Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/358



Peril of Pippins,’ a four-set drama, produced at the Strand Theatre, and published in 1836.  ‘The White Milliner,’ a two-act comedy in prose, produced at Covent Garden, and published in 1841.  ‘Bubbles of the Day,’ a five-act comedy in prose, produced at Covent Garden, and published in 1842.  ‘Cakes and Ale,’ a series of stories.  ‘Gertrude's Cherries,’ a two-act prose comedy, published in 1842.  ‘Jimmy Green's Tour,’ a comic song contributed in 1842 to ‘Tom and Jerry in France,’ a three-act musical entertainment.  ‘The Prisoner of War,’ a two-act comedy, produced at Drury Lane, and published in 1842.  ‘The Catspaw,’ a five-act comedy in prose, published in 1850.  ‘Retired from Business,’ a three-act prose comedy, published in 1851.  ‘Heads of the People,’ a series of sketches, published in 1840–1, edited and in part written by Jerrold.  ‘Other Times,’ leading articles collected from ‘Lloyd's Weekly Paper,’ and published in 1868.  ‘Paul Pry,’ a three-act comedy.  ‘St. Cupid,’ a three-act comedy in prose, published in 1853.  ‘A Heart of Gold,’ a three-act drama, published in 1854.  ‘The Brownrigg Papers,’ a collection of essays and sketches published in 1860. <li> ‘The Barber's Chair and Hedgehog Letters,’ reprinted in 1874 from his ‘Weekly Newspaper.’</ol>

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<section begin="Jerrold, William Blanchard"/>JERROLD, WILLIAM BLANCHARD (1826–1884), journalist and author, born in London on 23 Dec. 1826, was the eldest son of [q. v.] After attending the Brompton grammar school and a school at Boulogne-sur-Mer, he joined the living-model class at the Royal Academy, his easel being next that of William Etty. At sixteen he illustrated a paper by his father, entitled ‘A Gossip at the Reculvers,’ in the ‘Illuminated Magazine’ for July 1843 (i. 143). But soon afterwards defective sight led him to abandon all thought of art as a profession. Devoting himself to literature, he wrote at nineteen in his father's ‘Weekly Newspaper’ a series of articles on emigration, under the title of ‘The Old Woman who lived in a Shoe.’ When the ‘Daily News’ was started in 1846 he contributed to it a succession of papers on ‘The Literature of the Poor.’ In 1848 he published his maiden work, ‘A Story of Social Distinction,’ 12mo (reissued as vol. clxxxvii. of the ‘Parlour Library’); in 1851 a ‘Guide to the first Great International Exhibition,’ 8vo; in 1852 a ‘Guide to the British Museum,’ 18mo; and in 1853 ‘The Threads of a Storm-sail,’ 8vo, an exposition of the advantages of life assurance. After travelling through Norway and Sweden during the autumn of 1853 as the Crystal Palace commissioner, he brought out in 1854 ‘A Brage Beaker with the Swedes, or Notes from the North,’ 8vo. In 1855 he went to Paris to describe the exhibition there for the ‘Daily News,’ the ‘Illustrated London News,’ and the ‘Athenæum.’ Thenceforward until the close of his life he was as much a Parisian as he was a Londoner, spending half of each year in the French and half in the English capital, and writing for English newspapers or in volume form a large number of papers on French politics and society. At Paris he came to know Gustave Doré, with whom he collaborated in several works, and was on good terms with Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie, whose régime he consistently defended.

As a playwright Jerrold achieved some distinction. On 24 March 1851 was produced at the Lyceum Theatre his successful farce ‘Cool as a Cucumber,’ which supplied Charles Mathews the younger, in Plumper, with one of his most delightful impersonations. On 11 April 1859 he brought out at the Lyceum Theatre his drama in two acts of ‘Beau Brummell the King of Calais.’ On 30 Nov. 1859 he produced at the St. James's Theatre his two-act drama the ‘Chatterbox,’ in which Mrs. Frank Matthews vivaciously played the title-rôle. His fourth and last contribution to the stage, a three-act comedy of ‘Cupid in Waiting,’ was performed for the first time at the Royalty Theatre on 17 July 1871.

On the death of his father in June 1857 Jerrold succeeded to the editorship of ‘Lloyd's Weekly London News,’ and worked hard on the paper until his death. In politics he was an ardent liberal, strenuously advocating the interests of the working classes. On the outbreak of the American civil war, he adopted from the first the cause of the north, and several of his leading articles in ‘Lloyd's’ were ordered by the American government, as the contest went on, to be placarded on the walls of New York. One of the last acts of his life was to found the English branch of the International Association for the Assimilation of Copyright Laws, of which he was president, and which led to his obtaining the palmes académiques, with the rank of officer of public instruction from the French <section end="Jerrold, William Blanchard"/>