PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 1.



FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 9, 1841.

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A MANUAL OF DENOUEMENTS.

"In the king's name,
Let fall your swords and daggers."--CRITIC.

[Illustration: A]A melo-drama is a theatrical dose in two or three acts,
according to the strength of the constitution of the audience. Its
component parts are a villain, a lover, a heroine, a comic character, and
an executioner. These having simmered and macerated through all manner of
events, are strained off together into the last scene; and the
effervescence which then ensues is called the _dénouement_, and the
_dénouement_ is the soul of the drama.

_Dénouements_ are of three kinds:--The natural, the unnatural, and the
supernatural.

The "natural" is achieved when no probabilities are violated;--that is,
when the circumstances are such as really might occur--if we could only
bring ourselves to think so--as, (_ex. gr._)