Note 6 — THE PUPPETS OF ALL NATIONS.[1]

M. Magnin here refers to an engraving at page 47 of the fifth volume of the Théatre de la Foire (1722) to prove that Punch’s humps, both in front and rear, were formerly much less prominent. It is easy to understand how, in the hands of ignorant showmen and manufacturers of puppets, that which was at first the reflection of a popular metaphor (of origin difficult to trace) was exaggerated into a senseless and scarcely ludicrous deformity. Rire comme un bossu, to laugh like a hunchback, is to the present day one of the vulgarest of French colloquial similes. It is not easy to say whence it arose, or why a hump between the shoulders should render the bearer more prone to laughter than his straighter made fellows.