workers; but his +only fair illustrated joke was that in which a page-boy, pointing to the +old torch-extinguishers in one of the London squares, informs his +wondering companion that they are "what the swells in ancient days put +their weeds out with." But as an artist he was lazy, preferring to make +occasional nice little water-colour drawings than to work hard and +continuously at black-and-white. He succeeded in making his way into +society as a man-'bout-town, which he preferred to either; so that his +connection with _Punch_ began and ended with the year 1853. + +An amateur signing "C" made an anonymous appearance in the same year; +and Mr. Harry Hall, who was horse-painter first at Tattersall's, and +afterwards at Newmarket, where he made Mark Lemon's acquaintance while +painting a Derby Winner, contributed a single sketch. It is not +remarkable, nor superior to his subsequent work as horse-draughtsman to +the "Field"; but it proves, at least, that Mr. Sydney P. Hall's father +could draw with ease. + +It was in 1853 that the Reverend Edward Bradley[57] first contributed a +drawing to _Punch_ under his well-known pseudonym, but earlier than that +he found admittance in its pages, with both picture and prose, under the +signature, not of "Cuthbert Bede," but simply "E. B." The _nom de plume_ +under which he is best known he adapted from the names of the two patron +saints of Durham, to which city he was much attached, and within whose +boundaries he spent his 'Varsity career. + +"Photography being a novelty in 1853," says he in his MS. reminiscences, +to the transcript of which I have had access through the courtesy of his +son, Mr. Cuthbert Bradley, "Mark Lemon readily accepted my proposal to +introduce it into _Punch_," and accordingly, the first four caricature +illustrations of photography that appeared were in _Punch_, between May +and August, 1853. One of these represented "The Portrait of an Eminent +Photographer who has just succeeded in focussing a view to his Complete +Satisfaction." He was depicted with his head under the hood, while a +bull was charging him in the rear--a sketch that was pleasantly referred +to by Charles Kingsley in his novel, "Two Years Ago." + +[Illustration: REV. EDWARD BRADLEY ("CUTHBERT BEDE"). + +(_From a Photograph by A. J. Hancock._)] + +To the encouragement of Mark Lemon, Cuthbert Bede owed a good deal, in +respect to both pen and pencil, and in the warmth of his geniality the +sketches for "Verdant Green" were made, and, says the author, more than +forty of them were engraved for _Punch's_ pages, to appear a page each +week.[58] But circumstances caused Mark Lemon, with Cuthbert Bede's +consent, to transfer them to a special Supplement at that time being +prepared by _Punch's_ Editor for the "Illustrated London News"--a +journal which then enjoyed the co-operation of all the best pens and +pencils more closely identified with the Sage of Fleet Street. + +Then in 1850 the MS. of "Verdant Green" went the round of the publishers +for issue in book-form, and not till after a year's tour was it +accepted, and reluctantly enough issued, the publisher vowing that it +would not pay its expenses. But within four-and-twenty hours he found +out his mistake, and the announcement was made thirty years afterwards, +that the sale of the book had amounted to upwards of 170,000 +copies--while the author, from first to last, received the splendid sum +of £350 for a work which must be reckoned among the great popular +successes of the century. + +When Douglas Jerrold was at Oxford, in November, 1854, Cuthbert Bede was +presented to the sharp-tongued wit, the introducer adding, by way of +explanation, "Mr. Verdant Green." "At that time," says Bede, "I was +closely shaven, and had a very pale face. Douglas Jerrold looked sharply +up at me, with a glitter in his blue eyes, and at once said, 'Mr. +Verdant Green? I should have thought it was Mr. Blanco White!'"--though, +of course, there was no more real resemblance between Blanco White's +face and that of the Rev. Bradley's, than there was between "Mr. Verdant +Green" and "Doblado's Letters from Spain." "Among several things that +were very agreeable to me in connection with the publication of 'Verdant +Green,'" he continues, "was a circumstance that was related to me by an +eminent Oxford don, who is now a bishop. He had entered the room of Dr. +Pusey, at Christ Church, and saw, as usual, the library table covered +with books of divinity and learned tomes; but on the top of these was +perched, in pert, cock-sparrow fashion, that shilling railway book that +had recently been published, with the spectacled face of the Oxford +Freshman on the cover. My friend told me that Dr. Pusey held up the book +to him and said, that he had not only read it through, but that he kept +it on his table so that he might read bits of it in the pauses of his +severer study." + +One of Cuthbert Bede's proudest memories was the introduction of the +double acrostic. He did not claim to have invented it, for he knew of +the monkish acrostics; but for six months he had amused his friends with +his revival before he showed them to Mark Lemon. The latter, with a +quick eye for novelty, asked Bradley to write a paper on them for the +"Illustrated London News," which was then being edited by Dr. Charles +Mackay, and the humorist was only too happy to comply with the request. +The first of these "double acrostic charades"--the first ever +printed--appeared in the paper on August 30, 1856, and at intervals for +some months afterwards; indeed, there was a regular column devoted to +them, edited by Cuthbert Bede, that drew letters from all parts of the +world, literally in thousands, which were forwarded to him in packets by +rail. He had to explain their construction, and give examples for +practice in the art. + +The first was "Charles Dickens--Pickwick Papers"; then followed +"London--Thames," "Waterloo--Napoleon," "Scutari Hospital--Miss +Nightingale," and then "Lemon--Punch." Here is how the last-named was +treated:-- + + +THE LETTERS (5). + + I brighten even the brightest scene (L am P) + I very nearly an ostrich had been (E m U) + I with a hood once pass'd all my days (M aria N) + I am a fop in a play of all plays (O sri C) + To its greatness the city of Bath I did raise (N as H) + +THE WORDS. + + I'm a Mark of judgment, of taste, and wit, + O'er a crowd of pages I rule the roast; + I mix with choice spirits, while choicer ones sit + Around, while I give them full many a toast. + Of my two words, my first is squeez'd into my second, + Although at its head it is commonly reckoned. + +"When I read it to Mark Lemon," says Bede, in conclusion, "he said that +_Punch_ ought to be well flavoured, for that into its composition there +went not one, but three lemons--Mark Lemon, Leman Rede, and Laman +Blanchard." + +Edward and his brother, Thomas Waldron Bradley, were sons of a surgeon +of Kidderminster. When the former was quite a child, his delight in +sketching was as remarkable as his keenness of observation, and he had a +trick on arriving home, after seeing anything that interested him in the +streets, of saying, "Give me a slate," and sketching the scene upon it +with the utmost facility. It was this facility, joined to his lack of +artistic education, which placed upon his work the unmistakable stamp of +the amateur. But his sense of humour saved him, winning for him +admittance to _Punch's_ pages in 1847, when he was only twenty years of +age. He had made his début the previous year in "Bentley's Miscellany," +with some love verses signed with his usual pen-name. Five years later +he was making suggestions for "The Month," and both he and his brother +Walrond (whose pseudonym of "Shelsley Beauchamp" is hardly yet forgotten +in his own county) wrote in it. + +His early MS. diaries record frequent receipts of small sums from +_Punch_ in return for small contributions. His first draft upon the +Whitefriars exchequer was on October 23rd, 1847, when one guinea was +received. By 1853 the receipts were a little more frequent, but still +hardly noteworthy. Here, at any rate, is an example:-- + + Up to August 4th, received from Mark Lemon for _Punch_-- + + Photo subjects £4 0 0 + Table-turning 0 10 0 + Initial letter to Peterloo Brown, I. 3 0 0 + Sidney Snub 1 10 0 + Savage Lions in London 1 0 0 + + Sept. 14: 2nd and 3rd Peterloo Brown letters 6 5 0 + Article "High Mettle Dragon". + +--while his earnings for the following year amount to £22 6s. for +drawings and MS. After 1856 he contributed nothing more to _Punch's_ +pages, though a stray forgotten cut appears to have cropped up in the +second volume for 1874. + +George Cruikshank was a valuable friend to Cuthbert Bede, just as he was +to Watts Phillips, and gave him a good deal of advice as to drawing on +wood for _Punch_, as well as practical lessons in draughtsmanship, by +working before him on his wonderful etching of the "Tail of a Comet;" +still, he was unable to impart to his pupil's work either trained ease +or style. Cruikshank was on terms of intimacy with Mark Lemon, but he +never drew for _Punch_, save indirectly for its advertisement page in +1844--an announcement for his "Table-Book," in which appear the +portraits of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (his literary Editor), Thackeray, +and himself. Yet the "Quarterly Review," in the course of an essay upon +that journal, declared that "_Punch_ owes at least half its popularity +to the pencil of George Cruikshank"! The fact is, that Cruikshank, +though on intimate terms with many of the Staff, would never allow +himself to be persuaded to draw for its pages. "We shall have you yet," +said Mark Lemon one day. "Never," said Cruikshank, in his most +melodramatic tone and striking his favourite attitude. He had then +become the staunchest of total abstainers, and he held its very name in +abhorrence. Moreover, he professed to look upon their Dinners as orgies; +but it is far more likely that the predominance in its pages and in its +councils of his mighty rival, John Leech, had more to do with his total +abstinence--from _Punch_, I mean--than any other consideration. "Between +Cruikshank and Leech," says Mr. Frith, "there existed little sympathy +and less intimacy. The extravagant caricature that pervades so much of +Cruikshank's work, and from which Leech was entirely free, blinded him a +little to the great merit of Cruikshank's serious work. I was very +intimate with 'Immortal George,' as he was familiarly called, and I was +much surprised by the coolness with which he received my enthusiastic +praise of Leech. 'Yes, yes,' said George, 'very clever. The new school, +you see. Public always taken with novelty.'" Nevertheless, it must not +be forgotten that the only lessons in etching Leech ever had he received +from George Cruikshank. Moreover, George had a grievance, as will be +seen by the following letter addressed to Mr. G. H. Haydon, one of +_Punch's_ subsequent contributors, to whom reference will be made later +on:-- + + "263, Hampstead Road, N.W., + January 7, 1867. + + "MY DEAR SIR, + +"I am sorry that I am not able to tell you where to find a 'Punch and +Judy,' but I think some of that family reside, or might be heard of, in +the vicinity of Leicester Square. The 'Punch' that I copied my figures +from for the 'History of Punch and Judy' was an old Italian long since +deceased. His performance and figures were first-rate--far superior to +anything of the present day, and it is quite evident that poor Leech and +others copied _my_ Punch, for _Punch_ and other works, from the Punch +that I copied from this Italian Punch. + +"Speaking of Punch, you are, I presume, aware that although the idea of +'Punch' was taken from my 'Omnibus,' that I never had anything to do +with that work of 'Punch,' and also that for many years (20!!!) I have +not taken anything in the way of _Punch_. + +"However, I will say no more about Punch at present, as I fear you will +feel as if you could 'punch' the head of + + "Yours truly. + + "GEORGE CRUIKSHANK." + +[Illustration: T. HARRINGTON WILSON + +(_Drawn by T. W. Wilson, R.I._)] + +His grievance was that _Punch's_ figure was stolen from his book (to +which Payne Collier had written the text), and that the paper itself was +but an imitation of his own short-lived monthly magazine. With greater +reason could he complain that the _Punch_ Pocket-books were copied from +his "Comic Annuals," as they were, and that the imitations killed the +originals after a contest of a dozen years; but the idea of _Punch_ +being copied from the "Omnibus," with which it had hardly a single point +in common, save humour and illustration, has probably about as much +foundation as Cruikshank's claim against Dickens and "Oliver Twist," or +against Harrison Ainsworth and "The Miser's Daughter" and "The Tower of +London." Yet _Punch_ rendered ample tribute to his genius, not so much +in the adaptation of many of his best-known drawings to cartoons, +including "Jack Sheppard" (1841), "Oliver asking for More" (1844), "The +Fix" [Points of Humour] (1844), "The Juggernaut" (1845), "Oliver Twist +and the Artful Dodger" (1846), "The Deaf Postilion" (1846), and "Fagin +in the Cell" (1848), "The Election" [Sketches by Boz] down to "Harcourt +the Headsman" (June 8th, 1895); but also by deliberate statement and +amiability prepense. That, however, did not prevent _Punch_ from +chaffing "the Great George" upon occasion, as when he was preparing his +"Life of Falstaff" the journal gravely assumed that he would reform that +incorrigible tippler into a "teetotal Falstaff," and protested against +the enthusiast mixing water so copiously with the milk of his human +kindness. So Cruikshank set off in great wrath towards Fleet Street to +seek out the scoffer, and, meeting Blanchard Jerrold, sputtered out his +purpose and declared that he was on the trail of that scoundrel _Punch_ +to "knock his old wooden head about." When he died, _Punch_ announced +that "England is the poorer by what she can ill spare--a man of genius. +Good, kind, genial, honest, and enthusiastic George Cruikshank ... has +passed away." + +Mr. T. Harrington Wilson, the well-known special correspondent of the +"Illustrated London News," at that time a specialist in theatrical +portraiture, joined the paper as an occasional contributor in 1853, and +over various monograms sent in a dozen clever, but hardly striking, +drawings. These were "socials" dealing with society or fashion, stage +situations from behind the scenes, and grotesque ideas, such as the +"effect of wearing respirators on burglars" (October, 1853). Mr. +Wilson--who, by the way, had studied at the National Gallery side by +side with Sir John Tenniel and Charles Martin--contributed to the +Pocket-books from 1854 to 1857, and ceased his connection when he was +ordered abroad. + +All the outside artistic help received by _Punch_ in 1854 came from five +occasional correspondents: from "F. M.," an amateur, in February; from +Mr. Swain the engraver (who fitfully contributed unimportant sketches at +times of sudden need), in the same month; from J. Bennett; from Chambers +(a half-a-dozen initials extending over that and the following year, and +reappearing in 1864;) and from Mr. Harrison Weir. The contribution of +the latter occurred during Leech's indisposition, when Mr. Weir was +invited by Mark Lemon to make a few drawings to fill the place which +would be so sadly missed. So the artist--who was working under Lemon on +the "Field"--produced a half-page drawing illustrative of the +tribulation of young lady who was obliged to leave half her luggage +behind by reason of the cab-strike; and it was printed on p. 163 of Vol. +XXVII. Then Leech recovered, and Mr. Weir's services were dispensed +with. + +The second clergyman who ever drew for _Punch_ was the Rev. W. F. +Callaway, a Baptist minister of York and Birmingham, and the son of a +gentleman who had distinguished himself by writing a book on "Cingalese +Gods." He contributed one or two sketches, the first one being referred +to in his MS. diary, February 15th, 1855--"Found my Sketch in +_Punch_--'Comment on the Balaclava Railway.'" It had been re-drawn in +part by Leech, but the character of the original was left intact. Then +three initials from Ince are to be chronicled; another from "W. R.," and +a drawing signed "H.," from B. C. Halliday (p. 200, Vol. XXVIII), +showing "Our Artist in the Crimea" in a hopeless mess; as well as a +dozen initials of no particular importance from G. W. Terry (p. 171, +Vol. XXX.) from 1856 to 1858. + +Mr. J. Ashby-Sterry, so well and pleasantly known in later days as +_Punch's_ "Lazy Minstrel," and writer of verses and paragraphs +innumerable in its pages, was from 1856 to 1861 an artistic contributor +on fifteen occasions. "When I was a youth," he writes, "I fear I must +have annoyed good, genial Mark Lemon very much, for I was continually +sending pen-and-ink sketches to _Punch_. Not content with showering +these upon him, which were invariably courteously returned, I began to +pelt him with wood blocks. I took to drawing on the wood +enthusiastically, and was continually popping these little parcels into +the letter-box under the shadow of St. Bride's Church. At last one of +them, to my intense joy, appeared. Altogether I must have had about four +initial letters, a dozen black silhouettes, and a quarter-page social +cut inserted in the paper. But the quantity that were never used at all, +and the number that were re-drawn by my old friend Charles Keene, is a +high testimony to the artistic knowledge and editorial skill of Mark +Lemon." But Mr. Ashby-Sterry does himself an injustice, as all will say +who have seen the vivacious sketch of a gentleman struggling violently +inside his shirt, with the legend: "How agreeable it is, more especially +if you are late, and are dressing against time to dine with +ultra-punctual people--how agreeable it is, on getting into your clean +shirt, to find the laundress has been careful to fasten all the buttons +for you!" Moreover, he was trained as an artist, both at "the Langham" +and at the Royal Academy Schools; and portraits painted by him of his +father and grandfather have long since "toned" into canvases at once +able and attractive. + +A few sketches by Saunderson in this same year were followed by the +début of Alfred Thompson. When a cavalry officer, this gentleman, +encouraged by the acceptance of his work by "Diogenes," in 1854, sent a +few drawings--initials, for the most part--to _Punch_, that were +published in 1856-7-8, and he was persuaded by Mark Lemon to take up the +career of art. On retiring from the service, he studied in Paris, and +contributed to the "Journal Amusant;" and on his return found that Mark +Lemon was dead, and that, by the side of Keene and Tenniel, there had +grown up a giant in the person of Mr. du Maurier. Under Tom Taylor's +editorship he was a regular literary contributor, and was promised the +next vacant place on the Staff; but an offer from Messrs. Agnew of the +management of the Theatre Royal, Manchester, tempted him away from +London and all journalistic enterprise. On his return to town, Mr. +Burnand was on the point of becoming Editor, and the connection came to +an end. And so _Punch_ knew him no more, and Mr. Thompson appeared +before a later generation chiefly as editor of the brilliant little +"Mask," as designer of stage costumes and ballets, and writer of +pantomimes. By some he was also remembered as a contributor, in 1865, to +the "Comic News" and "The Arrow." His last _Punch_ sketches were +published in 1876 and 1877, and in the Pocket-book for the latter year +was buried what was, perhaps, his most important literary contribution +that is worth preserving--a continuation of "Daniel Deronda." The most +that can be said of Mr. Thompson's sketches is that they are bright and +not without fancy; but since these were made, his power and charm of +grace greatly increased. He died in New Jersey, September, 1895. + +Frank Bellew, whose signature consisted of a flattened triangle, either +with or without his initials, drew about thirty initials and quarter- or +half-page "socials" from 1857 until 1862, many of them dealing with +incidents connected with the American Civil War; and then--following the +example of Newman and Mr. Thompson--he went to America, where he +obtained more recognition for his clever outline drawings and for the +pathetic touches and moral points which he loved to introduce; and +there he begat a son whose reputation as a humorous draughtsman (being +"Chip" of the New York "Life") soon became far greater than his +father's. Bennet and "B. W." followed with a few trifles in 1857 and +1858, and then on October 13th Julian Portch sent in his first +contribution. + +Portch sprang from humble surroundings, and with no recommendations but +his art; that, however, was sufficient for Mark Lemon. It is true that +it lacked strength, but it showed a delicate pencil and a certain power +of comic expression sufficient to place him among "Mr. Punch's clever +young men" of the second rank. He was forthwith employed on decorations +to the preface and to the Pocket-book (a task on which he was engaged +for several consecutive years), as well as on _Punch_ itself. He stopped +active contribution in 1862, his work being seen only once in 1863, +1864, 1867, and 1870; but the last drawing he sent in was in October, +1861. He had illustrated "Uncle Tom's Cabin," a new edition of Boswell's +"Life of Johnson," and, in part, Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell's "Puck on +Pegasus," when in 1855 Henry Vizetelly, whose pupil he had been, sent +him to the Crimea as war correspondent for the "Illustrated Times," in +order to make sketches of British camp life. In the rigours of that +awful winter he was laid low with rheumatic fever, ending in general +paralysis; and after three years of lovingly tended illness he died in +September, 1865. + +An anonymous contributor, more than usually modest, then sent in three +drawings (August, 1859) as from "A Stranger," and then the distinguished +French caricaturist, "Cham" (the Comte Amédée de Noé), made six humorous +and spirited character sketches of Turco soldiers in Paris in 1859, not +very complimentary to his country's allies. When he had visited London +previously, Mark Lemon had sent him a little parcel of wood-blocks for +drawings for _Punch_, and was astonished to receive them all back the +next morning, all covered with vigorous work, with a calm request for +"more woods." He was, perhaps, a better _raconteur_ than comic +draughtsman, and, speaking English thoroughly well, became at once a +great favourite. Thackeray, in particular, delighted to do him honour in +his rooms at Young Street. In the same year Brunton, a young artist far +better known outside _Punch's_ pages than in them, put his sign-manual +of arrow-pierced hearts to a couple of drawings; and it is curious to +observe how in his "Annamite Ambassadors" he forestalled Mr. Furniss's +"Lika Joko" series. + +Miss Coode was the first lady who drew for _Punch_, contributing +nineteen drawings from November, 1859, to January, 1861; and then G. H. +Haydon (barrister-at-law and steward of Bridewell and the Royal +Bethlehem Hospital) began his connection. He was the intimate friend of +John Leech, by whom he was introduced to _Punch_, and of Charles Keene, +with whom he used to draw regularly at the Langham Sketching Club. +During 1860-1-2 he contributed twenty-two sketches and initials. He was +a keen fly-fisherman, and many of Leech's subjects of this sort were +done with him at Whitchurch, Hampshire, which they haunted together for +the sport. After Leech's death Haydon contributed nothing more, as it +was only during his spare time and out of friendly feeling that he made +his sketches. He was, on the other hand, the subject of several of +Keene's angling drawings, which were also done for the most part at +Whitchurch. Such is the sketch in the Almanac for 1885, wherein the +"Gigantic Angler" is an excellent portrait of Haydon, while Leech's +drawing of August 11th, 1860, was a record of an incident that happened +while the friends were fishing the same water. From that extremely +promising young artist, M. J. Lawless, who was doing some of his best +designs for "Once a Week," there came between May, 1860, and the +following January, six drawings; but he was already a dying man when +they were done, and he left little proof in them of the greatness of his +talent. He was still contributing, however, when, on September 28th, +1860, there was sent into the office a drawing from the hand of one of +the most brilliant of _Punch's_ lights--George du Maurier. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[55] See Mr. Layard's "Life and Letters of Charles Keene," p. 387. + +[56] Speech at Royal Academy Banquet, May 2nd, 1891. + +[57] English humour is under a great debt to the English Church. Not +only, of course, are Sydney Smith and "Tom Ingoldsby" of immortal +fame--to name no others--in the front rank of our wits, but _Punch_ has +received the homage of "Cuthbert Bede," Dean Hole, the Rev. W. F. +Callaway, Canon Ainger, and the Rev. Anthony C. Deane. The Irish +Catholic priest Father James Healy, by the way, indirectly contributed a +number of capital jokes. + +[58] It is to be observed, however, that there is no mention of these +engravings in Mr. Swain's "_Punch_ Cut Book." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1860-67. + + Mr. G. du Maurier's First Drawing--The "Romantic Tenor"--Polite + Satire--His Types and Creations--His Pretty Women--And Fair + American--"Chang," "Don," and "Punch"--Mr. du Maurier as a _Punch_ + Writer--Mr. Gordon Thompson--Mr. Stacy Marks, R.A.--Paul Gray--Sir + John Millais, Bart., R.A.--Mr. Fred Barnard--First Joke Refused as + "Painful"--Mr. R. T. Pritchett--Initiation by Sir John + Tenniel--Fritz Eltze--His Amiable Jocularity--Mr. A. R. + Fairfield--Colonel Seccombe--Fred Walker, A.R.A.--Mr. J. Priestman + Atkinson ("Dumb Crambo")--C. H. Bennett--Mr. W. S. Gilbert + ("Bab")--His Classic Joke--G. B. Goddard--Miss Georgina Bowers--Mr. + Walter Crane. + + +[Illustration: GEORGE DU MAURIER. + +(_From a Photograph by W. and D. Downey._)] + +When, in 1860, Mr. George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier contributed +his first drawing to _Punch_, he had little suspicion that he would be +counted, together with John Leech, John Tenniel, and Charles Keene, as +one of the four great pillars on which would rest the artistic +reputation of the paper. In that first drawing, himself and two of his +friends were represented entering the "studio" of a photographer, +smoking, as the manner of artists is; and they are coldly requested by +the deity of the place to leave their tobacco outside, as "they are in +an artist's studio" (p. 150, Vol. XXXIX.). It was a poor sketch enough, +showing some straining after comicality, and lacking every trace of the +grace and beauty the draughtsman was so soon to develop. He was Parisian +born, and after studying with a view to a scientific career, he became +convinced, through Dr. Williamson's amiable assurance that he would make +a "shocking bad chemist," that art and not science was his +destiny--more especially as his professors had been delighted with such +little caricatures of his as they had seen; but, as Mr. du Maurier +suggestively put it in his lecture on "Social Pictorial Satire," "they +had not seen them _all_." He studied art at Antwerp and Paris in company +with several notabilities of the day; but when, through an accident in +the laboratory, he lost the sight of one eye, and found the other +seriously imperilled, his chances of success in life seemed small. It +was when lying, during his long illness, in the Antwerp Hospital, in +1858, that he first saw "Punch's Almanac"--a delight which he never +forgot. When he recovered his ordinary health, he returned to England, +though with little improvement of sight to cheer him. With a courage, +however, equal to that of Sir John Tenniel, he girded himself against +fate; he worked hard in London, where he lived in humble lodgings at 85, +Newman Street, which he shared with his life-long friend, the late +Lionel Henley, afterwards R.B.A.