From: "Mark Levenson" <markl-AT-levenson.com>
Subject: Re: swazzles and Renaissance puppetry
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 00:24:14 -0700


> From: Lachlan Jones <boston-AT-terrigal.net.au>
> To: puptcrit-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> Subject: Re: swazzles and Renaissance puppetry
> Part of our programme involves puppetry, and while no-one in our group is
an
> expert in the field it certainly fired my imagination enough to do some
> research. When the subject of swazzles was mentioned recently it got me
to
> thinking: were swazzles used in the Renaissance, or was it a later
addition
> to the Punch phenomenon?

in his essay "the voice of the puppet" for the book "the language of the
puppet," george speight says that the swazzle-effect was prevalent in
England before pulcinella arrived, and it was used in the early seventeenth
century and probably in the sixteenth.  i say "swazzle-effect" deliberately
because the "thin nasal metallic twang" as speight describes it was was
created by "holding or perhaps placing a clip over their noses."  not quite
how it's done today.  also note esp. that while the swazzle is used
exclusively for punch today (when it's used at all), the origin is as a
voice-disguiser for all puppets.  the idea was that an unnaturally sized
figure needed an unnaturral voice.  a convention that's been largely
discarded except, of course, for mr. punch.

Mark Levenson
markl-AT-levenson.com



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