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Punch is rocking his baby, then throws it into the fire. He stabs Judy to death when she finds the charred baby. Punch is now free to seek Pretty Polly, and he leaves on his horse. He finds her and offers her a flower, which she refuses, saying it was tarnished by his murder of his baby.
The Doctor and Lawyer revive Punch, but they too are murdered (with a gigantic hypodermic needle and quill, respectively), and join Judy at the chorus gibbet. Punch again woos Pretty Polly, giving her a prism. Again she rejects him. Punch murders the Choregos, a narrator figure, by sawing him in half (within a bass viol case). This is a turning point in Punch's life, and the cyclical nature of the work changes.
Punch is haunted by nightmarish images of his cruelty and a satanic wedding with Judy. Punch goes to the gallows for his crimes, but cheats the hangman into hanging himself. Pretty Polly reappears and the two sing a love duet around the gallows, now transformed into a maypole.
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