Punch and Judy

Punch and Judy famous English puppet play, very popular with children and given widely by strolling puppet players, especially during the Christmas season. It came to England in the 17th cent. by way of France from Italy and developed out of the commedia dell'arte character, Pulcinella. To this traditional figure of the Italian comedy were added aspects of the medieval English fool . Punch, a hunchback, with a hooked nose and chin and a pot belly, was the cruel and boastful husband of a nagging wife, Judy, whom he often beat and in many versions killed. The language of the play is coarse and often satirical. The text was first written down and printed by J. P. Collier in 1827.

Bibliography: See G. Baker's Playing With Punch (1944); P. Fraser, Punch and Judy (1970).

Punch and Judy. Opera in 1 act by Birtwistle, lib. by Stephen Pruslin. Comp. 1966–7. F.p. Aldeburgh 1968, Minneapolis 1970, London (concert) 1979, (stage) 1982.

Punch and Judy, English puppet-show, presented on the miniature stage of a tall collapsible booth traditionally covered with striped canvas. It was once a familiar sight in the streets of large cities and can still be seen occasionally in seaside towns. Punch, the chief character, with his humped back and hooked nose, evolved from the Pulcinella of the commedia dell'arte, and first appeared in London as part of the Italian marionette shows popular after the Restoration. While retaining the physical peculiarities of his Italian prototype, Punch soon became the ubiquitous English buffoon of every puppet-play of the period, equally at home with Adam and Eve, Noah, or Dick Whittington, taking over many of the characteristics of the old Vice of the medieval mystery play. When in the early years of the 18th century fashionable London grew tired of his antics, he migrated to the country fairs, took a wife (first called Joan, later Judy), and adopted the familiar high-pitched voice produced by introducing a ‘swazzle’ or squeaker into the mouth of the showman who spoke for him. Towards the end of the century he went into eclipse, but emerged again in the 19th century as a hand- or glove-puppet, a reversion to the style of the early English puppet-show which had temporarily been ousted by the Italian stringed marionettes. The change proved economically worthwhile, for one man could carry the portable booth on his back and present all the characters with his own two hands, with a mate (or wife) to ‘bottle’, or collect pennies from the audience. In the more or less standardized version of the play, which dates from about 1800, Punch, on the manipulator's right hand, remains on stage all the time, while the left hand provides a series of characters—baby, wife, priest, doctor, police-man, hangman—for him to nag, beat, and finally kill, until he is eaten by a crocodile, carried off by the Devil, or allowed to remain in solitary triumph, his only companion being his faithful Toby—a live dog, usually a terrier, who sits on the ledge of the booth during the entire performance.