Climène – a provincial woman who abhors the countryside – is staying at an inn in Paris, to keep her father company while he is being kept in the city for a trial. Together with her servant Laurette and two of her friends, the Marquis and Timante, they make fun of the way the other characters speak. They all attend a puppet show, comment on it, and are chided by the puppet Pantalon.

Not specified

Poisson Raymond (aka Belleroche)

France

Paris

Printed

Very young girl's marriage

Provincial life

Talking ridiculous

Comical

French

ou les Marionnettes

Marquis

Vicomtess

Gascon

Normand

Flemish

Brisefer

Innkeeper

Fanchon

Pantaloon

Inn scene

Comical foreign accent

Comical regional accent

Puppet theatre within the theatre

L'Après-souper des auberges

The After-supper at the inns

The governor of Barcelona, Don Pietro, banishes Don Juan on behalf of the king of Spain, and he refuses to let him marry his daughter – whom he offers to his rival Don Philippo. Jealous, Don Juan tries to abduct Donna Marillis just as Don Philippo is about to take her to a ball – since it is carnival time. However, he is caught by Don Pietro, kills him and then flees with his servant Hans Wurst. In the woods, they meet a hermit whom Don Juan kills in order to steal his trousers. Thus disguised, he also murders Don Philippo, who went after him. The two fugitives reach a first inn, then a second one, where Don Juan invites the statue of Don Pietro, which is standing not far. When Don Pietro’s ghost arrives, Don Juan and Hans Wurst are already eating the salad. The statue summons its murderer at midnight, in the cemetery, and hands out its hand to take him to Hell.

Germany

Augsburg

Seducer

Unwelcome seducer

Assassination

Murder

Serial murder

Phantom

Revenant

Servant

Morality

Aristocracy

Nobility

Valet

Spain

Carnival

German

Augsburger Don Juan-Spiel

Don Juan

Don Pietro

Don Filippo

Hanswurst

Donna Marillis

Lipperl

Devil

Guard

Hermit

Landlady

Statue

Ghost

Apparition

Final intervention of the devil

Letter

Disguise

Murder on stage

Apparition of the Devil

Bawdy equivocation

Don Juan und Don Pietro, oder das Steinerne-Todten-Gastmahl

Don Juan and Don Pietro, or the gruesome Feast of stone

Faust leads a destitute life as a scholar, until he lay hands on a book of black magic. He then sells his soul to the devil Mefistofeles, in exchange for services. Demons also appear to Kasper, whom Faust’s famulus – Wagner – has recently hired. But Kasper adamantly refuses to sell himself to the devil. Mefistofeles takes Faust and Kasper to Parma to lead a loose life. After living in luxury for twelve years, Faust is abandoned by Wagner, who disapproves of his way of life. Faust repents, but eventually gives in to carnal temptation when Mefistofeles presents him the fair Helen, whom he knew in Ancient Greece. Everyone rejects Faust. Kasper, now a night watchman, finds him out in the street within curfew hours and wants to throw him behind bars. But Faust’s final hour has come, and he is taken away by demons.

String marionette

Geisselbrecht Johann Georg

University

Scholar

Wittenberg

Philosopher's stone

Foreign languages

Laziness

Sorcery

Necromancy

Perlicke

Middle Ages

Crow

Pluto

Coffee

Penitence

Eroticism

Future punishment

Tragic

Burlesque

Comödie vom D. Faust ; Schauspiel von dem Doctor Faust

Oder : Der große Negromantist

Faust

Christoph Wagner

Kasperl

Mephistopheles

Auerhahn

Vizibuzli

Helen of Troy

Night watchman

Monologue

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Tragic irony

Song

Macaronism

Misunderstanding

Lazzi

Word for another

Thunderbolt

Word reiteration

Pact with the devil

Dream

Versified passages

Doctor Faust

Doctor Faust is disillusioned with academic disciplines. He learns black magic and makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles, promising him his soul if the latter accepts to serve him for twenty-four years. Faust’s new domestic servant, Casperle, also learns to summon demons, and engages the services of the devil Auerhahn. However, he refuses to sell his soul to him. During the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Parma, Faust makes the Ancient Testament appear before them and attempts to seduce the duchess. But he is pursued by her husband, the Inquisition and the outraged people, because Casperle has used his links with the devil to carry out miracles. Faust flees to Constantinople and Auerhahn brings Casperle to Mainz. The final act relates Faust’s damnation. He does penance, but he is doomed when Mephistopheles promises him the most beautiful woman in the world – Helen of Troy. Faust is carried off by demons, while Casperle, now a night watchman, takes his revenge on his wife at the end of the play, for the domestic violence she inflicted on him.

