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CURIOUS AMBIGUITY.

The correspondent of a London paper, writing from Sunderland respecting the report that Lord Howick had been fired at by some ruffian, says, with great naivete, “a gun was certainly pointed at his lordship’s head, but it is generally believed there was nothing in it.”—­We confess we are at a loss to know whether the facetious writer alludes to the gun or the head.

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THE THORNY PREMIER.

A Tory evening paper tells its readers that Sir Robert Peel expects a harassing opposition from the late ministry, but that he is prepared for them on all points.  This reminds us of the defensive expedient of the hedgehog, which, conscious of its weakness, rolls itself into a ball, to be prepared for its assailants on all points.

* * * * *

TO PROFESSORS OF LANGUAGES WHO GIVE LONG CREDIT AND TAKE SMALL PAY.

Mister F. &c. &c. &c.  Bayley is anxious to treat for a course of lessons in the purest Irish.  None but such as will conceal a West Indian patois will be of the slightest use.  For particulars, and cards to view, apply to Mr. Catnach, Music and Marble Warehouse, Seven-dials.

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PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 1.

FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 9, 1841.

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A MANUAL OF DENOUEMENTS.

  “In the king’s name,
  Let fall your swords and daggers.”—­CRITIC.

[Illustration:  A]A melo-drama is a theatrical dose in two or three acts, according to the strength of the constitution of the audience.  Its component parts are a villain, a lover, a heroine, a comic character, and an executioner.  These having simmered and macerated through all manner of events, are strained off together into the last scene; and the effervescence which then ensues is called the denouement, and the denouement is the soul of the drama.

Denouements are of three kinds:—­The natural, the unnatural, and the supernatural.

The “natural” is achieved when no probabilities are violated;—­that is, when the circumstances are such as really might occur—­if we could only bring ourselves to think so—­as, (ex. gr.)

When the villain, being especially desirous to preserve and secrete certain documents of vital importance to himself and to the piece, does, most unaccountably, mislay them in the most conspicuous part of the stage, and straightway they are found by the very last member of the dram. pers. in whose hands he would like to see them.