CHAPTER II.
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF PUPPET-PLAYS IN ENGLAND.
Before we proceed farther, it will be necessary to consider, briefly, the antiquity and nature of puppet-plays in this country. It is the more proper to do so, because they form a branch of our drama which has never been examined by the historians of our stage with as much interest and industry as the subject deserves. When we mention that no less a man than Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that puppets were so capable of representing even the plays of Shakspeare, that Macbeth might be performed by them as well as by living actors;[1] it will be evident from such a fact only, that the inquiry is far from unimportant. In connection with this opinion, and confirmatory of it, we may add, that a person of the name of Henry Rowe, shortly before the year 1797, did actually by wooden figures, for a series of years, go through the action of the whole of that tragedy, while he himself repeated the dialogue which belongs to each of the characters.[2]
Puppet-plays are of very ancient date in England; and, if they were not contemporary with our Mysteries, they probably immediately succeeded them. There is reason to think that they were coeval, at least, with our Moralities; and, in Catholic times, it is not a very violent supposition to conclude that the Priests themselves made use even of the images of the Saints and Martyrs, perhaps for this very purpose: it is well ascertained, not only that they did not scruple to employ the churches, but that those sacred edifices were considered the fittest places for our earliest dramatic representations.[3]
"Motion" is the most general term by which they are mentioned by our ancient authors, and especially by our dramatists: thus Shakspeare, in the "Winter's Tale" (Act 4, Scene 2) makes Autolycus say: "Then he compassed a motion of the Prodigal Son, and married a tinker's wife within a mile of where my land and living lies." It would be easy to multiply quotations to the same point from nearly all his contemporaries, but one is as good as a thousand. The nature and one method of their representation at that period, and doubtless long before, may be seen at the close of Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair." He there makes Lanthern Leatherhead convert the story of Hero and Leander (then very popular from Marlow's and Chapman's translation, or rather paraphrase of it), into a "motion" or puppet-play; and he combines with it the well-known friendship of Damon and Pythias, a story long before dramatised. The exhibitor, standing above and working the figures, "interprets" for them, and delivers the burlesque dialogue he supposes to pass between the characters. In the same Poet's "Tale of a Tub," (Act. 5) In-and-in Medley presents a "motion" for the amusement of the company, connecting it with the plot of the comedy itself. Here he explains the scenes as he proceeds, something in the manner of the ancient Dumb-shows before the
different acts of "Ferrex and Porrex," the "Misfortunes of Arthur," and other old tragedies,[4] but the puppets are not represented as speaking among themselves. Ben Jonson may always be relied on in matters relating to the customs and amusements of our ancestors, as he was a very minute observer of them; and from his evidence, we may infer, that there were, at least, two varieties in the puppet-plays of his time, one with the dialogue, as in "Bartholomew Fair;" and the other without it, but with a descriptive accompaniment, as in the "Tale of a Tub."[5]
It is evident, from many passages in our old writers that might be adduced if necessary, that "motions" were very popular with the lower orders; they frequently rivalled and imitated the performers on the regular stages. Hence, perhaps, a portion of the abuse with which they were commonly assailed by some of our dramatic poets, who were of course anxious to bring them as much as possible into contempt. It is established, on the authority of Dekker, and other pamphleteers and play-writers of about the same period, that the subjects of the "villanous motions" were often borrowed from the most successful dramatic entertainments. Shakspeare's "Julius Cæsar," was performed by mammets, (another term in use for the wooden representatives of heroes,) as well as the "Duke of Guise," a name that was perhaps given to Marlow's "Massacre of Paris,[6]" or it may refer to a tragedy by Webster under that title.[7] If inference were not sufficient, testimony might be adduced to shew that the puppets were clothed as nearly as possible like the actors at the regular theatres in those plays which were thought fit subjects for the "motions." The minute fidelity of Ben Jonson to the manners of his day, in depicting the "humours" of his characters, has led him in several places to introduce the name of a principal proprietor of puppet-shows, who was known by the title of Captain Pod. He mentions him in his "Every Man out of his Humour,"[8] as well as in his "Epigrams,"[9] from which last it also appears that the word "motion," which properly means the representation by puppets, was sometimes applied to the figures employed in the performance.[10]
The formidable rivalship of puppet-plays to the regular drama at a later date is established by the fact, that the proprietors of the theatres in Drury Lane, and near Lincoln's Inn Fields, formerly petitioned Charles II. that a puppet-show stationed on the present site of Cecil Street in the Strand, might not be allowed to exhibit, or might be removed to a greater distance, as its attractiveness materially interfered with the prosperity of their concerns. It is not unlikely that burlesque and ridicule were sometimes aimed at the productions of the regular stage by the exhibitors of "motions."
