Editing Punch and Judy (section)

==Published scripts==
Punch is primarily an oral tradition, adapted by a succession of exponents from live performances rather than authentic scripts, and in constant evolution. They exist, however, in some early published scripts of varying authenticity.

In 1828, the critic [[John Payne Collier]] published a Punch and Judy script under the title ''The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Punch and Judy''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spyrock.com/nadafarm/html/punch_pdf.html |title=Punch & Judy: 1832 Book pdf file |publisher=Spyrock.com |access-date=2 August 2012 |archive-date=25 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925010334/http://www.spyrock.com/nadafarm/html/punch_pdf.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/punchjudy00colluoft/page/64/mode/2up The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Punch and Judy], p.65, John Payne Collier with illustrations by George Cruikshank, Internet Archive</ref> The script was illustrated by the well-known caricaturist [[George Cruikshank]]. Collier said his script was based on the version performed by the "professor" Giovanni Piccini in the early 19th century, and Piccini himself had begun performing in the streets of London in the late 18th century. The Collier/Cruickshank ''Punch'' has been republished in facsimile several times. Collier's later career as a literary forger has cast some doubt on the authenticity of the script, which is rather literary in style and may well have been tidied up from the rough-and-tumble street-theatre original.

A transcript of a typical Punch and Judy show in [[London]] may be found in [[Henry Mayhew]]'s ''[[London Labour and the London Poor]]''.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/londonlabourlond03mayh_0/page/54/mode/2up London Labour and the London Poor, Vol III ], Henry Mayhew, p.54, Internet Archive</ref>