of his rivals. He brought most of them over with him from Italy, and he complained that in England he had not been able to find any workmen capable of adequately supplying the loss, if by chance one of his figures had been broken or stolen. Why his Punch was made to squint, or at least to have what is known by the epithet of a swivel-eye, unless for the sake of humour or distinction, does not appear: in this obliquity of vision, he only follows the greatest hero of Italian romance, Orlando, of whom Pulci tell us,
"Orlando molto ne gli occhi era fiero;
Tanto che alcun autore dice e pone,
Ch' egli era un poco guercio, a dire il vero."
These lines are in Canto 20 of the "Morgante Maggiore, in the following Canto he repeats the assertion, in which he is supported by Boiardo in various parts of his "Orlando Innamorato," but particularly in Canto 41, where Astolpho in high indignation against the Paladin, exclaims,
"Ov' è quel guercio traditore,
Ch' ha tanto ardir di dir ch' io son buffone?"
In fact, Orlando, as drawn by these poets, had little but his strength and courage to make the ladies love him, and the Pagans fear him; and in all respects he was far inferior to Punch.
We have already spoken of Le Sage and Piron, as writers of Puppet Plays, and we might have introduced many other distinguished authors who lived about the opening of the last century. It is well known how popular this species of entertainment was, and still is in Germany; and its dignity will receive a considerable accession, from the fact, that the greatest poet of that country, Goëthe, did not scruple to write one on the sacred story of Esther and Ahasuerus; he calls it "Neueröffnetes moralisch-politisches Puppenspiel, and Hanns Wurst," or Jack Pudding, is employed to amuse the spectators between the acts.