There is little doubt that the most ancient puppet-shows, like the Mysteries, dealt in stories taken from the Old and New Testament, or from the lives and legends of Saints. Towards the end of the reign of Elizabeth, as we have seen, historical and other fables began to be treated by them; but still scriptural subjects were commonly exhibited, and Shakespeare, in the quotation we have made from his "Winter's Tale," mentions that of the "Prodigal Son." Perhaps, none was more popular than "Nineveh, with Jonas and the Whale:" it is noticed by Ben Jonson twice in the same play, ("Every Man out of his Humour,") and not less than twenty other authors speak of it. From a passage in Cowley's "Cutter of Coleman Street," (Act 5, sc. 2,) we collect that even the Puritans, with all their zealous hatred of the "profane stages," did not object to be present at its "holy performance." The motion of "Babylon" is also frequently noticed; but "London" and "Rome" likewise figured in the metropolis at the same time, Fleet street and Holborn Bridge, both great thoroughfares, were the usual places where puppet-plays were exhibited in the reign of Elizabeth;[11] and the authority of Butler has been quoted by Mr. Gifford (Ben Jonson, v. 2, 46, note) to show that Fleet Street continued to be infested by "motions" and "monsters" at least down to the Restoration. Scriptural motions were not wholly laid aside within the last fifty or sixty years; and Goldsmith, in his comedy, "She Stoops to Conquer," refers to the display of Solomon's Temple in a puppet-show. The current joke (at what date it originated seems uncertain) of Punch popping his head from behind the side curtain, and addressing the Patriarch in his ark, while the floods were pouring down, with "hazy weather, master Noah,"[12] proves that, at one period, the adventures of the hero of comparatively modern exhibitions of the kind were combined with stories selected from the Bible.
The late Mr. Joseph Strutt, in his "Sports and Pastimes of the People of England," thus speaks of the puppet-shows in his time. "In my memory these shows consisted of a wretched display of wooden figures, barbarously formed and decorated, without the least degree of 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."[13]
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, who immediately made Punch thus address the crowd: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I never yet played for sevenpence halfpenny, and I never will; so good morning." He then "struck his tent" and departed; pocketing nearly two shillings, and excusing himself from going through the performance, under pretence that all the contributions he had received only amounted to sevenpence halfpenny.
- ↑ See Malone's "Shakspeare," by Boswell, vol. 11, p. 301.
- ↑ He was also called the York Trumpeter, having been born in that city, and having "blown a battle blast" at Culloden. He was born in 1726, and after the Rebellion he retired to his native place; where, for about fifty years, he graced with his instrument the entrance of the Judges twice a year into York. He was a very well known character, and for a long time before his death in 1800, was master of a puppet-show. In 1707, he published his edition of "Macbeth," with new notes and various emendations. At his decease, the following lines, never yet printed, were written upon him:—
"When the great Angel blows the judgment trump,
He also must give Harry Rowe a thump:
If not, poor Harry never will awake,
But think it is his own trumpet, by mistake.
He blow it all his life, with greatest skill,
And but for want of breath had blown it still." - ↑ See the new edition of "Dodsley's Old Plays," vol. 1. p. 43, et seq.
- ↑ These dumb-shows have been thought peculiar to our elder stage, on the first rise of tragedy; but R. Brome employs the same expedient of conveying information on the progress of the story in his "Queen and Concubine," which was printed in 1659. During the progress of it, a supernatural character, called "a genius," explains what is passing, much in the same way as the owner of "a motion" interpreted for his figures.
- ↑ The manner in which puppet-shows were represented in Spain, is very clearly described in chap. 26 of the second part of "Don Quixote." Peter there worked the figures, and his boy interpreted, though not to the knight's satisfaction. The fable in that instance was purely romantic, but sacred subjects were at least as common.
- ↑ Henslowe probably refers to this play, as "the tragedy of the Guyes," in his papers. See "Malone's Shakespeare," by Boswell, vol. 3, p. 299.
- ↑ See the Dedication to Webster's "White Devil," as quoted in note, ‡ in the new edition of "Dodsley's Old Plays," vol. 6, 207.
- ↑ "Nay rather let him be Captain Pod, and this his motion, for he does nothing but shew him." (Act 4, scene 4.)
- ↑ The title of the Epigram is "On the new motion"—
"See you yond' motion? not the old fa-ding,
Nor Captain Pod, nor yet the Eltham thing," &c. - ↑ Thus also Speed, in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," exclaims, "O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet! now will he interpret to her." (Act 2, scene 1.)
- ↑ Motions were also frequently exhibited at Brentford. Mayne, and other old dramatists, speak of city wives going thither to see them.
- ↑ This might very well belong to Piron's "Arlequin Deucalion," mentioned in a note in the preceding chapter. Perhaps the joke was derived from thence.
- ↑ 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.