Page:Punch and judy.djvu/54

Pretending he knew not the use
Of rope he saw from tree, sir,
The hangman's head into the noose
He got, while he got free, sir.
At last, the Devil came to claim
His own; but Punch what he meant
Demanded, and denied the same;
He knew no such agreement!

"You don't! (the Devil cried:) 'tis, well;
I'll quickly let you know it:"
And so to furious work they fell,
As hard as they could go it.
The Devil with his pitch-fork fought,
While Punch had but a stick, Sir,
But kill'd the Devil,^[1] as he ought.
Huzza! there's no Old Nick, sir.
Right tol de rol lol, &c. 

In a previous part of this chapter, we have established, that Dr. Faustus was a principal character in puppet-shows of that date;^[2] and every body knows from the old Romance^[3] and from Goethe's Drama, if not from Marlow's

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1. "To kill the Devil," and "to drive the Devil into his own dominions," cacciar il Diavolo nell' inferno, meant the same thing in Italian, as is fully explained in Boccacio, as well as Sacchetti, (Novel 101,) and in Bandello, (Novel 9, vol. 1, edit. Venice, 1566.) It is only used in English in its literal sense, and it is, of course, so to be understood in this ballad. In its figurative application, perhaps no hero, not even Don Juan himself, oftener was the death of his Satanic Majesty than Punch. More we cannot say.
2. Mountford, the stage Adonis of his day, in 1697, wrote what was at that time called "a Farce," on the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, in which Harlequin and Scaramouch both figured, but nothing is said of Punch in it. Lee and Jevon, two distinguished comic performers, took the parts of Harlequin and Scaramouch, and it seems to have met with success, as, after having been acted in Dorset Gardens, it was revived at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.
3. An elegant reprint of it, under the care of Mr. Thoms, has recently made a scarce and curious work very accessible. We