PUNCH.

The performer of Punch that I saw was a short, dark, pleasant-looking

man, dressed in a very greasy and very shiny green shooting-jacket.

This was fastened together by one button in front, all the other

button-holes having been burst through. Protruding from his bosom, a

corner of the pandean pipes was just visible, and as he told me the

story of his adventures, he kept playing with the band of his very

limp and very rusty old beaver hat. He had formerly been a gentleman’s

servant, and was especially civil in his manners. He came to me with

his hair tidily brushed for the occasion, but apologised for his

appearance on entering the room. He was very communicative, and took

great delight in talking like Punch, with his call in his mouth, while

some young children were in the room, and who, hearing the well-known

sound of Punch’s voice, looked all about for the figure. Not seeing the

show, they fancied the man had the figure in his pocket, and that the

sounds came from it. The change from Punch’s voice to the man’s natural

tone was managed without an effort, and instantaneously. It had a very

peculiar effect.

“I am the proprietor of a Punch’s show,” he said. “I goes about with it

myself, and performs inside the frame behind the green baize. I have

a pardner what plays the music--the pipes and drum; him as you see’d

with me. I have been five-and-twenty year now at the business. I wish

I’d never seen it, though it’s _been_ a money-making business--indeed,

the best of all the street hexhibitions I may say. I am fifty years

old. I took to it for money gains--that was what I done it for. I

formerly lived in service--was a footman in a gentleman’s family.

When I first took to it, I could make two and three pounds a-day--I

could so. You see, the way in which I took first to the business was

this here--there was a party used to come and ‘cheer’ for us at my

master’s house, and her son having a hexhibition of his own, and being

in want of a pardner, axed me if so be I’d go out, which was a thing

that I degraded at the time. He gave me information as to what the

money-taking was, and it seemed to me that good, that it would pay me

better nor service. I had twenty pounds a-year in my place, and my

board and lodging, and two suits of clothes, but the young man told me

as how I could make one pound a-day at the Punch-and-Judy business,

after a little practice. I took a deal of persuasion, though, before

I’d join him--it was beneath my dignity to fall from a footman to

a showman. But, you see, the French gennelman as I lived with (he

were a merchant in the city, and had fourteen clerks working for him)

went back to his own country to reside, and left me with a written

kerrackter; but that was no use to me: though I’d fine recommendations

at the back of it, no one would look at it; so I was five months out

of employment, knocking about--living first on my wages and then on

my clothes, till all was gone but the few rags on my back. So I began

to think that the Punch-and-Judy business was better than starving

after all. Yes, I should think anything was better than that, though

it’s a business that, after you’ve once took to, you never can get out

of--people fancies you know too much, and won’t have nothing to say to

you. If I got a situation at a tradesman’s, why the boys would be sure

to recognise me behind the counter, and begin a shouting into the shop

(they _must_ shout, you know): ‘Oh, there’s Punch and Judy--there’s

Punch a-sarving out the customers!’ Ah, it’s a great annoyance being

a public kerrackter, I can assure you, sir; go where you will, it’s

‘Punchy, Punchy!’ As for the boys, they’ll never leave me alone till I

die, I know; and I suppose in my old age I shall have to take to the

parish broom. All our forefathers died in the workhouse. I don’t know

a Punch’s showman that hasn’t. One of my pardners was buried by the

workhouse; and even old Pike, the most noted showman as ever was, died

in the workhouse--Pike and Porsini. Porsini was the first original

street Punch, and Pike was his apprentice; their names is handed down

to posterity among the noblemen and footmen of the land. They both died

in the workhouse, and, in course, I shall do the same. Something else

_might_ turn up, to be sure. We can’t say what this luck of the world

is. I’m obliged to strive very hard--very hard indeed, sir, now, to get

a living; and then not to get it after all--at times, compelled to go

short, often.

“Punch, you know, sir, is a dramatic performance in two hacts. It’s a

play, you may say. I don’t think it can be called a tragedy hexactly;

a drama is what we names it. There is tragic parts, and comic and

sentimental parts, too. Some families where I performs will have it

most sentimental--in the original style; them families is generally

sentimental theirselves. Others is all for the comic, and then I has

to kick up all the games I can. To the sentimental folk I am obliged

to perform werry steady and werry slow, and leave out all comic words

and business. They won’t have no ghost, no coffin, and no devil; and

that’s what I call spiling the performance entirely. It’s the march

of hintellect wot’s a doing all this--it is, sir. But I was a going to

tell you about my first jining the business. Well, you see, after a

good deal of persuading, and being drew to it, I may say, I consented

to go out with the young man as I were a-speaking about. He was to give

me twelve shillings a-week and my keep, for two years certain, till

I could get my own show things together, and for that I was to carry

the show, and go round and _collect_. Collecting, you know, sounds

better than begging; the pronounciation’s better like. Sometimes the

people says, when they sees us a coming round, ‘Oh, here they comes

a-begging’--but it can’t be begging, you know, when you’re a hexerting

yourselves. I couldn’t play the drum and pipes, so the young man

used to do that himself, to call the people together before he got

into the show. I used to stand outside, and patter to the figures.

The first time that ever I went out with Punch was in the beginning

of August, 1825. I did all I could to avoid being seen. My dignity

was hurt at being hobligated to take to the streets for a living. At

fust I fought shy, and used to feel queer somehow, you don’t know how

like, whenever the people used to look at me. I remember werry well

the first street as ever I performed in. It was off Gray’s Inn, one of

them quiet, genteel streets, and when the mob began to gather round

I felt all-overish, and I turned my head to the frame instead of the

people. We hadn’t had no rehearsals aforehand, and I did the patter

quite permiscuous. There was not much talk, to be sure, required then;

and what little there was, consisted merely in calling out the names

of the figures as they came up, and these my master prompted me with

from inside the frame. But little as there was for me to do, I know

I never could have done it, if it hadn’t been for the spirits--the

false spirits, you see (a little drop of gin), as my master guv me in

the morning. The first time as ever I made my appearance in public, I

collected as much as eight shillings, and my master said, after the

performance was over, ‘You’ll do!’ You see I was partly in livery, and

looked a little bit decent like. After this was over, I kept on going

out with my master for two years, as I had agreed, and at the end of

that time I had saved enough to start a show of my own. I bought the

show of old Porsini, the man as first brought Punch into the streets of

England. To be sure, there was a woman over here with it before then.

Her name was----I can’t think of it just now, but she never performed

in the streets, so we consider Porsini as our real forefather. It isn’t

much more nor seventy years since Porsini (he was a werry old man when

he died, and blind) showed the hexhibition in the streets of London.

