DOI Heft:
February 14, 1874
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16938#0072
February 14, 1874.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 65
IMAGINARY BIOGRAPHY.
Box-Bothwell. Of my immediate union-
Cox-Darnley. With-
Box-Bothwell. Mr. Knox.
Both. Bravo! Three cheers for Knox !
If this does not appear too late for Mr. Wills to benefit by the
suggestion, he is welcome to the amendment. In the meantime I
sincerely hope that the piece may be as successful, without the above
suggestion being acted upon, as it certainly would be were it adopted.
Verb urn sap.
Mr. Arthur Cecil (late of German Reed’s) has come out at the
Globe in an adaptation of Le Reveillon. I hear of his having made
an undoubted hit on the stage ; he is “ to the manor born ; ” but,
before I dare to report to You, Sir, his performance must be wit-
nessed by the very eyes of Your Representative.
P.S.—In March, at Drury Lane, we ’re to have Elizabeth, or the
Exiles of Siberia, a complimentary drama to the Duke of Edin-
burgh and his bride, I suppose. The Grande Duchesse should be
brought out somewhere. The Bleeding Nun of Lindenburg is still
at the Haymarket. Your Representative has been much bothered
to answer satisfactorily a question put to him by visitors to the
latter theatre: they say, “The Bleeding Nun? Whom does she
bleed ? ” And they will go there expecting to see a cross between a
Miss Mary Walker and a Sister of Mercy with a doctor’s diploma.
If they come away disappointed, it’s not the fault of Y. R.
BOON TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC.
0 the breakfast table free !
Tax off coffee, sugar, tea.
For the Grocer
(Scan it closer)
What a blessing that will be !
Duties lowered, directly we
Prices raised are safe to see.
Great concession ;
Fat possession
Of the breakfast table free!
THE BRIGHT SIDE AND THE OTHER.
Perusing the subjoined passage in the speech lately delivered by
Mr. Bright at Birmingham, many if not most readers will very
likely be disposed simply to say, Ditto to Mr. Bright :—
“I appeal to any man who is not incurably prejudiced or hopelessly
ignorant as to the fact, whether, at this moment, England is not a country
incomparably better to live in than it was thirty or forty years ago ? Look at
her commerce and her industry, look at her wealth, look at the wages of her
people, look at the progress of education, look at the greater security in this
country, look at the comfort which is spread among the masses of the com-
munity. with greatly diminished pauperism ; and then we must ascribe this,
in large measure, to the course of policy which has been pursued by the Par-
liament, and which has been indicated and controlled mainly by the Liberal
Party.”
Look on one side, and, certainly, see all that Mr. Bright points
out as the fruit mainly of Liberal legislation. But look also a little
at the other, and then see if England is indeed a country so much
better to live in as to be preferable to what it was thirty or forty
years ago, altogether and incomparably. Look at some of the pro-
ducts of our commerce and industry. Look at devil’s-dust, look at
shoddy, look at Manchester mildew, look at failures and panics,
look at the adulteration of food and drink, look at the high prices
of provisions, look at beef above a shilling a pound, look at poultry
six shillings and more a couple, look at geese eleven and twelve
shillings and upwards each, look at oysters half-a-crown a dozen,
look at beer as it comes from the beer-engine in comparison with
the beer which came from the barrel, look at our enclosed commons
and open spaces, and at the progressive destruction of our walks
and views, look at the straitened circumstances of the intellectual
and professional working classes, whose moderate and hardlv-earned
incomes have not risen with the rise in the cost of living. England,
on the whole, is no doubt a country, in respect of luxuries and
accommodations, considerably, if not incomparably, better to live in
now than it was thirty or forty years ago for great capitalists, suc-
cessful speculators on a monster scale, and the striking classes in
the receipt of high wages, of which they spend every farthing in
present enjoyment. All extravagant people, no doubt, find this
country very much better to live in now, as long as their means of
extravagance last, than people in general found it then. None led
jollier lives then than the grasping and squandering classes lead
now, whilst they remain able to grasp a sufficiency to squander, and
until, by-and-by, they break down and go to the bad. But, of
course, as improvement is regarded as the result of Liberal policy,
so must deterioration be ascribed to Conservative obstruction.
BISHOP VALENTINE.
he “ lives of great men ”
(Longfellow) are always
fraught with interest and
instruction, especially when
interspersed with good en-
gravings ; but, unfortu-
nately, of many of the most
eminent characters who
have adorned the past and
illumined the present, the
account handed down to us
by posterity is but meagre
ana insufficient. What
would we not give, even in
these days of high prices,
to know something of the
fireside life of (Ecolam-
padius or Tycho Brahe ?
With what interest should
we look on Lope de Vega
in all the sweet familiarity
of the domestic circle;
with what eager avidity
peruse the private journal
of Wynkyn de Worde !
