hakespeare in Paris before Louis
Philippe and Prince de Joinville--appeared in February of that year; but
he still attended the Dinners and made suggestions for cartoons, of
which twelve were accepted in that year. With his proposal, however, of
the cartoon of "Don Roebucis," which was drawn by Leech (14th March,
1846), his last word was said; and from that time forward his connection
with _Punch_ ceased absolutely. He had given the paper its character and
tone; he had suggested its first great success, the Almanac; he had
supported its transfer, whereby it was firmly established; and he had
cracked its biggest joke--the joke which is universally quoted to this
very day.[33] He died in 1887, at the age of 75, and his old friend
celebrated him in verse, none too correctly, though in the kindliest
manner, ending thus:--

".... Farewell!
The record of the age's course will tell
Of him whose name a double honour bore,
Comrade of _Punch_ and champion of the poor."[34]

[Illustration: J. STIRLING COYNE. (_From a Photograph by Lombard and
Co._)]

There was a fund of Irish humour in Joseph Stirling Coyne. He had proved
it by his plays long before he undertook his share of the co-editorship
which was offered him at that "Edinburgh Castle" meeting where so much
of _Punch's_ present and future was arranged. He was at that time
eight-and-twenty years of age; and although he was dramatic critic of
the "Sunday Times," the drama rather than the press was his natural
field of action--indeed, he wrote no fewer than five-and-fifty pieces of
various kinds, besides plays in collaboration, and was secretary of the
Dramatic Authors' Society, until his death. Nevertheless, he belonged in
a manner to the inner circle of the "_Punch_ set," and frequented the
taverns that were their clubs; and he even went in double harness with
Mark Lemon as co-editor, _vice_ "Alphabet" Bayley, of "The Bude
Light"--an English imitation of "Les Guepes." He was, in fact, a man of
some celebrity who had already gained public reputation beyond the band
of men, brilliant, no doubt, but, for the most part, with their
successes yet to come--so that he was accorded the important role which
he filled with peculiar modesty. He wrote extremely little, but he seems
to have formed some distinct notion of his share in the foundation, for
Edmund Yates records how his father once came home and, throwing the
first number of _Punch_ on the table, said, "Her