--"the dearest fellow that ever was." He +sometimes wondered, he has told me, if he would eat a dinner that day; +and as becomes the impecunious, he was a tremendous democrat. He "hated +the bloated aristocracy, without knowing much about it; and, to do it +justice, the bloated aristocracy did not go out of its way to pester him +with its attentions." But in those happy, hungry, hard-working days, +when dinner was not always a vested interest, Mr. du Maurier seemed +already tinged with the daintier tastes that were destined to lead his +pencil to the delineation of these same "bloated" classes; and even in +those hard times he could always boast a dress-suit. + +So at the age of twenty-six--the same as that at which Charles Keene +made his début in _Punch_--he sent in an occasional contribution that +was far more in Leech's manner than in what came to be his own. + +Art has a way, figuratively speaking, of flourishing on an empty +stomach, and Mr. du Maurier made rapid progress on the training. Keene's +acquaintance and genial friendship enslaved at once his artistic +methods, as well as his artistic adoration. It was not that he admired +Leech less, but that he appreciated Keene more; and when the former +died, to the sorrow and consternation of the Staff, Mr. du Maurier was +appointed to his seat at the Table. He obeyed the summons on the first +Wednesday that followed Leech's death, and carved his monogram on the +board between those of the bosom friends, Thackeray and Leech. Mark +Lemon, with characteristic shrewdness, soon discovered in what direction +lay the talent and perhaps the _penchant_ of the artist, and told him +not to try to be "too funny," but to do the graceful side of things, and +to be "the romantic tenor in Mr. Punch's opera bouffe company," while +Keene was to do the comic songs. The little social dramas of the day, +the drawing-rooms of Belgravia, and the nurseries of Mayfair--those were +his preserves, from which he could get as much game as he chose, +humorous if he liked, but graceful withal. + +But Mr. du Maurier is emphatically not what is commonly understood by "a +funny man," for all his subtlety and love of humour; he is a combination +of the artistic, with a distinct and clear sense of beauty, and of the +scientific, with speculations and theories of race and heredity--who +would as lief draw East-End types for the sake of their "character," and +would look at a queer face more for the interest that is in it than for +its comicality. If Mr. du Maurier's sense of beauty is strong, so is his +appreciation of ugliness; and if you take down any of the volumes of +_Punch_--that shine in their shelves like the teeth in the great +laughing mouth of Humour itself--you will find no faces or forms more +hideous or grotesque than those which the artist has chosen to put +there. + +But if there is one thing to justify the opinion of his admirers that he +is the "Thackeray of the pencil," it is primarily to be found, not so +much in the keen satire of his drawing and legends, but in his +startling, his strikingly truthful creations. Creations we have had from +Leech, Keene, and others--from Leech's pure sense of fun and jollity; +from Keene's unerring observation of men and women, and fleeting +emotion--but those of Mr. du Maurier go deeper into vices, virtues, +habits, and motives, and are at the root of his pictorial commentaries. +He has given us true pictures of the manners of his time; and those +manners he has satirised with more politeness and irony, perhaps, than +broad humour. He worked well with Keene in double harness, and his +pictures are at once a foil and a complement of that genius's work and +_point de vue_. He has satirised everything, and his art has been +admirably adapted to the depth of the civilisation he probes and +dissects. His sense of beauty and tenderness apart, he is to art much +what Corney Grain was to the stage, though his hand is not so heavy; and +while you laugh with Leech, you smile with Mr. du Maurier--lovingly at +his children, respectfully at his pretty women, and sardonically at his +social puppets. + +His own particular creations--his types and "series"--are to some +sections of _Punch's_ admirers, _Punch's_ chief attraction. Especially +is this the case in the United States,[59] where to Mr. du Maurier many +people have looked almost exclusively, not only for English fashions in +male and female attire, and the _dernière mode_ in social etiquette, but +for the truest reflection of English life and character. First of all +these types are Sir Gorgius Midas--who, the artist once confided to me, +was drawn without exaggeration from real life--and his common wife and +still vulgarer son. Then Mrs. Ponsonby de Tomkyns, the clever and +scheming, and her husband, depressed and stolidly obedient; the bishop +and the flunkey, all calves and dignity; Grigsby, the "comic" man, and +his punctilious friend, Sir Pompey Bedell, inflated with pretentious +emptiness; 'Arry and 'Arriet, blatant and irrepressible; young Cadby, +the Cockney; and the Duke and Duchess of Stilton, whose very figures +seem to be drawn in purple ink; the refined colonel, a counterpart and +not unworthy comrade of Newcome himself; Maudle, Postlethwaite, and Mrs. +Cimabue Brown, most delightful trio of sickening "æsthetes"--specially +beloved of Mr. du Maurier, whose famous drawing, "Are You Intense?" is +perhaps the particular favourite of all his satiric _Punch_ work; Mr. +Soapley and Mr. Todeson, who vie with each other in vulgar servility +and sycophancy; the Herr Professor, ponderously humorous in smoking-room +or boudoir; and Anatole, the bridegroom, happy and dapper in the Bois de +Boulogne; Titwillow and the ex-Jew at the Club--what an assemblage of +carefully differentiated specimens of London's characteristic +inhabitants! That many of them are often accepted, universally quoted as +types, apart from any express reference to _Punch_ or to its artist, is +the best testimony of the truth of his irony; for they are as +recognisable in the real world as the Jacques, the Becky Sharps, and the +Pecksniffs of other brains. And besides these there are the general +characters so accurately presented to us--the refined lady with the very +old face and frontal grey or white curls whom Mr. du Maurier used to +draw, I believe, from the person of Mrs. Hamilton Aädé; the charming +young ladies for whom, in succession, his wife and daughters have sat; +and the delightful little ones to whom Professor Ruskin paid partial +tribute when he declared, a little cruelly, perhaps, that the "charm of +his extremely intelligent, and often exquisitely pretty children, is +dependent, for the greater part, on the dressing of their back hair and +the fitting of their boots." + +The admirable setting in which Mr. du Maurier frames his series of jokes +is testimony to his genius. He follows Leech's plan of such series +("Servantgalism," "The Rising Generation," etc.), but the quality of the +thought and its presentation is as much more elaborate than Leech's as +his method of draughtsmanship is more complicated. These series or +formulæ, in their chief heads and subtle variations, display the quality +of his mind. If you turn to the volumes for 1888 (XCIV. and XCV.) you +will find examples of no fewer than nine of them: (1) Things one would +rather have left unsaid; (2) Things one would rather have expressed +differently; (3) Social Agonies; (4) Feline Amenities; (5) Our +Imbeciles; (6) Typical Modern Developments; (7) Studies in Evolution; +(8) Nincompoopiana; and (9) What our Artist has to put up with;--the +last-named, however, a vein which Keene began to work as early as 1854. + +His talent, too, in devising the legends, or "cackle," for the drawings +is uniformly happy, unsurpassed by any man who ever wrote for _Punch_. +As Mr. Anstey says, he has brought the art of _précis_-writing to +perfection. His legends are not always so concise as Leech's, but for +truth of expression, felicitous colloquialism, and above all, for +foreign accent, he is unapproached. I go farther, and say that he is the +first man who ever put truthfully upon paper, and properly +differentiated, the "broken English" and slangy mispronunciations of +German, French, and Semite, to say nothing of his Cockney; indeed, his +studies in this direction prove him, besides an admirable physiologist +_pour rire_ and a pungent though courteous satirist, an inimitable +comparative-"broken"-philologist. + +[Illustration: "MY PRETTY WOMAN." + +(_Drawn by George du Maurier._)] + +True to his _rôle_ of "Romantic Tenor," Mr. du Maurier has endowed +_Punch_ with the greater part of the grace and beauty which have done so +much to make the paper what it is. "In his social subjects," says a +distinguished critic,[60] "Mr. du Maurier, though somewhat mannered and +fond of a single type of face and figure, has carried the ironical +_genre_, received by Leech from Gavarni and Charlet, to the highest +point of elegance it has attained." He is too fond of the beautiful, +sighs Mr. James; he sees everything _en beau_, and Mistress and Maid +with him are a good deal of Juno and Hebe. No doubt his grace often +militates against his fun, but Mr. du Maurier, as has already been +suggested, is only by accident a professional funny man. Besides, when +he wishes to be merely funny, he passes Beauty by as if he were not the +most devoted of her adorers, as you may see in one of the best of all +his drawings in _Punch_, in which a typically selfish master of the +house orders up the cook into the breakfast-room, complaining that he +cannot eat the bacon which he has just served; his wife's, he says, is +the worst he ever saw--and _his own is nearly as bad_! + +Even more than his lovely child (often drawn from his little grandson), +his superb youth, and his splendid gentleman, Mr. du Maurier's pretty +woman is the pedestal upon which he has erected his reputation--at +least, so far as _Punch_ is concerned. His pretty woman, he declares, is +the granddaughter of Leech's, and he beseeches the public to love her, +paternally at least as he does, "for her grandmother's sake." + +[Illustration: PENCIL STUDY FOR "PUNCH" PICTURE. + +(_By George du Maurier._)] + +Writing his mind on the subject of his delightful creation at my own +request,[61] he says:-- + + "I do hope the reader does not dislike her--that is, if he knows + her. I am so fond of her myself, or, rather, so fond of what I + _want_ her to be. She is my _pièce de résistance_, and I have often + heard her commended, and the praise of her has sounded sweet in + mine ears, and gone straight to my heart, for she has become to me + as a daughter. She is rather tall, I admit, and a trifle stiff; but + English women are tall and stiff just now; and she is rather too + serious; but that is only because I find it so difficult, with a + mere stroke in black ink, to indicate the enchanting little curved + lines that go from the nose to the mouth-corners, causing the + cheeks to make a smile--and without them the smile is + incomplete--merely a grin. And as for height, I have often begun by + drawing the dear creature little, and found that by one sweep of + the pen (adding a few inches to the bottom of her skirt) I have + improved her so much that it has been impossible to resist the + temptation--the thing is so easy, and the result so satisfying and + immediate." + +Nowadays, he has declared, girls are no longer pretty--they are +beautiful; and as Mr. Galton, the anthropometrical expert, himself +admits, they, even more than the rest of mankind, have certainly grown +taller. The artist, as we have seen, invented the tall woman; the +Psyches of our fathers' days have become the Venuses and Junos of these; +and more than one writer has gravely sought to fix the responsibility, +or the credit, on Mr. du Maurier and his pencil. Scientific +investigation has taught us that the English girl tops her foreign +sisters, though her average weight is two pounds less than that of the +fair American; and there is little doubt that if she does not absolutely +adapt her height to the artist's sense of beauty and power of +inspiration, she has at least to thank him for making it fashionable. +The truth of the matter is that Mr. du Maurier has always been a close +observer; and just as his drawings have always been in the fashion in +point of dress through his careful watching of the changing wardrobe of +his wife and daughters, so was he the first to record the increasing +stature of English girls, even while Leech was still drawing them as he +had known them--short and buxom and "plump little dumplings"--never +recognising that they had been deposed by Fashion and improved by +Nature. But the race changed, and _Punch_ changed with them. Venus was +Venus once more, and Mr. du Maurier was her Prophet. + +"And the old ladies!" proceeds Mr. du Maurier; "it is such a pleasure to +draw them, and do one's best. To think of all the charming old ladies +one has known, and (according to one's letterpress) to select the chin +of one, the white curls of another, the mouth and nose of a third, and +then to make a subtle arrangement in sweet sympathetic wrinkles--too +often to be subtly disarranged by the engraver and the printer! + +"Then we get to the male characters, and there it is comparatively plain +sailing; and would be pleasant sailing enough but for the hideousness of +certain portions of the modern male attire. However new, however good +the tailor, however comely the leg beneath, the TROUSER is the one +heart-breaking object to the conscientious but æsthetically-minded +draughtsman on wood! It ignores the knee, and falls on the boot in a +shape that has no reference to the ankle whatever--a shape of its +own--and yet the ankle is the foundation of everything! + +"Next in order of demerit and impossibility comes the chimney-pot hat, +which is not lacking in character, but is ugly and ridiculous. Its one +redeeming feature is the difficulty it presents to the draughtsman. It +is mathematical, geometrical, with every curve known to science, as hard +to represent correctly as a boat or a fiddle--more so; and the delight +of successful achievement is proportionately great. Linley Sambourne +alone, who was originally trained as an engineer, has been able to +grapple with the chimney-pot hat; Walker all but succeeded by the sheer +force of his heaven-born genius." + +But, in spite of all this beauty, surely his misrepresentation of +that divinity--the American Girl--is beyond all hope of pardon, +beyond contrition, beyond all penance. He does full justice to her +refined and splendid loveliness and her magnificent proportions; +but he seems to regard her, if one may say so, as a sort of +Kensington-Town-Hall-Subscription-Dance young lady, a little more +_outrée_ and free and slangy and vulgar. She guesses in the ballroom +that English partners don't "bunch" (give bouquets); when invited to go +in to supper she avers, not without a sense of inward satisfaction, that +she is "pretty crowded already;" she has a deep though entirely a +tourist's interest in English institutions, ruins, and celebrities; she +has little reverence else for what is in the heavens above or the earth +beneath; and she dearly loves a lord--or she would, if by any +honourable means she can obtain the chance. His American girls, too, +all come from one and the same place; they are all born from one and the +same mother; their natural cleverness and unnatural ignorance are +compounded in the same proportions, and, altogether, they are the most +charming and delightful libels on American young-womanhood that well +could be. But is his representation of the American girl any less +pleasant than the common, home-made American view of an English +gentleman--at least, of an English "swell"? Not at all. On the contrary, +she is, as I said before, a divinity. + +More than once Mr. du Maurier has broken away from his light comedy +_rôle_ and, besides giving vent to his fantastic power in his wonderful +"Night-mares," has given us something with serious thought, and, now and +again, with tragedy in it--has offered us, indeed, a taste of the +deepest poetic quality that he has shown in his novels of "Peter +Ibbetson" and "Trilby." You may see a touch of it in Tenniel's great +cartoon at the outbreak of hostilities between France and Germany, in +which the great Napoleon stands warningly in the path of the infatuated +Emperor; that was du Maurier's suggestion. You may see a touch of it in +the page drawing of "Old Nickotin Stealing Away the Brains of His +Devotees" (1868), in which a circle of strange men, whose own heads are +their pipe-bowls, smoke away their brains through long tubes that work +well into the composition, while, in the foreground, one of the poor +foolish wretches drops, just as a last little curling puff rises from +his smoked-out skull. There were more of such compositions before 1880, +at the time when Mr. du Maurier was still making full-page drawings in +_Punch_. But, after all, it is not in _Punch_, but rather in the +"Cornhill Magazine" and "Once a Week," in "Esmond," and other +works--particularly in the "Illustrated Magazine"--that his full power +in serious work must be sought. + +Professor Ruskin, after declaring that the "terrific force" of Mr. du +Maurier's satire of character in face and figure consists in the +_absence_ of caricature, describes as "cruelly true" the design +"representing the London mechanic with his family when Mr. Todeson is +asked to amuse 'the dear creatures' at Lady Clara's garden tea;" and +proclaims the artist more exemplary than either John Leech or John +Tenniel ("the real founders of _Punch_, and by far the greatest of its +illustrators both in force of art and range of thought") "in the +precision of the use of his means, and the subtle boldness to which he +has educated the interpreter of his design."[62] In point of fact, the +engraver has had to "interpret" Mr. du Maurier's drawings far less than +those of many of his colleagues, for his line is too delicate, +sympathetic, and precise to leave room for anything but the strictest +possible facsimile. This was quite as true in the old days when he drew +upon the block, as in later times, when, yielding to the stern demands +of failing eyesight--which, for a period, forced him to suspend work +altogether--he drew with the pen upon paper several times larger than +the ultimate reduction effected by means of photography. It is curious +in tracing his hand through _Punch_ to see how his work gradually +strengthened; how his early vigour of subject and activity of mind, +expressed in strong black-and-white, gave way to a daintier touch when +the grace and prettiness of his _dramatis personæ_ came to demand +greater refinement of the drawn line; and how this again constantly +widened out into a broader method, under the inspiration of Charles +Keene. And yet from first to last, in the smallest sketch as in the most +elaborate picture, his hand is unmistakable. + +In common with Keene and others, Mr. du Maurier has suffered from time +to time from printers' errors. One of the most curious, perhaps, is that +in which three little boys are shown in a drawing playing upon a sofa, +evidently very much in the way of their elder sister, who is receiving a +visit from an admirer. The sister asks her brothers with pardonable +point if they will not go and play downstairs. No, the oldest replies, +Mamma has sent them up "to play forfeits." The joke, utterly pointless +as printed, becomes intelligible when it is explained that "forfeits" +is an error for "propriety." Many of the artist's jokes, as already +explained, have come from various friends; indeed, in this case, they +are probably less often manufactured than in that of others. All the +same, it may be of interest to record that the oft-quoted joke of the +æsthetic young couple who agreed that they must "live up to" their blue +and white tea-pot, was not "made up," but was spoken in downright, +imbecile earnest. + +[Illustration: "CHANG." + +(_Drawn by G. du Maurier. By Courtesy of the Fine Art Society._)] + +Like Keene, too, Mr. du Maurier loved to put his own dogs into _Punch_. +Whether it was his magnificent St. Bernard, "Chang," whose seven-foot +skeleton now graces the Royal College of Surgeons, or his little +terrier, "Don," or his dachshund, "Punch," they have all played their +part in public and justified their existence as models, and have in +their time been the pets as much of you and me as of their legal owner. +But, for all his connoisseurship in dogs, Mr. du Maurier is woefully +deficient in certain forms of sportsmanlike knowledge, and could he but +have heard the howls in the cricket world a few years since when he +ventured on depicting a "mixed match," and showed the wickets about +forty yards apart, he would almost have wished the excellent joke +untold. Herein, of course, he was not more ignorant than his friend +Keene, who had to be specially coached (yet with what disastrous +results!) when he wished to present a picture involving the "placing" of +the field. + +[Illustration: "DON." + +(_Drawn by G. du Maurier._)] + +Apart from his artistic services to _Punch_, Mr. du Maurier has been a +contributor to its pages of verse and prose, comparable with some of the +best that has appeared there. Who can forget his admirable +nonsense-verses, his "_Vers Nonsensiques à l'usage des Familles +Anglaises_," or his exquisite fooling in his "Shalott" poem, or his +"Alphabet" verses, or his _vers de société_? They worthily heralded the +novelist as we know him now, who is also the author of one of the most +brilliant lectures--brimming over with happy thought and sparkling +epigram--that have been composed in recent years. It is by his long, +varied, and effective service that Mr. du Maurier has to be recognised +as one of the four artists--Leech, Keene, and Tenniel being the +others--who bore the chief share in raising _Punch_ to his pinnacle, and +he is to be named with Keene as a truthful recorder of the life and +humours of Society during the last forty years of the nineteenth +century. But if it is for this achievement, and for his delightful +genius that he is primarily esteemed in Whitefriars and throughout the +English-speaking world, it is for himself and his own good-humour that +"Kiki"--as he is known to his intimates--has been regarded with +affection and admiration by his colleagues during the long period of his +honourable, dignified, and brilliant connection. + +For the space of one-and-twenty years--a period which drew to a close in +1895--Mr. du Maurier has lived and worked in his house near Hampstead +Heath, from which he has wrought so many backgrounds for his _Punch_ +pictures. Whitby, Scarborough, Boulogne, as well as Paris and London, +have oftentimes afforded him local colour; but you get to learn +Hampstead as you look at his drawings better than any of the others, and +to know his sanctum--his salon-studio. Its characteristic bits, its +bow-window, its Late-Gothic fireplace, its window-seat, are all +familiar. And here the artist's model has latterly been the +draughtsman's more constant companion, for "the older I grow," says Mr. +du Maurier, "the more careful, the more of a student I become." So, for +every _Punch_ drawing he now makes beautiful pencil studies which, in my +opinion, are even more delightful and more dainty than the pen-and-ink +pictures they assist in perfecting. Examples of these studies, +accurately and simply drawn, are here reproduced, and they will be seen +to reveal the draughtsman's graceful artistry more completely than any +other work in his recognised medium. + +[Illustration: PENCIL STUDY FOR "PUNCH" PICTURE. + +(_By George du Maurier._)] + +It was in the year following Mr. du Maurier's début that Mr. John Gordon +Thompson began his short connection with _Punch_. He was a very young +man, and these drawings were almost his earliest work. He was at that +time studying for the Civil Service, and after his appointment to +Somerset House he discontinued to a great extent his artistic efforts; +but when he left the Service in 1870 he resumed the pencil, and became, +and remained for twenty years without one week's break, the cartoonist +of "Fun." His style was not yet formed when he contributed to _Punch_, +and his three-and-thirty socials, all published by 1864, gave little +promise of the ability he afterwards displayed in the papers, magazines +and books innumerable which he illustrated with such furious ardour. + +Mr. H. Stacy Marks, R.A., also made his appearance in the paper in 1861, +with a design for an architectural hat of Tudor-Gothic order, fitted +with gargoyles round the brim for rainy weather. He also made an initial +"I," and then was seen in _Punch_ no more until the Almanac for 1882, +when he made a full-page ornithological drawing of "Up before the Beak." + +[Illustration: PENCIL STUDY FOR "PUNCH" PICTURE. + +(_By George du Maurier._)] + +Paul Gray was another of _Punch's_ promising contributors fated to an +early death. He began with a few initials--a couple of "A's" were his +first little feat, one of them made out of an old woman and a bathing +machine. Then came "socials" up to 1865, which attracted attention for +their grace, in spite of their lack of backbone; but after a variety of +work, including drawings for the "Argosy" and illustrations for +Kingsley's "Hereward," his pencil was laid down, and he was no more than +twenty-five when he died. + +Half-a-dozen sketches by Harris in 1863 were followed by Sir John +Millais' first contribution--a mock-heroic illustration to Mr. Burnand's +"Mokeanna" (p. 115, Vol. XLIV.). The distinguished artist repeated his +unusual experience in the Almanac for 1865, when in a technically +exquisite drawing he showed a couple of children in a studio assaulting +the lay figure. There were other pictures by which Sir John figured +indirectly in _Punch_. As one of the most intimate friends of John +Leech, he took the liveliest interest in his work. "Once," he informs +me, "I forwarded two drawings to Leech from Scotland, and he traced them +on to the wood and they appeared in _Punch_--one a tourist struggling +against the wind in a plaid; the other, two artists sketching with veils +on to escape the midges. Possibly they were the occasion of my attending +the Dinner. Leech, I think, asked me to do a drawing for 'Mokeanna' and +the drawing of the 'Children in the Studio.'" + +About this time it is claimed that Miss Joanna Hill, the niece of Sir +Rowland Hill, contributed some sketches on the convict question; but it +is certain that nothing in her name was ever accepted. + +[Illustration: A LIBEL ON HIMSELF. + +(_By F. Barnard._)] + +A far more interesting and amusing adherent was Mr. Fred Barnard, a +humorist of the first rank; but as he was not yet seventeen years of age +at the time it is not surprising that his drawings were greatly inferior +to his admirable work of later years. His first joke was rejected, as he +quaintly explains in the following note: "In 1863 I was a student (and +in consequence fondly supposed to be studying) at Heatherley's School of +Art in Newman Street, and was then half-past sixteen. I must have had +plenty of assurance at that time, for, unknown to anyone, I sent a joke, +accompanied by a pencil sketch, to _Punch_. It represented a brute of a +dustman belabouring his horse's head with the butt-end of his whip. To +him enters a fussy, benevolent-looking, and slightly sarcastic old +gentleman, who remonstrates with him in these words: 'My good man, +_that_ isn't the way to treat your horse! You should _poke it in his +eye_--poke it in his eye, man!' Mark Lemon returned it as, he said, 'the +enclosed is rather too painful for _Punch_.' Encouraged by this repulse, +I sent in another joke and drawing, which were accepted. A small parcel +arrived shortly afterwards containing a '_block_' of wood. As I had +never seen one before, and had no notion whatever as to the process of +wood engraving, I didn't know what it was, or for what use. At the back, +on its rough ribbed surface, was a mystic inscription which I +interpreted into 'C. Bramitsi Struss,' but which a friend informed me +was intended for '6, Bouverie Street,' and he showed me how to set to +work. And so I did the drawing and some dozen others.... But I rather +fancy I shine with more than usual brilliancy in religious +periodicals--especially when the articles I have to illustrate are +written by imbecile women or ministers of the Gospel--I find it so +congenial and instructive." In three years Mr. Barnard was seen but +fifteen times in all. Twenty years later, in 1884, he made a last +appearance in a drawing which did not show him at his best (p. 303, Vol. +LXXXIV.). This was entitled "Early Prejudice," in which a child, +referring to the baby, suddenly exclaims, "Oh, mamma! when baby begins +to talk, what a dreadful thing if we find out _he's an Irishman_!"