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Frankie
Punch, May 20, 1882
The Irish Frankenstein. Tenniel's stereotype of the Irish assassin appeared in Punch just two weeks after the Phoenix Park Murders, in which two English emissaries were assassinated in Phoenix Park. The prognathous jaw and simous nose of this monster/assassin--carrying pistol and bloodied dagger, standing over its maker in the form of a respectable and law-abiding English gentleman--were features which the English considered distinctly Irish. Punch described this Frankenstein as a Celtic Caliban: "Hideous, blood-stained, bestial, ruthless in its rage, implacable in its revengefulness, cynical in its contemptuous challenge of my authority, it seemed another and a fouler Caliban in revolt, and successful revolt, against the framer and fosterer of its maleficent existence."


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