Simrock Karl

Bonn

Magic

Monkey

Mainz

Drink

Pigtail

Dragon

Seduction

Inquisition

Italy

Couch

Vanity

Repentance

Nightwatchman

Lust

Spousal abuse

Humorous

Dilemma

Off-stage voice

Comic Equivocation

Aside

Pyrotechnics

Chase

Theatre within the theatre

Domestic scene

Dance

Doctor Johannes Faust

Don Juan tries to blindside his rival Don Philippo by abducting Donna Amarillis during the night. But he is caught by her father – the governor of Seville Don Pietro – whom he kills in a duel. Then he tries in vain to borrow money to an old cousin (or to his own father, whom he eventually murders in the second version). When he mentions selling his soul, Hans Wurst wants to help him out by making the devil appear thanks to a formula he learnt from a magician. However, Don Juan mocks the devil and Hans Wurst is swept into the air on a giant sausage – thankfully, he lands at the inn where his master was waiting for him. After a shipwreck, the two men reunite in a wood near Seville. There, they also meet a hermit and Don Juan forces him to give him his clothes. Don Philippo arrives and drives them out of the woods. Don Juan stabs him and leaves him for dead. Then he attempts another time to seduce a shepherdess and Donna Amarillis, who also went hunting. Don Philippo’s men are still after Don Juan and Hans Wurst, who manage to get to an inn near the church’s cemetery. Don Juan invites the statue of the governor Don Pietro for dinner, then agrees to follow his guest into the vault, where he dies in the pains of hell. As for Hans Wurst, he marries the manager of the inn.

Dresden

Gangster

Parricide

Religion

Abduction

Don Juan, der vierfache Mörder, oder das Gastmahl um Mitternacht auf dem Kirchhofe

Der steinerne Gast

Pantolfius

Court usher

Hunter

Fury

Metamorphosis

After having locked the devil up in a box (in <a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5840/kasperl-und-der-teufel" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kasperl und der Teufel</a>), Kasperl wants to throw him in the water. Suddenly, it is his wife who emerges from the box… and who starts to slap him many times to take revenge, for he wanted to get rid of her (<a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5777/frau-kasperl-und-die-k%C3%B6chin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frau Kasperl und die Köchin</a>)! Kasperl ends up throwing both his wife and the box out of the glove-puppet booth, and then goes to the inn. On the way, he encounters a curious animal peeping at him; he pets the animal, which bites him. He fetches a sausage to feed the animal, but decides to eat it and gives the skin of the sausage to the animal. The animal catches Kasperl’s arm with its maw, then catches him by the back of his pants… Kasperl goes to get his stick, which the animal tries to steal from him; the animal gets beaten and runs away, followed by Kasperl who wants to knock it out.

Glove-puppet

Reinhardt Carl

Munich

Sausage

Animal

Beast

Stick

Mace

Woman

Nightingale

Crocodile

Tavern

Jaws

Glutton

Hunger

Tralala

Hits

Radirullala

Grotesque

Farcical

Carl Reinhardt, Das geheimnisvolle Tier, 1852.

Madame Kasperl

Blow-with-a-stick

Slaps

Das geheimnisvolle Tier

The mysterious animal

Kasperl drags on stage the corpse of the devil murdered in Kasperl und der Teufel, and, to get rid of it, throws it out of the hand-puppet booth. His wife suddenly tells him that Death is coming before running away. Death tells Kasperl that it is time to die, but he answers that he does not have time for that. As Death insists, he asks to go and kiss his dear wife one last time: he comes back with a stick and, letting Death go before him, he strikes the skeleton to pieces with a great blow in its back. He leaves and gently sings: everyone now celebrates Kasperl for having defeated Death.

Gruesome

Death

Household

Beer

Detail of a page from Carl Reinhardt, Das wahrhaftige Kasperltheater (based on a 1924 republication, Wien/Leipzig/München, Rikola Verlag, p. 75): Kasperl blows Death to pieces.

Spectacular turn of events

Allegory

Address to the public

Epilogue

Kasperl und der Tod

Kasperl and Death

Casperl gets drunk with the hunter Thomerl and Thomerl offers to put Casperl’s wife Grethl to the test: Casperl has to fake an illness that will lead to his death, and Thomerl, disguised as a doctor, will come and certify the death. As soon as Casperl is pronounced dead, Grethl tries to console herself in the arms of Lieutenant Pulvermann. The fake dead man is resurrected, a fight ensues in which Pulvermann is killed and the corpse is taken backstage. A police officer comes to seize Casperl, but husband and wife join forces against the impetuous man, who is forced to give in to the violence. To celebrate their reconciliation, Casperl and Grethl go to the inn, where they also meet with Thomerl.