On hearing that Grimaldi had left the stage, he enumerates his funny performances—

"Oh, who like thee could ever drink,

Or eat-smile-swallow-bolt-and choke,
Nod, weep, and hiccup-sneeze and wink?
Thy very gown was quite a joke!
Though Joseph Junior acts not ill,

"There's no fool like the old fool still.'”

His felicity in playing with words is well exhibited in the stanzas on "John Trot." "John Trot he was as tall a lad As York did ever rear,

As his dear granny used to say,
He'd make a Grenadier.

A serjeant soon came down to York
With ribbons and a frill;

My lad, said he, let broadcast be,
And come away to drill.

"But when he wanted John to 'list,
In war he saw no fun,

Where what is call'd a raw recruit,
Gets often over-done.
"Let others carry guns, said he,
And go to war's alarms,

But I have got a shoulder-knot
Imposed upon my arms.

"For John he had a footman's place,
To wait on Lady Wye,

She was a dumpy woman, tho'
Her family was high.

"Now when two years had passed away
Her lord took very ill,

And left her to her widowhood,

Of course, more dumpy still.

"Said John, I am a proper man,

And very tall to see,

Who knows, but now her lord is low

She may look up to me?

"A cunning woman told me once

Such fortune would turn up,

She was a kind of sorceress,
But studied in a cup.'

Verbal Humour.

"So he walked up to Lady Wye,
And took her quite amazed,

She thought though John was tall enough
He wanted to be raised.

"But John-for why ? she was a dame
Of such a dwarfish sort-
Had only come to bid her make
Her mourning very short.

"Said he, 'your lord is dead and cold,
You only cry in vain,

Not all the cries of London now,
Could call him back again.

"You'll soon have many a noble beau,
To dry your noble tears,
But just consider this that I
Have followed you for years.

"And tho' you are above me far,
What matters high degree,
When you are only four foot nine,
And I am six foot three?

"For though you are of lofty race,
And I'm a low-born elf,

Yet none among your friends could say,
You matched beneath yourself.'

"Said she,' such insolence as this
Can be no common case;
Though you are in my service, Sir,
Your love is out of place.'

"O_Lady Wye! O Lady Wye!
Consider what you do;

How can you be so short with me,
I am not so with you!'

"Then ringing for her serving-men,
They show'd him to the door;

66

66

Said they, you turn out better now,

Why didn't you before ?'

They stripp'd his coat, and gave him kicks

For all his wages due,

And off instead of green and gold

He went in black and blue.

No family would take him in
Because of this discharge,
So he made up his mind to serve
The country all at large.

205

646

'Huzza!' the serjeant cried, and put
The money in his hand,

And with a shilling cut him off
From his paternal land.

"For when his regiment went to fight
At Saragossa town,

A Frenchman thought he look'd too tall,
And so he cut him down."

Barham's humour, as seen in his "Ingoldsby Legends," is of a lower character, but shows that the author possessed a great natural facility. He had keen observation, but his taste did not prevent his employing it on what was coarse and puerile. Common slang abounds, as in "The Vulgar Little Boy;" he talks of "the devil's cow's tail," and is little afraid of extravagances. His metre often assists him, and we have often comic rhyming as where "Mephistopheles" answers to "Coffee lees," and he says:

"To gain your sweet smiles, were I Sardanapalus, I'd descend from my throne, and be boots at an alehouse," But in raising a laugh and affording a pleasant distraction by fantastic humour on common subjects, the "Ingoldsby Legends" have been highly successful, and they are recommended by an occasional historical allusion, especially at the expense of the old monks. Being written by a man of knowledge and cultivation, they rise considerably above the standard of the contributions to lower class comic papers, which in some respects they

resemble.

CHAPTER XVI.

Douglas Jerrold-Liberal Politics-Advantages of Ugliness -Button Conspiracy-Advocacy of Dirt-The "Genteel Pigeons."

T1

HERE is an earnestness and a political complexion in the humour of Douglas Jerrold, such as might be expected from a man. who had been educated in the school of adversity. He was born in a garret at Sheerness, where his father was manager of the theatre; and as he grew up in the seaport among ships, sailors and naval preparations, his ambition was fired, and he entered the service as a midshipman. On his return, after a short period, he found his father immersed in difficulties, due probably to the inactivity at the seaport in time of peace. Many a man has owed his success in life partly to his following his father's profeesion, and here fortune favoured Jerrold, as his maritime experiences assisted him as a writer for the stage. We can easily understand

how

Black-eyed Susan" would move the hearts of sailors returning after a long voyage. Meanwhile the inner power and energy of the

man developed itself in many directions; he perfected himself in Latin, French and Italian literature, wrote "leaders" for the "Morning Herald," and articles for Magazines. All his works were short, and those which were most approved never assumed an important character. The most successful enterprise in his career was his starting "Punch," in conjunction with Gilbert' A-Beckett and Mark Lemon.

Jerrold was a staunch and sturdy liberal, and his original idea was that of a periodical to expose every kind of hypocrisy, and fraud, and especially to attack the strongholds of Toryism. "Punch" owed much at its commencement to the pen of Jerrold, and has well retained its character for fun, although it scarcely now represents its projector's political ardour.

His conversation overflowed with pleasantry, and in conversation he sometimes hazarded a pun, as when he asked Talfourd whether he had any more "Ions" in the fire. But the critic, who says that "every jest of his was a gross incivility made palatable by a pun," is singularly infelicitous, for as infelicitous, for as a humorous writer he is almost unique in his freedom from verbal hnmour. His style is often adagial or exaggerated, and we are constantly meeting such sentences as;