Pan the Poster, from "Punch, or the London Charivari", Sept. 24, 1892 p. 138 Vol, C111

The poem and cartoon Pan the Poster are clever "perversions" of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem A Musical Instrument.  "Pan the Poster" appeared in the September 24, 1892 edition of Punch magazine.  The poem takes inspiration from two news stories: The Imported-Rag Scare and Run on British Bank (the rush of Birkbeck bank in High Holborn, England).  The writers of Punch find mankind's willingness to believe in rumors at the center of both stories; they relate this willingness to paganism and depict the god Pan at the center of false-reports of cholera-infected rags being shipped to New York from Europe, and rumors over the closing of Birkbeck bank that lead to a rush of withdrawals by private patrons. In both cases the rumors turned out to be unfounded.

Victorian Health and Hygiene and Reports of "Cholera-Infected Rags"

In the case of reports of "cholera-infected" rags being discovered in New York harbors, no evidence was found to substantiate the claims. The supervising surgeon general of Marine Hospital, Dr. Wyman, reported to the N.Y. times that confusion over a change in policy regarding rag-shipments was probably the cause of the scare.  The spreading of rumors concerning cholera, which Pan the Poster addresses, speaks to the Victorian apprehension over the spread of disease, particularly cholera, through environmental means, and Victorian concerns over general health and hygiene.  Although environmental issues such as dirty water and air-born bacteria in relationship to disease were not immediatly accepted by most Victorians, advances in science lead to greater awareness of the issues of public health; this is reflected in several pieces of legislation, such as the Public Health Bill of 1848, which called for the proper drainage of new homes.  The issue of public health is commented upon by many Victorian novelists, such as Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte.  Alan Bewel, in his article explains that the descriptions of weather around the Lowood Orphan Asylum in Bronte's novel Jane Eyre are reported with a medical examiners tone:

     In his 1768 Essay on Diseases Incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates, a text that went through six editions between 1768 and 1811, James Lind describes the coastal regions of West Africa in      a manner that indicates that medical and aesthetic appreciations of landscape are not necessarily equivalent. "Upon examining the face of the country, it is found clothed with a pleasant and      perpetual verdure," he writes, "but altogether uncultivated, excepting a few spots, which are generally surrounded with forests or thickets of trees, impenetrable to refreshing breezes, and fit      only for the resort of wild beasts." This passage provides a useful point of departure for understanding the medical geopolitics of landscape in Charlotte Bronte's work. Jane Eyre's description      of the environs of the Lowood Orphan Asylum is similar to Lind's in that it is shaped as much by the language of medical geography as by aesthetics. Initially, we are presented with what      appears to be an idyllic scene. With the coming of spring, "Lowood shook loose its tresses; it became all green, all flowery; its great elm, ash, and oak skeletons were restored to majestic life;      woodland plants sprang up profusely in its recesses; unnumbered varieties of moss filled its hollows, and it made a strange ground sunshine out of the wealth of its wild primrose..." (Bewell)

The Victorian Economy and The Run on Birkbeck Bank

Regarding the run on Birkbeck bank, the rumors began with the circulation of an anonymous article which linked the bank with Charing Cross Bank, which had recently failed.  The rumors were so widespread, the New York Times reports, that by the close of day a "small crowd was still in line awaiting an opportunity to withdraw their deposits."  The anxiety caused by reports of the failure of Birkbeck bank was driven by the reality of actual bank runs which was a general problem of the Victorian Economy.  Kristen Guest, in her article The Subject of Monery: Late-Victorian Melodrama's Crisis of Masculinity, sees a relationship between Victorian anxieties over economy and the shifting nature of the male domestic role; moreoveer, says Guest, this tension was played out in certain Victorian melodramas, specifically "The Silver King" and "Sweet Lavender".

     Both plays considered here [The Silver King and Sweet Lavender] are artifacts of this change, and both appeared in venues that reflected the problem of a moral world view that saw itself as       insulated from economic forces but was, in fact, contained by and inseparable from them. If this tension between economic and affective imperatives is reflected in the contrast between the      exclusivity of the theatrical venues and the content of the dramas, it is particularly evident in Jones's and Pinero's representations of privileged masculinity. Indeed, while both plays offer      narratives of masculine progress that affirm the superiority of human values over economic ones, they also suggest the limited ability of the male subject to manage the systemic contradictions      of the marketplace that threaten the coherence of the domestic sphere—often, I will argue, by foregrounding the physical incapacities of their male victims. The problem of the suffering male      body thus raises two interrelated concerns in these plays: the problematic relationship between identity and money, and the complicity of domesticity in the economic sphere to which it is      nominally opposed. (Guest)

Analysis of Poem and Cartoon, Pan the Poster

Both of these triggers of Victorian fear - those of public-health and economy - are taken up in the satire of Pan the Poster.  As for the poem, the writers of Punch find in Elizabeth Barret Browning's A Musical Instrument the right tone in which to apply their wit.  In Browning's poem Pan's struggle to make his reeds represents the struggle of the artist to create his work.  In Pan the Poster, Pan uses his reeds to lull Englanders into following his rumors without stopping to think of the consequences of thier actions, or even if their is a reason for their action to begin with.  In Browning's poem, Pan removes the "pith" from the reeds by the river in order to make his instrument; in Punch's version, Pan removes the "pith from the heart of man/To make him a sheep."  The author's of Pan the Poster point out that "Pan, the Arcadian forest and river-god, was held to startle travelers by his sudden and terror-striking appearances.  Hence sudden fright, without any visible cause, was ascribed to Pan, and called a Panic fear."  For the author's of Punch, Pan is a trickster, and instead of using his talents to make reeds for the purpose of music, he goes about "Making a man a wind-swayed reed,/And moving the mob like a leaf indeed."  Moreover, to fit in, Pan disguises "'neath "knickers" his shanks of a goat."  These "knickers" are depicted in the accompanying cartoon, which sees Pan smilingly widely as he posts "ban" upon a Victorian building.  The signs he glues make claims of a "Bank Rush" and "Cholera Fright."  Across Pan's reeds a ribbon reads "SCARE."

Further Discussion:

For further disussion on Victorian concerns about economy see:

The Victorian Economy, by François Crouzet; available at www.google.com/books

For further discussion on Victorian conerns about Health and Hygien see:

www.victorianweb.org

Works Cited:

Bewell, Alan, Jane Eyre and Victorian Medical Geography ELH - Volume 63, Number 3, Fall 1996, pp. 773-808

Guest, Kristen The Subject of Money: Late-Victorian Melodrama's Crisis of Masculinity Victorian Studies - Volume 49, Number 4, Summer 2007, pp. 635-657

New York Times online archive:

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html