His hand so quick to give, his tongue to praise.

"And if his acts, affections, works, and ways
Stamp not upon the man the cynic's sneer,
From life to death, oh, public, turn your gaze--
The last scene of a cynical career!

"Those uninvited crowds, this hush that lies,
Unbroken, till the solemn words of prayer
From many hundred reverent voices rise
Into the sunny stillness of the air.

"These tears, in eyes but little used to tears,
Those sobs, from manly lips, hard set and grim,
Of friends, to whom his life lay bare for years,
Of strangers, who but knew his books, not him."

FOOTNOTES:

[40] The inclusion of the article entitled "A Plea for Plush," in the
volume of "Contributions to _Punch_" in "Complete Works," published by
Smith, Elder & Co., is a mistake. The article in question was by
Thackeray's friend, "Jacob Omnium."

[41] Mr. Frederick Mullet Evans.

CHAPTER XV.

_PUNCH'S_ WRITERS: 1843-51.

Horace Mayhew--"The Wicked Old Marquis"--A Birthday Ode--R. B.
Peake--Thomas Hood--"The Song of the Shirt"--Its Origin--Its Effect
in the Country--Its Authorship Claimed by Others--Translated
throughout Europe--A Missing Verse--Hood Compared with
Jerrold--"Reflections on New Year's Day"--Dr. E. V. Kenealy--J. W.
Ferguson--Charles Lever--Laman Blanchard--Tom Taylor--Passed over
by Shirley Brooks--Taylor's Critics--Mr. Coventry Patmore--"Jacob
Omnium"--Tennyson _v._ Bulwer Lytton--Horace Smith--"Rob Roy"
Macgregor--Mr. Henry Silver--Introduces Charles Keene--His Literary
Work--Service to Leech--Retirement--Mr. Sutherland Edwards--Charles
Dickens and _Punch_--Sothern Earns his Dinner--Reconciliation of
Dickens and Mark Lemon--J. L. Hannay--Cuthbert Bede.

[Illustration: HORACE MAYHEW.
(_From a Photograph by Bassano._)]

_Punch_ had been running about eight months when, in Wills's words, "a
handsome young student returned from Germany and was heartily welcomed
by his brother, Mr. Henry Mayhew, and then by the rest of the
fraternity." This was at the particular _Punch_ meeting at which Mr.
Hamerton was present. Horace Mayhew's diploma joke consisted, I believe,
of "Questions addressees au grand concours aux eleves d'Anglais, du
College St. Badaud dans le Departement de la Haute Cockaigne" (Vol. III.
p. 89). Regular occupation was forthwith found for him as sub-editor,
his duties being to collect the cuts fro