--a +joke, by the way, which in its main point was anticipated by Mr. du +Maurier in 1876, in his drawing called "Waiting for the Verdict." Lastly +there was a sketch called "Evening at Earls," which was sent in and +engraved, but not used; and since that day Mr. Barnard abstained from +further contribution. + +In this same year a young lady named Miss Mansel (now Mrs. Bull) sent in +a drawing of an incident which occurred at her uncle's place at Anglesey +in Hampshire--the initials "R. M." on the buckets being those of Colonel +Mansel. "My eyes!" says Cooper the groom, in effect, to a gentleman who +has watched a lady dismount from her over-ridden animal; "to them ladies +a 'oss is a 'oss, and he must go!" Leech slightly re-touched the +drawing, adding pigeons in the foreground, and so forth, but, of course, +did not add his initials. Curiously enough, this block was included +among that artist's "Pictures of Life and Character" (p. 52, Series +IV.). "I remember I was very proud," writes the lady, "a few days after +the drawing appeared, at hearing some officers in High Street, +Portsmouth, quoting my sketch as a lady galloped up the road. I was only +about seventeen then." + +[Illustration: R. T. PRITCHETT. + +(_From a Photograph by H. Bibo, Warwick._)] + +After a single contribution (entitled "Clara") by that ill-fated genius, +George Pinwell, Mr. R. T. Pritchett left his rifles for _Punch's_ pages. +He was in fact but a boy when he took charge of his father's gun factory +at Enfield, and was still a lad when he conducted experiments in +competition, with his own hand, for a new Government gun, introducing a +bullet of his own conception, firing every shot, and triumphing over +every competitor. So the "Enfield" or "Pritchett rifle" brought him +fame; but it proved the stumbling-block of his artistic career, for he +found out for himself the truth that a man known for one thing has +little chance in any other field--particularly in the artistic field. He +was glad, however, when the Government eventually decided to manufacture +the gun themselves, and the House of Commons voted him £1,000--though +the experiments had cost nearly three times as much--and he was enabled +to take to art. + +It was at a meeting of the Moray Minstrels, the delightful "Jermyn Band" +promoted by Mr. Arthur Lewis--where every man was invited on his own +merits and guests were excluded--that he met John Tenniel. John Forster +was the leader, and there were often present John Leech, Dickens, +Stanfield, Thackeray, Landseer, Tom Angell, Sir John Millais, Mr. Carl +Haag, Mr. Frith, Mr. Marks, Charles Keene, Mr. Whistler, and Sir Arthur +Sullivan; altogether a notable company. It was under Sir John Tenniel's +hospitable roof that Mr. Pritchett was initiated into the mysteries of +wood-drawing. He had been watching the Master drawing his cartoon, and +was busy sketching the top of his amiable head, when its owner told him +he would be much better occupied in drawing on the wood, and threw him +over a piece. Upon it Mr. Pritchett made a sketch, which Sir John took +to Mr. Swain, and which afterwards appeared in one of A. K. H. B.'s +works. By Mr. Swain the draughtsman was introduced to "Once a Week" and +to _Punch_, and for the latter Mr. Pritchett began with some initials. +His work appears from 1863 until 1869, some six-and-twenty amusing +drawings in all, and when he ceased in order to take to painting, he +drew for no other comic paper; for he had adopted the proud motto: "Aut +_Punch_, aut nullus." He then took to travel, writing books and +illustrating them by himself, and commended himself still further by the +cruise he made and illustrated with Lady Brassey in _The Sunbeam_. +Moreover, he has for many years drawn privately for the Queen, in +recognition of which he received the Jubilee medal. A portrait of him, +drawn by Charles Keene, may be seen in the _Punch_ picture wherein a +little girl asks her papa if she "may have the gentleman's moustache for +a tail for her horse"--a portrait so good that by virtue of it he made +the acquaintance of Mr. Sambourne years after, when the latter gentleman +accosted him with the words "I know you by Keene's likeness of you in +_Punch_!" + +Then came Fritz Eltze, who was introduced to _Punch_ on May 1st, 1864, +and in due course took up some of the work let fall by Leech. He was a +son of Sir Richard Mayne's confidential secretary, and most of what he +knew of the life he drew was what he could see down Scotland Yard, or +what he could remember of happy early days at Ramsgate. He was a +confirmed invalid who had never enjoyed life like other children, and +the consumption from which he died was already developing. He submitted +a few sketches to Mark Lemon who, according to his custom, sent Mr. +Swain to make inquiries, with a result that was the brightest spot in +the artist's life. Although his work had the touch of the amateur about +it, it had a curious charm; and rapid improvement followed. His humours +of the fashions and follies of the day were greatly appreciated, +especially as his work advanced to half-page "socials;" but it was to +his tender touches that his popularity was chiefly due, particularly in +his treatment of child-life. The little one who--being told that they +may not have mistletoe in church at Christmas--naively asks if "they +must not love one another in church," and the other who, when playing at +"horses" and one of the leaders falls, cries to its companion next in +command to "sit on her head and cut the traces," are typical of his work +in this direction. His last contribution (Mr. Punch _à la Turc_ on a +minaret) appeared in September, 1870, but a couple of drawings, in 1872 +and 1875, were published "out of stock." Eltze, one of _Punch's_ tall +men, by the way, was a pleasing draughtsman whose work, in its curious +absence of lining, had a striking appearance of originality in its +practically broad outline. + +Mr. A. R. Fairfield may be known by his sign-manual like a Sign of the +Zodiac run wild. It is, however, merely an inverted "A" on the Greek +character [Greek: Phi] with its stem elongated. He sprang from an +artistic family, and after three months' training at South Kensington in +1857, he began to draw on wood for "Fun" at about the same time as Mr. +W. S. Gilbert--the autumn of 1861. His connection with _Punch_ was +fortuitous. Being sent by Dr. James Macaulay, the editor of the "Leisure +Hour," to Mr. Swain for some blocks on which to make his drawings for +that magazine, he was smartly captured by the vigilant engraver for the +"London Charivari." The result was many initials and drawings made to +his own jokes; but his first contributions appeared in the special +"Shakespeare Jubilee Number." His work appears often enough after +that--four-and-twenty times in 1864 and 1865. They were at times +amateurish in manner, but they had character and humour. It was Leech's +death that practically put an end to Mr. Fairfield's connection with +_Punch_, for Keene then came to reign supreme in the art department; but +it did not matter much, as Mr. Fairfield, at that time a clerk at the +Board of Trade--in which capacity only he ever came into contact with +Tom Taylor, then Secretary of the Local Government Board--was given to +understand that his career would be interfered with if he prosecuted +too far his outside work. In 1887 (p. 245, Vol. XC.) another sketch +appears, comet-like, after an interval of more than twenty years. + +Colonel Seccombe followed a few weeks after Mr. Fairfield's début. At +that time he was a subaltern. His youthful military drawings--signed +with a sketch of a cannon--were clever, and highly promising. His cuts +appeared in 1864, 1866, and again in 1882--eight altogether. Foreign +service interrupted the young draughtsman's artistic studies for a +considerable period, but the result of his later labours is seen in the +many works for children and others which he has since published. + +At the same time came a bevy of draughtsmen, who added little to +_Punch's_ prestige--Dever, whose eight drawings are but caricatures, +which none can see without being reminded of some of the grotesque types +which later on were adopted by Mr. E. T. Reed in his earlier work; H. R. +Robinson with two (though his work was not printed till two years +later); Chambers with one; and Rogat with three; and then the year 1865 +brought two or three contributors of interest and importance. + +The first of these was Fred Walker, A.R.A., whose first drawing, printed +in the "Almanac," shows a number of water-nymphs sea-bathing around +Neptune--called "The New Bathing Company (Limited). Specimens of the +Costumes to be worn by the Shareholders"--is graceful, and technically +good, but not particularly remarkable, and is rather fanciful than +funny. His second and last, "Captain Jinks of the _Selfish_ and his +Friends enjoying themselves on the River"--a more masterly sketch--was +made in 1869 (p. 74, Vol. LVII.), in hot indignation at the selfishness +and mischievousness of steam-launch skippers on the upper Thames. He had +himself been an angry witness of the destruction of the river-banks by +private steamboats, but had fairly boiled over at the sight of the very +incident which he recorded in _Punch_--the outrageous, insolent +indifference shown by the trippers to all on the river or its banks, +save their own selfish selves. As a fisherman, Mr. Leslie, R.A., tells +us, Walker looked upon the steam-launcher as his natural enemy; and it +was while the two friends were on the river together that the incident +occurred, and the drawing was decided upon. "He was most fastidious +about this work, rehearsing it many times before he was satisfied.... +In rendering the distant landscape the work becomes entirely finished +and tender. It is a beautiful little bit of Bray, with the church and +poplars drawn direct from Nature; a bridge is introduced to prevent the +scene being too easily recognised. On the opposite bank is a portrait of +myself, with easel and picture upset by the steamer's swell.... I was +told that three copies of _Punch_ were sent to the steam-launch +proprietor on the day of publication.... This clever bit of satire had +no effect." + +[Illustration: J. PRIESTMAN ATKINSON.] + +[Illustration: IN A HANSOM WITH MARK LEMON. + +(_Drawn by J. Priestman Atkinson._)] + +"Dumb Crambo, Junior"--Mr. J. Priestman Atkinson--is better remembered +by _Punch_ readers, perhaps, by his pencil-name than by his common +cipher. In 1864 he was in the General Manager's office at Derby, +pleasingly varying his clerical duties by drawing caricatures for the +amusement of his fellow-clerks, and designing cartoons for the local +satirical journal, the "Derby Ram," which appeared spasmodically and +devoted itself principally to electioneering purposes. One of his +colleagues was Harry Lemon, Mark's son, who showed his father some of +his friend's sketches. On the occasion of a subsequent visit paid by Mr. +Atkinson to town, Mark Lemon invited him to dine at the Garrick Club +(whither they drove in a hansom, much in the style shown in the sketch), +and Shirley Brooks drank to him as "the future cartoonist of _Punch_." +His first cut--an initial T--appeared on p. 15, Vol. XLVIII, and +thenceforward Mr. Atkinson has been considered on the "outside Staff," +with but two breaks: the first during an absence in Paris for artistic +instruction, and the second from 1869 to 1876, when an opportunity +occurred to make a "sure fortune" in commerce. The "sure fortune," as +usually befalls, became a pecuniary loss, and the draughtsman gladly +went back to the service of _Punch_ and the other papers and books to +which his pencil (under a different signature) has been devoted. It is +years since Mr. Atkinson, who has latterly worked less for _Punch_ than +in the early days of his connection, was able to do himself full justice +in a half-page drawing; but his "Dumb Crambo" series remain among the +happy things which _Punch_ has published in the direction of punning +sketches. They remind one of those by Hine, Newman, and the rest, in the +old "blackie" days, and are often little masterpieces of comic +ingenuity--as may be seen in "Shooting over an Extensive Moor," where a +man is discharging his weapon over the portly figure of a Moorish +gentleman. Mr. Atkinson, in addition, made some two score literary +contributions to the paper and "Pocket-book"--poems chiefly, and +stories, not counting smaller trifles, between August, 1877, and the +accession of Mr. Burnand to the Editorship. It was, I may add, at the +suggestion of Mr. Burnand that Mr. Atkinson adopted his _nom de crayon_, +just as he suggested Mr. Furniss's "Lika Joko." + +[Illustration: CHARLES H. BENNETT. + +(_From the Water-Colour Drawing by Himself._)] + +One of the brightest and most talented draughtsmen _Punch_ has ever had +was Charles H. Bennett, the forerunner of Mr. Linley Sambourne. He had +graduated in comic draughtsmanship, having been the life and soul of +"Diogenes" (August, 1855), and rendered solid service to the "Comic +Times" (1855), and the "Comic News" (1863 to 1865), by which time his +cipher of an owl, and then of a B in an owl's beak ("B in it" = +Bennett), were known and appreciated. Apart from his _Punch_ work, his +"Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress" was his masterpiece in serious art; while +in the opposite direction his "Shadows" (which procured him for a time +the public nickname of "Shadow Bennett"), as well as his amusing +"Studies in Darwinesque Development" for Vizetelly's "Illustrated +Times," and his second series, somewhat less satisfactory, of "Shadow +and Substance," obtained for him great popularity. But when he came on +_Punch_, introduced to Mark Lemon by Hain Friswell, he was within two +years of his death. His début was on February 11th, 1865, with a sketch +of "Our Play Box," in which "Mr. Punch's delight at finding his Dear Old +Puppets where he left them in July" shows that the artist had already +begun those illustrations to the "Essence of Parliament" which form the +backbone of his _Punch_ work. Occasional pictures there are, +unconventional in shape, grotesque, ingenious, graceful in fancy, that +delight us while, as a rule, they successfully conceal any lack of early +artistic education; but the Parliamentary drawings are those by which +Bennett will be best remembered. Between the date of his first sketch, +when he was forthwith summoned to the Table without serving any +probationary period, to that last sketch in the spring of 1867, showing +Lord John Russell as a cock crowing upon the 1832 Easter egg (p. 116, +Vol. LII.), he had made over 230 drawings for the paper, besides his +contributions to the Pocket-books of 1866 and 1867. He had already +established himself, despite repeated absences through ill-health, one +of the greatest favourites in _Punch's_ company; and the comic letter +addressed to him by his colleagues during one of his illnesses is +printed in the chapter on the "_Punch_ Dinner." Indeed, he had not time +to cut his cipher on the Table; the H is begun and abandoned. "As for +dear Bennett," Mr. Frederic Shields tells me, "every link that attached +me to him has so long since been severed, that to attempt to find the +lost end of the thread is hopeless. Nothing remains but the sweet odour +of his memory--like a faded rose-leaf turned up in a long-closed +drawer." But Mr. Sala declares that he had been, "socially, the most +miserable of mankind. He was sober, industrious, and upright, and +scarcely a Bohemian; but throughout his short life he was 'Murad the +Unlucky.' At one time he occupied shabby chambers in the now defunct +Lyon's Inn, Strand; and it was the poor fellow's fate to have a child +born--a child that died--the sack from his employers, and the brokers +in, _all in the same day_." Still, Bennett, who was one of the original +founders of the Savage Club, was cheerful enough, and of a singularly +lovable disposition--as may almost be gathered from his pictures in +_Punch_, in which the shadow of none of his former troubles is ever +reflected: nothing but his "facile execution and singular subtlety of +fancy." Indeed, "Cheerful Charley," as he was known to his intimates, +became, as he himself declared, one of the luckiest and happiest of +men--fully appreciated for his art and his own delightful qualities by +troops of admiring friends. It was his extraordinary power of realising +an abstract thought and crystallising it at once into a happy pictorial +fancy that set him on a pedestal, a poet among his colleagues--those +colleagues who, when he died, lamented "the loss of a comrade of +invaluable skill, and the death of one of the kindliest and gentlest of +our associates, the power of whose hand was equalled by the goodness of +his heart." + +But Bennett left his family in sad straits, and, on Shirley Brooks's +initiative, the "_Punch_ men" at once set about devising a means to help +them. The result was the theatrical performance referred to on pp. +132-134. The Moray Minstrels wound up this famous entertainment, and +Shirley Brooks delivered a touching address of his own writing. + +Besides T. W. Woods (who made four drawings), Prehn (two), Lowe (six), +and Hays (three), Mr. W. S. Gilbert swelled the list of contributors in +this same year (1865). His work, consisting of fifteen small cuts signed +with the now familiar "Bab," and designed to illustrate the rhymes they +accompany, was lost to _Punch_ by the indisposition for compromise +displayed by contributor and Editor alike. "I sent three or four +drawings," Mr. Gilbert informs me, "and half-a dozen short articles; but +I was told by Mark Lemon, or rather a message reached me from him, that +he would insert nothing more of mine unless I left 'Fun,' with which I +was connected. This I declined to do unless he would take me on the +regular staff of _Punch_. This _he_ declined to do, and so the matter +ended. I had previously offered 'The Yarn of the Nancy Bell' (the first +of the Bab Ballads) to _Punch_, but Mark Lemon declined it on the ground +that it was 'too cannibalistic for his readers.'" So Mr. Gilbert knew +_Punch_ no more; and it is commonly related that he enjoys nothing more +than an occasional good-humoured fling at the journal which could not +see his worth. "I say, Burnand," he has many times been reported to have +said at the Garrick Club and elsewhere, when the Editor had referred to +the heavy post-bag delivered each day at the office, though witticisms +found among the wilderness of suggestions were desperately few, "do you +_never_ get anything good?" "Oh, sometimes--occasionally." "Then," +drawled the other, "_why don't you ever put one of them in?_" + +"A Hot Chestnut" (p. 143, Vol. XLIX.) was the first contribution of G. +B. Goddard, well known a little later on as Bouverie Goddard, the +animal-painter. Oil-colour was in truth his medium; but his drawings +were good, and _Punch_ for a couple of years rejoiced in his new hunting +draughtsman. Goddard was a great friend of Charles Keene, with whom he +shared for a time a studio in Baker Street; but feeling that he must +paint pictures rather than draw upon the wood-block, he left the paper, +after placing to his credit fourteen drawings--of which some were +adjudged to contain the best horses seen in its pages since the death of +Leech. + +By far the most important lady artist who ever worked for _Punch_ was +Miss Georgina Bowers (for some years now Mrs. Bowers-Edwards).[63] It is +not usual, as I have remarked before, to find a woman a professional +humorist, though a colonial _Punch_ is edited by a lady; but it is, I +believe, an undoubted fact, that up to this year of grace no female +caricaturist has yet appeared before man's vision. But Miss Bowers was a +humorist, with very clear and happy notions as to what fun should be, +and how it should be transferred to a picture. Her long career began in +1866, and thenceforward, working with undiminished energy, she executed +hundreds of initials and vignettes as well as "socials," devoting +herself in chief part to hunting and flirting subjects. She was a facile +designer, but her manner was chronically weak. It was John Leech who set +her on the track; Mark Lemon, to whom she took her drawings, encouraged +her, and with help from Mr. Swain she progressed. + +[Illustration: MRS. BOWERS-EDWARDS. + +(_From a Photograph by S. A. Walker._)] + +"My first published drawing," Miss Bowers tells me, "was a dreadful +thing of a girl urging a muff of a man to give her a lead at a brook. My +'jokes' all came from incidents I saw out hunting, and from my own +varied adventures with horse and hound; but occasionally a suggestion +sent to the Editor was transferred to me to be put into shape. Then some +one else wrote up to them. When I first hunted in Hertfordshire, I had +great opportunities for provincial sporting studies. I feel now that +some of my subjects were too personal, and wonder how many people +forgave me. I often overheard stories about myself in the hunting-field +(where I had hard times with ladies occasionally). When Shirley Brooks +died, I felt I had lost my best and most helpful friend; and then Mr. +Tom Taylor cared nothing for sport or sporting subjects, so that I felt +that my work was uncongenial to him, and I got on badly and lost all +interest in it, and gave up, after having drawn ten years for the paper, +to which I shall never again contribute." + +Mr. Walter Crane, of all people in the world, appears on p. 33 of Vol. +LI. The cut is hardly funny, except in idea--it represents a +chignon-show--nor is it as well drawn as much of the work he was doing +at the time; he had not yet hit upon the style or subject that he +afterwards made his own. A couple of sketches by O. Harling, an amateur, +conclude the list for the year. + +The year 1867 is famous in _Punch's_ calendar for the acquisition of Mr. +Linley Sambourne; but an earlier arrival was Mr. Frederic Shields. Mr. +Swain suggested that he should "do a letter or two"; Mr. Shields did +three, including a "social" ("Want your door swep', marm?"), and a girl +curling her hair with the fender-tongs. The initials were kept over +until 1870; and this constituted the sum of Mr. Shields' artistic +adventure into the domain of humour. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[59] Mr. Henry James, jun., considers ("Century Magazine," 1883) that +"since 1868, _Punch_ has been, artistically speaking, George du +Maurier." + +[60] See "Encyclopædia Britannica." + +[61] See "Magazine of Art," 1891. + +[62] "The Art of England: The Fireside," p. 174. + +[63] The other ladies are Miss Coode, Mrs. Romer (Mrs. Jopling-Rowe), +Mrs. Field, Miss Fraser, Miss Mansell (Mrs. Bull)--merely a sketch, and +Miss Maud Sambourne. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1867-82. + + + Mr. Linley Sambourne--Mechanical Engineering Loses a Decorative + Designer--Mr. Sambourne's Work--His Photographs--And + Enterprise--Strasynski--Mr. Wilfrid Lawson--Mr. E. J. Ellis--Mr. + Ernest Griset--Mr. A. Chasemore--Mr. Walter Browne--Mr. Briton + Riviere, R.A.--An Undergraduate Humorist--A _Punch_ Initial + Converted into an Academy Picture--Mrs. Jopling-Rowe--Mr. Wallis + Mackay--Mr. J. Sands, Artist, Traveller, and Hermit--Mr. W. + Ralston--Mr. A. Chantrey Corbould--Charles Keene's Advice--Randolph + Caldecott--Major-General Robley--R. B. Wallace--Colonel Ward + Bennitt--Mr. Montagu Blatchford--Mr. Harry Furniss--Origin of Mr. + Gladstone's Collars--A Favourite Ruse--How It's Done--Mr. Furniss + and the Irish Members--The Lobby Incident--Clever Retaliation--Mr. + Furniss's Withdrawal--Mr. Lillie--Mr. Storey, A.R.A.--Mr. Alfred + Bryan. + + +[Illustration: LINLEY SAMBOURNE. + +(_From a Drawing by Himself._)] + +One day when Mr. Linley Sambourne made a successful appearance as +Admiral Van Tromp at a fancy-dress ball, Mr. W S. Gilbert drily +observed, "One Dutch of Sambourne makes the whole world grin!" The jest +was wider in its application than he who made it, probably, had +intended. The humour of the artist, his quaintness of fancy, wit, and +touch, are appreciated by whoever looks for something more, even in a +professedly comic design, than that which is at first and immediately +obvious. When, early in 1867, Mark Lemon fell into admiration of a +little drawing that was luckily thrust into his hand, and declared that +the young draughtsman who wrought it had a great future before him, he +proved himself possessed of a faculty of critical insight, or of an +easy-going artistic conscience, uncommon even among editors. Few who saw +Mr. Linley Sambourne's early work, even throughout the first two or +three years of his practice, would have imagined that behind those +woodcuts, for all their cleverness, there lay power and even genius, or +that the man himself would soon come to be regarded as one of the +greatest masters of pure line of his time. + +At that time Mr. Sambourne had been working in the engineering +draughtsmen's office of Messrs. Penn and Sons, of Greenwich. But the +work was not congenial; the "pupil" spent most of his time in sketching, +and there is a story--doubtless as apocryphal as it is malicious--that +in one of his designs for a steam-engine, he sacrificed so much to +"effect" as to carry his steam-pipe through the spokes of the fly-wheel. +It was his office companion in misfortune, Mr. Alfred Reed, who secured +his friend's release from the thraldom of the iron-bound profession, by +seizing the sketch already alluded to and showing it to his father, +German Reed. By that gentleman it was submitted to his friend Mark +Lemon, who had about that time been writing an "entertainment" for the +company at the "Gallery of Illustrations." The result was an editorial +summons to the sketcher, and an engagement which has lasted to the +present day. Thus it was that, with a sketch of John Bright tilting at a +quintain under the title of "Pros and Cons," Mr. Sambourne found +himself, at the age of twenty-two, a regular contributor to +_Punch_--though he had still to wait until 1871 before he was rewarded +with a seat at the Table. + +Of artistic education he had had practically none. In the engineering +drawing-office he had learned how to handle the pen and to put it to +uses which have become a feature of his draughtsmanship. But besides a +life-school attendance extending over not more than a fortnight, he had +no other teachers than his own eyes and his own intelligence. In his +earliest work with the pencil there was a curious use of the point. +Suddenly he was called upon, through the unexpected absence of Charles +Keene from town, for more important work than that with which he had +hitherto been entrusted. This was the half-page head-piece and the +tail-piece to the preface to Vol. LIII. Then came promotion to the +"small socials" and "half-page socials." Some of the work he did fairly +well, founding himself now upon Leech, now upon Keene; but his character +and originality were too powerful to follow any man. He began to form a +style of his own, and that style did not lend itself to the +representation of modern life. It was suited better for decoration than +for movement; while the beauty of line and of silhouette which he sought +and obtained, in spite of his intense, almost aggressive, individuality, +placed him absolutely apart from all the black-and-white artists of the +day. + +It was, I have said, to the example of his predecessor, Charles H. +Bennett, who died in April, 1867 (the very month in which Sambourne's +first drawing appeared), that we owe those wonderful initial letters to +the "Essence of Parliament" of Shirley Brooks--those intricate drawings +which, covering nearly a whole page, were such miracles of invention, of +fancy, and of allusion, swarming with figures, overflowing with +suggestion, teeming with subtle symbolism. But these things did not come +at once. It was not until the "comic cut" idea was put entirely on one +side and his imagination allowed full play, that Mr. Sambourne fully +developed his powers--his strength of conception, design, and execution. +And then it was that he revealed the fact that though a humorist--and +invariably, too, a good-humorist--by necessity, he is a classic by +feeling. + +The artist's personality, as it should, impresses us first, powerfully +and irresistibly. While under Mark Lemon, Mr. Sambourne, as an artist, +was still unformed. Under Shirley Brooks was awakened his wonderful +inventive faculty. Under the _régime_ of masterly inactivity--the happy +policy of _laissez faire_--of Tom Taylor, the talent had burst forth +into luxuriance, not to say exuberance. And under Mr. Burnand it was +schooled and restrained within severer limits. + +It was many years before regular political cartooning[64] fell to his +lot. He illustrated several of Mr. Burnand's serials in _Punch_, and +some of his work out of it. But afterwards he rose to the treatment of +actuality. Upon the event of the hour his picture is formed, and each +week his work _must_ be forthcoming. There can be no question of +failure, no dallying with the subject, however elaborate or unpromising +it may appear. A decision must be come to, and that rapidly; and there +the artist sits, his watch hung up before him, "one eye on the dial and +the other on the drawing-paper," knowing that at the appointed hour the +work must be ready for the messenger. Thus the majority of his four +thousand designs have been greatly hurried--hurried in thought as well +as in execution. Many have been wrought in a single day; the great +majority within two days; very few, indeed, have taken more. But when he +has the time he wants, what amazing results are achieved! Sir John +Tenniel once exclaimed to me: "What extraordinary improvement there is +in Sambourne's work! Although a little hard and mechanical, it is of +absolutely inexhaustible ingenuity and firmness of touch. His diploma +for the Fisheries Exhibition almost gave me a headache to look at it--so +full, cram-full of suggestion, yet leaving nothing to the imagination, +so perfectly and completely drawn, with a certainty of touch which +baffles me to understand how he does it." + +For the rest, Mr. Sambourne's method, like his work, is unique. Keen of +observation though he is, his memory for detail is not to be compared to +that of Sir John Tenniel; and, actuated by that desire for accuracy +which he holds desirable in a journal specially devoted to topical +allusion, he avails himself extensively of the use of photography. In +the cabinets in his studio, filled full of drawers, each labelled +according to their contents, over ten thousand photographs are +classified: every celebrity of the day, and to a certain extent of the +past, British and foreign, at various ages, in various costumes, and in +various attitudes; representatives of the Church, the Bench, and the +Bar; of Science, Art, Literature, and the Stage; the beasts and birds +and insects in and out of the Zoological Gardens; figures by the score, +nude and draped; costumes of all ages and every country; soldiers, +sailors, and the uniforms of every army and navy; land and sea and sky; +boating and botany, nuns and clowns, hospital-nurses, musical +instruments, and rifles, locomotives, wheel-barrows, shop-windows, and +everything else besides--everything, in short, as he himself declared, +"from a weasel to a Welshman"--all are photographed mostly by himself, +and all are arranged by himself, in readiness against the demand for +accuracy and the exigencies of haste. But when time permits, Mr. +Sambourne goes to greater trouble still. Does he require a special +uniform? he begs the War Office--not unsuccessfully--to lend him one or +two men, or even a detachment; does he want to represent Mr. +Gladstone--say, as Wellington (as he did November 2nd, 1889)? he +procures the loan of the duke's own raiment, and only stops short at +borrowing Mr. Gladstone himself. For his types, too, he takes pains not +less thorough. For Britannia's helmet, he made working drawings of the +unique Greek piece in the British Museum, and from that had a replica +constructed--one of the most notable items in a notable "property" room. + +At the back of his house is a paved courtyard, wherein his servant poses +as every character under the sun while he is photographed by his master, +who then runs inside to develop the plate and make a dash at his +drawing. Or he will photograph himself, or the model in the desired +attitude; or he will get his friends to pose. Among his sitters there is +none more useful than the burly man who serves equally well for +"Policeman A 1" or John Bull, for the Duke of Cambridge or Prince +Bismarck. It was he who sat for one of the finest of Mr. Sambourne's +"junior cartoons" on the occasion when the great ex-Chancellor had said: +"I am like the traveller lost in the snow, who begins to get stiff while +the snow-flakes cover him." This picture of the aged and forlorn +statesman, accompanied only by his faithful hound, is perhaps the best +of the artist's achievements of dignity and pathos--worthy of being +named with "Dropping the Pilot" of Sir John Tenniel. His passion for +realism is so great that, I remember, when he was engaged on his +"Mahogany Tree" for the Jubilee number of _Punch_--one of the most +popular drawings he ever made--he had just such a table duly laid for +dinner in the courtyard, with one person sitting at it in order to show +the proportion, and photographed it from a window of the house at the +necessary elevation.