The play is set during the annual Saint-Cloud fair, in the big alley where the fairground theatres are gathered. Cassandre, Paillasse and Jeannot, whom Arlequin meet, rejoice at the news of the return of Mère Gigogne – a well-known figure at the fair, who has what it takes to bring back the joyfulness needed for its success. Paillasse and Jeannot parade to attract people to the stall to see a show about a giant cockchafer and trained stink bugs. Arlequin comes up to a young girl, Jeunesse (Youth), and promises to buy her a reed flute and gingerbread. The audience leave the stall, furious about having been misled, since the show never began. Mère Gigogne, followed by a large procession, appears and dances, giving birth to many children. She blesses the marriage between Arlequin and Jeunesse. The show ends with a sung vaudeville.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Fairground

Birth

Love

Show

Monster

Animal savant

Comical

Pierre-Louis Belfort-Devaux, La Foire de Saint-Cloud, 1853.

French

Cassandra

Arlecchino

People

Aria

Final song

Oration

Childbirth on stage

Dance

La Foire de Saint-Cloud

The Saint-Cloud Fair

Casperl is evicted by his landlord and starts looking for a job. He is employed by professor and explorer Gerstenzucker, as…a monkey! Indeed, the professor’s monkey, Schimpanse, has just died. He was trying to teach him human culture to prove that man and monkey are related. But Casperl is ill-behaved. He poses as Gerstenzucker and treats one of his female visitors with extreme uncouthness. Then he fights the professor, wreaks havoc on the inn and sows discord in town. Everyone ends up at the police station, where the fake monkey is exposed. As other characters try to throw him behind bars, Casperl knocks everyone unconscious and, at the end of the play, goes drinking to celebrate the final victory of Darwinism.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

End of the month

Household

Women's condition

Philosophy

Poverty

Natural sciences

Monkey

Darwinism

Culture

Job seeking

Woman author

Tavern

Savage

Animal instinct

Satirical

Farcical

Illustration on the title page of the 1875 edition

German

Intermezzo in einem Aufzug

Teacher

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Mayor

Magistrato

Landlord

Court usher

Domestic scene

Brawl

Comic Equivocation

Disguise

Parody of formal language

Off-stage voice

Schimpanse, der Darwinaffe

Chimpanzee, the Darwinian monkey