These short poems are
full of puns and happy _jeux de mots_, and had a decided effect in
frustrating the foolish plans. After this he published _National Tales_,
in the same comic vein; but also produced his exquisite serious pieces,
_The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies_, _Hero and Leander_, and others, all
of which are striking and tasteful. In 1838 he commenced _The Comic
Annual_, which appeared for several years, brimful of mirth and fun. He
was editor of various magazines,--_The New Monthly_, and _Hood's
Magazine_. For _Punch_ he wrote _The Song of the Shirt_, and _The Bridge
of Sighs_. No one can compute the good done by both; the hearts touched;
the pockets opened. The sewing women were better paid, more cared for,
elevated in the social scale; and many of them saved from that fate which
is so touchingly chronicled in _The Bridge of Sighs_. Hood was a true poet
and a great poet. _Miss Kilmansegg and her Precious Leg_ is satire, story,
epic, comedy, in one.
If he owed to Smollett's _Humphrey Clinker_ the form of his _Up the
Rhine_, he has equalled Smollett in the narrative, in the variety of
character, and in the admirable cacography of Martha Penny.
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