Description

Meet Mr Punch, who with Chronos (Time) was taught about labour unrest in 1890 through the allegorical figure of Briareus. The editor of the satirical magazine Punch at the time was Francis Cowley Burnand, the author of many classical burlesques, who enjoyed exploring contemporary politics through the lens of classical mythology.

The special Christmas edition of 1890, after a year of industrial unrest in Bristol and especially amongst dock and mine workers, features a long story, mixing poetry and prose.  Mr Punch takes Chronos on a tour of all the planets to talk to their resident deities about the contemporary British scene.  Their first stop is Saturn, a curmudgeonly conservative who still harks back to a longlost Saturnian age of social order. He resents the current activities of the Titans called Bad-Temper and Blunder, who have ‘corrupted our morals, / And taught us “Boycotting,” and “Strikes,” and “Lock-outs,” and all sorts of mad quarrels.’

With the help of this cartoon, Saturn says that a new Titanomachy—fight between Zeus/Jove and the Titans—is taking place to settle the pressing ‘Social Question.’ Jove is Capital, sitting on the ramparts of Privilege, and ‘bastioned by big bags of bullion.’ He wants to treat all the Titans as his servants. But Labour-Briareus,  one of the three monstrous sons of Gaia and Uranus with a hundred hands each, is not letting Jove/Capital get off lightly: ‘But look at the huge Hundred-Handed One, armed with the scythe and the sickle, / The hammer, the spade, and the pick!’ However many hands Capital may succeed in removing, the Labour movement can sprout more.

The allegory appears at first sight to be even-handed in its portrayal of the class struggle, of the conflict between Capital and Labour. But as the story progresses, Saturn warns that if Jove is defeated, and Briareus wins, ‘grim fate’ will ensue in the form of Lawlessness, Ruin, and Starvation.  Punch, Time and Saturn are sadly agreed that no politician has yet come up with any policy that can ‘offer itself as a cure for the New Socialism.’