I’ve heerd tell that old Porsini used to take very often as much as ten

pounds a-day, and he used to sit down to his fowls and wine, and the

very best of everything, like the first gennelman in the land; indeed,

he made enough money at the business to be quite a tip-top gennelman,

that he did. But he never took care of a halfpenny he got. He was that

independent, that if he was wanted to perform, sir, he’d come at his

time, not your’n. At last, he reduced himself to want, and died in St.

Giles’s workhouse. Ah, poor fellow! he oughtn’t to have been allowed

to die where he did, after amusing the public for so many years.

Every one in London knowed him. Lords, dukes, princes, squires, and

wagabonds--all used to stop to laugh at his performance, and a funny

clever old fellow he was. He was past performing when I bought my show

of him, and werry poor. He was living in the Coal-yard, Drury-lane,

and had scarcely a bit of food to eat. He had spent all he had got in

drink, and in treating friends,--aye, any one, no matter who. He didn’t

study the world, nor himself neither. As fast as the money came it

went, and when it was gone, why, he’d go to work and get more. His show

was a very inferior one, though it were the fust--nothing at all like

them about now--nothing near as good. If you only had four sticks then,

it was quite enough to make plenty of money out of, so long as it was

Punch. I gave him thirty-five shillings for the stand, figures and all.

I bought it cheap, you see, for it was thrown on one side, and was of

no use to any one but such as myself. There was twelve figures and the

other happaratus, such as the gallows, ladder, horse, bell, and stuffed

dog. The characters was Punch, Judy, Child, Beadle, Scaramouch, Nobody,

Jack Ketch, the Grand Senoor, the Doctor, the Devil (there was no Ghost

used then), Merry Andrew, and the Blind Man. These last two kerrackters

are quite done with now. The heads of the kerrackters was all carved

in wood, and dressed in the proper costume of the country. There was

at that time, and is now, a real carver for the Punch business. He was

dear, but werry good and hexcellent. His Punch’s head was the best as I

ever seed. The nose and chin used to meet quite close together. A set

of new figures, dressed and all, would come to about fifteen pounds.

Each head costs five shillings for the bare carving alone, and every

figure that we has takes at least a yard of cloth to dress him, besides

ornaments and things that comes werry expensive. A good show at the

present time will cost three pounds odd for the stand alone--that’s

including baize, the frontispiece, the back scene, the cottage, and the

letter cloth, or what is called the drop-scene at the theatres. In the

old ancient style, the back scene used to pull up and change into a

gaol scene, but that’s all altered now.

[Illustration: PUNCH’S SHOWMEN.

[_From a Photograph._]]

“We’ve got more upon the comic business now, and tries to do more

with Toby than with the prison scene. The prison is what we calls the

sentimental style. Formerly Toby was only a stuffed figure. It

was Pike who first hit upon hintroducing a live dog, and a great hit

it were--it made a grand alteration in the hexhibition, for now the

performance is called Punch and Toby _as well_. There is one Punch

about the streets at present that tries it on with three dogs, but that

ain’t much of a go--too much of a good thing I calls it. Punch, as I

said before, is a drama in two hacts. We don’t drop the scene at the

end of the first--the drum and pipes strikes up instead. The first act

we consider to end with Punch being taken to prison for the murder of

his wife and child. The great difficulty in performing Punch consists

in the speaking, which is done by a call, or whistle in the mouth, such

as this here.” (He then produced the call from his waistcoat pocket.

It was a small flat instrument, made of two curved pieces of metal

about the size of a knee-buckle, bound together with black thread.

Between these was a plate of some substance (apparently silk), which

he said was a secret. The call, he told me, was tuned to a musical

instrument, and took a considerable time to learn. He afterwards took

from his pocket two of the small metallic plates unbound. He said the

composition they were made of was also one of the “secrets of the

purfession.” They were not tin, nor zinc, because “both of them metals

were poisons in the mouth, and hinjurious to the constitution.”) “These

calls,” he continued, “we often sell to gennelmen for a sovereign

a-piece, and for that we give ’em a receipt how to use them. They ain’t

whistles, but calls, or unknown tongues, as we sometimes names ’em,

because with them in the mouth we can pronounce each word as plain as

any parson. We have two or three kinds--one for out-of-doors, one for

in-doors, one for speaking and for singing, and another for selling.

I’ve sold many a one to gennelmen going along, so I generally keeps a

hextra one with me. Porsini brought the calls into this country with

him from Italy, and we who are now in the purfession have all learnt

how to make and use them, either from him or those as he had taught

’em to. I larnt the use of mine from Porsini himself. My master whom I

went out with at first would never teach me, and was werry partickler

in keeping it all secret from me. Porsini taught me the call at the

time I bought his show of him. I was six months in perfecting myself

in the use of it. I kept practising away night and morning with it,

until I got it quite perfect. It was no use trying at home, ’cause it

sounds quite different in the hopen hair. Often when I’ve made ’em at

home, I’m obliged to take the calls to pieces after trying ’em out

in the streets, they’ve been made upon too weak a scale. When I was

practising, I used to go into the parks, and fields, and out-of-the-way

places, so as to get to know how to use it in the hopen hair. Now I’m

reckoned one of the best speakers in the whole purfession. When I made

my first appearance as a regular performer of Punch on my own account,

I did feel uncommon narvous, to be sure: though I know’d the people

couldn’t see me behind the baize, still I felt as if all the eyes of

the country were upon me. It was as much as hever I could do to get

the words out, and keep the figures from shaking. When I struck up the

first song, my voice trembled so as I thought I never should be able

to get to the hend of the first hact. I soon, however, got over that

there, and at present I’d play before the whole bench of bishops as

cool as a cowcumber. We always have a pardner now to play the drum and

pipes, and collect the money. This, however, is only a recent dodge.

In older times we used to go about with a trumpet--that was Porsini’s

ancient style; but now that’s stopped. Only her majesty’s mails may

blow trumpets in the streets at present. The fust person who went out

with me was my wife. She used to stand outside, and keep the boys from

peeping through the baize, whilst I was performing behind it; and

she used to collect the money afterwards as well. I carried the show

and trumpet, and she the box. She’s been dead these five years now.

