(after nursing it upon his lap, Punch sticks the Child against the side of the stage, on the platform, and going himself to the opposite side, runs up to it, clapping his hands, and crying "Catchee, catchee, catchee!" He then takes it up again, and it begins to cry)
What is the matter with it. Poor thing! It has got the stomach ache, I dare say. (child cries) Hush-a-by, hush-a-by! (sitting down, and rolling it on his knees) Naughty child!—Judy! (calling) the child has got the stomach ache. Pheu! Nasty child! Judy, I say! (Child continues to cry) Keep quiet, can't you? (hits it a box on the ear) Oh you filthy child! What have you done? I won't keep such a nasty child. Hold your tongue! (strikes the Child's head several times against the side of the stage) There!—there! there! How you like that? I thought I stop your squalling. Get along with you, nasty, naughty, crying child, (throws it over the front of the stage, among the spectators)— He! he! he! (laughing and singing to the same tune as before)
Get away, nasty baby;
There it goes over:
Thy mammy's a gaby,
Thy daddy's a rover.
Re-enter Judy.
Judy. Where is the child?
Punch. Gone—gone to sleep.[1]
Judy. What have you done with the child, I say?
Punch. Gone to sleep, I say.
Judy. What have you done with it?
Punch. What have I done with it?
Judy. Ay; done with it![2] I heard it crying just now. Where is it?
- ↑ Punch equivocates between death itself and the "ape of death."
"After life's fitful fever it sleeps well."
"Macbeth," Act 3, Scene 2. - ↑ Judy might say with the Moor—
Done with it? "By heaven, he echoes me,
As if there were some monster in his thought
Too hideous to be shewn."—"Othello," Act 3, Scene 3.
