Punch and Judy

Front matter

PUNCH AND JUDY,

WITH TWENTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS.

DESIGNED AND ENGRAVED BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

Introduction

With the assistance of our friend, Mr. George Cruickshank, we are about to fill up a hiatus in theatrical history.

It is singular, that, to the present day, no attempt has been made to illustrate the origin, biography, and character of a person so distinguished and notorious as Mr. Punch. His name and his performances are familiar to all ranks and ages; yet nobody has hitherto taken the trouble, in this country or abroad, to make any enquiries regarding himself, his family, or connections. The "studious Bayle" is recorded to have repeatedly sallied from his retreat, at the sound of the cracked trumpet, announcing his arrival in Rotterdam; and we ourselves, who have often hunted our favourite performer from street to street, saw the late Mr. Windham, then one of the Secretaries of State, on his way from Downing Street to the House of Commons, on a night of important debate, pause like a truant boy, until the whole performance was concluded, to enjoy a hearty laugh at the whimsicalities of "the motley hero." But it is needless to particularise.—Punch has

"made our youth to laugh, "Until they scarcely could look out for tears;"

while the old have stood by, "delighted with delight" of others, and themselves, too, enjoying the ludicrous representation. Why the interest has hitherto been limited to the period of representation, and whether it has not in part arisen from inability to satisfy it, is not for us to explain. We confine ourselves to an endeavour in some degree, to supply the deficiency.

The contrast between the neglect Mr. Punch has experienced, and the industry employed in collecting particulars relating to other performers of far less reputation, is remarkable. If an actor, on any of our public stages, attain only a moderate degree of eminence, hundreds are on the alert to glean the minutest particulars of his "birth, parentage, and education, life, character, and behaviour;" and thousands look out for them with eagerness in all the newspapers and periodicals of the day. Punch has never been famæ petitor:

"That last distemper of the sober brain," as Marvell calls it, has never been one of his weaknesses; but, nevertheless, it is undeniable, that his fame has spread, "without his stirring," over all the kingdoms of the civilized world. To use the wordy periphrasis of Dr. Johnson,

"Let observation, with extensive view, "Survey mankind from China to Peru;"

if it can, and it will everywhere behold Punch dispensing "the luxury of a laugh." It is literally true, that, some years ago, he found his way to Canton; and that, since the South American Revolution he has been seen even on the western side of the Andes. He is, perhaps, himself in part to blame for the neglect we have noticed. Several of the principal supporters of our theatres, in our own day, have given their memoirs to the world, either by writing them with their own hands, or by furnishing the materials to others; and the works of this kind by dead actors, "the forgotten of the stage," consist of many volumes. Whether it has arisen from an absence of that vanity (may we call it?) which has at times influenced his histrionic rivals, or from a somewhat haughty reluctance, on his part, to gratify public curiosity, we know not; but whatever injury it may do the sale of our volume, it

ought not in fairness to be concealed, that, towards us, the object and subject of the appended inquiry has preserved an obstinate silence which, in any other individual, we should say amounted to incivility. Even when informed that his portrait was to be drawn by Mr. George Cruikshank, it did not at all change his deportment. This circumstance is certainly to be regretted; but we flatter ourselves that our unaided resources have furnished much curious and interesting information: and if, by its publication, we give offence, we must "aby the event," knowing that, as Mr. Punch was deaf to our request, he will not listen to our apology.

Another remark may not here be out of its place: Poetry is unquestionably out of fashion; and because it was not "set by," as perhaps it ought to have been, the greatest (in every sense of the word) author of the day turned his attention to a different and more popular mode of writing. His astonishing success induced others to follow his example: they, too, tried their hands at historical novels; but, wanting the genius of their original, they endeavoured to keep up the interest of their narratives by the introduction of biographical matter. Still they found they were not read, and their next step was to make the dead the means of satirising and censuring the living; until, in a short time, this thin disguise was thrown aside, and novels became the vehicles of private anecdotes and malicious disclosures. Such is now the characteristic of our literature, excepting in as far as it was corrected by the "Colossus" aforesaid; and we appeal to all the puffs in all the papers for the proof, that fashionable slander, and the exposure of secret intrigues of persons in high life have been made the chief recommendation and attraction of such productions. The course has been, to assign the work of a "scribbling garreteer" to some lord or lady of distinguished connections, and to represent, that, for the sake of gratifying a mania for the consumption of pen, ink, and paper, he or she has condescended, first to play the spy, and afterwards the traitor, to friends and acquaintances.

