A Marchande (female merchant), in love with an employee of the shop (the Courtaud (Shorty)), believes that he is interested in her daughter. A Servante (female servant) arouses the jealousy of a Laquais (male servant). A drunk Musicien (male Musician) tells a Suisse (Swiss man) that his wife is unfaithful to him. Polichinelle tries to seduce a Grisette (Shop girl), meets a Peintre (male painter) who wanted to paint his portrait, and then joins a Troupe de Buveurs (a Group of Drinkers): they dance a divertissement and sing a vaudeville at the end of the play.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Love

Seduction

Unfaithfulness

Drunkenness

Wine

Cabaret

Valet

Comical

Satirical

First page of the manuscript of Polichinelle à la guinguette de Vaugirard.

French

Merchant (woman)

Shop employee

Maid

Swiss

Musician

Polichinelle

Grisette

Painter

Inn scene

Play with drawers

Comical foreign accent

Love story

Final song

Dancing entertainment

Conversation

Aria

Polichinelle à la guinguette de Vaugirard

Polichinelle at the guinguette of Vaugirard

The doorman Gnafron makes the cook Fifine believe that they have to cut a piece of the tail of their master’s cat: this way, Gnafron is hoping to enjoy the leftovers usually eaten by the cat. Guignol comes back from the cellar with a bottle of wine that he wants to share with Gnafron. In a clumsy movement, Fifine cuts the entire tail of the cat, who ends up on Guignol’s head. Picot, their master, discovers everything and is about to punish the three of them, but they manage to convince him that what they did was good.

Glove-puppet

Josserand père Louis

Lyon

Josserand Claude Louis François (aka Louis Josserand père)

Manuscript

Glutton

Cruelty to an animal

Servant

Cure

Gnafron

Guignol

Address to the public

Naive character deceived

Hidden character

Blow-with-a-stick

La Queue du chat

The Cat's Tail

Guignol – a ragman – is upset as he finds nothing to resell. He comes across Gnafron, who is sleeping. Guignol is engaged to Louison – Gnafron’s daughter – but the three of them are lazy and penniless. They find a poster of the aeronaut Baloffet, who is about to take off for the Moon in a balloon and offers two thousand francs to whoever will go with him. Guignol volunteers and shares half of the advance on the reward with Gnafron. Louison is staying with her father and reproaches him for spending all the money he makes repairing shoes on wine. But the Bailli (bailiff) comes in and offers Gnafron twenty francs so that he shares with him the letters Guignol will send from the Moon. The balloon flies over a few forests then lands in the North Pole, before finally taking off for the Moon. Louison reads out Guignol’s first letter to the Bailli: Guignol is still on his way. On the Moon, the King and Queen attend a party where “mechanised dancers” are performing. Some guards bring in Guignol, who has just arrived. The King and Queen show him their wings. They are surprised to see that Guignol does not have any. They first consider putting him in a cage, but instead they ask him questions about life on Earth and how he travelled to the Moon. Guignol offers to establish business relationships between the Moon and the Earth. The King’s subjects revolt. Having been impressed by the gun Guignol carries, the King appoints him general-in-chief of his army. Guignol sends Baloffet back to Earth so that he brings Louison and Gnafron, who were already packing their things. Back on the Moon, Guignol has defeated the rebels, and he celebrates his victory by drinking wine. The Queen privately confesses her love to him. Gnafron and Louison have arrived on the Moon and come celebrate Guignol’s victory too. Gnafron is appointed as the King’s sommelier and the plays ends with a grand finale and a last verse.

Moon

Gas balloon

Meals

Celebrity

Misery

Revolt

Scatology

Fantasy

Guignol dans la Lune

Inhabitants on the moon

Bailli

Prime Minister

Aeronaut

Queen

Guard

Monologue

Teichoscopy

Song

Off-stage voice

Letter

Ellipsis

Aside

Apotheosis

Versified passages

Flying machine

Word warping

Le Voyage de Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol travels to the Moon

Mrs Kasperl comes to ask her husband for money when Kasperl finds a cook to whom he has promised to marry her and who has just brought him a sausage and some wine. The two women argue with Kasperl and start fighting. Kasperl knocks them both out and locks them in a chest. Alerted by the noise, the night watchman comes to question him. Kasperl explains to him that the two women had a quarrel over some plums inside the chest, offers some to the watchman and closes the lid on the unfortunate man who has put his head in it. Then he leaves, announcing that he will throw the chest into the water...

