After Polichinelle’s greeting to the public, the play starts with the entry of Aveugle (Blindman), who begs for money. Aveugle accidentally hits Polichinelle with his cane; the two of them quarrel and Polichinelle knocks Aveugle unconscious. La Femme de l’Aveugle (Blindman’s Wife) is furious; she attacks Polichinelle and bites his nose. He knocks her unconscious as well and throws them both out of the hand-puppet booth. Commissaire (Superintendent) arrives and wants to take Polichinelle in. He asks Chat (Cat) for help, but the cat scratches him. Commissaire makes Chat believe that the gallows are destined for someone else. Pretending not to know how to slide his head through the slipknot, Polichinelle asks Commissaire to show him how to do it and takes advantage of the opportunity to hang him. He leaves, carrying Chat under his arm.

Glove-puppet

Trained animal

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Beggary

Clumsiness

Cruelty

Cunning

Trap

Disobedience

Cheekiness

Comical

Farcical

French

écrit sous sa dictée aux Champs-Élysées

Polichinelle

Blind

Wife

Police Superintendant

Song

Address to the public

Blind character

Fight

Blow-with-a-stick

Character thrown out of the scene

Comedy of language

Fight with an animal

Hanging scene

Drame du Polichinelle français

Drama of the French Polichinelle

Polichinelle has cloistered himself in a barrel to escape the world’s malice. Despite the pleas of Pierrot, Cassandre and a pork butcher, he is determined to stay cloistered (although he took the wine, the money and the ham they brought to try and lure him out). Everyone misses the old Polichinelle and his love for life, but Pierrot comes up with an idea. He makes sure that Polichinelle watches a puppet show in which a harmless Polichinelle has withdrawn from the world. The real Polichinelle is outraged – he knocks the booth over and drives the puppeteer out. Meanwhile, Pierrot takes the barrel away. Polichinelle sorely misses his barrel, which he claims was a trick to better swindle people. The policeman arrives to arrest Polichinelle, for “disturbance to civilisation”, but the latter escapes. Pierrot, who fled when he saw the policeman, comes back with his arms full of the wine, ham and money he found in the barrel.

All audiences

Hypocrisy

Misanthropy

Vanity

Wine

Money

Depression

Withdrawal from the world

Parodistic

Frontispiece of Polichinelle withdrawn from the World.

Pierrot

Constable

Pork butcher

Cassandre

Cassandra

L’Acteur faisant le personnage de Polichinelle

Actor

Manipulator

L’Acteur faisant le personnage de Pierrot

Theatre within the theatre

Hidden character

Apparition of the puppeteer

Characterisation through onomatopoeia

Polichinelle retiré du monde

Polichinelle withdrawn from the world

Polichinelle stole a wizard's picnic and beat him up. The wizard made a giant hand appear. Chased by the hand, Polichinelle runned into an old woman's house. To get him out, the Hand trapped him with a smelly pâté. Feigning repentance, Polichinelle asked the wizard to free him from the Hand, then killed him and tried to control the Hand. But it threatened him with a pitchfork and carried him away like the Devil would do.

Bare hand

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Hand

The Devil's Hand

Hunger

Thirst

Theft

Sorcery

Pâté

False repentance

Fantastic

Magician

Old woman

Part of human body

Devil

Monologue

Aside

Chase

Magical formula

Hands visible

Plot twist

Thumbing one's nose

Slaps

Punching

Off-stage voice

Final intervention of the devil

La Grand'Main

The Big Hand

In Jeu-Maloches, a village in the French department of Indre, flageolet player Arthur Graboyos became a waiter at the inn Hôtel du Veau Qui Désire Téter (Hotel of the Calf That Wants To Suckle) in order to grow closer to Dorothée – the daughter of the innkeeper Friturin. Arthur and Dorothée both want to marry each other, but Friturin refuses to let an artist marry his daughter. Arthur is expecting a donation from an uncle in America. Bidet – the postman – brings a letter of marriage proposal to Friturin. Bidet himself would also like to marry Dorothée; however, she rejects him. The shipowner Chandelle, who sent Friturin the letter to offer his nephew to Dorothée, arrives at the hotel with an enormous trunk filled with pepper. Friturin dismisses Arthur after they quarrel. The latter comes back disguised as a cook and hides in Chandelle’s trunk to abduct Dorothée during the night. But the trunk snaps shut on him with a padlock. Several misunderstandings and quarrels happen one after another – Dorothée believes that Chandelle is Arthur in disguise, Friturin mistakes Chandelle for Arthur and Chandelle does not understand that Arthur is his nephew because he assumed the name Graboyos for his career as a musician. Arthur comes out of the trunk and makes himself recognised. All the misunderstandings are clarified and Chandelle gifts Arthur forty thousand French francs so that he can marry Dorothée.

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

Nohant

Rivalry in love

Situation comedy

Love

Dowry

Father-daughter relationship

Musician

Wedding

Maurice Sand, Le Flageolet (first page of the manuscript)

Le Danger des malles à cadenas

Innkeeper

Domestic servant

Postman

Daughter

Popular speech

Letter

Misunderstanding

Disguised character (false identity)

Instrumental tune

Le Flageolet

The Flageolet

Jan Klaassen announces to the audience that he has just married Katrijn and talks vulgarly about her. When she arrives, he beats her and continues insulting her. Kleine Ko (a puppet with a very long and expandable neck) arrives on stage dancing, his back to the audience. Jan Klaassen calls out to him, but Kleine Ko shakes his head at every question to answer “no”. His neck expands until it reaches the ceiling, while Jan Klaassen tries to pull him downwards, but Ko disappears. Jan Klaassen calls Katrijn to get a suit out of his suitcase because it is his birthday. Katrijn initially refuses, but Jan insists, and when she opens the case, he pushes her inside it and locks her in. Jan Klaassen tries to sell the suitcase to a merchant. When the latter opens it, Katrijn grabs him, and Jan pushes them both inside. He leaves singing. Jan Klaassen is about to become a soldier. A general arrives and tries to train him in weaponry, but Jan Klaassen plays tricks on him. The general is offended and challenges Jan to a duel. They both fight, using guns as swords. Jan Klaassen deceives the general, kills him and calls the undertakers to bury him. They have a difficult time putting the general in the coffin, but they finally manage it and leave singing. An executioner is setting up the gallows. Jan Klaassen asks the public whether he should be hanged there. When the executioner comes back to hang him, Jan Klaassen pretends not to know where to put his head and asks the executioner to show him. Jan Klaassen takes advantage of the situation and hangs the executioner instead.

Marotte

Netherlands

Amsterdam

Swearing

Trunk

Duel

Janus Cabalt, Jan Klaassen en Katrijn, screenshot from a 1929 anonymous amateur film.