Part 14

As might be expected, the original Punch was a man--not Pontius Pilate, as has sometimes been suggested owing to the connection of Punch with miracle plays, but a character in the old Italian farces, which go back to the early days of Rome. The town most celebrated for such entertainments was Atella, situated not very far from Naples. The farcical plays were full of buffoonery, and Punch or Pulicinella was one of the stock characters, represented by a live actor, as were also the originals of the Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Scaramouch, among others.

It appears that the plays were not written as we understand a play to be written, but as a rule the plot of them was known, and a great deal of the dialogue was left to the actors themselves. From this it will be seen that the art of gagging can hardly be considered to be modern. The Italian, though by no means great as a dramatic author, was, as he is now, exceedingly good as an actor. It is said[39] that for genuine fun no dramatist can beat the Neapolitan, no actor can surpass him. He writes or acts without the least effort; it is born in him, and he cannot help it. The very beggar-boy who hunts one along the street is a consummate actor; his gestures are prolific, easy, and natural; he is a facial artist without knowing it, and he has a power of elocution and expression which are only acquired by experienced performers after many years of study.

It may perhaps come as a surprise to many, seeing how long Punch has persisted, to learn that in Italy he was not one of the important characters in the original plays, but his choice as the hero of the puppet-show depended rather on the fact that he had not so much to do as some of the others--the harlequin, for instance. Therefore his character could be better portrayed under the restricted conditions that prevailed in such an entertainment as the Punch and Judy show. It will be obvious also that only two characters can be acting at one time, as the showman has only two hands. Mr. Heppel could only trace one instance of Punch figures being worked by wires like other marionettes. This is a figure in a little book no larger than a playing-card, entitled "Scènes de Polichinelle," in the Art Library at the South Kensington Museum.

The showman in the case of the French Punch on occasion makes a virtue of necessity, and when the hero of the puppet-show is about to be tried for murder, the performance is interrupted in order that the following apology may be made:--"The scene which we are about to have the honour to put before you requires a tolerably large number of characters. It is, indeed, impossible to suppose that so important a prisoner as Guignol should be tried without due ceremony and by a single judge, but as the director of this theatre, like the generality of mankind, has but two hands, the actors in this scene will most of them remain quite still. This need not in the least interfere with the truth of the representation, for this stillness gives the administration of justice an additional solemnity. We may suppose that the judges are asleep, which will enable them to decide free from passion, and that the officials of the court are paralysed by the majesty of the court and the magnitude of the issues to be determined."

The Punch and Judy show went on in Italy side by side with the farces that were represented by living actors, but the idea of puppet-shows is very much more ancient than this.

The clothes of Punch were plain, and illustrations made in 1630 are similar to others made a hundred years later (see Figures 149 and 150).

Originally, also, Punch does not seem to have had a long nose. The exaggerated nose is, however, found on the representative of Punch which flourished in Calabria, and which went by the name of "Giangurgolo" (see Figure 150).

The French Punch is called Guignol, of which the derivation cannot be directly traced, but Mr. Heppel has made an interesting suggestion that in the name of this character is to be found that of Giangurgolo in a contracted form.

As may have been surmised, we got our Punch and Judy by way of France, but as a human actor Punch himself came direct to England.

An ancient statuette which is figured by Ficorroni (see Figure 151) is supposed by antiquarians to represent Punch, and if the individual whom it represents did not go by that name, he must certainly have been one of Punch's ancestors, for the likeness to our modern hero is exceedingly great. References are made by a number of classical authors to puppet-shows, and these were also known in China as long ago as a thousand years before the Christian era.

The method also of exhibiting the puppets is not very modern, for a very interesting figure of a show embellishes the celebrated MS. of the "Roman d'Alexandre" (see Figure 152) which is preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and was executed between the years 1338 and 1344. The figures were evidently worked by the hands as in Punch and Judy, and that it was intended to amuse children is shown by three little girls who are represented as looking on.

