Punch or The London charivari (4.1843)

25

MORE WORDS ON PUNCH'S PANTOMI ME.'

We are at this moment sitting knee-deep in letters touching our
Pantomime. If Punch were a boasier, if he delighted in sounding his
own tin trumpet, if he did not always retire within the modest circle
of his own silent thoughts, when a sense of his manifold merits and
virtues was pressed upon him by a grateful kingdom—then m ould
Punch print the whole of this correspondence. As it is, with a meek-
ness, a humility, not to be fully appreciated by one out of a million,
Punch contents himself with printing only the subjoined ; assuring
the world and his epistolary friends generally, that their letters
(bound in gold-smeared morocco) will be carefully deposited in the
Punch library, for the eyes of unborn centuries. It is enough for
Punch to know (and let the unbelieving world peruse the subjoined
and be converted,) that the great original principles of his Pantomime
are working—potently working—in the breasts of millions.
LETTER I.
Mr. Punch — How am I to express to you my moral obligation for your
Pantomime ? Oh, sir ! in about fifty years, how very much the world
will bless you ! I was naturally light and frivolous, treating all the
serious concerns of life as the mere juggling of mountebanks and trick-
sters ! I laughed at everything ; but, sir, I have seen your Pantomime,
and—/ have never smiled since !
What a shallow-hearted, sniggering wretch was I, when on the 26th
ult. I showed my grinning countenance—defiling the divine aspect of
man with ignorant laughter—in the front row of Co vent-garden pit. Your
Pantomime, sir, began ; and my moral revolution began with it. Swiftly,
indeed, did your wondrous pantomime principles work within me ! A love
of laughter gave way to a recognition of the deep solemnities of life, and
by the time that Harlequin and Columbine, had danced their first pasdc deux,
I was, indeed, a " wiser and a sadder man." I saw at once that sucli a
pantomime would involve in it the sternest truths, and that it was only
from the profoundest ignorance, from the most barbarian crassitude of
spirit, that men bring themselves to laugh at a harlequinade. I have seen
your pantomime, and I would now as soon laugh at a death's-head and
cross-bones.
In the very sadness, which means in the very wisdom of my heart, I
thank you for the great work you have begun. Go on, sir—go on, and by
repeated pantomimes, crush for ever the very seeds of laughter in the
heart of man.
I Remain, Sir, Your Obliged,
Jacob Giggleton.
P.S.—I have already sent in my resignation to " The Jolly Cocks," and
think of joining the Anabaptists.
LETTER II.
Sir,—I was a gay, flaunting fellow upon town ; in costume, fine as a Besides these, Punch has letters (all in the same strain) from Downing-
dragon-fly, in brain as empty—I only wish you could see me now ! street; letters from several of the Poreign Ambassadors; but no 1
I write this, Sir, from a very respectable hovel in the neighbourhood egotism was never the vice of Punch, and he will not print them,
of the wilds of Heme Bay ; where I am located, at five shillings a week
for lodging, with the run of the turnips in the garden. It is Punch's
Pantomine that has sent me here !
When I rushed from Covent-Garden on the 26th ult,-under the influ- InCOme-TaX Appeals,
ence of your profound work, I passed the night reading Jeremy Tavloron
Death ; summoned, with the earliest dawn, a Jew clothesman, sold to him | The Commissioners of Bankruptcy having been assessed at the amount
my fine wardrobe, donned a gaberdine, canvas trousers, high-lows and an | of their salaries, have appealed, on the ground that they are not worth
overshadowing hat, and hastening per first boat to Heme Bay, arrived at
Mangel Wurzel Cottage at about 6 p. m. Here," said I, entering my
white-washed hermitage—" here," said 1, smitten with the awful truths
in Punch's Pantomime, will I give up all the frivolities of life : here will
I stirflv the complex nature of my fellow-creatures ; here, though they
may talk about 'the fall of man,' I'll make him quite as good as new, if
not a great deal better. Sir, I do not jest—I have laid in a ream of
foolscap and a gallon of ink. The human mind shall look up again—and
this elevation it shall owe to Punch and Punch's Pantomime I
Any communication you may have to make, will reach me here at Mangel
Wurzel Cottage. Should you, influenced by the genial spirit of the season, '
wish to make me a present, may I be permitted to suggest a copy of
Vossits ? And this too, if accompanied by a twelfth-cake, will not be less
acceptable to your own eremite,
Philo-Hobbes.
P. S.— Need I say, how delighted—bow honoured I should feel, if you
would condescend to dignify my retreat by a visit ? I will feast, you to my
uttermost. I should not be a worshipper of truth were I to brag much of I
my beef, but this I can assure you—the horseradish hereabouts is unex- j
ceptionable.
LETTER 111.
Dear, dear Mr. Punch !—Bless you ten thousand, thousand times!
I had been a lost woman without jour pantomime ; now, am I the happiest
wife in Christendom !
My dear husband had run away from me ; for six months, I heard not

