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    Punch is , in his own person , the embodiment of sheer animal spirits . There is no repose in him whatever . He is utterly without wit ; he has not an atom ; everything he does results from humour and temperament—an outrageous eccentricity of comic action . So single , individualized , and unique is his character as thu « seen , that it will be found to exclude almost

    all ordinary human passiriiis , and even appetites . In his dance with Miss Poll- —the only hint at the sensual which occurs throughout the play —there is nothing worth mentioning , except his impudent suggestions to the spectators for the mere purpose of outraging the face of society . As to the gourmand ajid the bacchanalian—the common adjuncts of ordinary comic characters—you see no signs of either in . Punch . And yet th £

    fellow is & staring and roistering type of undisguised and audaeious selfishness . One passion only he possesses , and that so strong a 3 to keep out all others—viz . a passion for practical # iiii provided always that it be mischievous and provocative in the last degree . I showed this essay to my friend Mr Hazlitt some time since , who interpolated the following passage , which I shall take the liberty of retaining . "Punch is a fellow possessing as little of

    tfce faculty of reason as possible without being ideotic . Many jnadtiien have much more , even when not in lucid intervals * His actions denote no ' foregone conclusions , ' and he has no sense of consequences . He is a striking instance ( and a stricken one , as often ) of a person who leayns nothing from experience . It only Serves as an irritation to his will . With all hid extravagance , h $ is also very deficient in imagination . There is nothing at

    all romantic about him . Nor is there anything romantic in tjie pjay . It is entirely of the domestic kind—a broad caricature , I admit ;—the actors being every-day folks , nor can Hy $ be certain that the devil is an exception * Each character , fyowever * according to a fine dramatic principle , represents a

    ela $ B , as I think C . L . has fully elucidated . We are all delighted # ith the exhibition—* as pleased as Punch '—chiefly from its unrestrained , irresponsible excitement , which has the full force of contrast and relief to conventional restrictions , and encourages us , in our vices . "

    I ana not mu # h disposed to dissent from the causticity of the latter remark ; I think , however , that we also find pleasure in the exhibition for the same reason that we chuckle at caricature prints * and without any self-reference , unless it be a self-complacent one . The writer whose words I have Just cited , would rtO doubt say tjiat this was only a branch of his theory , and go onto sho \ y that it was the mere working out .. of the same fundamental principle . I know his w&y , and shall not let this essay go into his hands again , having a mind to keep my

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    114 Analytical Ditqtiistiwn M Punth and Judy .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 1, 1837, page 114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1828/page/67/