Nothing of this kind will be found in the volume now in the reader's hand; and although the biography of the Punch family is, necessarily, partially included in our plan, those who expect that we shall detail particulars of his private amours and failings will be disappointed. Ariosto tells such as may not like certain parts of his gay poem, to turn over so many of its leaves: we advise those, who feel vexation at the preceding statement, to shut our book altogether; or, at least, not to do more than cast their eyes upon the plates: since they know by whom the drawings were made, it would, perhaps, be too much to suppose they could consent to relinquish that gratification. Those incidents of his life which our hero has chosen to make known, are of course not omitted; but, in our details and observations, we have spoken of him only in his public capacity,—as an actor of first-rate talents and the most extensive celebrity.

[PUNCH.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE COSTUMES OF ITALIAN COMEDY,

From Riccoboni.

HARLEQUIN. PANTALOON. DOCTOR. PUNCH. (Ancient.) (Ancient.) (Modern.) (Neapolitan.)

SCAPIN. MEZZETIN. PIERROT. SCARAMOUCHE. (Neapolitan.)

Chapter I

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF PUNCH IN ITALY.

Mr. Punch, (whose original family name was probably Pulcinella,) first came into existence at Acerra, an ancient city at a short distance from Naples. The date of this event is differently stated by authors who have incidentally mentioned him; Riccoboni fixing it before the year 1600, and Gimma and Signorelli after the commencement of the seventeenth century. The words of Gimma are very precise, and as he enters into particulars, it seems safe to rely upon his authority for this important fact: he says, "Silvio Fiorillo, comedian, who procured himself to be called the Captain Matamoros, invented the Neapolitan Pulcinella; to which Andrea Calcese, who had the surname of Ciuccio, by study and natural grace added much. Calcese was a tailor, and died in the plague of the year 1656: he imitated the peasants of Acerra, a very ancient city of Terra di Lavoro, not far from Naples." Signorelli expressly calls Punch, un buffon dell' Acerra; and of the Neapolitans in general, he remarks (p. 231), that, "from a certain national vivacity and disposition, they have been at all times distinguished for their talent in imitating the ridiculous on their stages." Hence more than one of the amusing personages in their impromptu comedies, or commedie à soggetto, inserted by Riccoboni among the plates attached to his work, have had their origin in that lively and luxurious capital.

In order to give a notion of the species of dramatic entertainment in which these various characters, and among them Pulcinella, were engaged, a further short quotation from Signorelli's work will be useful: he is referring to the state of the Italian comedy in the beginning of the seventeenth century. "In general (he says) the public comedians travelled over Italy, representing certain theatrical performances, called comedies of art, in contradistinction to comedies of learning, recited in the academies and in private dwellings by well-bred actors for their pleasure and exercise. The plan or plot of the fables, they call it, à soggetto, was noted down, as well as

the substance and distribution of each scene, while the dialogue was left to the will of the representers. Such histrionic farces contained various trivial buffooneries, and different masks were employed in them.

These performances, in which the actor was left to his own talents and discretion in furnishing the dialogue, were once extremely popular throughout Italy; but from the very nature of the representation, it unluckily happens that not a single specimen has been handed down to our time. The few sentences extracted above, we think, will serve to explain a good deal of the supposed mystery of those ancient English "plots," or "platforms" of theatrical representations discovered in Dulwich College; in which the celebrated Tarlton and others were concerned, and which so long puzzled Malone, Steevens, and some of the other commentators on Shakespeare. Several of the most distinguished actors of that day had travelled in Italy, and were remarkable for their impromptu; and Nash, who had been there, in one of his tracts especially terms the famous clown, Kempe, a "harlequin," (a character constantly engaged in such representations) and adds that his fame had extended south of the Alps.

