PUNCH, or the LONDON the English comic journal par excellence,'is a weekly magazine of wit, humor, and satire in prose and verse, copiously illustrated by sketches, caricatures; and emblematical devices. It draws its materials as freely from the most exalted spheres of foreign politics as from the provincial nursery; and, deal ing with every side of life, is not less observant of the follies of Belgravia than of the peculiarities of Punch gives due place to Irish bulls and dry Scotch humor, and does its best to present them in the raciest vernacular. Stern in the expo sure of sham and vice, Punch is yet kindly when it makes merry over innocent foibles. Usually a censor morain in the guise of Joe Miller, a genial English Democritus, who laughs and provokes to laughter, Punch at times weeps with those that weep, and jocts remotis, pays a poetical tribute to the memory of the departed great. This wittiest of
serial prints was founded in 1841, and, under the joint editorship of Mark Lemon and Shirley Brooks soon became a household word, while, ere long, its satirical cuts and witty rhymes were admittedly a power in the land. Punch is recognized as an English institution, and in corners of Europe where an Englishman rarely miner, the frequenters of the café may be seen puzzling over the esoteric wit and wisdom of Cockaigne. Their contributions to Punch helped to make Douglas Jerrold (q.v.), Tom Hood (q.v.), Albert Smith, and Thackeray (q.v.) famous; as their illustrations have done for Doyle, Leech, Tenniel, Du Maurier, and Keene. It should be noted 'current our comic paper has done memorable service in purifying the moral standard of current wit in England. For the alternative name see CHADIVARI.