The remarkable ecclesi-
astic, who sheds so much
lustre on the shortest month
in the calendar, is no ex-
ception to a rule which the growth of civilisation and the spread of
an insatiable curiosity will, before long, number with the reveries
of the Mystics and the subtleties of the ancient Schoolmen.
A protracted search (and fees accordingly) among the archives of
the principal nations, both ancient and modern, and several mornings
spent in examining the records of a great Public Establishment
where, if anywhere, some light might have been expected to be
thrown on the history of one of its oldest patrons and firmest
supporters—we refer to the General Post-Office—failed to add any-
thing to what Pennialinus had already communicated to the world
through the ordinary channels of the Press.
The place of the Bishop’s birth is not known—the parish registers
having been destroyed in the great Fire of London,—the Endowed
Schools Commission are not able to say where he received his educa-
tion ; and we are yet in the dark as to the year in which he took
Orders, and the exact locality of his first Curacy.
That he was popular, especially with the ladies of his congrega-
tion, tradition leaves us no room to question ; that he composed
tender verses far superior to those we now. read in the sta-
tioners’ windows, a reference to the Manuscript Department ol
the British Museum— Caligula XIV., ax 1416 (c)—will place beyond
a doubt; that he could illuminate his poetry with the nicest taste,
and the happiest adaptation to his purpose of all the usual emblems
of affection, is abundantly proved by the examples which are still
guarded with jealous care in the Monasteries of the. Levant; and
that he, who of all men seemed marked out to participate in the
delights of domestic intercourse and family affection, should pass his
life in joyless celibacy and solitary isolation, is a mournful revela-
tion which only too forcibly confirms the truth of the adage that
no man knows what is in store for him until he raises the veil of
experience.
We cannot even rescue from oblivion the name of the Lady to
whom Valentine was hopelessly attached, although a rumour long
prevalent in the neighbourhood where he resided, pointed to the
daughter of his Churchwarden; and if this rapid sketch of the
Bishop’s life and times wants something of the fulness and details
of modern biographies, we are sustained by the consciousness that it
contains nothing which can pain the survivors, or wound the most
sensitive and fastidious taste.
Family Reading.
A Magazine story now in progress is entitled Second Cousin
Sarah. This, we believe, is only the first of a series of tales which,
when completed, will be found to comprise Brother-in-Law Benja-
min, Great Aunt Mary, My Maternal Grandmother Witheringham,
Mr. Minnypink’s Wife's Mother, and many others of the like
domestic tendency.
(H. R.)
Berwick has returned Captain Home. Another Home Ruler!
Ireland will have its own Parliament one of these days.
IMAGINARY BIOGRAPHY.
Box-Bothwell. Of my immediate union-
Cox-Darnley. With-
Box-Bothwell. Mr. Knox.
Both. Bravo! Three cheers for Knox !
If this does not appear too late for Mr. Wills to benefit by the
suggestion, he is welcome to the amendment. In the meantime I
sincerely hope that the piece may be as successful, without the above
suggestion being acted upon, as it certainly would be were it adopted.
Verb urn sap.
Mr. Arthur Cecil (late of German Reed’s) has come out at the
Globe in an adaptation of Le Reveillon. I hear of his having made
an undoubted hit on the stage ; he is “ to the manor born ; ” but,
before I dare to report to You, Sir, his performance must be wit-
nessed by the very eyes of Your Representative.
P.S.—In March, at Drury Lane, we ’re to have Elizabeth, or the
Exiles of Siberia, a complimentary drama to the Duke of Edin-
burgh and his bride, I suppose. The Grande Duchesse should be
brought out somewhere. The Bleeding Nun of Lindenburg is still
at the Haymarket. Your Representative has been much bothered
to answer satisfactorily a question put to him by visitors to the
latter theatre: they say, “The Bleeding Nun? Whom does she
bleed ? ” And they will go there expecting to see a cross between a
Miss Mary Walker and a Sister of Mercy with a doctor’s diploma.
If they come away disappointed, it’s not the fault of Y. R.
BOON TO THE BRITISH PUBLIC.
0 the breakfast table free !
Tax off coffee, sugar, tea.
For the Grocer
(Scan it closer)
What a blessing that will be !
Duties lowered, directly we
Prices raised are safe to see.
Great concession ;
Fat possession
Of the breakfast table free!
THE BRIGHT SIDE AND THE OTHER.
Perusing the subjoined passage in the speech lately delivered by
Mr. Bright at Birmingham, many if not most readers will very
likely be disposed simply to say, Ditto to Mr. Bright :—
“I appeal to any man who is not incurably prejudiced or hopelessly
ignorant as to the fact, whether, at this moment, England is not a country
incomparably better to live in than it was thirty or forty years ago ? Look at
her commerce and her industry, look at her wealth, look at the wages of her
people, look at the progress of education, look at the greater security in this
country, look at the comfort which is spread among the masses of the com-
munity. with greatly diminished pauperism ; and then we must ascribe this,
in large measure, to the course of policy which has been pursued by the Par-
liament, and which has been indicated and controlled mainly by the Liberal
Party.”
