E. W. B. Childers, one of the circus performers, tries to cast Sissy and her father in a sympathetic light in front of Mr. Bounderby and Mr. Gradgrind. He uses an idiom to explain how happy her father was at the prospect of educating her:
“When Sissy got into the school here,” he pursued, “her father was as pleased as Punch.”
He describes Sissy’s father as being “pleased as Punch” that his daughter was admitted to a competitive local school in Coketown, an expression which references the stock character Punch typically found in English puppet shows.
So-called “Punch and Judy shows,” marionette shows that tell the story of Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy, were popular in England throughout the 1800s. Punch is known for, among other things, his pugnaciousness and self-satisfaction (he often applauds himself after committing an act of violence). The phrase “pleased as Punch” gained popularity in the late nineteenth century to describe someone who is extremely happy or pleased about something.
This idiom was already common slang at the time, but Mr. Childers’s use of a piece of slang rooted in the culture of performance is significant in this passage. Dialogue is frequently used by Dickens as a tool to show differences in class, experience, and worldview throughout Hard Times. This idiom, along with other examples of circus and theater slang in the scene, show the reader that the lives of performers are totally different from those of traditional middle class men like Bounderby and Gradgrind.
In Book 2, Chapter 10, Bounderby describes how he has instructed Tom to behave after the bank robbery, unaware that Tom himself is the perpetrator. He uses an idiom in his description:
“My injunction is, keep it quiet and let it seem to blow over. Do what you like under the rose, but don’t give a sign of what you’re about; or half a hundred of ‘em will combine together, and get this fellow who has bolted, out of reach for good.”
Bounderby thinks it is best for Tom not to overreact, but to wait for the thief to get comfortable enough to make a mistake, or to return and try his luck again. He instructs Tom to do what he thinks is best “under the rose,” an expression that means “in secret.” This idiom comes from the Latin phrase sub rosa (“under the rose” being a literal translation of the idiom into English).
In ancient Rome, the rose was a symbol of secrecy and silence. According to Roman myth, Cupid gave the gift of a rose to the god of silence, Harpocrates. In exchange, Harpocrates kept Venus’s many affairs a secret. In much Roman architecture, a rose was carved into the ceilings of dining rooms, as a reminder to guests to exercise confidentiality about what was said and done there. Roses were sometimes hung above council rooms, to indicate the proceedings were secret or confidential. This phrase entered the English language sometime before the 1600s, so its inclusion in dialogue here is not particularly unusual, and aligns with the numerous Classical references throughout the text.
