Douglas William Jerrold

Douglas William Jerrold (born Jan. 3, 1803, London—died June 8, 1857, London) was an English playwright, journalist, and humorist. Jerrold achieved success in the theatre with Black-Eyed Susan (1829), a nautical melodrama that draws on the patriotic tar (sailor) while critiquing authoritarianism in the British Navy. He also mastered a special brand of Victorian humour in a series of articles called “Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures” (1845) for Punch magazine, to which he was a regular...