Take one week with another, all through the year, I should say I made

then five pounds regular. I _have_ taken as much as two pounds ten

shillings in one day in the streets; and I used to think it a bad day’s

business at that time if I took only one pound. You can see Punch has

been good work--a money-making business--and beat all mechanics right

out. If I could take as much as I did when I first began, what must

my forefathers have done, when the business was five times as good as

ever it were in my time? Why, I leaves you to judge what old Porsini

and Pike must have made. Twenty years ago I have often and often got

seven shillings and eight shillings for one hexhibition in the streets:

two shillings and three shillings I used to think low to get at one

collection; and many times I’d perform eight or ten times in a day. We

didn’t care much about work then, for we could get money fast enough;

but now I often show twenty times in the day, and get scarcely a bare

living at it arter all. That shows the times, you know, sir--what

things was and is now. Arter performing in the streets of a day we used

to attend private parties in the hevening, and get sometimes as much

as two pounds for the hexhibition. This used to be at the juvenile

parties of the nobility; and the performance lasted about an hour and

a half. For a short performance of half-an-hour at a gennelman’s house

we never had less than one pound. A performance outside the house was

two shillings and sixpence; but we often got as much as ten shillings

for it. I have performed afore almost all the nobility. Lord ---- was

particular partial to us, and one of our greatest patronizers. At the

time of the Police Bill I met him at Cheltenham on my travels, and he

told me as he had saved Punch’s neck once more; and it’s through him

principally that we are allowed to exhibit in the streets. Punch is

exempt from the Police Act. If you read the hact throughout, you won’t

find Punch mentioned in it. But all I’ve been telling you is about

the business as it was. What it _is_, is a werry different consarn.

A good day for us now seldom gets beyond five shillings, and that’s

between myself and my pardner, who plays the drum and pipes. Often

we are out all day, and get a mere nuffing. Many days we have been

out and taken nuffing at all--that’s werry common when we dwells upon

horders. By dwelling on horders, I means looking out for gennelmen

what want us to play in front of their houses. When we strike up in

the hopen street we take upon a haverage only threepence a show. In

course we _may_ do more, but that’s about the sum, take one street

performance with another. Them kind of performances is what we calls

‘short showing.’ We gets the halfpence and hooks it. A ‘long pitch’

is the name we gives to performances that lasts about half-an-hour or

more. Them long pitches we confine solely to street corners in public

thoroughfares; and then we take about a shilling upon a haverage, and

more if it’s to be got--we never turns away nuffing. ‘Boys, look up

your fardens,’ says the outside man; ‘it ain’t half over yet, we’ll

show it all through.’ The short shows we do only in private by-streets,

and of them we can get through about twenty in the day; that’s as much

as we can tackle--ten in the morning, and ten in the afternoon. Of the

long pitches we can only do eight in the day. We start on our rounds

at nine in the morning, and remain out till dark at night. We gets a

snack at the publics on our road. The best hours for Punch are in the

morning from nine till ten, because then the children are at home.

Arter that, you know, they goes out with the maids for a walk. From

twelve till three is good again, and then from six till nine; that’s

because the children are mostly at home at them hours. We make much

more by horders for performance houtside the gennelmen’s houses, than

we do by performing in public in the hopen streets. Monday is the best

day for street business; Friday is no day at all, because then the poor

people has spent all their money. If we was to pitch on a Friday, we

shouldn’t take a halfpenny in the streets, so we in general on that

day goes round for horders. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday is the

best days for us with horders at gennelmen’s houses. We do much better

in the spring than at any other time in the year, excepting holiday

time, at Midsummer and Christmas. That’s what we call Punch’s season.

We do most at hevening parties in the holiday time, and if there’s a

pin to choose between them, I should say Christmas holidays was the

best. For attending hevening parties now we generally get one pound

and our refreshments--as much more as they like to give us. But the

business gets slacker and slacker every season. Where I went to ten

parties twenty years ago, I don’t go to two now. People isn’t getting

tired of our performances, but stingier--that’s it. Everybody looks at

their money now afore they parts with it, and gennelfolks haggles and

cheapens us down to shillings and sixpences, as if they was guineas in

the holden time. Our business is werry much like hackney-coach work;

we do best in vet vether. It looks like rain this evening, and I’m

uncommon glad on it, to be sure. You see, the vet keeps the children

in-doors all day, and then they wants something to quiet ’em a bit;

and the mothers and fathers, to pacify the dears, gives us a horder

to perform. It mustn’t rain cats and dogs--that’s as bad as no rain

at all. What we likes is a regular good, steady Scotch mist, for then

we takes double what we takes on other days. In summer we does little

or nothing; the children are out all day enjoying themselves in the

parks. The best pitch of all in London is Leicester-square; there’s

all sorts of classes, you see, passing there. Then comes Regent-street

(the corner of Burlington-street is uncommon good, and there’s a good

publican there besides). Bond-street ain’t no good now. Oxford-street,

up by Old Cavendish-street, or Oxford-market, or Wells-street, are

all favourite pitches for Punch. We don’t do much in the City. People

has their heads all full of business there, and them as is greedy

arter the money ain’t no friend of Punch’s. Tottenham-court-road, the

New-road, and all the henvirons of London, is pretty good. Hampstead,

tho’, ain’t no good; they’ve got too poor there. I’d sooner not go out

at all than to Hampstead. Belgrave-square, and all about that part, is

uncommon good; but where there’s many chapels Punch won’t do at all. I

did once, though, strike up hopposition to a street preacher wot was

a holding forth in the New-road and did uncommon well. All his flock,

as he called ’em, left him, and come over to look at me. Punch and

preaching is two different creeds--hopposition parties, I may say. We

in generally walks from twelve to twenty mile every day, and carries

the show, which weighs a good half-hundred, at the least. Arter great

exertion, our woice werry often fails us; for speaking all day through

the ‘call’ is werry trying, ’specially when we are chirruping up so

as to bring the children to the vinders. The boys is the greatest

nuisances we has to contend with. Wherever we goes we are sure of

plenty of boys for a hindrance; but they’ve got no money, bother

’em! and they’ll follow us for miles, so that we’re often compelled

to go miles to awoid ’em. Many parts is swarming with boys, such as

Vitechapel. Spitalfields, that’s the worst place for boys I ever come

a-near; they’re like flies in summer there, only much more thicker. I

never shows my face within miles of them parts. Chelsea, again, has

an uncommon lot of boys; and wherever we know the children swarm,

there’s the spots we makes a point of awoiding. Why, the boys is such a

hobstruction to our performance, that often we are obliged to drop the

curtain for ’em. They’ll throw one another’s caps into the frame while

I’m inside on it, and do what we will, we can’t keep ’em from poking

their fingers through the baize and making holes to peep through. Then

they _will_ keep tapping the drum; but the worst of all is, the most

of ’em ain’t got a farthing to bless themselves with, and they _will_

shove into the best places. Soldiers, again, we don’t like, they’ve got

no money--no, not even so much as pockets, sir. Nusses ain’t no good.