Look on one side, and, certainly, see all that Mr. Bright points
out as the fruit mainly of Liberal legislation. But look also a little
at the other, and then see if England is indeed a country so much
better to live in as to be preferable to what it was thirty or forty
years ago, altogether and incomparably. Look at some of the pro-
ducts of our commerce and industry. Look at devil’s-dust, look at
shoddy, look at Manchester mildew, look at failures and panics,
look at the adulteration of food and drink, look at the high prices
of provisions, look at beef above a shilling a pound, look at poultry
six shillings and more a couple, look at geese eleven and twelve
shillings and upwards each, look at oysters half-a-crown a dozen,
look at beer as it comes from the beer-engine in comparison with
the beer which came from the barrel, look at our enclosed commons
and open spaces, and at the progressive destruction of our walks
and views, look at the straitened circumstances of the intellectual
and professional working classes, whose moderate and hardlv-earned
incomes have not risen with the rise in the cost of living. England,
on the whole, is no doubt a country, in respect of luxuries and
accommodations, considerably, if not incomparably, better to live in
now than it was thirty or forty years ago for great capitalists, suc-
cessful speculators on a monster scale, and the striking classes in
the receipt of high wages, of which they spend every farthing in
present enjoyment. All extravagant people, no doubt, find this
country very much better to live in now, as long as their means of
extravagance last, than people in general found it then. None led
jollier lives then than the grasping and squandering classes lead
now, whilst they remain able to grasp a sufficiency to squander, and
until, by-and-by, they break down and go to the bad. But, of
course, as improvement is regarded as the result of Liberal policy,
so must deterioration be ascribed to Conservative obstruction.
BISHOP VALENTINE.
he “ lives of great men ”
(Longfellow) are always
fraught with interest and
instruction, especially when
interspersed with good en-
gravings ; but, unfortu-
nately, of many of the most
eminent characters who
have adorned the past and
illumined the present, the
account handed down to us
by posterity is but meagre
ana insufficient. What
would we not give, even in
these days of high prices,
to know something of the
fireside life of (Ecolam-
padius or Tycho Brahe ?
With what interest should
we look on Lope de Vega
in all the sweet familiarity
of the domestic circle;
with what eager avidity
peruse the private journal
of Wynkyn de Worde !
The remarkable ecclesi-
astic, who sheds so much
lustre on the shortest month
in the calendar, is no ex-
ception to a rule which the growth of civilisation and the spread of
an insatiable curiosity will, before long, number with the reveries
of the Mystics and the subtleties of the ancient Schoolmen.
A protracted search (and fees accordingly) among the archives of
the principal nations, both ancient and modern, and several mornings
spent in examining the records of a great Public Establishment
where, if anywhere, some light might have been expected to be
thrown on the history of one of its oldest patrons and firmest
supporters—we refer to the General Post-Office—failed to add any-
thing to what Pennialinus had already communicated to the world
through the ordinary channels of the Press.
The place of the Bishop’s birth is not known—the parish registers
having been destroyed in the great Fire of London,—the Endowed
Schools Commission are not able to say where he received his educa-
tion ; and we are yet in the dark as to the year in which he took
Orders, and the exact locality of his first Curacy.
That he was popular, especially with the ladies of his congrega-
tion, tradition leaves us no room to question ; that he composed
tender verses far superior to those we now. read in the sta-
tioners’ windows, a reference to the Manuscript Department ol
the British Museum— Caligula XIV., ax 1416 (c)—will place beyond
a doubt; that he could illuminate his poetry with the nicest taste,
and the happiest adaptation to his purpose of all the usual emblems
of affection, is abundantly proved by the examples which are still
guarded with jealous care in the Monasteries of the. Levant; and
that he, who of all men seemed marked out to participate in the
delights of domestic intercourse and family affection, should pass his
life in joyless celibacy and solitary isolation, is a mournful revela-
tion which only too forcibly confirms the truth of the adage that
no man knows what is in store for him until he raises the veil of
experience.
We cannot even rescue from oblivion the name of the Lady to
whom Valentine was hopelessly attached, although a rumour long
prevalent in the neighbourhood where he resided, pointed to the
daughter of his Churchwarden; and if this rapid sketch of the
Bishop’s life and times wants something of the fulness and details
of modern biographies, we are sustained by the consciousness that it
contains nothing which can pain the survivors, or wound the most
sensitive and fastidious taste.
Family Reading.
A Magazine story now in progress is entitled Second Cousin
Sarah. This, we believe, is only the first of a series of tales which,
when completed, will be found to comprise Brother-in-Law Benja-
min, Great Aunt Mary, My Maternal Grandmother Witheringham,
Mr. Minnypink’s Wife's Mother, and many others of the like
domestic tendency.
(H. R.)
Berwick has returned Captain Home. Another Home Ruler!
Ireland will have its own Parliament one of these days.