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PUNCH.]
PUNCH AND JUDY.
79
Re-enter Punch, leading his Horse by the bridle over his arm. It prances about, and seems very unruly.
Punch. Wo, ho! my fine fellow, Wo, ho! Hector.[1] Stand still, can't you, and let me get my foot up to the stirrup.
(while Punch is trying to mount, the horse runs away round the stage, and Punch sets off after him, catches him by the tail, and so stops him. Punch then mounts, by sitting on the front of the stage, and with both his hands lifting one of his legs over the animal's back. At first, it goes pretty steadily, but soon quickens its pace; while Punch, who does not keep his seat very well, cries, "Wo, ho, Hector! wo, ho!" but to no purpose, for the horse sets off at full gallop, jerking Punch at every stride with great violence. Punch lays hold round the neck, but is ultimately thrown upon the platform)[2]
- ↑ The horses of the ancient heroes of romance, especially in Italy, (the birth-place of our hero,) had all their names, sometimes descriptive of their qualifications, or of peculiar marks, or ornaments: that of Orlando, as everybody knows, was Baiardo; that of Aglante, Rabicano, and that of the Cid, Babieca, &c. For this reason, too, Don Quixote gives his steed the style and title of Rozinante, "as it was not fit that so famous a knight's horse, and chiefly being so good a beast, should want a known name."—"Shelton's Don Quixotte," Edition 1652, fol. 2.
- ↑ Punch is no great horseman, but it is to be remembered that he was not a gentleman born or bred; and, as Spenser says,
"But chiefly skill to ride seems a science
Proper to gentle blood."Sir Philip Sidney opens his "Defence of Poesie" with an account of his industry at the Emperor's court in acquiring perfection in this art, which old Ascham, in his "Schoolmaster," praises very extravagantly, quoting the "three excellent praises amongst those noble gentlemen, the old Persians—always to speak truth, to ride fair, and shoot well."
be a courtier, "I know thou worship'st as St. Nicholas truly as a man of falsehood may."
