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

Germany

Greiz

Typewriting

Poverty

Scholar

Professor

Necromancy

Sorcery

People and history

Printing

Debt

Parricide

Matricide

Feminicide

Perlike

Skittles

Poison

Dragon

Wittenberg

Death

Nightwatchman

Tragic

Farcical

Comical

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

German

Kasperl

Christoph Wagner

Faust

Voice

Angel

Devil

Fury

Mephistopheles

Father

Duke of Parma

Duchess of Parma

Minister

Neighbour (female)

Monologue

Lazzi

Word for another

Song

Off-stage voice

Dilemma

Apparition

Macaronism

Repetition of a word

Pact with the devil

Comic equivocation

Murder on stage

Aside

Echoing lines

Flying machine

Brawl

Metamorphosis

Story

Bawdy equivocation

Final wedding

Docter Faust

Doctor Faustus

A wealthy baker chef asks his cousin the apothecary to help him poison Pierrot, who is constantly robbing and assaulting him. When this plan fails, he sends his dog after the thief, but Pierrot kills the dog. Knowing that Pierrot has always wanted to learn pastry-making, the baker pretends to take him on as an apprentice to get revenge. But Pierrot plays many tricks. The gendarme, who has come to arrest him, is swindled, then hanged in the villain's place. Pierrot kills the baker and the apothecary, as a worthy disciple of Polichinelle.

Glove-puppet

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Printed

Pastry

Theft

Money

Wickedness

Learning

Revenge

Criminal

Perseverance in Evil

Cruelty

Cruelty to an animal

French

Pierrot

Pastry chef

Apothecary

Constable

Blow-with-a-stick

Headbutt

Fight with an animal

Back Stroke

Hanging scene

Pierrot et le pâtissier

Pierrot and the baker

Périjon, the king of Gaul, dies. His son ascends the throne and asks Fleur de Marie, King Houel de Nantes’ daughter, to marry him. She agrees to do so once he comes back from a pilgrimage to Roma. He leaves for America with his barons to help the king Bougjia, who is fighting the Saracens. King Bougjia’s daughter, Blanche, offers her love to the young king of Gaul called Périjon - just like his father. He accepts her love but goes back to Brittany to marry Fleur de Marie. Blanche finds him, poses as Fleur de Marie in order to seduce him and becomes pregnant with his child. Fleur de Marie gives birth to Paladin Roland, who kills a lion at the age of seven during a hunt. Blanche becomes Fleur de Marie’s servant to take revenge on Périjon, and she attempts to poison the young Paladin. Fleur de Marie dies because of the poison, but Paladin is saved by the knight Captano. Périjon asks his baron to judge Blanche. Paladin Roland brings the young woman to the woods to kill her, but an angel appears and stops him from going through with his plan. Blanche comes back to America and hides her pregnancy. The French emperor Télémak learns that the admiral Mérilus d’Arabie has declared war on him. He asks his brother Périjon for help. Périjon promises that he and his son Paladin Roland will help. During an enormous battle, the admiral Mérilus, Madracar and Solfina take Roland prisoner. Mérilus informs his brother Méridon, King of Syria, who rejoices over his capture and comes join him along with his barons. Rose, Mérilus’ daughter, visits Roland in his cell, but he rejects her advances because she is a pagan. To get revenge on him, she stops bringing him food. Roland learns that the old Delerigni is in the next cell. He digs a hole in the wall and listens to Delerigni recount his feats of arms before he dies. In the end, Roland agrees to marry Rose, on condition that she helps him escape. Rose plots with the prison guard. They pretend that Roland has died and asked, before his death, to be sent back to Britanny in a coffin. Méridon goes back to Syria. The king Périjon worries about his son Paladin Roland. The Chevalier Ténébreux suggests that they ask for king Bougjia’s help. A messenger brings news of Roland’s death, before his coffin is brought. Roland comes out of it and relates his jailbreak. As an act of revenge, he takes command of his father’s army to fight the pagans. Rose searches for him but she will only find him much later. Paladin Roland and the Bon Ténébreux wage battle against Mérilus and kill over a hundred thousand of his soldiers. Mérilus flees on a ship with his wife and his treasure and asks his brother for shelter, while Paladin Roland goes back home. In an enchanted wood, the knight Cocodor meets a devil, who asks him what his religion is. Cocodor lies and pretends to be a pagan. The devil punishes him by turning him into a giant with a flaming head and ordering him to kill everyone who ventures in his mountain. Cocodor thus kills 200 knights. The emperor Télémak receives a message asking him to end to the miseries caused by the giant, then a second message in which the admiral Goutier d’Antioche commands him to give back Lombardy. Télémak summons his army and meets with Périjon. Paladin Roland offers to fight the giant with the flaming head, but Périjon refuses because he is too young. Roland leaves with Télémak to wage war against the admiral Goutier. The pagan army is defeated by Télémak’s, and Goutier’s son – Carolu – is taken prisoner by Roland then killed in a tournament. On the way home, Roland meets knights on their way to fight the giant. Blanche and Périjon’s child, Raimond dit le Cadet (Raimond alias the Youngest), becomes a knight. He leaves Toulouse to go on an adventure. The knights arrive at the fire mountain where the giant lives. Blanches inquires one of the knights about Roland’s whereabouts, and she is told that he is in Britanny. In a forest, she is attacked by robbers, but she fights and kills them. The devil and giant are thrown behind bars, in an enchanted cell, but they kill all the knights. Mérilus and Méridon swear to kill Périjon and to destroy France to take revenge on Paladin. A new battle begins, opposing Christians and pagans. The latter have three times as many combatants (400 000), and Paladin is taken prisoner. The Chevalier Ténébreux takes command of the army and asks for King Bougjia’s help. Blanche remembers that the guardian angel told her to come to Paladin Roland’s aid. She asks her father for the permission to lead an army, dresses as a warrior and leaves for Syria, where she fights Mérilus and Méridon’s army. She triumphs and delivers Paladin, who avenges himself by putting every pagan to death. Blanche goes back to America and Paladin, in Britanny, recounts to his father how Blanche freed him. Pséryion worries as he remembers how Fleur de Marie was poisoned. Millonnaise, Mérilus’ wife, is pregnant with his child. She makes the devil appear to offer her child’s soul, on the condition that the child can triumph against Paladin. The devil agrees to the deal. For a moment, Cocodor is delivered from the devil’s spell. He comes back to Britanny and asks her daughter for news of his two brothers. He learns that he has killed them when he was the giant with the flaming head. A father and his son, the knights Mariguesse and Mulgador, offer their services to Télémak. They want to fight the giant. In Britanny, Rose is attacked by a traitor who wants to charm her. But Paladin Roland arrives and kills him. Roland and Rose recognise one another, cry and kiss. Then Roland presents Rose to his father and says he wants to marry her. Périjon refuses because she is a pagan. Then he sends Roland to fight the giant. Roland meets his half-brother Raimond le Cadet in a forest, but they fight because they do not recognise one another. Neither one of them manages to win. Paladin bandages his wounds at king Bougjia’s castle. Once he is healed, he leaves for the mountain of Triste-Mort (Sad-Death). He comes across messengers who try to persuade him not to go. Then he meets his uncle Mariguesse and his cousin Mulgador, both dying, and they also advise him not to go, before they die. Roland finds the devil and the giant with the flaming head. The devil disappears and the giant is killed. Poor and rich people alike come running to celebrate his victory. Roland comes back to Britanny, where Périjon and Rose believed him dead. They reunite and kiss. A message is sent to Télémak, who joins them. Roland tells Rose that they must fight Raimond le Cadet before they can marry. He comes across Millonnaisse, who tries to poison him, and he kills her along with the knights that were with her. Roland and Raimond le Cadet meet again and fight, but a young companion recognises Raimond and realises that they are brothers. She takes them to Blanche, who relates how she has given birth to Raimond. Paladin takes her back to Britanny with Raimond le Cadet and King Bougjia. Périjon marries Blanche and Paladin marries Rose and is appointed King d’Antioche. His companions are also rewarded.