Even if the mothers of the dear little children has given ’em a penny

to spend, why the nusses takes it from ’em, and keeps it for ribbins.

Sometimes we can coax a penny out of the children, but the nusses knows

too much to be gammoned by us. Indeed, servants in generally don’t do

the thing what’s right to us--some is good to us, but the most of ’em

will have poundage out of what we gets. About sixpence out of every

half-crown is what the footman takes from us. We in generally goes into

the country in the summer time for two or three months. Watering-places

is werry good in July and August. Punch mostly goes down to the

sea-side with the quality. Brighton, though, ain’t no account; the

Pavilion’s done up with, and therefore Punch has discontinued his

visits. We don’t put up at the trampers’ houses on our travels, but

in generally inns is where we stays; because we considers ourselves

to be above the other showmen and mendicants. At one lodging-house

as I stopped at once in Warwick, there was as many as fifty staying

there what got their living by street performances--the greater part

were Italian boys and girls. There are altogether as many as sixteen

Punch-and-Judy frames in England. Eight of these is at work in London,

and the other eight in the country; and to each of these frames there

are two men. We are all acquainted with one another; are all sociable

together, and know where each other is, and what they are a-doing

on. When one comes home, another goes out; that’s the way we proceed

through life. It wouldn’t do for two to go to the same place. If two of

us happens to meet at one town, we jine, and shift pardners, and share

the money. One goes one way, and one another, and we meet at night, and

reckon up over a sociable pint or a glass. We shift pardners so as each

may know how much the other has taken. It’s the common practice for the

man what performs Punch to share with the one wot plays the drum and

pipes--each has half wot is collected; but if the pardner can’t play

the drum and pipes, and only carries the frame, and collects, then his

share is but a third of what is taken till he learns how to perform

himself. The street performers of London lives mostly in little rooms

of their own; they has generally wives, and one or two children, who

are brought up to the business. Some lives about the Westminster-road,

and St. George’s East. A great many are in Lock’s-fields--they are all

the old school that way. Then some, or rather the principal part of

the showmen, are to be found about Lisson-grove. In this neighbourhood

there is a house of call, where they all assembles in the evening.

There are a very few in Brick-lane, Spitalfields, now; that is mostly

deserted by showmen. The West-end is the great resort of all; for it’s

there the money lays, and there the showmen abound. We all know one

another, and can tell in what part of the country the others are. We

have intelligence by letters from all parts. There’s a Punch I knows on

now is either in the Isle of Man, or on his way to it.”

_Punch Talk._

“‘Bona parlare’ means language; name of patter. ‘Yeute munjare’--no

food. ‘Yeute lente’--no bed. ‘Yeute bivare’--no drink. I’ve ‘yeute

munjare,’ and ‘yeute bivare,’ and, what’s worse, ‘yeute lente.’ This is

better than the costers’ talk, because that ain’t no slang at all, and

this is a broken Italian, and much higher than the costers’ lingo. We

know what o’clock it is, besides.”

_Scene with two Punchmen._

“‘How are you getting on?’ I might say to another Punchman. ‘Ultra

cateva,’ he’d say. If I was doing a little, I’d say, ‘Bonar.’ Let us

have a ‘shant a bivare’--pot o’ beer. If we has a good pitch we never

tell one another, for business is business. If they know we’ve a

‘bonar’ pitch, they’ll oppose, which makes it bad.

“‘Co. and Co.’ is our term for partner, or ‘questa questa,’ as well.

‘Ultray cativa,’--no bona. ‘Slumareys’--figures, frame, scenes,

properties. ‘Slum’--call, or unknown tongue. ‘Ultray cativa slum’--not

a good call. ‘Tambora’--drum; that’s Italian. ‘Pipares’--pipes.

‘Questra homa a vardring the slum, scapar it, Orderly’--there’s someone

a looking at the slum. Be off quickly. ‘Fielia’ is a child; ‘Homa’ is

a man; ‘Dona,’ a female; ‘Charfering-homa’--talking-man, policeman.

Policeman can’t interfere with us, we’re sanctioned. Punch is exempt

out of the Police Act. Some’s very good men, and some on ’em are

tyrants; but generally speaking they’re all werry kind to us, and

allows us every privilege. That’s a flattery, you know, because you’d

better not meddle with them. Civility always gains its esteem.”

The man here took a large clasp-knife out of his breeches pocket.

“This here knife is part of Punch’s tools or materials, of great

utility, for it cannot be done without. The knife serves for a hammer,

to draw nails and drive them in again, and is very handy on a country

road to cut a beefsteak--not a mistake--Well, ye cannot cut a mistake,

can ye?--and is a real poor man’s friend to a certainty.

“This here is the needle that completes our tools (_takes out a needle

from inside his waistcoat collar_,) and is used to sew up our cativa

stumps, that is, Punch’s breeches and Judy’s petticoats, and his

master’s old clothes when they’re in holes. I likes to have everything

tidy and respectable, not knowing where I’m going to perform to, for

every day is a new day that we never see afore and never shall see

again; we do not know the produce of this world, being luxurant (that’s

moral), being humane, kind, and generous to all our society of life.

We mends our cativa and slums when they gets teearey (if you was to

show that to some of our line they’d be horrified; they can’t talk so

affluent, you know, in all kinds of black slums). Under the hedgeares,

and were no care varder us questa--‘questa’ is a shirt--pronunciation

for questra homa.

“Once, too, when I was scarpering with my culling in the monkey, I went

to mendare the cativa slums in a churchyard, and sat down under the

tombs to stitch ’em up a bit, thinking no one would varder us there.

But Mr. Crookshank took us off there as we was a sitting. I know I’m

the same party, ’cos Joe seen the print you know and draw’d quite

nat’ral, as now in print, with the slumares a laying about on all the

tombstones round us.”

_The Punchman at the Theatre._

“I used often when a youth to be very fond of plays and romances, and

frequently went to theatres to learn knowledge, of which I think there

is a deal of knowledge to be learnt from those places (that gives the

theatres a touch--helps them on a bit). I was very partial and fond of

seeing Romeau and Juliet; Otheller; and the Knights of St. John, and

the Pretty Gal of Peerlesspool; Macbeth and the Three Dancing Witches.

