Pulclinella's story

Hello again, it's me, Mrs Judy. I've come back to visit you. I'm going to tell you my story.

My real name isn't Mrs Judy, I just use that name as I'm bored of my real one. My real name is Pulcinella. Perhaps you've heard of me? I come from the Commedia dell'arte. The Commedia was a type of theatre invented in the 16th century. The "comedy of craft".

I come specifically from Naples, where my character rose to fame. I had many friends, in the old days. Arlecchino, Pantalone, Pierrot. Perhaps you've heard of them too? I ate them.

My character evolved into many different forms - Punch of Punch and Judy, several trickster puppets - and my friends, the zanni, evolved into what you now know as clowns.

I was sick of being the puppet, sick of my idiot friends and their tiresome ways. That's one of the reasons I ate them.

I ate Harlequin, Pierrot and his idiot mate Pierrette, and all the sad clowns and mimes of the world. The ones you see now are mere shadows of what they once were.

I changed my voice. I hated speaking in that high pitched way. I hated my wife, I hated the Policeman, and most of all I hated that crocodile. They were all my children, and I hated them. So I ate them up, soul and all. That's the way to do it.

I hear that we clowns are making a comeback. You might have seen some where you live.

I know all about them.

Most of them are human. Idiot humans trying to scare children. Jumping on the bandwagon, you might say.

But some of them aren't human. Some of them are me. Bits of myself that I sent out into the world to finish the work I started so long ago.

So if you see one of them, if you see a clown in your local park, or the corner of your street, be very careful. It might be me. I might have come to eat you.