However, to pursue this topic would lead us away from the object of our present inquiry. We take it for granted, that Silvio Fiorillo invented Pulcinella, and first introduced him as a variety in the list of buffoons required to represent the impromptu comedies of Naples: but, although he may date his separate existence from about the year 1600, it is a matter of much doubt, whether he was not, in fact, only a branch of a family of far greater antiquity. The discovery, in the year 1727, of a bronze statue of a mime, called by the Romans Maccus, has indeed led some antiquaries to the conclusion, that he was, in fact, Pulcinella under a different name, but with the same attributes, and among them a hump-back and a large nose. But that the figure was meant for Maccus at all seems mere speculation, and that Pulcinella and Maccus had anything in common, but hump and nose, is at least as questionable. The Vice, as he was called, of the ancient Moralities was common, we apprehend, to the early theatrical representations of most countries: his business was to relieve the weightier part of the performance by his ridiculous actions, jests, and buffooneries. He was unquestionably the original of the Clown, or Fool, of the old English Drama; and we think the conjecture is at least plausible, that he was the original also of Harlequin, and his near relative Pulcinella. The chief appendage of the Vice was a gilt wooden sword, and this also belonged to the old Clown, or Fool, not only in England, but abroad. Rabelais, speaking of certain presents made by Panurge to the fool Triboullet, says; "Panurge à sa venue luy donna une vessie de pore, bien enflée et resonnante, à cause des poys qui dedans estoient: plus une espée de boys bien dorée; plus, une petite gibessiere faicte d'une cogue de tortu:" which we thus translate for the benefit of such as may not understand the antiquated French,—"Panurge, on his arrival, gave him a pig's bladder well inflated, and resounding by reason of the peas that were within it: moreover, a wooden sword well gilt: moreover, a small pouch, made of a shell of a tortoise," Those who consult Mr. Douce's "Illustrations," and particularly his essay on the "Clowns and Fools of Shakespeare," will find that the bladder at the end of a stick, the gilt wooden sword, and the pouch or budget, formed part of the equipments of that personage in this country. The wooden sword directly connects Harlequin with the ancient Vice, and more modern Fool, although we have now enjoined him to silence, and have converted the instrument with which of old he cudgelled the Devil, into a talisman to raise him.

The dress, too, of Harlequin corresponds very much with the motley or parti-coloured habit of the clowns of our old dramatic poets. It is true, that the different hues have been arranged with greater regularity, and the patches are of smaller size. The ordinary habiliments of Punch at the present day, preserved by ancient usage, with his pointed fool's-cap, bear a much nearer resemblance; and this is one circumstance that evidences the strong family-resemblance between the Vice, Harlequin, and Puncinella. Riccoboni represents the ancient Harlequin in a dress composed of patches, as if his ragged clothes had been often mended, and Goldoni speaks of him as originally a poor foolish dolt. There can be little doubt that this was the real origin of the motley of the dramatic and domestic fools in former times. They were retained, or were supposed to be retained, by the nobility, commonly out of charity, and one of their ordinary appellations was Patch. Cardinal Wolsey had a fool whose parental name has been lost, and he is now only known by the nick-name belonging to his profession.

Upon the continent, to this day, Harlequin is as talkative as ever, even if his jokes are a little less coarse, and his satire kept within narrower bounds. Voltaire, in his Encyclopedie and elsewhere, quotes several capital sayings and aphorisms by Harlequin; but the account that Addison gives of him would hardly lead us to suppose that in his time he possessed so much wit and acuteness.

He tells us that, in Italy, "Harlequin's part is made up of blunders and absurdities: he is to mistake one name for another, to forget his errands, to stumble over queens, and to run his head against every post that comes in his way. This is all attended with something so comical in the voice and gestures, that a man who is sensible of the folly of the part can hardly forbear to be pleased with it." Much of this character has been transferred to the clowns of our pantomimes, since Harlequin was elevated in station and degraded in understanding.