Don Goovarney pleased me best of all though. What took me uncommon were

the funeral purcession of Juliet--it affects the heart, and brings us

to our nat’ral feelings. I took my ghost from Romeau and Juliet; the

ghost comes from the grave, and it’s beautiful. I used to like Kean,

the principal performer. Oh, admirable! most admirable he were, and

especially in Otheller, for then he was like my Jim Crow here, and was

always a great friend and supporter of his old friend Punch. Otheller

murders his wife, ye know, like Punch does. Otheller kills her, ’cause

the green-eyed monster has got into his ’art, and he being so extremely

fond on her; but Punch kills his’n by accident, though he did not

intend to do it, for the Act of Parliament against husbands beating

wives was not known in his time. A most excellent law that there, for

it causes husbands and wives to be kind and natural one with the other,

all through the society of life. Judy irritates her husband, Punch, for

to strike the fatal blow, vich at the same time, vith no intention to

commit it, not knowing at the same time, being rather out of his mind,

vot he vas about. I hope this here will be a good example both to men

and wives, always to be kind and obleeging to each other, and that will

help them through the mainder with peace and happiness, and will rest

in peace with all mankind (that’s moral). It must be well worded, ye

know, that’s my beauty.”

_Mr. Punch’s Refreshment._

“Always Mr. Punch, when he performs to any nobleman’s juvenile parties,

he requires a little refreshment and sperrits before commencing,

because the performance will go far superior. But where teetotallers

is he plays very mournful, and they don’t have the best parts of the

dramatical performance. Cos pump vater gives a person no heart to

exhibit his performance, where if any sperrits is given to him he

woold be sure to give the best of satisfaction. I likes where I goes

to perform for the gennelman to ring the bell, and say to the butler

to bring this here party up whatever he chooses. But Punch is always

moderate; he likes one eye wetted, then the tother after; but he likes

the best: not particular to brandy, for fear of his nose of fading, and

afeerd of his losing the colour. All theatrical people, and even the

great Edmund Kean, used to take a drop before commencing performance,

and Punch must do the same, for it enlivens his sperrits, cheers his

heart up, and enables him to give the best of satisfaction imaginable.”

_The History of Punch._

“There are hoperas and romarnces. A romarnce is far different to a

hopera, you know; for one is interesting, and the other is dull and

void of apprehension. The romance is the interesting one, and of the

two I likes it the best; but let every one speak as they find--that’s

moral. Jack Sheppard, you know, is a romarnce, and a fine one; but

Punch is a hopera--a huproar, we calls it, and the most pleasing and

most interesting of all as was ever produced, Punch never was beat and

never will, being the oldest performance for many hundred years, and

now handed down to prosperity (there’s a fine moral in it, too).

“The history or origination of Punch--(never put yerself out of yer

way for me, I’m one of the happiest men in existence, and gives no

trouble)--is taken from Italy, and brought over to England by Porsini,

and exhibited in the streets of London for the first time from sixty

to seventy years ago; though he was not the first man who exhibited,

for there was a female here before him, but not to perform at all in

public--name unknown, but handed down to prosperity. She brought the

figures and frame over with her, but never showed ’em--keeping it an

unknown secret. Porsini came from Hitaly, and landed in England, and

exhibited his performance in the streets of London, and realized an

immense sum of money. Porsini always carried a rum-bottle in his pocket

(’cause Punch is a rum fellow, ye see, and he’s very fond of rum), and

drinked out of this unbeknown behind the baize afore he went into the

frame, so that it should lay in his power to give the audience a most

excellent performance. He was a man as gave the greatest satisfaction,

and he was the first man that brought a street horgan into England from

Hitaly. His name is handed down to prosperity among all classes of

society in life.

“At first, the performance was quite different then to what it is now.

It was all sentimental then, and very touching to the feelings, and

full of good morals. The first part was only made up of the killing of

his wife and babby, and the second with the execution of the hangman

and killing of the devil--that was the original drama of Punch, handed

down to prosperity for 800 years. The killing of the devil makes it one

of the most moral plays as is, for it stops Satan’s career of life, and

then we can all do as we likes afterwards.

“Porsini lived like the first nobleman in the land, and realized an

immense deal of money during his lifetime; we all considered him to be

our forefather. He was a very old man when he died. I’ve heard tell

he used to take very often as much as 10_l._ a-day, and now it’s come

down to little more than 10_d._; and he used to sit down to his fowls

and wine, and the very best of luxuriousness, like the first nobleman

in the world, such as a bottle of wine, and cetera. At last he reduced

himself to want, and died in the workhouse. Ah! poor fellow, he didn’t

ought to have been let die where he did, but misfortunes will happen

to all--that’s moral. Every one in London knowed him: lords, dukes,

squires, princes, and wagabones, all used to stop and laugh at his

pleasing and merry interesting performance; and a funny old fellow

he was, and so fond of his snuff. His name is writ in the annuals of

history, and handed down as long as grass grows and water runs--for

when grass ceases to grow, ye know, and water ceases to run, this world

will be no utility; that’s moral.

“Pike, the second noted street performer of Punch, was Porsini’s

apprentice, and he succeeded him after his career. He is handed down

as a most clever exhibitor of Punch and showman--’cause he used to

go about the country with waggons, too. He exhibited the performance

for many years, and at last came to decay, and died in the workhouse.

He was the first inventor of the live dog called Toby, and a great

invention it was, being a great undertaking of a new and excellent

addition to Punch’s performance--that’s well worded--we must place the

words in a superior manner to please the public.

“Then if, as you see, all our forefathers went to decay and died in

the workhouse, what prospect have we to look forward to before us

at the present time but to share the same fate, unless we meet with

sufficient encouragement in this life? But hoping it will not be so,

knowing that there is a new generation and a new exhibition, we hope

the public at large will help and assist, and help us to keep our head

above water, so that we shall never float down the river Thames, to be

picked up, carried in a shell, coroner’s inquest held, taken to the

workhouse, popped into the pithole, and there’s an end to another poor

old Punch--that’s moral.

“A footman is far superior to a showman, ’cause a showman is held to

be of low degrade, and are thought as such, and so circumstantiated as

to be looked upon as a mendicant; but still we are not, for collecting

ain’t begging, it’s only selliciting; ’cause parsons, you know (I

gives them a rub here), preaches a sermon and collects at the doors,

so I puts myself on the same footing as they--that’s moral, and it’s

optional, ye know. If I takes a hat round, they has a plate, and they

gets sovereigns where we has only browns; but we are thankful for all,

and always look for encouragement, and hopes kind support from all

classes of society in life.

“Punch has two kind of performances--short shows and long ones,

according to denare. Short shows are for cativa denare, and long

pitches for the bona denare. At the short shows we gets the ha’pence

and steps it--scafare, as we say; and at the long pitches ve keeps it

up for half an hour, or an hour, maybe--not particular, if the browns

tumble in well--for we never leave off while there’s a major solde

(that’s a halfpenny), or even a quartereen (that’s a farden), to be

made. The long pitches we fixes at the principal street-corners of

London. We never turn away nothink.

