Produced by Lesley Halamek, Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI VOLUME 104, MAY 27TH 1893 edited by Sir Francis Burnand AN APPEAL FOR INSPIRATION. [Mr. LEWIS MORRIS has been requested to write an ode on the approaching Royal Marriage.] AWAKE my Muse, inspire your LEWIS MORRIS To pen an ode! to be another Horris! "HORACE" I should have written, but in place of it You see the word--well, I'm within an _ace_ of it. Awake my muse! strike up! your bard inspire To write this--"by particular desire." Wet towels! Midnight oil! Here! Everything That can induce the singing bard to sing. Shake me, Ye Nine! I'm resolute, I'm bold! Come, Inspiration, lend thy furious hold! MORRIS on Pegasus! Plank money down! I'll back myself to win the Laureate's Crown! * * * * * THE CHIEF SECRETARY'S MUSICAL PERFORMANCE, WITH ACCOMPANIMENT. --Mr. JOHN MORLEY arrived last Friday at Kingston. He went to Bray. He was "accompanied" by the Under Secretary. Surely the Leader of the Opposition, now at Belfast, won't lose such a chance as this item of news offers. * * * * * THE "WATER-CARNIVAL."--Good idea! But a very large proportion of those whom the show attracts would be all the better for a Soap-and-Water Carnival. Old Father Thames might be considerably improved by the process. * * * * * [Illustration: A RESERVED SEAT. _Mistress._ "WELL, JAMES, HOW DID YOU LIKE THE SHOW? I HOPE YOU GOT A GOOD VIEW." _Jim._ "YES THANKYE, M'M; I SAW IT FIRST-RATE. THERE WAS ROOM FUR FOUR OR FIVE MORE WHERE I WAS." _Mistress (surprised)._ "INDEED!--WHERE WAS THAT?" _Jim._ "IN THE PARK, M'M,--UP A CHES'NUT TREE."] * * * * * ODDS BOBBILI! (_The Rajah of Bobbili arrived by P.& O. at Marseilles, where he was received by Col. Humphrey on behalf of the Queen._) There was a gay Rajah of Bobbili Who felt when a steamer on wobblely, "Delighted," says he, "Colonel HUMPHREY to see," So they dined and they drank hobby-nobbeley. * * * * * IS THE _TIMES_ ALSO AMONG THE PUNSTERS?--In its masterly, or rather school-masterly, article last Saturday, on "The Divisions on the Home-Rule Bill," written with the special intention of whipping up the Unionist absentees, the _Times_ said, "There is an opinion that, with a measure so far-reaching in its character as the Home-Rule Bill, pairing should be resorted to as sparingly as possible." The eye gifted with a three-thousand-joke-search-light power sees the pun at once, and reproduces it italicised, to be read aloud, thus--"_Pairing_ should be resorted to _as pairingly_ as possible." What shall he have who makes a pun in the _Times_? Our congratulations. Henceforth, to the jest-detectors this new development may prove most interesting.