The Docteur (Doctor) advises Coquerel to protect his sick wife from any noise. Coquerel tells his wife that he will order his servant Cadet to ensure that no one sings or screams on the square. A Militaire (Military man) coming back from Toulon on foot and getting close to his house stops in an inn. Guignol has just been thrown out of the house where he was a servant and he sings to feel better. The Militaire congratulates him on his voice and gives him five francs so that he continues to sing in front of the inn. Cadet asks Guignol to stop singing at once, and gives him ten francs to keep quiet. The Militaire comes back and requires that Guignol sings, Cadet hits Guignol to make him keep quiet, the Militaire does the same thing and Guignol beats them both. The Militaire states that Guignol fought well, and invites him to follow him home so that he can sing as he pleases.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Vuillerme-Dunand Victor-Napoléon

France

Lyon

Villefranche-sur-Saône

Handwritten outline

Noise

Illness

Contradiction

Comical

Tu chanteras, tu ne chanteras. Funds Léopold Dor, MAM-Musées Gadagne

French

Doctor

Soldier

Cadet

Valet

Running gag

Song

Dilemma

Blow-with-a-stick

Tu chanteras, tu ne chanteras

You will sing, you won't sing

Punch gets his nose bitten by Toby, the dog. Its master, Scaramouche, accuses him of having abused his dog, and they fight with sticks until his head splits from his body under Punch’s blows. In the following scene, Punch asks Judy for their infant in order to take care of him. However, irritated by his cries, he hits him against the frame of the puppet booth, and throws him in the middle of the audience. In the feud that follows, Punch hits Judy to death using a stick. He then has an affair with Pretty Polly. In the second act, Punch is thrown to the ground by his horse, Hector, and ends up beating to death the Doctor who came to help him. He makes a lot of noise, ringing a bell, and fights with the neighbour who came to ask him to stop. In the third act, Punch fights with a blind man. When policemen and Jack Ketch, a hangman, come to stop him, Punch hits them but is finally imprisoned. Punch must be hung, but he manages to have Jack Ketch hung instead. At the end, the Devil intervenes and fights with Punch, but Punch emerges triumphant.

Piccini Giovanni

Collier John Payne

Great Britain

London

Printed

Stick

Animal

Marseillaise

Infant

Father

Household

Couple

Murder

Serial murder

Music

Gallows

Justice

Cruelty

Farcical

English

Punch and Judy

Scaramouche

Baby

Domestic servant

Blind

Police officer

Policeman

Executioner

Devil

Horse

Prologue

Versified passages

Address to the public

Off-stage voice

Aria

Dance

Splitting of the body

Domestic scene

Speechless character

Spectacular show acts

Bawdy equivocation

Confinement

Hanging scene

Blind character

Final intervention of the devil

Character thrown out of the scene

Animal dressé

The Tragical Comedy, or Comical Tragedy, of Punch and Judy

La comédie tragique, ou tragédie comique, de Punch et Judy

Punch gets his nose bitten by Toby, the dog. Its master, Scaramouche, accuses him of of having abused his dog, and they fight with sticks until his head splits from his body under Punch’s blows. In the following scene, Punch asks Judy for their infant in order to take care of him. However, irritated by his cries, he hits him against the frame of the puppet booth, and throws him in the middle of the audience. In the feud that follows, Punch hits Judy to death using a stick. He then has an affair with Pretty Polly. In the second act, Punch is thrown to the ground by his horse, Hector, and ends up beating to death the Doctor who came to help him. He makes a lot of noise, ringing a bell, and fights with the neighbour who came to ask him to stop. In the third act, Punch fights with a blind man. When policemen and Jack Ketch, a hangman, come to stop him, Punch hits them but is finally imprisoned. Punch must be hung, but he manages to have Jack Ketch hung instead. At the end, the Devil intervenes and fights with Punch, but Punch emerges triumphant.

Paris

Polichinelle

Police Superintendant

Constable

Mrs Polichinelle

Comical foreign accent

The Tragical Comedy, or Comical Tragedy, of Punch and Judy.