Though sticks are not strictly a part of dress, unless we consider the canes of the dandies as being so, yet their usefulness in puppet-shows is so great that we are tempted to digress for a moment to give the comments of M. Lemercier de Neuville on the subject:--

"The stick! that is the great argument of Guignol, as well as of Polichinelle. The stick settles everything. It puts an end to disputes, it pays debts, it sends away troublesome people, it disciplines wives, it takes vengeance on men, it is the 'Deus ex machina' of all this Lilliputian world. What a marvellous dramatic resource it is. If a situation becomes difficult to manage, settle it with a blow of the stick. If a _dénouement_ seems to hang fire, hasten its progress by a thrashing. The stick is above all criticism; it checkmates it, it destroys it, for it is in the right, in spite of everybody, because it is the strongest. The stick has no respect of persons. With it Guignol beats his creditors, his friends, his wife, the constable, the judge, the hangman, and the more he strikes the more he makes people laugh. There is no spoken joke that is as good as this. And yet the stick is not beautiful, nor is it new. One sees that it has done duty for a long time, for it is worn out and cracked."

We have, in fact, a record of Italian players coming to act their farces in this country in 1577, but as Punch in the capacity of a person is now obsolete with us, we shall only incidentally refer to him as a living actor, though perhaps we might recall the fact that Molière introduced him into his play _Le Malade Imaginaire_.

We have spoken already of Punch's hump in front, and it may be interesting in this connection to give the opinion of a Frenchman on the subject of Punch's bodily characteristics. M. Magnin says that with a sufficient amount of exaggeration and caricature to set aside the suspicion of disloyalty, the Punch figure recalls the appearance of some Gascon officer imitating the walk and demeanour of Henri IV in the Guard Chamber of St. Germain or in the Louvre. The hump in front, he says, was derived from the protuberance of the heavy cuirass. This is much the same explanation as that which we have already given, though the cuirass probably stuck out in front of its wearer even more than did the doublet.

There is no doubt but that the French like gayer dresses than the Italians, and we have seen that even in 1630 the clothes of Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Scaramouch in Italy were, like those of Punch, plain and simple; but in order to be popular in France the Pulicinella had to dress in a new style, and it is known that already in 1649 the puppet-show of which he is the hero had set up on the left bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre. When Punch got to England it was at a time when gay clothes were worn, and some relics of these he has retained to the present day.

Red and yellow play a considerable part in the dress of the Punch figures used by Mr. W. H. Jesson, the members of whose family have for generations been performers of Punch and Judy, and who is one of the few that are still left. Punch has a very high cap of antique appearance, with turned-up brim and a bow of ribbon on the top. The hump on his back is almost horn-like, and forms a complete circle. It seems unlikely that this appendage was developed from any part of costume unless it were perhaps the liripipe; but we may rather imagine that in the past Pulicinella may have been represented as being a hunchback, and certainly Figure 151, taken from the statuette mentioned previously, suggests an individual suffering from such a deformity.

Punch also wears a ruff (see Figure 153), though it is not a separate part of his costume, as in Judy's case, where it is of lace and its character is well shown, as it consists of more than one thickness. Judy's head-dress is the mob cap which was fashionable in the time of George III. (See Figure 154.)

The beadle, with his three-cornered hat and his brightly trimmed coat and cape, has survived for a century or so after his clothes first became fashionable, and no doubt in the puppet-show he will persist for many years when every living representative of his kind has passed away. (See Figure 155.) Of two more characters we have a word to say,--in the first place, of the doctor, who is brought before us in clothes of almost clerical cut, which remind us of the fact that the members of the medical profession were once more easily recognized by their dress than they are now (see Figure 156); in the second, of Toby, whose sole costume consists of a ruff, that once more takes us back to the time of Good Queen Bess.

Though Punch has donned new clothes and altered his habits to suit not only the countries in which he sojourned, but the times in which he has performed, yet despite these and other changes that have gone on since he set foot on these islands, there is one thing that has always been his special characteristic. This is his squeaky voice, which he retained even in Molière's play, and it is from the peculiarity of his voice that he gained his name. Pulicinella means a "hen-chicken," which might well be expected to have a squeaky voice.

With regard to the changes in Punch's behaviour we have a word to say. Originally he was somewhat of a composite character, the constituent elements being derived from several of the personages of the larger theatre. At first, to the amorous and intriguing ways of Pulicinella there was added the roguery of Scaramouch, as well as the dash and braggadocio of the Spanish captain who was a member of the comedy company, akin to the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus and the Bobadil of Ben Jonson.

