Dragonne, the Génie’s daughter, is bored. She can neither talk with humans nor leave the forest, because the rivers are controlled by her father’s enemy, Fée Écrevisse (Fairy Crayfish). Being far-sighted, the Génie has prepared a gift for his daughter: the Jam-e-Jam Numai, or the mirror of the universe. This magical mirror shows everything one could want to see, across the entire world. However, the Génie imposes a condition on his daughter: she must never say the name of Fée Écrevisse; if she does, she would fall under her power – irreversibly so. Once she has the mirror, Dragonne watches a fight, hoping that she will find her husband. She focuses on a young warrior, Prince Belle-Épine (Beautiful-Thorn). She orders her father, the Génie, to plan her wedding with this knight. However, the young man is under the protection of Fée Écrevisse, and the king has already decided to marry him to his own daughter Églantine (French medieval name, literally meaning dog rose). Furious, Dragonne laments her fate and says that she is the most unhappy person in the world. Then, looking into the mirror again, she sees the princess Églantine: she orders the Génie to abduct her and make her prisoner. Prince Papillon (Butterfly) arrives at the king’s palace. Chevalier Belle-Épine, the king’s future son-in-law, has given princess Églantine three magical animals: a cat whose fur bristles every time someone tells a lie, a serin that can speak, and a mouse that can sneak everywhere. However, many at court are against this wedding: they do not trust a man capable of obtaining such gifts. Prince Papillon arrives and immediately seduces the entire assembly. He reveals that he has been defeated by Reine Abeille (Queen Bee); he asks the king to protect him. Benevolent, the king offers to accommodate him for three days at the palace. The audience then learns that Prince Papillon wants to marry Princesse Églantine. The third scene begins with Princesse Églantine going missing. The entire court accuses Chevalier Belle-Épine, because the magical animals he has given the princess have also disappeared. Soon after, Prince Papillon also vanishes. Distraught, the knight asks Fée Écrevisse for help: no one but her can counter the power of the Génie, who is the only one capable of catching the magical animals. In the fourth scene, Princesse Églantine, the animals and Prince Papillon are in Dragonne’s cave. The latter wonders whether Chevalier Belle-Épine will come to save his beloved. She demands that the prince and the princess marry, so that the knight can stay with her. She locks them both in a cage, with the animals. The mouse escapes and the serin points the princess to the magical mirror, which is behind the cage. Thanks to it, they can know what is happening in the kingdom. In a hurry, the knight steps on the mouse and kills it. Dragonne comes back; thanks to the mirror, she sees the knight approaching the cave. She hides the prince and the princess in a place even more secret. Meanwhile, the cat manages to leave the cage and hides.
Dragonne welcomes the knight and relates that she saw Princesse Églantine, radiant, in the forest, walking with a prince that looked like a butterfly. The knight takes her word for it. However, the cat suddenly crosses the stage; his fur is bristling. The knight understands that he has been lied to: he declares that he loves Princesse Églantine and promises to take revenge. He steals the magical mirror to give it to Fée Écrevisse, who would do anything to obtain it. Dragonne tells the knight to bid the princess and the prince goodbye, as they will be left with the tigers in the forest. But the knight runs towards the mirror and calls Fée Écrevisse: she appears, furious. With a magical gesture, she turns Dragonne into a lioness. The knight and Princesse Églantine’s wedding can finally be celebrated. The fairy also conjures Reine Abeille, so she can resolve her conflict with Prince Papillon. After a short but decisive conversation, Reine Abeille agrees to marry Prince Papillon. Together, they go back to their kingdom.

String marionette

Young audiences

Bernard Laure

France

Le Havre

Printed

Father-daughter relationship

Forest

Whim

Fairy

Magic

Prince

Knighthood

Rivalry in love

Kingdoms

Princess

Kidnapping

Happy marriage

Fantasy

Illustration for Le Jam-e-Jam Numai ou Miroir magique (Laure Bernard, Théâtre de marionnettes, 1837).

French

King

Knight

Genie

Daughter

Queen

Nurse

Governess

Dancer

Mouse

Bird

Apparition of a genie

Object magically appearing

Talking animal

Aside

Initiatory quest

Hidden character

Metamorphosis

Magical formula

Character represented in animal form

Change of head on sight

Le Jam-e-Jam Numai ou Miroir magique

The Jam-e-Jam Numai or the Magical Mirror

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.

