PUNCH.]
ARRIVAL OF PUNCH IN ENGLAND.
27
show of "Punch and Judy" was well known and much admired, while
"Our gracious Anne was Queen of Britain's Isle;"
if he reached this country a little before that period, and if the refined theatrical entertainment he offered, so well suited to a highly polished and enlightened nation, were then popular, it will, we think, turn the scale at once, and settle the question for ever.[1]
We find frequent mention of him in the "Tatler," and even the "classical Addison" does not scruple, in the "Spectator," to introduce a regular criticism upon one of the performances of Punch. As the "Tatler," was published earlier in point of date,[2] we will begin by referring to- ↑ We have already seen that Nash mentions Harlequin before the year 1600; but we afterwards lose sight of him, by that name, for three quarters of a century. Dryden notices him; and Ravenscroft, in 1677, reproduced him upon the stage, in a piece called "Scaramouch a Philosopher, Harlequin a School-boy, Bravo, Merchant and Magician." He calls it "a comedy after the Italian manner;" and in the prologue he professes to have used Moliere's "Fourberies de Scapin," which he might not have acknowledged, had not Otway been just beforehand with him. However, Ravenscroft had the good sense to adopt the two best scenes of the French play, which Otway omitted, and which Moliere himself borrowed from "de Bergerac." Ravenscroft's play includes not only the Harlequin, but the Doctor, the Scaramouch, and the Captain of the Italian impromptu comedy. The latter is called "Spitzaferro," and is described as "a coward, ignorant and bold," of the same species as the Captain Matamoros, (or Moor-killer,}} in which Silvio Fiorillo, the inventor of Pulcinella, was so famous as always to pass by that title. The Spanish Captain was brought upon the stage while the Spaniards had possession of Naples in the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries; but, as he was intended to ridicule that nation, of course he originated in some other part of Italy. After 1677, we have no distinct notice of Harlequin in England, until 1719, when a mock-opera called "Harlequin Hydaspes," was acted at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. Cibber, in his "Apology," gives a full account of the use Rich subsequently made of him, in opposition to the regular drama.
- ↑ The first number is dated April 12, 1709: the firs number of the "Spectator" is dated March 1, 1710-11.
