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As many may know, Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular, and usually very violent puppet show featuring Mr Punch and his wife, Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to Mr.
Punch's club. It is often associated with traditional British seaside culture. The bottler might also play accompanying music or sound effects on a drum or guitar and engage in back chat with the puppets, sometimes repeating the same or the copied lines that may have been difficult for the audience to understand.
In Victorian times the drum and pan pipes were the instruments of choice. Today, the audience is also encouraged to participate, calling out to the characters on the stage to warn them of danger, or clue them into what is going on behind their backs. Also nowadays most Professors work solo since the need for a bottler became less important when busking with the show gave way to paid engagements at private parties or public events.
The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte. The figure of Punch derives from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella, which was anglicized to Punchinello. He is a manifestation of the Lord of Misrule and Trickster figures of deep-rooted mythologies. Punch's wife was originally called "Joan. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England on 9 May , which is traditionally reckoned as Punch's UK birthday.
The diarist Samuel Pepys observed a marionette show featuring an early version of the Punch character in Covent Garden in London. It was performed by an Italian puppet showman, Pietro Gimonde, a. He is a hunchback whose hooked nose almost meets his curved, jutting chin.
He carries a stick called a slapstick as large as himself, which he freely uses upon most of the other characters in the show. He speaks in a distinctive squawking voice, produced by a contrivance known as a swazzle or swatchel which the professor holds in his mouth, transmitting his gleeful cackle. The show centers on Mr. Punch, a rascally hand puppet whose primary vocation is whacking his saucy, nagging wife, Judy, and various members of the constabulary with a stick.
Punch has performed for English kings and American presidents, been chased by crocodiles at the British seaside and anacondas in Brazil, and even appeared in some of the first movies ever made. To celebrate his th birthday in , Mr. Punch came to England at a moment of social upheaval.
Cromwell died of natural causes in , and his faction soon collapsed with his son at its head. King Charles II was reinstated on the throne and Cromwell was posthumously tried, found guilty of, and executed for high treason in With Puritanism abating, artists and performing troupes from the European continent began to flood into England to fill the fun vacuum. Pulcinella rode that wave over as a marionette puppet. Probably both influences were at work.
The glove puppet show retained many features of the English marionette play: Punch was accompanied by a shrewish English wife, Joan, whom he regularly beat; and he was carried off by the Devil at the end of the show, though by the end of the 18th century he was beginning to conquer even the Devil. On the other hand, the new glove puppet show introduced a live Dog called Toby, which had been a feature of the Italian glove puppet Pulcinella shows, and — apparently from the same source — Punch was condemned to be hanged, but, as now, persuaded the Hangman to show him how by putting his own head in the noose, upon which Punch promptly hanged him.
For some unknown reason, Joan had changed her name to Judy by , and had a Baby, whom Punch threw out of the window. In , a text of the show was published, illustrated by George Cruikshank, and based largely on the performance of an Italian showman called Giovanni anglicized as George Piccini who had come to London in This tended to establish a basic format for the play which became a popular feature of the English streets.
Unlike the show in other European countries, there has never been more than one Punch play for the popular glove puppet show, but this has been capable of endless variations. The expansion of the railways in the s led to a growth of new venues for Punch, particularly at the seaside. But versions of the show were also to be found in pantomimes, the music hall, at private parties and at almost any large public gathering.
During this period, the names of several families became associated with the show. The Smith family in particular had branches in many resorts; the Baileys were at Buxton and Harrogate; there were the Jessons, the Maggs, the Greens, and the Codmans played in both Liverpool and Llandudno.
In the 20th century, the arrival of the motor car made street performances increasingly difficult. By the end of the 20th century, this had declined to no more than twelve. Nonetheless, the show has never lost its popularity.
Following publication of the first script in , a variety of books and ephemera have appeared. The growth of new media has provided further opportunities. Since the 18th century there have been various stage productions with Punch played by actors, dancers and opera singers.
He has also appeared numerous times in literature. The first attempt at forming a society of Punch men was made by Oscar Oswald in In , both organizations are still active. Other festivals dedicated to Punch are also organized around the country by the Fellowship and the College. Of the families connected with the show in the Victorian era, the Greens, Jessons, Smiths, Carcass, Codmans and Maggs continued into the 20th century, with the Codmans and the Maggs still active in the early years of the 21st.
During the 20th century, many other showmen came to prominence, the most famous being Percy Press I. It is rare for Punch to hit his baby these days, but he may well sit on it in a failed attempt to "babysit", or drop it, or even let it go through a sausage machine. In any event, Judy will return, will be outraged, will fetch a stick, and the knockabout will commence. A policeman will arrive in response to the mayhem and will himself be felled by Punch's slapstick.
All this is carried out at breakneck farcical speed with much involvement from a gleefully shouting audience. From here on anything goes. Joey the Clown might appear and suggest, "It's dinner time. Punch must look after, although the audience will know that this really signals the arrival of a crocodile whom Mr. Punch might not see until the audience shouts out and lets him know. Punch's subsequent comic struggle with the crocodile might then leave him in need of a Doctor who will arrive and attempt to treat Punch by walloping him with a stick until Punch turns the tables on him.
Punch may next pause to count his "victims" by laying puppets on the stage, only for Joey the Clown to move them about behind his back in order to frustrate him. A ghost might then appear and give Mr. Punch a fright before it too is chased off with a slapstick.
In less squeamish times, a hangman would arrive to punish Mr. Punch, only to himself be tricked into sticking his head in the noose.
Some will include it where circumstances warrant such as for an adult audience but most do not. Some will choose to include it whatever the circumstances and will face down any critics. Finally, the show will often end with the Devil arriving for Mr. Punch and possibly to threaten his audience as well. Punch—in his final gleefully triumphant moment—will win his fight with the Devil, bring the show to a rousing conclusion, and earn a round of applause. Punch and Judy might follow no fixed storyline, as with the tales of Robin Hood, but there are episodes common to many recorded versions.
It is these set piece encounters or "routines" which are used by performers to construct their own Punch and Judy shows. A visit to a Punch and Judy Festival at Punch's "birthplace" in London's Covent Garden will reveal a whole variety of changes that are wrung by puppeteers from this basic material. Scripts have been published at different times since the early 19th century, but none can be claimed as the definitive traditional script of Punch and Judy.
Each printed script reflects the era in which it was performed and the circumstances under which it was printed. The various episodes of the show are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr.
I regard it as quite harmless in its influence, and as an outrageous joke which no one in existence would think of regarding as an incentive to any kind of action or as a model for any kind of conduct. It is possible, I think, that one secret source of pleasure very generally derived from this performance… is the satisfaction the spectator feels in the circumstance that likenesses of men and women can be so knocked about, without any pain or suffering.
An awareness of the prevalence of domestic abuse, and how Punch and Judy could be seen to make light of this, threatened Punch and Judy performances in the UK and other English-speaking countries for a time, but the show is having one of its cyclical recurrences and can now be seen in England, Wales, and Ireland—and also in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In , the characters were honoured in the UK with a set of British commemorative postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.
The humour is aided by a few things. Rosalind Crone , p.
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