Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Mr. Punch in the Arts: Punch and the Doctor

The Victoria & Albert Museum

Here’s another printed card from the George Speaight Collection. I love this Nineteenth Century card by an unknown artist and publisher. I love Punch’s expression and his little, bent puppet legs.


I also rather like the verse from the doctor which accompanies it.

For such painful emotions,
You must take pills and potions,
And swallow whole oceans
Of medicine and rum!

It could well be the motto of a modern doctor.

3 comments:

Doni said...

Every book I've read pre-turn of 20th Century, the "medicine of choice" is always brandy and water, or rum and water. Peeps always got better immediately...Some even coming back from near death. Maybe we're wasting tons of money with all these specialty drugs and should stick what with worked?

Joseph Crisalli said...

They liked leeches, too. So...maybe, we should stick with modern thinking in just this one instance. : )

Doni said...

Yuck!! LOL Good point...Although, everything 'old' is 'new' again...I think I saw a show where they still use the little bloodsuckers for things like siphoning off hematomas, hematomae, hematomii, ummm knocks on the head.