Cockney humour smacks, of course, of the town and makes up in smartness
and shrewdness what it lacks in mellowness. The Cockney is as a rule a
conscious humorist; you laugh _with_ him very often, whereas you nearly
always laugh _at_ the rustic humorist.
George Du Maurier concerned himself a good deal with Cockney character,
but he was not in sympathy with the Cockney; generally he had an obvious
contempt for him, and most of his jokes turn on the dropped H, the
mispronounced word, and educational deficiencies. He portrays some of
the Cockney's superficial characteristics; he despises him too much to
be able to get at the heart of him and reveal his character.
Take Phil May's pictures and jokes, and the difference is at once
apparent. He was fully alive to the Cockney's deficiencies of manner and
culture; now and then he quite genially and without the least touch of
scorn or self-complacency makes fun of them; but he really gives you the
Cockney character. Take, for instance, such a picture as his "Politics
and Gallantry," his "I say, 'Arry, don't we look frights!" his "Informal
Introduction"--(the self-consciousness of the girl's expression, and the
blatant pride of the man's)--here, and in almost any of his drawings you
turn to, you have the absolutely natural Cockney; his types are full of
character and so true and free from condescension that not only are we
moved irresistibly to laugh at them, but the Cockney himself would be
the first to recognise their truth and to laugh joyously at them too. We
may say pretty much the same of Charles Keene, of Mr. Raven-Hill, of Mr.
Bernard Partridge, and of others of the "Punch" artists represented
here, who illustrate the essential Cockney character, and do not go on
the easy assumption that dropped H's and mispronounced words and
aggressive vulgarity are the beginning and the end of it.
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