Chapter 6

_PUNCH'S_ JOKES--THEIR ORIGIN, PEDIGREE, AND APPROPRIATION.

"The Unknown Man"--Jokes from Scotland--"Bang went Saxpence"--"Advice to Persons about to Marry"--Claimants and True Authorship--Origin of some of _Punch's_ Jokes and Pictures--Contributors of Witty Things--A Grim Coincidence--"I Used Your Soap Two Years Ago"--Charles Keene Offended--The Serjeant-at-Arms and Mr. Furniss's Beetle--Mr. Birket Foster and Mr. Andrew Tuer--Plagiarism and Repetition--The Seamy Side of Joke-editing--_Punch_ Invokes the Law--Rape of Mrs. Caudle--_Sturm und Drang_--Plagiarism or Coincidence?--Anticipations of the "Puppet-Show" and "The Arrow"--Of Joe Miller--And Others--_Punch-baiting_--Impossibility of Joke-identification--Repetitions and Improvements 138