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.

Atys (Attis) tells his cousin Sangaride that she is going to marry the prince Célénus (Celænus); then they both confess their love for each other. Having fallen in love with Atys, the goddess Cybèle (Cybele) declares her love to him in a dream. Believing that Atys is unfaithful, Sangaride agrees to marry Célénus. Atys opposes the marriage and flees with Sangaride. To punish Atys, Cybèle commands Esculape (Asclepius) and his apothecaries to drive him insane. Blinded by madness, Atys kills Sangaride. When he realises his crime, Atys begs Cybèle to bring Sangaride back to life, which she does, but changing the young woman into a hen, and Atys into a capon.

Fuzelier Louis

France

Paris

Opera

Wedding

Jealousy

Revenge

Death resurrected

Greek mythology

Capon

Grandparents

Ovid

La Grand-Mère amoureuse, frontispiece in Le Théâtre de la Foire ou l'Opéra comique, tome VIII, 1731.

French

Parodie d'Atys

Attis

Sangaride

Idas

Cybele

Rhea

Phrygian (man)

Priest

River

God of Sleep

Morpheus

Dreams

Asclepius

Apothecary

Phrygian (woman)

Tributaries

Stream

Instrumental tune

Love rivalry

Flying machine

Sung scenes

Dream

Final song

La Grand-Mère amoureuse

The Grand-Mother in love

Leander is in love with Leontine, the daughter of the rich Gebhard. Leander’s footman, Hanswurst, is in love with the maid, Katharinchen. Old Gebhard spends his time reading two books from the "Das Reich der Todten" (The Empire of the Dead) series, which collects imaginary conversations between dead people. He is against his daughter’s wedding. Leander only has a chance at marrying her if he learns the books by heart. The lovers decide to give a sleeping pill to Gebhard, to take him to the garden, and to make him believe that he died. They dress up to stage the chaos happening in The Empire of the Dead. Leontine, Leander, Katharinchen, and Hanswurst go to meet the old man one by one. They explain to him that they too died and that it was his fault. Gebhard thus ends up giving his consent for the wedding. Ernst, a cereal merchant from whom Leander sought advice, enters the stage to expose the trickery to Gebhard, who learns that none of them is dead.

String marionette

Hofmann Anton

Germany

Augsburg

Manuscript

Hell

Reading

Illusion

Deception

Wedding prevented

Father

Dialogue of the dead

Farcical

Poster from Joseph Peter Seelig, Augsburg, circa 1820 (Stephan Oettermann: Ankündigungs-Zettel von Kunstreitern, Akrobaten, Tänzern, Taschenspielern, Feuerwerkern, Luftballons und dergleichen, Wiesbaden 1993, no. 1683)

German

Die bestrafte Einbildung, oder: Das Reich der Todten mitten im Reich, der Lebendigen

Rentier

Fiancée

Chambermaid

Merchant (man)

Fiancé

Leandre

Hanswurst

Servant

Disguise

Illusory world

Final wedding

Monologue

Cross-dressing

Das Reich der Todten

The Empire of the Dead

Pantalone wants his daughter Rosaura to marry the Comte Rompipignatte, but she refuses. Pantalone asks for Brighella’s help. The latter suspects that Rosaura has a lover. This lover is Fasolino. Brighella lures him into a trap so that Pantalone can kill him. Rosaura learns about the murder and is shut away. After he receives his reward, Brighella carries Fasolino’s corpse out of town. A magician (Mago) summons Pluto and Proserpina in order to bring Fasolino back to life. The Devil carries his corpse into the Underworld. Fasolino’s corpse is burnt, and his ashes are placed inside a crocodile’s egg which is then left on a beach. The egg is warmed by Apollo’s sun and brooded on by a snake. Fasolino is born again and fed with the miraculous milk of an old woman. In barely ten minutes, he becomes adult again. The magician reveals what has happened to him and endows him with magical powers.
Brighella relates it all to Pantalone, who does not believe him. Fasolino appears first as a French Knight, then as a Spanish Knight. Thanks to the Shadows he summoned, he beats the two accomplices with a stick.
Pantalone and Brighella are overcome with fear and call Sandrone for help. But Sandrone is even more terrified than they are. Pantalone begs Rosaura to marry the Comte Rompipignatte so his torment can end. She finally yields and agrees. At the exact moment when she is about to exchange vows with the Comte, Fasolino uses his magical powers to kill Pantalone and the Comte. Then he asks Rosaura to marry him. She refuses because he has just killed her father. Fasolino brings Pantalone and the Comte back to life. The latter flees. Fasolino and Rosaura can finally get married.

