Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 4 (of 4).—1892-1914Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
History
Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 4 (of 4).—1892-1914
Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Humor
In 1904 _Punch_ ranged himself unfalteringly on the side of compulsory
Greek. Oxford had decided to retain it, and _Punch_, garbed as a
Hellenic sage, appeals to Cambridge not to be outdone in loyalty to the
old faith by her sister. It is hard to avoid reading into the cartoon
"Breaking the Charm" in 1909 more than _Punch_ meant to express. Lord
Curzon, as the Fairy Prince, is seen, with his Memorandum on University
Reform, appealing to the Sleeping Beauty in Matthew Arnold's phrase,
"Awake, adorable dreamer!" Of course, the "adorable dreamer" was bound
to be pictorially represented by a woman, but recent concessions have
lent a special significance to the awakening. Strange to say, the
most powerful and eloquent impeachment of the intrusion of women into
Oxford comes from the New World; from the pen of the most brilliant of
American essayists--Mr. Paul Elmer More. "With petticoats," he writes
of Oxford, "came the world and the conventions of the world; manners
were softened, the tongue was filed, angles of originality were ironed
out; the drawing-room conquered the cloister."
_Punch's_ practical abandonment of the _rôle_ of religious
controversialist was noticed in the previous volume. In the period
under review references to the churches are for the most part confined
to the part they played in connexion with the Education Bills already
mentioned. The echoes of the "No Popery" campaign had so far died
down that, on the publication in 1898 of Mr. Wilfrid Ward's review of
Cardinal Wiseman's life, _Punch's_ notice was not merely sympathetic
but laudatory. "The storm that arose in England on his return from
Rome to England with the rank of Cardinal was sufficient to have blown
a punier man clean off the island. The Cardinal stood four square to
it and lived it down." This is a notable tribute from _Punch_, who
had blown and stormed with the best of the Cardinal's assailants. As
for the now forgotten but once notorious "Kensitite" demonstrations,
_Punch's_ attitude is seen in his advertisement printed in the same
year:--
_To Prize-Fighters and others._--Wanted, MUSCULAR CHRISTIANS
to act as sidesmen; used to _mêlées_ and capable of using their
fists. Liberal terms. Free doctor. Pensions in case of personal
injury. Apply, stating qualifications, to High Church Clerical Agency,
Kensiton, W.
_A propos_ of muscular Christians, in 1900 _Punch_ mentions that a
country curate had recently received notice to quit because though
unexceptionable in other respects, his vicar declared that "what
this parish really needs is a good fast bowler with a break from the
off." Modern clerical methods of acquiring popularity were satirized
in 1905. A Congregational minister had taken part in a theatrical
performance, and _Punch_ gave a burlesque account of a bishop appearing
at a music-hall in a travesty of _Hamlet_ for the benefit of a Decayed
Curates' Fund.
[Sidenote: _Anti-Clericalism in France_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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