Polichinelle has enlisted as a soldier for six years. After arriving at the camp of the French army, outside Kehl, he is frightened and wants to go back to Paris. Sentenced to be hanged for deserting, he is pardoned because the garrison of the fortress has just surrendered.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

Carolet Denis

France

Paris

Printed

Army

Deserter

Fear

Death penalty

Antimilitarism

Comical

Manuscrit of La Prise du fort de Kehl (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 9294)

French

Polichinelle

Sergeant

Drum

Trumpet (military man/woman)

General

Judge

Hanging scene

Final song

La Prise du fort de Kehl

The Capture of the fortress of Kehl

A monstrous-looking woman appears. She is mad and furious, vain and proud, a troublemaker and an insolent woman. She is accused of having murdered her family and her lovers. A sick and lonely woman is crying on a bed which is falling into pieces. A general is sitting on his strongbox, surrounded by officers and deputies waiting to be permitted to speak. He is receiving mail. A young man draws two cards to look into his future. A man in his forties is blaming himself for the death of his wife and daughter. In a Dutch school, old men are dressed as children. Three donkeys carrying sponges are swimming across a river. A sleepwalker is calling for help because someone wants to hang him. Guards arrest a burglar and send him to prison. A car with five wheels is running over people. A young man kills a Jacobin disguised as a soldier, because he attacked him.

Shadow theatre

All audiences

Séraphin (Dominique Séraphin François, aka Séraphin)

Metamorphosis

Poverty

Death

Thief

Dramatic

Satirical

"Les Ombres chinoises", beginning of an article published in Le Thé ou le Journal des dix-huit (31 August 1797)

Old woman

Sick person

Young man

Old man

Donkey

Apparition of a monster

Character represented in animal form

Death on stage

Allusion to current political events

Political allegory

Spectacle des Ombres Chinoises

Shadow Puppetry Performance

Victor is in love with Clémence, the daughter of the Baron de Fritzierne. Moreover, a long time ago, Victor was found in the forest by the Baron de Fitzierne and raised like his own son. Victor reveals to Clémence that he is not her brother. Clémence is thrilled and believes that they can finally marry. However, Victor wants to run away: he is afraid to ask the Baron for Clémence’s hand, for he is convinced that, without wealth, we will never get his consent. Forban, a bandit, gives Victor a letter that was meant for the Baron, and assures him that it can save his life. Meanwhile, Clémence has revealed everything to her father, who now wants to see Victor. Together, the Baron, Clémence, and Victor read the letter sent by Roger, the leader of the bandits. A few days before, the Baron’s men freed Madame Germain, a woman captured by Roger. The latter now demands that the Baron bring her back to him within twenty four hours, or he will seek revenge. The Baron refuses to yield and asks for his army to be prepared to face Roger. The Baron puts Victor to the test: to marry Clémence, he will have to prove that his parents are honest and honourable people, even if they are poor. The battle starts. Victor fights Roger, but Madame Germain intervenes and saves the bandits’ leader. The Baron asks for explanations. The truth comes out: Roger is actually Victor’s father, and Madame Germain was the friend of his mother Adèle. Adèle had entrusted Madame Germain with a mission: to save her son. Madame Germain had then kidnapped Victor and let him in the forest, where he was found by the Baron. When he had discovered this, Roger, enraged, had killed Adèle. The Baron gives Victor one last chance: if he convinces his father to stop his criminal activities, he will marry Clémence. Victor finds Roger and tells him that he is his son. Roger refuses to give up his lifestyle, even though he loves him. In the end, he sacrifices himself to protect Victor and Clémence when the camp is attacked. Fatally wounded, he asks the Baron in his last breath to not judge Victor because of his lineage, and to approve his union with Clémence.

String marionette

Family

Love

Escape

Friendship

Mysterious letter

Threat

Combat

Sacrifice

Relationship between father and son

Forgiveness

Honour

Melodramatic

Heroic

Leader

Brigand

Baron

Lieutenant

Officer

Soldier

Daughter

Lady

Monologue

Revelation

Letter

Off-stage voice

Aside

Off-stage noise

Battle cries with several voices

Off-stage combat

Fight to the death

Victor ou l'Enfant de la forêt

Victor or the Child of the forest

Sultan Mustapumpum still needs more soldiers to send his army to massacre the Christians, whom he wants to turn into tongue and ear salad for his meal. On the orders of Marshal Morackel, the recruiter of the Sultan's army tries to recruit the Jews Schmuel and Zwirn, who immediately flee; then he recruits Kasperl. But Kasperl knocks Morackel out with the rifle he gave him for the exercise. The marshal catches him in the act and wants to have him hanged. Kasperl does it so badly that Morackel puts the rope around his neck himself to show him how. Kasperl hangs him and then kills the Sultan by hitting him with the gallows.

Reinhardt Carl

Germany

Munich

Turkey

Sultan

Muslim

Black

Military service

Gallows

Silliness

Despotism

Cruelty

Farcical

German

Kasperl

Role reversal

Word for another

Kasperl als Rekrut in der Türkei

Kasperl, a recruit in Turkey

The tailor Bock lodges a complaint with the mayor Salzmaier against Kasperl, his tenant, for night-time disturbances. Salzmaier wants to put him in prison, but Kasperl, warned by his clerk friend Spritzler, pretends to be Garibaldi, entering the Tyrol leading 50,000 men. He takes up residence in Salzmaier's house, flirts with his wife Margarethe and drinks so much beer... that everyone recognises him: the play ends with a general brawl.

