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.

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

Léandre

Hanswurst

Servant

Disguise

Illusory world

Final wedding

Monologue

Cross-dressing

Das Reich der Todten

The Empire of the Dead

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)

Poverty

Army

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

General

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

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

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

Momus, the god of mockery, arrives on Pegasus’s back at the grave of the puppeteer Brioché. Jupiter gave him the power to resuscitate the dead, and he chose Brioché, who thus comes back to life; Momus instructs him to open a theatre. Polichinelle comes out of an old tree; then Pierrot and Arlequin appear. The latter asks Momus to also bring Colombine back to life; she is followed by Beau Léandre, Isabelle and Cassandre. After lauding the puppets, they try to decide on the repertoire they will put on and they introduce the troupe of actors that will perform the pantomimes.

Martainville Alphonse

Cemetery

Laughter

Commedia dell'arte

Past

Martainville, La Résurrection de Brioché, 1810 (title page)

Momus

Brioché

Polichinelle

Pierrot

Arlecchino

Colombine

Isabelle

Cassandre

Aria

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Criticism of actors' theatre

La Résurrection de Brioché

Brioché's Resurrection

Cassandro, a merchant of about fifty years old, is in need of money: he has finally decided to marry, partly to benefit from his wife’s dowry. He must go from Rome to Albano for this wedding with a woman whom he does not know. He leaves with Rocco, his apprentice, on a donkey. On the way, Cassandro stops at a famous inn in which many Romans meet, eat, drink and sing some sorts of stornelli in verse. Cassandro and Rocco then set out again to meet the bride. A storm breaks out during the trip: the donkey stumbles, Cassandro falls, and Rocco and the innkeeper who has come to help him both think that he is dead. While the two men are busy taking care of the donkey, Cassandro comes round; but he pretends to be dead to see what will happen. The fiancée arrives with her brother and mother. They also believe that Cassandro is dead, but they need to pretend that he is alive to make him sign the marriage agreement and take his money. Thus, they drag the so-called corpse and arrange it so that it can be at the wedding and stand before the notary, whose sight is bad. They change the contract so that the two parties can fully enjoy the other’s possessions. However, Cassandro “comes back to life” when it is time to sign it. The wedding still happens: although the young bride is blind in one eye and not pretty, Cassandro reaps economic benefits from it and the bride’s parents must make the best of it. The friends from the inn join in the celebration.

Venus and Adonis; or, the Triumphs of Love.

La Grand-Mère amoureuse

Parodie d'Atys

Das Reich der Todten

Spectacle des Ombres Chinoises

Fasolino che muore e rinasce da uovo

La Résurrection de Brioché

Il viaggio sull'asino di Cassandro sposo

Jeanne de Flandre

Docter Faust

La Nonne sanglante