<p>King Victor Emmanuel II despairs to Garibaldi because the notorious criminal nicknamed ‘The Hyena of San Giorgio’ is stealing the limelight in the newspapers: more and more young girls are being kidnapped and then disappearing. When the Savoyard people (identified as ‘Cri de douleur’) beg him to free them from the Hyena, Victor Emmanuel takes his time and goes to San Giorgio because it seems that there is a butcher there, Barnaba Caccú, who makes the best sausages in all of Piedmont. Meanwhile, the nobleman Femorino wants to make sure that his fiancée, Angiolina, is a virgin, but when asked the question, Angiolina explodes in a fit of vulgarity and then reveals that she wants to marry a certain ‘Pensive Knight’ who secretly sends her love letters. Angiolina realises that her secret lover is the wanted criminal and, rejecting Femorino, agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, at Angiolina's house, her parents have invited Femorino to dinner: on the table is a sausage from the famous butcher of San Giorgio. Femorino finds a ring still attached to a piece of finger on his plate. No one suspects anything, however, and Femorino goes to the butcher's to return the ring. Meanwhile, in the butcher's hidden workshop, Caccù, with the help of his servant Crimea, has tied Angiolina to the table to turn her into sausage, but when he hears someone coming, he runs away. So when Femorino enters the workshop and finds Crimea with Angiolina tied up next to him, he immediately mistakes him for the Hyena. Meanwhile, in order to escape, Caccú has gone to the station disguised as a nun and expects the whole army to be sent after him. However, no one pays any attention to him. Outraged at not being recognised as the great criminal he is, Caccú confesses everything, even to King Victor Emmanuel II, but no one believes him. Left alone on stage, he shouts in vain, ‘It's me, I am the Hyena of San Giorgio.’</p>

Rod and string marionette

Gloved hand

Not specified

Ceronetti Guido

Italy

Albano Laziale

Printed

Hyena

Criminal

Butcher

Sausage

Piedmont

Blood

Cannibalism

Legend

Rewriting

Tradition

Guilty

Evil

Tragic

Grotesque

Ironic

Italian

Tragedia per marionette

King

Vittorio Emmanuele II

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Prophet

Blind

Count

Doctor

Slave

Bourgeois

Franz Joseph I of Austria

Emperor

Maid

Vicar

Judge

Carabiniere

Stationmaster

Caricature

Hidden corpse

Trap

Disguise

Implausible

Hyperbolic action

Spectacular turn of events

La Iena di San Giorgio

The Hyena of Saint George