“‘Boys, look up your fardens,’ says the outside man; ‘it ain’t half

over yet, and we’ll show it all through.’

“Punch is like the income-tax gatherer, takes all we can get, and never

turns away nothink--that is our moral. Punch is like the rest of the

world, he has got bad morals, but very few of them. The showman inside

the frame says, while he’s a working the figures, ‘Culley, how are

you a getting on?’ ‘Very inferior indeed, I’m sorry to say, master.

The company, though very respectable, seems to have no pence among

’em.’ ‘What quanta denare have you chafered?’ I say. ‘Soldi major

quartereen;’ that means, three halfpence three fardens; ‘that is all I

have accumulated amongst this most respectable and numerous company.’

‘Never mind, master, the showman will go on; try the generosity of

the public once again.’ ‘Well, I think it’s of very little utility to

collect round again, for I’ve met with that poor encouragement.’ ‘Never

mind, master, show away. I’ll go round again and chance my luck; the

ladies and gentlemen have not seen sufficient, I think. Well, master,

I’ve got tres major’--that is, three half-pence--‘more, and now it’s

all over this time. Boys, go home and say your prayers,’ we says, and

steps it. Such scenes of life we see! No person would hardly credit

what we go through. We travel often yeute munjare (no food), and

oftentimes we’re in fluence, according as luck runs.

“We now principally dwells on orders at noblemen’s houses. The sebubs

of London pays us far better than the busy town of London. When

we are dwelling on orders, we goes along the streets chirripping

‘Roo-tooerovey ooey-ooey-ooerovey;’ that means, Any more wanted?

that’s the pronounciation of the call in the old Italian style.

Toorovey-to-roo-to-roo-toroo-torooey; that we does when we are dwelling

for orders mostly at noblemen’s houses. It brings the juvenials to

the window, and causes the greatest of attractions to the children

of noblemen’s families, both rich and poor: lords, dukes, earls, and

squires, and gentlefolks.

“‘Call-hunting,’--that’s another term for dwelling on orders--pays

better than pitching; but orders is wery casual, and pitching is a

certainty. We’re sure of a brown or two in the streets, and noblemen’s

work don’t come often. We must have it authentick, for we travels

many days and don’t succeed in getting one; at other times we are

more fluent; but when both combine together, it’s merely a living,

after all’s said and done, by great exertion and hard perseverance and

asidity, for the business gets slacker and slacker every year, and I

expect at last it will come to the dogs--not Toby, because he is dead

and gone. People isn’t getting tired with our performances; they’re

more delighted than ever; but they’re stingier. Everybody looks twice

at their money afore they parts with it.--That’s a rub at the mean

ones, and they wants it uncommon bad.

“And then, sometimes the blinds is all drawed down, on account of the

sun, and that cooks our goose; or, it’s too hot for people to stop and

varder--that means, see. In the cold days, when we pitch, people stops

a few minutes, drops their browns, and goes away about their business,

to make room for more. The spring of the year is the best of the four

seasons for us.

“A sailor and a lass half-seas over we like best of all. He will tip

his mag. We always ensure a few pence, and sometimes a shilling, of

them. We are fond of sweeps, too; they’re a sure brown, if they’ve got

one, and they’ll give before many a gentleman. But what we can’t abide

nohow is the shabby genteel--them altray cativa, and no mistake: for

they’ll stand with their mouths wide open, like a nut-cracker, and is

never satisfied, and is too grand even to laugh. It’s too much trouble

to carry ha’pence, and they’ve never no change, or else they’d give us

some; in fact, they’ve no money at all, they wants it all for, &c.”

_Mr. Punch’s Figures._

“This is Punch; this his wife, Judy. They never was married, not for

this eight hundred years--in the original drama. It is a drama in two

acts, is Punch. There was a Miss Polly, and she was Punch’s mistress,

and dressed in silks and satins. Judy catches Punch with her, and that

there causes all the disturbance. Ah, it’s a beautiful history; there’s

a deal of morals with it, and there’s a large volume wrote about it.

It’s to be got now.

“This here is Judy, their only child. She’s three years old come

to-morrow, and heir to all his estate, which is only a saucepan without

a handle.

“Well, _then_ I brings out the Beadle.

“Punch’s nose is the hornament to his face. It’s a great walue, and the

hump on his back is never to be got rid on, being born with him, and

never to be done without. Punch was silly and out of his mind--which is

in the drama--and the cause of his throwing his child out of winder,

vich he did. Judy went out and left him to nurse the child, and the

child gets so terrible cross he gets out of patience, and tries to sing

a song to it, and ends by chucking it into the street.

“Punch is cunning, and up to all kinds of antics, if he ain’t out of

his mind. Artful like. My opinion of Punch is, he’s very incentric,

with good and bad morals attached. Very good he was in regard to

benevolence; because, you see, in the olden style there was a blind

man, and he used to come and ax charity of him, and Punch used to pity

him and give him a trifle, you know. This is in the olden style, from

Porsini you know.

“The carving on his face is a great art, and there’s only one man as

does it reg’lar. His nose and chin, by meeting together, we thinks

the great beauty. Oh, he’s admirable!--He was very fond of hisself

when he was alive. His name was Punchinello, and we calls him Punch.

That’s partly for short and partly on account of the boys, for they

calls it Punch in hell O. ‘Oh, there’s Punch in hell,’ they’d say, and

gennelfolks don’t like to hear them words.

“Punch has very small legs and small arms. It’s quite out of portion,

in course; but still it’s nature, for folks with big bellies generally

has thin pins of their own.

“His dress has never been altered; the use of his high hat is to show

his half-foolish head, and the other parts is after the best olden

fashion.

“Judy, you see, is very ugly. She represents Punch; cos, you see, if

the two comes together, it generally happens that they’re summat alike;

and you see it’s because his wife were so ugly that he had a mistress.

You see, a head like that there wouldn’t please most people.

“The mistress, Polly, dances with Punch, just like a lady in a

drawing-room. There ain’t no grievance between him and Judy on account

of Miss Polly, as she’s called. That’s the olden style of all, cos Judy

don’t know nothing about it.

“Miss Polly was left out because it wasn’t exactly moral; opinions has

changed: we ain’t better, I fancy. Such things goes on, but people

don’t like to let it be seen now, that’s the difference.

“Judy’s dress, you see, is far different, bless you, than Miss

Polly’s. Judy’s, you see, is bed-furniture stuff, and Polly’s all

silk and satin. Yes, that’s the way of the world,--the wife comes off

second-best.

