the period of representation, and whether it has not in part arisen from inability to satisfy it, is not for us to explain. We confine ourselves to an endeavour in some degree, to supply the deficiency.
The contrast between the neglect Mr. Punch has experienced, and the industry employed in collecting particulars relating to other performers of far less reputation, is remarkable. If an actor, on any of our public stages, attain only a moderate degree of eminence, hundreds are on the alert to glean the minutest particulars of his "birth, parentage, and education, life, character, and behaviour;" and thousands look out for them with eagerness in all the newspapers and periodicals of the day. Punch has never been famæ petitor:
"That last distemper of the sober brain,"[1]- ↑ How this unhappy thought has run the gauntlet of authorship from the time of Simplicius (Comm. ad Epict. xlviii.) Δίο χαι εσχατος, λεγετχι των παδων, &c. Tacitus has it thus; "Etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur." (Hist. Lib. iv.) Montaigne places the love of glory among the humeurs desraisonnables of men, and adds, "Les philosophes mêmes se defacent plus tard, et plus envis, de cette-cy que de nulle autre."
(Essays, L. i. c. 41.) Ben Jonson says the same thing:
"Ambition—is the last affection
A high mind can put off."—(Catiline, Act 3, Sc. 2.)It is also found in Massinger:
"Though desire of fame be the last weakness
Wise men put off.—(A Very Woman, Act 5, Sc. 4.)And Owen Feltham follows Tacitus very closely: "Desire of glory is the last garment that even wise men lay aside."—(Resolves, p. 15.)
