The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-14 00:00:00

JOHN LEECH.

Pictures ,of Life and Character: From the Collec-
tion of Mr. Ptinch. By-John Leech. Bradbuiy
and Evans. -
Whenever, 0 pensive; public you are suffering
from an attack of the national malady ycleped the
moegrims, there is happily within call a Leech at
whose mere coming the, evil symptoms are so effec.;
tually dissipated that a cure is aecomplished,
straightway, as it were, at a glance and in a
twinkling. That queer little hieroglyph in which
he occasionally indulges by way of signature has
doubtless often hinted to others, as it has done-so
repeatedly. to ourselves, that his is the genuine
Bottle-imp capable of exorcising 'a whole legion of
blue devil. 3 ! Scattering them to the winds, more-
over, not with a gleam of kindred blue tire
and a t waug of demoniac brimstone, but with
flashes of fun and explosions of. laughter.
A bottle-imp like' that of John Leec'i, we take it,
will be accepted: by every individual in his • right.
senses as preferable, any day in the long run, for
the accomplishment of this pleasant work of exor-
cism, to the potent spirits of either Jean Raisin or
John Barleycorn. It will. be found by the gene-
rality not a jot less agreeable to the. palate, infi-
nitely more reliable as a wholesome, and, be it said;
an uninebriating tonic, and in every respect more
completely and permanently exhilarating. Our
favourite Leech, in truth,, acts throughout from a
secure foundation. He has diseovered the vdrita-
ble arm froth which, with his potent lever. (one
by the way, that Messrs. Bradbury and Evans
well know to hive au excellent ‘‘ purchase"), he
can at pleasure lift a world of sadness from the spirits
of the afflicted. ' He understands perfectly: well the
diagnosis of the disease requiring to be vanquished.
He is perfectly well acquainted with its every token
—whether perceived through the jaundiced eye,' or
the soured temper, or the attrabilious complexion.
For each consequent misery he.,has.one universally
applicable remedy, call it what you will—a panacea
applied to the sufferer by means of a marvellous
talisman in the shape of • a wood block, touched
with a magical anodyne in the form 'of printers'
ink. Here before us lies a glorious omniuni gatherion
of his prescriptions—manifold iu aspect, but identi-
cal in the materials from which they are composed
and which in turn they are intended to disseminate,
namely, the kindliest sarcasm and the most innocent
merriment. Titey deal only with the pharmacopoeia
of Fun ; comprising among their principal ingre-
dientsdrastics, cat minatives,. and autiphlogistics,
under the guise of the witty, the satirical, and the
humorous. Wonderful correctives to the spleen,
which we are glad to know are readily enough
dispensed, week after week, in threepenny
draughts of PUnch—(agreeably flavoured to
taste by the biting verjuice of a Jerrold, and the
saccharine acidity of a Letuon).--and which, for the
sake of national good humour and popular good
fellowship, we are hardly less glad to know cannot
be quite so readily dispensed with by the more
jovial and joke-loving masses of the population.
.ft is something, we think, to have a comic Leech
like this, one who laughs us into good temper, and
good health, and good digestion. We' recognise
him at once as one who has matriculated at the
beit University of all—that of the World-at-
Large—not at those of Sectarianism or Exclusive-
ness. We receive him as one who has won his
diploma at the College of Mirth, not at those
of Dullness and Affectation. Although we might
have found it in our hearts in days past—for
example, say, in those of Will Hogarth—to dust
the wigs of some among those solemn old swells of
Physic with their jewelled snuff-boxes and their
gold-headed canes: we can acknowledge, On the
contrary, our respect for a quaint adviser like this,
coming before us blithely, however, as an avowed
jester, and not sombrously .as a profeSsional
humbug: armed, no less magnificently, with all
the insignia of Leechcraft. With him, however,
the gold-headed, cane of office has snapped in twain
—each moiety of it becoming, thereupon; delight-
fully epitomised—this into a patent golden pen,
better than one of Mordan's gold pens, diamond
tipped—that into a potent golden pencil, better
than one of Mordan's gold pencils, even in that pecu-
liarity by which the latter are declared through ad-
vertisement to be especially distinguished, namely,
that of being ever,-pointed. Alternately employing
for the purpose one or other of these marvellous
wands of office, the paramount genius of our great
comic 1 eriodical, the Genius of Fun, who is, in
truth,- the life and soul of the London, harivari,
has now for some years past by the aid of his
Bottle-Imp, his other .self, his Familiar, driven
out from among us legion after legion of those little
atomic fiends, the sprites siiMuioned by Spleen,
swarm upon swarm, from the realm of Azure
Devilry.