Single rod marionettes

Not specified

Belgium

Liège

Handwritten outline

Knighthood

Enchantment

Battle

Quest

Half-brother

Giant

Epic

Fantasy

Histoire de Paladin Roland. First page of the manuscript.

King

Princess

Orlando

Knight

Emperor

Jailer

Count

Prince

Mother

Lady-in-waiting

Apparition of the Devil

Fight

Massacre scene

Scene of recognition

Histoire de Paladin Roland

Story of Paladin Roland

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

Italy

Palermo

Treason

Murder

Kidnapping

Italian

Choir

Pope

Soldier

Roger

Ruggero

Snake

Hermit

Traitor

Alcina

Magician (female)

Magician

Warrior

Charlemagne (King)

Ganelon

Renaud de Montauban

Bradamante

Release of a prisoner

Sword fight

Night scene

Ascent to heaven

Avventure di Ruggero dell'Aquila bianca

Adventures of Ruggero of the white Eagle

Kaspar is picking flowers in a forest for the birthday of his wife, Grete. He catches Hubertus the hunter about to murder Schneewittchen (Snow-White) following the order of Schneewittchen’s own mother, the queen Tausendschön. Kaspar convinces Hubertus to let her go and suggests to the princess that she seeks refuge at the seven dwarfs’ house. However, when the magic mirror tells the truth to the queen, the hunter denounces Kaspar and hands him over to the queen. She then tries to poison Schneewittchen twice. As she attempts it the second time, Kaspar escapes from prison and seeks refuge at the seven dwarfs' home as well. Schneewittchen passes out before his eyes, and he shakes her so much that she spits out the piece of apple that was poisoned with pesticide. Learning once again from her mirror that her daughter has survived, the queen gets so angry that she dies. Schneewittchen then takes her place on the throne and, in the final act, begins to behave as tyrannically and capriciously as her mother.

Young audiences

Fühmann Franz

Berlin

Mother-in-law

Beauty

Vanity

Haughtiness

Power

Reign

Jail

Assassination

Doll

Denunciation

Corruption

Pesticide

Forest

Wealth

Fashion victim

Parodistic

Burlesque

Queen

Snow White

Hunter

General

Valet

Guard

Mirror

Dwarf

Mrs Kasperl

Intervention of the audience

Metatheatre

Address to the public

Running away

Trap

Plot twist

Confinement

Das Spiel von Kaspar, der Königin Tausendschön und der noch tausendmal schöneren Prinzessin Schneewittchen

The play about Kaspar, Queen Thousand Beauty and the thousands of times more beautiful Princess Snow White