As time went on there was less love-making and trickery and more knocking about, but Mr. Heppel will not allow that the French writers are right in ascribing the whole of this to English influence. For the fact that the puppets are not alive gives an opportunity for dealing blows with a reality that could not be tolerated if the actors were living, and when we remember the way in which dog Toby seizes Punch by the nose, we cannot help feeling that the effect could hardly be so realistically produced on the actual stage.

In France, Punch is a bachelor, or if he is married he is not very much married, while in England Punch always runs in double harness. Another alteration has taken place. Polly, who was one of the characters that have disappeared, has departed for the reasons put into the showman's mouth by Mr. Henry Mayhew in 1861. "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 is all silk and satin. Yes, that's the way of the world; the wife comes off second best."

As in old times, there was much buffoonery introduced even into religious plays, and the characters which have been separated from the other performers to take part in the special harlequinade of the modern pantomime used, together with Punch, to appear side by side with those who took the part of religious personages. To uneducated people there seemed nothing profane about this; but as time went on men and women came to look at matters in a different light. For reasons somewhat similar, the devil and the ghost are now left out, and in the performances that are given in drawing-rooms even the coffin, in some cases.

The connection, however, of Punch with religious plays probably accounts for the name by which his wife now goes. Those who mistakenly supposed that the word Punch was derived from Pontius Pilate looked upon Judy as representing Judas Iscariot. We have already pointed out the origin of the former appellation, which ante-dates the Christian era, while a difficulty is met with in the fact that the wife of Punch for many years was known as Joan. Mr. Heppel says that of the miracle plays some of the most popular were taken from the Apocrypha, and a very favourite subject was the tale of Judith and Holofernes. If we cannot find an instance recorded of Punch furnishing the amusement in this story, we can, at any rate, find an advertisement of a play in which Harlequin and Judith were together, and the comic business was sometimes entrusted to Punch and sometimes to Harlequin. Hence Punch and Judy may not improbably have come from Punch and Judith, while Toby naturally suggests the dog in the book of Tobit.

With regard to Toby, it may be said that he is represented in France by a cat, and that until the nineteenth century he was only a stuffed figure. In China, where Punch beats his wife to the music of the clarionette instead of Pandæan pipes held in a muffler, Toby is replaced by a wooden dragon with jaws that snap, and this figure is also now introduced in England. Hector the horse has quite disappeared. We might mention here that in the English version a clown is brought in with very considerable effect.

There is another connection of dolls with costume rather than of costume with dolls which we may mention at this point. In the fourteenth century, when there were no fashion plates, and written descriptions would hardly do their duty effectively, model costumes were put upon dolls and sent from country to country. It is, moreover, a curious and interesting fact that it was principally from Paris that these fashions were sent out.

Examples of national costumes sometimes survive on the bodies of dolls. The figure of St. Nicholas, in Belgium, shows an old dress, and the costume dolls of Holland, France, and Switzerland are excellent records of native dress now seldom seen in everyday life. Mr. Edward Lovett bought a little doll in Lucerne which is in a cradle, and shows excellently well the swaddling clothes that were formerly in use. Ancient Greek and Roman dolls, taken from children's graves, were similarly dressed, and a modern Russian doll, which is also in possession of Mr. Lovett, is shown with the swathing band _in situ_. The only dolls that are to be found in Malta represent ancient saints, and it is said that they are dressed as such.

The long garments of Noah and his sons in the toy Noah's Ark are worthy of mention and are an interesting survival.

The wrappings that were placed round mummies in ancient Egypt are shown on figures which were found in the tombs, and which are often seen as curiosities in this country. They were carved out of wood or modelled out of clay, while some of them were made out of the well-known glazed faïence. They were put into the tombs in order that they might do the work of the deceased in his after life, and their origin is exceedingly interesting. Many barbarous nations have in the past sacrificed the servants of a chief at his funeral, and the Egyptians, who were humane people, contented themselves with a make-believe, and replaced the actual persons with the figures that we call "ushabti," or, in modern parlance, "shabbies."