[65] But for his love of accuracy he would not have +done these things; nor, but for his love of naturalism, could he have +given us his numerous fine studies of Nature. And but for this, Mr. +Punch would never have printed one or two of his Norwegian sketches, +such as "The Church-going Bell," in which there was not the slightest +attempt at humour or fun--nothing but a calm and reposeful love of +Nature, the deep, sad impression on the mind and heart of the artist as +he watches the northern sun dip in sleepy majesty behind the panting +waves. + +Like Rabelais, he can use the pencil to greater ends under cover of the +motley, and encase bitter truths with the gilt of a printed jest. Like +Giotto and his legendary feat, he can draw you a perfect circle with his +pen--and perhaps he is the only man in the country who can do it. His is +the rare gift that in him sense of fun, of dignity, and of art is equal. +He will brook nothing more serious in his sallies than chaff and banter; +and yet his kindly art, based upon Nature and observation of the work of +others, has, by its very truth, made him enemies even on foreign +thrones. Nevertheless, it is less as a politician and a satirist that he +claims recognition; it is primarily as an artist that he will assuredly +be remembered when his place among his countrymen has to be determined. + +A Polish artist, with Mr. Sambourne's initials, L. Strasynski by name, +also began in 1867, and during that and the following year contributed +nine cuts, very foreign in feeling and firm in touch. Then, after an +anonymous draughtsman, "M.S.R.," had appeared with a single cut +("Candles"), Mr. F. Wilfrid Lawson, the elder brother and teacher of +Cecil Lawson, contributed a sheetful of initials and vignettes which +dribbled forth in the paper up to 1876; and Mr. T. Walters, a +half-a-dozen, up to 1875. Mr. E. J. Ellis, now better known in other +fields than comic draughtsmanship, began on December 12th, 1867. He had +received an introduction to Mark Lemon through Mr. (now Sir) Algernon +Borthwick, and found the Editor "good-natured enough," as he himself +says, "to allow me to do a dozen or so of initials, and a quarter-page +illustration. They were all more or less pinched and painful things, and +Mr. Lemon did not conceal from me that 'he was not knocked over by +them.' But they were drawn on the block--not on paper--and from the +strangeness and discomfort of it came the tight-elbowed style of the +work. Of what I did altogether, only about a third were printed; half +were paid for; but what they paid for they did not print, and what they +printed they did not pay for." At that time Mr. Ellis caught the fever +of decorative art, classic and romantic, which culminated in the +"interpreted" edition of Blake's "Prophetic Books," in collaboration +with Mr. Yeats; and _Punch_ lost a promising recruit. + +The experience of Mr. Ernest Griset, who is first seen on p. 61 of Vol. +LIV., was more extensive but less gratifying. He excelled at comic +animals--his human figures are most of them of one ragged type--but on +Bennett's sudden disappearance he was quickly encouraged to take up the +dead man's work, and was enabled to show in many of his three-and-sixty +drawings of that year the full range of his talent, his remarkable +invention and ingenuity. Mr. Griset, though born in Boulogne, was +educated in England, and after studying art under Gallait, intended to +follow water-colour painting, taking subjects by preference of a Glacial +Prehistoric kind. But the foundation of "Fun" gave him the opportunity +of comic draughtsmanship, and the work he did for the paper brought him +Mark Lemon's invitation to call upon him. A cordial reception and a +flattering tribute to his ability were followed by an understanding of +regular employment, and the young draughtsman became a _Punch_ artist +unattached. But he did not remain long in favour. His work, perhaps, was +not highly popular, and Mark Lemon perceptibly cooled towards him. So, +finding he was no longer wanted, Mr. Griset, who was then no more than +twenty-four years of age, retired, and consoled himself in other +directions--notably by illustrating "Æsop's Fables," which had attracted +Bennett and Sir John Tenniel before him. + +[Illustration: ERNEST GRISET. + +(_From a Photograph by W. G. Parker and Co._)] + +[Illustration: MR. ERNEST GRISET OBEYS THE EDITOR'S SUMMONS.] + +At the end of the index to Vol. LIII. is a little tail-piece that marks +the advent of Mr. A. Chasemore. This draughtsman was welcomed by Mark +Lemon with the words: "You may try your hand at a large drawing, but let +it be broad fun. We don't want any more ladies and pretty children." +That was in 1868--yet ladies and pretty children do not even now seem +to have lost their popularity! The original drawing was not a success, +and had to be touched up by Keene. It is mentioned here as affording +another good example of the careful way in which sketches are adapted. +The subject was a recruit joining a volunteer corps. The adjutant +inquires: "What company would you wish to be in?" to which the recruit +replies: "Oh, gentleman's co'pany, of course!" The recruit was left +untouched, but the adjutant was re-drawn by Keene. "I'm afraid there's +not much humour in the idea," wrote the artist with quaint modesty; +"still, I hope it's good enough for _Punch_!" Up to 1875 Mr. Chasemore +contributed thirty-three drawings, and in addition there was a belated +one in 1879; and then he passed over to "Judy," to which paper he +thereafter devoted himself. + +The last recruit of the year was "Phiz'" young son, Walter Browne, who, +through his father's influence with Mark Lemon, was allowed to +contribute a few drawings, the first of which appeared on p. 148, Vol. +LV., and the last on November 20th, 1875. He was hardly out of his +studentship at the time--he was a pupil of Bonnat--and his work was +"young;" but he might have risen on _Punch_ had he not allowed himself +to be tempted away by a delusive offer of Tom Hood's of constant work on +"Fun," so that he closed the door in his own face, and had thenceforward +to look to news-drawing and book-illustration for advancement. + +Mr. Briton Riviere, R.A., appeared in the month of January, 1868. Few +who have followed his career as painter would detect in him the +inveterate humorist; yet it was in that direction that his bent led him +while he was still a boy. When at Oxford he had amused himself of an +evening with making humorous illustrations in pen-and-ink, and a book +which he then so drew was shown by him in 1868 to his friend Mr. G. L. +Craik, one of the partners in the house of Macmillans, and the husband +of John Halifax, Gentlewoman. This book Mrs. Craik sent to Mark Lemon, +who invited the young graduate to the _Punch_ office, and adopting the +grotesque illustrations to "Mazeppa" at once, gave him a sort of running +commission to do incidental work, to which Mr. Riviere gladly responded +by a total of the twenty-three cuts--chiefly of wild animal +subjects--contributed by him through 1868 and 1869. Not only was the +work congenial, but the artist at the time was entirely dependent upon +illustration for his livelihood, for he was newly-married, and the +picture-buying public had not yet been educated up to purchasing his +canvases. His illustrations--in chief part for American +publications--were all done at night, as his days were delivered over to +earnest though unremunerative painting. But directly his pictures began +to make way, he dropped illustration, which had made inroads upon his +health and had permanently injured his left eye through the strain of +the artificial light. So Mr. Riviere ceased his _Punch_ connection, the +proprietors, moreover, consenting to suppress those blocks which had not +yet appeared, as the painter feared that they would do harm to himself +professionally, and no particular good to the paper. Yet he has always +expressed his pride that he should have been one of the outside "_Punch_ +Staff," and he has proved it by elaborating the initial "M," which was +published on p. 217, Vol. LVI., in "_Punch's_ Derby Sporting Prophecy," +into his picture "Of a Fool and His Folly there is no End," which was +painted and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1890. + +A couple of drawings from Mr. Cooper, and an initial by "W. V." (the +cipher of Mr. Wallis Mackay, whose sketch and subsequent work did not +appear for a couple of years) were next sent in, and then came Mr. J. +Moyr Smith, whose long series of clever mock-Etruscan drawings continued +with few breaks for the space of ten years. Although the spirit that +runs through them becomes monotonous after a while, the draughtsmanship +and the excellence of the fooling always elicit admiration. Mr. Smith +had served his time to architecture; but natural love of figure-drawing, +intensified by the study of Sir John Tenniel's comic illustrations of +the historical costume, faithfully and even learnedly delineated and +perfectly drawn, settled his career, and "Fun," under Tom Hood's +editorship, witnessed his start in humorous life. Referred to Mark Lemon +by "Pater" Evans, he obtained a ready hearing, and for a couple of +years drew for the paper; but he did not work regularly, during an +interval of three years, until 1872. From this time forward he was one +of _Punch's_ recognised outside contributors, though he worked for it +only when not engaged in making designs for art-manufacturers. It was +under Shirley Brooks's editorship, and later under Tom Taylor's, that he +gave full rein to his passion for classic treatment, and his ornament, +which gave a distinct _cachet_ to _Punch_ up to 1878, was not founded on +a mere grotesque treatment of classical subjects, but was the fruit of a +close study of and easy familiarity with heathen mythology, classical, +Egyptian, and, in particular, Norse. The fun was not particularly broad, +but Tom Taylor was especially tickled by his attempts to find amusement +in the extraordinary head-dresses worn by ladies of Ancient Egypt--such +as that in the cut (July 11th, 1874) learnedly inscribed "Oos Yer +Atter?" + +[Illustration: J. MOYR SMITH. + +(_From a Drawing by Himself._)] + +Mrs. Jopling-Rowe, then Mrs. Frank Romer, was the only new arrival in +the year 1869. The death of her husband had left her under the necessity +of supporting herself and her children, and as niece of Mark Lemon she +might have obtained easy admittance to _Punch_, had she not found +portrait-painting a more remunerative occupation. Under the initial of +her name she made but four drawings of little importance, the most +ambitious being an illustration of the "Song of Sixpence," which was +treated as a subject from "Nursery History." It appeared on page 56 of +Volume LVII. + +Mr. Wallis Mackay, the clever "Captious Critic" of later days, followed +"W. G."--a contributor of a couple of trifles--and worked for _Punch_ +from 1870 to 1874, making seven-and-twenty drawings, "socials" chiefly, +in his well-known style. It was in the latter year that Tom Taylor +succeeded to the editorship, and having been mortally offended with a +personal sketch which the "Captious Critic" had drawn some time before, +he forthwith cancelled the connection. Even the blocks already in hand +and paid for were suppressed, with the exception of four, of which the +last appeared in 1877. On the accession of Mr. Burnand, says Mr. Mackay, +he was informed that Bouverie Street was no longer "a close borough," +and that the Essence of Parliament awaited him; but the "Special +Correspondent" was away in the wilds of Ireland, and the opportunity +passed by. + +[Illustration: J. SANDS. + +(_From a Painting._)] + +The same day as that on which the first of Mr. Bennitt's four drawings +arrived--(he must not be confounded with the Colonel Bennitt who is +referred to later on)--saw also the first contribution of Mr. J. Sands, +Charles Keene's friend, who put his little anagrammatic device of an +hour-glass to more than three-score drawings between the years 1870 and +1880. Save for their ingenuity, they were not of first-rate importance. +Mr. Sands had been an Edinburgh and Arbroath solicitor; a prairie +farmer; an art-student under Charles Keene, who made him practise +drawing until he became dyspeptic and melancholy at the sight of his own +feeble work; an emigrant to Buenos Ayres, where he practised most trades +in turn, including that of newspaper artist; a contributor and +draughtsman (again under Keene's eye) to London magazines, and to +_Punch_; a sojourner in the almost inaccessible island of St. Kilda; an +archæological explorer in the islands of the Hebrides; and finally, for +thirteen years a hermit, living a hermit's life, solitary and +intellectual, at the water's edge, at Walls, Shetland. Many have been +the stones that have rolled for _Punch_, but few that have rolled so +far, or gathered so much moss the while. In his more civilised moments, +so to speak, Mr. Sands lived for a time a good deal in the life of +Keene, to whom he presented many jokes and sketches for pictures; but he +became disheartened at the slowness of his own promotion, and +suspecting, moreover, that Keene, in his heart, would have been glad +were he to retire in favour of Mr. A. Corbould, Keene's nephew, he +finally decided to withdraw. Nevertheless, the friendship of the two men +lasted to the end--a friendship that was a rare and deep attachment. + +Two more names belong to 1870--that of Mr. E. F. Brewtnall, R.W.S., +whose single contribution was sent in in this year; and Mr. W. Ralston, +of Glasgow, later a photographer by profession, but by taste and +opportunity an artist. It was with Shirley Brooks's succession to the +Editorship that Mr. Ralston obtained his recognition. "I remember," says +the draughtsman, "how in walking down to business that day I tried to +look unconscious of my greatness, and mentally determined that it would +make no difference in my bearing." His drawings at first were very hard, +but the point of humour was invariably good, and the Scottish "wut" +equal to that of the best man who ever drew for the paper. He was a +self-taught draughtsman, who learned by watching his younger brother, +"whose artistic boots," says he, "I was not fit to black;" but he +improved rapidly, and contributed in all two hundred and twenty-seven +drawings, initials, and "socials." At the death of Tom Taylor, Mr. +Ralston's contributions ceased, only one more from his pencil ever +appearing in the paper--in 1886. It was partly because Mr. Ralston +became a busy "Graphic" artist, and partly because the Editor was in +search of new blood; but the only time Mr. Ralston made his +post-Taylorian appearance in _Punch_ (that was not "old stock") was with +an article in the Sandford and Merton style, directed against the Duke +of Bedford and the Bloomsbury gates. This little attack, called +"K.G.--Q.E.D.," constitutes Mr. Ralston's sole contribution to the +literature of the age. + +[Illustration: W. RALSTON. + +(_From a Photograph by W. Ralston, Glasgow._)] + +Mr. A. Chantrey Corbould, as already explained, was introduced to +_Punch_ by his uncle, Charles Keene. Beginning in 1871, he worked on +until 1890, when a temporary cessation intervened. His work, dealing +chiefly with hunting and "horsey" subjects, has always a certain +freshness, in spite of being, technically speaking, a little tight, and +at one time raised their author to very near the front rank in +popularity. He was only eighteen when he joined (the expression "Mr. +Punch's young men," it will be seen, is no misnomer), having already had +the benefit of Keene's advice. One of the elder artist's letters is +before me as I write:-- + + "I saw your drawing this morning," he says, "and think it very + good, considering the short time you have had to study art; but I + can see that the execution would render the drawing rather + difficult to engrave, and you want a little more study and practice + in 'the human face divine' to please the newspaper people. I never + give advice on these matters, but I can tell you from my own + experience I don't think drawing on wood is a good road to stand on + as an artist; but if you don't agree with me, and wish to go in for + this particular branch, it seems to me that you should article or + apprentice yourself by legal agreement with some engraver of large + business for a certain time on certain terms. This is how I began, + and have been sorry for it ever since!" + +[Illustration: A. CHANTREY CORBOULD. + +(_Drawn by Himself._)] + +Fourteen years later, when Mr. Corbould was still hoping for that +position with which many people already credited him--a Staff +appointment--Keene wrote:-- + + "I've no doubt myself that it is in your power, if you manage well, + to get on to _Punch_. It is rather unlucky that Burnand is not a + sporting man" [Mr. Burnand, by the way, is an inveterate horseman]. + "... I should advise you to drive gently but steadily at hunting + and country subjects, and if you get a good idea of any sort have a + shy at it, and encourage your friends to look out for you.... + You've noticed I only do one a week now, as a rule. I send you an + idea you might work out. Wouldn't you make it a meet (in + background), and the speakers mounted? + + "'Think I must part with him.' SHE: 'What! all at once, wholesale? + Wouldn't it be better to sell him retail on little skewers?' I'll + look out and send you anything in your line I hear of." + +This joke of Keene's was duly worked out by Mr. Corbould, and was +produced Nov. 22, 1884 (p. 249, Vol. LXXXVII). Up to this time the +draughtsman had worked under three Editors, to whom, as was the +practice, he would send in slight sketches to "legends," and work out +those which were accepted, the selection being made in due course, with +a bit of criticism to take the vanity out of him, thus: "_Very good +subject._ The man is far too big for the horse, which is a 15.3 if he's +an inch. This was generally Leech's mistake; so you err in remarkably +good company. Why 'Hunting Puzzle'? It's not a puzzle." + +Apart from a couple of sketches by Mrs. Field and one by Mr. Graham, the +year 1872 brought no contributor but Randolph Caldecott. The +half-a-dozen sketches together comprising his "Seaside Drama" (p. 120, +Vol. LXI.) contains no hint of that peculiar style, individual humour, +and perfect suggestion, which he was to make his own. His drawings were +published in 1872, 1873, and 1875, and then again in 1879, 1880, 1882, +and 1883--eighteen drawings in all; but it was not until 1879 that +Caldecott showed any of his later freshness and humorous exaggeration. +It was in 1870, his biographer asserts, that his drawings were shown to +Shirley Brooks and Mark Lemon:-- + + "Mr. Clough thus records the incident: Bearing an introductory + letter, he went up to London on a flying visit, carrying with him a + sketch on wood and a small book of drawings of 'The Fancies of a + Wedding.' He was well received. The sketch was accepted, and with + many compliments the book of drawings was detained. 'From that day + to this,' said Mr. Caldecott, 'I have not seen either sketch or + book.' Some time after, on meeting Mark Lemon, the incident was + recalled, when the burly, jovial Editor replied, 'My dear fellow, I + am vagabondising to-day, not _Punching_.' I don't think Mr. + Caldecott rightly appreciated the joke."[66] + +Caldecott had had some practice in humorous drawing, having drawn three +years before for the "Will-o'-the-Wisp" and "The Sphinx." But his +_Punch_ work was merely occasional; his more serious labours were for +the "Graphic," "The Pictorial World," and most notably, on Mr. Edmund +Evans's suggestion, for the immortal children's books which the engraver +might print in colours. He was only forty years old when he died, and +_Punch_, in the course of a long obituary poem, bore witness to his +singular charm, though he made no reference to the work contributed to +his own pages:-- + + "Sure never pencil steeped in mirth + So closely kept to grace and beauty. + The honest charms of mother Earth, + Of manly love, and simple duty, + Blend in his work with boyish health, + With amorous maiden's meek cajolery, + Child-witchery, and a wondrous wealth + Of dainty whim and daring drollery." + +Perhaps the best military contributor of jokes that _Punch_ has had is +Major-General H. G. Robley. Keene, as I have already stated, re-drew or +touched up the earlier of his sketches, which dealt for the most part +with military life on foreign service. Twenty-seven contributions, many +of them unsigned and of varying degrees of importance, came from young +Captain Robley, as he was then, of the 91st (Argyle and Sutherland) +Highlanders. To Keene he was, as the artist confessed, "a very obliging +correspondent," who sketched well and sent him many suggestions. "You +see, a mess-table makes a very 'preserve' for _Punch_ subjects. I don't +follow his drawings very much, but they are very useful in military +subjects." Captain Robley contributed during the years 1873-8. Mr. W. J. +Hennessy, who has since established his position as a delicate and +accomplished draughtsman, made a couple of drawings of social subjects +in 1873, and two more in 1875, but they were by no means of the +excellence to which the artist afterwards attained. + +No fresh contributor appears in 1874, the couple of sketches signed "C. +B." having been sent in twelve months before, and that of F. Woods +having been practically redrawn, although his initials were allowed to +stand; but 1875 witnessed the work of five new hands in the paper. The +first was Robert Bruce Wallace, whose style was modelled on that of C. +H. Bennett, and greatly inspired besides by Mr. Sambourne. The bulk of +his work was done from 1875 to 1878 inclusive, but in the latter year he +fell away, and his contributions became very rare. He died in 1893, and +one of his drawings made a posthumous appearance in 1894. He was a very +prolific contributor. Wallace gave up his _Punch_ connection--not, as +has been said, because the remuneration was insufficient, but because he +considered himself ill-treated. According to him, he had fully +understood that he was to succeed Miss Georgina Bowers, and with this +promotion in view, he had proceeded to Worcestershire from Manchester, +where he lived, and made preparatory studies of horse and hound and +landscape scenery. When, contrary to expectation, he found himself +passed by, he was grievously disappointed and annoyed, and refused to go +on with initials and so forth--which he drew with so much beauty and +conscientiousness. He was a secretary of the Manchester Academy of Fine +Arts, and had a considerable reputation as a wit at its councils; and +when Ford Madox Brown was engaged on his Manchester frescoes, Wallace +acted for some time as his assistant. + +Then followed Colonel Ward Bennitt, late of the 5th Lancers, who drew +several initials and "socials;" but being at that time a lieutenant (in +the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons), he found that he had no time during the +day to draw for _Punch_, and that night work affected his eyesight. Mr. +J. Curren, with a couple of sketches, in 1875 and 1876; Mr. L. G. +Fawkes, of the Royal Hibernian Academy, with a single drawing in the +former year; and that clever young painter, Valentine Bromley, who died +so young after promising so well, with a single drawing, complete the +list; but there was nothing distinctive in the work of any save the +last. + +[Illustration: M. BLATCHFORD. + +(_From a Photograph by Warwick Brooks._)] + +Mr. Montagu Blatchford, who adopted--not without success--the +Bennett-Sambourne-Wallace style of half-decorative, half-pictorial +representation, appeared towards the end of 1876; and although he was +supplanted a few years later by Mr. Harry Furniss and Mr. Wheeler, he +continued, even after 1881, to be seen fitfully in _Punch_. He was, by +profession, a carpet-designer, with unusual skill in freehand drawing; +and when in the spring of 1876 he no longer saw Mr. Sambourne's work in +the paper, he adopted the shrewd idea of sending in some sketches in +which that artist's style was respectfully imitated. But Tom Taylor was +shrewder still, and wrote: "Dear Sir,--Mr. Sambourne's absence is only +temporary. I have not, therefore, an opening for a designer to fill his +place, and return your drawings, which are very clever;" adding that he +would be glad to give the young applicant an opening if possible--a +chance which soon came, but which never meant very much for the artist. +He began with a comic umbrella-stand, and from that basis made scores of +small subjects, all, with but half-a-dozen exceptions, of his own +suggestion. Then, when Tom Taylor died he sent less and less--a little +sore that he should be pushed aside for younger men--and finally ceased +altogether, returning to Halifax in response to business calls. Then +followed W. J. Hodgson (who is not to be confounded with the draughtsman +of the same name and initials of nearly twenty years later), with four +cuts, during 1876 and the two next years; "Captain F.," with a couple; +Miss Fraser ("MF"), daughter of Colonel Fraser of the City Police, with +seven sketches; and Mr. Hallward, with a couple of initials. + +[Illustration: E. J. WHEELER. + +(_Drawn by Himself._)] + +For four years no accession of importance was made, Mr. W. G. Smith, +with a single initial, and Mr. W. G. Holt, with three more ambitious +cuts, being all that 1878 had to show; while 1879 brought forth Mr. +Dower Wilson with a "social" in the Almanac, and a nameless F. B. +("Memorials"). In the following year Mr. Athelstan Rusden made his +maiden appearance as an illustrator with a Disraeli Elephant, which he +had drawn on the wood and sent in from Manchester; but "Moonshine" +offered the inducement of continuous occupation, and the young amateur +drifted away. + +The year 1880 is memorable for the enlistment of Mr. Harry Furniss. Mr. +E. J. Wheeler was the other arrival, and he still (1895) spreads over +_Punch's_ pages his bright little theatrical sketches and initials, as +well as illustrations to Mr. Burnand's own literary contributions. His +drawings are unmistakable, as much by their rather old-fashioned method +as by the well-known monogram of later years, or by the appropriate +sign-manual of a "four-Wheeler" in his earlier contributions. + +[Illustration: HARRY FURNISS. + +(_From a Photograph by Debenham and Gould._)] + +[Illustration: BISHOP PUNCH. + +(_By Harry Furniss._)] + +In Mr. Harry Furniss _Punch_ found an artist who was destined to become, +during the fourteen years of his connection, a considerable factor in +his career. Mr. Furniss was bred up in the _Punch_ tradition. While +still a boy at school in Ireland--where, through a mistake on Time's +part, he was born, of English and Scotch parents--he produced, edited, +and illustrated "The Schoolboys' Punch" in manuscript, in careful +imitation of the original, drawing the cartoon as well. One of these +"big cuts" represented himself as the performer in a cabinet-trick--(the +sensation of the Davenport Brothers was before the public at the +time)--in which the cabinet was the school, and the ropes that bound him +the curriculum; while from another cabinet he emerges in full blaze of +scholastic triumph. He soon began drawing, and engraving his own +designs, for Mr. A. M. Sullivan's Irish version of _Punch_; and having +met Tom Taylor--who then reigned in Whitefriars--and been by him +applauded for his sketches, he accepted the hint that he might send in +drawings to the original Hunchback of Fleet Street. But when they came, +Taylor declined them on the ground that the ideas were unsuitable; yet, +curiously enough, they several times appeared, re-drawn by members of +the Staff. One of these, re-drawn by Mr. du Maurier in February, 1877, +represented a scene witnessed by Mr. Furniss from the railway--a flooded +field navigated by two men in a boat, who are reading a notice-board +indicating that the submerged "highly-eligible site" was "To be Let or +Sold for Building." Mr. Furniss thereupon decided to have done with +_Punch_ during that editorship; and came to London to seek his artistic +fortune. He speedily made such way on leading journals, especially on +the "Illustrated London News," that Mr. Burnand, on succeeding to his +office, invited the young draughtsman, then aged twenty-six, to become a +regular contributor. Mr. Furniss's first sketch (published on p. 204, +Vol. LXXIX., 1880) was a skit on what is ignorantly called the Temple +Bar Griffin--(it is really an heraldic dragon, designed by Horace +Jones)--executed by his friend C. B. Birch, A.R.A. + +At that time Mr. Henry W. Lucy had just been summoned to reinforce +_Punch's_ Staff, and to take over the "Essence of Parliament," since +Shirley Brooks's death so ponderously distilled by the late Tom Taylor, +and to him was left the selection of an illustrator of his "Toby's +Diaries." In selecting Mr. Furniss he made a wise choice, for the "Lika +Joko" of later times had been a close student of politics, and seemed +cut out for the post. How he justified himself is sufficiently known; he +achieved for himself a great popularity, and unquestionably acquired for +_Punch_ a unique position among journals, as representing to the people +that personal side of Parliamentary life, the familiar aspect and the +_vie intime_ of the House of Commons, not to be found elsewhere. No +doubt, here and there some offence was taken; and wives would at times +protest against the caricatures of husbands' figures, clothes, or faces; +but as a rule the "truthful falsehood" was appreciated by Mr. Furniss's +victims--many of whom would ask to be included in his pictures--and few +frequenters of the Lobby were more popular than he. + +"Mr. Gladstone's collars" are a by-word in the land; and Mr. Furniss +made them. It is generally recognised that Mr. Gladstone wore no such +collars. Nevertheless, his favourite sitting attitude in the House was +one very low down, his chin buried in his chest; and the more tired or +depressed he was--the more weary or dejected at the course of the +debate--the more his head would sink within his collar, and the more the +linen rose. This fact gave Mr. Furniss the idea, in the course of a few +sessions, of his drawing of "Mr. Gladstone's Choler Getting Up;" and +thereon was based his popular fiction. Similarly, the representation of +Lord Randolph Churchill as a small boy of irrepressible "cheek" was at +first intended to typify the noble lord's irrepressible unimportance in +the Chamber (that was before he had risen from the Fourth Party +leadership to the Chancellorship of the Exchequer); while the creation +of the complacent, many-chinned descendant of the Plantagenets in "The +House of Harcourts"--a page imagined and drawn in greatest haste +straight on to the wood-block, to fill up--was received with uproarious +delight by the public as a true piece of satirical humour. But of all +his "types" the funniest, as well as the easiest, was the ungainly but +side-splitting caricature of Sir Richard Temple--which helped not a +little to spread his fame throughout the land. All these men took the +fun in the best of good part, Sir William Harcourt only protesting--not +when Harry Furniss endowed him with an extra chin, but when he did not +credit him with the full complement of hair. + +[Illustration: A HURRIED NOTE. + +(_By Harry Furniss._)] + +To obtain his portraits Mr. Furniss would stalk his quarries unawares: +for self-consciousness in a sitter kills all character. A favourite ruse +was for him to tell Mr. A. that he wanted to sketch Mr. B., and that his +work would be greatly facilitated if the hon. member would keep the +other in conversation. Mr. A. would enter gleefully into the joke, and +then Harry Furniss would sketch _Mr. A!