DOI Heft:
December 22, 1883
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17755#0301
December 22, 1883.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
289
Dropt the wizard pencil, resting
That unchilled, untiring hand!
Should some sorrowing Fay come
questing
From the Court of Fairyland,
Come inquiring among mortals
For another tit to pass
Through those dim sequestered portals,
Fit that realm to type and glass,
Of its wealth to be possessor,
Humour’s harvest, Fancy’s spoil,
Where should she find right successor
To unrivalled Richard Doyle F
Why must so fine necromancy
Know the arresting touch of death ?
Why must world-delighting fancy
Bide at last the icy breath F
So love asks with noble folly,
Running o’er his mimic world,
Creatures winsome, quaint, and jolly,
Arabesquely blown and twirled
From his pencil point profusely.
Scattered like the flowers of Spring,
Lightly, lavishly and loosely,
When Doyle’s wit is on the wing.
On the wing [ ’Tis ever on it,
All unlike the little bard
Who excogitates a sonnet
After labour long and hard.
RICHARD DOYLE. (IN MEMORSAM.)
He is no pedestrian plodder,
Double-handed he deals out:
Whimsies wilder, brighter, odder
Never swarmed in Fancy’s rout.
Drayton’s old Nymphidia never
Was more populous of whims
Than the limbo opened ever
When this wizard dreams and limns.
“ Wood-notes wild” the analogues are
Of his quaint and elfish crew.
Who makes question if the rogues are
Anatomically true P
They ’re alive and love-inspiring,
Which some fresco-frights are not:
Age with childhood comes admiring,
Cold correctness counts “ great rot.”
Living fun and fancy spoil us
For the coldly critic strain :
’Gainst them Academic Zoilus
Blows his counterblasts in vain.
Not the imps of Elf-land merely
Populate his pictured page ;
Who drew bow more keenly, queerly,
At the follies of his age ?
Winged with whim, and tipped with wild-
ness,
Straight withal his arrows flew ;
Satire sharp with genial mildness
Mingled in the world he drew.
Thackeray’s Colonel fits his pencil,
But his sharper skill can shape,
Sans long nose or tail prehensile,
Cad, or snob, or human ape.
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 !
Olden ties unknit too quickly
Take new charm as we review
Fancy’s wit-world thronged so thickly.
Mors, who has so much to do,
Might, one dreams, give longer tether
Unto lives that keep so young.
Heads of wood and hearts of leather
Freely in his way are flung.
No ! He will not long be cheated
Of the choicest of his spoil,
To the further shore has fleeted
Fancy’s favourite—“ Dicky Doyle.”
THE SENTRY OF THE CENTURY.
“Slippers for Soldiers.
—As one of the results of
recent committee work on
equipment, it has been de-
cided, says the Army and
Navy Gazette, that a pair of
light canvas waterproof
slippers will be carried by
the soldier m his valise on
active service, instead of a
second pair of boots, which
will be carried in the first
line of transport. A small
supply of spare boots will
accompany each battalion,
to replace the few that may
be prematurely worn out.
It has been found that troops
can keep the field, in a
rough country, on one pair
of boots for two months, and
it is believed that the addi-
tion of light canvas shoes,
to put on when the boots
have been removed, to ease
the feet, will answer all
requirements. ”—Globe.
SOME SIGNS OF THE SEASON.
Now, do wealthy and careful men and women seize hold of some
habit displayed by their poorer relations, habits of which they have
said nothing, during the year, as an excuse for never seeing or speak-
ing to those impoverished relations again.
Postmen who have lingered and loitered with your letters for
eleven months, now not only deliver them at the appointed time, but,
in their kindly zeal, are anxious to open, read, and answer them for
you.
Dyspeptics look forward to their waking condition on the 26th with
feelings of agony and apprehension.
Norfolk poultry-farmers drink success and long continuance to
good old English customs.
Descriptive Writers arm themselves with Maps of Loudon, and
evolve articles headed, “Roast Beef in Bermondsey,” “ Turkey and
Sausages in Wapping,” and “ Mince Pies in Spitalfields.”
The lesser feminine lights of the Stage invest in five shillings’
worth of illuminated cards, and sit anxiously down awaiting a crop
of bangles, bracelets, diamond butterflies, boxes of bonbons, ana
eighteen-button gloves.
