Don Quixote takes up his role as a wandering knight and asks Sancho Pança (Sancho Panza) to help prepare before they leave, while his niece and the childminder beg him to stay. Sancho Pança gives instructions for his will and bids farewell to his wife and daughter. Don Quixote declares his love to a woman peasant whom he believes is Dulcineia under a spell. He mistakes comedians for giants, but the fight is avoided thanks to Sancho Pança’s donkey. In a forest, they meet Sansão Carrasco (Sansón Carrasco), who pretends to be a wandering knight. Don Quixote challenges him to a duel and unhorses him. Then, he attacks a caged lion, kills it and declares that he will now have to be called the Knight of the Lions. When he learns that a wandering knight is imprisoned in the cave of Montesinos, Don Quixote descends into it and tries to remove a spell from Lord Montesinos and from Belerma, the lady of the knight Durorante. The earth shakes and he is carried into the air with Sancho Pança. Back in the forest, Don Quixote believes that Dulcineia has been changed into Sancho Pança and declares his love to him; Sancho threatens to kick him until Don Quixote’s illusion is broken. The muse Calíope (Calliope) comes down from a cloud and asks Don Quixote to fight the bad poets. Don Quixote chases them off. Apolo (Apollo) offers Pancho’s son, who is a poet, to join the Parnassus. After embarking on a boat, Don Quixote and Sancho are shipwrecked. They are taken in a palace. Sancho asks for the island promised by his master. A devil on a donkey announces that the evil spell put on Dulcineia has come to an end. After being flogged, Sancho is appointed governor of the island. He passes several burlesque judgements, dictates a fanciful letter for his wife and then goes out to have lunch. He is forced to consult a doctor and quarrels with a judge about whether eating is good or not. Touring his island, Sancho wants to stop a serenade, but he flees after a sword fight. The scene ends with a fake attack on his island: Sancho avoids being killed.
The Countess Trifaldi asks Don Quixote to remove her spell. Mounting a horse that came down from the sky, he leaves and starts his quest as a wandering knight again, while Sancho announces that he plans on going back home. Carrasco tries one last time to bring Don Quixote back to reality, fights him in a duel, unhorses him and forces him to go back home. Sancho complains that he has won nothing in this adventure.

Not specified

António José Da Silva (António José da Silva, aka O Judeu)

Portugal

Lisbon

Printed

Madness

Illusion

Knighthood

Deception

Adventure

Trap

Mock-heroic

Fantasy

Comical

Parodistic

Burlesque

António José da Silva, Vida do grande D. Quixote de la Mancha e do gordo Sancho Pança, stage direction by Émilie Valantin, Comédie-Française, 2008.

Portuguese

Sancho Panza

Niece

Nurse

Daughter

Notary

Peasant (female)

Devil

Calliope

Apollo

Muse

Miller

Sailor

Gentleman

Lady

Clerk

Merlin

Violinist

Physician

Surgeon

Innkeeper

Old woman

Horseman

Bearded lady

Chorus

Aside

Aria

Flying machine

Apparition of a god

Disguised character (false identity)

Fight with an animal

Earthquake

Avista

Shipwreck scene

Scene of flagellation

Court scene

Vida do grande D. Quixote de la Mancha e do gordo Sancho Pança

Life of the great Don Quixote of la Mancha and of the fat Sancho Panza

Punch is furious because his sister, Mopsa, has been insulted. He offers to avenge her, but Mopsa prefers to go to court to ask their father, the magistrate Gormoncho, to punish the insult. Gormoncho comes on. The stage direction states that he should be wearing regalia, but that thieves have attacked the puppeteers on their way to the city and have stolen it. In court, Wyario, the clerk, reads Gormoncho an accusation against unknown people for robbing the regalia. The magistrate promises to punish the thieves, and moves on to the next case – Mopsa’s complaint. Mopsa accuses Alanio of having sung a bawdy song under her window. Alanio bursts into the room attended with two constables: it turns out that the thief is none other than Gormoncho himself.

