The ambitious Doctor Faust begins learning black magic and makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles: he promises him his soul on condition that the latter agrees to serve him. Faust goes to Parma with Mephistopheles and his houseboy Hans Wurst. The houseboy was asked to keep the identity of his master secret, but he gives it away to the duke of Parma as soon as he arrives there. Faust makes several spectacular natural phenomena appear before the duke (Mount Etna erupting, a sea tempest) but the duke’s courtiers hate him for showing the duke their true nature. Faust is forced to flee. Although Hans Wurst is dismissed, he finds refuge with Wagner, Faust’s servant. Mephistopheles eventually secures Faust’s soul by making Helen of Troy fall in love with him. He also shows him that his generosity will not save him, because its benefits also had harmful effects on his protégés. Faust understands that he is damned, takes leave of Hans Wurst and Wagner, and hands himself over to Hell when midnight strikes.

Not specified

Germany

Augsburg

Printed

Scholar

Wittenberg

Necromancy

Sorcery

Vice

Cheekiness

Nature

Navy

Brokers

Scatology

Crucifix

Hell

Future punishment

Vanity

Tragic

Burlesque

First page of the play in Johann Scheible's edition, Das Kloster, 1847

German

Ein Trauerspiel in 3 Theilen und 9 Aufzügen. (Vom Augsburger Puppentheater.)

Faust

Genie

Guardian angel

Satan

Christoph Wagner

Hanswurst

Mephistopheles

Devil

Duke of Parma

Helen of Troy

Monologue

Dilemma

Instrumental tune

Board

Improvised scene

Lazzi

Word for another

Word reiteration

Apparition

Pact with the devil

Bawdy equivocation

Flying machine

Diorama

Versified passages

Johann Faust

After Polichinelle’s greeting to the public, the play starts with the entry of Aveugle (Blindman), who begs for money. Aveugle accidentally hits Polichinelle with his cane; the two of them quarrel and Polichinelle knocks Aveugle unconscious. La Femme de l’Aveugle (Blindman’s Wife) is furious; she attacks Polichinelle and bites his nose. He knocks her unconscious as well and throws them both out of the hand-puppet booth. Commissaire (Superintendent) arrives and wants to take Polichinelle in. He asks Chat (Cat) for help, but the cat scratches him. Commissaire makes Chat believe that the gallows are destined for someone else. Pretending not to know how to slide his head through the slipknot, Polichinelle asks Commissaire to show him how to do it and takes advantage of the opportunity to hang him. He leaves, carrying Chat under his arm.

Glove-puppet

Trained animal

France

Paris

Beggary

Clumsiness

Cruelty

Cunning

Trap

Disobedience

Comical

Farcical

French

écrit sous sa dictée aux Champs-Élysées

Polichinelle

Blind

Wife

Police Superintendant

Song

Address to the public

Blind character

Fight

Blow-with-a-stick

Character thrown out of the scene

Comedy of language

Fight with an animal

Hanging scene

Drame du Polichinelle français

Drama of the French Polichinelle

Polichinelle enters and, with a stick, hits the director of a tavern who came to greet him. They fight and Polichinelle kills him. La Femme du Cabaretier (the tavern-keeper’s wife) asks Polichinelle where her husband is. He beats her as well, and she takes her husband’s corpse to the tavern. Le Commissaire (Superintendent) comes to get Polichinelle to throw him in prison, but Polichinelle beats him and runs away. Le Gendarme (Constable) also wants to arrest him. Polichinelle beats him as well, but other Gendarmes arrive and manage to get hold of him. Polichinelle is imprisoned. Le Bourreau (Executioner) wants to hang him, but Polichinelle pretends that he cannot put his head in the slipknot. He asks the Bourreau to show him how to do it, and hangs him in his stead. Le Diable (Devil) comes to take Polichinelle to Hell. They both fight, but the Diable wins and takes Polichinelle off the stage with him.

