ABSTRACT
It is commonly claimed that Petrushka and Punch are descended from the Neapolitan character of the Commedia dell’Arte, Pulcinella, whose puppet comedy was presented throughout Europe by Italian showmen in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There is certainly a family resemblance between Pulcinella, Punch and Petrushka, but they are not the same characters, nor do they appear in the same plays. It is true that they are all glove puppets; that they all speak in a shrill voice produced by a squeaker-called a swazzle in English-that the performer places in his mouth; and that their plays are all performed by one puppeteer, often in the street or in some open space. The plays all consist of a comic hero encountering a succession of subsidiary characters, and each encounter is likely to be terminated by a fight or other physical action. But these are the essential characteristics of popular glove puppet shows everywhere. We should examine the Punch and Petrushka plays in greater detail to try to distinguish their different features.
