Pulcinella, an apothecary, is pleased with his situation. Her daughter’s servant, Cannetella, tells him that women have qualities that make good apothecaries. After quarrelling several times about this topic, Pulcinella plans on marrying her. However, Cannatella is in love with a young man, Lisardo, who came to offer his services and work in the shop. Lisardo was hired by Pulcinella and is happy to be progressing with his plans: in fact, under the name Lisardo, a young woman called Delmira is hiding. She came to take revenge on Filarco, who robbed her of her honour and then abandoned her. However, Filarco is now wooing Rosaura, Pulcinella’s daughter. In fact, Rosaura is sick: to cure her, Pulcinella suggests that she marry Damone; she flatly refuses. Filarco sees many similarities between Lisardo and his ex-mistress, whom he believed was dead, but he is still fooled: he asks the young man to help him win Rosaura; Delmira calls him a traitor. To cure Rosaura, Pulcinella hires Damone, who is also a doctor: when the latter woos her during the consultation, she faints. As for Lisardo, he rejects Cannetella’s advances. The servant suggests that Filarco pretends to be a doctor to grow closer to Rosaura: because of her exhortations, Pulcinella summons Damone and Filarco, who examine the young woman together: this leads to double meanings between the young characters, who declare their love to each other. Filarco’s prescription is in fact a love letter, and Lisardo condemns his betrayal (Pulcinella cannot read): however, Rosaura manages to interpret every single word in medical terms. After taking the treatment prescribed by Damone, Rosaura pretends to have gone insane and behaves like Eurydice waiting for her Orfeo (Orpheus). She is so believable that Pulcinella discharges Damone and relies on Filarco: Rosaura pretends to see Orfeo in him; he goes along with it and earns the right to marry her. In an attempt to stop the marriage, Damone discloses that Rosaura is not Pulcinella’s daughter. Therefore, Pulcinella does not have the right to decide who she will marry: Rosaura declares her love to Filarco nonetheless. Delmira reveals who she truly is, and Filarco decides to go back to his first wife. Rosaura then lets herself be talked into marrying Damone, and Cannetella agrees to marry Pulcinella.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

Italy

Rome

Printed

Medicine

Love

Revenge

Cure

Unfaithfulness

Forced marriage

Melodramatic

Burlesque

Farcical

Comical

Pulcinella speziale in villa, 1728 (title page)

Italian

Pulcinella

Apothecary

Young woman

Young man

Physician

Maid

Music

Dialect

Popular speech

Thwarted love

Argument

Love story

Love rivalry

Disguised character (false identity)

Cross-dressing

Character mistaken as a member of the other sex

Love duet

Sick character on stage

Fainting

Situation comedy

Comic equivocation

Scene of madness

Final wedding

Pulcinella speziale in villa

Pulcinella apothecary in the villa

The first act is set in a church, where a group of Dévotes (pious persons) and a group of Sans-culottes (revolutionaries during the French Revolution) confront each other. The revolutionaries want to punish Parisian priests for their abuses and their crimes. As for the Dévotes and the priests, they are impatiently expecting a Catholic army to storm through Paris and put an end to the Revolution. The abbot Blondinet is disguised as a bourgeois and tries to rape Rose, a young girl who manages to escape him. The Sans-culottes want to get rid of the priests. A Magistrat (Magistrate) arrives and seizes the church’s furniture, but Blondinet tells the Dévotes that he managed to hide some of it. The second act is set just outside the church, on a public square. Blondinet set up a “Temporary Chapel” inside the shop of a Savetier (cobbler), next to that of a Fruitère (fruit merchant). A Chansonnier (Singer) and his wife arrive on the square and the people come closer to listen to their songs. A puppeteer, Brioché, joins them with his wife and performs his play of a “new genre” – La Calotte au tombeau. Together, the puppeteer and the Chansonnier condemn the Church’s abuses with the help of puppets and songs. The Sans-culottes exit the church with a stretcher as they perform a symbolic burial of objects of worship. A child from the choir, Cascaret, denounces Blondinet as a thief. The Sans-culottes take him alongside the Dévotes so they can be judged by the Committee of Public Safety. The third act is set in a cave in which three see-through paintings are displayed – La Saint Barthélémy, Le Massacre des Cévennes and Les Vêpres Siciliennes. Standing on a pile of bones, Superstition, Célibat (Celibacy) and Fanatisme (Fanaticism) are chained to posts. The action assumes an allegorical form with these three monstrous figures and several other symbols of crimes caused by religious intolerance. Several references are made to Christoph Willibald’s opera – Orpheus and Eurydice. The Ombre (Shadow) of the revolutionary Marat (murdered in July 1793) is called by the Génie de la France (France’s Genie) who arrives on a cloud. The Ombre rises out of the earth with a bloody shroud around it. The three monsters disappear in a volcano. Instead, a magnificent and luminous temple appears – the Temple of Truth. Liberté (Liberty), Vérité (Truth) and Égalité (Equality) are placed on an altar. The Troup of Sans-culottes also appears and dances with a Magistrate of the people. The Peuple (the People), Orphelins de la Patrie (Orphans of the homeland), the Députés (Deputies) of the National Convention and the Artisans (Craftsmen) march victoriously. The Convention’s President reads out a speech commending the revolutionaries. An Évêque (Bishop) admits his faults and after making a speech praising Raison (Reason), he burns his priestly vestments. The Orphelins and Orphelines who were harmed by fanaticism sing with defenders of the homeland and do gymnastic exercises. The Citoyens (Citizens) of the first requisition showcase military exercises which draw parallels between scenes from Antiquity and from the Revolution. The play ends on an ode to Vérité (Truth), a mention of the victory over the Austrians and the emigrants, and finally a collective ballet.

