PUNCH, a. well-known English comic weekly, the most famous journal of the kind. The success of Philipon's• Paris Charivari in duced a staff of several Englislunen — some, as Douglas, Jerrold, Thackeray and John Leech, since famous — to organize for the publication of a London Charivari, of which whole pages of text had been set up, when the scheme col lapsed. This undertaking had, however, some indirect influence on tine subsequent Punch. The idea of Punch appears to have been due originally to Ebenezer Landells, a Northumbrian wood engraver and draughtsman, and to have been developed by Henry Mayhew, a brilliant humorist of the time. "Mr. Punch") was the traditional jester of the puppet-show trans formed into "the laughing philosopher and man of letters; the essence of all wit, the concentra tion of all wisdom.* As finally agreed, May hew, Mark Lemon and Stirling Coyne were to be coeditors, Landells was to find drawings and engraving, and Douglas Jerrold and Gilbert a Beckett were to be among the outside con tributors. The first number appeared on 17 July 1841. In two days two editions, each of 5,000 copies, were sold out. After some early vicissitudes, Punch became an English institu tion. A list of its writers and artists includes
many famous names besides the jovial Lemon and the caustic Jerrold; Thackeray, "Tom" Hood, Charles Lever, "Tom" Taylor, Cuthbert Bede, Horace Smith, Shirley Brooks, F. C. Burnand, Artemas Ward, G. A. Sala, H. W. Lucy, John Leech, H. K. Browne ("Phiz"), Sir John Tenniel, George Du Maurier, Stacy Marks, Sir John Millais, Linley Sambourne and others. The editors have been Mark Lemon, 1841-70; Shirley Brooks 1870-74; "Tom" Tay lor, 1874-80; Sir F. C. Burnand, 1880-1906; and Owen Seaman, 1906—. Punch has done much to lam+ out of court various shams, fads, affectations and forms of ostentation. In British politics it has remained wholly free from party bias. The present application of the word originated with Punch, the occasion being the first great exhibition of cartoons for the Houses of Parliament (July 1843), when Mr. Punch appeared with a rival series of sarcastic designs. Consult Spielman, History of "Punch* ) (1:!5) ; 'An Even ing with Punch> (1895), selections from the first 50 years; a Becicett, A. W., a Bec ketts of Punch) (1903).