Al4.kbgetber, there are comprised in this delight-
Li selection of " Pictures of Lite and Ciiitrac-

ter," from the collection.- of Mr. Punch, vcry
nearly live hundred humorous illustrations. The
catalogue at the end of the volume enumerates, in
tact, exactly 484; but is addition to the woodcuts

therein mentioned, thereare several otherS scattered
over the pag,!s, with a lavish hand awl an abound-
ing fancy, by John Leec!i—grotesque conceits
without a►;y specific title by which they can be
directly particularised. So that altogether, as we
have said, the book contains very little short, in-
deed, of half-a-thousand comic embellishirients.
What a feast of fun, and a flow of exhilaration !
What a never-ending source of hilarity ! What a
provocative of smiles—grins—guffaws—roars of
laughter! Open the volume anywhere, , and

vie—defy the experimentalist to -preserve his

gravity of visage, be he ever so much of a cur-
mudgeon. Every touch of this Scarron of the

Pencil is a direct incentive to merriment. Every
line is an immediate appeal to our risibility. Every
twist and turn of his crayon is tantamount to a
. ,

dig in the ribs, or a tickle of the diaphragm. And
no wonder. For the publication before us, remem-
ber, is nothing loss than the very quintessence of

all that is ludicrous, extracted iroin the London
Charivari, during a career of some fourteen years'
duration—fourteen years of literary and pic-
torial extravagance. In Leech's "Pictures
of Life and Character," in short may be found tbe
crime de la creme of the drolleries of Punch—
skimmed off 721 goblets, or weekly numbers,
otherwise off 28 ample bowls or half-yearly volumes.
The selection for the most part, however, being
restricted to the minor illustrations—the engrav-
ings scattered like blossoms over the trim parterre
of the letterpress. It is' deserving of conside-
ration, by the way, by the Messrs. Bradbury
and Evans, whether it might not be advisable.
to gather together the pick of the larger
sketches—now numbering between seven and eight
hundred—and reprint them in a separate volume,
the size of the periodical in which they made their
original appearance. It would constitute a very
curious commemoration of the varying themes of
public interest during the last decade and a half,
a noteworthy sketch-book of the hopes, and fears,
and passions, and absurdities of a very busy and
ambitious generation.

Something of this kind, indeed, is effected by Mr.
Leech's " Pictures of Life and Character." Through-
out them may be traced the continued and some-
times extravagant fluctuations of fashion—from the
loud patterned.shirts and the stupendously chequered
trousers of Gentisra-Rampant, to the stunning
overcoats and dapper waist ditto, the jingling
chatelaines and protuberant parashades of Fast-
Youngladyhood. Beyond these, even, the out-
rageous freaks in the way of female costume origi-
nated some years back by Mistress Colonel Bloomer
—that George Sand of Millinery, the Mary Wol-
stonecraft of the Petticoa‘t.

