The History of "Punch" Part 28

But a serious quarrel broke out between d.i.c.kens and the _Punch_ men, publishers and Editor alike--a quarrel wholly on d.i.c.kens'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 advertis.e.m.e.nt of "Once a Week," which was to follow "Household Words," and to an explanation of the position of affairs between "Mr. Charles d.i.c.kens 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.

d.i.c.kens, 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. d.i.c.kens 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 circ.u.mstances led to Mr. d.i.c.kens'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. d.i.c.kens himself, as regarded the taste of this proceeding. On June 17th, however, Bradbury and Evans learnt from a common friend, that Mr. d.i.c.kens 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. d.i.c.kens 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. d.i.c.kens's altered feeling towards them; but they were a.s.sured that it _was_ the sole cause, and that Mr. d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens to resume his friends.h.i.+p with the man with whom, after all, he had had no cause of quarrel. So d.i.c.kens 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 d.i.c.kens died, some of the most touching and beautiful verses that ever appeared in _Punch_ were devoted to his memory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES HANNAY.

(_From a photograph by T. Rogers._)]

In 1850 appeared James Hannay, Mr. Sutherland Edwards' a.s.sociate 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 s.h.i.+rley Brooks did a few years subsequently, and was a.s.sisted 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 a.s.saulting his old friend and chum Mr. Edwards, who, in spite of all journalistic amenities, remained his chum, for these a.s.saults 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 amus.e.m.e.nt 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, s.h.i.+rley 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.

s.h.i.+rley Brooks--His Wit and Humour--Training--Lays Siege to _Punch_--And Carries him by a.s.sault--"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 Editors.h.i.+p--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. a Beckett--"A. Briefless, Junior"--Mortimer Collins--Mr. E.

J. Milliken--"The 'Arry Papers"--Gilbert a Beckett--"How we Advertise Now"--Mr. H. F. Lester--Mr. Burnand and the Corporal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: s.h.i.+RLEY BROOKS.

(_From a Photograph by Lombardi and Co._)]

s.h.i.+rley 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 astonis.h.i.+ng, 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 circ.u.mstances 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 c.o.ke 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 editors.h.i.+p of two _Punch_ men--Albert Smith and Angus B. Reach. For the latter he had a close and tender friends.h.i.+p. 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 cla.s.ses, 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 editors.h.i.+p, 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 a.s.saults on _Punch_ ever published--the more severe for the excellence of its quality. It was ent.i.tled "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 "sn.o.bs" 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, p.r.o.nounced him "the most rising journalist of the day," and Mark Lemon declared openly that "s.h.i.+rley'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 retrousse_, 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 "Ill.u.s.trated London News." He was in his time the cartoon suggestor-in-chief, and towards the end of Mark Lemon's life rendered great a.s.sistance in the editors.h.i.+p of the paper; although Percival Leigh was the recognised _loc.u.m 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 Editors.h.i.+p 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 Dore. But I am here. Who says I have no self-denial?"

--which shows that he was already in harness.

In his editors.h.i.+p 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."

s.h.i.+rley 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 ill.u.s.trations 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 c.o.c.kney 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, ill.u.s.trated 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 pa.s.sed into the category of "stock recitations."

Then F. I. Scudamore, still remembered for his _vers de societe_, was a pa.s.sing 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 Companions.h.i.+p 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, ent.i.tled '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 friends.h.i.+p 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 debut was an astonis.h.i.+ng success. His debut, 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 s.h.i.+nned against than s.h.i.+nning;" and thence, at the age of seventeen, he went into Trinity College, Cambridge. In three years he had graduated and had founded the still flouris.h.i.+ng "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 pa.s.sion 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 proprietors.h.i.+p of a looking-gla.s.s maker, named Maclean--whom, by reason of his expansive smile and s.h.i.+ning 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 ill.u.s.trations that were to be seen in publications such as the "London Journal." To his own daughter, as "one of his oldest friends,"