Polichinelle tells the Compère the story how he became Pluton (Pluto)’s coachman. He helps the latter capture Proserpine. Her mother – Cérès (Ceres) – protests, but Jupiter declares that Proserpine will be handed back to Ceres on condition that she does not eat or drink anything in the Underworld. Polichinelle testifies that he has seen Proserpine eat “way more than just a pear”. Jupiter therefore rules that Pluton can keep her.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Printed

Mother-daughter relationship

Greek mythology

Hell

Judgment of God

Kidnapping

Devil

Horse

Coachman

Glory

Carriage

Minuet

Comical

Parodistic

Farcical

French

Polichinelle

The Interpreter

Pluto

Faune

Proserpina

Pallas

Ceres

Apparition of a god

Bawdy equivocation

Comic Equivocation

Instrumental tune

Dialogue with a character in the audience

L'Enlèvement de Proserpine par Pluton roi des Enfers

The Abduction of Prosperpine by Pluton king of the Underworld

Don Juan witnesses Donna Amarilles' declaration of love to Don Philippo and decides to get to the meeting place before his rival. Through the intervention of his servant Hans Wurst, he asks his father Don Alfaro for ten thousand thalers. The latter has two coins given to them, so that they can both buy ropes to hang themselves. Don Juan beats his father and robs him. He tries to abduct Donna Amarilles but he is caught by her father, Don Pedro, and kills him. The boat Don Juan and Hans Wurst flee on sinks but they both survive and find shelter with a hermit in the woods. Don Juan is disguised – he is wearing the hermit’s trousers – and kills Don Philippo who was chasing him. He then tries to rape a shepherdess and a princess he met in the woods. He kills the princess because she was fighting him. Don Juan and Hans Wurst finally reach the cemetery where Don Pedro’s equestrian statue stands, and they invite him over for dinner. The statue agrees, but in the end, Don Juan will go to it for a midnight feast in the cemetery. Don Pedro urges him to do penance, but he refuses and is damned. He then repents for his sins. An angel offers him forgiveness for his sins. He does not think he is worthy of it and is carried away by Furies from the Underworld. As for Hans Wurst, he drives out two devils who offered him a similar dinner.

Strasbourg

Seducer

Unwelcome seducer

Assassination

Servant

Valet

Murder

Serial murder

Phantom

Revenant

Religion

Morality

Abduction

Fish

Leviathan

Jonas

Forest

Cemetery

Didactic

German

Straßburger Don Juan-Puppenspiel

Don Alfaro

Don Juan

Don Pietro

Donna Marillis

Don Filippo

Sheperherdess

Hermit

Hanswurst

Angel

Ghost

Apparition

Flying machine

Final intervention of the devil

Disguise

Word for another

Dialogue between characters who do not see each other

Murder on stage

Light effects

Don Juan oder der Steinerne Gast

Don Juan or the Stone Guest

The enchanter Merlin captured Marie – the young woman loved by the painter Arthur. To free her, Arthur and his valet Guignol go through many adventures. Merlin comes into Arthur’s workshop so that he draws his portrait. Guignol also tries to paint Merlin’s portrait, but he fights with the painting, which keeps transforming because of the enchanter’s spells. Arthur then visits Merlin thanks to a gift from Marie’s godmother – the Fée Merveilleuse (Marvellous Fairy): a talisman that makes him invisible. Only Marie can see him. She advises him to go to the Sorcière’s hut (the Witch’s hut), which he does with Guignol. At the Sorcière’s hut, they meet the madman Richepance – her assistant. The Sorcière welcomes Arthur while Guignol is mistreated for a long time by the furniture of the house which keeps playing with him. Arthur and Guignol can finally save Marie. But she is under a spell by Merlin that makes her look very old. Arthur still wishes to free and marry her, but Marie believes that it would be too great a sacrifice for him to marry an old woman. Merlin is jubilant at the sight of the torn couple. The Fée Merveilleuse is moved by Arthur’s devotion. She sets Marie free from the spell and restores her true appearance. The lovers can finally marry, and Merlin is defeated.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Saint-Étienne

Manuscript

Love

Magic

Test

Portrait

Fantasy

La Case de la sorcière (cover page)

Guignol

Magician

Merlin

Fairy

Situation comedy

Word warping

Apparition of a wizard

Magic spell

Set that comes to life

Slaps

Change of age

Invisible force

La Case de la sorcière

The witch's Hut

Kasperl leaves for America on a boat, but is swallowed by a whale that spits him out on an island inhabited by cannibals. They salt him and smear him in whale fat. Attracted by the smell of fat, an eagle kidnaps Kasperl on the verge of being eaten and takes him back to Europe. Kasperl manages to escape and meets a horseman who takes him back to his family. The play ends as a prologue with an invitation to take a seat in front of the puppet theatre for the start of the main performance.

