A Selection of Cartoons from Puck

Chapter 58: WITH “HEALTH AND WEALTH AND LUCK TO ALL!” PUCK HAILS HIS READERS GREAT AND SMALL.

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About This Book

This collection gathers satirical pictorial essays and caricatures originally published in a humor magazine, pairing sharp visual exaggeration with allegorical scenes to comment on political and social issues of the late nineteenth century. An introductory essay explains the artist’s German-influenced approach that fuses caricature and cartooning into dramatic parables, and the plates reproduce large, detailed cartoons with accompanying captions and an index to aid interpretation. The volume emphasizes visual wit, topical parody, and the interplay of character drawing and symbolic narrative.

WITH “HEALTH AND WEALTH AND LUCK TO ALL!” PUCK HAILS HIS READERS GREAT AND SMALL.

PUCK, December 5th, 1888.

The necessary ingredients of a Christmas punch are typified in this cartoon by four female forms. The verses that accompanied it in the Christmas Puck for 1888 were as follows:

“These forms divine
Must in one combine
For the Punch that Puck is preparing—
And the dark-eyed form
Is the spirit warm,
With the wild Bacchante bearing.

“The sweet-faced fair
Puts the sugar there,
Like Charity bland and placid.
And Satire’s the jade
Who lends lemon aid
For a dash of the needful acid.

“Calm Wisdom, too,
May water the brew
To temper, not quench, your laughter—
Yet water comes best—
With the keenest zest—
Puck thinks, on the morning after.”