Richard, has "a tongue shall wheedle with the Devil," and he does, in fact, "wheedle with the Devil," to some purpose. His wit, his ingenuity, his rapid invention of expedients, or, in two words, his "intellectual ability," is employed for "inhuman and perfidious purposes," and hence the delight we experience during the representation of those scenes in which his genius is displayed.[1] We freely admit that, as far as the moral is concerned, Shakespeare has the advantage of the author of "Punch and Judy," in both instances: Richard is slain, and Falstaff dismissed with contempt; but to this point we have already adverted in the preceding chapter.
"The desire of gratifying the grosser and lower appetites is the ruling and strongest principle in the mind of Falstaff."[2] Only substitute the name of Punch for that of the- ↑ We have elsewhere alluded to the possible intentions of Silvio Fiorillo in giving Punch such a stupendous nose; but we omitted one reason which may here be assigned, and would have been the more applicable, had our hero in Italy at all times possessed the same unrivalled talents he invariably displays in this country. This reason is contained in the productions of some of the Burlesque Poets of Italy; who, however, as we have before remarked, do not, and could not, mention Punch, as he was not invented when they most flourished. Ludovico Dolce has a "capitolo in lode del Naso," highly extolling "un gran pezzo di naso," and declaring "che l'huomo è degno d'ogni stima" who is so provided: he afterwards proceeds thus in point, and that point is not lost in our translation.
If any man has but a gracious nose,
I mean a nose in longitude not scanty,
His brain with wit and fancy overflows.
Do we not know that the immortal Dante
Had a huge nose? and that's the real cause
He wrote so well.—Ovid, in style so janty,
And yet so natural, obtain'd applause
By his great nose, which likewise gave him name:
Horace and Virgil envied him.—His jaws
Berni had vainly open'd, to his shame,
And to the loss of our supreme delight,
But that his nose was like a torch on flame.Punch has a similar ornament, and the same causes produce the same effects.
- ↑ Richardson's Essays, 1797, p. 249.
