ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PUPPET

PLAYS IN ENGLAND.

FOR the following detail we are indebted to a laughter-moving volume entitled, Punch and Judy, which contains an elaborate account of all that belongs to these mirth creating worthies, the volume although of value in itself, is made still richer by the talented embellishments of George Cruikshank, who is certainly the ablest designer of humorous subjects we have at present.

"When we mention than 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 confirmation of it, we may add, that a person of the name of Henry Rowe, shortly before the year 1797, did actually, by

* See Malone's Shakspeare, by Boswell, xi, p. 301. VOL. I. K

wooden figures, for a series of years, go through the action of the whole of that tragedy, while he himself repeated the dialogue which belonged to each of the characters.+

"Puppet plays are of very ancient date in England, and if they were not contemporary with our mysteries, they immediately succeeded them. There is reason to think that they were coeval at

† He was also called the York Trumpeter, having been born in that city, and having "blown a battle blast" at Culloden. He was born in 1726, and after the rebellion he retired to his native place; where, for about fifty trance of the judges twice a year into York. He years, he graced with his instrument the enwas a very well known character, and for a long time before his death, in 1800, was master of a puppet-show. In 1797, he published his edition of Macbeth, with new notes and va lowing lines were written upon him :

rious emendations. At his decease, the fol"When the great angel blows the judgment trump,

If not, poor Harry never will awake,
But think it is his own trumpet by mistake,

He also must give Harry Rowe a thump;

He blew it all his life, with greatest skill,
And but for want of breath had blown it still."

9-SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1828.

least, with our moralities, and in Catholic times it is not a very violent supposition, to conclude that even the priests themselves made use 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.

"Motions' 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 IV, Scene 2) makes Autolycus say, Then he compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker's wife within a mile of were 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 method of their representation at hat period, and doubtless long before,

See the new edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i, p. xliii, et seq.

may be seen at the close of Ben Johnson'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. The exhibitor, standing above and working the figures, "interprets" for them, and delivers the laughable and burlesque dialogue, he supposes to pass between the characters. In the same poets, Tale of a Tub, (Act V) In-and-in Medlay 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 Johnson may always be relied on, 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, 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 pamphleteerists, and play-writers of about the same period, that the subjects of the "villainous 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 Guiso, 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 Johnson, to the manners of his day, in depreciating the "humors" 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 appears, that the word "motion," which properly means the representation by puppets, was also sometimes applied to the figures employed in the performance. T

"The formidable rivalship of puppetplays 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

Henslowe probably refers to this play, as "the tragedy of the Guyes," in his papers. See Mal. Sh. by Boswell, iii. 299.

See the Dedication to Webster's White Devil, as quoted in note ‡ in the new edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. vi. 207.

Thus also, "Speed," in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, exclaims "O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet! now will he interpret to her." (Act ii, Scene 1.)

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 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 Testaments, 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 Shakspeare, in the quotation we have made from his Winter's Tale, mentions that of the " Prodigal Son." Perhaps none was more popular than " Ninevah with Jonas and the whale." It is noticed by Ben Johnson 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 V., and Scene ii.) we recollect, 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 Johnson ii. 66, note) to shew 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 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 com-. paratively modern exhibitions of the kind were combined with stories selected from the bible.

"The late Mr. Joseph Strutt, in his

++ Somerville, in his "Happy Disappointment," speaks of masquerades and puppet. shows in the same line, and as if equally popular.

Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," thus speaks of the puppetshows 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 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-show man 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 contributions 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;—and, far from agreeing with Strutt, that the contributions are very trifling," we have seen, for we have taken 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, each give sixpence, besides the halfpence elsewhere contributed; which the collector went back to the theatre and whispered the performer, who 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."

† Page 152, edit. 1810:

on

HINTS BY THE COBLER OF CRIPPLEGATE.

nuisance.

"Ruinous Houses ought to be pulled down, because they may as well tumble upon the head of an Alderman as upon that of a Cobler.

he thinks ought to take place, because a "A regulation in Smithfield Market mad Ox may as well gore the lady of a Knight Banneret, as a poor oysterwench.

"Worn out Hackney Coaches should in a particular manner be looked into, because none but those in easy circumstances can be affected by their breakingdown in the streets. This regulation in no shape regards my family, because I never suffer my Moll to enter one till I have first properly surveyed it.

"That Cheesemongers should not set out their butter and cheese so near the edge of their shop-windows, nor put their firkins in the pathways by which many a good coat and silk gown may be spoiled; as by advertising in the papers his shop will be sufficiently known, without carrying home the shop-bill upon their cloaths.

"Ladders, pieces of timber, &c. should by no means be suffered to be carried upon men's shoulders within the posts of this city, because, by a sudden stop, they may as well poke out the eye of a rich man as that of a poor one.

"Chairmen, as they are a kind of human nags, ought to amble withoutside the posts as well as other brutes.

"It is needless for ladies of a certain

cast to patrole the streets at noonday with a bundle in one hand, as they carry an evident sign of their profession in their eye.

"Long swords are a nuisance in the City at Change-time, as the wearer may very well receive a bill without that dangerous weapon, and as it is not often he comes into it to pay one.