Concluding, then, that Punch is one of the familia Harlequini, and that their common parent was the Vice of the old Moralities, the question arises, to what circumstance he owes the deformity of his figure, and why his nose, by its length, is rendered so obtrusive a feature? We can only answer, that it pleased his inventor, Silvio Fiorillo, to make him so; and, perhaps, he did it in some degree with a view of rendering him more ridiculous, and to distinguish him more effectually from other characters of not dissimilar habits and propensities in the impromptu comedies: hence too, probably, the peculiar quality of his voice, to which Addison alludes. One striking characteristic of Punch is his amorous inclination; and it is generally supposed that individuals with the personal defect for which he is remarkable, are peculiarly "given to the feminines;" and the Italian proverb relating to the length of nose, needs not, if it could, be repeated. Among Riccobini's plates is one of Giangurgolo of Calabria, and he is represented with a much larger nose than that of Pulcinella. In the time of Shakespeare, it seems to have been the custom for usurers on the stage to wear large false noses; but, perhaps, it was intended thus to indicate that they were generally of the Jewish persuasion.

According to Quadrio, in his "Storia d'ogni Poesia" the name of our hero has relation to the length of his nose: he would spell it Pullicinello from Pulliceno, which Mr. D'Israeli translates "turkey-cock," an allusion to the beak of that bird. Baretti has it Pulcinella, because that word in Italian means a hen-chicken, whose cry the voice of Punch is said to resemble.—Pollicenello, as it has also been written, in its etymology from pollice, "the thumb," goes upon the mistaken presumption that his size was always diminutive, like that of our English worthy, of cow-swallowing memory. The French Ponche has been fancifully derived from no less a personage than Pontius Pilate of the old Mysteries, whom, in barbarous times, the Christians wished to abuse and ridicule. If we cannot settle the disputed point, it is very evident, that in future ingenuity and learning will be thrown away in attempting further elucidation.

At what time and in what country Punch became a mere puppet as well as a living performer, we have no distinct information; but it is to be inferred, perhaps, that the transmigration first took place in the land of his birth, and after his popularity had been fully established. The pleasure derived by the lower orders from his performances might lead to the imitation of his manners and actions in little: in the same way, as will be hereafter seen, that the most applauded representations of our own stage, in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, were very soon made the subjects of "motions" or puppet-plays. One man could thus by a little ingenuity, and at a very cheap rate, represent half a dozen or more characters, and the delusion was aided by the peculiar voice given to Punch by artificial means. Ere long he became the hero of the exhibition; and other characters, such as Harlequin and Scaramouch, by degrees sunk into insignificance. The last, as well as the Doctor, is still preserved in some of the performances in this country, and we are assured by those who have recently travelled, that the Spanish Captain, the Calabrian with a huge nose, and some others of the personages enumerated by Riccoboni, yet figure in the Italian puppet-shows. In Holland, about ten years ago, we were present at one of the performances of Punch, (there usually called "Tooueelgek," "stage-fool" or "buffoon") in which a number of other characters peculiar to the country, and among them a burgomaster and a Friesland peasant, were introduced.

Chapter II

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PUPPET-PLAYS IN ENGLAND.

Before we proceed farther, it will be necessary to consider, briefly, the antiquity and nature of puppet-plays in this country. It is the more proper to do so, because they form a branch of our drama which has never been examined by the historians of our stage with as much interest and industry as the subject deserves. When we mention that no less a man than Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that puppets were so capable of representing even the plays of Shakspeare, that Macbeth might be performed by them as well as by living actors; it will be evident from such a fact only, that the inquiry is far from unimportant. In connection with this opinion, and confirmatory of it, we may add, that a person of the name of Henry Rowe, shortly before the year 1797, did actually by wooden figures, for a series of years, go through the action of the whole of that tragedy, while he himself repeated the dialogue which belongs to each of the characters.

Puppet-plays are of very ancient date in England; and, if they were not contemporary with our Mysteries, they probably immediately succeeded them. There is reason to think that they were coeval, at least, with our Moralities; and, in Catholic times, it is not a very violent supposition to conclude that the Priests themselves made use even of the images of the Saints and Martyrs, perhaps for this very purpose: it is well ascertained, not only that they did not scruple to employ the churches, but that those sacred edifices were considered the fittest places for our earliest dramatic representations.

