Don Juan is displeased with his servants and employs Hans Wurst. He goes see his father to beg for money, but the latter lost everything and reprimands him, while also suggesting that he live with him again. Don Juan kills him. In the following scene, Hans Wurst meets his sister in the woods – she is on her way to Paris, where she wants to report her brother as a father-killer to the king. Don Juan hears her and murders her. Then he asks Hans Wurst to find the hermit who lives in the woods to take his trousers, so that he can flee incognito. The hermit, who vowed never to change his clothes, refuses. Don Juan kills him too. Then they go to a cemetery, where Don Juan wants to summon spirits. His father’s ghost appears, Don Juan invites him over for dinner (at six in the evening) and, on this same evening, the ghost invites him back. As they agree to the meeting with a handshake, lighting flashes in the sky – Don Juan is damned. Devils carry him to Hell.

Not specified

Germany

Printed

Father

Parricide

Sister

Assassination

Murder

Serial murder

Hell

Eternal punishment

Sorcery

Spirits

Necromancy

Devil

Treason

Debt

German

Ulmer Don Juan-Puppenspiel

Old man

Don Juan

Hanswurst

Schwester des Don Juan

Ghost

Final intervention of the devil

Disguise

Murder on stage

Running away

Rugantino lives in a shabby attic room. He has no money left, his wife Rosetta is sick and their children are hungry. The landowner comes to their place and asks them to pay the rent. Rugantino tries to move him to pity by showing the state to which his family and him have been reduced. The landowner shows them the order to seize their property, then, moved by Rugantino’s children who cling to his clothes, he lets himself be touched: he extends Rugantino’s delay to pay by a quarter of an hour.

Glove-puppet

Santangelo Gaetano (aka Ghetanaccio)

Italy

Rome

Printed excerpts

Money

Rent

Poverty

Cruelty

Satirical

Romanesco

Rugantino

Rosetta

Landlord

Child

Dramatic irony

[Rugantino e l'affitto]

Rugantino and the rent

Don Juan murders Don Pietro, who came running to his daughter Anna’s aid for a villain had tried to seduce her by night and, failing to do so, attempted to abduct her. In the following scene, Don Juan receives two successive visits. His servant Hans turns out the first visitor – a creditor asking for his money – while his master hides. Then a judge with a court clerk comes to investigate the death of Don Pietro. Don Juan pretends to be someone else. He then undertakes to leave town incognito by changing clothes with Hans, who boasts about his new role as the master. As the judge nearly recognises them, Don Juan kills him. The two fugitives reach the cemetery, where Don Juan asks Hans to invite Don Pietro’s statue. The ghost agrees and comes over. Don Juan refuses to repent. Hans, to whom the ghost assured there was nothing to fear, follow them to the cemetery out of curiosity, and he sees his master walk into hell.

Austria

Innsbruck

Deaf

Creditor

Seduction

Abduction

Fart

Judge

Judgment

Laziness

Comical

Innsbrucker Don Juan

Don Pietro

Anna

Domestic servant

Debtor

Clerk

Bourgeois

Serf

Soldier

Misunderstanding

Role reversal

Running gag

Word for another

Comical regional accent

Political allegory

Play in verse

One character replaced by another

Pulcinella is desperate because he owes thirty crowns to his landlord for rent. Rugantino offers to lend them to him, since he has this exact sum in his house. He goes fetch the money and, when he comes back, says that his wife has spent half of it, but that he can still lend him the remaining fifteen crowns. Pulcinella agrees. Rugantino goes back home, then comes back and says that his wife has just spent another thirteen crowns and that he only has two left. Pulcinella accepts them still. Rugantino goes fetch them and, when he comes back, says that he owes three crowns to the collier: he then asks Pulcinella if he can lend him the missing crown.

Pulcinella

[Rugantino e i trenta scudi]

Rugantino and the thirty crowns

Guignol’s landlord – Vautour – complains about financial hardship, as his tenants do not pay the rent. He asks Guignol to settle the previous months of arrears, but Guignol ridicules him extensively and then refuses to pay. Gnafron helps Guignol get rid of Vautour. They both fear that Vautour will have Guignol’s furniture seized, and so they move it all before having a drink together.

Mourguet Laurent

France

Lyon

Scatology

Furniture

Farcical

Le Déménagement de Guignol. Lyon: Elardin, 1876 (couverture).