Au extraordinary number 4:4 old favourites will
be recognised by the readers of Punch on turning
over the 94 pages of these accumulated " Pictures
of Life and Character." Everybody will be
charmed to meet old Briggs again, and to follow
him, once more—grinning—through the pro.
tracted series •of his wholly preposterous mis-
adventures. Shaking one's sides over his do-
mestic mishaps, and fairly 'roaring outright
over his astounding feats of horsemanship. For
another of our artist's supposititious heroes, tracked
by him through absurdity after absurdity in a pro-
longed, and we feared at one time interminable,
chapter of accidents, we confess we never bad any
liking whatsoever. From the beginning to the
end we have entirely failed to recognise the fun of
the thing—we mean in the instance of the " Brook
Green Volunteer." For us the fellow has been
from the outset quite intolerable—so that we have
-not without chagrin observed the revival of bis
witless ugliness in the midst of the humorous frolic
of this otherwise delectable gathering of ludicrous
embellishments.

• Mr. Leech ia always great in his Sketches of
young ladies and littledclhildren.' His skill, or
rather genius, in thceseisp
conspicuously
is, of course,
set forth, therefore, o
his delicious "Pictures of Life ani enough
Character."
in these,
ter."
something wonderful, the sweetness and tenderness
with which our great artist-humourist pencils
the .lineaments of maidenly and matronly beauty,
and calls forth with a few master-touches on a
wood-block the' innocence, the grace, the fun, all
the bewitching but nameless charms of childhood.
Nothing in truth can be more exquisite in its way
than the delicacy with which sometimes all this is
accomplished. One recognises at a glance on these
occasions, how the adroit hand must be warmed
into life by the throbbings of the gentle heart—the
fervour of a loving, manly nature being visibly
evidenced in these ma rvelloualittla limningS Of.fair
dames and young children. Yet with the tenderest
of these master-touches—mingled almost provok-
ingly—others the meat daughter-movibg fog their