"Motion" is the most general term by which they are mentioned by our ancient authors, and especially by our dramatists: thus Shakspeare, in the "Winter's Tale" (Act 4, Scene 2) makes Autolycus say: "Then he compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker's wife within a mile of where my land and living lies." It would be easy to multiply quotations to the same point from nearly all his contemporaries, but one is as good as a thousand. The nature and one method of their representation at that period, and doubtless long before, may be seen at the close of Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair." He there makes Lanthern Leatherhead convert the story of Hero and Leander (then very popular from Marlow's and Chapman's translation, or rather paraphrase of it), into a "motion" or puppet-play; and he combines with it the well-known friendship of Damon and Pythias, a story long before dramatised. The exhibitor, standing above and working the figures, "interprets" for them, and delivers the burlesque dialogue he supposes to pass between the characters. In the same Poet's "Tale of a Tub," (Act. 5) In-and-in Medley presents a "motion" for the amusement of the company, connecting it with the plot of the comedy itself. Here he explains the scenes as he proceeds, something in the manner of the ancient Dumb-shows before the

different acts of "Ferrex and Porrex," the "Misfortunes of Arthur," and other old tragedies, but the puppets are not represented as speaking among themselves. Ben Jonson may always be relied on in matters relating to the customs and amusements of our ancestors, as he was a very minute observer of them; and from his evidence, we may infer, that there were, at least, two varieties in the puppet-plays of his time, one with the dialogue, as in "Bartholomew Fair;" and the other without it, but with a descriptive accompaniment, as in the "Tale of a Tub."

It is evident, from many passages in our old writers that might be adduced if necessary, that "motions" were very popular with the lower orders; they frequently rivalled and imitated the performers on the regular stages. Hence, perhaps, a portion of the abuse with which they were commonly assailed by some of our dramatic poets, who were of course anxious to bring them as much as possible into contempt. It is established, on the authority of Dekker, and other pamphleteers and play-writers of about the same period, that the subjects of the "villanous motions" were often borrowed from the most successful dramatic entertainments. Shakspeare's "Julius Cæsar," was performed by mammets, (another term in use for the wooden representatives of heroes,) as well as the "Duke of Guise," a name that was perhaps given to Marlow's "Massacre of Paris," or it may refer to a tragedy by Webster under that title. If inference were not sufficient, testimony might be adduced to shew that the puppets were clothed as nearly as possible like the actors at the regular theatres in those plays which were thought fit subjects for the "motions." The minute fidelity of Ben Jonson to the manners of his day, in depicting the "humours" of his characters, has led him in several places to introduce the name of a principal proprietor of puppet-shows, who was known by the title of Captain Pod. He mentions him in his "Every Man out of his Humour," as well as in his "Epigrams," from which last it also appears that the word "motion," which properly means the representation by puppets, was sometimes applied to the figures employed in the performance.

The formidable rivalship of puppet-plays to the regular drama at a later date is established by the fact, that the proprietors of the theatres in Drury Lane, and near Lincoln's Inn Fields, formerly petitioned Charles II. that a puppet-show stationed on the present site of Cecil Street in the Strand, might not be allowed to exhibit, or might be removed to a greater distance, as its attractiveness materially interfered with the prosperity of their concerns. It is not unlikely that burlesque and ridicule were sometimes aimed at the productions of the regular stage by the exhibitors of "motions."

