Puck, 1877-12-26 · page 6 of 16
Puck — December 26, 1877 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Puck page presents four anthropomorphic animal vignettes, each illustrating a sardonic observation about human nature and society: 1. **Imprisoned appetite**: Mice outside a cage jest about lost appetites and cheese—likely satirizing how deprivation or constraint affects desire. 2. **Philosophical resignation**: Large animals discuss unappreciated comforts in life, suggesting we only value things after losing them—a commentary on human ingratitude. 3. **Luck and fortune**: A character claims another's "luck beats anything," mocking how people attribute success to chance rather than merit. 4. **Concealers of thought**: A figure with a parrot comments on an old saying about language concealing thought, suggesting hypocrisy or deception in communication. The "quodlibet" (medieval Latin for "whatever") title suggests these are loosely connected observations on universal human follies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
6 PUCK. A QUADRUPEDAL QUODLIBET. 1. “If you have lost your appetite, you might at least hand us out that bit of cheese.” 3. “That fellow’s luck beats anything.” guage is used to conceal thought.” 2. ‘We can’t complain of our physical comforts, but what we need is intellectual amusement.” “Ah, my dear sir, it’s the way of the world; we are not appreciated until after we are dead.” 4. “The old saying certainly does apply to my friend Polly. Lan- comichooks.qom