Shadow theatre

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Boat

Navigation

Navy

America

Shipwreck

Unknown land

Island

Sausage

Beer

Thirst

Hunger

Cannibalism

Savage

Family

Kasperl

Baleine

Cannibale

Eagle

Horserider

Madame Kasperl

Child

Monologue

Play in verse

Chorus

Sung scenes

Macaronism

Unexpected turn of events

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Kasperl bei den Menschenfressern

Kasperl among the anthropophagi

On the advice of his companion Bluteck, the cruel knight Barbe-Bleue (Blaubart) decides to remarry for the seventh time and kidnaps Bertha, the eldest daughter of the rich Geldsack. The next day, Barbe-Bleue leaves the castle and gives Bertha all the keys, including the one to the secret cabinet, which he nevertheless forbids her to enter. But Bertha disobeys him and discovers the decapitated bodies of his previous wives. To punish her for her curiosity, Barbe-Bleue sentences her to death. She is saved by her former suitor Hugo von Hohenfels, who, with the help of the servant Kasperl, enters the castle and kills Barbe-Bleue.

Cruelty

Bear

Hunting

Wedding

Romanticism

Knighthood

Young girl

Deafness

Curiosity

Women's condition

Dramatic

Barbe-Bleue

Knight

Ecuyer

Song

Dance

Dialogue of the deaf

Parody of formal language

Apparition of the Devil

Blaubart

Bluebeard

Sir William comes to Guignol to suggest that he and Gnafron go sell pills and polish in Africa. The pills would whiten black people’s skins, and the polish would keep intact the skin colour of everyone who would like to stay black. The two friends accept, unaware that the commercial journey is a cover for the true mission, which is to stop captain Marchand from reaching Fashoda. They are joined by doctor Béziclier, who studies races, and his daughter Luce. In Africa, Gnafron’s business is not going well—nobody wants to buy the pills. On the other hand, Guignol’s polish sells very well. Guignol and Luce are in love, but Béziclier has already promised his daughter to their guide Friponi, who actually works for the British. Yet, the Italian man does not love Luce, who is only a means to his ends. With the help of Bétéké and his companions, he kidnaps Luce and Naora, the slave who travels with her. Friponi then brings the bad news to the doctor and to Guignol and Gnafron, and then goes to the two women’s “rescue”. He makes Korouto, the king of Bangala, believe that the French plan to “slaughter everyone and wipe everything out” and that he himself – Friponi – can prevent that from happening. To do so, he will need Korouto’s army, which the king agrees to lend him. Because the Italian does not need Luce, the king suggests that she be proposed to Joudochik, the king of a neighbouring land. Naora is in fact Korouto’s daughter. She explains to her father that the French have come to trade – not to wage war – and that Friponi is the real villain. The king understands that he was mistaken and decides to help the French find Luce. Joudochik is willing to give Luce back to Guignol, if she does not curse him. Luce agrees and promises him prosperity instead. Friponi understands that he has to stop the French on his own, and so he sets the forest on fire. Guignol and Gnafron catch and then kill him. Guignol and his friends arrive at Fashoda and befriend the Mahdi – the leader of the Soudanese people. Major Marchand announces that the Congo-Nile road has been drawn. Sirdar Kitchener, an English officer, contests it: Khartoum and Fashoda are theirs. The Major says that his soldiers would rather die than retreat, so the English pulls back in the end. The French have won Fashoda.

Lyon

Raciology

Racism

Slavery

Homeland

Woman doctor

Trade

Colonialism

Africa

Tony Tardy, Guignol à Fachoda (title page)

Gnafron

Italian

Traitor

Doctor

Prussian

English man

Colonel

King

African

Counselor

Sudanese

Commanding officer

Jean-Baptiste Marchand

Lieutenant

Officer

Horatio Herbert Kitchener

Rifleman

Senegalese

Slave

Peuples noirs de l'Oubanghui et du Soudan

Versified passages

Off-stage voice

Comical foreign accent

Final song

Apotheosis

Guignol à Fachoda

Guignol at Fashoda

As Carlo Magno’s (Charlemagne) ambassador, Ruggero has gone to ask for the Pope’s help in the impeding war against the African king Agramante and other pagan kings. On the way home, Ruggero kills a snake in the woods. Then, in a port, he saves the princess Aladina as she was being abducted by a giant. At nightfall, Aladina and Ruggero ask for food and bed at Altaripa’s castle. At this moment (in this version), Ruggero is poisoned then killed by the traitor Pinamonte. The necromancer Malagigi hears about the death of Ruggero through demons. But Aladina manages to escape, goes to Carlo Magno’s court and relates this terrible act of treason. The paladins besiege Altaripa’s castle and Bradamante, Ruggero’s wife, kills Pinamonte.

Rod marionette

Avventure di Ruggero dell'Aquila bianca

Adventures of Ruggero of the white Eagle