The ambitious Doctor Faust begins learning black magic and makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles: he promises him his soul on condition that the latter agrees to serve him. Faust goes to Parma with Mephistopheles and his houseboy Hans Wurst. The houseboy was asked to keep the identity of his master secret, but he gives it away to the duke of Parma as soon as he arrives there. Faust makes several spectacular natural phenomena appear before the duke (Mount Etna erupting, a sea tempest) but the duke’s courtiers hate him for showing the duke their true nature. Faust is forced to flee. Although Hans Wurst is dismissed, he finds refuge with Wagner, Faust’s servant. Mephistopheles eventually secures Faust’s soul by making Helen of Troy fall in love with him. He also shows him that his generosity will not save him, because its benefits also had harmful effects on his protégés. Faust understands that he is damned, takes leave of Hans Wurst and Wagner, and hands himself over to Hell when midnight strikes.

Not specified

Germany

Augsburg

Printed

Scholar

Wittenberg

Necromancy

Sorcery

Vice

Cheekiness

Nature

Navy

Brokers

Scatology

Crucifix

Hell

Future punishment

Vanity

Tragic

Burlesque

First page of the play in Johann Scheible's edition, Das Kloster, 1847

German

Ein Trauerspiel in 3 Theilen und 9 Aufzügen. (Vom Augsburger Puppentheater.)

Faust

Genie

Guardian angel

Satan

Christoph Wagner

Hanswurst

Mephistopheles

Devil

Duke of Parma

Helen of Troy

Monologue

Dilemma

Instrumental tune

Board

Improvised scene

Lazzi

Word for another

Word reiteration

Apparition

Pact with the devil

Bawdy equivocation

Flying machine

Diorama

Versified passages

Johann Faust

Doctor Faust is disillusioned with academic disciplines. He learns black magic and makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles, promising him his soul if the latter accepts to serve him for twenty-four years. Faust’s new domestic servant, Casperle, also learns to summon demons, and engages the services of the devil Auerhahn. However, he refuses to sell his soul to him. During the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Parma, Faust makes the Ancient Testament appear before them and attempts to seduce the duchess. But he is pursued by her husband, the Inquisition and the outraged people, because Casperle has used his links with the devil to carry out miracles. Faust flees to Constantinople and Auerhahn brings Casperle to Mainz. The final act relates Faust’s damnation. He does penance, but he is doomed when Mephistopheles promises him the most beautiful woman in the world – Helen of Troy. Faust is carried off by demons, while Casperle, now a night watchman, takes his revenge on his wife at the end of the play, for the domestic violence she inflicted on him.

String marionette

Simrock Karl

Bonn

Magic

University

Monkey

Pluto

Crow

Mainz

Perlicke

Drink

Pigtail

Dragon

Seduction

Inquisition

Italy

Couch

Repentance

Nightwatchman

Lust

Spousal abuse

Humorous

Off-stage voice

Tragic irony

Misunderstanding

Comic equivocation

Aside

Song

Dream

Pyrotechnics

Chase

Theatre within the theatre

Domestic scene

Dance

Doctor Johannes Faust

Doctor Sassafras is pleased to have a client as hypochondriac as Steinreich. This rich and selfish man forbids his niece Marie from continuing to see his secretary Schreiber, whom he dismisses. Steinreich envisions a more beneficial match for his niece. Doctor Sassafras makes a deal with the devil to summon Death. Schreiber then attempts suicide, but a gravedigger saves him, as Death is detained in Sassafras’ enchanted chair. The Devil realises that his pact with Sassafras is detrimental to him and breaks their contract. Death comes fetch the doctor, who turns to God and hopes for His mercy. In the meantime, Steinreich converted: he has become charitable and, most importantly, no longer opposes Marie and Schreiber’s union.

