10 DECEMBER 1831, Page 22

PUNCH AND JUDY.

HE must. indeed, be a melancholy man whom Punch's performances have not made to laugh. There lives not one "so sad, so wo-begone," as to resist the cachinnating influence of Punch. It is as irresistible as a shock of electricity or the laughing gas. Its fascinating power is not confined to children, though they form the majority of the audi- ences; for many "children of a larger growth" would stop but for a sense of false shame. As it is, the adults are a long while making their way throngh the crowd ; and those whose faces the minute before "did cream and mantle like a standing pool," now laugh until they look "like a wet cloth ill laid up," and "their lungs begin to crow like chanticleer." The peripatetic theatre of Punch is not so frequent in its rounds as in the days of our boyhood. The martial trumpet that announced the arrival of the " lignum-vitte Roscius," and the exhilarating squeak that followed, denoting his actual presence, are of rare occurrence now-a- days. Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor's Act has, we suppose, proscribed Mr. Punch ; who, unlike Mr. Irving, cannot afford to set up a permanent theatre of his own. To those who are ashamed to form part of the au- dience of Punch's Theatre in the open air, we recommend GEORGE CIWIESHANK'S true and faithful representation of the scenes in the puppet-drama, which are as like as art can make them. The copy before us is the third edition. The frontispiece is a squeaking likeness of Mr. Punch himself,—his look, his air, his nose, his hump, and his montero- cap. But, alas ! it cannot convey the joyous hilarity of his song, the bubbling jocoseness of his gibber, his peremptory jerk,- his whisking rapidity of movement, the fling with which he vanishes. The grin of his florid physiognomy is well portrayed—that universal grin, which is equally expressive of merriment, terror, pain, rage, discomfiture, and delight ; and his helpless hands, too, with their match-like fingers. We are conducted through every scene of this strange, eventful history,— les loves, his combats, his dangers and escapes, to his concluding conquest of the Devil himself. We need not describe the plates indivi- dually; they are twenty-four in number, and are coloured, as well as drawn, with vivid accuracy. The letterpress accompaniment supplies the dialogue ; and there is an introductory account of the origin and progress of Punchinello. Long may the ligutun-vitm hero •" squeak and gibber in the English streets !"