Page:Punch and judy.djvu/73

PUNCH.] mouths and anxious looks, all eager to renew their acquaintance with their old friend and favourite, Punch. The theatre itself was carried by a tall man, who seemed a sort of sleeping partner in the concern, or mere dumb waiter on the other's operations." The woodcut on our title page, precisely corresponds with this lively description, making some allowance for the difference of age in the master of the puppet-show; still, however, not too old to carry his deal box and to blow an "inspiring air."

Besides Piccini's representation, we have compared the following pages with, and corrected them by the exhibitions of other perambulatory artistes (as our neighbours term them) now flourishing. It will be remarked that various parodies and snatches of songs are introduced, which are at present commonly omitted, though adding greatly to the humour and spirit of the piece: for many of these we are indebted to a manuscript, with the use of which we have been favoured, by a gentleman who undertook about the year 1796 to perform the task we have now executed, by giving the unwritten, if not strictly extempore, dialogue of "Punch and Judy" a permanent and tangible shape. The tunes and words for these musical accompaniments of the puppet-show have varied from time to time, according to circumstances; they take a tolerable extensive range, the oldest being adapted from "The Beggar's Opera," first acted January 29th, 1728, and the more modern from recent popular operas.

Piccini's exhibition was, in the first instance, purely Italian, and such colloquies as he introduced were in the language of that country: he soon learnt a little broken English, and adapted his show more to the taste of English audiences. It is too much to suppose that the notion that Punch is a foreigner, and ought always to speak like one, is taken from Piccini, because Punch has been looked upon as a stranger more welcome than most, from the first moment he set his foot in this country. The performers of "Punch and Judy," who are natives of Great Britain, generally endeavour to imitate an "outlandish dialect."

There is one peculiarity about Piccini's puppets which deserves notice: they are much better carved, the features having a more marked and comic expression than those