_ If need be, he would make his +sketch, unseen and unseeing, upon a piece of cardboard or in a +sketch-book, in the side-pocket of his overcoat. In this way detail, +mannerism, gesture, pose--character, in fact, would be secured, and next +week's _Punch_ might contain the portrait--sometimes severe, generally +humorous, and always well-observed. A rapid worker, too, is +Furniss--incomparably the quickest of his colleagues--who could produce +anything from a thumbnail sketch to a full-page drawing, portraits and +all, in an hour or so, although he would prefer, of course, to have fair +time to arrange his composition, to pencil it in, and then work it up +carefully from the living model. On the occasion when Lord Randolph +Churchill's hunting adventures in South Africa kept London amused, Mr. +Furniss, who was in the country and about to start for town by rail, saw +an account of the exploit in the morning paper. He wired to Mr. Burnand: +"See Churchill's lion-hunt, page -- 'Times.' Splendid opportunity. +Reply ---- Junction." At ten-thirty he found the answer awaiting him at +the junction: "Good. Let engravers have it to-day." He set to work at +once in the train. Having to change several times, he found the +junctions of great use for drawing in the faces; and by half-past four +the finished page was in Mr. Swain's possession. + +[Illustration: TWO FRIENDS. + +(_By Harry Furniss._)] + +Indefatigable and unconventional, as much a journalist as an artist, +gifted with a rapid intelligence and a subacid humour, Mr. Furniss, in +his work on _Punch_, has been extremely varied, and by the strength of +his personality he imparted to the Parliamentary side of the paper a +touch of his own convictions. It was obvious from his treatment of the +Irish that he was a strong Unionist, and that his sympathy with the +Irish party was neither very deep nor very cordial. This was emphasised +by some of the best caricatures he ever produced. They were bitterly +resented; but probably more ill-feeling was created by the ludicrous +picture he subsequently drew of the patriots as they returned, sea-sick, +moist, and dejected, to Dublin from the "London Conference," entitled "A +Sketch at Kingstown." On the top of this came the irritation caused by +his laughable but merciless mimicry, in his famous entertainment of "The +Humours of Parliament," of the imaginary Member for Ballyhooly; but it +was the caricatures of Mr. Swift MacNeill, M.P., that brought matters to +a head. Mr. MacNeill had previously appreciated the sketches, and begged +certain of them. But at last, on the occasion of an exuberant and +unflattering, but still not an ill-humoured, portrait, supported by a +solid contingent of his Party, he sought the artist out and, reproaching +him in excited and unmeasured terms, he committed a "technical assault" +upon him. Mr. Furniss was not to be induced to retaliate, even when Dr. +Tanner, M.P., and others who surrounded him addressed him in words more +violent and offensive than Mr. MacNeill's, and threatened him with +corporal punishment. As it appeared to the draughtsman that it was all a +pre-arranged affair, he remained passive, lest a development of the +situation should lead--as it was probably intended that it should +lead--to his exclusion from the Lobby. _Punch_ himself, however, snapped +his fingers at this _argumentum baculinum_, and Mr. Furniss, with rare +good taste, revenged himself by a full-page drawing (21st September, +1893) of "A House of Apollo-ticians," in which every member has been +idealised to a point of extraordinary personal beauty, while the artist +himself appears in the corner as a malignant ape of hideous aspect. This +was balm, no doubt, to the gentleman who had been so incensed at being +"caricatured, now as a potato, now as a gorilla;" while the situation +was cleverly summed up thus:-- + + "O, Mr. MacNeill was quite happy until a + Draughtsman in _Punch_ made him like a gorilla-- + At the Zoo the gorilla quite happy did feel + Till the draughtsman in _Punch_ made him like the MacNeill." + +Meanwhile, several series of importance had come from his pencil. His +"Puzzle-heads" are marvels of ingenuity, in each of which a portrait of +a celebrity is built up of personal attributes, characteristics, or +incidents in the career of the person represented; his Lika Joko +"Japanneries" caught with amazing truth the spirit of Japanese +draughtsmanship--far more completely than either Bennett or Brunton ever +succeeded in achieving; and his "Interiors and Exteriors" reflect social +and public life with exuberant, almost with extravagant, humour. + +But the end of his connection with _Punch_ was at hand. He had joined in +October, 1880. He had been called to the Table four years later, and on +the 21st February, 1894, he ate his last dinner at it, and resigned in +the following month. Meanwhile, like Charles Keene, he was never one of +the salaried Staff, but to the end was paid by the square inch. This +permitted him to do as much work as he chose for other papers; but it +made him feel, at the same time, that he was not flesh of their flesh, +while he suspected himself of getting into a cast-iron groove from which +he sought to free himself. So, after a minor "misunderstanding" had been +put right, Mr. Furniss quitted his old friend _Punch_, and forthwith set +about starting a monthly magazine of his own. This enterprise, in the +course of evolution, was considerably modified; and for a time the +weekly "Lika Joko" soon emerged into open rivalry with the paper which +for nearly fourteen years had made the name of Furniss as celebrated +throughout all English-speaking lands as that of any of his colleagues. + +And such is the Passing of Furniss, whose extraordinary powers of +observation (he was the first, by the way, to detect and represent +truthfully Mr. Gladstone's loss of a digit) and of catching a likeness +in its essential lines, and whose unbounded and buoyant good-humour +early justified Mr. Burnand's selection. Though he so soon drifted into +Parliamentary sketching, there is no class of work, except the +officially-recognised political "cartoons," which he did not attempt; +and he romped through _Punch's_ pages with unlimited invention and +inexhaustible resource--with comedy and farce, with drama and tragedy, +and sometimes with work startling in its truth and touching in its +pathos. + +[Illustration: "A HAPPY RELEASE."--A REJECTED SKETCH. + +(_Drawn by C. J. Lillie._)] + + * * * * * + +The men who immediately followed Mr. Harry Furniss did not come to stay. +In December, 1880, a sketch of "Cherry Unripe"--a clever parody on Sir +John Millais' famous picture--was contributed by Mr. Stowers, who then +rested on his laurels. Mr. Finch Mason contributed three sporting cuts +in 1881, three in 1882, and one in the following year, and then Mr. +Charles J. Lillie appeared on the scene. Mr. Lillie's principal +victories have been won in the field of poster-designing, his favourite +achievement being the design of a young lady in bathing costume who, +being wrecked, succeeded by the aid of Somebody's Soap, with the +cleverness of her sex, in "washing herself ashore." At the time when Mr. +Herkomer was designing his famous poster for the "Magazine of Art," Mr. +Lillie submitted to _Punch_ a set of humorous sketches nominally adapted +to similar advertisements of wines. Thus, "Port: Old and Crusty," was of +course a typical Colonel Chutnee, a fire-eating Anglo-Indian; "Sherry: +Pale and Dry," was an ascetic philosopher; "Claret: Very Light and +Delicate," was a maiden dainty and graceful; and so forth. Some of +these were published in the early summer of 1881; but that of +"Champagne" (here reproduced) was not used. Shortly afterwards the +clever draughtsman sought work and adventure in Europe, Africa, and +America, and on his return devoted himself to story-writing, confining +his pencil to the illustration of his own articles. Like Mr. Sambourne +and others of Mr. Punch's artistic contributors, Mr. Lillie was trained +as an engineer. + +As already recounted, a new idea was carried into effect in _Punch's_ +Almanac for 1882: drawings were sought from certain members of the Royal +Academy who were supposed to be afflicted with the _vis comica_ in any +pronounced degree. Of these, only Mr. G. A. Storey made his début in +_Punch_ on this occasion; but his drawing of "Little Snowdrop"--a fancy +character-portrait of a Dutch lady--pretty as it was, displayed but a +very mild sort of humour. In the following February Mr. Alfred Bryan +began his series of "Sketches by Boz," in which public men of the day +were caricatured as personages in Dickens' novels. Thus, the Duke of +Cambridge was most happily identified with "Joe Bagstock, Sir!", Sir +John Holker was the Fat Boy, and Mr. Bradlaugh appeared as Rogue +Riderhood "taking his Davy." These clever sketches, to the number of +twenty-seven, were spread over that year and the next, when, to the +regret of both Editor and artist, the connection was unavoidably +severed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[64] Mr. Sambourne's cartoons are dealt with in the chapter devoted to +that subject. + +[65] It may be as well to give here the names of the diners, so that the +reader may identify them in the reproduction which forms the +frontispiece to this volume. Mr. Burnand, at the head of the table, with +his left hand outstretched towards the figure of _Punch_, is giving the +toast of the evening; on his left is Mr. Anstey, and then Mr. Lucy and +Mr. E. T. Reed, the late Gilbert à Beckett and Mr. Milliken, Sir W. +Agnew, the late Mr. W. H. Bradbury, Mr. du Maurier, Mr. Furniss and Mr. +R. C. Lehmann, Mr. Arthur à Beckett, Mr. Sambourne, and Sir John +Tenniel. The portraits and busts along the wall are (from left to right) +of Mark Lemon, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, with, under it, Douglas +Jerrold, Thackeray, Doyle, Hood, Leech, Shirley Brooks, and Tom Taylor. +On the easel is a portrait of Charles Keene, then recently dead. + +[66] This is all very well; but as the alleged visit took place in 1870, +the year in which Caldecott came up to London, and as Mark Lemon died on +the 23rd of May in that year, and that not suddenly, the story is hardly +above suspicion. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +_PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS: 1882-95. + + Mr. William Padgett--Mr. E. M. Cox--Mr. J. P. Mellor--Sir F. + Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.--Mr. G. H. Jalland--Monsieur Darré--Mr. E. + T. Reed--His Original Humour--"Contrasts" and "Prehistoric + Peeps"--Approved by Sports Committees and School Classes--Mr. + Maud--A Useful Drain--Mr. Bernard Partridge--Fine Qualities of his + Art--Mr. Everard Hopkins--Mr. Reginald Cleaver--Mr. W. J. + Hodgson--Excites the Countryside--Miss Sambourne--Sir Frank + Lockwood, Q.C., M.P.--Mr. Arthur Hopkins--Mr. J. F. Sullivan--Mr. + J. A. Shepherd--Mr. A. S. Boyd--Mr. Phil May--A Test of + Drunkenness--Mr. Stafford--"Caran d'Ache"--Conclusion. + + +At the same time as the single sketch signed with a swan (by Mr. +Thompson), Mr. William Padgett, the excellent painter of poetical +landscape, made his unique appearance. He had been arranging the +mock-æsthetic costumes for Mr. Burnand at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, +when "The Colonel" was about to deal a crushing blow at the absurdities +of the "artistic craze." Mr. Padgett had painted the large picture +called "Ladye Myne"--a burlesque of the "greenery-yallery" type then in +fashion at the Grosvenor Gallery; and the departure of the apostle of +the movement from these shores for the United States inspired the +painter with the words and the drawing of the mourning "Ariadne," which +were shown to the Editor of _Punch_ and forthwith inserted. The only +other stranger of 1882 was Mr. Pigott, with a single sketch entitled +"Cultcha." + +The six years that followed were almost a close time for outsiders. The +only arrival of 1883 was Mr. Everard Morant Cox, an artist of dainty +imagination and graceful pencil, whose seven charming little cuts +appeared at intervals up to July, 1890. The next was Mr. John Page +Mellor, barrister-at-law (appointed in 1894 Solicitor to the Treasury), +who contributed three drawings from 1886 to 1888--"Sub Punch and +Judice" (p. 305, Vol. XCI.), which was partly re-drawn; a skit on the +proposed Wheel and Van Tax (p. 205, Vol. XCIV.); and the "Judges going +to Greenwich," signed with mystic Roman numerals. In the same year Mr. +Harper Pennington, the American artist, made a couple of drawings of the +opera of "The Huguenots," followed by a sketch of Mr. Whistler and +another. + +Sir Frederic Leighton, President of the Royal Academy, once paid homage +to _Punch_ by the contribution of a single drawing--a portrait of Miss +Dorothy Dene--which illustrated an article entitled "The Schoolmaster +Abroad," and was published on May 29th, 1886 (Vol. XC.). It is one of +the few tint blocks that have appeared in the paper, and is, strictly +speaking, not a woodcut at all, but a wood-engraving. + +Mr. G. H. Jalland began his genuinely comic hunting sketches in 1888. +Although an amateur, Mr. Jalland is often extremely happy in his +drawings (which now and again are excellently drawn), and his jokes are +usually conceived in a richly comic vein. A great many--nearly a +hundred--of his subjects were published during 1889, and he is still an +occasional contributor to the fun of the week. We would not willingly +lose the artist who gave us the sketch of a Frenchman bawling during a +hunt: "Stop ze chasse! _Stop ze fox!!!_ I tomble--I falloff!" The +sportsman's mantle, which fell from Leech's shoulders on to Miss +Bowers', and then on to Mr. Corbould's, descended at last on to those of +Mr. Jalland, who wore it almost exclusively for a time, and, from the +humorist's point of view, wore it easily and well. + +Monsieur G. Darré, who had worked in Paris on the "Charivari" for a +couple of years, and for a short time on the "Journal Amusant," "Le +Grelot," "Le Carillon," and others, besides making a series of +illustrations for a monumental "Histoire de France," came to London in +1883. Five years later, at the suggestion of Mr. Swain--who had already +cut some of his work for other periodicals--he sent in his first sketch +to _Punch_. This was a drawing of "Joseph's Sweetheart," at the +Vaudeville, showing great mastery over pen-and-ink. It was followed +during this year and the next with sketches of varied importance, +theatrical and political, in which France and General Boulanger played +chief part, and in which portraits were always well rendered; but when +the thirteenth had been delivered--(alas! the fatal number)--the arrival +of Mr. Bernard Partridge convinced him that there would no longer be +room for him. After contributing for a time to other illustrated papers, +the artist made himself proudly independent of black-and-white by +becoming a successful designer of show-cards in water-colour for +commercial houses. He may claim to have introduced, in a small way, a +more clashing style into _Punch_ than had hitherto been seen there; but +though his drawings, especially those on his native politics, were +undeniably clever and very effective, they lacked true artistic quality +and _Punch's_ essential spirit. + +[Illustration: E. T. REED. + +(_Drawn by Himself._)] + +Some sketches signed "C. A. M." were sent in, in 1889, by Mr. C. A. +Marshall, solicitor of Retford, Notts. Their chief merit appeared to be +the excellence of the horse-drawing; but only a couple of them were +accepted, and these were published in the course of the year. + +The great arrival of the year was Mr. E. T. Reed, who was to bring a new +form of humour into _Punch_--or, rather, to bring back the old, +rollicking, genuine low-comedy class of fun, more generous and +mirth-provoking than the higher comedy of the day, that aims but to +induce a smile. + +His appearance in _Punch_ (on the 8th of June, 1889) was due to the +casual remark of Mr. Linley Sambourne to Mr. Blake Wirgman that the +Editor was looking round for some new man who could do comic work. Mr. +Wirgman suggested their common friend, Mr. Reed, whom, however, Mr. +Sambourne only knew as a painter-student, and the latter promised to +send some of his sketches to Mr. Burnand to look at. The upshot was a +request for a drawing representing "The Parnell Commissioners enjoying +themselves up the River" during a pause in the trial of Parnell _v._ the +"Times." Other drawings, that attracted general attention, followed in +rapid succession. Who that has seen it can forget the "Fancy Portrait" +(by induction) "of my Laundress"--a brawny-armed woman standing over his +shirts, which she belabours with a spike-studded club? or the "Automatic +Policeman" at a crowded crossing, which, when a penny is dropped into +the slot, puts up its arm and stops the traffic? or the "Restored +Skeleton of a Bicyclist," and other "happy thoughts" of that period? It +was obvious that the draughtsman was not a practised artist, although a +skilful amateur; but those who detected the artistic lack of training +forgave it heartily for the genuine fun and originality of a fresh and +delightful kind. Since that time Mr. Reed rapidly developed his +undoubted powers, which, for a young man who did not begin to draw until +he was twenty-three years of age, showed themselves at once to be +remarkable. + +Then followed a clever series of "Contrasts," such as the professional +fasting man fortune-making at the Aquarium, and a Balaclava hero left to +starve by a grateful country--thus repeating unconsciously Cruikshank's +famous plate of "Born a Genius: Born a Dwarf," wherein the tragedy of +Benjamin Robert Haydon and the triumph of Tom Thumb, both proceeding in +the Egyptian Hall, were dramatically depicted. Another, and still more +remarkable, contrast of Mr. Reed's was that in which the terrible +_tricoteuses_ of the French Revolution, knitting with quite tragic +joviality before the guillotine, are compared with the modern Society +ladies in court enjoying a criminal's sensational trial, so that the +spectator hardly knows which are the more repellent. It may be stated, +as a matter of curiosity, that--except for the point of contrast, which, +after all, is a principal feature of the design--Doyle anticipated Mr. +Reed's protest by showing, in 1849, a "Scene in Court during an +interesting Trial," when the crime of Manning and his wife was +engrossing the attention of all England and proving a "great attraction" +to _dames du monde_. + +In 1890 Mr. Burnand raised his young recruit to the rank of +Staff-officer to fill the vacancy which had just occurred--a premature +promotion, the wiseacres said. Mr. Reed then produced his forensic +drawings, often basing them on sketches supplied by Sir Frank Lockwood, +Q.C.; yet his work fluctuated so much in quantity that it was more than +once rumoured that he and _Punch_ had parted company. But in due course +his triumph came when, in the Christmas number of 1893, he began +"Prehistoric Peeps"--including "The First Hansom," "Primeval Billiards," +and "A Quiet Game of Whist in Primeval Times." These popular fancies +were no sudden inspiration; they were developed gradually. Following a +natural humorous bent for dealing with sham antiquities in _Punch_, Mr. +Reed had started during the previous year a series of "exhibits" in the +Imperial Institute of the Future, consisting of comic restorations of +common objects of to-day--the ridiculous speculations of the future +archæologist. There was a much-patched and battered restoration of a +four-wheeled cab; then a comic policeman; and the draughtsman was +proceeding with a hansom when he experienced a difficulty in getting +freshness into the treatment. So he determined to become a Cuvier on his +own account, and, by going back to the beginning, to show the real +original hansom, as it might have been, in pre-historic times. The +artist was intensely amused with the idea, and finishing his three +drawings--the other two suggesting themselves--delivered them just in +time for the Almanac. The result was, in its way, electrical. Within a +week everybody was laughing at them and talking about them. In the +"Daily News" a leading-article was devoted to arguing, with admirable +mock-gravity, that the artist's object in these drawings--especially in +that of the Prehistoric Parliament, in which all our legislators are +clad in primeval fashion, while the Speaker keeps order with the aid of +an enormous tomahawk--was, of course, to prove the theory that +similarity of face and figure accompanies similarity of pursuit +throughout the generations. At Cambridge, in the May Week, the _tableaux +vivants_ of the "Footlights Society" included exact reproductions of the +"Primeval Billiards" and "No Bathing To-day!"--skins, expressions, +mastodons and all; while at Molesey Invitation Regatta (August, 1894) +the "Prehistoric Coaching for the Boat Race" was carried out to the life +in mid-river, with Gaul and Briton, woad-stained skins, raft, and fight, +with the fearsome palæontological intruders, complete to the last +detail--and applications were quickly made to the _Punch_ Proprietors +for permission to reproduce the scenes on magic-lantern slides for the +use of schools! This, perhaps, is to be explained by the accuracy of +many of the pre-historic beasts. Even at the London Institution a +scientific lecturer has borne witness to the life-likeness of Mr. Reed's +_stegosaurus imglutis_, and especially of the _triceratops_ and the +sprightly _pterodactyle_. Little wonder Sir William Agnew broke through +the rule of "no speeches" at the Wednesday Dinner, and proposed the +health of the young artist who had made for the paper so striking a +success. When Mr. Harry Furniss retired, Mr. Reed was appointed his +successor as Parliamentary draughtsman, and soon showed his independence +of humour in his new post. + + * * * * * + +After Mr. Whistler had contributed his butterfly (p. 293, Vol. +XCVIII.)--the sign-manual in the use of which he has for some years +found so much harmless, if rather childish, pleasure--Mr. Maud, at that +time a Royal Academy student, began his sporting sketches. The first +drawing (published on p. 249, Vol. C., though it had been sent in six +months before) was called "A Check." A country lout is sitting on a +fence-rail shouting, and the hunt comes up. "Seen the fox, my boy?" asks +the huntsman. "No, I ain't!" replies the lad. "Then what are you +hollarin' for?" "Because," answers the scarecrow, "because I'm paid for +it." This picture was a valuable introduction, procured through a friend +who forwarded his drawing, for it brought him an invitation to +illustrate "Romford's Hounds" and "Hawbuck Grange," as well as an +established, though intermittent, connection with _Punch_. With few +exceptions, Mr. Maud's jokes are the result of personal experience, for +he looks to _contretemps_ in the field for his humorous subjects. +Through falling with his horse into a big drain in the Belvoir +country--a precious accident for him--he collected sufficient matter to +produce three jokes which duly saw the light. But the collection of such +material is "damned hard riding," and each hunting season has only +brought forth about ten such productions. Since that time Mr. Maud has +turned his attention to sources of humour other than the hunting-field; +and as in 1893 he carried off the Landseer scholarship and two silver +medals for painting from the life, it is possible that he may in the +near future be tempted far from the joyous art of comic black-and-white. + +[Illustration: J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE. + +(_Drawn by Himself._)] + +Mr. Bernard Partridge made his first drawing for _Punch_ in 1891, +through the instrumentality of Mr. du Maurier, one of his greatest +admirers. It was a drawing of a bishop in a distressing and undignified +pose, and, though small in size, it proved at once to readers of _Punch_ +the justice of the extraordinary reputation the young artist had gained +elsewhere. It was not only that his drawing and proportion are always +entirely right--that, perhaps, is to be expected in the son of the late +teacher of anatomy at the Royal Academy Schools--but that his handling +is so graceful and dainty, his effects of light and shade so masterly, +his portraiture so true, and his power of representing expression, as +shown both in face and figure, so absolute. Mr. du Maurier saw in him +his own successor for the time when he may be called upon to lay the +pencil down; and the public recognised in him an appreciator of beauty +to a degree hardly excelled by Mr. du Maurier himself. Being, moreover, +as familiar with the expression of the foreigner as with that of the +East-Ender, or the resident of "Buckley Square," he was a recruit after +Mr. Punch's own heart and interest. + +It is because Mr. Partridge's love for the stage is stronger than for +the pencil that the invitation to contribute to _Punch_, and, in 1892, +his promotion to the regular Staff, did not arouse in him any great +enthusiasm at the time. Soon, however, he warmed up to his work, and his +illustrations to Mr. Anstey's inimitable "Voces Populi," "The Man from +Blankley's," and other of that writer's serials, made their mark at +once, supported as they were by the "socials," signed now with his +cipher, now with his quaint "Perdix fecit." + +Concurrently with Mr. Partridge (1891), Mr. Everard Hopkins made his +appearance with one of two drawings sent in. The accepted one was an +admirable travesty of the _dénouement_ of Ibsen's "Doll's House," +representing a buxom middle-aged virago leaving the house of her +diminutive hen-pecked husband, whose "birdie" she declines any longer to +be. Numerous drawings of a graceful kind have since come from him, until +he is in the way of being regarded as a recognised outside contributor. + +Then followed Mr. Reginald Cleaver, whose work, somewhat hard, but of +great beauty in its own line, has been devoted to "social" subjects; and +on January 1st, 1892, Mr. W. J. Hodgson sent in a picture that was +destined to be the first of a long series. He is essentially a sporting +man--a vital necessity for _Punch_--and having been brought up in the +thick of the sporting world, has immortalised in his pages many a +hunting joke and scrap of "horsey" humour. His subjects are usually +actualities, and more than once has a whole countryside been startled +by the appearance in _Punch_ of an incident that had just formed matter +for gleeful conversation after a day's sport. Such was the amusing +otter-hunt story that appeared in July, 1894, in which, under the title +of "The Course of True Love, etc.," Miss Di, a six-foot damsel, asks her +five-foot-three curate-lover to pick her up and carry her across the +watercourse, "as it is rather deep, don't you know;" and the Wiltshire +village where it occurred and the chief actors in the little comedy +became at once the talk of the county, and the water itself is pointed +out as the scene of the incident. Mr. Hodgson, it may be noted, was +introduced to _Punch_ through Sir Frank Lockwood, who sent to the Editor +a volume which the draughtsman had illustrated. + +Miss Maud Sambourne, when no more than eighteen years of age, also +contributed her first drawing in the spring of 1892--a charming little +figure of a girl, as dainty as a sketch by Mr. Abbey, and as different +from her father's work as well could be imagined. Similar little +drawings from her graceful pencil have appeared from time to time, the +prettiest, perhaps, being "A Fair Unknown," on June 2nd, 1894. + +On November 12th, 1892 (p. 221, Vol. CIII.), appears an elaborate page +of verses, explanatory notes, and four cuts illustrative of "The +Vanishing Rupee"--a picture greatly appreciated in India. The originator +of this satirical page was Mr. J. H. Roberts, an architect who had +turned his back on his profession and had cast in his lot with +illustrated journalism; and the manner in which he hit off the standing +grievance of Anglo-India betrayed a touching personal interest in this +painful fiscal question. + +Mr. Arthur A. Sykes, more closely identified with _Punch_ as a verse and +prose writer than as a draughtsman, began the first of his sketches in +November, 1893; and on the 18th of the same month Sir Frank Lockwood, +Q.C., who had hitherto been content to see his artistic effervescence +re-drawn by Mr. E. T. Reed, appeared in his own right with a comic +scribble representing a barrister afflicted with a bad cold +energetically addressing the court. It was entitled: "Cold, but +In-vig-orating"--a pictorial pun worthy of Hood or Hine. This was the +first of a series. + +About this time the distinguished draughtsman, Mr. Arthur Hopkins, who +has rarely been surpassed in rendering the simple grace of pretty +English girlhood, evolved a joke while shopping with his wife, and +straightway illustrated it and sent it on to _Punch_. It appeared the +next week, and was quickly followed by another on the 1st of April. +Since then the artist has been seen no more in _Punch's_ pages, +although, jokes serving, he is still a _persona grata_ in Whitefriars. +Mr. J. F. Sullivan--the immortal depictor of the humours and amenities +of "The British Workman," and for many years the incarnation of +"Fun"--struck up a belated connection with _Punch_, also in November, +1893. His drawings ran continuously during that and the next two months +to the number of a dozen or so, and then, with the exception of an "old +stock" sketch or two, they incontinently ceased. + +The Almanac for 1894 witnessed the début of Mr. J. A. Shepherd, who, on +the strength of his comic "Zig-Zags at the Zoo," was invited by Mr. +Burnand to send in a page. His comic animals, drawn with singular +precision and skill, and full of character, seemed to hit the popular +taste, and, save for a period when ill-health interrupted, Mr. Shepherd +has continued his contributions. He was a pupil of Mr. Alfred Bryan, and +for a couple of years was on the staff of "Moonshine." Another recruit +of 1894 was Mr. A. S. Boyd, one of the most brilliant of the "Daily +Graphic" staff, and still affectionately remembered as "Twym" of the +"Bailie" and "Quiz" of Glasgow. His first contribution (April 7th) was a +sketch of a lady in an omnibus, whose outrageously large sleeves +extinguished her neighbours as effectually as the crinoline of her +grandmother (according to