On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Found among the Papers of the late Charles Lamb , [ Concluded from the Last Number . ]
I shall now return to the hero of this extraordinary and high farcical Tragi-comedy . The various characters we have previously discussed , of however classical an interest in themselves , are all completely subservient to the development of the idiosyncrasy , or rather syncrasy , of the prime Villain of the drama . We shall now , therefore , treat of them all under this head—if head indeed we may be allowed to designate that tall cone of matted hair and impudence .
The personal appearance of Mr Punch is singularly characteristic of the inward fellow . His features are all large , extravagant , preposterous , and mask-like ; the expression , a rich mixture of the Italian bravo and buffoon . The Knave of Clubs is nothing to it . There is something heraldic in his outrageous nonconformity to any known living being . He is the
dwarfabortion of a deformed giant . His strength of physical endurance , awkwardness , and mistaken estimate of his powers , all go to prove this . As the mystical and no less gifted artist Blake made a microscopic drawing of a flea , and thereuhto a calculation of what would be its powers of mischief if it were as big as a horse , so we may all bless our stars that Punch , who seems of the family of Brobdignags , was thus thwarted of
his germinant proportions . ( Possibly had not this been the case , his character might have been different , but regarding him as he is , we should be sorry to see Nature try the experiment . ) He always expects to carry everything by a coup-demain , as if he had to deal with mere shrimps , and though he invariably conquers in the end , it is chiefly by dint of being able to take more than his antagonist has strength to
administer . Then comes his turn , and he uses it with most destructive remorselessness . His dress is always a mixture of red and yellow , and the tints of his inflamed visage harmonize with the former , and seem to exude from the whole man . Of his most characteristic voice what words can convey an idea that shall at all do justice to its rascally quality , —its shrill , abrupt , inter- ; mittent fits of cracked crowing over all possible arrangements of society , and over all the decencies of our common nature !
Untitled Article
Analytical Disquisition on Punch and Judy . 1 IS
Untitled Article
ANALYTICAL DISQUISITION © u $ uncf ) antJ ^ uty ? .
Untitled Article
No , 122 . H
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 113, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/66/
-