Polichinell argues with Pierrot and beats him to death with a stick. Then he kills an infant whose screams were bothering him, along with the nanny – Gänsehals. Polichinell shows more affection for his kitten, but the cat almost chokes because Polichinell feeds him without restraint. The apothecary, who heard the cries, arrives; Polichinell kills him too, because he suggested that his hump could be a deformity that should be operated on. The superintendent Spürnase arrives as well to determine what is happening in the house, and ends up being killed too, just like the two police officers that came to arrest Polichinell. As for the executioner Knüpfauf, he is hung to his own gallows by Polichinell. Finally, the Devil appears. Polichinell fends for himself, and when his opponent thinks him dead, he gets back on his feet abruptly…and kills him with a single stroke.

Young audiences

Germany

Leipzig

Pickle

Nose

Hump

Funny face

Nurse

Insults

Scatology

Legion of Honour

The first of ten engravings on copper

German

Kleinkinderbuch

Pierrot

Apothecary

Murder on stage

Comic equivocation

Der siegreiche Held Polichinell

Polichinell the Victorious Hero

The Viennese public attends a puppet show in the Prater. The play in question features a hero who is unwillingly involved in a foursome with his lover Liesl and the Duke and Duchess of Lawin. The duel between him and the Duke is cancelled, but he loses the interest of the Duchess and the love of Liesl in the process. Death comes. The audience, which has not stopped commenting on the play, intervenes more and more loudly and the performance turns into a scandal. It is no longer clear who is a spectator, who is a puppet, until a man in a blue coat enters the stage... and cuts the strings of the puppets with a sword, thus discriminating between animate and inanimate.

String marionette

Schnitzler Arthur

Austria

Vienna

Berlin

Spectator

Unfaithfulness

Duel

Self-consciousness of puppets

Local color

Argument

Wrangle

Hanswurst

Lust

Entertainment

Burlesque

Satirical

Marionetten

Burleske in einem Akt

Director

Poet

Bourgeois

Daughter

Count

Waiter

Child

Duke

Husband

Raisonneur

Wrestler

Dead woman

Death

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Pantomime

Parody of formal language

Stichomythia

Metamorphosis

Zum großen Wurstel

To the big sausage

Polichinelle (de Guignol)

Kaspar introduces himself and speaks to the children. The Star Princess (Sternenprinzessin) reproaches him for having made her wait. She wants to go back to the King, her father, and Kaspar has to follow her to their castle in the sky. A Policeman and a Peasant complain about the disorder and the noise caused by Kaspar. The Princess defends Kaspar, rejects the Chinese suitor that her father had offered her and asks to marry Kaspar instead. At the castle, where he now lives with his wife and their baby, Kaspar is unhappy because his favourite meals are not served there. When the grandmother arrives, everyone rejoices, as all the problems will be solved thanks to her.

Thelemann Dora

Cosmic journey

Crown

Wedding

Love

Star

Future

Utopia

Homesickness

Milky Way

Plane

Fantasy

Grethe Jürgens, illustration for La Princesse des Étoiles et la grand-mère de Kaspar

Kasperl

Peasant (man)

Chinese

Grandmother

Play in verse

Der Kaspar und die Sternenprinzessin

Kaspar and the Star Princess

In his theatre, Mimmo is both an actor and a puppet showman. He is the boss of all the characters and can play all the roles: he plays the Harpo, an 'oggre' (ogre). But when he meets Lili, a "fragile and seductive" little puppet, everything falls into chaos. He wants to hold her, manipulate her as he pleases, and even eat her, and swallow her. She wants to escape, be able to move on her own, or even become human. Little Kouki, "the puppet’s puppet", wants the same thing, but Harpo and Mimmo prevent them from escaping. The dolls' bodies are abused, forced and violently injured. However, Harpo is finally unable to eat little Lili, even though his hunger makes him scream in pain. The scary ogre has fallen in love. The theatre becomes the backdrop for a fierce and hopeless love story.