Puck, 1878-03-13 · page 10 of 20
Puck — March 13, 1878 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This twelve-panel comic strip satirizes **M. Diogène Durandeau**, a French vineyard proprietor who retreats to his wine cellar seeking philosophical visions. The narrative mocks the cliché that "truth lies at the bottom of a barrel" — literally, through wine consumption. The satire traces Durandeau's descent: isolated meditation in his cellar, increasingly heavy drinking, his wife's concerned visits offering consolation (which he interprets as seeking wine), his neighbors buying his wine at low prices, and eventual social disgrace and eviction from Pimparnels's courtyard. The joke targets both drunkenness and pretentious philosophy — the notion that intoxication produces wisdom is thoroughly debunked through comedic consequences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PUCK. TRUTH AT THE BOTTOM OF A BARREL. 1. A philoxera has penetrated the brain of 2. One day, being more retired than usual, 3. He goes to seek it. Having got there M. Diogéne Durandeau, the proprietor of the his distinguished namesake appears to him in a he'stays, and the spirits of wine keep him fresh vineyard Durandeau, which causes strange vision, and advises him to seek for truth at the while his family mourn him as one dead. visions whenever he indulges himself, retired in bottom of his barrel. the solitude of his wine-cellar. 4. After a month of retirement he awakens, 5- His wife appears. She is in widow's 6. After her departure he meditates upon He hears a step approaching, and resolves to weeds. She is seeking a drop of consolation. the situation, and tries to determine whether lie still and await developments. She is in fact seeking several drops. he should deplore the depravity of his wife or congratulate himself upon the amount of con- jugal devotion manifestec by her thirst... He is interrupted by the arrival of servants, who make free with the casks. 7. Which it appears theyare inthe habitof 8. Ina short time he finds himself deposited 9. ‘That very evening being the occasion of selling to his neighbor Pimparnel at a ruinous in Pimparnel’s court-yard, where even his own a vintage festival, Pimparnel gives a blow-out. price. dog refuses to recognize him. 10. Madame Durandeau is one of the guests 11, He observes somewhat more —— —— 12. The original Diogenes, when he heard —a welcome guest, as it were. So Durandeau He explodes! of this, remarked—‘ Bottom facts, even in a observes—a silent spectator in the wine-cask. wine-barrel, are not always desirable.” comicbooks.com