DOI issue:
August 10, 1889
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17688#0072
G6
PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [August 10, 1889.
DOMESTIC TRAGEDIES.
Is it Total Ruin, is it a sudden and terrible Bereavement, that has plunged the Browns into this state of Despair ?
No ; but the Time has come to choose a Sea-side Resort for the Autumn, and each Member of the Family prefers—a
Different Place !
THE LION AND HIS EKIENDS (!)
A Modern Variant of an Ancient Apologue.
Mr, Punch loquitur:—
No, tEsopus, old boy, this is not exactly an illustration of your
own world-renowned Fable. Punchius, the Wise Man of London
(where are the other Six F) who loves you, has here taken a slight
liberty with your ancient apologue to adapt it to modern circum-
stances. The bearings of it lie in the application.
The Old Lion ? Yes! But this is the Grand Old Lion, by no
means “ worn out with years,” and as to lying “ stretched upon the
ground utterly helpless,” well, does he look like it ? Standing there,
at the entrance to his well-loved cave, with lifted head, flashing
eyes, and bristling mane, Leo hardly seems a creature to be trifled
with. Not rampant exactly. Only asses ramp nowadays, save in
heraldry. Bat decidedly regardant.
Quite a quiet old Lion they thought him, a King of Beasts ; yes,
hut of the modern constitutional sort, unknown when Cecesus was
autocrat of Lydia, and A masts Coptic cock o’ the walk, and
Peisistratus tyrant at Athens. A leader,—yes, as a blind man’s
dog is his leader, tightly tethered and well within range of the stick.
But, as yon say, my AEsop, even Lions grow old, and kingships
become vacant, and possible reversions of crowns and revenues, of
place and power and pomp, haunt the imaginations of aspirants in
the year of grace 1889, as they did five hundred years or so B.C.
What more natural then than that the other animals, the pick of
them at least, should have their eyes upon Grand Old Leo ? King-
ship, such as it is, nowadays is not of necessity restricted to the line
of Lions, or even to asses in lions ’ skins. Other animals may per-
chance have what is termed “ a look in”—if they look out. And
don’t they ?
The Elephant, for instance! A ponderous brute, doubtless, as
little leonine as may be, hut with a keen eye, a flexible trunk, tre-
mendous tusks, and a power of trumpeting perhaps 'Unparalleled.
In default of a successor iu the true lino—Lions are getting scarce—
who would look better at the head of the animal host than he?
Who ? The reply of the Wolf would he cautions, hut unmistakable.
Lupus flatters himself that Leo loves—and trusts—him decidedly
more than he does that ponderous pachyderm. “ Jumbo,” courtier-
like and laudatory as he has seemed of late, has been known in by-
gone days to turn upon the Grand Old Lion—a little prematurely,
as it happened, but with unmistakable vigour and viciousness.
Whereas Lupus’s loyalty to Leo has, up to now, been unquestionable,
whilst if Leo has not taken a tip or two from Lupus in matters of
policy, Lupus has been much maligned. True, Lupus is suspected
of being a trifle more predatory in his tendencies than the heavy, but
affable and strictly graminivorous Elephas. His “sombre” acqui-
escence in the more sanguinary excesses of carnivora on the war-
path has a little perturbed the milder brutes. So much so, that even
the once ruthlessly ravaging Leopard—(who, however, is suspected
of a desire to “ change his spots,” and loll among the lilies, who toil
not nor spin)—even the once rampant, ransom-demanding Leopard
has rounded on him as a naughty omnivorous Nihilist. But then
the jealousy between the Wolf and the Leopard is of long standing.
The Leopard, as a genuine, if small-sized feline, once looked upon
the reversion of Leo’s kingdom as unquestionably his own. But Leo,
so it is reported, rather snubbed the Leopard, and made a confidant
and court- favourite of Lupus. So the Leopard revolted, some little
time since, and what his particular little game now is, save to make
things particularly unpleasant for Leo and his followers all round,
is not too apparent. But Lupus, if a sombre, is a very superior
creature, and many have highly fancied his chances—himself probably
amongst them.
But Asians ? Ha! ha! A little time ago how all the more
“ serious” brutes'would have laughed at the idea of his aspirations to
leadership! Like the American ’Coon, he has always been “an
amoosin’ Cuss,” with any quantity of cynical “cussedness,” too.
Unlike the misguided “Moke” in your other fable of “The Ass and
the Lap-dog,” my iEsopus, this particular and unusually gifted
“Jerusalem” has succeeded in “sporting and gambolling about,
caressing and fawning upon his master in a thousand amusing ways,”
without incurring ridicule or the stick, though not without smashing
a little crockery now and again.
PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [August 10, 1889.
DOMESTIC TRAGEDIES.
Is it Total Ruin, is it a sudden and terrible Bereavement, that has plunged the Browns into this state of Despair ?
No ; but the Time has come to choose a Sea-side Resort for the Autumn, and each Member of the Family prefers—a
Different Place !
THE LION AND HIS EKIENDS (!)
A Modern Variant of an Ancient Apologue.
Mr, Punch loquitur:—
No, tEsopus, old boy, this is not exactly an illustration of your
own world-renowned Fable. Punchius, the Wise Man of London
(where are the other Six F) who loves you, has here taken a slight
liberty with your ancient apologue to adapt it to modern circum-
stances. The bearings of it lie in the application.
The Old Lion ? Yes! But this is the Grand Old Lion, by no
means “ worn out with years,” and as to lying “ stretched upon the
ground utterly helpless,” well, does he look like it ? Standing there,
at the entrance to his well-loved cave, with lifted head, flashing
eyes, and bristling mane, Leo hardly seems a creature to be trifled
with. Not rampant exactly. Only asses ramp nowadays, save in
heraldry. Bat decidedly regardant.
Quite a quiet old Lion they thought him, a King of Beasts ; yes,
hut of the modern constitutional sort, unknown when Cecesus was
autocrat of Lydia, and A masts Coptic cock o’ the walk, and
Peisistratus tyrant at Athens. A leader,—yes, as a blind man’s
dog is his leader, tightly tethered and well within range of the stick.
But, as yon say, my AEsop, even Lions grow old, and kingships
become vacant, and possible reversions of crowns and revenues, of
place and power and pomp, haunt the imaginations of aspirants in
the year of grace 1889, as they did five hundred years or so B.C.
What more natural then than that the other animals, the pick of
them at least, should have their eyes upon Grand Old Leo ? King-
ship, such as it is, nowadays is not of necessity restricted to the line
of Lions, or even to asses in lions ’ skins. Other animals may per-
chance have what is termed “ a look in”—if they look out. And
don’t they ?
The Elephant, for instance! A ponderous brute, doubtless, as
little leonine as may be, hut with a keen eye, a flexible trunk, tre-
mendous tusks, and a power of trumpeting perhaps 'Unparalleled.
In default of a successor iu the true lino—Lions are getting scarce—
who would look better at the head of the animal host than he?
Who ? The reply of the Wolf would he cautions, hut unmistakable.
Lupus flatters himself that Leo loves—and trusts—him decidedly
more than he does that ponderous pachyderm. “ Jumbo,” courtier-
like and laudatory as he has seemed of late, has been known in by-
gone days to turn upon the Grand Old Lion—a little prematurely,
as it happened, but with unmistakable vigour and viciousness.
Whereas Lupus’s loyalty to Leo has, up to now, been unquestionable,
whilst if Leo has not taken a tip or two from Lupus in matters of
policy, Lupus has been much maligned. True, Lupus is suspected
of being a trifle more predatory in his tendencies than the heavy, but
affable and strictly graminivorous Elephas. His “sombre” acqui-
escence in the more sanguinary excesses of carnivora on the war-
path has a little perturbed the milder brutes. So much so, that even
the once ruthlessly ravaging Leopard—(who, however, is suspected
of a desire to “ change his spots,” and loll among the lilies, who toil
not nor spin)—even the once rampant, ransom-demanding Leopard
has rounded on him as a naughty omnivorous Nihilist. But then
the jealousy between the Wolf and the Leopard is of long standing.
The Leopard, as a genuine, if small-sized feline, once looked upon
the reversion of Leo’s kingdom as unquestionably his own. But Leo,
so it is reported, rather snubbed the Leopard, and made a confidant
and court- favourite of Lupus. So the Leopard revolted, some little
time since, and what his particular little game now is, save to make
things particularly unpleasant for Leo and his followers all round,
is not too apparent. But Lupus, if a sombre, is a very superior
creature, and many have highly fancied his chances—himself probably
amongst them.
But Asians ? Ha! ha! A little time ago how all the more
“ serious” brutes'would have laughed at the idea of his aspirations to
leadership! Like the American ’Coon, he has always been “an
amoosin’ Cuss,” with any quantity of cynical “cussedness,” too.
Unlike the misguided “Moke” in your other fable of “The Ass and
the Lap-dog,” my iEsopus, this particular and unusually gifted
“Jerusalem” has succeeded in “sporting and gambolling about,
caressing and fawning upon his master in a thousand amusing ways,”
without incurring ridicule or the stick, though not without smashing
a little crockery now and again.