Glove-puppet

Marotte

Italy

Mantova

Typewriting

Magic

Rivalry in love

Resurrection

Fantasy

Italian

Count

Pantaloon

Fagiolino

Brighella

Sandrone

Magician

Old woman

Nurse

Snake

Shadow

Devil

Apparition

Apparition of the Devil

Pyrotechnics

Murder on stage

Aside

Song

Lazzi

Blow-with-a-stick

Disguised character (false identity)

Fasolino che muore e rinasce da uovo

Fasolino dies and comes back to life from an egg

Kasperl drags on stage the corpse of the devil murdered in Kasperl und der Teufel, and, to get rid of it, throws it out of the hand-puppet booth. His wife suddenly tells him that Death is coming before running away. Death tells Kasperl that it is time to die, but he answers that he does not have time for that. As Death insists, he asks to go and kiss his dear wife one last time: he comes back with a stick and, letting Death go before him, he strikes the skeleton to pieces with a great blow in its back. He leaves and gently sings: everyone now celebrates Kasperl for having defeated Death.

Reinhardt Carl

Munich

Gruesome

Stick

Hits

Woman

Household

Beer

Tavern

Tralala

Radirullala

Detail of a page from Carl Reinhardt, Das wahrhaftige Kasperltheater (based on a 1924 republication, Wien/Leipzig/München, Rikola Verlag, p. 75): Kasperl blows Death to pieces.

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Spectacular turn of events

Allegory

Address to the public

Epilogue

Kasperl und der Tod

Kasperl and Death

Pierrot has been dead for six months when he meets Arlequin in the Underworld. Arlequin has just arrived and tells Pierrot that Colombine quickly forgot all about him after he died. First, she went with Valère, then with Arlequin himself, after he and Martine divorced. After having met Platon (Plato) and Socrate (Socrates) and spied on their conversations, Pierrot and Arlequin begin philosophising about women. When they meet Pluton (Pluto), they ask him to bring Martine and Colombine, whom they yearn to see. The two women are taken alive to the Underworld, but they reject Arlequin and Pierrot as they refuse to live with dead men. To keep them away, Martine sends them both on a mission with Pluton and Caron (Charon). The young women meet Platon and Socrate too, who are both affected by the women’s living flesh. Arlequin is jealous and ready to fight Socrate. However, Pluton comes back and tells Martine and Colombine that Valère has already replaced them both. They ask to be brought back to earth, and Pluton grants their wish. After they are gone, Pluton and Arlequin declare that no woman is trustworthy, but Diotime (Diotima) appears and reminds them of the transfiguring power of love.

Pigeon Amédée

Descent into hell

Carnal love

Unfaithfulness

Philosophy

Afterlife

Satirical

Philosophical tale

Pierrot

Arlecchino

Socrates

Plato

Choir

Pluto

Colombine

Diotima

Scene of recognition

Spying scene

L'Amour dans les Enfers

Love in the Underworld

A Stranger discovers the body of a drowned young girl. Accompanied by an Old Man, he observes by a lighted window the quiet life of the family to which he has to tell the news to as as the procession carrying the drowned girl's body is getting closer.

Venus and Adonis; or, the Triumphs of Love.

La Grand-Mère amoureuse

Parodie d'Atys

Das Reich der Todten

Fasolino che muore e rinasce da uovo

Kasperl und der Tod

L'Amour dans les Enfers

Intérieur

Alladine et Palomides

Le Bandeau d'illusion

The Scourge of The Gulph

Or Fierce Revenge