France

Paris

French Revolution

Sans-culotte

Opéra-Comique

Religion

People

Priest

State

Wealth

Abuse

Justice

Truth

Satirical

Dramatic

Fantastic

Le Tombeau des imposteurs et l'Inauguration du Temple de la Vérité, 1793 (title page).

French

President

Magistrato

Choirboy

Peasant (man)

Zapatera

Bishop

Charlatan

Jean-Paul Marat

Ghost

Countess

Mother

Daughter

Governess

Troupe de Satellites du fanatisme travestis en Furies

Puppeteer

Puppet

Musical pause

Chorus

Monologue

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Changement de langue

Dialect as a social marker

Allegory

Speechless character

Dance

Public announcement

Avista

Aria

Versified passages

Ballet

Le Tombeau des imposteurs et l'Inauguration du Temple de la Vérité

The impostors' Tomb and the Inauguration of the Temple of Truth

Guignol – Vincent’s servant – has lost his wife Madelon, who ate a melon and died of food poisoning. Vincent plans on having him marry Louison – Gnafron’s daughter – so that his two servants are bound to one another. But Guignol deeply misses his wife, with whom he was always quarreling. He leaves his master’s house with the intention of going down to the Underworld to get her back. However, Gnafron finds Guignol sitting in a wine shop. After an enjoyable meal, they go back to their master. As the marriage settlement is being drafted, Louison is delighted to have finally found a husband. She pushes Guignol in front of her with a hairpin and promises him that she will be as mean as his first wife. But Guignol manages to escape before the contract is signed: Gnafron and Louison chase after him, while Vincent decides to sit at a table to eat with his neighbour Durand.
Guignol is exhausted while looking for Madelon. He falls asleep and sees the Génie of goodness, who presents him in his dream with an image of his wife accompanied by an imp. When he wakes up, Guignol summons the Génie, who warns him about the dangers that await. He also describes the five rivers of the Underworld. But Guignol is a proud man from Lyon: he knows how to swim, and he is not scared! Before Charon lets him on his rowboat for free (Guignol promises that with such prices he will be a most loyal client), he warns the hero that Madelon is Proserpine (Proserpina)’s companion, and Proserpine might not give her back to him. Guignol insists and repeats that he is not afraid of Cerbère (Cerberus). In fact, he means to coax its seven heads with bread and cheese. When he meets Pluton (Pluto), Guignol asks for his wife to be given back to him. The king of the Underworld remembers that the man appealing to him is protected by the Génie of goodness and thus summons his wife. Proserpine refuses to let Madelon go—she clings on to her as to her meanest companion. Then she yields, on condition that the wife consents to it. Madelon arrives, hits her husband and hurls insults at him. But Guignol provides good arguments: he has just come into an inheritance of sugar, coffee, eau de vie and absinthe… After thinking it over for a few minutes, Madelon agrees to follow him, on the flying dragon that Pluton lends Guignol to take them back up to the surface. Before they leave, the king of the Underworld promises to organise a feast for them. They are delighted about the idea, but the flames of the Underworld force them to flee before they can taste anything.

Glove-puppet

Vuillerme-Dunand Victor-Napoléon

Manuscript

Wedding

Descent into hell

Resurrection

Glutton

Boat trip

Mock-heroic

La Descente de Guignol aux Enfers (cover page)