Young audiences

Attack

Wickedness

Punishment

Cabaret owner

Innkeeper

Constable

Executioner

Death on stage

Apparition of the Devil

A painter named Schmierpinsel is at an award-winning ceremony. In his absence, Casperl, his servant, pretends to be the painter to a lady who wants to have her portrait made. Casperl takes a down payment, then paints a donkey’s head and hits the outraged woman with the canvas. Upon his return, Schmierpinsel is called at the police station. After his statement, the police chief, Karrnpichler, interrogates Casperl. The latter smears paint on the police chief's face before throwing him out.

String marionette

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Portrait

Painting

Originality

Prestige

Stammering

Outrage

Drink

Wine

Beer

Interrogation

Tavern

Satirical

Ein malerisches Lustspiel

Kasperl

Lady

Parody of formal language

Brawl

Comic stuttering

Slaps

Casperl als Porträtmaler

Casperl portrait painter

The only spirit which the magician Negrocephalus is able to invoke on that day is the rooster spirit of Gockelhahn. The spirit informs him that his wife, the Gackerackack chick, is hatching a golden egg, which he promises to bring to Negrocephalus. The tired magician goes to his cabinet and asks his famulus Putzlmayer to keep watch. However, Putzlmayer prefers having fun by doing magic, thanks to Negrocephalus’s spellbook. He too invokes Gockelhahn, who comes back with the promised egg. Putzlmayer gets scared after hearing a voice coming from the egg and informs Negrocephalus before fleeing. Whoever is inside the egg keeps asking to be let out, and Negrocephalus starts worrying too. He swears to the being inside the egg that he will not eat it before daring to break the shell with his magic wand. After a series of thunderclaps and lightning, Kasperl comes out of the egg.

Manuscript

Birth

Nativity

Myth

Spirits

Donkey

Rooster

Magic

Learning

Laziness

Nonchalance

Fantasy

Parodistic

Magician

Famulus

Cock, cockerel

Verschiedene Erscheinungen welche nicht zum Vorschein kommen

Prologue

Spectacular turn of events

Magic act

Comical regional accent

Unveiling

Talking animal

Off-stage voice

Object coming to life

Pyrotechnics

Das goldene Ei

The Golden Egg

The wealthy Cassandre is so distressed by his son Pierrot’s foolishness and insolence that he is willing to spend a fortune on a private tutor. Polichinelle is hired, but his poor lessons in obedience, geography, arithmetics, moral and fencing turn Pierrot into a brawler, drinker, liar and thief who ends up hanged after having cheated the tavern keeper Arlequin and beating up the Gendarme (Constable). When Cassandre asks Polichinelle for explanations about his son’s death, Polichinelle beats him to death with a stick. When Arlequin denounces Polichinelle as Pierrot’s accomplice, Polichinelle kills the Gendarme who has come to arrest him. He is carried off by the Diable (Devil).

All audiences

Relationship between father and son

Silliness

Education

Lesson

Swindling

Pierrot

Arlecchino

Headbutt

Final intervention of the devil

Characterisation through onomatopoeia

Polichinelle précepteur

Polichinelle private tutor

During a May Day, as peasants are dancing and singing, Polichinelle chases them with blows of his stick. In the meantime, it is discovered that it is his twentieth birthday. Happy to be finally of age, he orders his servant to organise a feast. Shortly after, he encounters Crocofante, a sword fighter who suggests that he enlists to serve the State. However, Polichinelle prefers his stick and immoral pleasures to a sword and honour. Crocofante is offended and challenges him to a duel. Polichinelle agrees, but only after the feast, which turns into a real “bastonnade” (stick beating) where he insults his father and other guests. Soon after, Polichinelle kills the servants Alain and Nerina, accuses Crocofante, and has him arrested in his stead.

des Essarts Emmanuel

Party

Peasant

Birthday

Contempt

Death

Prosecution

Alfred des Essarts, illustration for La Jeunesse de Polichinelle, 1863.