Beneath this cold marble the “Wanderer” lies,
Here shall she rest ’till “the Heavens be no more,”
’Till the trumpet shall sound, and the Dead shall arise,
Then the perjurer unmask’d will his sentence deplore.
Ah! what will avail then? Pomp, Titles, and Birth,
Those empty distinctions all levell’d will be,
For the King shall be judg’d with the poor of the earth,
And perhaps, the poor man will be greater than he.
Until that day we leave Caroline’s wrongs,
Meantime, may “Repentance” her foes overtake;
O grant it, kind POWER, to whom alone it belongs.
AMEN. Here an end of this Hist’ry we make.
Quod. JAS. C-T-N-H, Dec. 10th, 1821.
In the early part of the year 1821, the British public were informed through the then existing usual advertising mediums that there was about to be published, in monthly parts, “Pierce Egan’s Life in London; or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis. Embellished with Scenes from Real Life, designed and etched by I. R. and G. Cruikshank, and enriched with numerous original designs on wood by the same Artists.”
And on the 15th of July, the first number, price one shilling, was published by Messrs. Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, of Paternoster Row. This sample, or first instalment, of the entire work was quite enough for society to judge by. It took both town and country by storm. It was found to be the exact thing in literature that the readers of those days wanted. Edition after edition was called for—and supplied, as fast as the illustrations could be got away from the small army of women and children who were colouring them. With the appearance of numbers two and three, the demand increased, and a revolution in our literature, in our drama, and even in our nomenclature began to develope itself. All the announcements from Paternoster Row were of books, great and small, depicting life in London; dramatists at once turned their attention to the same subject, and tailors, bootmakers, and hatters, recommended nothing but Corinthian shapes, and Tom and Jerry patterns.[7]
Tom and Jerry.
“Of Life in London, Tom, Jerry and Logic I sing.”
To the Strand then I toddled—the mob was great—
My watch I found gone—pockets undone:
I fretted at first, and rail’d against fate,
For I paid well to see “Life in London.”
As may be readily conceived; the stage soon claimed “Tom and Jerry.” The first drama founded upon the work was from the pen of Mr. Barrymore, and produced—“in hot haste,” at the Royal Amphitheatre, on Monday, Sept. 17, 1821. The second dramatic version was written for the Olympic Theatre, by Charles Dibden, and first played on Monday, Nov. 12, 1821.