us a real impression of the Society in which he moved. His ability to
satirise society while still leaving it its dignity is unique. It may be
said to be his distinctive contribution to the art of graphic satire.
It gave to the Anglo-Saxon school its present-day characteristic,
putting upon one of the very lightest forms of art the stamp of a noble
time. The point is that whilst du Maurier thus deferred to the dignity
of human nature he remained a satirist, not a humorist merely, as was
Keene.

[Illustration]




II

THE ART OF DU MAURIER

§ 1


If we wish to estimate the art of du Maurier at its full worth we must
try and imagine _Punch_ from 1863 without this art, and try for a moment
to conceive the difference this absence would make to our own present
knowledge of the Victorians; also to the picture always entertained of
England abroad.

If we are to believe du Maurier's art England is a petticoat-governed
country. The men in his pictures are often made to recede into the
background of Victorian ornament merely as ornaments themselves. As for