Railway Porters become suddenly intelligent, and convinced that
every traveller by every train desires a compartment to himself.
Heroic sacrificers of the truth avow openly that they have ghosts
in their families capable of putting all the annuals in the shade, and
that they themselves have seen them.
Tradesmen order in several reams of note-paper and a few gross of
blue envelopes.
Cabmen salute their fares with cheery remarks as to the season-
ableness of the weather.
Schoolmasters are praying that Classics, Modern Languages,
Mathematics, History, and Geography could all he classed as extras.
Fond lovers buy and give to each other the very last things in the
world that each other wants.
Fashionable preachers drink much strong tea, in the hope of
eliciting something fresh from their brains.
Men in possession are sure that everything can he settled comfort-
ably, and that nobody wants to do any harm to anybody else.
Pictures representing bright, crisp, exhilarating, frosty weather,
are in large demand.
Umbrellas, Waterproofs, and Respirators, to protect the human
frame from rain, slush, mud, and fog, are in enormous request.
Daring young Journalists, early in the morning, wildly wonder
what effect on Society would an article, commencing “ This, the most
loathsome season of the year” have, and conclude not to write it,
but to go to bed.
Publicans arrange that the most generous and lavish of their
regular customers shall win the goose in their Annual Club.
Elderly people raise highly successful blue devils for themselves by
recalling the friends they have lost.
Blue-Ribbonites swear off on account of the season of the year.
Anti-Biue-Ribbonites swear on harder and harder on account of
the season of the year.
Starving street Arabs and ordinary paupers are all at once dis-
covered to be hungry.
Several nervous imaginative invalids become chronic imbeciles,
through being waked up at dead of night by the strains of the
“ Mistletoe Bough."
Hypochondriacal subjects trust that they will be in their coffins
before the New Year’s festivities set in.
Mr. Punch comes out as usual, and without the cynicism with
which it is now fashionable to regard this kindly genial season, wishes
all his Readers as Merry a Christmas—as they deserve.
At the ensuing Balls at the Mansion House a new dance will be
introduced, which it is expected will achieve great popularity. It
will be called the “ Conger Reel.”
Vol. 85.
10
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
289
Dropt the wizard pencil, resting
That unchilled, untiring hand!
Should some sorrowing Fay come
questing
From the Court of Fairyland,
Come inquiring among mortals
For another tit to pass
Through those dim sequestered portals,
Fit that realm to type and glass,
Of its wealth to be possessor,
Humour’s harvest, Fancy’s spoil,
Where should she find right successor
To unrivalled Richard Doyle F
Why must so fine necromancy
Know the arresting touch of death ?
Why must world-delighting fancy
Bide at last the icy breath F
So love asks with noble folly,
Running o’er his mimic world,
Creatures winsome, quaint, and jolly,
Arabesquely blown and twirled
From his pencil point profusely.
Scattered like the flowers of Spring,
Lightly, lavishly and loosely,
When Doyle’s wit is on the wing.
On the wing [ ’Tis ever on it,
All unlike the little bard
Who excogitates a sonnet
After labour long and hard.
RICHARD DOYLE. (IN MEMORSAM.)
He is no pedestrian plodder,
Double-handed he deals out:
Whimsies wilder, brighter, odder
Never swarmed in Fancy’s rout.
Drayton’s old Nymphidia never
Was more populous of whims
Than the limbo opened ever
When this wizard dreams and limns.
“ Wood-notes wild” the analogues are
Of his quaint and elfish crew.
Who makes question if the rogues are
Anatomically true P
They ’re alive and love-inspiring,
Which some fresco-frights are not:
Age with childhood comes admiring,
Cold correctness counts “ great rot.”
Living fun and fancy spoil us
For the coldly critic strain :
’Gainst them Academic Zoilus
Blows his counterblasts in vain.
Not the imps of Elf-land merely
Populate his pictured page ;
Who drew bow more keenly, queerly,
At the follies of his age ?
Winged with whim, and tipped with wild-
ness,
Straight withal his arrows flew ;
Satire sharp with genial mildness
Mingled in the world he drew.
Thackeray’s Colonel fits his pencil,
But his sharper skill can shape,
Sans long nose or tail prehensile,
Cad, or snob, or human ape.
