Volume 93 — A LITERARY FIND.

Dear Mr. Punch,

A very intelligent threadbare man, evidently something of a scholar, has just put me in possession of a manuscript of incalculable importance. It is a drama called Piccoviccius, evidently of the Elizabethan era, though brought into harmony with modern diction and orthography by a later hand. A careful perusal of this priceless survival makes it certain that Shakspeare was not only familiar with it, but that he drew very largely from it even to "cribbing" the names of many of the characters bodily. This is not so remarkable, considering the very slight right Shakspeare has, in the opinion of the best critics, to the authorship of his own plays, as the fact that Dickens also had studied Piccoviccius, and founded upon it his Pickwick Papers, with an effrontery almost worthy of the Swan of Avon himself. Here is a slightly-edited selection from the First Act, so your readers can judge for themselves.

Yours, bursting with importance, Roderick Tweddle.

P.S.—I have just founded a Piccoviccius Society. The subscription is £2 2s., paid in advance. Members can read their own papers at any time, and have them printed, at a reduced price, in our "Transactions."