in Paris first by the Italian company; and to rival them an actor of the name of Villiers brought it out in French verse, at another theatre, while the biographers of Moliere informs us that he wrote his Festin de Pierre in prose, because he was in such haste to anticipate Villiers. T. Corneille added rhymes to it on the death of Moliere. Three years afterwards, viz. in 1676, it first appeared on the English stage, from the pen of Shadwell; but Punch was, probably, then unknown here, at least by that appellation, and the change in the fable, to which we have referred, was occasioned, if at all, long afterwards, by the extreme popularity of the pantomine-ballets at the Royalty, and subsequently at Drury Lane Theatre, about forty years ago.[1]
The ensuing ballad was written very nearly about that date, being extracted from a curious collection of comic and serious pieces of the kind, in print and manuscript, with the figures 1791, 1792, and 1793, in various parts of it, as the times, probably, when the individual who made it obtained the copies he transcribed, or inserted in their original shape. It certainly affords evidence of the connection between the stories of Punch and Don Juan; and (like the old ballads of "King Lear and his Three Daughters," "The Spanish Tragedy, or the lamentable murder of Horatio and Bellimperia," &c.) was perhaps founded upon the performance, by one who had witnessed and was highly gratified by it. It is called,
PUNCH'S PRANKS.
A story I will tell you
Of Mr. Punch, who was a vile
Deceitful murderous fellow:
Who had a wife, a child also,—
And both of matchless beauty;
The infant's name I do not know,
Its mother's name was Judy.
Right tol de rol lol, &c.
- ↑ "Don Juan" was acted at the Royalty Theatre in 1787, and at Drury Lane in 1790. It was played many nights in succession, and are hardly yet laid aside.