grotesqueness. ~_lnstance_this that glimpse into the
nursery where Paterfamilias bursts • in l with an
apOstrophe ahout his buttonless shirt, addressed
to Materfamilias, then engaged with the little
naked youngling on her lap—serenely preoccupied
with its morning ablutions. Then that other fresh,
delightful, matutinal, homeincident,when under the
suggeStive title " Hooking and Eying," Angelina,
the "' wife of his bosom," saith, " Well, _4l:lwin, if
you can't make the 'things,' as you call them, meet,
you need not swear so; it's really quite dreadful !".
Edwin partially invisible—Angelina looking all
the while so pretty, buxom, and blooming. Then
that other peep, at "Domestic 'Bliss," where—
Mamma, suckling her infant in -the 'chimney-
corner, Paterfamilias, watch in hand, observes—
"I cannot conceive, my love, what is the
matter with my watch ; I think it must want
cleaning." Whereto the Pet Child cries out—
" Oh-! no ; Papa, dear ! I dont think it wants
cleaning, because baby- and I had it washing in
the basin for ever so long this morning " Or again
—that dreadful Master Tom, to- whom grand-.
mamma is supposed 'to have given'som© plums—
threatening suddenly in cold blood—" 'Now, then,
granny, I've .eaten the plums, ,and if you don't
give me siipelice I'll swallow the stones !" Master
Toin holding the) • stones in the pahn of one hand,
and extending the other for the sixpence. Granny,
in her arm chair, at once para!ytie and spas-
modic. And so the bizarre, the homely, and the
beautiful illustrate, childhood, boyhood; girlhood,
and. womanhood, in these .wonderful sketches of
John Leech in other instances, kindred to 'the fore-
gOirig, 'not easily innumerable. His life-drawings
of ridiculous little children; greetty boys, impu-
dent boys, ugly boys, precocious boys,' and the like
specimens of the genus honto in miniature, are
things to be remembered.' That "illustration, for
example, of " Alarming symptoms after eating
boiled .beef and gooseberry pie," when Little Boy
-whimpers " Oh, lor, Mar, I feel just exactly as if
my jacket was . buttoned !" Or that other One,
of a kindred Little Boy (our 'small hero's cou-
sin, we suspect), where [the incident :is cele-
brated as " a caution " for the behoof of reflective
juveniles at Christmas] mamma, taking the spoiled
little boy's hand at the dinner-table, says, " Why,'
my dearest Albert, what are you crying' for—so
good, too, as you have been all day 1" To which
dearest Albert responds with the irrepressible
-blubber, " 800-hoo ! I've eaten-so m-much b-beef
and t-turkey, that I can't eat any p-plum
p-p-pudding !" Or, again, that horrid young
grampus at the pastrycook's, a pocket Lambert, a
sort of infant Satire on the Living Skeleton, who,
to the shopwoman's inquiry, " What have you had,
sir ?" replies suffocatively, "I've had two jellies",
seven of them, and eleven of them, and six of those,
and four bath buns, a sausage roll, ten almond
cakes—and a bottle of ginger beer." As contrasts
to all which pampered and glutted samples of-boy-
hood, come those specimens of the" little, pert,
dapper, ragged, good-for-nothing searamouches of
the London streets, whose doings and sayings Mr.
Leeds commemorates with a pen and pencil of
infinite appreciation. - Conspicuous among the
examples of which aforesaid gamins de Londres
must perforce be particularised that notable Mils-.
tralion of " Innocence" in the Streets—where an
incorrigible urchin, with his arm-full of snow-
balls, collared by the beadle, cane in hand,
squalls out breathlessly, " Oh, sir ! No, sir.
'Please, sir ; it ain't me, sir ! It's the other
boys, sir 1" Another snow scene reveals to us, we
fancy, the veritable twin-brother of Innocence, in
the small boy, with the Keeley-like visage,
meekly averring to " his natural enemy, the
policeman"—" Snowballs, sir I 'No, sir ! I
haven't seen any one. throw no snowballs, sir !"
A stout old lady in tbe background being
literally " starred ' with one of those splintered
missiles in the very centre of her cloak, precisely
at that portion of her anatomy which might be
described as the small of her back, but that any
such' adjective, -SQ applied, would, in her case, be
altogether inappropriate. A companion picture
is that representing the choleric old gen-
tleman, who has just been dabbed with a
similar pellet in the middle of his hat—the
Lilliputian hurler of the projectile, candidly ex-
plaining in the foreground—" Please, sir, I wasn't
a heavin' at you—l was heavin' at Billy Jones."
Said Billy Jones in the distance—safe, but ob-
servant. And so on through all these delicious
little exemplars of impertinence on the part of the
small fry of our London boy-population.
A distinct series may readily be traced out, hereand
there, in the midst of all theseeming jumble of these
curiously miscellaneous embellishments. A dis-
tinct series, that is, of " cuts"—keen, rapid, and
incisive—laying open to us, by illustration after
illustraticn, some particular phase of foly in all
the fulluess and depth of its ridiculousness. As
brilliant and humnrously contrasting tokens of
I his, we may take the several sketches relating on