Armed rod marionette

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

Italy

Palermo

Typewriting

Treason

Poison

Murder

Revenge

Epic

Italian

Choir

Pope

Soldier

Roger

Ruggero

Snake

Hermit

Giant

Traitor

Angel

Alcina

Magician (female)

Devil

Magician

Warrior

Charlemagne (King)

Ganelon

Renaud de Montauban

Orlando

Bradamante

Fight with an animal

Release of a prisoner

Sword fight

Night scene

Murder on stage

Ascent to heaven

Avventure di Ruggero dell'Aquila bianca

Adventures of Ruggero of the white Eagle

The wanderer Nabíh tells a child, Hassan, how the merchant Abdul found on a dead man’s body a bottle from which emerges a genie. This genie, in turn, tells the story of the dead man, a fallen king, father of Fatima, a princess who is said to have taken refuge among the desert dwellers because of the fratricidal war. The king's supporters are looking for Fatima to offer her the throne, and discover that she is Laïla, Hassan's mother. However, she renounces the throne to become the princess of the desert. Other stories are added to this main plot.

Shadow theatre

Rod puppet

Sirera Rodolf

Spain

Valencia

Tale

Adventure

Vagrant

Theatre at school

East

Didactic

Catalan

Vagabond

Child

Merchant (man)

Commanding officer

Narrator

Address to the public

Theatre within the theatre

Throws

Dance

Instrumental tune

La Princesa del desert

Princess of the Desert

Jean is worried. Night is coming and he has nowhere to sleep. Tchantchès goes looking for a place to stay the night and, to prevent Jean from getting scared of the dark, he leaves him a bottle of peket (juniper beandy). As soon as Tchantchès has left, Jean empties the bottle and falls asleep. He is awoken by the arrival of the Capitaine (Captain) who tells him that he is looking for a brave knight in order to save Princesse Isabella. Drunk, Jean accepts the challenge. The Capitaine tells him that he needs to perform three tasks. The first test is to prevail over the Chevalier Noir (Black Knight), the second one is to answer two questions asked by Lucifer, and the last one is to fight Death. Jean passes all the tests and frees the princess, who falls in love with her saviour. The King gives Jean a new name, Jean-Sans-Peur (Jean-The-Fearless), offers Jean his daugther’s hand in marriage, and invites him to the castle. Tchantchès comes back to tell Jean that he has found a place to stay for the night, but his master is gone. He learns what happened from the public.

Single rod marionettes

Belgium

Liège

Electronic text

Peket

Fear

Drunkenness

Test

Skeleton

Death

Captain

Tchantchès

Battlefield scene

Apparition of the Devil

Apparition of Death

Off-stage voice

Death on stage

Jean le Peureux

Jean The Fearful

The narrator establishes an ideal link with the figure of Don Quixote: like Cervantes' hero, he is a middle-aged man who has lost his mind in books, and who now identifies himself with the stories of the Paladins of France. So he begins to tell his ideal lady, Dulcinea del Toboso, the story of Roland. Peace reigns in Charlemagne's kingdom, until the beautiful princess Angelica arrives at his court: the paladin who manages to defeat her brother Argalia in a duel will get her in hand in marriage. During the duel, the paladin Ferraù hits him in the back, violating the rules, and flees. Angelica got lost in the Ardennes forest while trying to return to her homeland, and all the paladins, who are madly in love with her, go looking for her. The kingdom was thus deprived of its heroes, and Marsilio, King of Spain, took advantage of this to invade France. While inside the court, Gano di Magonza hatches a plot against Charlemagne, Ferraù tries to unmask him and save the kingdom. The Paladins, united under Roland’s leadership, decide to confront Marsilio's entire Spanish army on their own, without calling on the French troops, and thus they all perish.

Le Jam-e-Jam Numai ou Miroir magique

Avventure di Ruggero dell'Aquila bianca

La Princesa del desert

Jean le Peureux

Roncisvalle!

Avventure d'Orlando e d'altri paladini