The Tragical Acts or Comical Tragedies of Punch and Judy

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The Victorian text of the traditional Punch and Judy puppet show — one of the oldest surviving dramatic traditions in British popular culture, dating in some form to the seventeenth century. Punch, a hunchbacked anarchist figure who beats his wife, murders his baby, eludes the hangman, and defeats the Devil, represents a comic transgression of every social norm that Victorian audiences simultaneously condemned and adored at seaside performances. The text as printed requires imaginative performance — it is essentially a script for puppets — but reads entertainingly as a document of popular theatrical tradition.