ustration: THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S REVENGE.

(_Drawn by George du Maurier._)]

_Punch_ was born, so to speak, upon the stage, between the four canvas
walls of his own and Judy's show. His heart and soul were with and of
the drama, and plays have rained from the prolific pens of his literary
Staff. Many of his contributors acted in public--a few professionally,
most of them as amateurs--and more than one has linked his life with a
lady who had trodden the stage or concert platform. From the first he
proclaimed that Music and the Drama were to be amongst the most
prominent features of the work; and to that declaration he has ever
since faithfully adhered. As a record of the London stage, the pages of
_Punch_ are fairly complete; as a dramatist he has, through the members
of his Staff, been prolific, and on the whole highly successful; as an
actor he has at least enjoyed himself; and just as Falstaff was the
cause of wit in others, he has unwittingly served the pirates of the
stage, and to better purpose, too, than they deserved.

With "readings," lectures, and "entertainments," the members of
_Punch's_ Staff have often come strikingly before the public; so much
so, indeed, that they have stepped from their studies and studios on to
the platform as by a natural transition. Albert Smith's "Overland Mail"
and "The Ascent of Mont Blanc," with the extraordinary success that
attended them, doubtless set the fashion to the band of men who were
always, in one sense at least, before the public. Thackeray's "Four
Georges" and the "English Humorists" raised the standard of quality at
once; and to that standard more than one of his contemporaries and
successors has aimed at attaining, even though they never hoped to
succeed. Every Editor of _Punch_--except perhaps Stirling
Coyne--delivered such lectures in his day. Henry Mayhew took for his
subject that of which he had a complete mastery, "London Labour and
London Poor." Mark Lemon, whose knowledge of the metropolis was probably
even more extensive and peculiar than Sam Weller's own, lectured on it
in "About London," and gave recitals of "Falstaff" with a certain
measure of success. Shirley Brooks spoke, as he was so well qualified to
do, on "The Houses of Parliament;" and discourses were similarly
delivered by Tom Taylor. Mr. Burnand's bright "Happy Thoughts" readings
could be forgotten by none that heard them. James Hannay, laying humour
aside, lectured on the more serious aspects of l