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Medicine

Knödel

Usurpation

Surgery

Prestige

Wealth

Champagne

Misery

Forced marriage

Hypochondria

Cemetery

Bible

Suicide

Sentimentalism

Religion

Farcical

Satirical

Comical

Pathetic

Title page in the original edition of Pocci's comedies

oder Doctor, Tod und Teufel

Doctor

Kasperl

Secretary

Death

Peasant

Domestic servant

Gravedigger

Parody of formal language

Dialect as a social marker

Allegory

Light effects

Philosophical dialogue

Final wedding

Doctor Sassafras

Polichinelle has cloistered himself in a barrel to escape the world’s malice. Despite the pleas of Pierrot, Cassandre and a pork butcher, he is determined to stay cloistered (although he took the wine, the money and the ham they brought to try and lure him out). Everyone misses the old Polichinelle and his love for life, but Pierrot comes up with an idea. He makes sure that Polichinelle watches a puppet show in which a harmless Polichinelle has withdrawn from the world. The real Polichinelle is outraged – he knocks the booth over and drives the puppeteer out. Meanwhile, Pierrot takes the barrel away. Polichinelle sorely misses his barrel, which he claims was a trick to better swindle people. The policeman arrives to arrest Polichinelle, for “disturbance to civilisation”, but the latter escapes. Pierrot, who fled when he saw the policeman, comes back with his arms full of the wine, ham and money he found in the barrel.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

France

Paris

Hypocrisy

Misanthropy

Cunning

Wine

Money

Depression

Withdrawal from the world

Parodistic

Frontispiece of Polichinelle withdrawn from the World.

French

Polichinelle

Pierrot

Constable

Pork butcher

Cassandre

Cassandra

L’Acteur faisant le personnage de Polichinelle

Actor

Manipulator

L’Acteur faisant le personnage de Pierrot

Blow-with-a-stick

Hidden character

Apparition of the puppeteer

Characterisation through onomatopoeia

Polichinelle retiré du monde

Polichinelle withdrawn from the world

King Mirambole is tyrannical, vain and hypochondriac, and he wants to marry. Three rival courtiers (the Doctor, the Astrologer and the Goldsmith) flatter the King, smear one another and conspire to persuade him to choose a woman from their respective families as his wife. The Doctor convinces the King that only a comet put on his forehead will cure him of all his pains. To cause the Astrologer’s downfall, he also advises the King to leave this task to him. The Astrologer suggests that the King ask the Goldsmith to make one, while the Goldsmith persuades the King to entrust the Doctor and the Astrologer with the task. In the end, the valet Pierrot commits to bringing the king a comet. Pierrot goes to his brother, an innkeeper, brings back a bottle of “comet wine” and convinces his niece Balibutte to follow him. When he comes back to the palace, he introduces his niece as a comet embodied in a woman, and he cures the king with the wine. Balibutte relates a dream to the king, which both exposes the courtiers’ betrayals and tells him how to punish them. The king executes the courtiers, marries Balibutte and names Pierrot grand vizier.

Ambition

Flattery

Conspiracy

Tyrant

Wedding

Cabaret

Self-deception

Cruelty

Comet

Cure

Illness

Rivalry

Melancholy

Fantasy

Front page of La Comète du Roi Mirambole, 1862.

Astrologer

Physician

Executioner

Cabaret owner

Herald

Off-stage noise

Public announcement

Execution scene

Account of a dream

La Comète du Roi Mirambole

The Comet of King Mirambole

Donna Anna turns Don Juan away – she prefers her more virtuous brother. Don Juan asks his father for three hundred ducats to win her over. When Don Pedro refuses and threatens to throw him behind bars, he loses his temper and murders him. Don Juan flees the town with his servant Kasperl, whom he pretends is the new sergeant, to fool the guards, and they hide in the woods. There, they meet a hermit and Don Juan wants to borrow his clothes to disguise himself. But Kasperl tells the hermit what crimes his master Don Juan has committed, and Don Juan eliminates this troublesome witness. In the meantime, the devil appears to Kasperl, who promptly gets rid of him. As they arrive to an inn, Don Pedro’s ghost appears to them and Don Juan invites him to dinner. The ghost agrees to the invitation and is poorly received by Kasperl, who go as far as throwing a chair on him. Don Juan refuses to repent. The ghost invites him back, then holds out his hand to him to seal their deal. At this moment, devils come and carry him into the air. Kasperl takes all of his master’s money and celebrates.