John Leech) had cancelled her grandfather. +Since that time Mr. Boyd has been seen fitfully in _Punch_, and always +with drawings executed with great care and with singular appreciation of +the value of his blacks. + +[Illustration: PHIL MAY. + +(_Drawn by Himself._)] + +Then came Mr. Phil May. _Punch_ was long in discovering him, but he +found him at last. Indeed, he could not afford to do without him, for +Mr. May, though barely more than thirty years of age, was already in the +foremost rank of humorous draughtsmen of the day, and few--even of Mr. +Punch's own Staff--were better known and more popular than the young +artist who had burst upon the town not long before. He had gone through +a hard life as a boy. He had turned his back upon architecture, as +Charles Keene, Mr. Moyr Smith, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Bernard Partridge, and +other contributors to _Punch_ had done before him, and had joined a +strolling company, with whom he strolled and acted for four years, +drawing caricatures of his fellow-actors for the shop-windows. He was +only fourteen when he began sketching for a Yorkshire paper, and four +years later he came to town and, after an interval of the direst want, +soon made his mark. At that time he had evidently been looking at Mr. +Sambourne's drawings, but a three years' visit to Australia, aided by +the bitter experience of Melbourne newspaper printing presses, +simplified his style to the point we now see it--in which elimination of +all unnecessary lines seems carried to its furthermost limit. Indeed, +his "economy of means" borders on parsimony. Gifted with a powerful +personality, with the keenest sense of humour, and with strong human +sympathies that lean much more to the side of the poor than of the +well-to-do, and, above all, with a brilliant power of draughtsmanship, +he was recognised as a master as soon as he asserted himself--an +original master with many disciples and more imitators. He cannot be +called a caricaturist, for in his work there lacks that fierce quality +of critical conception--above all, that subject-matter that makes one +think, that sardonic appeal to head and heart at once, which make up the +sum of true caricature. If caricature is drollery, and not humour, as +Carlyle says it is, Mr. May is above all things a humorist, and not at +all a droll. He is neither a politician nor a reformer, nor even, if +properly understood, a satirist. His aim is to show men and things as +they really are, seen through a curtain of fun and raillery--not as they +might or ought to be. Yet the essence of his work is inexorable truth, +and his version of life is depicted to a delighted public with the +unerring pencil of a laughing philosopher. And, moreover, his greatest +quality is the astounding excellence of his draughtsmanship, which, so +far from being germane to caricature, is not only unnecessary to it, but +sometimes even a hindrance. + +And so Mr. May began with his "social" cuts for _Punch_, selecting "low +life" for the most part, as Mr. du Maurier chose high life, and making +for every picture as careful a study from Nature as ever Charles Keene +did--and probably as many of them. Furthermore, he prefers to seek out +his jokes for himself. When he was in New York and found that the +professional joke-purveyor was untrustworthy, he sauntered into a +police court in the hope of finding character there, and perhaps humour. +A woman was up before the magistrate on a charge of drunkenness--a +charge which the lady denied. "How do you know she was drunk?" asked the +magistrate. "She walked into a baker's shop," replied the policeman, +"and wanted to buy a bonnet." The evidence was accepted as conclusive; +and Mr. May sketched the prisoner there and then, and introduced her +into his first drawing for _Punch's_ page as the gutter-woman who, +looking over an illustrated paper, confides to a friend that the +portrait it contains of "Lady Sorlsbury" isn't a bit like what she +really is in private life. Mr. May was in due course drawn into +_Punch's_ net, and eating his first Dinner in February, 1895, he cut his +initials on the Table between those of Thackeray and Mr. du Maurier. The +accompanying sketch was the eloquent announcement I received of his +promotion. + +[Illustration: "I JOINED THE 'PUNCH' TABLE LAST WEEK, AND CARVED MY NAME +ON THE ROLL OF FAME."] + +In the Almanac of 1894 two artists new to _Punch_ made their +appearance--the first, Mr. Stafford, the quondam cartoonist of "Funny +Folks;" and the other, the world-famous humorist "Caran d'Ache" (M. +Emmanuel Poirée), with a satire on the female craze of the day in +respect to M. Paderewski and his flowing locks. In November of the same +year Mr. Fred Pegram, who had for three years been one of the "Judy" +artists, made his clever appearance in _Punch_, since then several times +repeated; and with Mr. W. F. Thomas--the well-known successor of Baxter +as the delineator of Ally Sloper and his low but amusing circle--who +appeared twice in 1895, I close my list. + +[Illustration: THE STAFF OF _PUNCH_ AT TABLE, 1895. + +(_From a flash-light photograph, expressly taken by Van der Weyde._) + +MR. A. Á. BECKETT. + +MR. SAMBOURNE. + +SIR JOHN TENNIEL. + +MR. BURNAND. + +MR. ANSTEY. + +MR. LUCY. + +MR. E. T. REED. + +MR. BERNARD PARTRIDGE. + +MR. B. J. MILLIKENS'S PLACE. + +MR. PHIL MAY'S PLACE. + +MR. LAWRENCE BRADBURY. + +MR. DU MAURIER.] + +It will thus be seen that with the exception of a very few among the +earlier comic draughtsmen, and a half-a-dozen others of our own day, +_Punch_ has at one time or another engaged the pencils of all the +chief English graphic humorists of his time, and has even persuaded +notable artists of more serious turn to try their hand at comic work. + +In its artistic aspect, at least, _Punch_ is more than a comic journal: +it is, and has been for more than half a century, a school of +wood-drawing, of pen and pencil draughtsmanship, and of wood-cutting of +the first rank; it is a school of art in itself. The effect of its +art-teaching has been widely felt, and on this ground alone its doings +must command interest and justify a close examination into its rise and +progress. So far, too, as one can foretell, its future is safe. Young +men are arising who are capable of carrying on its traditions and of +bearing its banner bravely and merrily aloft; and it may safely be +assumed that, just as the Royal Academy sooner or later absorbs the best +Outsiders to adorn its circle and keep its vigour green, so _Punch_ will +never lack the ablest men to don his cap and motley and shake his +jingling bells. + +[Illustration: FINALE: A PROBATIONARY DRAWING (UNUSED). + +(_By Linley Sambourne._)] + + + + +APPENDIX I. + +SIGNATURES OF _PUNCH'S_ ARTISTS. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +LIST OF ARTISTS WHOSE SIGNATURES ARE HERE GIVEN. + + 1. WILLIAM NEWMAN. + 2. A. S. HENNING. + 3. H. G. HINE. + 4. KENNY MEADOWS. + 5. ALFRED "CROWQUILL." + 6. JOHN LEECH. + 7. GAVARNI. + 8. W. M. THACKERAY. + 9. SIR JOHN GILBERT, R.A. + 10. HABLÔT K. BROWNE ("PHIZ"). + 11. H. HEATH. + 12. R. J. HAMERTON. + 13. W. BROWN. + 14. RICHARD DOYLE. + 15. HENRY DOYLE, C.B. + 16. A. WATTS PHILLIPS. + 17. E. J. BURTON. + 18. W. MCCONNELL. + 19. SIR JOHN TENNIEL. + 20. CAPT. H. R. HOWARD. + 21. C. H. BRADLEY. + 22. REV. EDWD. BRADLEY ("CUTHBERT BEDE"). + 23. T. HARRINGTON WILSON. + 24. REV. W. F. CALLAWAY. + 25. HALLIDAY. + 26. G. W. TERRY. + 27. FRANK BELLEW. + 28. CHARLES KEENE. + 29. JULIAN PORTCH. + 30. G. R. HAYDON. + 31. GEORGE DU MAURIER. + 32. GORDON THOMPSON. + 33. H. STACY MARKS, R.A. + 34. PAUL GRAY. + 35. E. J. BURTON. + 36. FRITZ ELTZE. + 37. SIR JOHN E. MILLAIS, BART., R.A. + 38. FRED BARNARD. + 39. R. T. PRITCHETT. + 40. A. R. FAIRFIELD. + 41. COLONEL SECCOMBE. + 42. DEVER. + 43. W. S. GILBERT. + 44. ERNEST GRISET. + 45. ALFRED THOMPSON. + 46. J. PRIESTMAN ATKINSON. + 47. CHARLES H. BENNETT. + 48. T. W. WOODS. + 49. G. BOUVERIE GODDARD. + 50. MISS GEORGINA BOWERS (MRS. BOWERS-EDWARDS). + 51. WALTER CRANE. + 52. O. HARLING. + 53. H. R. ROBINSON. + 54. FREDERIC SHIELDS. + 55. E. J. ELLIS. + 56. LINLEY SAMBOURNE. + 57. L. STRASYNSKI. + 58. F. WILFRID LAWSON. + 59. A. CHASEMORE. + 60. WALTER BROWNE. + 61. BRITON RIVIERE, R.A. + 62. J. MOYR SMITH. + 63. WALLIS MACKAY. + 64. J. SANDS. + 65. MISS J. ROMER. + 66. R. CALDECOTT. + 67. A. C. CORBOULD. + 68. MAJOR-GENERAL H. G. ROBLEY. + 69. W. RALSTON. + 70. F. WOODS. + 71. J. CURREN. + 72. L. G. FAWKES. + 73. COLONEL BENNITT. + 74. T. WALTERS. + 75. W. J. HODGSON. + 76. MISS FRASER. + 77. MONTAGU BLATCHFORD. + 78. W. G. SMITH. + 79. W. G. HOLT. + 80. E. J. WHEELER. + 81. HARRY FURNISS. + 82. C. J. LILLIE. + 83. G. A. STOREY, A.R.A. + 84. WILLIAM PADGETT. + 85. THOMPSON. + 86. E. MORANT COX. + 87. HARPER PENNINGTON. + 88. G. H. JALLAND. + 89. GEORGE DARRÉ. + 90. J. P. MELLOR. + 91. C. A. MARSHALL. + 92. E. T. REED. + 93. EVERARD HOPKINS. + 94. W. J. HODGSON. + 95. J. BERNARD PARTRIDGE. + 96. SIR FRANK LOCKWOOD, Q.C. + 97. J. A. SHEPHERD. + 98. A. A. SYKES. + 99. J. F. SULLIVAN. + + + + +APPENDIX II. + +TEXT OF AGREEMENT CONSTITUTING _PUNCH_. + + +=Articles of Agreement= indented made and entered into this +fourteenth day of July--in the year of our Lord One thousand eight +hundred and forty one Between =Henry Mayhew= of Number 3 Clements Inn in +the County of Middlesex Gentleman =Mark Lemon= of Number 12 Newcastle +Street Strand in the said County of Middlesex Gentleman and =Joseph +Stirling Coyne= of Number 14 Fludyer Street in the City of Westminster +Gentleman of the first part =Ebenezer Landells= of Number 32 Bidborough +Street in the Parish of Saint Pancras in the County of Middlesex +Engraver of the second part and =Joseph Last= of Crane Court in the City +of London Printer of the third part. + +=It is Agreed= between the persons parties hereto each so far as the +stipulations hereinafter contained are to be performed by or are +applicable to him respectively. + +[Sidenote: _First._] + +=That= there shall be published a periodical Work to consist of humorous +and political Articles and embellished with Cuts and Caricatures to be +called "Punch or the LONDON CHARIVARI" the same to be published in +weekly numbers on every Saturday after the date of these presents every +such number to be contained in and fill one sheet of double demy of +Sixteen pages each page to contain two Columns except the pages +containing advertisements each of which are to contain three Columns and +that the average size of the Type shall be brevier solid. + +[Sidenote: _Second._] + +=That= the persons parties hereto of the first part shall be the Editors +of the said work. That the said =Ebenezer Landells= shall be the Engraver +to the same work and that the said =Joseph Last= shall be the Printer +thereof. + +[Sidenote: _Third._] + +=That= the said Editors shall supply the said =Ebenezer Landells= (by +delivering the same at Number 12 Newcastle Street Strand the present +Office of the Editors of the said work or other the Office for the time +being of the said Editors) with written suggestions for subjects for the +Cuts for illustration and embellishment of the said work such suggestion +for the Cut or Cuts on page 9 of each number (and which page is to be +filled with one or more Cut or Cuts and letterpress in explanation +thereof) to be furnished at least on the fourteenth day--preceeding +[_sic_] the day on which the number in which they are to be contained is +to be published and such suggestions for other Cuts to be furnished one +half on the Eighth day and the other half on the Seventh day preceeding +the day on which the number in which they are to be contained is to be +published such Fourteenth and Seventh days to be reckoned exclusive of +such last mentioned day. + +[Sidenote: _Fourth._] + +=That= provided the said Editors shall supply the said =Ebenezer Landells= +with such written suggestions as aforesaid he shall as such Engraver as +aforesaid deliver the blocks in which such Cuts shall be Engraved to the +said =Joseph Last= as such Printer as aforesaid (such delivery to be at +the Printing Office for the time being of the said =Joseph Last=) at +latest by Eight o'Clock in the Evening of the Tuesday next preceeding +the day on which the number in which they are to be contained is to be +published. + +[Sidenote: _Fifth._] + +=That= the said Editors shall supply the said =Joseph Last= (by delivering +the same at his Printing Office for the time being) with the matter +(exclusive of Cuts) necessary for each number of such work in the +proportions following--namely half at latest by the Monday preceeding +the day on which the number to contain such matter is to be published +One quarter more at latest by the Tuesday at noon preceeding such last +mentioned day and the remaining one quarter at latest by Six o'clock in +the Evening of the last mentioned Tuesday. + +[Sidenote: _Sixth._] + +=That= if the said Cuts and Matter shall be so supplied to the said =Joseph +Last= as aforesaid he shall print and deliver at the publishing Office +for the time being of the said work and at latest by Five O'clock in the +Afternoon of the Wednesday preceeding the day on which the number to +contain such Cuts and Matter is to be published so many such numbers of +the said Work as shall be required for Country Circulation And shall +also print and deliver at the said Publishing Office and at latest by +Eight O'clock in the Morning of the Thursday preceeding the last +mentioned day so many such numbers as shall be required (not exceeding +Two hundred quires) for Town circulation and shall also print and +deliver at the said publishing Office after the last mentioned Thursday +when and as they may be reasonably required so many more such numbers as +may be required. + +[Sidenote: _Seventh._] + +=That= the publisher for the time being of the said work shall be the +person by whom all Sales of the same Work shall be made and who shall +receive all monies in respect of such Sales but all such Sales shall be +made on account of the persons parties hereto proprietors of the said +Work and all accounts against debtors shall be sent in and delivered to +them as being indebted to the said proprietors. + +[Sidenote: _Eighth._] + +=That= the said several persons parties hereto shall be entitled to the +profits arising from the said work as hereinafter mentioned in that +behalf but before any sum of money or any other thing shall be adjudged +profits or in the nature of profits the said persons parties hereto of +the first part shall as such Editors as aforesaid be entitled to receive +out of the assetts in respect of the said Work on every Saturday next +after the date of these presents the sum of Twenty pounds and the said +=Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph Last= shall be entitled to receive out of +the same assets on every Saturday next after the date of these presents +the amount of their respective Bills (duly audited and allowed as +hereinafter mentioned) in respect of the Engraving for and printing of +the said Work respectively--The said Editors to be entitled to the said +Weekly sums in equal shares and proportions. + +[Sidenote: _Ninth._] + +=That= all claims and demands in respect of the said Work (including those +of the said =Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph Last= for Engravings for and +printing of the said Work) shall be sent in to and delivered at the said +Editors Office on every Saturday Evening by Eight O'Clock at the latest +that on every Saturday Evening after the date of these Presents at Eight +o'Clock a Meeting shall be held of the several persons parties hereto at +No. 12 Newcastle Street Strand or other the Office for the time being of +the Editors of the said Work--at every of which Meeting shall be present +at least one of the said Editors and one other of them the said =Ebenezer +Landells= and =Joseph Last= and at every such meeting all claims and +demands on and in respect of the same Work shall be audited and allowed +by the parties present at such Meeting and the publisher of the said +Work and all other persons shall attend at such Meeting and bring all +monies which may since the last Meeting have been received in respect of +the sale of the same Work or otherwise on Account thereof and pay the +same over to the parties constituting such Meeting and such parties +shall out of such monies in the first place pay all expences of +Advertising, Cost of paper, salary to the publisher Rent of any premises +necessary for conducting the said Work and all other incidental +outgoings and expences whatsoever which shall have been incurred in +respect of the said Work and which shall have been duly audited and +allowed as aforesaid (other than those which shall be payable to the +parties hereto as such Editors Engraver or printer as aforesaid) and +then in the next place in paying to the several persons parties hereto +all their claims and demands in respect of the same Work as such Editors +Engraver and printer as aforesaid. + +[Sidenote: _Tenth._] + +=That= in case the last mentioned monies shall not be sufficient to pay +and satisfy the outgoings and expenses concerning the same Work (other +than those which shall be payable to the parties hereto as such Editors +Engraver and printer as aforesaid) then the deficiency shall be made +good out of any monies which [may] be received on any subsequent +Saturday or (if received) by monies raised from the sale of any of the +assetts in respect of the said Work so that at no time shall any of the +several persons parties hereto receive any money as such Editors +Engraver or printer as aforesaid until all other claims and demands on +and in respect of the said Work shall be fully paid and satisfied and in +case the assets in respect of the said Work shall not be sufficient to +pay and satisfy the outgoings and expenses concerning the same Work +(other than those which shall be payable to the parties hereto as such +Editors Engraver and printer as aforesaid) then the deficiency shall be +borne paid and defrayed by the said =Henry Mayhew= =Mark Lemon= =Joseph +Stirling Coyne= =Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph Last= in equal proportions +and in case the assets in respect of the said Work shall not be +sufficient or no more than sufficient to pay and satisfy the claims and +demands concerning the same Work other than those which shall be payable +to the parties hereto as such Editors Engraver and printer as aforesaid +then the said parties hereto shall not have any claim the one against +the other in respect of any such claim or demand and in case the said +assetts shall be more than sufficient to pay and satisfy the claims and +demands concerning the said Work other than those which shall be payable +to the said parties hereto as such Editors Engraver and printer as +aforesaid but not sufficient to pay the entirety of the claims and +demands of such Editors Engraver and printer then such Editors Engraver +and printer shall be entitled to such surplus assetts by an equal pound +rate according to the amount due to the said Editors at the rate of +Twenty pound per Week as aforesaid and the amount of the respective +Bills of the said =Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph Last= as such engraver +and Printer as aforesaid. + +[Sidenote: _Eleventh._] + +=That= after all claims and demands in respect of the said Work +(including those of the said Editors Engraver and printer as aforesaid) +shall be fully satisfied the said =Henry Mayhew= =Mark Lemon= =Joseph +Stirling Coyne= =Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph Last= shall be entitled in +equal proportions to the net gains and profits arising from the said +Work to and for their own use and benefit absolutely such division of +profits to take place as far as may be on the Saturday in which they +shall be declared--And all the assetts in respect of the said Work after +answering all claims and demands against the same shall belong to the +last mentioned persons in equal shares and proportions to and for their +own use and benefit absolutely. + +[Sidenote: _Twelfth._] + +=That= the copyright of the said work including the wood and other cuts +therein and the designs therefore shall belong to the parties hereto and +so also shall all perquisites such as Books or other articles sent for +review Tickets for Theatres Exhibitions and other places and all other +things and matters incident to the said Work. + +[Sidenote: _Thirteenth._] + +=That= in case the said Editors shall make default in supplying the said +=Ebenezer Landells= with written suggestions in in breach of the clause +hereinbefore contained numbered 3 then for every such default they shall +pay unto the said =Ebenezer Landells= the sum of One pound ten shillings +And in case the said =Ebenezer Landells= shall make default in +delivering to the said =Joseph Last= the blocks in breach of the clause +hereinbefore contained numbered 4 then for every such default he shall +pay unto the said =Joseph Last= the sum of One pound ten shillings And +in case the said Editors shall make default in supplying the said +=Joseph Last= with matter in breach of the clause hereinbefore contained +numbered 5 then for every such default they shall pay unto the said +=Joseph Last= the sum of One pound ten shillings And in case the said +=Joseph Last= shall make default in printing and delivering the numbers +of the said work in breach of the clause hereinbefore contained numbered +6 then for any such default he shall pay unto the said Editors the sum +of Fifteen shillings and unto the said =Ebenezer Landells= Fifteen +shillings such payments to be respectively paid as liquidated damages +and on the Saturday next after the defaults respectively shall have been +made and may from time to time be deducted out of any monies which may +be payable to the party making such default under any stipulation herein +contained. + +[Sidenote: _Fourteenth._] + +=That= a proper Book of account shall be kept by the said publisher +whose duty it shall be without delay to enter therein all such just and +proper entries as a publisher ought to enter and proper entries shall be +made in the same Book of all receipts and payments and all accounts +matters and things in respect of the said Work and be kept with all +vouchers and writings which may relate to the same work in the +publisher's Office for the time being of the said work and not elsewhere +for the inspection and perusal of each of the parties hereto his +executors and administrators and whereto each of them may at all times +resort and take copies thereof or extracts therefrom at their free will +and pleasure and that the same Book shall at each of the aforesaid +Weekly meetings be laid by the said publisher before the persons parties +hereto attending the hereinbefore mentioned weekly meetings respectively +which person shall at each such Meeting then and there make up state and +balance the said Book and sign the same when so made up stated and +balanced and the same shall within one week afterwards be signed by such +of the parties hereto as may not have attended the weekly meeting in +which such Book shall have been lastly stated and balanced and after +such signature each of them shall be bound and concluded therein unless +some manifest error to the amount of Five pounds or upwards shall be +found therein and signified by either of the parties to the other within +six calendar months next after the taking of such accounts respectively +in which case the error shall be rectified but no other par of the said +account shall be impeached or disturbed. + +[Sidenote: _Fifteenth._] + +=That= the getting up of the work shall be executed in all respects in +the best possible manner by all the parties hereto and each party shall +be just and true to each other in all matters and things relating to the +said Work. + +[Sidenote: _Sixteenth._] + +=That= the whole conduct of the said work as well with regard to the +Editing printing designing engraving and publishing thereof as every +other matter and thing connected therewith or incidental thereto and the +expenses thereof respectively shall in case there be any difference +about the same be decided by a majority of the votes of the several +parties hereto the said =Ebenezer Landells= being entitled to one vote +the said =Joseph Last= to one other vote and the parties hereto of the +first part or any two of them to one other vote the vote of the last +mentioned parties or any two of them being to be taken for the purpose +of such voting but as one person only. + +[Sidenote: _Seventeenth._] + +=That= any person may retire from this Agreement and from all concern in +the said Work on leaving at the Publisher's Office for the time being of +the said Work Twenty one days notice in writing of his intention so to +do such Notice expiring on a Saturday. + +[Sidenote: _Eighteenth._] + +=That= upon the retirement of any such person as aforesaid the assetts +belonging to the said work (including debts) shall at the joint expence +of the persons parties hereto be valued by three indifferent and +competent persons in the publishing business who shall take upon +themselves the office of such valuation one to be chosen by the said +Editors another by the said =Ebenezer Landells= and the third by the said +=Joseph Last= within one week after such retirement and in case any or +either of the said parties shall for any cause whatever not nominate +such valuor on his or their behalf within the said week then a valuer +may be nominated by the valuer or valuers chosen by the party or parties +who may be willing to proceed with the said valuation and such valuor so +nominated as last aforesaid may with the valuer so previously nominated +(in case only one of such parties shall have nominated a valuer) +nominate a third valuer to carry into effect the aforesaid valuation And +in case such third valuer shall not from any cause be nominated within +one week after two valuers shall have been nominated then such third +valuer may be nominated by the Clerk of nisi prius of the Court of +Queens Bench for the time being on the application of any party hereto +who shall first make application to him for that purpose And in case of +the death of any of the said valuers another or other may be chosen in +manner hereinbefore set forth And after such valuation shall be made +known it shall be lawful for the persons parties hereto (other than the +person so retiring as aforesaid) to purchase the whole (but not a part +of) the share and interest of the Party so retiring in the net assetts +belonging to the said work and the parties so purchasing as aforesaid +shall enter into a Bond in a sufficient penalty with two good and +sufficient sureties for securing to the party so retiring the payment of +the amount of such his share and interest ascertained by such valuation +as aforesaid at the respective periods of three six nine and twelve +calandar months next after such retirement with interest at the rate of +five pounds per cent. per annum from the time of such retirement payable +quarterly in the meantime That in case of the death of either of the +said persons parties hereto a valuation shall be made of the assetts +belonging to the said Work (including debts) in the manner hereinbefore +stipulated the executors or administrators of the deceased partner being +substituted for such deceased party and the surviving parties shall have +the option of purchasing the share of the party so dying of and in the +said assetts upon the same terms as are hereinbefore mentioned in case +such party had retired as hereinbefore provided That in case either +person shall become Lunatic or Imbecile or from any cause prevented from +attending to the business of the said Work as hereinbefore provided for +the period of two entire calendar months he shall to all intents and +purposes be considered to have retired from this Agreement and from all +concern in the said Work as fully and effectually as if he had given +notice under the clause hereinbefore contained in that behalf and a +valuation shall be made of the assetts in respect of the said Work +(including debts) in the manner hereinbefore stipulated the friends +acting on behalf of the Lunatic or imbecile person being substituted for +such Lunatic or imbecile person. That if in any of the cases aforesaid +the parties in whom shall be the right of purchasing the share and +interest of the party so retiring dying becoming Lunatic or imbecile or +prevented from attending to the business of the said Work as aforesaid +shall decline to elect to exercise such right (and they shall be deemed +to have so declined unless the contrary be made known by notice in +writing under the hands of the parties entitled to such right and left +at the said publishing Office for the time being within seven days after +such right shall have accrued) then the assetts belonging to the said +Work including debts shall be sold by public auction and the net produce +of the said assetts after discharging all claims and demands in respect +of the same work shall be equally divided between the said =Henry Mayhew= +=Mark Lemon= =Joseph Stirling Coyne= =Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph +Last= or (as the case may be) the survivor of them and the executors or +administrators of him or them who may be deceased. + +[Sidenote: _Nineteenth._] + +=That= in case the said Work shall be discontinued and the parties hereto +cannot agree upon any other mode of winding up the affairs of the said +Work then the assetts belonging to the same Work including debts shall +be sold by public auction and the net produce of the said assetts after +discharging all claims and demands in respect of the same work shall be +equally divided between the said =Henry Mayhew= =Mark Lemon= Joseph +Stirling Coyne= =Ebenezer Landells= and =Joseph Last= or (as the case +may require) the survivors of them and the executors or administrators +of such as may be dead. + +[Sidenote: _Twentieth._] + +=That= in case any dispute or question shall arise between the parties +hereto their executors or administrators or any of them concerning any +stipulation herein contained or otherwise concerning the said Work +(which cannot be decided under the clause herein contained Numbered 16) +then the grounds of every such dispute or question shall upon the +request of any one or more of the parties in difference and within three +days after such request be reduced into writing and signed by the +parties in difference or by the parties complaining and shall be +referred to the arbitration of two indifferent