A Disquisition on Punch and Judy Attributed to Charles Lamb

Abstract

TN JANUARY and February of I837, a little more than two years after 1 the death of Charles Lamb, there appeared in the pages of the Monthly Repository a long essay entitled Analytical Disquisition on Punch and Judy' followed by the statement Found among the Papers of the late Charles Lamb' It may be recognized at the outset that this phrase does not necessarily mean this essay was written by Lamb; however, such an inference can certainly be drawn. This essay has never been collected with Lamb's works, nor has any biographer or commentator on Lamb taken any notice of it in print. So far as I am aware, only one scholar has pointed out the existence of the essay, and that not in connection with Lamb but as a bright spot in the periodical.2 A diligent search of contemporary newspapers and periodicals has failed to produce any reference to this essay. Had there been any question in the minds of Lamb's associates as to its authenticity, some such query or objection might well be expected to have appeared in the periodical press. Because of Lamb's habit of using his letters as a sort of proving ground for the expression of ideas that later went into the formation of some of his essays, one would think that some mention of the subject of this essay would be found in his correspondence; there is none in those letters written by Lamb which survive. It might further be expected that some reference to this treatment of the puppet show would be made in the rather considerable literature that has appeared on the subject; again, I have found no such reference. One very good reason why no such references were made in 1837 or since, by either Lamb's associates, Lamb students, or devotees of the puppet show, is that the Monthly Repository was not what one