A hundred years ago to the very day was JOHN LEECH born. Mr. Punch
came into the world on July 17th, 1841, and was thus twenty-four years
younger. But in spite of any disparity in age the two great men were
made for each other. JOHN LEECH without Mr. Punch would still have
spread delight, for did he not illustrate those _Handley Cross_ novels
which his friend THACKERAY said he would rather have written than any
of his own books? But to think of Mr. Punch without JOHN LEECH is,
as the Irishman said, unthinkable. From the third volume, when LEECH
got really into his stride, until his lamented early death in 1864,
LEECH'S genius was at the service of his young friend: his quick
perceptive kindly eyes ever vigilant for humorous incident, his
ears alert for humorous sayings, and his hand translating all into
pictorial drama and by a sure and benign instinct seizing always upon
the happiest moment.
His three monumental volumes called _Pictures of Life and Character_
constitute a truer history of the English people in the middle of
the last century than any author could have composed: history made
gay with laughter, but history none the less. And this leaves out of
account altogether the artist's work as a cartoonist, where he often
exceeded the duty of the historian, and not only recorded the course
of events but actually influenced it.
To influence the course of events was however far from being this
simple gentleman's ambition. What he chiefly wished was to enable
others to share his own enjoyment in the fun and foibles of a world
in which it is better to be cheerful than sad, and, in the process of
passing on his amusement, to earn a sufficient livelihood to enable
him to pay his way and now and then be free to follow the hounds.
All these praises he would probably wish unsaid, so modest and
unassuming was he. Let us therefore stop and merely draw attention to
the two pages of his drawings which follow, each of which shows JOHN
LEECH in the light of a prophet.
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