Riccobini's plates is one of Giangurgolo of Calabria, and he is represented with a much larger nose than that of Pulcinella.[1] In the time of Shakespeare, it seems to have been the custom for usurers on the stage to wear large false noses; but, perhaps, it was intended thus to indicate that they were generally of the Jewish persuasion.[2]
According to Quadrio, in his "Storia d'ogni Poesia" the name of our hero has relation to the length of his nose: he would spell it Pullicinello from Pulliceno, which Mr. D'Israeli translates "turkey-cock," an allusion to the beak of that bird. Baretti has it Pulcinella, because that word in Italian means a hen-chicken, whose cry the voice of Punch is said to resemble.—Pollicenello, as it has also been written, in its etymology from pollice, "the thumb," goes upon the mistaken presumption that his size was always diminutive, like that of our English worthy, of cow-swallowing memory. The French Ponche has been fancifully derived from no less a personage than Pontius Pilate of the old Mysteries, whom, in barbarous times, the Christians wished to abuse and ridicule.[3] If we cannot settle the disputed point, it is very evident, that in future ingenuity and learning will be thrown away in attempting further elucidation.
At what time and in what country Punch became a mere puppet as well as a living performer, we have no distinct information; but it is to be inferred, perhaps, that the transmigration first took place in the land of his birth, and after his popularity had been fully established.[4] The- ↑ And with some reason, if we confide in the statement of Voltaire in his "Encylopedie Art. Bouc."
- ↑ See note 21 to the "Jew of Malta," in Dodsley's Old Plays, new edition, vol. 8, p. 279. Also vol. 12, p. 396.
- ↑ Some have supposed that the English name of Punch was a corruption of paunch, from the large protuberance in front with which this personage is provided. This is alluded to by Tom Brown, in his "Common Place Book," where he is adverting to Dunton's "Athenians." "As for their skill in etymology, (he says—vol. 3, p. 283, edit. 1744,) I shall instance in two, viz. surplice, from super and pelico; and Punch, quasi paunch," &c.
- ↑ He was a puppet in France at an early date; and, in 1721,