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Excessive drinking

Beer

Spousal abuse

Italy

Seduction

Burlesque

Ein politisches Trauerspiel, aus dem Italienischen übersetzt

Clerk

Madame Kasperl

Tailor

Innkeeper

In der Ferne das Garibaldische Armeekorps

Inn scene

Parody of formal language

Dialect

Macaronism

Disguise

Brawl

Kasperl als Garibaldi

Kasperl as Garibaldi

Two families, the Gobards and the Courbemanches, are driving to visit the military camp in Saint-Maur. On the way, they notice an accident, which sparks their conversation. When they arrive, they meet a Zouave and start talking with him. Later, they go to the camp of the Turcos (African infantrymen) and meet the Tambour-major (Drum major). They are asked to go to dinner: everyone is there apart from Agathe, the servant. The voice of a man as well as laughter can be heard coming from the woods, which scares the family as they were about to start their meal. Agathe returns, but it starts raining and everyone ends up drenched, tired and starving. The Gobards and the Courbemanches call it a night and part ways. Agathe is the only one who seems to have enjoyed the trip.

Glove-puppet

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

Bourgeoisie

Journey

Colonial troupe

Algeria

Lemercier de Neuville, I Pupazzi. Front cover of the first edition, 1866.

Husband

Wife

Servant

Zouave

Rifleman

Aria

Situation comedy

Comedy of language

Comic distortion of language

Dinner scene

Amphigory

Le Camp de Saint-Maur

Saint-Maur Camp

The play is set in Orleans in 1867. Madame Pétenvert (a widow) and Mademoiselle Euphémie are accommodating two captains – Vachard and Chiclair – for three months. They quickly fall in love with their guests and would like to marry them. However, the two captains take advantage of the situation and spend their time talking, in a light-hearted manner, about politics, the army and, at the same, about women, billiards and their love of good food. One day, they are invited to dinner at the colonel’s house. The dinner ends with the two captains being drunk and getting the landladies’ houses mixed up. Thus, the two men being sick, captain Vachard spends the night with Mademoiselle Euphémie while captain Chiclair sleeps with Mademoiselle Pétenvert. The following day, after leaving the houses, they both accuse each other of having disrespected them, because of the state of their slippers and of the beds. However, this conversation about honour ends up being a commentary on the night they have just spent with the two women. The captains accuse the colonel of having treated them “too well” and the latter, in response, orders them to go back to their respective landladies and to marry them.

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

Nohant

Politics

Dinner

Glutton

Entertainment

Unfaithfulness

Wedding

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : marionette de Madame Pétenvert.

La Garnison d’Orléans, Les Deux Capitaines.

Captain

Colonel

Waiter

Widow

Host

Domestic servant

Nous dînons chez le colonel

We are dining at the colonel's

M. Prudhomme is the owner of a village called Terrevieille (Oldland) where he lives with his faithful servant Gazette and his neighbour Annexmann. One day, Gazette advises him to build walls around his garden and to arm the inhabitants of his land because other peasants are equipped with stakes. M. Prudhomme commands her to find out the culprit, and Gazette leaves, seeking information. Meanwhile Annexmann arrives to discuss a neighbour called Danois (Danish) and a parcel which used to belong to his ancestors. Fearing a conflict, M. Prudhomme decides to dig ditches and to arm his people. Shortly after, Gazette comes back and informs her master that Annexmann’s men are carrying sticks with a needle on top whilst M. Prudhomme’s men have Chassepot rifles. During the conversation, we learn of a new problem: a certain Victor had promised to respect the presbytery of the village’s vicar that is located in his orchards. However, Victor is now threatening to evict the vicar from his land. M. Prudhomme is outraged by this situation and, with Gazette, decides to defend the vicar’s house. In return for her precious help, Gazette asks M. Prudhomme for a very special reward: freedom.

Marseille

Village

Neighbourhood

Priest

Current events

Property

Lemercier de Neuville, illustration for Mon Village, 1868.

Landlord

Monsieur Prudhomme

Neighbour

Play in verse

Comical foreign accent

Mon village

My village

Guignol embarks on a hot-air balloon set for the Moon, in order to escape poverty and make his fiancée’s dreams come true. The balloon takes him first to the Mer de Glace (a glacier in France), then close to the Sun, and finally to the Moon. Guignol is captured by the guards. But when he meets the king of the Moon, he succeeds in convincing him that it would be more profitable for him to keep him as an ally, since he could establish trades between the Moon and the Earth. Guignol also shows the king the power of firearms, which are manufactured on Earth. Firearms being a lot more effective than the low-tech weapons of the Moon, Guignol promises the king that they will help him subdue an enemy neighbour. He is then appointed general. Gnafron and Madelon eventually travel to the Moon too, and the play ends with a feast.

Lyon

Manuscript

Cosmic journey

Money

Gas balloon

Parachute

Communication

Bear

Trade

Parodistic

Fantasy

First page of the handwritten manuscript of Guignol dans la Lune