Reinhardt Carl

Germany

Munich

Sausage

Woman

Shrew

Couple

Household

Married life

Kitchen

Plums

Quarrel

Farcical

Grotesque

German

Kasperl

Mrs Kasperl

Night watchman

Argument

Domestic scene

Frau Kasperl und die Köchin

Mrs Kasperl and the cook

Kasperl is arrested after breaking into the gardens of the cruel Sultan Schurimuri. Schurimuri wants to have him executed for spying, but Kasperl poses as an important guest and ends up being royally received in the sultan's kitchen. Drunk, he admits that he is not a scholar or a traveller, but simply Kasperl. Schurimuri wants to have him executed again, but Kasperl beats and kills him. He then takes his place and especially the turban of the Sultan, which he promises will be of great use for him when he returns to Germany.

Pocci Franz von

Turkey

Despotism

Cruelty

Pipe

Black

Orientalism

Hunger

Muslim

Turban

Beer

Botany

Seraglio

Music

Burlesque

Ein grausames Lustspiel

Sultan

Slave

Jailer

Lazzi

Word for another

Chorus

Casperl in der Türkei

Kasperl in Turkey

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.

Wedding

Philosophy

Gluttony

Doctor

Medicine

Grief

Reconciliation

Tavern

Ein beispielloses Spektakelstück

Thomerl

Lieutenant

Police officer

Macaronism

Spying scene

Parody of formal language

Fake death

Disguise

Dream

Brawl

Murder on stage

Dance

Slaps

Die Prüfung

The test

In this expanded version of the play, Kasperl introduces himself to the Sultan as a botanist and impresses him with his knowledge of radishes (which go well with beer), so much so that he is hired into his service. But he is unhappy with his situation in a Muslim country where the consumption of alcohol is forbidden (except for the Sultan, in secret). He decides to flee with the slave Mimikatzi, who is being held in Schuriburi's seraglio. Kasperl offers to rid the Sultan of the mosquitoes he has to complain about and beats him to death with his stick. Night falls: Kasperl and Mimikatzi flee.

String marionette

Young audiences

Radish

Mosquitoes

Harem

Parodistic

Konstantinopolitanisches Lustspiel

Drum

Turk

Allusion to current literary events

Running away

Criticism of actors' theatre

Epilogue

Confinement

Kasperl in der Türkei

A painter named Schmierpinsel is at an award-winning ceremony. In his absence, Casperl, his servant, pretends to be the painter to a lady who wants to have her portrait made. Casperl takes a down payment, then paints a donkey’s head and hits the outraged woman with the canvas. Upon his return, Schmierpinsel is called at the police station. After his statement, the police chief, Karrnpichler, interrogates Casperl. The latter smears paint on the police chief's face before throwing him out.

Portrait

Painting

Originality

Genie

Cheekiness

Prestige

Stammering

Outrage

Drink

Interrogation

Ein malerisches Lustspiel

Lady

Police Superintendant

Comic stuttering

Casperl als Porträtmaler

Casperl portrait painter

The only spirit which the magician Negrocephalus is able to invoke on that day is the rooster spirit of Gockelhahn. The spirit informs him that his wife, the Gackerackack chick, is hatching a golden egg, which he promises to bring to Negrocephalus. The tired magician goes to his cabinet and asks his famulus Putzlmayer to keep watch. However, Putzlmayer prefers having fun by doing magic, thanks to Negrocephalus’s spellbook. He too invokes Gockelhahn, who comes back with the promised egg. Putzlmayer gets scared after hearing a voice coming from the egg and informs Negrocephalus before fleeing. Whoever is inside the egg keeps asking to be let out, and Negrocephalus starts worrying too. He swears to the being inside the egg that he will not eat it before daring to break the shell with his magic wand. After a series of thunderclaps and lightning, Kasperl comes out of the egg.