Polichinelle enters singing. He kills Pierrot who was trying to imitate him. He then kills the child of Mère Gigogne because it would not stop crying, and knocks out Mère Gigogne who was protesting. He kills doctor Bouillon-Pointu who came to offer him a remedy for his bloated stomach, then he kills the Commissaire (Superintendent) who came to arrest him. After another fight against two Gendarmes (Policemen), they both manage to get him under control. Imprisoned, Polichinelle is to be hanged, but he manages to take the place of the Bourreau (Executioner). In his last fight against the Diable (Devil), he manages to defeat him and throws him out of the theatre.

Glove-puppet

Young audiences

France

Paris

Printed

Cheekiness

Rivalry

Assassination

Infanticide

Serial murder

Punishment

Farcical

Mathieu Gringoire, vignette for Polichinelle, 1838.

French

Polichinelle

Pierrot

Mother Gigogne

Baby

Physician

Police Superintendant

Constable

Executioner

Devil

Song

Fight

Blow-with-a-stick

Murder on stage

Hanging scene

Apparition of the Devil

Character thrown out of the scene

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.

All audiences

Brokers

Ambition

Flattery

Conspiracy

Tyrant

Wedding

Vanity

Cabaret

Wine

Self-deception

Cruelty

Comet

Cure

Illness

Dream

Melancholy

Satirical

Fantasy

Comical

Front page of La Comète du Roi Mirambole, 1862.

Astrologer

Cabaret owner

Herald

Aside

Off-stage noise

Public announcement

Execution scene

Account of a dream

Monologue

La Comète du Roi Mirambole

The Comet of King Mirambole

Invited to the international convention of handymen in Chicago, Dr. Haase builds a rocket to go there. Two gangsters witness the landing and try to steal the rocket, but Haase manages to flee and goes to see Turnip, the organiser of the convention; the convention is actually an excuse invented to attract the German scientist. Turnip looks for ways to corrupt Haase, his daughter Elvyra tries to seduce him, and the gangster Bill tries to kill him. With the help of the black servant Ann, Haase manages to flee with the rocket and, at the same time, saves Ann’s son Tom from a lynching.

Hoke Werner

Germany

Leipzig

Criminal

Rocket

Money

Capitalism

Corruption

Science

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

America

Debauchery

Seduction

Racism

Front cover of the collection Drei Puppenspiele

German

Satirisches Puppenspiel für große Kinder

Gangster

Policeman

Fake death

Brawl

Trap

Running away

Macaronism

Bawdy equivocation

Die Amerikareise

The trip to America

The Scorpioni Verdi and the Ragni Blu – two feuding families – make so much noise that the puppeteer herself wants to get rid of them. However, the Devil convinces her to grant him three days to make peace between the two families. But he cannot use his powers to do it. Instead, he will have to manage this by influencing someone else. The Devil meets Pulcinella and has him bring Areste Paganòs into the world. Areste then becomes the hero of the play. He elaborates a strategy to try and reconcile the feuding families: he will use the love between their children, Rosina Ragno and Rocco Scorpione. In this plot reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, in which Rocco and Rosina drink a poisonous mixture that should put them to sleep but instead accidentally kills them, Areste manages to fulfill his mission. The Devil brings the two lovers back to life and the joy they share at being reunited helps their families understand that they should not have fought. They all celebrate the young couple’s wedding.