French

arrangé par Louis Josserand

Guignol

Gnafron

Monologue

Fight

Dialect as a social marker

Comic distortion of language

Trap

Final song

Le Déménagement de Guignol

Guignol’s Move

Wagner hires Casper to serve his master—Doctor Faust. Destitute and crippled with debts, the latter makes a deal with the devil Mefisdofles: he will make him rich by helping him invent printing. In return, Mefisdofles demands that Faust sacrifice his parents and his wife. Faust murders his father, who has come to blame him for the death of his mother (she died of grief when she learnt that her son made a deal with the Devil). Meanwhile, Mefisdofles poisons Faust’s wife. Then Mefisdofles takes Faust and Casper to the court of Parma. But the courtiers envy the famous scholar and conspire against him: Mefisdofles helps him flee. Casper is sent to Hell, but he is soon let out. Everyone meets in Wittenberg: Faust repents, but he is then seduced by Helehne, whom Mefisdofles introduced to him; she changes into a skeleton when he tries to kiss her. At midnight, Faust is doomed and Casper, now a night watchman, marries the market gardener Anabakuduh, whom he meets in the street after curfew.

All audiences

Bille Johann August

Greiz

Typewriting

Scholar

Professor

People and history

Printing

Matricide

Feminicide

Perlike

Skittles

Poison

Dragon

Wittenberg

Death

Nightwatchman

Tragic

Title page of the manuscript of Johann Georg Bille's Docter Faust

Kasperl

Christoph Wagner

Faust

Voice

Angel

Fury

Mephistopheles

Duke of Parma

Duchess of Parma

Minister

Neighbour (female)

Lazzi

Song

Off-stage voice

Dilemma

Apparition

Macaronism

Repetition of a word

Pact with the devil

Comic equivocation

Aside

Echoing lines

Flying machine

Brawl

Metamorphosis

Story

Bawdy equivocation

Final wedding

Docter Faust

Doctor Faustus

Don Juan has asked his servant Kasperl to sell his last shirt and coat, but Kasperl has spent the money from the sale on beers. He sends him to borrow money from his father, the knight Pantolfius. When Pantolfius refuses, Don Juan himself comes to ask him to comply, but in vain, and Kasperl kicks him in the nose. To find money, Kasperl then has the idea of summoning the devil, but when Don Juan wants to sell him his soul, he replies that it already belongs to him and takes it to hell.

Reinhardt Carl

Munich

Tralala

Excessive drinking

Drunkard

Drinking

Credit

Hits

Radirullala

Parodistic

Grotesque

Pantolfius

Spectacular turn of events

Kasperl und Don Juan

Kasperl and Don Juan

Florindo wants to marry Isabella, the daughter of a pork’s butcher. His father Balanzone opposes their union and wants Florindo to marry a baroness. Since his son refuses, Balanzone sends him to Venice for his studies, so that he will be far from Isabella. Florindo is hopeless and asks Brighella for help, and the latter takes him to the magician Arcaleus. The magician hands him two magic rings. Those who wear them will swap identities. The second ring falls into the hands of Fasolino, who owes a lot of debts in town. Florindo becomes Fasolino, and Fasolino, Florindo. After several misunderstandings and twists and turns, Fasolino, with the appearance of Florindo, ends up in jail, but people believe he is mad, and he is freed. Out of anger, he throws the ring on to the ground and thus regains his true appearance, which breaks the spell. Brighella reveals the plot. The story ends with a happy ending – Florindo is permitted to marry Isabella, and Fasolino expresses his joy because, while they swapped identities, Florindo repaid most of his debts.

Magic

Jail

Love

Magic object

Change of identity

Social classes

Emilian

Balanzone

Florindo

Brighella

Valet

Fagiolino

Sganapino

Guard

Disguised character (false identity)

Unveiling

I due anelli magici

The two magic rings

Polichinelle has married the rich mother Gigogne, but he beats her children or gives them away in payment of his own debts. Grigogne complains to his cousin Niflanguille and gives him his bag of money. Polichinelle takes it to buy a horse. But the Maquignon sells him a dangerous horse and steals the money bag. Niflanguille accuses Polichinelle of the theft; mother Gigogne wants to beat her husband, but it is Niflanguille who gets the blows. Gigogne promises her husband more money if he behaves like a father to his children. But as soon as a child refuses to eat, Polichinelle kills him and throws him out of the window. Gigogne wants to punish Polichinelle, so he kills her, Niflanguille and a magician. The surviving children attack Polichinelle who chases them away. The Devil arrives and takes Polichinelle away.

Don Juan

[Rugantino e l'affitto]

Don Juan

[Rugantino e i trenta scudi]

Le Déménagement de Guignol

arrangé par Louis Josserand

Docter Faust

Kasperl und Don Juan

I due anelli magici

Polichinelle et la Mère Gigogne

Das Glück ist blind