Two years earlier, Arnold had been appointed Senior Inspector of Schools, and there seems little doubt that the tall and lean man with hat and umbrella in hand and his back to us is Senior Inspector Matthew Arnold.

National Schoolmaster (going round with Government Inspector). "Wilkins, how do you bring Shillings into Pence?"

Pupil. "Please, Sir, 'takes it round to the Public-'Ouse, Sir!!"

Although Punch's judgment seems to be that Arnold's poem is "balder-dash" and deserving parody, the lyrics are clearly aimed less at Arnold the poet than at Arnold the social critic. Cast as a weeping dandy, Arnold is caricatured as one whose Culture and Anarchy and religious writings, while containing some "pretty twangling," are too sombre and cold to have any realistic influence on the "merry crew" of Philistia.

As one of Victorian England's most popular spokesmen for the Philistine "merry crew," Punch did not often take kindly to Arnold's outspoken anti-Philistinism. One might expect, therefore, to find the magazine poking occasional barbs at "Our Bard." However, since Punch itself was inclined to "pooh-pooh all the Parties," the "dull British P.," and the Church's shibboleths, there may be just a touch of Arnoldian sympathy for the weeping dandy who pipes his plaintive song over the plodding Philistine on his slow mule. Punch's parody is hardly gentle, but there is enough hinting at clever ambiguity to leave one wondering who is making the ass of whom.

Arnold was a fairly frequent visitor to the pages of Punch, seldom, however, as clearly visible as in the "Fancy Portrait" and the Necklong" parody. During the 1860s and 1870s, for example, Charles Keene did a series of cartoons depicting a Government School Inspector making his rounds of classrooms. In one, the Inspector, with increasing anger and frustration, asks the children, "Who signed Magna Charta?!!" Finally a slightly-built Dickensian "Scapegrace" nervously answers, "Please, Sir, 'Twasn't me, Sir!!" Another Keene cartoon, from the February 15, 1873 Punch, shows the Inspector in another situation, the caption for which tells the story.

Inspector (who notices a lackwardness in History). "Who signed Magna Charta?" Inspector (more urgently). "Who signed Magna Charta?" (No answer.)

Inspector (angrily). "Who signed Magna Charta!!?"

Scapegrace (thinking matters are beginning to look serious).

"Please, Sir, 'twasn't me, Sir!!?"

Two years earlier, Arnold had been appointed Senior Inspector of Schools, and there seems little doubt that the tall and lean man with hat and umbrella in hand and his back to us is Senior Inspector Matthew Arnold.

National Schoolmaster (going round with Government Inspector). "Wilkins, how do you bring Shillings into Pence?"

Pupil. "Please, Sir, 'takes it round to the Public-'Ouse, Sir!!"

Even if Arnold, or a clear likeness of him, did not appear, Punch took frequent delight in "Out-Matthewing Arnold," as the next cartoon illustrates:

Sir Pompey Bedell. "And pray then, Mr. Grigsby, by what Scale do you rank the different Classes that make up the population of England?"

Mr. Grigsby. "Well, first of all, I put those who live by the exercise of an Intellectual Profession, like myself." (G. is a Briefless Barrister who writes Comic Songs.) "Next to these I place the Aristocracy, on account of their 'pooty manners.' Then comes the Working-Man, who earns his Bread by the Sweat of his Brow. After him (a good long way, of course), the Criminal Classes; and, last of all, the Middle Class, of which you, Sir Pompey, are at once a Pillar and an Ornament. Tata!"

[Digs Sir Pompey in the ribs, and skedaddles.

At times, Punch would simply take advantage of the currency of Arnoldian phrases to have good-natured fun with their phrasecoining "Civic Monarch." The following is from the issue of May 30, 1874:

SWEETNESS AND LIGHT IN THE CITY

Could there be a more gallant and graceful compliment than the Lord Mayor paid on Monday, when the Czar lunched in Guildhall, and his Lordship proposed the health of the Royal Family? -

"Of the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh he could not say more than that they were sweetness and light personified."

Which nobody can deny. Said not the Civic Monarch well, MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD? Who but a Philistine as big as GOLIATH can be capable of asking which of the two Royal Ladies is Sweetness and which is Light? Of course the Lord Mayor meant to say that each of them was Sweetness and Light personified in her own person. So the PRINCESS OF WALES is Sweetness, and the DUCHESS OF EDINBURGH is Light; and the PRINCESS OF WALES is Light, and the DUCHESS OF EDINBURGH is Sweetness, and each, by herself, is Sweetness and Light and Light and Sweetness; therefore, they twain are Sweetness and Light jointly and severally, separately and both together. . .

The light-hearted playfulness goes on, at the Lord Mayor's expense. Arnold would likely have smiled, as he would also at another Punch note on the title of another of his poems.

Is MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD an extreme Land-Leaguer? asks a Correspondent who, having heard the title of one of his poems read out, viz., 'Resignation, To Foster,'--wouldn't wait for the remainder. The question is natural: only on referring to the book we found that 'Forster' is spelt 'Fausta.'2

Punch was not the only periodical to provide Victorian readers with parodies, satires, and caricatures of their leading citizens. An excellent series of cartoon caricatures, for example, appeared during 1872 in Once a Week, a clever weekly published by Bradbury and Evans after they split with Charles Dickens. Among the forty or more cartoons, mostly of prominent literary figures and drawn by Frederick Waddy (as announced in the January 13, 1872 issue), was a marvelous one of Arnold as an acrobat on a flying trapeze.