Venus asks her son Cupid to make Adonis fall in love with her. Punch is furious and curses the gods, love and poetry. Cupid hears him. He strikes him with an arrow and condemns him to love Proserpina. When she appears, Punch sings his love to her. She dies and Punch is driven to despair. Venus and Adonis are in love. Venus asks Adonis not to go hunting because it would be too dangerous. Adonis ignores her plea and goes anyway. He is wounded and dies. Venus wants to catch his soul and join him. She is mourning his death with Pallas. Jupiter visits Proserpina in the Underworld to convince her to love Punch, who has been changed into Mars by Jupiter. The two lovers kiss and go back to the surface. All the characters ascend.
In her epilogue, Iris declares that love has prevailed.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

Great Britain

London

Printed

Love

Death

Hunting

Latin Mythology

Metamorphosis

Comical

Burlesque

Parodistic

Martin Powell, Venus and Adonis, 1713. (Title page).

English

Adonis

Eros

Jupiter (Jove)

Punch

Mars

Venus

Athena

Proserpina

Iris

Satyre

Nymph

Sung play

Hunting scene

Ascent to heaven

Set that comes to life

Magic spell

Venus and Adonis; or, the Triumphs of Love.

Incarcerated for his debts, Casperl is freed from prison by a small child, Capricerl, who is the guide of Fortuna, the blind goddess. While being pursued, Casperl finds refuge with Klaus, a hermit who reveals himself to be the Devil. However, Fortuna bet against Bios, the genie of life, that her gifts could make someone happy: Casperl will be her guinea pig. She repels the Devil and makes Casperl win the lottery. But the newly rich man is tyrannical and angry to the point of becoming sick. He goes so far as to miss the simple and modest life he once had, and curses his fortune. The goddess understands her defeat and brings him back to his normal self. Casperl goes to the inn.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Despair

Thirst

Destiny

Debt

Happiness

Blindness

Widower

Gas balloon

Jail

Philosophy

Grief

Breaking out

Bingo

Tavern

Fantasy

German

Kasperl im Schuldturm

Genie

Goddess of Fortune

Kasperl

Innkeeper

Old man

Hermit

Devil

Police officer

Verschiedene Erscheinungen und Verwandlungen

Apparition

Allegory

Monologue

Off-stage voice

Flying machine

Song

Apparition of the Devil

Versified passages

Pact with the devil

Word for another

Thunderbolt

Chorus

Story

Metatheatre

Transforming scenery

Address to the public

Slaps

Das Glück ist blind

Luck is blind

After a prologue in which a marionette summarizes the plot, the scene opens in Juno’s bedroom at 3 a.m. Jove and Mercury, drunk and dressed as burglars, break the window to get in. Jove drives Mercury away and tries to sleep but he wakes up Juno, who picks a quarrel with him. She is furious and she decides to go to Hell and fetch two snakes which will kill Hercules and his mother in retaliation for Jove’s unfaithfulness. At the gates of Hell, Juno orders snakes and meets Blind Boy and Columbus the Parrot, who are carrying a bag. They are introduced to Pluto and his favorite snake, Slimy-Go-Gurgle-and-Twirl. They are sentenced to boil in the cauldron of Hell, but Columbus states that he has a present for Pluto in his bag. Pluto asks to see it. The present is an egg containing six other eggs, which are all of different colours and are placed one inside the other. Out of the smallest one hatches the “Worm of Worms,” Cockatrice, who kills all the snakes in Hell and terrifies everybody. Pluto gives his ring to Blind Boy and asks him to take Cockatrice away, but Blind Boy informs him that he is his mother and offers to explain how it happened. They all sit in front of a small theatre, where the story of Cockatrice’s birth is narrated. In the cockney neighborhood of London, Jove, dressed up as a cock, steps into Blind Woman and Blind Boy’s shop in order to buy pigeon milk. He hands over an egg to Blind Boy, since he is blind and therefore cannot see Cockatrice, who is about to hatch, for a single glance at Cockatrice would prove fatal - it would even kill him to see himself in a mirror. Jove asks Blind Boy to be Cockatrice’s mother and to never reveal to him who his father is. After hatching, Cockatrice befriends Blind Boy, and they decide to travel the different worlds together. After the performance ends, Blind Boy, Cockatrice, and Parrot leave Hell in order to rescue Hercules from the snakes sent by that Juno sent.

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Marina di Pisa

Printed excerpts

Unfaithfulness

Hell

Monster

Evil

Descent into hell

Satirical

Jupiter - Parrot - Pluto - Cockatrice & Blind-Boy

1st version

Puppet

Juno

Mercury

Worker

Blind Boy

Blind

Parrot

Pretty Polly

Columbus

Servant

Pluto

Slimy-Go-Gurgle-And-Twirl

Snake

Cockatrice

Basilic

Worm

Cock, cockerel

Theatre within the theatre

Egg eclosion

Verbal imitation

Argument

Blind character

Disguised character (false identity)

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Anachronism

Avista

Hell (1916)

Enfer

Blind Woman is lying on her bed, which is on top of her house, and narrating her unsuccessful love stories to Doctor Fell. Her tale lasts for a few days. It ends when the curtain falls and a Marionette comes to announce that the Theatre Director found a way to make her stop her storytelling by gifting her a ring which grants one wish. Blind Woman declares to Doctor Fell that she wants revenge on Jupiter. Thanks to the ring, she turns into a Sphinx to force Jupiter to surrender to her power by asking him riddles. She asks Doctor Fell to dress up as a nanny. Jupiter is sailing at sea, dressed as a ship’s captain. He receives a call from Mama Ops, his mother, who wishes him to meet a smart woman and lets him know that she revealed his location to Blind Woman. Jupiter is distraught and reaches the boat of Blind Boy, Cockatrice, and Columbus, who also decide to dress up to mislead Blind Woman. The latter awaits Jupiter on a dock, under the guise of a Sphinx. She is persuaded that he disguised himself as a woman to get away from her. Jupiter, as a captain, lands with Blind-Boy, Cockatrice, and Columbus, who cross-dress as the Three Graces. Blind Woman, who thinks Cockatrice to be Jupiter, asks him a riddle and snatches his veil. Cockatrice appears, wearing a nightgown and makeup as a lady. Blind Woman faints into Doctor Fell’s arms while the others take this opportunity to get back on the ship and flee. 
When she comes to her senses, she meets a Watchman and tries to trick him with a riddle as well, while the curtain falls.

Mother

Seduction

Sphinx

Riddle

Boat

Adventure

Physician

Cybele

Rhea

Sailor

Mayor

City councillor

Night watchman

Ellipsis

Lowering the curtain during action

Boat mounted on wheels

Talking on the phone

Scene of recognition

Cross-dressing

Comic speech

Instrumental tune

Jupiter & the Sphinx

Jupiter et le Sphinx

On the stage, the Interpreter, who is a kind of demiurge, makes Earth appear and disappear into space. He then announces that the tree Yggdrasil will appear, along with three boxes. From the first box emerge gods from different religions, from the second one come out mythological and historical heroes as well as demons. The third box does not open up, but it moves, revealing that the box contains a being. The Interpreter calls him “the Messiah” and declares that he will come to “damn creation” - it is the announcement of the birth of the future main character of the Drama for Fools: Cockatrice.

Venus and Adonis; or, the Triumphs of Love.

Das Glück ist blind

Hell (1916)

1st version

Jupiter & the Sphinx

The Second Prologue

Something Prophetic

Hell (1918)

3rd version

L'ascensione di Faggiolino nel regno del Sole e nel mondo della Luna