“The baby’s like his father, he’s his pet all over and the pride of his

heart; wouldn’t take all the world for it, you know, though he does

throw him out of window. He’s got his father’s nose, and is his daddy

all over, from the top of his head to the tip of his toe. He never was

weaned.

“Punch, you know, is so red through drink. He’d look nothing if his

nose were not deep scarlet. Punch used to drink hard one time, and

so he does now if he can get it. His babby is red all the same, to

correspond.

“This is the Beadle of the parish, which tries to quell all

disturbances but finds it impossible to do it. The Beadle has got a

very reddish nose. He is a very severe, harsh man, but Punch conquers

him. Ye see, he’s dressed in the olden style--a brown coat, with gold

lace and cock’d hat and all. He has to take Punch up for killing his

wife and babby; but Punch beats the Beadle, for every time he comes up

he knocks him down.

“This next one is the merry Clown, what tries his rig with Punch, up

and down--that’s a rhyme, you see. This is the merry Clown, that tries

his tricks all round. This here’s the new style, for we dwells more on

the comical now. In the olden time we used to have a scaramouch with a

chalk head. He used to torment Punch and dodge him about, till at last

Punch used to give him a crack on the head and smash it all to pieces,

and then cry out--‘Oh dear, Oh dear; I didn’t go to do it--it was an

accident, done on purpose.’ But now we do with Clown and the sausages.

Scaramouch never talked, only did the ballet business, dumb motions;

but the Clown speaks theatrical, comic business and sentimental. Punch

being silly and out of his mind, the Clown persuades Punch that he

wants something to eat. The Clown gets into the public-house to try

what he can steal. He pokes his head out of the window and says, ‘Here

you are, here you are;’ and then he asks Punch to give him a helping

hand, and so makes Punch steal the sausages. They’re the very best

pork-wadding sausages, made six years ago and warranted fresh, and ’ll

keep for ever.

“This here’s the poker, about which the Clown says, ‘Would you like

something hot?’ Punch says ‘Yes,’ and then the Clown burns Punch’s

nose, and sits down on it himself and burns his breeches. Oh, it’s a

jolly lark when I shows it. Clown says to Punch, ‘Don’t make a noise,

you’ll wake the landlord up.’ The landlord, you see, pretends to be

asleep.

“Clown says, ‘You mustn’t hollar.’ ‘No,’ says Punch, ‘I wont;’ and

still he hollars all the louder.

“This is Jim Crow: ye see he’s got a chain but he’s lost his watch. He

let it fall on Fish-street Hill, the other day, and broke it all to

pieces. He’s a nigger. He says, ‘Me like ebery body;’ not ‘every,’ but

‘ebery,’ cos that’s nigger. Instead of Jim Crow we used formerly to

show the Grand Turk of Sinoa, called Shallaballah. Sinoa is nowhere,

for he’s only a substance yer know. I can’t find Sinoa, although I’ve

tried, and thinks it’s at the bottom of the sea where the black fish

lays.

“Jim Crow sprung from Rice from America, he brought it over here. Then,

ye see, being a novelty, all classes of society is pleased. Everybody

liked to hear ‘Jim Crow’ sung, and so we had to do it. The people used

to stand round, and I used to take some good money with it too, sir, on

Hay-hill. Everybody’s funny now-a-days, and they like comic business.

They won’t listen to anything sensible or sentimental, but they wants

foolishness. The bigger fool gets the most money. Many people says,

‘What a fool, you must look!’ at that I put my head back. ‘Come on.’ ‘I

shan’t. I shall stop a little longer.’

“This is the Ghost, that appears to Punch for destroying his wife and

child. She’s the ghost of the two together, or else, by rights, there

ought to be a little ghost as well, but we should have such a lot

to carry about. But Punch, being surprised at the ghost, falls into

exstericks--represented as such. Punch is really terrified, for he

trembles like a haspen leaf, cos he never killed his wife. He’s got no

eyes and no teeth, and can’t see out of his mouth; or _cannot_, rather.

Them cant words ain’t grammatical. When Punch sees the Ghost he lays

down and kicks the bucket, and represents he’s dead.

“The Ghost is very effective, when it comes up very solemn and

mournful-like in Romeau and Juliet. I took it from that, yer know:

there’s a ghost in that when she comes out of the grave. Punch sits

down on his seat and sings his merry song of olden times, and don’t

see the Ghost till he gets a tap on the cheek, and then he thinks it’s

somebody else; instead of that, when he turns round, he’s most terrible

alarmed, putting his arms up and out. The drum goes very shaky when the

Ghost comes up. A little bit of ‘The Dead March in Saul,’ or ‘Home,

sweet Home:’ anything like that, slow. We none on us likes to be

hurried to the grave.

“I now takes up the Doctor. This is the Doctor that cures all sick

maids and says, ‘Taste of my drugs before you die, you’ll say they are

well made.’ The Doctor always wears a white ermine wig: rabbit skin

wouldn’t do, we can’t go so common as that; it’s most costly, cos it

was made for him.

“After the Ghost has appeared Punch falls down, and calls loudly for

the Doctor, and offers 50,000_l._ for one; then the Doctor feels

his pulse and says, ‘Very unfortunate misfortune! I have forgot my

spectacles, cos I never had none. I can see all through it--the man’s

not dead.’

“The Doctor gives Punch physic. That’s stick-lickerish wot he

subscribes for him; but Punch don’t like it, though it’s a capital

subscription for a cure for the head-ache. (I dare say, Mr. Mayhew,

sir, you thinks me a very funny fellow.) Punch tries to pay the Doctor

back with his own physic, but he misses him every time. Doctors don’t

like to take their own stuff anyhow.

“This is the Publican as Punch steals the sausages from; he used

to be the Grand Turk of Senoa, or Shallaballah, afore the fashion

changed--for a new world always wants new things: the people are like

babies, they must have a fresh toy ye know, and every day is a new

day that we never seed before.--There’s a moral for you; it’ll make a

beautiful book when you comes to have the morals explained. Ye see you

might still fancy Punch was the Grand Turk, for he’s got his moustaches

still; but they’re getting so fashionable that even the publicans wears

’em, so it don’t matter.

“This tall figure is the hangman and finisher of the law, as does the

business in the twinkling of a bed-post. He’s like the income-tax

gatherer, he takes all in and lets none out, for a guilty conscience

needs no accusing. Punch being condemned to suffer by the laws of his

country, makes a mistake for once in his life, and always did, and

always will keep a-doing it. Therefore, by cunningness and artfulness,

Punch persuades Jack Ketch to show him the way--which he very

‘willingly doeth’--to slip his head into the noose, when Punch takes

the opportunity to pull the rope, after he has shown him the way, and

is exempt for once more, and quite free.