persons one to be named +by the person or persons who shall take one side of the matter in +difference and the other to be named by the person or persons who shall +take the other side of the matter in difference And that in case the +person or persons who shall take either side of the said difference +shall refuse to name a referee within seven days after notice in writing +for that purpose to be left at the said Publishers Office for the time +being then the grounds of every such dispute or question shall be +reduced into writing and signed by the person or persons who shall take +the other side of the difference and to be referred to the arbitration +of two indifferent persons to be named by the person or persons who +shall sign the said last mentioned writing And in case the two referees +to be named by both or one of the said parties as aforesaid cannot agree +on an award then to the Umpirage and arbitration of such one person as +the referees shall appoint by any writing under their hands such Umpire +to be appointed by the said referees before proceeding in the matter of +the said reference and if from any cause such Umpire shall not be +appointed by the said referees within three days after their appointment +then the same shall be appointed by the Clerk of Nisi Prius of the said +Court of Queens Bench upon the application of either party in difference +who shall first make application to him for that purpose And that such +person or persons who shall be a party or parties to such reference on +the one part shall enter into a bond of reference with the person or +persons who shall be a party or parties to the said reference on the +other part and in the usual form to stand to obey and keep the same +Award or determination when made without any further suit or trouble +whatsoever And that the Award or determination which shall be made by +the said two referees or their Umpire concerning the Premises referred +to them or him or any part thereof shall be final and conclusive on the +said parties their respective executors and administrators So that such +referees shall make their Award in writing within seven days next after +such reference to them and so as such Umpire shall make his +determination in writing under his hand within seven days next after the +matter shall be referred to him And that every Bond of reference shall +be made a rule of Her Majestys Court of Queens Bench at Westminster on +the application of either of the said parties to the same reference his +or her executors or administrators and that the reference shall not be +defeated or affected by the decease of all or any of the parties thereto +pending the same and that no Suit at Law or Bill in Equity shall be +brought commenced sued or prosecuted against the said referees or their +Umpire touching or concerning their Award or determination. + +[Sidenote: _Twenty-first._] + +=That= no suit at Law or in Equity upon or by virtue of these Presents or +any Clause or Article herein contained or otherwise concerning the said +Work shall be commenced preferred or instituted by either of the said +parties hereto his heirs executors or administrators against the other +of them his heirs executors or administrators before the party or +parties his or their heirs executors or administrators who is or are to +be a party or parties defendant or defendants in such suit or suits +shall have refused or declined to refer the matters in difference to +arbitration pursuant to the stipulation hereinbefore contained or the +referees or their Umpire shall have declined or omitted to make any +Award or determination within the respective times hereby appointed for +that purpose And that when such difference shall arise between any two +or more of the parties hereto each of the other parties hereto shall +have notice thereof by writing to be left at the said Publishers Office +for the time being to the intent that the said parties respectively may +have the option of taking a part in the matters in difference on either +side and that the party or parties who shall refuse or decline to become +a party to such reference shall be bound and concluded by all the +parties hereto and by the Award and determination of the Arbitrators or +their Umpire in the same manner to all intents and purposes as if he or +they had been a party or parties to the matters in difference concerning +which such Award or determination shall be made and had joined in +referring the same. + +[Sidenote: _Twenty-second._] + +=That= this Agreement shall be deposited for safe Custody on behalf of all +parties with =Alfred Mayhew= of No. 26 Carey Street Lincolns Inn Attorney +at Law to be produced by him to and for the benefit of the said parties +respectively and their respective heirs executors and administrators +when and as often as occasion shall require and the said parties +respectively or their respective heirs executors and administrators +shall be at liberty as often as they shall think proper at their own +Costs to obtain from the said =Alfred Mayhew= Copies or Extracts of or +from the same Agreement. + +[Sidenote: _Twenty-third._] + +=That= the expenses of and incidental to this Agreement shall be paid on +the execution thereof by the said =Joseph Last= who shall be repaid out of +the first proceeds of the sale of the said Work =As witness= the hands and +seals of the parties. + + Signed sealed and delivered by all the above + named parties in the presence of + + =Wm. Eldridge= + Clerk to =Messrs. Mayhew & Co.= + 26 Carey St. Lincolns Inn + + HENRY MAYHEW + + MARK LEMON + + JOSEPH STIRLING COYNE + + EBENEZER LANDELLS + + JOSEPH LAST + + + + * * * * * + + + +INDEX + +[Illustration: (FROM THE FIRST SKETCH BY CHARLES KEENE.)] + +_The =Heavy= Figures indicate the main references in the Text._ + + À Beckett, Mr. Arthur W., 61, 67, 74; + politics, 80; + Parish Councils Bill cartoon, 169; + contributions, etc., =374=, =375= + + À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott, and the origin of _Punch_, 14, 17; + the first number, 26, 61, 67; + at the Dinners, 75, 76; + the Jews, 103; + suggestions for cartoons, 171, 180; + attack on Bunn, 226, 228; + attacked in the "Puppet-Show," 239; + his only artistic contribution to _Punch_, 251; + number of contributions, 259, 260, 276, 277; + as a magistrate, 278, 279; + biographical summary, =272-280=; + his sons as children, 435; _et passim_ + + À Beckett, Gilbert Arthur, and "Dropping the Pilot," and + "The Hidden Hand," 180, 383, =381-384= + + À Beckett, Hon. T. T., and the origin of _Punch_, 12, 272, 274 + + Aberdeen, Lord, 101, 111, 119, 147 + + Accounts relating to transfer of _Punch_ to Bradbury & Evans, 34-36 + + Acrostics, Double, 493, 494 + + Advertising on umbrellas and house-fronts, 125 + + "Advice to persons about to marry," 141, 186 + + "Advice to Vocalists," 161 + + Æstheticism and Mr. Du Maurier, 506 + + Agnew, Mr. John Henry, 38, 61 + + Agnew, Mr. Philip, 38 + + Agnew, Mr. Thomas, 38, 61 + + Agnew, Sir William, 38, 61, 87 + + Agreement constituting _Punch_ (APPENDIX II.), 25, 36, 575-580 + + Ainger, Canon, 147 + + Ainsworth, Harrison, 220 + + "Airs Resumptive," 405 + + Albany, Duke of, Death of, 183 + + Albert, Prince, 101, 199; + attitude of _Punch_ towards him, 215-217 + + "Albion," The, and the dinner to Mr. Burnand, 88 + + Alexander III. as the New Pharaoh, 105; + and Lord Augustus Loftus, 194 + + Allen, Joseph, 26; + and the _Punch_ Club, 93, 282, 452 + + "Almanac," The, 31; + its reputed originators, 32, 33; + great success, variations in production, and "influenza year," 40; + piratical imitations, 41; + a drawing of Sir John Gilbert's, 451, 562, 567; _et passim_ + + "Almanac Dinner," 87 + + Amateur Humorists, 147-149 + + America, War of Secession, 80, 111, 120, 177; + humour, 163; + opinion of _Punch_, 370; + Mr. du Maurier's portrayal of American girls, 511, 512 + + Andersen, Hans Christian, 265 + + Andover Workhouse Scandals, 278 and note + + "Animal Types," Sir John Tenniel's, 176, 177 + + Anstey (Guthrie), Mr. F., 67; + politics, 80; =396-401= + + "Answers to Correspondents," 31 + + "Anti-Graham Envelope," and "Wafers," 52, 114-117 + + "Anti-Punch," The, 240 + + APPENDICES, Signatures of _Punch's_ artists, 573, 574; + text of agreement constituting _Punch_, 575-580 + + Argyll, Duke of, and "The Old Crusaders," 182 + + Armitage, Mr. Arthur, 406 + + Armstrong, T., 16 + + Arnold-Forster, Mr., 145 + + "Arrow," The, 157, 240, 500 + + "'Arry Papers," 378-380 and note + + Art, _Punch's_ attitude towards, 126, 127, 221, 222; + past and present in _Punch_, 409, 410 + + Art Union, The, Satire on, 52 + + Artists on _Punch_, Number of, 410; + signatures of (APPENDIX I.), 573, 574 + + "Ascot Cup Day," Thackeray's, 314 + + Ashby-Sterry, Mr., 361, 372, =386=, =387=, =499= + + Ashley, 444 + + Asquith, Mr., 205 + + "Athenæum," a criticism on _Punch_, 243 + + Atkinson, Mr. J. Priestman, Contributions of, 368, 371, + 372, 410, =524=, =525= + + "Atonement Dinner," Thackeray's, 87, 88 + + Attacks on _Punch_, 227-232, 237-241 + + "Author's Miseries," 315 + + "Awful State of Ireland," Hood's, 336 + + + "B. W.," 501 + + Bacon, Mrs., and the title of _Punch_, 24 + + Bailey, the sculptor, and Jerrold's bust, 87 + + "Bang went Saxpence," 140, 141, 186 + + Bank of England, and error of _Punch's_, 245 + + Banting, Mr., 157 + + Barham, R. ("Tom Ingoldsby"), and the _Punch_ Dinners, 86 + + Baring, Sir Francis, 233 + + Barnard, Mr. Fred, 156, =518=, =519= + + Barry, Michael John, and the "Peccavi" despatch, 361 + + Bather joke, The, 162 + + Bayley, F. W. N., 17, 19 + + Baylis, Henry, 19, 24; + and the _Punch_ Club, 93, =97= + + Beaconsfield, Lord, _see_ Disraeli, Mr. + + "Beard movement," 423 + + Beardsley, Mr. Aubrey, 222 + + "Bede, Cuthbert," _see_ Bradley, Rev. Edward + + Bedford, Mr. Deputy, 317, =385=, =386= + + Bedford Hotel, _Punch_ Dinner at, 64, 65, 86, 87 + + Beetle, Sergeant-at-Arms as a, 145, 146 + + Bellew, Frank, 500, 501 + + Benefit performances, 132-135 + + "Bengal Tiger, The," 208 + + Bennett, Charles H., 61, 66; + letter from his fellow-diners, 76, 77, 527; + benefit performance for his widow, 132, 134, 528; + death of, 180, 455, =525-528= + + Bennett, J., 498 + + Bennitt, Mr., 542 + + Bennitt, Colonel Ward, 547, 548 + + Betham-Edwards, Miss M., 371, 372 + + Bethell, Mr. (afterwards Lord Westbury), and _Punch's_ applications for + injunctions, 151, 152 + + "Bibs' Baby, Mrs.," 295 + + "Bicycle made for Two, A," 471 + + "Billie Barlow," 360 + + "Bird's-eye Views of English Society," 455 + + Bismarck, Prince, Resignation of, 179, 180; + and the Emperor William II., 193; + a "junior cartoon" by Mr. Sambourne, 535 + + Black, Mr. William, on Keene, 489 + + "Black Maria" joke, A, 143, 144 + + Blackwood, Mr., 330 + + Blanchard, Laman, 259, 260, 337, 338 + + Blanchard, Sidney, and "Mr. Punch, His Origin and Career," 12; + and the "London Charivari," 15; + proposal for a "comic _Punch_," 14 note + + Blatchford, Mr. Montagu, 88, 548 + + Blocks for _Punch_ illustrations, 249-251 + + Bloomerism, 424 + + Board School, Hugh Middleton, 125 + + "Book of Beauty," 467, 479 + + Borrow, George, and Thackeray, 318 + + "Bow Street Ballads," 320 + + Bowers, Miss Georgina, 166, =529=, =530= + + Boyd, Mr. A. S., 167 + + Bradbury, William, =36=, 49, 61 + + Bradbury, William Hardwick, 38 + + Bradbury, Mr. W. Lawrence, 38 + + Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 38 + + Bradbury & Evans, 31, 32; + and negotiations for the purchase of _Punch_, 33-35 + + Bradbury, Evans & Co., 38 + + Bradley, C. H., 477 + + Bradley, Rev. Edward, and "Verdant Green," 129, 492, 355, 372, =491-495= + + Brewtnall, Mr. E. F., 543 + + Brezzi, Mrs., and the Title of _Punch_, 24 + + "Briefless, Mr.," 275 + + "Briefless, Junior," 375 + + "Briggs, Mr., or Housekeeping _versus_ Horse keeping," 131, 425 + + Bright, John, 101, 111; + and the New Reform Bill, 118; + "Hercules," 121; + with an eye-glass, 204; + obituary notice, 377 + + Brine, his portrait of _Punch_, 8; + and the first Staff of _Punch_, 19; + cartoons, 171, =412= + + "Britannia," 208, 473, 535 + + "British Lion," 70 and note, 176, 177, 208, 470 + + Bromley, Valentine, 548 + + Brooks, Reginald Shirley, 67, 387 + + Brooks, Shirley, and the origin of _Punch_, 11; + misconception as to the first editorship of _Punch_, 25 note; + portrait, 60, 80; + politics, 99; + his lectures, 129; + the "Man in the Moon," 154, 238, 357; + old jokes, 163; + a Cawnpore cartoon, 177; + verses on Abraham Lincoln, 177, 178; + verses on the death of the Prince Consort, 217; + "Our Flight with _Punch_," 238, 357; + friendship with Angus Reach, 357; + as Editor, 359, 360; + work and characteristics, =356-360= + + Brough, Robert, 265, 360 + + Brough, William, 265, 288, 360 + + Brougham, Lord, 101, 153; + opinion of _Punch's_ portraits of him, 200; + as "Mrs. Caudle," and as a clown, 202 + + Brown, W., 454 + + "Brown, Mrs.," 489 + + "Brown, Jones and Robinson," 455 + + "Brown's Letters, Mr.," 321 + + Browne, Charles F., 180, 317, =369=, =370= + + Browne ("Phiz"), Hablôt Knight, and the origin of _Punch_, 19; + his design for the cover, 41, 42, 451; + "Valentines," 49, 50; + "Mokeanna," 365, 427, 446, =451=, =452= + + Browne, Mr. Walter, 539 + + Brunton, W., 232, 502 + + Bryan, Mr. Alfred, 557, 567 + + Bryant, W., first publisher of _Punch_, 19, 27 + + Buccleuch, Duke of, 233 + + Buckingham, James Silk, _Punch's_ attack on, 223-225 + + Bulgarian atrocities, 165 + + Bull, W. P., 337 + + Bull-fights, 429 + + "Bull Frog" cartoon, 449 + + Bunn, Alfred, _Punch's_ attack on, 225-227; + his "Word with Punch," 131, 227-232 + + Burnand, Miss, 392 + + Burnand, Mr. F. C., 40; + portrait, 60; + politics, 80, 99; + dinner in his honour at the "Albion," 88; + the Two Pins Club, 98; + "Happy Thoughts," 129, 365; + first contribution, 146, 362; + puns, 151, 366; + "Mrs. Gummidge," 179; + "Out of Town," 276, 366; + contributions, editorship, etc., =362-368= + + Burnham Beeches, Jubilee Dinner at, 87 + + Burns, Mr. John, 235 + + Burton, E. J., 460 + + Butts, _Punch's_ favourite, 217-233, 330 + + Byron, Henry J., verses on _Punch_, 8; + _Comic News_, 160; + _Fun_, 364, 407 + + + "C.," 491 + + "C. B.," 547 + + Cabinet Ministers, Attitude of _Punch_ towards, 195-205 + + Caldecott, Randolph, =545=, =546= + + Callaway, Rev. W. F., 498, 499 + + Calverley, C. S., 371 + + Campbell, Mr. Gerald F., 403 + + Campbell, Lady, 392, 406 + + "Candidates under Different Phases," 188 + + Canning, Lord, 177 + + Capital punishment, 2, 3 + + "Captain Jinks of the _Selfish_," etc., 523 + + "Captious Critic," The, 541, 542 + + Carnigan, Lord, Epigram by Wills on, 26 + + Caricature, Carlyle on, 4; + as illustrated by Gillray, Rowlandson, and Cruikshank, 186 + + Carlisle, Lord, and a dinner to the _Punch_ Staff, 90, 200 + + Carlyle, on caricature, 4; + on humour, 5; + "Latter-day Pamphlets," 112 + + Carthusians on the Staff, 69, 70 + + "Cartoon Junior," The, 82, 170 + + Cartoons, and tinted background, 41; + history, weekly arrangements for design and production, etc., 79, + 80, =168-184=, 463, 464; + origin of name, etc., 185-188; + as a reflection of popular opinion, 188, 189; + engraving, 249, 464, 468 + + Cartoonists, 170-172 + + Cartoons for Houses of Parliament, Exhibition of, 187 + + "Cartoons, Sir John Tenniel's," 52 + + Catling, Mr., 95 + + "Caudle, Mrs.," and the "Lectures," 73, 98, 130; + and Lord Brougham, 202; + "sudden death," 238, 291-293 + + "Caudle at Gravesend, Mrs.," 130 + + Cawnpore Cartoons, 176, 177 + + "Cham," 501, 502 + + Chamberlain, Mr. Joseph, 408 + + Chambers, Mr., 498, 523 + + "Charivari," Philipon's, 15 + + Chartism, 108, 425 + + Chasemore, Mr. A., 483, 538, 539 + + Cheltnam, Mr. Charles Smith, 374 + + Chess-problem joke, 160 + + Chester, Fred, 60 + + Chester, George, 60, 255 + + "Child Snobson's Pilgrimage," 166 + + "Childe Chappie's Pilgrimage," 146, 166, 378 + + Children, Mr. du Maurier's drawings of, 507, 513 + + Children, _Punch_ men's love of, 294 + + Chinese War, 111, 119 + + "Chronicles of a Rural Parish," 403 + + Church, Affairs of the, in _Punch_, 102, 103 + + "Church-going Bell," 536 + + Churchill, Lord Randolph, 199; + portraits, 204, 552, 553 + + Circulation of _Punch_, early numbers, 28, 30, 31; + after the production of the "Almanac," 33; + after "A Visit to the Watering-Places," 49 + + Clarke, Mrs. Cowden, on Lemon's "Falstaff," 135 + + Clarke, H. Savile, Contributions of, 371; 483 + + Cleaver, Mr. Reginald, 92, 565 + + Club, _Punch_, 52, 55, =93-98=, 452; + Two Pins, 98; + Mulberry, 447; + Shakespeare, 447 + + Clubs in Fleet Street, 54 + + Clubs, Complaint books of, and Thackeray's "Snob Papers," 319 + + Cobden, Richard, 111, 157, 165; + portraits in _Punch_, 205 + + "Cock-a-doodle-do," 190 + + Collins, Mrs. Frances, 392, 405 + + Collins, Mortimer, 240, =376= + + "Columbia," 208 + + Combe, George, 240 + + "Comic Blackstone," The, 276 + + "Comic Bradshaw," The, 276, 280 + + "Comic Latin Grammar," 419, 420 + + "Comic Mythology," 282 + + "Comic News," 160, 265, 414, 500, 525 + + "Comic Times," 361, 412, 525 + + "Commercial Intelligence," 274 + + "Complete Letter-Writer," 294 + + "Confessions of a Duffer," 392 + + Consort, Prince, _see_ Albert, Prince + + Contributions of Staff, Relative, 258-263 + + Conundrums by Thomas Hood, 330, 331 + + "Conversational Hints for Young Shooters," 402 + + Conway, Mr. Moncure, 440 + + Coode, Miss, 502, 529 note + + Cooke, Mr. C. W., 403 + + Cooke, T. P., 298 + + Cooper, Mr., 540 + + Cooper, Mr. Sidney, and a device of Douglas Jerrold, 75 + + Corbould, Mr. A. Chantrey, 410, 543, =544=, =545= + + "Cosmorama, The," 16, 17, 414 + + "Cousin Jonathan," 208 + + Covers of Bi-Annual Volumes, Designs for, 41-49 + + Cox, Mr. Everard Morant, 558 + + Coyne, Joseph Stirling, and the origin of _Punch_, 12, 14, 17, 19; + and the editorship, 25, 256, =271=, =272= + + Crane, Mr. Walter, 530 + + Crawhall, Mr. Joseph, 147 + + Cricket, _Punch_ on, 514, 515 + + Crimean War, 109, 110, 111, 119, 174 + + Crinolines, 424 + + "Crown Inn," Vinegar Yard: the _Punch_ Dinner, and the _Punch_ Club, 55 + + "Crowquill," Alfred, his portrait of _Punch_, 8; + and the "London Charivari," 15; + "Valentines," 49, 158; + cartoons, 171; + "Vauxhall Papers," 226, =449-450= + + Cruikshank, George, his etchings, 9, 186; + "Omnibus," 162, 496, 497; + and the Court, 189, 190; + Almanack, 417; + relations with _Punch_, 495-498 + + Cruikshank, Robert, 273 + + "Cry of the Clerk," 388 + + Crystal Palace, christened by _Punch_, 84, 85; + "Gentleman's Magazine" dinner, 88 + + "Curiosities of Medical Experiences," 305 + + Curren, Mr. J., 548 + + + "Daily News," and Charles Dickens, 84; + and Peter Rackham, 85 + + Dalziel, Edward, 16, 248 + + Dalziel, George, 16, 248 + + Darré, Monsieur G., 559, 560 + + Davies, Mr. George, 404 + + "Deaf Burke," 165 + + Deane, Rev. Anthony C., 404, 405 + + Delane, Mr., and _mousseline de laine_, 91 + + "Derby Ram," The, 524 + + Deterioration of _Punch_, Alleged, 245, 246 + + Dever, 523 + + Devonshire House, amateur theatrical performance at, 135 + + "Diary of Mr. Yellowplush," 317 + + "Diary of a Nobody," 392 + + "Diary of the Premier at Sea," 384 + + Dickens, Charles, at the _Punch_ Dinner, 83, 351; + quarrel with Mark Lemon and Bradbury and Evans, 83, 352, 353; + friendship with Jerrold, 84; + dinner at the Mansion House, 90; + at the _Punch_ Club, 93; + as an amateur actor, 135; + on Lemon, 255; + and the fund for Jerrold's widow, 298; + opinion of Thackeray's art, 313; + authorship of the "Song of the Shirt," 332; + sole (and unpublished) contribution to _Punch_, 349; + verses by Mr. E. J. Milliken, 378, 435; + friendship with Leech, 436 + + Dining-room at 10, Bouverie Street, 58-63 + + Dining Table at Bouverie Street, Initials on, 63 and note + + "Dinner, Almanac," 40 + + Dinner, _Punch_, 40, =53-87=, 168; + names of diners in frontispiece drawing, 536 note + + "Dinner at Timmins's, A," 320 + + Dinners, Special _Punch_, =87-92= + + "Diogenes," 159, 414, 459, 500, 525 + + "Dirty Father Thames," cartoon, 412 + + Disraeli, Mr., and Keene's unused cartoon, 60; + as presented in _Punch_, 100; + change of politics, 107; + the "Political Chameleon," 118; + the "Premier-Peri," 121, 473; + Bulgarian atrocities, 165; + and "A Leap in the Dark," 179; + and the "Pas de Deux," 179; + as a beaten Minister, 182; + at the Printers' Pension Society dinner, 197-199; + and "Scaramouche," 199; + as Hamlet, 200; + obituary notice, 377 + + Dowse, Baron, Lines of farewell to, 373 + + Doyle, Henry, 459 + + Doyle, Richard, his portrait of _Punch_, 8; + secession, 40, 103; + designs for cover of _Punch_, 46-49, 202; + "Holidays," 50; + at the Dinners, 68; + "Papal Aggression" cartoons, 102, 103, 171, 455; + and Mr. Swain, 252; + "High Art and the Royal Academy," 349, 458 note; + his one literary contribution, 372; =454-458= + + Drama, The, _Punch's_ support of, 128 + + "Drama, The," by Hood, 335 + + Draughtsmen on _Punch_, Number of, 410 + + Dress, Fashions in, 122, 123 + + "Dropping the Pilot," 179, 180, 383 + + Drunkards, _Punch's_ pictures of, 245 + + Duelling, 187 + + "Dumb Crambo, Junior," _see_ Atkinson, Mr. J. Priestman + + Duncombe, M.P., Mr., 114 + + + "Easel, Jack," _see_ Eastlake, Mr Charles L. + + Eastern Question, 118, 119 + + Eastlake, Mr. Charles L., 362 + + Edwards, Mr. Sutherland, and "Pasquin," 240, 348; + contributions to _Punch_, 348, 349 + + Egg, R.A., Augustus, 135 + + Electrotyping _Punch_ blocks, 251 + + "Elephant and Castle" joke, 144 + + Eliot, George, 161, 332 + + Ellis, Mr. E. J., 255, 537 + + Eltze, F., his portrait of _Punch_, 9, 144, =521=, =522= + + Engraving _Punch_ illustrations, 247-253 + + Epigram Club, of Oxford, 149 + + Errors of _Punch_, 243-245, 472 + + "Essence of Parliament," 100, 245, 348, 359, 389-391, 526, 533, 551 + + "Eton Boy," an, Contribution of, 435 + + Eugénie, Empress, 110 + + Evans, Mr. Edmund, 16, 248, 445 + + Evans, Frederick Mullett ("Pater"), =36=, =38= + + Evans, Mr. F. M., 38, 61 + + Extra Numbers, 49-51 + + + "F. B.," 549 + + "F. M.," 498 + + "F. Captain," 549 + + Faddists as critics of _Punch_, 245 + + Fairfield, Mr. A. R. and the "Tercentenary Number," 50, 522; and 410, =522= + + "Fairy Tales," 337 + + Family Trees of _Punch_, 382 + + Farmer, British, 166 + + Fashions, 122, 123 + + Fawkes, L. G., 548 + + Ferguson, J. W., 259, 260, 337 + + "Février turned Traitor, General," 119, 174-176 + + Field, Mrs., 529 note, 545 + + "Figaro in London," 11, 188, 226, 273, 413 + + First Avenue Hotel, _Punch_ Dinner at, 64 + + "Fitzdotterel," 378 + + Fleet Prison, 3 + + Fleischmann, A., Statue of "_Punch_" by, 62 + + "Flight with _Punch_, Our," 238 + + Footpad joke, The, 159 + + Forbes, Professor, 405 + + "Foreign Affairs," 173, 420 + + "Forlorn Hope" Cartoon, 180, 181 + + "Forlorn Maiden" Cartoon, 472 + + Forster, John, 135; + and _Punch's_ portraits of Lord Brougham, 200 + + Forster, Rumsey, revenges himself on Thackeray, 319, 320 + + Foster, Mr. Birket, 16, and the title of _Punch_, 25, 43, 60; + and "Bang went Saxpence," 140, 147; + and cartoon, 171; + on Mark Lemon, 256; =445=, =446= + + Founders of _Punch_, 16, 17, 28 + + France, _Punch's_ exclusion from, 165, 190, 191; + and the "United Service," 176; + Anglo-Congolese difficulty, Marshal MacMahon, and the + "Madagascar Lamb," 191; + and Russia, 191, 192; + satirists, 242, 243 + + Franco-Prussian War, 110, 179, 192 + + Fraser, Miss, 549 + + Free Trade and Protection, 118 + + Frenchmen and _Punch_, 51, 437 + + Frith, R.A., Mr., and the first number of _Punch_, 29; + and "General Février," 175, 176, 435; + and the relations between Leech and George Cruikshank, 496 + + "Fun," 232, 364, 371, 459, 516, 539, 540, 567 + + "Funny Folks," 160 + + Furniss, Mr. Harry, his portraits of _Punch_, 9; + Paris Exhibition number, 51; + caricature by Mr. Sambourne, 61, 79; + the Two Pins Club, 98; + his public entertainments, 129; + "I used your soap two years ago," 145; + his first drawing, 146; + portraits of politicians, 204, 551-554; + and "Mrs. Ramsbotham," 237, 238; + a literary contribution, 372; + and "Toby, M.P.," 391, 551; =549-556= + + "Fusbos," 282 + + + Gale, Frederick, 406 + + Gaiter, William, 16 + + "Gamp" and "Harris," Mesdames, 50, 211 + + Garibaldi, 120 + + Geake, Mr. Charles, 403 + + "General Février," 119, 174-176 + + "Gentleman's Magazine," and the dinner at the Crystal Palace, 88 + + "German Reeds' Entertainment," 130 + + Germany, Exclusion of _Punch_ from the Court of, 192 + + Gilbert, R.A., Sir John: his portrait of _Punch_, 8; + design of cover, 11, 41, 45, 450; 126; + and "Bang went Saxpence," 140; + "Mokeanna," 364; =450=, =451=, =528= + + Gilbert, Mr. W. S., 232, 364, 372 + + Gillray and Rowlandson, 186, 189 + + Girdlestone, Rev. A. G., Pulpit tribute, 102 + + Gladstone, Mr.: and the dinner given by Mr. Lucy, 91; + on _Punch's_ politics, 100, 197; + as presented in _Punch_, 101; + and Home Rule, 106; + under Sir Robert Peel, 107; + "Jupiter," 121; + "He won't be happy till he gets it," 160; + Bulgarian Atrocities, 165; + Parish Councils Bill, 169; + and Lord Rosebery's first speech as Premier, 170; + on political satirists, 172; + "Mrs. Gummidge," 179, 466; + "Forlorn Hope," 180, 181; + "The Old Crusaders," 182; + and the rejection of the Paper Duty Bill, 200; + portraits, 204; + on Mark Lemon, 267; + "Diary of the Premier at Sea," 384; + and "Britannia's Volunteers," 394, 395; + Sir John Tenniel's drawings, 466; + and Sir John Tenniel's knighthood, 473; + a sketch by Mr. Sambourne, 535; + collars, 551, 552; + loss of a digit, 556 + + "Globe," The, and "Mrs. Ramsbotham," 236, 237 + + "Glow-Worm," The, 375 + + Goddard, G. B., 528, 529 + + Gordon, Sir A., and the _Punch_ Staff, 92 + + Gordon, General, 183 + + Goschen, Mr., 160, 200 + + Gossett, Captain, 145, 146 + + Graham, Mr., 545 + + Graham, Sir James: "Anti-Graham Envelope" and "Wafers," 113-116; + on Disraeli, 198 + + "Granta," The, 401-403 + + "Grattan," H. P., 19, 26; + and the origin of the "Almanac," 32; + + Graves, Mr. Alfred Perceval, 373 + + Gray, Paul, 232, 517 + + Great Exhibition, The, 51, 111, 424 + + "Great Gun," The, 210, 218, 226, 238, 412, 416, 449, 451, 459 + + Greek Question of 1850, The, 116 + + Greek Throne put up to auction, 120 + + Greenaway, J., 16 + + Greenwood, Mr. Frederick, and the announcement of Thackeray's death + at the _Punch_ Dinner, 86, 87 + + Grieve, Mr., and the _Punch_ Club, 93 + + Griset, Mr. Ernest, 455, =537=, =538= + + Grossmith, Mr. George, 391, 392 + + Grossmith, Mr. Weedon, 392 + + "Guide to Servants, _Punch's_," 313 + + Guild of Literature and Art, 134-136 + + "Gummidge, The Political Mrs.," 179, 467 + + + "H.," 499 + + "HB.," 186, 190, 454 + + Hall, Mr. Harry, 491 + + Hall, S. C., and the "Art Union," 52; + _Punch's_ attack on, 223, 235, 290 + + Halliday, B. C., 499 + + Halliday, Mr. Mike, 424 + + Hallward, Mr., 549 + + Hamerton, Mr. R. J., 95; + cartoons, 171; + the "Squib," 275; 327, =452=, =453= + + Hammond, W. J., 130 + + Hampton Court, Dinner to Sir J. Tenniel at, 89 + + Hannay, James: and the "Journal for Laughter," 56; + his lectures, 129; + and "The Man in the Moon," 238, 306; + on Thackeray, 322; + and Jerrold, 348; + contributions to _Punch_, etc., 354, 355 + + "Happy Thoughts," 365 + + Harcourt, Sir Wm., 183; + portraits, 204, 552 + + Harling, O., 530 + + Harris, Mr., Contributions by, 517 + + "Harris, Mrs.," 50, 211 + + Harvey, William, his design for the cover of _Punch_, 42-44, 444; + as a draughtsman, 444 + + Hatton, Mr. Joseph: and the origin of _Punch_, 11; + and Mark Lemon, 163, 255, 267; + "True Story," 329 and Preface + + Hawkins, Sir Henry, 152 + + Haydon, G. H., 423, 426, 496, =502= + + Hays, Mr., 528 + + "He won't be happy till he gets it," 160 + + "Heads of the People," 447 + + Heath, H., and cartoons, 171; 452 + + "Heathen Mythology," 276 + + Heaviness of _Punch's_ fun, Alleged, 238-241 + + Hennessy, Mr. W. J., 547 + + Henning, A. S., 19; + and the first cover of _Punch_, 26, 41; + "Valentines," 49; + and "Joe Miller the Younger," 153, 412; + cartoons, 171; + the "Squib," 275, 412; =410-412= + + Henning, Mr. Walton, 305, 411 + + Herkomer, R.A., Professor, 445 + + "Hidden Hand, The," 180 + + Higgins, Matthew J. ("Jacob Omnium"), 260, 321 note, 343 + + Highbury Barn Tavern and the Annual Dinner, 87 + + Hill, Miss Joanna (Mrs. Fellows), 518 + + Hine, H. G., 34; + and the Almanac, 40; + design for cover, 41, 43; + and the first _Punch_ Dinner, 55; + the _Punch_ Club, 94; + "Anti-Graham Wafers," 115, 416; + cartoons, 171, 416; 330; =414-417=; + serenaded by _Punch_ Staff, 448 + + "His 'Art was True to Poll," 366 + + "History of Costume," 348 + + "History of the Next French Revolution," 316 + + Hodder, George: his "Memories of my Time" and the origin of + _Punch_, 12, 13, 28, =283=; + on Kenny Meadows, 448 + + Hodgson, Mr., 244 + + Hodgson, W. J., 548, 549, =565=, =566= + + Hogg, Mr. Jabez, on founders of _Punch_, 28 + + Hole, Dean Reynolds: and the _Punch_ Dinners, 85, 91; + and the coachman-waiter, 144; 343, 344; =362=; + jokes supplied to Leech, 434; + on Leech, 435; + at Leech's funeral, 443 + + "Holidays, _Punch's_," 50 + + Hollingshead, Miss, 392 + + Hollingshead, Mr. John, 368 + + Holt, Mr. W. G., 549 + + Home Rule, 100, 105, 106, 160, =161= + + Hood, Thomas: and "The Song of the Shirt," 146, 176, 331-334; 180, + 217, 218; + and wine-drinking, 289; + conundrums, 331; + his satire compared with Jerrold's, 335; + summary of work on _Punch_ and characteristics, =330-336=, 454; 372 + + Hood, Tom, and the _Punch_ Dinners, 86; + and "Fun," 232; + contributions to _Punch_, 295 + + Hopkins, Mr. Arthur, 567 + + Hopkins, Mr. Everard, 565 + + Horace, Parodies of, 306 + + Horsley, R.A., Mr., 144, 435 + + Hosack, Mr., 406, 407 + + "Hot Chestnut, A," 528 + + "House of Apollo-ticians, A," 554, 555 + + Houses of Parliament, Exhibition of cartoons for, 187 + + Howard, Captain H. R., 410, =475-477= + + Hume, Joseph, 112 + + Humour, Thackeray on, 1; + Carlyle on, 5; + of France, 199; + lack in women of, 392, 393 + + Humorists, Melancholy of, 435 + + "Humours of Parliament," 554 + + Hunt, Mr. Holman, on James Hannay, 355; 435; + on Doyle, 457 + + Hunt, Leigh, 132; + on Douglas Jerrold, 297, 447 + + + "I used your soap two years ago," 145 + + "Illuminated Magazine," 35, 265, 291, 338 + + "Illustrated London News" and "Parr's Life Pills," 265; 493 + + Imitations of popular writers, 365 + + Imperialist opinions of _Punch_, 120 + + "Important and Telegraphic," 306 + + "Important from the Seat of War," 321 + + "Incompleat Angler, The," 366 + + Indian Mutiny, 111 and note + + "Influenza Almanac," 40 + + "Information for the People," 282 + + Inglis, Sir Robert, 104, 105 + + Ingram, Herbert, and the "Illuminated Magazine," 35, 265 + + Initials on dining-table at Bouverie Street, 63 and note + + Injunctions obtained