Puck, 1878-01-16 · page 7 of 16
Puck — January 16, 1878 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This four-panel satirical cartoon mocks various human professions and character flaws through animal caricatures engaging in absurd conversations. Panel 1 depicts two creatures by water; Panel 2 shows a figure complaining about being forced into music despite abominating it—likely satirizing forced career choices or nepotism in 19th-century professions. Panel 3 features a character lamenting that a "spider-waisted, useless thing" called fidelity weakens human intellect—mocking romantic sentimentality as foolish. Panel 4 presents someone claiming insect powder alone suffices for happiness, dismissing a "miserable purp" as unworthy of money—satirizing materialism and shallow values. The title "Quodlibet" (a miscellaneous collection) suggests these are disconnected social criticisms unified by grotesque animal-human hybrids commenting on Victorian society's pretensions and contradictions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
|= PUCK. ANOTHER QUADRUPEDAL QUODLIBET. . iE Riss . “This way, my dear friend, the water is lovely to-day.” 2. ‘Now I should like to know what in the world I have ever * done to be doomed to such a profession—I who abominate music!” 3- “When I look at such a spider-waisted, useless thing as that, 4. “‘A handful of insect powder is all I need to make me happy, and think that such a creature is called an emblem of fidelity, I weaken and that miserable purp is too mean to lend me the money.” on the human intellect.” :