“Now this is the coffin, and this is the pall. Punch is in a great way,

after he’s hung the man, for assistance, when he calls his favourite

friend Joey Grimaldi, the clown, to aid and assist him, because he’s

afeard that he’ll be taken for the crime wot he’s committed. Then the

body is placed in the coffin; but as the undertaker ain’t made it long

enough, they have to double him up. The undertaker requests permission

to git it altered. Ye see it’s a royal coffin, with gold, and silver,

and copper nails; with no plates, and scarlet cloth, cos that’s

royalty. The undertaker’s forgot the lid of the coffin, ye see: we

don’t use lids, cos it makes them lighter to carry.

“This is the pall that covers him over, to keep the flies from biting

him. We call it St. Paul’s. Don’t you see, palls and Paul’s is the same

word, with a _s_ to it: it’s comic. That ’ud make a beautiful play,

that would. Then we take out the figures, as I am doing now, from the

box, and they exaunt with a dance. ‘Here’s somebody a-coming, make

haste!’ the Clown says, and then they exaunt, you know, or go off.

“This here is the Scaramouch that dances without a head, and yet has

got a head that’ll reach from here to St. Paul’s; but it’s scarcely

ever to be seen. Cos his father was my mother, don’t ye see. Punch

says that it’s a beautiful figure. I’ve only made it lately. Instead

of him we used to have a nobody. The figure is to be worked with four

heads, that’s to say one coming out of each arm, one from the body,

and one from the neck. (He touches each part as he speaks.) Scaramouch

is old-fashioned newly revived. He comes up for a finish, yer know.

This figure’s all for dancing, the same as the ghost is, and don’t say

nothing. Punch being surprised to see such a thing, don’t know what

to make on it. He bolts away, for ye see (whispering and putting up

two hands first, and then using the other, as if working Scaramouch),

I wants my two hands to work him. After Punch goes away the figure

dances to amuse the public, then he exaunts, and Punch comes up again

for to finish the remainder part of his performance. He sings as if

he’d forgot all that’s gone before, and wishes only to amuse the public

at large. That’s to show his silliness and simplicity. He sings comic

or sentimental, such as ‘God save the Queen;’--that’s sentimental;

or ‘Getting up stairs and playing on the fiddle;’ or ‘Dusty Bob;’ or

‘Rory O’More, with the chill off;’--them’s all comic, but ‘the Queen’s’

sentimental.

“This here is Satan,--we might say the devil, but that ain’t right,

and gennelfolks don’t like such words. He is now commonly called

‘Spring-heeled Jack;’ or the ‘Roosian Bear,’--that’s since the war. Ye

see he’s chained up for ever; for if yer reads, it says somewhere in

the Scripture that he’s bound down for two thousand years. I used to

read it myself once; and the figure shows ye that he’s chained up never

to be let loose no more. He comes up at the last and shows himself to

Punch, but it ain’t continued long, yer know, the figure being too

frightful for people to see without being frightened; unless we are on

comic business and showing him as Spring-heeled Jack, or the Roosian

Bear; and then we keeps him up a long time. Punch kills him, puts him

on the top of his stick, and cries, ‘Hooray! the devil’s dead, and we

can all do as we like! Good-by, farewell, and it’s all over!’ But the

curtain don’t come down, cos we haven’t got none.

“This here’s the bell. Stop a minute, I forgot: this is Punch’s comic

music, commonly called a peanner sixty,--not peanner forty, cos Punch

wants something out of the common way,--and it plays fifty tunes all at

once. This is the bell which he uses to rattle in the publican’s ears

when he’s asleep, and wakes his children all up after the nuss as put

’em to bed. All this is to show his foolishness and simplicity; for

it’s one of his foolish tricks and frolics for to amuse himself: but

he’s a chap as won’t stand much nonsense from other people, because his

morals are true, just, right, and sound; although he does kill his wife

and baby, knock down the Beadle, Jack Ketch, and the Grand Signor, and

puts an end to the very devil himself.”

_Description of Frame and Proscenium._

“‘Ladies and gents,’ the man says outside the show, afore striking up,

‘I’m now going to exhibit a preformance worthy of your notice, and far

superior to anythink you hever had a hopportunity of witnessing of

before.’ (I am a doing it now, sir, as if I was addressing a company

of ladies and gentlemen, he added, by way of parenthesis.) ‘This is

the original preformance of Punch, ladies and gents; and it will

always gain esteem. I am going to hintroduce a preformance worthy of

your notice, which is the dramatical preformance of the original and

old-established preformance of Punch, experienced many year. I merely

call your attention, ladies and gents, to the novel attraction which

I’m now about to hintroduce to you.

“‘I only merely place this happyratus up to inform you what I am about

to preform to you. The preformance will continue for upwards of one

hour--_provising as we meets with sufficient encouragement_. (That’s

business, ye know, master; just to give ’em to understand that we wants

a little assistance afore we begins.) It will surpass anythink you’ve

had the hopportunity of witnessing of before in all the hannuals of

history. I hope, ladies and gents, I am not talking too grammatical for

some of you.’

“That there is the address, sir,” he continued, “what I always gives

to the audience outside before I begins to preform--just to let the

respectable company know that I am a working for to get my living by

honest industry.

“‘Those ladies and gents,’ he then went on, as if addressing an

imaginary crowd, ‘what are a-standing round, a-looking at the

preformance, will, I hope, be as willing to give as they is to see.

There’s many a lady and gent now at the present moment standing around

me, perhaps, whose hearts might be good though not in their power.’

(This is Punch’s patter, yer know, outside; and when you has to say

all that yourself, you wants the affluency of a methodist parson to do

the talk, I can tell ye.) ‘Now boys, look up yer ha’pence! Who’s got a

farden or a ha’penny? and I’ll be the first brown towards it. I ain’t

particular if it’s a half-crown. Now, my lads, feel in your pockets and

see if you’ve got an odd copper. Here’s one, and who’ll be the next to

make it even? We means to show it all through, _provising we meets with

sufficient encouragement_.’ (I always sticks to them words, ‘sufficient

encouragement.’) ‘You’ll have the pleasure of seeing Spring-heeled

Jack, or the Roosian Bear, and the comical scene with Joey the clown,

and the fryingpan of sassages!’ (That’s a kind of gaggery.)

“I’ll now just explain to you, sir, the different parts of the frame.

This here’s the letter-cloth, which shows you all what we performs.

Sometimes we has wrote on it--