Don Juan witnesses Donna Amarilles' declaration of love to Don Philippo and decides to get to the meeting place before his rival. Through the intervention of his servant Hans Wurst, he asks his father Don Alfaro for ten thousand thalers. The latter has two coins given to them, so that they can both buy ropes to hang themselves. Don Juan beats his father and robs him. He tries to abduct Donna Amarilles but he is caught by her father, Don Pedro, and kills him. The boat Don Juan and Hans Wurst flee on sinks but they both survive and find shelter with a hermit in the woods. Don Juan is disguised – he is wearing the hermit’s trousers – and kills Don Philippo who was chasing him. He then tries to rape a shepherdess and a princess he met in the woods. He kills the princess because she was fighting him. Don Juan and Hans Wurst finally reach the cemetery where Don Pedro’s equestrian statue stands, and they invite him over for dinner. The statue agrees, but in the end, Don Juan will go to it for a midnight feast in the cemetery. Don Pedro urges him to do penance, but he refuses and is damned. He then repents for his sins. An angel offers him forgiveness for his sins. He does not think he is worthy of it and is carried away by Furies from the Underworld. As for Hans Wurst, he drives out two devils who offered him a similar dinner.

Not specified

France

Strasbourg

Printed

Seducer

Unwelcome seducer

Assassination

Servant

Valet

Murder

Serial murder

Phantom

Revenant

Religion

Morality

Abduction

Kidnapping

Fish

Leviathan

Jonas

Forest

Cemetery

Didactic

German

Straßburger Don Juan-Puppenspiel

Don Alfaro

Don Juan

Don Pietro

Donna Marillis

Don Filippo

Sheperherdess

Hermit

Hanswurst

Angel

Ghost

Devil

Apparition

Flying machine

Final intervention of the devil

Disguise

Word for another

Dialogue between characters who do not see each other

Murder on stage

Bawdy equivocation

Light effects

Don Juan oder der Steinerne Gast

Don Juan or the Stone Guest

The governor of Barcelona, Don Pietro, banishes Don Juan on behalf of the king of Spain, and he refuses to let him marry his daughter – whom he offers to his rival Don Philippo. Jealous, Don Juan tries to abduct Donna Marillis just as Don Philippo is about to take her to a ball – since it is carnival time. However, he is caught by Don Pietro, kills him and then flees with his servant Hans Wurst. In the woods, they meet a hermit whom Don Juan kills in order to steal his trousers. Thus disguised, he also murders Don Philippo, who went after him. The two fugitives reach a first inn, then a second one, where Don Juan invites the statue of Don Pietro, which is standing not far. When Don Pietro’s ghost arrives, Don Juan and Hans Wurst are already eating the salad. The statue summons its murderer at midnight, in the cemetery, and hands out its hand to take him to Hell.

Germany

Augsburg

Aristocracy

Nobility

Spain

Carnival

Augsburger Don Juan-Spiel

Lipperl

Guard

Landlady

Statue

Letter

Inn scene

Comical regional accent

Apparition of the Devil

Don Juan und Don Pietro, oder das Steinerne-Todten-Gastmahl

Don Juan and Don Pietro, or the gruesome Feast of stone

Don Juan tries to blindside his rival Don Philippo by abducting Donna Amarillis during the night. But he is caught by her father – the governor of Seville Don Pietro – whom he kills in a duel. Then he tries in vain to borrow money to an old cousin (or to his own father, whom he eventually murders in the second version). When he mentions selling his soul, Hans Wurst wants to help him out by making the devil appear thanks to a formula he learnt from a magician. However, Don Juan mocks the devil and Hans Wurst is swept into the air on a giant sausage – thankfully, he lands at the inn where his master was waiting for him. After a shipwreck, the two men reunite in a wood near Seville. There, they also meet a hermit and Don Juan forces him to give him his clothes. Don Philippo arrives and drives them out of the woods. Don Juan stabs him and leaves him for dead. Then he attempts another time to seduce a shepherdess and Donna Amarillis, who also went hunting. Don Philippo’s men are still after Don Juan and Hans Wurst, who manage to get to an inn near the church’s cemetery. Don Juan invites the statue of the governor Don Pietro for dinner, then agrees to follow his guest into the vault, where he dies in the pains of hell. As for Hans Wurst, he marries the manager of the inn.

Dresden

Gangster

Parricide

Don Juan, der vierfache Mörder, oder das Gastmahl um Mitternacht auf dem Kirchhofe

Der steinerne Gast

Pantolfius

Court usher

Hunter

Fury

Song

Metamorphosis

Lazzi

Monologue

Benjamin, a young man, asks his servant Crasmagne to leave with him, not as a servant but as a mentor and a friend. Crasmagne is unsure at first, but as he is promised a great sum of money, he accepts. Benjamin tells him to meet him at midnight in a park. In the park, a strongbox is hidden inside a detached house; it is filled with jewels that used to belong to Benjamin’s mother. Benjamin orders Crasmagne to fetch the strongbox. Faced with his master’s threats, the servant has no choice but to oblige. However, once in possession of the strongbox, Crasmagne hides it somewhere else and pretends not to have found it. Furious, Benjamin enters the detached house to retrieve it. Meanwhile, Crasmagne, who is standing outside, sees Monsieur Lésimond, Benjamin’s father. Remorseful, he tells him the whole truth. Shortly after, Benjamin comes out of the house with the strongbox in one hand and a gun in the other. His father curses him and leaves. Crasmagne and Benjamin go to the “Coq Plumé” (Plucked Rooster) hotel. Once there, they meet the hostess and Javotte, her servant. Benjamin leaves Casmagne without a meal, and goes to have fun. However, their vacation soon turns to chaos: after gambling, they are thrown out of the hotel almost naked and penniless. Famished and exhausted, they encounter a peasant who offers them a job: Crasmagne becomes a valet and Benjamin a pig-keeper. Crasmagne dines with the peasant, leaving Benjamin alone with his thoughts: an angel appears and suggests for him to go back to his father. Shortly after, Crasmagne comes back with some soup and learns of Benjamin’s decision to go back home. Once home, Benjamin is forgiven by his father.

