nd his Waterloo, as it was considered at the time, at the
hands of Alfred Bunn. Bunn was the theatrical and operatic manager and
man of letters--or, rather, as the letters were so insignificant, the
"man of _notes_." As early as 1816 he had produced a volume of verse.
Such verse!--sentimental, washy, and "woolly" to a degree. Three years
later he put his name to 'Tancred: a Tale,' by the author of 'Conrad: a
Tragedy,' lately performed at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham--of which
he was manager for a spell before he came to London--and from time to
time he gave forth other works, such as "The Stage, both Before and
Behind the Curtain," three volumes of rather shrewd "Observations taken
on the Spot" (1840), and "Old England and New England" (1853). He
delivered lectures, too, at the St. James's Theatre, three times a week,
on the History of the Stage, and the Genius and Career of
Shakespeare--lectures which he also delivered in America. His verses,
though vapid balderdash for the most part, were well adapted to music,
and his ballads "When other Lips and other Hearts," "The Light of other
Days," "In Happy Moments Day by Day" (sung in Fitzball's "Maritana"),
enjoyed enormous popularity.

Still, the whole attitude, the whole bearing of the man--his showy,
almost comic, appearance and his grandiloquence of expression--as well
as the tremendous character of the wording of his theatrical bills,
afforded points of attack from the moment that he caught the public eye,
that no caricaturist or humorist could resist. As early as 1832 Jerrold
was lampooning him in his "Punch in London." In the following year
Thackeray held him up to ridicule in his "National Standard," that was
fated to collapse a few months later, and honoured him with immortality
in "Flore and Zephyr;"[23] and soon after, Gilbert a Beckett satirised
him in "Figaro in London." In 1833 "Alfred the Little; or, Management! A
Play as rejected at Drury Lane, by a Star-gazer," was another satire of
distinct severity.

It is not surprising, therefore, that as soon as _Punch_ was started the
wits combined to continue the game which they had already, separately
enjoyed, and which the public presumably found amusing. The other papers
joined in _Punch's_ cry, the "Great Gun" showing pre-eminent zeal in its
stalking of "Signor Bombastes Bunnerini." From the moment of _Punch's_
birth onwards, Bunn was one of his most ludicrous and fairest butts.
When he wrote verse, he was "The