Punch, or the London Charivari Vol. 107 July 7, 1894 by Various

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by Various

PREFACE

Scene—Mr. Punch's Sanctum at "the Season of the Year." Enter Sir Roger de Coverley and Dr. Syntax.

"You may not recognise me, Mr. Punch?" quoth the old Knight, with stately modesty.

"Not recognise Sir Roger de Coverley?" rejoined Mr. Punch, urbanely. "Why, even disguised as a Saracen's Head—ha! ha! ha!—I should know those well-loved lineaments."

"I perceive, indeed," said the Knight, with scarcely-veiled complacency, "that you have perused my friend Atticus-Addison's all-too flattering account of me and my several adventures."

"I know my Spectator by heart," replied Mr. Punch. "Nor," added he, turning to the quaint, black-vestured, bob-wigged figure at Sir Roger's elbow, "are Dr. Syntax's Tours unfamiliar to my memory. Like yourself, I can say—

'You well know what my pen can do,

And I employ my pencil too.

I ride, and write, and sketch, and print,

And thus create a real mint;

I prose it here, I verse it there,

And picturesque it everywhere.'"

"Marvellous man!" cried Dr. Syntax, lifting his eyebrows until they almost met the downward curve of his tilted wig.

"Toby," cried Mr. Punch, "call for clean pipes, a roll of the best Virginia, a dish of coffee, wax candles, and the Supplement (otherwise my Christmas Number). Tell them, Tobias, to follow with a bowl of steaming punch—my own particular merum nectar—and Sir Roger shall see what I have forgotten of his story, his tastes, and the duties of Amphitryon!"

In two minutes the Illustrious Trio were "making the centuries meet" under the benignly blending influences of Good Tobacco, Sound Tipple, and Cheery Talk.

"And how fares 'Our Village' (to quote Miss Mitford) in these revolutionary days?" queried Dr. Syntax.

Mr. Punch smiled, and promptly quoted:—

"'And liquor that was brew'd at home

Among the rest was seen to foam.

The Doctor drank, the Doctor ate,

Well pleased to find so fair a treat.

Then to his pipe he kindly took,

And, with a condescending look,

Call'd on his good Host to relate

What was the Village's new state.'"

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