see .. 2 
1826.] 
Punch and Judy. 263 
For wit and wisdom meet in Punch :—his wit 
Is ever. rich in countless whimsicalities, 
Ever at hand,,and for his audience fit, 
And also quite devoid of personalities ; 
Gives no. offence, no pain, nor seeks to hit 
A friend, that most uncommon of all qualities ! 
His wisdom smiles.at all the woes that smite us; 
A sage is Punch, but not like Heraclitus ! 
While lived and ruled Napoleon, Punch laughed still : 
When farmers groaned, Punch laughed amid their laments: 
Mid riots and distress he laughed his fill; 
He laughed alike in cash or paper-payments: 
And let them pass, or not, the Popish bill, 
Yet will he laugh, and shake his motley raiments ; 
Gay, not with cynic or sardonic smile, 
But happy mirth, that knows :nor pride nor guile. 
Punch ! I would back thee freely for the sum 
Which from this poem I expect to gain, 
No matter what—it is not quite a plum— 
More to engage the fancy, more enchain 
The eyes, ears, souls, of such as near thee come, 
Than any sage in learning’s awful train, 
That e’er by writing systems tired his wrist, 
Statesman, divine, or grave economist. 
What were the wonders, too, by Orpheus done, 
Or old Amphion, when compared with thee ? 
What, though the Theban walls obeyed the one, 
And to his music danced each forest tree, 
And Orpheus moved the cold heart of a stone, 
And might from hell have brought Eurydice, 
But he repented e’er she rose half way, 
And bade her, looking back, with Pluto stay.* 
But thou, oh thou, canst bid the heart of man 
Forget, or change its nature for a while ; 
Canst throw glad beams o’er cheeks with sorrow wan, 
And cheat the cloudiest brow into a smile, 
Black melancholy flies thy magic span, 
And angry passions half discharge their bile. 
Thou canst expand the close-pent mind, and clear 
Of mists and fogs our human atmosphere. 
For when the soul is sick, or mind is moody, 
What is there better to repair the shock, 
Where more piquant in Kitchener’s whole study, 
What more enlivening in champaigne or hock, 
Than these same drolleries of Punch and Judy, 
This still unchanged yet still inspiring stock 
Of jokes, both practical and intellectual,— 
Never, like thine, poor punster, ineffectual. 
SS hv 
* Such is the story, rightly understood, 
Though Virgil and his masters told the thing, 
As if poor Orpheus, in a loye-sick mood, 
Swerved from th’ injunctions of the gloomy king,. . 
But manuscripts indisputably good, 
Besides strong arguments which we could bring, — 
Shew, that in tracing to another source 
Th’ unlucky look, we take the proper course. Bougersdickius. 