XXVIII

THE CLOWN AND PAINTING THE BODY

THE CLOWN'S DRESS--SAVAGE PAINTING AND SURVIVALS OF IT--TATTOOING--PATCHES AND FALSE COMPLEXIONS--MASKS

No costume is perhaps more characteristic or better known than that of the clown; and it is of special interest, for while the hat was fashionable at the beginning of the fifteenth century, the dress, generally speaking, is a caricature of that which was in vogue in the time of Queen Elizabeth. The same remarks apply to the method of hair-dressing, and we shall see, when dealing with the other characters that appear in the harlequinade, that the pantaloon in his dress illustrates that of the same time in our history.

Unlike the other heroes of the pantomime, the clown is essentially English, and he is to be found also in the circus of to-day, at all times of the year, as well as on the stage at Christmas.

As to the clown's clothes, first of all there is the ruff, which is, however, not stiffened out. He has trunk hose or wide breeches which do not reach to his knee, his stockings are well ornamented with clocks; and lastly, there is the paint on his face, which brings us to a custom that seems nearly as old as man himself. (See Figure 157 and Plate X, Figure A.)

Among the relics of the ancient cave men of Europe are found hollowed stones, and these were used as mortars in which ochre and other colours were ground for painting the body.

The Egyptians still follow the practice of blackening the edge of the eyelid, both below and above the eye, with a black powder called kohl. The material is prepared either from burning an aromatic resin or the shells of almonds. The custom prevailed among both sexes in Egypt far back in its history, and long before the historic period, painting the eyes was already practised by the people whom Professor Petrie called the "New Race" (until he determined that they preceded the dynastic Egyptians).

It may be well to point out that these prehistoric people lived about 6000 years B.C.: they had little or no metal, though they made most beautiful flint knives and stone vases. They buried their dead lying on one side with the knees towards the chin, instead of making mummies. Among the contents of their tombs have been found curious slate palettes of all shapes and sizes, similar to some which had previously been known for many years, but the origin of which was undetermined. It has been shown that these palettes were used for grinding up malachite to form a green colour with which to paint the eye. The idea was, it is supposed, to mitigate the glare of the sun, and is similar to that which leads Anglo-Indians to have the under sides of the brims of their hats coloured green.

Another kind of temporary ornamentation is produced in Egypt to-day by staining the feet and hands with the juice of the leaves of henna. The result is that the part to which it is applied becomes a yellowish red or deep orange colour. The most common practice is to dye the tips of the fingers and toes so far as the first joint, the whole of the inside of the hand and the sole of the foot, and there are other and more fanciful modes of applying the henna, which is said to have an agreeable effect upon the skin, particularly in the way of preventing it from becoming too tender. The dyeing has to be renewed every fortnight or three weeks, and the stain is brighter and more permanent on the nails than on the fingers.

Among many native races in a low stage of civilization there are few who do not decorate their body by painting it in some way. We have already mentioned that painting takes away the appearance of nakedness, and that many nations would be as much ashamed to be seen without their paint, as Europeans would be to walk about without their clothes. On special occasions, however, particularly striking colours are put on--for instance, by the Australians when about to dance a corroboree, and Professor Moseley[40] has pointed out that they have breast stripes and leg stripes such as those which are seen on European uniforms. At first sight these, as Professor Moseley, indeed, points out, would appear to have quite a different origin, but it will be remembered that when speaking of the Hussar uniform and the Dutch skeleton dress (see pages 145-6) it was suggested that the ornamentation might be intended to follow the lines of the chief bones of the body, and it is possible that the same idea may have underlain the painting carried out by savages.

In this case what in one instance was effected by paint was in the other done by means of trimmings.

Paint plays a great part in savage warfare, and no doubt the intention very often was to terrify the adversary. It is apparently this idea which actuated the old inhabitants of this country, who, as Cæsar says, stained themselves with woad in order to be of horrider aspect in battle; but Dr. Tylor has pointed out the error into which many historians have fallen through considering as savages races who, while having attained to considerable civilization, still kept up the practice of colouring their bodies in time of war. To the instances which we have mentioned of modern races staining themselves, we may add that of the Hindu women in India, who colour their teeth black and paint their feet scarlet. Japanese women blacken their teeth upon marriage.

In certain Japanese plays the actors have bright streaks of red paint made on their faces, usually on each side of the eyes (see Plate X, Figure B).