There is little doubt that the most ancient puppet-shows, like the Mysteries, dealt in stories taken from the Old and New Testament, or from the lives and legends of Saints. Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, as we have seen, historical and other fables began to be treated by them; but still scriptural subjects were commonly exhibited, and Shakespeare, in the quotation we have made from his "Winter's Tale," mentions that of the "Prodigal Son." Perhaps, none was more popular than "Nineveh, with Jonas and the Whale:" it is noticed by Ben Jonson twice in the same play, ("Every Man out of his Humour,") and not less than twenty other authors speak of it. From a passage in Cowley's "Cutter of Coleman Street," (Act 5, sc. 2,) we collect that even the Puritans, with all their zealous hatred of the "profane stages," did not object to be present at its "holy performance." The motion of "Babylon" is also frequently noticed; but "London" and "Rome" likewise figured in the metropolis at the same time, Fleet street and Holborn Bridge, both great thoroughfares, were the usual places where puppet-plays were exhibited in the reign of Elizabeth; and the authority of Butler has been quoted by Mr. Gifford (Ben Jonson, v. 2, 46, note) to show that Fleet Street continued to be infested by "motions" and "monsters" at least down to the Restoration. Scriptural motions were not wholly laid aside within the last fifty or sixty years; and Goldsmith, in his comedy, "She Stoops to Conquer," refers to the display of Solomon's Temple in a puppet-show. The current joke (at what date it originated seems uncertain) of Punch popping his head from behind the side curtain, and addressing the Patriarch in his ark, while the floods were pouring down, with "hazy weather, master Noah," proves that, at one period, the adventures of the hero of comparatively modern exhibitions of the kind were combined with stories selected from the Bible.

The late Mr. Joseph Strutt, in his "Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," thus speaks of the puppet-shows in his time. "In my memory these shows consisted of a wretched display of wooden figures, barbarously formed and decorated, without the least degree of taste or propriety: the wires that communicated the motion to them appeared at the top of their heads, and the manner in which they were made to move evinced the ignorance and inattention of the managers. The dialogues were mere jumbles of absurdities and nonsense, intermixed with low immoral discourses, passing between Punch and the fiddler, for the orchestra rarely admitted of more than one minstrel; and these flashes of merriment were made offensive to decency by the actions of the puppet."

From whatever cause the change may have arisen, certain it is, that, at present, in the ordinary exhibitions of "Punch and Judy," the breaches of decorum complained of by Mr. Strutt are rare and slight. He afterwards proceeds as follows: "In the present day, the puppet-showman travels about the streets, when the weather will permit, and carries the motions, with the theatre itself, upon his back. The exhibition takes place in the open air, and the precarious income of the miserable itinerant depends entirely on the voluntary contribution of the spectators, which, as far as one may judge from the squalid appearance he usually makes, is very trifling."

We have never seen less than two men concerned in these ambulatory exhibitions: one to carry the theatre and use Punch's tin whistle, and the other to bear the box of puppets and blow the trumpet. During the performance the money is collected from the bystanders: the "squalid appearance" of the proprietors is part of their business, and, far from agreeing with Mr. Strutt that the contributions are "very trifling," we have seen, for we have taken the pains to ascertain it, two or three and four shillings obtained at each repetition; so that supposing only ten performances take place in a summer's day, the reward to the two men on an average might be about fifteen shillings each. On one occasion, we remember to have seen three different spectators give sixpence, besides the halfpence elsewhere contributed: on which the collector went back to the theatre and whispered the exhibitor, who immediately made Punch thus address the crowd: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I never yet played for sevenpence halfpenny, and I never will; so good morning." He then "struck his tent" and departed; pocketing nearly two shillings, and excusing himself from going through the performance, under pretence that all the contributions he had received only amounted to sevenpence halfpenny.

Chapter III

CHAPTER III.

ARRIVAL OF PUNCH IN ENGLAND.

We now come to a point of great national importance—when Punch made his début, or first appearance, in England. Great events are usually recorded on the page of history, but this is one, that, by some strange fatality, has escaped all notice; and, after the lapse of more than a century, we have been called upon to examine forgotten records, and to furnish detailed information. The documents in the State Paper Office, the Records in the Tower, the Rolls of Parliament, and the MSS. in the British Museum, and in the Libraries of the Universities, we are sorry to observe, have supplied us with no intelligence regarding Mr. Punch, Mrs. Judy, or any other member of his family. We have also patiently gone through Evelyn's and Pepys's Diaries, with many other works of the same kind, in print and out of print; but though they dwell on the Fire of London, the Plague, declarations of war, treaties of peace, the reception of ambassadors, and other historical trifles of that sort, they are silent regarding the arrival of this illustrious foreigner.