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Title: The History of "Punch"
Author: Spielmann, M. H.
Language: English
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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material--all the evidence, published and unpublished, that was adduced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 this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The History of "Punch"" ***
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