by _Punch_, 151, 152 + + Invasion scares, 109, 120 + + Invitation card to the _Punch_ Dinner, 67, 69 + + Irish, Leech's prejudice against the, 437 + + Irish affairs and cartoons, 105, 106, 453 + + "Irish Frankenstein, The," 449 + + Irish humour in _Punch_, 373 + + + "J. R.," 452 + + Jackson, 337 + + Jalland, Mr. G. H., 559 + + James, Edwin, 232 + + "Janus," 467 + + "Jeames's Diary," 317 + + "Jenkins Papers," 210, 289, 319 + + Jerrold, Douglas, 12; + and the origin of _Punch_, 14, 17, 18; + the "London Charivari," 15; + doubtful of the success of _Punch_, 30; + and Landells, 35; + edits "Illuminated Magazine," 35; + "Visit to the Watering-Places," 49; + "Mrs. Caudle," 73, 98; + relations with Thackeray, 74, 311; + the addressed label, 75; + witticisms at the Dinner, 75; + his Jubilee Dinner, 87; + _Punch_ Club, 93; + the "ingredients" of _Punch_, 95; + the prophecy of Hal Baylis, 97; + anti-aristocratic sentiments, 101; + the Jews, 104; + as a playwright, 129; + as an amateur actor, 136; + _Punch's_ plagiarists, 152; + suggestions for cartoons, 170, 171; + "Jenkins Papers," 210; + and Sir Peter Laurie, 220; + and Charles Kean, 222; + attack on Bunn, 226, 228, 230; + attacked in the "Puppet-Show," 239; + contributions for six months, 259; + and his daughter Mrs. Henry Mayhew, 268; + on Stirling Coyne, 272; + on comic "Histories," etc., 277; + and Angus Reach, 281; + characteristics, work, etc., =284-298=; + relations with Albert Smith, 303; + his satire compared with Hood's, 335; _et passim_ + + Jerrold, William, 269 + + Jest-books, Shakespeare's, 162 + + Jewish Disabilities Removal Bill, 104, 105, 111 + + Jews, Prejudice against, 103, 436, 437; + and the "Morning Post," 104 + + "Joe Miller the Younger," 153, 237, 292, 412, 416 + + "Joe Miller's Jest-Book," 157 + + "John Bull," 206-208 + + Joinville, Prince de, Letter of, 108, 120, 190 + + Jokes, _Punch's_, their origin, pedigree, and appropriation, =138-167= + + Jones, Sir Edward Burne-, 221, 222 + + Jones, George, and _Punch's_ attack on J. S. Buckingham, 224, 225, 235 + + Jopling-Rowe, Mrs., _see_ Romer, Mrs. + + "Journal for Laughter," 56 + + Jubilee of _Punch_, 6, 8 + + Jullien, _Punch's_ ridicule of, 218, 219 + + + Kean, Charles, 222, 223, 282 + + Keeley, Mrs., as Mrs. Caudle, 293 + + Keene, Charles: his portrait of _Punch_, 8; + the "Tercentenary Number," 50; + "Paris Sketches," 51; + cartoon of Disraeli and financiers, 60, 61, 66; + at the Dinners, 68, 78; + political opinions, 77, 78, 481; + cartoon on American War, 80; + leniency towards women, 141; + and "I used your soap two years ago," 145; + and Mr. Joseph Crawhall, 147, 483; 162; + repetition of drawings, 165, 166; + cartoons, 171, 253, 470; + "Mokeanna," 365; + Irish jokes, 373; + friendship with Mr. Silver, 479, =477-490= + + Kelly and "Dunsinane," 342 + + Kendall, Miss May, 392, 393 + + Kenealy, Dr. Edward Vaughan, 336 + + Kennedy, H. A., burlesque translations of Horace, 31, 306 + + Key, Professor T. Hewitt, 160 + + King, J., and "An Exiled Londoner," 342 + + Kingston, Mr. W. Beatty, 360, 361 + + Kitton, Mr. F. G., 349 + + Knebworth, Amateur theatrical performance at, 136, 137 + + Knight, Charles, and the _Punch_ Dinners, 86 + + Kossuth, 117, 118 + + + "La Belle Sauvage" and the first _Punch_ Dinner, 55; + and the _Punch_ Club, 94 + + Labouchere, Mr. Henry, 163 + + "Labours of Hercules," 302 + + Lady contributors, 392, 393, 529 and note + + Landells, Ebenezer, and the origin of _Punch_, 11-14, =15-19=, 26; + and Bradbury and Evans, 32-34; + engraving withdrawn from him, 34, 35; + and the "Illuminated Magazine," 35; + "Visit to the Watering-Places," 49; + on the _Punch_ Club, 93, 97; 188; + and "A Word with Punch," 232; 248 + + Lang, Mr. Andrew, 392; 393, 404 + + Lara, Mr. Isidore de, 235 + + Last, Joseph, and the origin of _Punch_, 12, 17, 19, 26 + + Laurie, Sir Peter, 219, 220 + + Lawless, M. J., 502 + + Lawson, Mr. F. Wilfrid, 537 + + Layard, Sir A. H., 92 + + Layard, Mr. G. S. quoted, 479, _et passim_ + + "Lays of a Lazy Minstrel," 387 + + Le Fanu, Mr., and "Seventy Years of Irish Life," 143 + + Leech, John: his portraits of _Punch_, 8, 9; + and the "London Charivari," 15; + the Almanacs, 40; + "Valentines," 49; + "Holidays," 50; + Great Exhibition Number, 51; + statuette by Boehm, 60; + at the Dinners, 68, 72, 73, 76; + the cartoons, 81, =170-177=; + singing at the Dinner, 86; + democratic sentiments, 101; + the Jews, 103; + the "Anti-Graham Envelope," 114, 420; + drawings of costumes, 122; + as an amateur actor, 135; 158, 159, 167; + "Foreign Affairs," 173, 420; + "Social Miseries," 187; + "Cock-a-doodle-do!" 190; + and Lord John Russell, 196; + and Disraeli, 197-199; + caricatures of Lord Brougham, 202; + "Mrs. Gamp" and "Betsy Prig," 213; + fastidiousness, 252; + on Henry Mayhew, 270; + relations with Albert Smith, 303; + riding to hounds, 319, 426; + Harlequinade verses, 342; + picture of two "snobs," 358; + career, =417-443=; + on Thackeray's death, 442; + and Tenniel, 470; + relations with George Cruikshank, 496; _et passim_ + + "Leeds Mercury instructing Young England," 339 + + Legend-writing, 432, 433, 484, 507, 508 + + Leger, Mr. Warham St., 395, 396 + + Lehmann, Mr. R. C., 67; + politics, 80; 149; + contributions, =401=, =402= + + Leigh, Henry S., 157, 232, 240, 241 + + Leigh, Percival: and the "London Charivari," 15; + and the first Staff of _Punch_, 19; + mock-classic verses, 31; + verses on _Punch_ Club, 55, 56; 61, 69, 70, 71; + at the Dinner, 76; + and Thackeray's _faux pas_, 88; + lines on _Punch_ Club, 93, 94; + suggestions for cartoons, 171; + "Pauper Song," 301; + "_Punch's_ Labours of Hercules," 302; + biographical summary, =299-303= + + Leighton, Sir Frederic, 126; + on Keene, 489; + portrait of Miss Dene, 559 + + Lemon, Harry, 525 + + Lemon, Mark: and the manifesto in the first number of _Punch_, 2; + and the origin of _Punch_, 17; + early life, =18=; + draft of prospectus, 19-21; + the editorship, 25; + "Visit to the Watering-Places," 49; + portrait by F. Chester, 60; 69, 71, 74; + the Jews, 103; + his lectures, 129; + as an amateur actor, 135; + "Jest Book," 162, 265; + his instinct for an old joke, 163; + suggestions for cartoons, 170, 171; + at the Printers' Pension Society dinner, 198; + and "A Word with _Punch_," 228, 231; + and Henry Mayhew, 257; + work as editor, character, etc., =254-267=; + and Douglas Jerrold, 297; + relations with Dickens, 352, 354; + on Shirley Brooks, 358; + and Hine, 415; + organ-grinding nuisance, 439; _et passim_ + + Lennox, Lord William, and "The Tuft-Hunter," 217, 218; 330 + + Leon, M.P., Mr., 245 + + Lester, Mr. Horace Frank, 384 + + Lever, Charles, 259; "Prize Novelists," 320, 337; + "A Familiar Epistle," 337 + + Leverson, Mrs., 392, 406 + + Lewes, George Henry, 135 + + Lewis, Mr. Arthur, and the Moray Minstrels, 92 + + Libel actions against _Punch_, 235, 236 + + "Lika Joko," 237, 238, 502, 525, 555 + + Lillie, Mr. Charles J., 556, 557 + + Lincoln, Abraham, Assassination of, 177 + + Linton, W. J., and the "Anti-Graham Envelope," 114; 248 + + Literary errors of _Punch_, 244 + + Literature of _Punch_, Past and present, 407, 408 + + "Little Frenchman's First Lesson," 337 + + "Liverpool Lion," The, 360 + + Locker-Lampson, Frederick, Contributions of, 371, 566; 562 + + Lockwood, Sir Frank, 98, 166, =566= + + Loftus, Lord Augustus, 194, 195 + + "London Charivari," 12, 15 + + "London Journal," Satire on, 364, 365 + + "Lord Jack the Giant-killer" cartoon, 470 + + Louis-Philippe, 191 + + Loyalty of _Punch_, 214-217 + + Lucas, Samuel, and the _Punch_ Dinners, 85; =443= + + Lucy, Mr. Henry, 51, 67, 79; + politics, 80; + dinner to Mr. Gladstone, 91; 149; + and cartoons, 169; 205; + "Essence of Parliament," etc., =389-391=, 551 + + Lushington, J. J., 405 + + Lyndhurst, Lord, 172 + + "Lyre and Lancet," 399 + + Lytton, Bulwer, 155, 220; + attack on Tennyson, 344 + + + "M. S. R.," 537 + + Macgregor, John ("Rob Roy"), 269, 346, 372, 460 + + Mackay, Mr. Wallace, 540, 541 + + MacMahon, Marshal, 191 + + MacNeill, M.P., Mr. Swift, 232, 554 + + Maginn, Dr., and the origin of the "Almanac," 32; + obituary of, 38, 307; 297; + work on _Punch_, 306, 307 + + Magistrates, Skits on, 391, 392 + + "Mahogany Tree, The," 53, 86, 320; + Jubilee picture, 180; 536 + + Malmesbury, Lord, 233 + + "Man from Blankley's, The," 399, 565 + + "Man in the Moon, The," 154-156, 231, 238, 265, 280, 306, + 315, 412, 416, 449 + + "Manners and Customs," 401, 406 + + Mansel, Miss, 519, 529 note + + Mansion House, the, "Literature and Art" dinner at, 90 + + Marks, R.A., Mr. Stacy, 41, 126, 517 + + Marshalsea Prison, 3 + + Marshall, Mr. C. A., 560 + + Martin, Charles, 490, 491 + + Martin, Sir Theodore, 172 + + "Mask, The," 500 + + Mason, Mr. Finch, 556 + + Massacre in Algiers, and lines by Coventry Patmore, 342, 343 + + "Maternal Solicitude," 211-213 + + Mathew, Father, 102 + + "Matter in Camera, A," 376 + + Maud, Mr., =563=, =564= + + Maurice, Rev. F. D., Lines to the memory of, 374 + + Maurier, Mr. G. du, 4; + his portrait of _Punch_, 9; + "Tercentenary Number," 50; 66, 79; + fashions, 122, 124, 506; + on the _Punch_ artists, 128; + "Social Pictorial Satire," 129; + old maid and the "charming view," 162; + "heir" joke, 163; + "tipsy husband," 166; + going into society, 319; + "Mokeanna," 365; + "Vers Nonsensiques," 372, 515; + on drawing from Nature, 410; + on Leech, 432; 473; =503-516= + + May, Mr. Phil, 67; + and jokes of the "Unknown Man," 139; 149; 159; =567-570= + + Mayhew, Augustus, and the "Journal for Laughter," 56, 258, 269 + + Mayhew, Henry, and the origin of _Punch_, =11-14=, =17-19=; + and the title of _Punch_, 24; + and his co-editors, 25, 257; + origin of the "Almanac," 32; + "Visit to the Watering-Places," 49; + satire on Art Union, 52; + "Anti-Graham Wafers," 114; + "London Labour and London Poor," 129, 269; + "Advice to Persons about to Marry," 142, 270; + suggestions for cartoons, 170, 171; 269; + characteristics, etc., =268-271= + + Mayhew, Horace ("Ponny"), 61, 69-71; + singing at the Dinner, 86; + suggestions for cartoons, 170, 171, 328; + as sub-editor, 257, 327; + and Jerrold's death, 297; + characteristics, etc., 327-330 + + Mazzini, opening of his letters, 114 + + McConnell, W., and cartoons, 171; 460, 461 + + McCosh, Dr., 161 + + McDonnell, Mr., 252 + + Meadows, Kenny, his portrait of _Punch_, 8; + and the "London Charivari," 15; + and the Almanac, 40; + design for cover of _Punch_, 46, 449; + "Valentines," 49; + at the Dinner, 74; + at the Club, 95; + cartoons, 171; + and Leech, 436; =446-449= + + Melancholy of humorists, 435 + + Melbourne, Lord, and the heading of the _Punch_ prospectus, 23; + fall of his Administration, 30, 107; + at an amateur theatrical performance at Knebworth, 136 + + "Melbourne Punch," 393 + + Mellor, Mr. John Page, 558, 559 + + "Men who have taken me in--to dinner," 406 + + "Mephystopheles," 154, 416 + + Meredith, Mr. George, his tribute to Tom Taylor, 341 + + "Mery Tales, Wittie Questions, and Quicke Answeres Very Pleasant to + be Readde," 162 + + Millais, Sir John, and the _Punch_ Dinners, 86; 126; + "Mokeanna," 365, 517; 426, 427; + jokes supplied to Leech, 434; 435, 443; + contributions, 517, 518 + + Milliken, Mr. E. J., 67; + politics, 80; + the cartoons, 81, 381; + "Childe Chappie," 146, 166, 378; + and the cartoons, 169; + and "Forlorn Hope," 180; + "The Old Crusaders," 182; + and the society lady, 246; + "'Arry," etc., =377-381= + + Mills, Jowett, and Mills, printers, 32 + + "Mind and matter," 160 + + Missing-word competition, 125 + + Mistakes of _Punch_, 243-245 + + "Mistress of the Hounds," 125 + + Mitchell, Mr. C., and the origin of _Punch_, 11; + and the printing of _Punch_, 32 + + "Moaning of the Tide," 413 + + "Model Men," 328 + + "Model Music Hall Songs," 396, 397 + + "Modern Alexander's Feast, The," 192 + + "Modern Life in London," 371 + + "Modern Sisyphus" cartoon, 455 + + Modern types, 401 + + Moir, Frank, 337 + + "Mokeanna," 364, 365, 450 + + "Month, The," 347 + + Moon, Alderman, 220 + + "Moonshine" and the dinner to Mr. Gladstone, 91; 549, 567 + + "Moral of _Punch_, The," 2, 256 + + Morality of _Punch_, 5, 6, 8, 242, 243 + + Moray Minstrels, 92, 484, 520, 528 + + Morgan, Matt: his designs in the "Tomahawk," 41; + and the "Arrow," 240; + "Fun," 364 + + Morley, Mr. John, 205 + + "Morning Herald," 50, 210, 211 + + "Morning Post" and the Jews, 104; + attacked by _Punch_, 209, 210, 288, 289, 319 + + Morpeth, Lord, and the heading of the _Punch_ prospectus, 23 + + Moses, Rev. Stainton, 374 + + "Mud-Salad Market," 368 + + Mulberry Club, 447 + + Mulready envelope, 52, 420 + + Mundella, Mr., on _Punch_, 189 + + Murray, R. F., 403, 404 + + Music in _Punch_, 52; + _Punch's_ patronage of, 128 + + + Napoleon III., 109, 110, 120, 124, 323; + as the hedgehog, 173; + Franco-Prussian War, 179; + "Cock-a-doodle-do!" 190; + collection of _Punch_ cartoons, 199; + and Thackeray's retirement from _Punch_, 323, 324; + cartoon on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War, 512 + + "National Standard," Thackeray's, 226 + + "Natural History of Courtship," 450 + + Naval defence, 172 + + "New Guide to Knowledge," 378 + + Newdegate, Mr., 232 + + Newman, William, 19; + and the "Valentines," 49, 152; + cartoons, 171; + the "Squib," 275, 414; =413=, =414= + + Nicholas, Tsar, 173; + and "General Février," 174-176 + + "Night with _Punch_, A," 130 + + "Nineveh bull" cartoon, 255 + + "No Popery" cartoon, 196 + + Noé, Comte Amédée de, 501, 502 + + North, Colonel, 233 + + "Notes from the Diary of a City Waiter," 386 + + + Obituaries, 38, 377 + + Obituary cartoons, 184 + + O'Brien, Smith, 106 + + O'Connell, Daniel, 106, 153 + + Offices of _Punch_, 258 + + O'Leary, Joseph, 330 + + "Old Crusaders, The," 182 + + Old jokes, 150-167 + + "Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, The," 159, 245 + + "Old Nickotin stealing away the brains of his devotees," 512 + + "Old stock" in _Punch_, 457 + + "Omnibus," The, 496, 497 + + Omnibus jokes, 144, 156 + + "Omnium, Jacob," _see_ Higgins, Matthew J. + + "Once a Week" and Mr. Samuel Lucas, 85; 521 + + Onwhyn, Thomas, 459, 460 + + "Open to conviction," 413 + + "Opera telakouphanon," 124, 125 + + "Organ Boy's Appeal," 321 + + Organ-grinders, 437-440 + + Orr and Co., W.S., and the distribution of _Punch_, 36 + + "Our Dramatic Correspondent," 348 + + "Our Flight with _Punch_," 238, 357 + + "Our Honeymoon," 291 + + "Our Play Box," 526 + + "Out of Town," 276, 366 + + Oxenford, John, 259, 260, 307, 308 + + + Padgett, Mr. William, 558 + + Pain, Mr. Barry, 241, 402 + + "Pall Mall Budget," 160 + + Palmerston, Lord, 99; + as the "Judicious Bottle-holder," 118; 165; + portraits, 203, 204 + + "Pantomime, _Punch's_," 131, 132 + + "Papal Aggression," 102, 103, 195, 196, 374, 455, 470 + + Paris Exhibition Special Number, 51, 61, 87 + + "Paris Revisited," 322 + + Parish Councils Bill, 169, 170 + + Parliamentary drawings by C. H. Bennett, 526 + + Partridge, Mr. Bernard, 67, 149, 560, =564=, =565= + + "Pasquin," 11, 240, 348 + + Patmore, Mr. Coventry, 342, 343 + + "Pauper's Christmas Carol, The," 334 + + "Pauper Song," 301 + + "Pauvre Malheureux," The, 191 + + Paxton, Sir Joseph, the _Punch_ Dinner, and the Crystal + Palace, 84; 185, 480 + + Payn, Mr. James, 277, 406 + + Peake, R. B., 330 + + "Peccavi" dispatch, 361 + + "Pecksniff Papers," 289, 290 + + Peel, Sir Robert, 108, 109, 153, 198; + Leech's drawing of, 202, 203; + and "Pecksniff," 290; + and Hood's pension, 336; + "The Modern Sisyphus," 455 + + Pegram, Mr. Fred, 570 + + Pennington, Mr. Harper, 559 + + "Penny Satirist," 188, 293 + + Phillips, John, and Staff of _Punch_, 19; 412 + + Phillips, Watts, and the "Journal for Laughter," 56; 342, 372, 458, 459 + + "Phiz," _see_ Browne, Hablôt Knight + + Photography, Caricature illustrations of, 491 + + "Phrenological Manipulation of the Head of _Punch_," 240 + + "Physiology of a London Medical Student," 305 + + "Pictures of Life and Character," 422 + + "Pictures from _Punch_," 52 + + Pigott, Mr., 558 + + "Pin Money" cartoon, 334 + + Pincott, Mr., 242 + + Pinwell, George, 520 + + "Pips hys Diary, Mr.," 455 + + Piracy, 151-157 + + Pius IX., 102 + + Plagiarisms and repetitions, =150-167=, 480 + + "Plea for Plush, A," 343 + + Plunkett, H. P., _see_ "Grattan," H. P. + + "Pocket-Book, Punch's," 349, 369, 406, 432, 464, 471, 497, + 498, 500, 501, 525, 527 + + "Pocket Ibsen," 399 + + Poe's "Bells," 166 + + Poirée, M. Emmanuel, 570 + + Poland, 106, 120 + + "Political Pas de Quatre, The," 153 + + Politics of _Punch_, 78, 80, =99-121=, 169, 189, 197 + + Poor, the, Representations of, 3, 187, 189 + + "Poor Man's Friend, The," 174 + + Pope, The, 102, 109, 120 + + Portch, Julian, 501 + + Portraits of _Punch_, 8, 9 + + Postans, R. B., and the origin of _Punch_, 12, 17, 19; 283 + + Practical jokes at the _Punch_ Club, 94 + + "Prehistoric Peeps," 562, 563 + + Prehn, Mr., 528 + + "Prendergast, Paul," _see_ Leigh, Percival + + Pre-Raphaelite movement, 111, 126 + + Press, The, opinions of _Punch_, 30, 33, 41, 212, 213; + _Punch's_ attacks on, 209-213 + + Pretty woman, Mr. du Maurier's, 509, 510 + + Pritchett, Mr. R. T., 410, 423, 483, =520=, =521= + + "Prize Novelists," 320, 337 + + "Process" block system, 253 + + "Proser, The," 321 + + Prospectus of _Punch_, 19-23 + + Protection and Free Trade, 118 + + Prowse, Jeff, 232, 364 + + Prussia, King of, 119 + + Public executions, 428 + + "Puck," 459 + + "Punch, His Origin and Career, Mr.," 12 + + "Punch to an eminent personage, Mr.," 321 + + "Punch in the East," 317 + + "Punch," Statuette of, 62 + + _Punch_ Club, 52, 55, =93-98=, 452 + + _Punch_ Dinner, The, 40, =53-87=, 168 + + _Punch_ dinners, Special, =87-92= + + "Punch in London," Jerrold's, 25, 226, 273 + + "Punch's Complete Letter-Writer," 294 + + "_Punch's_ Holidays," 50 + + "Punch's Letters to her Daughter, Mrs.," 11 + + "_Punch's_ Letters to his Son," 288, 450 + + "_Punch's_ Mazurka," 52 + + Puns, Supply of, 151; + Mr. Burnand's, 366, 367; + "Crowquill's," 450 + + "Puppet-Show," The, 156, 173, 231, 239, 354, 414 + + Purity _of Punch_, 5, 6, 8, 242, 243 + + Puseyism, 102, 103, 111 + + "Puzzle-heads," 555 + + + "Q Papers," The, 285-287 + + Queen, _see_ Victoria, Queen + + "Queer Queries," 384 + + + Rackham, Peter, and the _Punch_ Dinners, 85 + + Railway mania, 116, 315, 317 + + Ralston, Mr. W., 166, 251, 372, 392, 410, =543= + + "Ramsbotham, Mrs.," 236-238 + + Reach, Angus, 132, =280=, =281=, 306; + friendship with Shirley Brooks, 357 + + "Real Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, The," 366 + + "Records of the Great Exhibition, extracted from _Punch_," 51 + + Rede, Leman, 283 + + Reed, Alfred, 532 + + Reed, Mr. Edward J., 391 + + Reed, Mr. E. T., 67; + politics, 80; + the Two Pins Club, 98; 151; =560-563= + + "Reflections on New Year's Day," 335 + + Reform, 118, 179 + + Religionist, _Punch_ as a, =102-105= + + "Restored skeleton of a bicyclist," 561 + + Reunion Club (afterwards the Savage Club), 56 + + Rigby, J., 342 + + Ritchie, Mrs. Thackeray, 442 + + Riviere, R.A., Mr. Briton, 126, =539=, =540= + + "Robert, the City Waiter," 385, 386 + + Roberts, Mr. J. H., 372, 404, 566 + + Robertson, Tom, 232 + + Robinson, H. R., 523 + + Robley, Major-General H. G., 546, 547 + + Rodwell, G. H. B., 283 + + Roebuck, Mr., 232 + + Rogat, Mr., 523 + + Rogers, Rev. W., and Lord John Russell, 196 + + Romer, Mr. Justice, 38 + + Romer, Mrs., 529 note, 541 + + Rosebery, Lord, 170, 180, 205 + + Rothschild, Baron de, and the Jewish Disabilities Removal Bill, 105; 161 + + Royal Academy and the _Punch_ artists, 126-128 + + "Royal Patent," _Punch's_, 62 + + Rusden, Mr. Athelstan, 549 + + Ruskin, Professor, on _Punch's_ representations of the poor, 3; + on _Punch_ Staff as citizens, 111; + on "General Février," 176; + on _Punch's_ politics, 197; + on "John Bull," 206; + on the "Song of the Shirt," 334; + a remonstrance with _Punch_, 408; + on a drawing by Leech, 426; + on Mr. du Maurier's drawings of children, 507; + on Mr. du Maurier's satire, 512, 513 + + Russell of Killowen, Lord, 98 + + Russell, Lord John, and the heading of the _Punch_ prospectus, 23; + as David attacking Goliath, 102; + and the Jewish Disabilities Removal Bill, 105; + the New Reform Bill, 118; + the "Political Pas de Quatre," 153; + "No Popery" cartoon, 196; + and Leech, 196, 348; + "Story of the Mhow Court Martial," 343; + and the "Modern Sisyphus," 455; + "Lord Jack the Giant-killer," 470; + _Punch's sobriquet_, 473 + + Russell, Sir W. H., and the _Punch_ Dinners, 86; 298 + + Russia, exclusion of _Punch_ from, 105; + destruction of _Punch_ cartoons, 194; + Alexander III. and Lord Augustus Loftus, 194, 195; + typical representations, 206 + + Russian Bear, 119, 120, 192, 208 + + + "S," 454 + + Sala, Mr. George Augustus, speech at the "Albion" dinner, 88; 135; + and "A Word with Punch," 227; 243, 277; + on Horace Mayhew, 328; + contributions, 387, 388; + and A. S. Henning, 411; + on W. McConnell, 460; + on C. H. Bennett, 527 + + Salisbury, Lord, and the "Pas de Deux," 179 + + Sambourne, Mr. L.: his portraits of _Punch_, 9; + caricature by Mr. Furniss, 61; 67, 79; + politics, 80; + and the "cartoon junior," 82, 170; + drawing of the "Mahogany Tree," 89, 180; 536; + the Two Pins Club, 98; + "He won't be happy till he gets it," 160; + cartoons, 171 and note; + and difficulties in the production of cartoons, 183; + "The Modern Alexander's Feast," 192; + and treatment of cartoons in Russia, 194; + an attempt at blank verse, 373; 455; =531-537= + + Sambourne, Miss Maud, 566 + + Sands, Mr. J., 410, =542=, =543= + + "Satirist," 234 + + Saunderson, Mr., 499 + + Savage Club, 56, 527 + + Scott, Mr. Clement, 232, =388=, =389= + + Scottish jokes, 139-141, 161 + + Scottish testimonial to Thackeray, 320 + + Scudamore, F. I., 361 + + Seaman, Mr. Owen, 405 + + Seccombe, Colonel, 523 + + Sergeant-at-Arms as a beetle, 145, 146 + + Serle, T. J., 259, 336, 337 + + Seymour, Robert, 158, 186, 188, 273 + + Shakespeare Club, 447 + + Shakespeare Dinner, 87 + + Shakespeare "Tercentenary Number," 50 + + Shepherd, Mr. J. A., 567 + + Sherbrooke, Lord, and Mr. Lucy's joke, 390 + + Shields, Mr. Frederic, on C. H. Bennett, 527; 530 + + "Ship," Greenwich, Jubilee Dinner at the, 89 + + Sibthorpe, Colonel, 232 + + Sichel, Mr. Walter, 406 + + "Side Scenes of Everyday Society," 305 + + Signatures of _Punch's_ artists (APPENDIX I.), 573, 574 + + Silver, Mr. Henry, 66; + extract from diary of proceedings at a _Punch_ Dinner, 68-73; 79, 196; + contributions, etc., 347, 348; + on Leech, 433, 442; + friendship with Charles Keene, 479, 480 + + "Singular Letter from the Regent of Spain," 315, 316 + + Sketchley, Arthur, 317, 407 + + Sketchley, Mr. R. F., 61, 67, =368=, =369= + + Slavery, 165 + + Smalley, Mr., 180 + + Smith, Albert, and "Visit to the Watering-Places," 49; + victim of a practical joke, 94; + withdrawal from _Punch_, 94, 306, 315; + a repartee to Mark Lemon, 95; + his lectures, 128, 304; + and "A Word with Punch," 228; 281; + and the benefit for Jerrold's widow, 298; + relations with the Staff, 303, 304; + biographical summary, =303-306= + + Smith, Horace, 259, 346 + + Smith, Mr. J. Moyr, =540=, =541= + + Smith, Orrin, 12; + and the "London Charivari," 15; 248 + + Smith, Mr. W. G., 549 + + Smith, Mr. W. H., portraits in _Punch_, 204 + + "Snobs of England," 74, 318 + + "Social Evil, The," 428 + + "Social Miseries," 187, 416 + + Social reformer, _Punch_ as a, 124, 126, 185, 397 + + Socialists, and _Punch's_ "summary justice," 235 + + "Song of the Shirt," 146, 176, 331-334 + + Sothern, Mr., adventure with a policeman, 351; + and "Lord Dundreary," 424 + + "Spec's Remonstrance, Mr.," 316 + + Spelling reform, and Thackeray, 317 + + Spielmann, M. H., 407 + + Spurgeon, Mr., and _Punch_ cartoons, 199 + + "Squeers, Mr.," Original of, 451 + + "Squib," The, 274, 275, 412, 414 + + Staff of _Punch_, relative contributions, 258-260, 263; + their love of children, 294, 295; + artists challenge the literary members, 372; + "Family Trees," 382 + + Stafford, Mr., 570 + + Stage, The, and _Punch's_ support, 128, 129 + + "Stags: a Drama of To-day, The," 315 + + "Standard," The, 50; + and "Mrs. Gamp" and "Mrs. Harris," 211; + attack on _Punch_, 212, 213 + + Stanfield, Clarkson, and the _Punch_ Club, 93; + relations between Dickens and Lemon, 353 + + Stephens, Mr. Henry Pottinger, 402, 403 + + Stewart, General Sir Henry, 183 + + Stone, Mr. Frank, and the _Punch_ Club, 93 + + Storey, A.R.A., Mr. G. A., 41, 126, 557 + + "Storicules," 402 + + "Story of a Feather," 290 + + "Story of the Mhow Court Martial," 343 + + Stowers, Mr., 556 + + "Stranger, A," Contributions from, 501 + + Strasynski, L., 537 + + "Street-sweeping Machines," 155, 479 + + Sullivan, Sir Arthur, 64, 98 + + Sullivan, Mr. J. F., 567 + + Sunday opening of museums, 102 + + Sussex Hotel, _Punch_ Dinner at, 64 + + Swain, Mr. Joseph, 82, =247-253=, 498 + + Sweaters, 104 + + Sykes, Mr. Arthur A., 122, 372, =404=, 566 + + + Table-turning, 424 + + Tanner, M.P., Dr., 554 + + Taylor, Tom, 60, 61, 68, 69; + politics, 99, 367; + his lectures, 129; + as an amateur actor, 134; + and old jokes, 163; + suggestions for cartoons, 171, 339; + and Bulwer Lytton, 220; + benefit for Jerrold's widow, 298; + work and characteristics, =338-341= + + Telephone, the, Forecast of, 124, 125 + + Temperance movement, 102, 245 + + Temple, Sir R., 232, 552 + + Tenniel, Sir John: his portraits of _Punch_, 8, 9; + cartoon in "Tercentenary Number," 50; + Great Exhibition Number, 51; + at the Dinner, 79, 80; + politics, 80, 463; + the cartoons, 52, 79, 81-83, 163, 170, 172, 176; + dinner on his receiving a knighthood, 89; + the Two Pins Club, 98; + influence on the moderation of _Punch_, 101; + as an amateur actor, 134; + Goschen cartoon, 160; + and _Punch's_ types of character, 208; + early contributions, 355; 372; + "heard movement," 423; =461-474=; + on Mr. Sambourne's work, 534 + + Tennyson, Lord, 220; + reply to Bulwer Lytton's attack, 345, 346; + and Woolner's bust, 346; + obituary notice, 377; + parody of his "Throstle," 402 + + "Tercentenary Number," 50 + + Terry, G. W., 499 + + Thackeray, W. M.: on humour and laughter, 1; + on the purity of _Punch_, 5, 6; + his portrait _of Punch_, 8; + and the "London Charivari," 12, 15; + "_Punch's_ Holidays," 50; + and Frenchmen, 51; + "Mahogany Tree" quoted, 53; + statuette by Boehm, 60; + autotype, 61; + Bedford Hotel, 64, 65; + _Punch_ Dinner, 68, 76; + "Snob Papers," 74, 318; + relations with Jerrold, 74, 289, 311; + singing of the "Mahogany Tree" after his death, 86; + "Atonement Dinner," 87, 88; + the Jews, 103; + and _Punch's_ attitude towards Napoleon III., 109; + his lectures, 129; + suggestions for cartoons, 170, 171; + "Jenkins Papers," 210, 316, 319; + attack on Bunn, 226; + attacked in the "Puppet-Show," 239; + and Mr. Swain, 253; + working at _Punch_ office, 258; + relations with Albert Smith, 303; + retirement from _Punch_, 323, 324; + his work, characteristics, etc., =308-326=; + congratulates Mr. Burnand, 369; + on Leech, 421, 437 + + Theatricals, _Punch's_, 132-137, 346 + + Thomas, Mr. Brandon, 394, 395 + + Thomas, George H., 477 + + Thomas, Mr. W. F., 570 + + Thompson, Mr., 558 + + Thompson, Alfred, 372, =500= + + Thompson, Dr., Master of Trinity, and the first number of _Punch_, 29 + + Thompson, Mr. John Gordon, 516, 517 + + "Tickletoby's Lectures on English History, Miss," 309, 310 + + "Times," The, and the attack of the "Standard" on _Punch_, 210, 212, 213; + leaders by Gilbert à Beckett, 277 + + Title of _Punch_, 24 + + "Toby's Diary," 390, 391 + + "Tomahawk," The, Matt Morgan's designs in, 41 + + Tomlins, F. G., 26 + + "Too Late!" 183 + + "Town, The," 378 + + Traill, Mr. H. D., 406 + + "Train," The, 313 + + Transfer of _Punch_ to Bradbury and Evans, 34, 36 + + "Travelling Companions," 399 + + "Travelling Notes, by our Fat Contributor," 316 + + "Travels in London," 320 + + Trollope, Anthony, on Thackeray's art, 314 + + Tsar's decoy train, The, 145 + + Tuer, Mr. Andrew, 147, 483 + + Tully, Henry, 52; + and the _Punch_ Club, 93 and note + + Turner, Mr. Leopold Godfrey, 407 + + Turner's pictures, 221 + + Two Pins Club, 98 + + Types of character, _Punch's_, 206-208 + + + "Under the Rose," 399, 400 + + "Untiled," 378 + + "Up before the Beak," 517 + + + Valentines, _Punch's_, 49, 282, 446, 448, 451 + + "Verdant Green," 129, 492, 493 + + "Very Much Abroad," 482 + + Victoria, Queen, and the Tsar, 105, 106; + visit to Ireland, 106; + and an amateur theatrical performance at Devonshire House, 135, 346; + portraits in _Punch_, 214, 215; + _Punch's_ reverence for, 214-217; + and the imperial crown, 243 + + "Victorian Era," The, 52 + + Viles, Mr. Arthur E., 407 + + "Visit to the Watering-places," 49 + + Vizetelly, Henry, 35, 136; + and Disraeli at the Printers' Pension Society Dinner, 197-199; + on Henry Mayhew, 268, 269; + on Jerrold and Thackeray, 289; + on Albert Smith, 303; + and Rumsey Forster's revenge on Thackeray, 319, 320; + on Kenny Meadows, 447 + + "Vocalists, Advice to," 161 + + "Voces Populi," 398, 400, 565 + + Volunteer Corps, 108, 423 + + + "W. G.," 541 + + "W. R.," 499 + + "W. V.," 540 + + Wales, Prince of, and Hugh Middleton Board School, 125, 126; + his illness, 183, 214; + _Punch's_ representations of, 214; + wedding, 351 + + Walford, Mr., 85 + + Walker, A.R.A., Fred, 126, =523=, =524= + + Walker, Mr. Henry, 148 + + Wallace, R. B., 251, 457, =547= + + Walters, Mr. T., 537 + + "Ward, Artemus," _see_ Browne, Charles F. + + Weir, Mr. Harrison, 498 + + Wellington, Duke of, 153, 157, 164, 184, 202, 215 + + Wheeler, Mr. E. J., 252, 548, 549 + + "Whistling Oyster," The, 56; + and the _Punch_ Club, 96; 452 + + William II., Emperor, and "The Modern Alexander's Feast," 192; + "Wilful Wilhelm," 193; + Army Bills, 193; + and Prince Bismarck, 193 + + Williams, Rev. J. de Kewer, and the Jubilee of _Punch_, 6, 8 + + Wills, W. H., 19, 26; + and Jullien, 218; 259, 260; =282=, =283= + + Wilson, Mr. Dower, 549 + + Wilson, Mr. J. C., 405 + + Wilson, Mr. T. Harrington, 119, 251, 498 + + Wiseman, Cardinal, 103, 470 + + Women, Lack of humour in, 392, 393; + as drawn by Mr. du Maurier, 506, 509, 510 + + Woods, F., 547 + + Woods, T. W., 528 + + "Word with Bunn, A," 232 + + "Word with _Punch_, A," 131, 227-232 + + + Yates, Edmund, and the _Punch_ prospectus, 19; + and omnibus jokes, 144, 173; + and the "Comic News," 265, 281; + the "Train," 313; + mistaken belief that he wrote for _Punch_, 390 note + + "Ye Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe," 455 + + "Yellowplush, Mr.," 317 + + "Young England Party," 108, 198 + + "Young Reciter, Mr. Punch's," 398 + + + Zangwill, Mr., 241 + + +Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF "PUNCH"*** + + +******* This file should be named 23881-8.txt or 23881-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/8/8/23881 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |