In order to help his mater Octavio marry Isabelle (Cintio’s daughter), Mezetin becomes Cintio’s servant. Cintio and the Doctor are looking for the Philosopher’s Stone. Arlequin and Mezetin dress as chimney sweeps and make the story of La Belle Maguelone into a puppet show, during which they give Octavio’s letter to Isabelle. Arlequin cross-dresses as a viscountess and fails to convince a marquis and the Doctor to share their secrets. Octavio proposes to Isabelle, but Cintio forbids their union. Quacks show up to an assembly called by the Doctor, and they are driven out by Polichinel. The quacks boast about their inventions, but they run away when they see Mezetin and Pierrot, who are respectively dressed as a Commissaire (commissioner) and a Clerc (clerk). The Commissaire tells Cintio that Isabelle has been abducted. Octavio comes forward to save her. When Isabelle comes back, Cintio still forbids their marriage. But Octavio threatens to report him for having invited counterfeiters. Everyone goes watch Mars and Apollon’s fight on the Place des Victoires (Victory square). Cintio finally accepts Octavio as his son-in-law.

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Alchemy

Philosopher's stone

False Scientist

Science

Invention

Fake kidnapping

Forger

Rivalry of theatres

Comical

Satirical

Arlequin holding the curiosité. Frontispiece of Les Souffleurs, 1694.

French

ou la Pierre philosophale d'Arlequin

Il Dottore (Commedia dell'arte)

Cintio

Isabelle

Marinette

Arlecchino

Octavio

Mezetin

Pierrot

Chimney sweeper

Vicomtess

Marquis

Seneschal

Colombine

Pasquariello

Polichinelle

Knight

Police Superintendant

Clerk

Goldsmith

Mars

Victoria

Warrior

Apollo

Themis

Minerva

Arts

Disguise

Letter

Cross-dressing

Jack of all trades

Allegory

Pantomime

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Storyteller

Les Souffleurs

The Alchemists

The ghost of Hamlet’s father reveals to him that he was murdered by his own brother, who succeeded him on the throne of Denmark. He asks his son to avenge him. Hamlet feigns madness to pull the wool over his mother’s and uncle’s eyes, as he stages a puppet play that has them believe he knows about their crime. As he argues with his mother, he discovers that they are being spied on by the courtier Oldenholm and he throws him out the window, into the moats of the castle. Oldenholm’s daughter – Ophelia – believes that his father has died and loses her sanity: but Hamlet has secretly saved him from drowning. Ophelia reunites with her father and comes back to her senses. However, the king wants to dispose of his nephew by sending him to war against Napoleon, under Admiral Nelson’s commands. Hamlet finds out about this conspiracy. During the farewell dance organised for him, he has the king drink the poison that was meant for him. He then ascends the throne of Denmark and marries Ophelia. His uncle, who was saved at death’s door, is exiled to Greenland.

String marionette

Glove-puppet

Schink Johann Friedrich

Germany

Ratzeburg

Philosophy

Idealism

Madness

Murder

Politics

Court life

Plot

Love

Commedia dell'arte

Shakespeare

Parodistic

Burlesque

Illustration on the cover page of the 1800 edition.

German

Momus und sein Guckkasten

Ein Marionettenspiel

Hamlet

Guard

Captain

Queen

Courtier

Ophelia

Ghost

Puppeteer

Pantaloon

Prince

Scapin

Prologue

Address to the public

Sung scenes

Monologue

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Comic equivocation

Political allegory

Allusion to current literary events

Instrumental tune

Play in verse

Prinz Hamlet von Dännemark

Hamlet Prince of Danemark

The play begins with an old shepherd looking after his flocks and talking briefly with his two sons. While the eldest borrows money that his family has accumulated by working, the youngest announces that he is going to leave, because he longs to live another kind of life. The father replies in the way of a humble man entrusting God with the future of both his wealth and of his youngest son. The next three tableaux show the sinful life of pleasures which the youngest brother enjoys in Thebes before famine and regrets convince him to come back home. The oldest son’s resentment, which the Gospel mentions, is left out of the play. The last tableau does not mention the tensions between the two brothers (which were only suggested at the beginning of the play), and only the father’s joy at being reunited with his son is shown.

Shadow theatre

Wealth

Debauchery

Mercy

Repentance

Orientalism

Splendor

Lyrical

L'Enfant prodigue : flat articulated figure of the father (first tableau).

Scènes bibliques en 7 tableaux

Father

Board

Alternating narrative / dialogue

Dance

L'Enfant prodigue

The Prodigal Son

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.

Schnitzler Arthur

Austria

Vienna

Berlin

Spectator

Unfaithfulness

Duel

Self-consciousness of puppets

Local color

Argument

Wrangle

Hanswurst

Noise

Lust

Entertainment

Marionetten

Burleske in einem Akt

Director

Poet

Bourgeois

Daughter

Count

Soldier

Waiter

Child

Duke

Husband

Raisonneur

Wrestler

Dead woman

Valet

Death

Parody of formal language

Versified passages

Stichomythia

Metamorphosis

Character thrown out of the scene

Zum großen Wurstel

To the big sausage

Anatole wants to save Fric, who was mistakenly sent into space. They visit the Moon, Venus, the planet of Dame Tartine (Lady Toast), and that of the Père Noël (Father Christmas). Their trip ends in the pot of the Peaux-Rouges (Redskins), but a clever idea from the Chat Tempête (Storm Cat) saves them.

Young audiences

Blin André

Montrouge

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Milky Way

Astronaut

Telescope

Star

Comet

Rescue

Cannibalism

Helicopter

Red Indian

Christmas

Fantasy

Company Les P'tits Bonshommes d'André Blin (André Blin’s Little Men), Les Aventuriers du ciel, 1955.

Servant

Shepherd

Father Christmas

Père Fouettard

Fairy

Dwarf

Page

Dame Tartine

Snow White

Aladin

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Mermaid

Caricature

Unexpected turn of events

Ballet

Warning signs

Les Aventuriers du ciel

The Adventurers of the sky

Worried about his succession, the lion king Maghan listens to the predictions of fortune tellers and marries Sogolon Kédjou, the buffalo-woman, despite her ugliness; he has a son with her, Sunjata, who is destined to be king of Manding. This choice prompts the anger of his first wife, Sassouma Bérété, for Maghan is depriving their son, Dankara Touman, of his prestigious heritage. Young Sunjata grows up, but, at seven years old, still does not walk. The crowd rumbles against this infirm heir, becomes threatening and eventually declares Dankara Touman the head of the kingdom. Growing old, king Maghan, still believing the words of the fortune tellers, entrusts his griot to Sunjata, and by doing so, contests Dankara’s legitimacy. Exasperated, Sassouma Bérété solicits a group of witches to murder young Sunjata, but this plan fails. She demands that the griot be abducted and sent to the court of Manding’s great enemy, Soumaoro Kanté, king of Sosso. After a lively argument with his half-brother Dankara, Sunjata, driven out from the kingdom, goes into exile. He finds refuge at the court of king Mamé where he receives training and becomes a great warrior. In his absence, Soumaoro Kanté has had multiple conquests, thus leading to Dankara Touman taking flight, and to the doom of the kingdom of Manding. Called by his mother who implores him to come back in order to fulfil his destiny, Sunjata returns, applauded by the crowd. Determined, he declares war against Soumaoro Kanté. The griot relates Sunjata’s war exploits and sings his glorious posterity.

Les Souffleurs

ou la Pierre philosophale d'Arlequin

Prinz Hamlet von Dännemark

Ein Marionettenspiel

L'Enfant prodigue

Scènes bibliques en 7 tableaux

Zum großen Wurstel

Burleske in einem Akt

Les Aventuriers du ciel

Sunjata

L'épopée mandingue

È bello vivere liberi!

Progetto di teatro civile per un’attrice, cinque burattini e un pupazzo