Of course the assumption of government by Napoleon III marked a new phase in French caricature. It became more mundane and more highly civilised. All the piquancy and brilliance, waywardness and corruption, looseness and amenity, mirth and affectation of this refined city life, which in those days threw its dazzling splendour over all Europe, found intelligent and subtle interpreters in the young generation of draughtsmen. The _Journal pour rire_ comes under consideration as the leading paper. It was founded in 1848, and in 1856 assumed the title of _Journal amusant_, under which it is known at the present day. [Illustration: _Hetzel, Paris._ GAVARNI. FOURBERIES DE FEMMES. _Au premier Mosieu._--"Attendez-moi ce soir, de quatre à cinq heures, quai de l'Horloge du Palais.--_Votre_ AUGUSTINE." _Au deuxième Mosieu._--"Ce soir, quai des Lunettes, entre quatre et cinq heures.--_Votre_ AUGUSTINE." _Au troisième Mosieu._--"Quai des Morfondus, ce soir, de quatre heures à cinq.--_Votre_ AUGUSTINE." _À un quatrième Mosieu._--"Je t'attends ce soir, à quatre heures.--_Ton_ AUGUSTINE."] _Gustave Doré_, to the lessening of his importance, moved on this ground only in his earliest period. He was barely sixteen and still at school in his native town Burg, in Alsace, when he made an agreement with Philippon, who engaged him for three years on the _Journal pour rire_. His first drawings date from 1844: "Les animaux socialistes," which were very suggestive of Grandville, and "Désagréments d'un voyage d'agrément"--something like the German _Herr und Frau Buchholz in der Schweiz_--which made a considerable sensation by their grotesque wit. In his series "Les différents publics de Paris" and "La Ménagerie Parisienne" he represented with an incisive pencil the opera, the _Théâtre des Italiens_, the circus, the _Odéon_ and the _Jardin des Plantes_. But since that time the laurels of historical painting have given him no rest. He turned away from his own age as well as from caricature, and made excursions into all zones and all periods. He visited the Inferno with Dante, lingered in Palestine with the patriarchs of the Old Testament, and ran through the world of wonders with Perrault. The facility of his invention was astonishing, and so too was the aptness with which he seized for illustration on the most vivid scenes from all authors. But he has too much Classicism to be captivating for very long. His compositions dazzle by an appearance of the grand style, but attain only an outward and scenical effect. His figures are academic variations of types originally established by the Greeks and the Cinquescentisti. He forced his talent when he soared into regions where he could not stand without the support of his predecessors. Even in his "Don Quixote" the figures lose in character the larger they become. Everything in Doré is calligraphic, judicious, without individuality, without movement and life, composed in accordance with known rules.