Happy Birthday Mr Punch - Tavistock Museum

By: Dan Bishop
Added: 07 April 2012

Mr. Punch can rightly claim to be our national puppet. When the Portrait of England project asked the public to nominate their ‘Icons of England’ their list included among others: cricket, English pubs, a cup of tea, Guy Fawkes night, fish and chips, the robin, the FA Cup, and of course Punch and Judy. No mean achievement for Mr. Punchinello, an Italian immigrant, who later shortened his name to Mr. Punch, married Judy, and became the popular hero of the knockabout shows on London street corners and in stripy booths at the seaside. His reputation was further enhanced when the political magazine Punch was named after him.

This year on the 9th May he celebrates his 350th birthday. It was on this day in 1662 that Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he had seen a performance in London’s Covent Garden given by an Italian showman Pietro Gimonde, or Signor Bologna, which featured a marionette figure called Pollicinella, later
Punchinello.   He described the show as:

… an Italian puppet play, that is within the rails there, which is very pretty, the best that I ever saw…

It is believed that the showman was entertaining crowds gathered for the coronation of King Charles II following the Restoration, and was performed on an elaborate 20ft x 18 ft stage, and built high enough for puppeteers to operate 2ft to 3ft high marionettes from above.

The bold step of cutting Punch’s strings and making him into a glove puppet with a supporting cast of other glove puppets was to prove his making. At a stroke the cumbersome marionette theatre requiring several puppeteers was replaced by a small theatre operated by a single puppeteer, and so simple it could be pushed on a handcart. The first known illustration of a portable Punch street booth, to which we are accustomed, is in a watercolour painted in 1785 depicting George II and Queen Charlotte driving to Deptford Dockyard. This is also the first evidence of the appearance of a gloved puppet.  As Punch was now able to hold objects this led to the introduction of the slapstick, a device originated from the Italian commedia dell’arte over four hundred years ago, and consisting of two joined sticks which slap together to make a satisfying thwacking noise. Scaled down to puppet size it became Punch’s trademark as he laid about one and all with anarchic abandon.

It was not until the nineteenth century when the railways came and people travelled to the seaside resorts that Punch finally adapted to a family audience.   Since then Punch and Judy has been increasingly seen as a children’s show. Punch is always a hunchback with a large nose and chin. Along with Punch, and his wife, Judy, the cast of other characters usually includes the baby, a hungry crocodile, a clown, an officious policeman, and that essential prop, a string of sausages. There is no definite storyline but the show normally starts with Punch and Judy in fond embrace, kissing and dancing. All is well until Judy departs off stage leaving Punch in charge of the baby; a task at which he proved totally inept. When Judy returns she is outraged. Then Punch produces his stick and matters get out-of-hand, leading to the arrival of the policeman, and other characters. In the end Punch
triumphs over all these adversaries.

Mr. Punch has lived through the reign of fifteen kings and queens all the way from Charles II to our present Queen. He has also survived major social changes and shifts in public attitudes. His often violent conduct towards Judy and other members of the cast, disrespect for the police service, etc. has over the years resulted in numerous conflicts with the guardians of moral and public values.   Once the tide of political correctness threatened to submerge even Mr. Punch, but he has managed to survive and become a champion of common sense, often causing his opponents to be shown up for their pettiness. In 2004 Bodmin Town Council appeared foolish in the national press when they banned Mr. Punch from a social event. Fortunately that tide has now turned, and compared to the graphic violence of modern computer games played by children Punch and Judy now appears quite harmless.

These days a lot of Punch performers call themselves 'Professor’. This grandiose title seems to have originated before Victorian times, when the Punch and Judy men were competing with street actors, hawkers and costermongers for an audience. There are probably more ‘Professors’ performing today that ever before. Some official recognition of their contribution to our national life came in the  2004 honours list when ‘Professor’ John Styles was awarded an MBE for ‘services to the arts especially Punch and Judy’.

The Big Grin is a national celebration of Mr Punch’s 350th birthday. There will be a big birthday party on Saturday 12th May in Covent Garden Piazza, where there will be a mass gathering of UK Professors joined by performers and guests from around the world. 

Locally all are welcome to the Family Festival of Puppetry at the Wharf,
Tavistock on Wednesday 25th July, Thursday 26th July, and Saturday 28th July 2012 which will feature Professor ‘Goodvibes’ from St Teath, Cornwall, Professor Dan Bishop from Tavistock, Paolo Rech, a puppeteer from the north of Italy with Harlequin, and Georges Vetters from Liege, Belguim, with popular puppet hero Tchantches.

Tavistock Museum has an exhibition ‘Celebrating 350 Years of Mr. Punch, our National Puppet’ on display this season until the end of October.