String marionette

All audiences

Relationship between father and son

Thief

Inheritance

Jewel

Curse

Journey

Game of chance

Bankruptcy

Misery

Return

Forgiveness

Comical

Edifying

French

Father

Young man

Domestic servant

Peasant (man)

Knight

Host

Young woman

Fiancée

Aside

Sung scenes

Off-stage noise

Situation comedy

Off-stage voice

Apparition of an angel

Change of social status

L'Enfant prodigue

The Prodigal Child

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 Claude Louis François (aka Louis Josserand père)

Lyon

Manuscript

Glutton

Cruelty to an animal

Wine

Cure

Gnafron

Guignol

Address to the public

Naive character deceived

Hidden character

Final song

Blow-with-a-stick

La Queue du chat

The Cat's Tail

As a conversation goes on between Cassandre and Pierrot (his servant), we find out that Arlequin wishes to marry Isabelle, Cassandre’s daughter. However, Cassandre wants her to marry someone else. Pierrot takes advantage of the conversation to talk about the rumours going around in town regarding a witch. Cassandre, sceptical, does not believe them. Later, Arlequin relates having met an elderly lady who turned out to be a witch. Shortly afterwards, the lady appears and promises Arlequin a magic power if he becomes her spouse. He refuses and runs away with Isabelle. Suddenly, l’Amour (Love), the Bon Génie (Good Genius), appears in front of Arlequin and Isabelle. He recommends that Arlequin searches for a hazel branch that will be their talisman. However, their plan is soon exposed: the whole Caverne du Sabbat (Sabbath Cave) quickly discovers Arlequin’s intentions. At the same time, Cassandre and Pierrot start looking for Isabelle and Arlequin. In the end, Arlequin manages to get the magical talisman and finds Isabelle. Pierrot and Cassandre, still looking for Isabelle, fall into the earth where an enchanted broom relentlessly chases them, but they escape it.
 Arlequin and Isabelle are still running away while Cassandre and Pierrot keep trying to catch them. However, it is almost midnight: the witch’s powers over Arlequin will soon disappear. At the last moment, the witch manages to capture the lovers, but the Génie appears and reminds her that the evil hour has come. Powerless, she disappears. The Génie promises to take Arlequin and Isabelle to a city full of happiness, and to bring Cassandre and Pierrot as well.

Young audiences

Paris

Father-daughter relationship

Wedding

Love

Sorcery

Talisman

Sword

Magic

Chasing

Happiness

Fantasy

Le Balai de la Sorcière, first page of the manuscript.

Cassandra

Arlecchino

Pierrot

Daughter

Genie

Witch

Music

Magical disappearance

Prologue

Apparition of a genie

Initiatory quest

Blow

Apparition of demons

Chase

Visual pun

Demons dance

Object magically appearing

Le Balai de la Sorcière

The Witch's Broom

A marquis with a suggestive name (the Marquis de Coquencu, literally Marquis of Rooster-in-ass) exposes his run of bad luck to the audience: him and the Marquise (Marchioness) cannot conceive a child. He uses different tricks, such as stimulating drugs or increasingly bizarre sexual games to finally have an heir. However, the Marquise’s moods change from one extreme to the other; she beats the Marquis, and feigns a feeling of faintness to have an affair with the Domestique (Servant). In the second act, two new characters hide in the bushes to defecate, leading to numerous scatological jokes, most notably when the Marquise, pregnant, assures that she enjoys the smell of excrement to the point of asking the Marquis to bring them back to their place and cook them. The play ends with another domestic quarrel.

Adults

Rolland Amédée

Jean Duboys (Jean-Charles Du Boys)

Eroticism

Pornography

Licentiousness

Sexuality

Adultery

Scatology

Couple

Pregnancy

Farcical

Erotic

Le Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1866 edition). Anonymous illustration.

Toucher de la merde c’est signe d’argent

Erotic scene

Scene of copulation

Aria

Comedy of language

Defecation on stage

Argument

Seduction scene

Signe d'argent

Sign of money

The scene takes place in the countryside not far from Paris. A wealthy horticulturist, Labouture (literally, The-Cutting), died without writing a will. The Gratin family, distant relatives, claim to be the rightful heirs. After moving in the property, they welcome the notary Dussiflet (literally, Of-the-Whistle), and his nephew Onésime, in charge of the inheritance. Madame Gratin and Dussiflet consider [corriger faute FR] marrying Onésime and Flore, the Gratins’ daughter. When Flore meets Onésime, he is immediately in awe of her beauty, but she thinks that he is neither attractive nor intelligent. Meanwhile, Monsieur Gratin is bathing; when he wants to get out, he cannot find his clothes. Freezing cold, he calls for help. Ledru (literally, The-Thick), Labouture’s godson, enters the house and rescues M. Gratin, mistaking him for Labouture. Jean, the servant, discovers a letter that Ledru had sent to Labouture. Meanwhile, Ledru meets Flore and expresses the wish to marry her. Jean takes advantage of a private moment with Ledru to convince him to chase Gratin out of the house. Ledru writes a fake will in which Labouture states that Ledru is his secret son, and that he splits his goods between Ledru, Jean, and Flore. Madame Gratin inherits a bundle of thorns, and Monsieur Gratin is given the boot that Labouture kicked him with. In the end, the Gratins agree to the wedding of Ledru and Flore.