[Ads-l] Request Curate's Egg joke in "Judy, or the London Serio-Comic Journal" circa 1895

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks to Stephen G. who sent me information about two valuable
citations in "Judy". I plan to write a QI article in the coming days.
The one-panel comic about the curate's egg appeared in the May 22,
1895 issue, and on November 20, 1895 the editors of "Judy" complained
about the plagiarism performed by "Punch". Here is the citation
information for the one-panel comic:

Date: 1895 May 22
Periodical: Judy: The London Serio-Comic Journal
Description: Single-panel comic showing a Bishop and Curate at a breakfast table
Quote Page 245
Publisher Location: London, England
Database: Gale 19th Century UK Periodicals

[Begin excerpt]
SCENE—BISHOP’S BREAKFAST TABLE.
Bishop (to timid Curate on a visit). DEAR ME, I'M AFRAID YOUR EGG'S NOT GOOD!
Timid Curate. OH, YES, MY LORD, REALLY-ER-SOME PARTS OF IT ARE VERY GOOD.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Apr 3, 2019 at 8:49 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The curate's egg joke was discussed on this list back in 2018. The
> joke is usually traced back to a cartoon published in the humor
> magazine "Punch" on November 9, 1895, e.g., see this Wikipedia entry:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate%27s_egg
>
> However, (back in 2018) I located evidence that a very similar joke
> appeared in "Judy, or the London Serio-Comic Journal" in May 1895 or
> earlier based on the "Huddersfield Chronicle" citation given below
> (and other citations). It seems that the Google Books and HathiTrust
> databases do not have the issue of "Judy" containing the joke. I have
> not been able to find a match in either database.
>
> The Gale 19th Century UK Periodicals database apparently does contain
> an extensive run of "Judy". If you have access to that database would
> you please search for the Curate's egg joke, i.e., look for some
> phrases from the citation below.
>
> Date: 21 May 1895
> Newspaper: Huddersfield Chronicle
> Newspaper Location: Yorkshire, England
> Article: CUTTINGS FROM "JUDY"
> Quote Page 4, Column 4
> Database: British Newspaper Archive
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Scene: Bishop's breakfast table.— Bishop (to timid curate on a visit):
> Dear me, I'm afraid your egg's not good. Timid Curate: Oh, yes, my
> lord, really—er—some parts of it are very good.
> [End excerpt]
>
> As noted previously, a precursor to the Curate's egg joke was
> circulating by 1875.
>
> Date: July 26, 1875
> Periodical: The Academy
> Start Page 651, Quote Page 652, Column 2
> Book Review of: "Our Bishops and Deans" by the Rev. F. Arnold (late of
> Christ Church Oxford)
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Without pledging our credence, we could afford a grin to the story of
> the "young Levite" who at a bishop's breakfast-table, was so 'umble as
> to decline the replacement of a bad egg by a good one with a "No thank
> you, my Lord, it's good enough for me;" . . .
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson O'Toole
> Quote Investigator

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