where he was. Before his departure, he—but no, I will not speak of hia
past errors, but of his present goodness ;
I was sitting, Mr. Punch, miserable as a deserted wife ought to be—
sitting on the 26th of December, in my back two pair, when I heard a
running up the stairs ; the door was flung open, and my own dear Barnaby
rushing in, fell upon his knees before me. I thought I should have fainted,
but I asked him w hat he meant. He said nothing ; but laying your play-
bill down before me, and taking your pantomime from his pocket, tried to
speak, but burst into tears.
Yes, Mr. Punch, my husband has since assured me that it is your Pan-
tomime that has sent him home to the paths of virtue and his loving wife.
I bless you for it sir, and hope, for the sake of all married folks, you'll go
on making no end of pantomimes, and at the same time, believing me
Your Obliged Servant,
Maria Louisa Muggs.
P.S.—Is there any allowance made to families who " take a quantity" of
your printed pantomime ? I know a great many ladies who wish to pre-
sent their husbands with a copy. Their husbands have not yet run away
from them ; but, you know sir, "prevention is better than cure."
LETTER IV.
Sir.—i ave bene in the abit of prigging a Shillin aweek Hout off the tU
off my mastere : i ave sene yoor panntoemine and i wD doe So noe
more, Yourn,
Bob.
LETTER V.
Theatre Royal Covent-garden, Jan. 10, 1843.
Mr. Punch,—In your last you observe—" Mr. Manager Bartley says
my Pantomime is not a great original idea; never mind that—I say it
is." And now, sir, permit me to add, so say I.
I must confess it, sir, that at first I did not wholly comprehend all the
wondrous subtleties of thought abounding in your production ; but, sir, I
have watched it with a growing interest. I have felt it due to myself as a
manager and a man, to take my place in front every night at the rise of
the curtain, remaining, delighted and improved, until the curtain fell. I
now believe Punch's Pantomime to be the greatest evidence of human
wit (certainly in a peculiar style) to be found in the whole range of the
drama ; and it will, in the retirement of my life, in the golden, mellow
autumn of my days, it will be to me an exceeding gratification to refltct
that Punch's Pantomime was produced under my management—that it
produced the greatest theatrical revolution yet known, since Thespis dis-
mounted from his cart, and actors got into carriages.
I remain, Mr. Punch,
Your obedient and delighted servant,
George Bartlet.
P.S.—Permit me to add, on tl>e part of Mr. John Cooper, that he is
" exactly of my opinion."

so much.
The " heavy father" at the Victoria, who had been surcharged on the
ground of his having given away six full purses on one night, has appealed
—the purses and their contents having been " stage properties," used in
the drama of The Benevolent Buffer ; or, The Tomb, the Turk, and thi
Telescope.


THE MILLER. AND Big MEN.

A penny-a-iiner has appealed, in consequence of the lamentable fallkig-
off in accidents. He sets forth that, in consequence of the Fire-Escape
Society having lately discontinued their labours, the loss of life has been
so limited that his income has been materially diminished.
Mr. Charles Kean has appealed, on the ground of his having been t y
over-rated.