[Ads-l] help with a literary (?) allusion

[Bill Mullins]

I've seen in print a couple of times, when the writer wants to tell someone "Don't!", variants of "As Punch told the young man about to marry, Don't!"

I recently saw it suggested that "Punch" was the puppet from Punch & Judy.  Now there are likely hundreds of Punch & Judy scripts, but they are fairly well-defined characters, and this doesn't seem consistent with Punch's character as I understand it.

I think of the phrasing as being turn of the century (19th/20th), and I've always assumed that "Punch" was the humor magazine of the era.

Anyone have any thoughts?  Is there another "Punch" who could have said this, that I'm missing?


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