taste or propriety: the wires that communicated the motion to them appeared at the top of their heads, and the manner in which they were made to move evinced the ignorance and inattention of the managers. The dialogues were mere jumbles of absurdities and nonsense, intermixed with low immoral discourses, passing between Punch and the fiddler, for the orchestra rarely admitted of more than one minstrel; and these flashes of merriment were made offensive to decency by the actions of the puppet."[1]
From whatever cause the change may have arisen, certain it is, that, at present, in the ordinary exhibitions of "Punch and Judy," the breaches of decorum complained of by Mr. Strutt are rare and slight. He afterwards proceeds as follows: "In the present day, the puppet-showman travels about the streets, when the weather will permit, and carries the motions, with the theatre itself, upon his back. The exhibition takes place in the open air, and the precarious income of the miserable itinerant depends entirely on the voluntary contribution of the spectators, which, as far as one may judge from the squalid appearance he usually makes, is very trifling."
We have never seen less than two men concerned in these ambulatory exhibitions: one to carry the theatre and use Punch's tin whistle, and the other to bear the box of puppets and blow the trumpet. During the performance the money is collected from the bystanders: the "squalid appearance" of the proprietors is part of their business, and, far from agreeing with Mr. Strutt that the contributions are "very trifling," we have seen, for we have taken the pains to ascertain it, two or three and four shillings obtained at each repetition; so that supposing only ten performances take place in a summer's day, the reward to the two men on an average might be about fifteen shillings each. On one occasion, we remember to have seen three different spectators give sixpence, besides the halfpence elsewhere contributed: on which the collector went back to the theatre and whispered the exhibitor,- ↑ Page 152, edit. 1810. We are glad to see that a new edition of this learned and entertaining work is about to be printed in a convenient 8vo. form, under the care of Mr. Hone.