Notary

Rentier

Guignol

Domestic servant

Gnafron

Concierge

Genie

Pluto

Proserpina

Devil

Charon

Dinner scene

Dream

Apparition of a genie

Domestic scene

Flying machine

La Descente de Guignol aux Enfers

Guignol's Trip to the Underworld

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

Dowry

Father-daughter relationship

Musician

Cunning

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

Le Danger des malles à cadenas

Innkeeper

Postman

Letter

Misunderstanding

Hidden character

Instrumental tune

Le Flageolet

The Flageolet

In the spring, around 1840 in Paris, Jean-François Billembois, a young artisan-carpenter, struggles to find the words to describe to his friend Pancrace the show he saw the night before at the Théâtre des Funambules. Nanette, a sweet young girl, arrives and reminds Billembois that he promised to take her on a walk to Montmorency the following Sunday. But Billembois finds an excuse to break his promise. When Pancrace expresses surprise at this change of heart, Billembois confides that he is madly in love with the beautiful Zéphyrine, an actress at the Théâtre des Funambules, but that he loses his nerve every time he sees her. His friend Pancrace invites him for a drink to cheer him up. Across from Billembois's shop, in a former mansion, a mysterious foreigner, Mr Tenorio, has taken up residence. Pursued to his home by Anaïs, an old bigot, Tenorio instructs Jasmin, his servant, not to let anyone in. Old Anaïs accuses Tenorio of using the church to spy on the prettiest women and seduce them with his devilish ways. After a torrent of curses, Anaïs faints in front of the seducer's door. She is rescued by some women and taken to the herbalist, Mrs Fouillechat. In the evening, on the deserted street, Ratapoil appears, a strange figure in uniform who knocks on Tenorio's door and introduces himself as the Commander. But Jasmin does not let him in. In the back room of the herbalist-witch's shop, Billembois, in despair, complains to Madame Fouillechat that none of the potions or talismans she has given him have made Zéphyrine fall in love with him. She attempts an incantation, but is regularly interrupted by the arrival of other customers. She then asks Billembois to go home and perform a ritual by plucking three hairs, which she will incorporate into a love cake intended for Zéphirine. Meanwhile, Jasmin comes to fetch rejuvenating enemas for his master and a remedy for his fear. When questioned by Mrs Fouillechat, he reveals that Mr Tenorio is in fact the famous Don Juan (albeit aged), who fled Spain to escape the vengeance of the Commander he killed. But the Commander has found Don Juan and has been knocking on their door every night for a week. Jasmin, proud to serve such an illustrious master, makes Mrs Fouillechat swear to keep the secret. When Billembois returns, Mrs Fouillechat changes her plan and sends him to her neighbour Mr Tenorio, so that he can teach him the secret of the secret of making women love him. Meanwhile, Jasmin complains to Mrs Fouillechat that rejuvenating enemas she preapared for his master are ineffective. Offended, Mrs Fouillechat publicly reveals that Tenorio is none other than the famous Don Juan, now ravaged by old age. Hearing this, the other women, fascinated by the presence of the mythical seducer, bombard Jasmin with questions about him and end up quarrelling. Meanwhile, Zéphyrine manages to break into Tenorio's house. In the countryside, in Montmorency, near a guinguette, everyone is gathered together, walking, playing music, singing, dancing or flirting. Zéphyrine allows herself to be seduced by Don Juan and regains her confidence. Billembois falls in love with Nanette, whose purity of soul he perceives, and immediately forgets Don Juan's secret. The Commander has followed Don Juan's trail to Montmorency. Don Juan sees Nanette and wants to seduce her, but she rejects him, calling him ‘old’. It is then that Don Juan accepts the Commander's punishment, as his life as a seducer is over. Hailed as the glory of having been Don Juan's last mistress, Zéphyrine is courted by the wealthy Arthur. While Billembois is overjoyed to have found true love, Nanette seems lost in her thoughts, and her last line refers to the colour of Don Juan's eyes.

Baty Gaston

Typewriting

Myth of Don Juan

Parler parisien

Aging

Seduction

Realist

Conte fantastique en cinq scènes pour marionnettes

Jean-François Billembois

Parisian urchin

Woodworker

Don Juan

Seducer

Old man

Commander

Death

Cabaret owner

Wife

Herborist

Witch

Midwife

Actress

Poet

Old Maid

Old woman

Animal

Bird

Donkey

Allusion to theatrical events of the time

Comic distortion of language

Apparition of a ghost

Ellipsis

Incantation

Spectacular turn of events

Off-stage voice

Vision

Off-stage noise

Recounting of memories

Song

Inserting poetry

Le Miroir aux alouettes (variation sur le mythe à Don Juan)

Smoke and mirrors

Armando, the narrator's alter ego, is unable to complete his project to build a watermill to irrigate his vegetable garden. His search for a solution leads him to meet the residents of his neighbourhood and recount their stories, which paint a picture of lives not yet alienated, neighbourhood celebrations and funerals, love and betrayal, everyday existence and dreams. In particular, on this day, the funeral of Stevanato is being celebrated, a former worker who, along with other retirees, had created a community workshop in the church basement to serve the neighbourhood, where anything and everything could be repaired. The engineering project designed to make the statue of St Joseph in the church cry will provide Armando with the solution to make his mill work: he was missing a helical gear mechanism, the famous “vite senza fine” (endless screw).