the one hand to -" F,un eiana," and on the other
to " Servantgalism." It may be as well, perhaps,
to specify distinctly just one or two instances of
the latter—pleasant examples of the said " Ser.
vantgalisin ; or, What's to - become of th::
inissusea ?" The consequential servant, gal, say,
with the draggled feather in her bonnet, politely
reticuled and genteelly parasoled—who is observ-
ing superciliously to the lady having a vacant situ
•'We:l, main,- heverythink considered, rin
afraid you won't suit me. I've always been brought
tip genteel ; and I could'nt go no whores where there
ain't no footman kep.' " Another—that cinderous
housemaid with the red nose, looking through the
area railing, as her handsomely-dressed old inissus
encounters the small errand-boy on the door-step :
Old Lady.—" What is it, boy?" Boy.—"Please'm
it's a pair of white satin shoes, and the lady's
ran wot's bin mended—name of Miss Julia
Pearlash !" Old Lady.—" Miss 11 !? 9 ??" Voice
from area—" Oh, it's all right, mum. It's me."
Another—Servant gal " who has quarrelled with
her bread and butter"— "If you please, ma'am, I
find there's cold meat for dinner in the kitchen ;
did you expect me to eat it ?" Lady-Mistress—
" Of course I expect you to eat it, and au excellent
dinner, too." Upon which servant gal—with her nose
in the air—" Oh, then, if you please 'm, I should
like to leave this day mouth." Mr. Leech adding
in sly brackets—[exit idiot]. " Flunkeiana"
is, if possible, still better, as a kindred tickler
into laughter. As, for example, in that kitchen
scene, where "Master of the House," point-
ing to the well-spread table, expostulates—
" Now, pray, what is it you complain of ? Is not a
roast leg of mutton,- with plenty of pudding,
vegetables, and beer a substantial dinner
enough for you ?" To which aristocratic flunkey,
settling his cravat affectedly—" Oh, substan-
tial enough, no doubt, sir.; but it really 'is a
quizzeen that—aw—me and the other gentlemen
has not been accustomed to. It's corse—very
corse indeed, sir! " The other gentlemen pathetic,
by the dresser, both in look and attitude! An-
other—" Serious Flunkey," snuffling, fleshy about
calf and abdomen, respectable in black, Gampish
in umbrella, and carefully anointed about the bead
—loquitur to the old lady with the bible on her
knees—" I should require, madam, forty pounds
a-year, two suits of clothes, two 'ats, meat and hale
three times a-day, and piety hindispensable." An-
other, more delectably laughter-moving Flunkey
I beg your pardon, sir—but there is one
thing- I should like to mention at once." [Gentle-
man, by the way, in dressing-gown. Breakfast
laid. Flunkey with hand apologetically leaning on
table as he speaks.] "I am afraid—a—that lam
expected to clean the boots." " Gentleman—Bless
me Oh dear, no I There must be some mistake ;
I always clean them myself—and if you will leave
your shoes outside your door I will give them a
polish at the same time." Another---perhaps the
best, as it shall be the last extract from "Flunk eiania."
Lady, surprised—" You wish to leave—really it's
very inconvenient. Pray, have you any reason to
be dissatisfied with your place ?" Flicnkey, expla-
natory—" Oh, dear no, ma'am—not dissatisfied,
exactly ; but—a—the fact is, ma'am, you don't
keep no wehicle, and I find I miss my carriage
exercise." After which fashion the whole series
is carried' out deliciously as a provocative to mer-
riment. Several of the .home-scenes, it should be
observed, are altogether indescribable, whether in
their natural humour, or, as it might be called, theire
grotesque probability. sin the "Little
kDeitneeeer
Party," or, again, in the "Little Surprise"—se h
upon
worthy:of particular reference to every on
open
whose. drawing-room table there lays spread
aide to these
Life and Character."' It will be observable this pictorial feast of fun, Leech'srvrelesslY, that
who turn over its pages, howevearrectu
tcpiutures of
ggestivo to
the most opposite employments
our artist of notions in
to the Butcher's
erously extravagant. In referenceentitled ".A rible
trade, for example,
herl7utelier inquiring of his
their re
Business"—the
mastearke old Major Dumbledore's
rd the most ludi•
assistant, "Did you.t
TMr. Poodle's legs till
glien edit Miss Wiggle's
shoulder and
neck,
tender." Hairdressers in like man-
ribs to No. 12 ?"
're quite theyfie uent hints of the ludicrous
addanindg,h:
er afford him no up q
exemplified by tLittle
• t Hairdresser,*
As may be
ildlyhis foot in it —meekly observing
"putting ening
(astu he snips and snips) to the gentleman of " 11
governable temper "—" Yer air's very thin cn the
top, sir I." To which the infuriated sul •
)ject---‘ My
hair thin on the top, sir ! And what if it is ?
Confound you, you puppy, do you think I come
here to be insulted and told of my personal defects?
I'll thin your top !!" Or that other of the Hair-
dresser observing "They Bay, sir, the cholera 's in
the hair, sir,!" The gentle•
an then being tritu-
rated with the bristles replying •
to the remark rather
uneasily, "Indeed ! ahem . then I hope you are
very particular about the brushes you use."
L Whereupon 04
*Kumar fnLplaina almost pity