As regards the sudden change of title to _Punch_--a change made, as we
see from the facsimile, while Mark Lemon was in the very act of writing
the title--Mr. Spielmann has recorded that there are as many versions
as to the origin of _Punch's_ name as of the origin of the periodical
itself.
Hodder declares that it was Mayhew's sudden inspiration. Last
asserted that when "somebody" at the _Edinburgh Castle_ meeting
spoke of the paper, like a good mixture of punch, being nothing
without Lemon, Mayhew caught at the idea and cried, "A capital
idea! We'll call it _Punch_!"
There have been many other claimants to the distinction of having
thought of the title "Punch," which is certainly an infinitely better
title than "Funny Dogs with Comic Tales" and much better than "The
Funny Dogs," which I suggest may have been the title Mark Lemon began
to write, judging from the place on the paper (see No. 1), where he
began with the words, "The Fun ----"; for if he had intended to write
the longer title, "The Funny Dogs with Comic Tales," he must have
run the last part of this long title too far to the right of his
paper to be consistent with the symmetrical position given to his
other headings, etc., on the sheet of foolscap: a practised writer
unconsciously allows enough space for the symmetrical setting out of
his headlines, etc., and that Mark Lemon was a specially practised
writer is very clearly shown by inspection of this interesting
facsimile.
[Illustration: THE PRINCE OF WALES.--HIS FUTURE TIMES.
A private letter from Hanover states that, precisely at twelve minutes
to eleven in the morning on the ninth of the present November, his
majesty King ERNEST was suddenly attacked by a violent fit of blue
devils. All the court doctors were immediately summoned, and as
immediately dismissed, by His Majesty, who sent for the Wizard of the
North (recently appointed royal astrologer), to divine the mysterious
cause of this so sudden melancholy. In a trice the mystery was
solved--Queen Victoria "was happily delivered of a Prince!" His Majesty
was immediately assisted to his chamber--put to bed--the curtains
drawn--all the royal household ordered to wear list slippers--the one
knocker to the palace was carefully tied up--and (on the departure of
our courier) half a load of straw was already deposited beneath the
window of the royal chamber. The sentinels on duty were prohibited from
even sneezing, under pain of death, and all things in and about the
palace, to use a brand new simile, were silent as the grave!
"Whilst there was only the Princess Royal there were many hopes.
There was hope from severe teething--hope from measles--hope from
hooping-cough--but with the addition of a Prince of Wales, the hopes
of Hanover are below par." But we pause. We will no further invade the
sanctity of the sorrows of a king; merely observing, that what makes
his Majesty very savage, makes hundreds of thousands of Englishmen
mighty glad. There are now two cradles between the Crown of England and
the White Horse of Hanover.
We have a Prince of Wales! Whilst, however, England is throwing up its
million caps in rapture at the advent, let it not be forgotten to whom
we owe the royal baby. In the clamorousness of our joy the fact would
have escaped us, had we not received a letter from Colonel SIBTHORP,
who assures us that we owe a Prince of Wales entirely to the present
cabinet; had the Whigs remained in office, the infant would inevitably
have been a girl.