3.—THE FIRST OF MR. PUNCH'S CARTOONS. 1841.
When the Queen came to the throne there was no Punch. He was conceived in circumstances of much mystery, for many have claimed the honour of his paternity. The historian of Punch has devoted a long chapter to this matter of Punch's paternity, and has judicially weighed the evidence for or against each claimant. Mr. Spielmann writes:—
Yet although it was not ... Henry Mayhew who was the actual initiator of Punch, it was unquestionably he to whom the whole credit belongs of having developed Landell's specific idea of a "Charivari," and of its conception in the form it took. Though not the absolute author of its existence, he was certainly the author of its literary and artistic being, and to that degree, as he was wont to claim, he was its founder.
PUNCH'S PENCILLINGS.——Nº IV.
4.—THE FIRST PICTURE BY JOHN LEECH. 1841.
Thus, the opinion of the best authority is that Henry Mayhew and Ebenezer Landells were the real founders of Punch.
Early in 1841, after several discussions between the members of the first staff of Punch, the original prospectus was drawn up by Mark Lemon. The first page of this three-page foolscap document is shown in reduced facsimile in illustration No. 1 of this article. An excellent facsimile, on the original blue foolscap paper, is bound up in a little anonymous pamphlet published in the year 1870, "Mr. Punch: His Origin and Career": but Mr. Bradbury told me that many of the statements about Punch in this pamphlet are erroneous, although the document is an exact copy of the original in Mr. Bradbury's possession, which happens just now to be packed away in a warehouse, and so cannot be photographed.
THE LEGEND OF JAWBRAHIM-HERAUDEE.