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 !
Olden ties unknit too quickly
Take new charm as we review
Fancy’s wit-world thronged so thickly.
Mors, who has so much to do,
Might, one dreams, give longer tether
Unto lives that keep so young.
Heads of wood and hearts of leather
Freely in his way are flung.
No ! He will not long be cheated
Of the choicest of his spoil,
To the further shore has fleeted
Fancy’s favourite—“ Dicky Doyle.”
THE SENTRY OF THE CENTURY.
“Slippers for Soldiers.
—As one of the results of
recent committee work on
equipment, it has been de-
cided, says the Army and
Navy Gazette, that a pair of
light canvas waterproof
slippers will be carried by
the soldier m his valise on
active service, instead of a
second pair of boots, which
will be carried in the first
line of transport. A small
supply of spare boots will
accompany each battalion,
to replace the few that may
be prematurely worn out.
It has been found that troops
can keep the field, in a
rough country, on one pair
of boots for two months, and
it is believed that the addi-
tion of light canvas shoes,
to put on when the boots
have been removed, to ease
the feet, will answer all
requirements. ”—Globe.
SOME SIGNS OF THE SEASON.
Now, do wealthy and careful men and women seize hold of some
habit displayed by their poorer relations, habits of which they have
said nothing, during the year, as an excuse for never seeing or speak-
ing to those impoverished relations again.
Postmen who have lingered and loitered with your letters for
eleven months, now not only deliver them at the appointed time, but,
in their kindly zeal, are anxious to open, read, and answer them for
you.
Dyspeptics look forward to their waking condition on the 26th with
feelings of agony and apprehension.
Norfolk poultry-farmers drink success and long continuance to
good old English customs.
Descriptive Writers arm themselves with Maps of Loudon, and
evolve articles headed, “Roast Beef in Bermondsey,” “ Turkey and
Sausages in Wapping,” and “ Mince Pies in Spitalfields.”
The lesser feminine lights of the Stage invest in five shillings’
worth of illuminated cards, and sit anxiously down awaiting a crop
of bangles, bracelets, diamond butterflies, boxes of bonbons, ana
eighteen-button gloves.
Railway Porters become suddenly intelligent, and convinced that
every traveller by every train desires a compartment to himself.
Heroic sacrificers of the truth avow openly that they have ghosts
in their families capable of putting all the annuals in the shade, and
that they themselves have seen them.
Tradesmen order in several reams of note-paper and a few gross of
blue envelopes.
Cabmen salute their fares with cheery remarks as to the season-
ableness of the weather.
Schoolmasters are praying that Classics, Modern Languages,
Mathematics, History, and Geography could all he classed as extras.
Fond lovers buy and give to each other the very last things in the
world that each other wants.
Fashionable preachers drink much strong tea, in the hope of
eliciting something fresh from their brains.
Men in possession are sure that everything can he settled comfort-
ably, and that nobody wants to do any harm to anybody else.
Pictures representing bright, crisp, exhilarating, frosty weather,
are in large demand.
Umbrellas, Waterproofs, and Respirators, to protect the human
frame from rain, slush, mud, and fog, are in enormous request.
Daring young Journalists, early in the morning, wildly wonder
what effect on Society would an article, commencing “ This, the most
loathsome season of the year” have, and conclude not to write it,
but to go to bed.
Publicans arrange that the most generous and lavish of their
regular customers shall win the goose in their Annual Club.
Elderly people raise highly successful blue devils for themselves by
recalling the friends they have lost.
Blue-Ribbonites swear off on account of the season of the year.
Anti-Biue-Ribbonites swear on harder and harder on account of
the season of the year.
Starving street Arabs and ordinary paupers are all at once dis-
covered to be hungry.
Several nervous imaginative invalids become chronic imbeciles,
through being waked up at dead of night by the strains of the
“ Mistletoe Bough."
Hypochondriacal subjects trust that they will be in their coffins
before the New Year’s festivities set in.
Mr. Punch comes out as usual, and without the cynicism with
which it is now fashionable to regard this kindly genial season, wishes
all his Readers as Merry a Christmas—as they deserve.
At the ensuing Balls at the Mansion House a new dance will be
introduced, which it is expected will achieve great popularity. It
will be called the “ Conger Reel.”
Vol. 85.
10