Rod and string marionette

Ireland

Revenge

Judgment

Thief

Morality

English

Magistrato

Constable

Sergeant

Arrest scene

Burlesque upon Magistracy; or, Punch out of Humour

Dom Gilvaz and Dom Fuas become enamoured with Dona Clóris and Dona Nise, the two nieces of the miser Dom Lanserote; Semicúpio, Dom Gilvaz’s servant, falls in love with their maid Sevadilha. Dona Nise gives her suitor a sprig of marjoram, Dona Clóris gives hers a sprig of rosemary and Sevadilha gifts hers a daisy; they encourage them to make these symbols triumph. The old Fagundes, Dom Lanserote’s maid, agrees to help the lovers. She reveals that one of the young women is promised to the foolish Dom Tibúrcio, and that the other will be sent to a convent. While Dom Tibúrcio is wooing Sevadilha, Semicúpio sneaks into the house; he is carrying a bundle of rosemary for Dom Gilvaz. When he faints, Fagundes sprays water on him and then leaves him with Sevadilha. The two servants bond; this ingenious couple will drive the action of the play. Dom Gilvaz catches Dom Fuas as he is climbing a ladder to break into the house: everyone enters the house and the two rivals, envying each other, engage in dialogues with their beloved. Dom Lanserote stops these outpourings. To escape this bad situation, Semicúpio claims that there is a fire and breaks down the door: the two lords, cornered, pretend to have come to put out the fire. Dom Fuas hides in a trunk to get into the house; he is carried by Semicúpio, who then hides his master Dom Gilvaz in it. While Dom Tibúrcio is courting Sevadilha, Dom Lanserote urges him to choose which of his nieces he will marry. They sit on the trunk. When it is knocked down, the candle goes out: the women arrive on stage for a night scene filled with much confusion. Dom Tibúrcio and Dom Lanserote want to open the trunk, but Dona Nise chases them away by talking about a ghost. Dom Gilvaz thanks Dona Nise, which arouses Dom Fuas’s jealousy. Then Dom Fuas speaks with Dona Clóris, arousing Dom Gilvaz’s jealousy. Semicúpio falls into the trunk. Dom Lanserote and Dom Tibúrcio arrive with light: they open the trunk, out of which comes Semicúpio; as he flees, he blows out the candle and shoves the other characters, who all believe that they are being pushed by their respective companion. The wedding is temporarily cancelled after this quarrel. Dom Gilvaz is waiting for Dona Clóris. He asks Dona Nise to hide him, but Dom Fuas and Dona Clóris find him: they both believe that their lovers have betrayed them. Dom Lanserote has reconciled with his nephew; he summons his nieces and, once again, asks Dom Tibúrcio to choose between them. Dom Fuas, Dom Gilvaz and Semicúpio, dressed as women, accuse Dom Tibúrcio of polygamy: he is forced to leave. In his misfortune, Dom Tibúrcio requires medical care: Dom Fuas, Dom Gilvaz and Semicúpio, dressed as doctors, tell him that he is pregnant; they also prescribe natural remedies to their beloved—marjoram, rosemary and daisy. Dom Gilvaz and his servant break into the garden using a rope. Dom Lanserote is there; he catches Semicúpio and locks him inside the henhouse. By mistake, Dom Fuas sits by the marjoram, and Dom Gilvaz by the rosemary: their lovers come to water the plants and find them: this is the beginning of another fit of jealousy from Dom Fuas and Dona Clóris. Dom Lansarote arrives: the lovers hide in the henhouse, as does Dom Tibúrcio. A judicial officer—Semicúpio in disguise—is with Dom Lanserote: he asks the hiding man to come out of the henhouse and arrests all the lords who walk out of it. In a parodical trial, Semicúpio finds the young women guilty of theft for having stolen the heart of the two lords, and sentences them to marriage; he requests that the costs be covered by Dom Lansarote and Dom Tibúrcio. The weddings put an end to the quarrel between rosemary and marjoram.

Giant marionette

Love

Rivalry in love

Prétendants

Medicine

Justice

Wedding

Dramatic

Satirical

Lyrical

António José da Silva, Guerras do Alecrim e Mangerona (1759)

Lord

Legal guardian

Maid

Servant

Music

Love duet

Love story

Jack of all trades

Seduction scene

Love rivalry

Fainting

Misunderstanding

Hidden character

Running away

Punching

Disguise

Cross-dressing

Night scene

Macaronic Latin

Confinement

Final wedding

Guerras do Alecrim e Mangerona

Wars of the Rosemary and of the Marjoram

Two hungry lawyers are looking for clients by all means. One would like to urge Pierrot, the other Mme Bégriche to sue anyone under any pretext. But they refuse, flee and then hit the lawyers. The two lawyers join forces to create a dispute: one kills Pierrot's cat and accuses Mme Bégriche of the crime, while the other kills Mme Bégriche's parrot and blames the cat. Dragged to court by their lawyers, the two plaintiffs, victims of the Commissaire's stupidity, were sentenced to be hanged. But they escape without paying any fees and beat up the lawyers who are chasing them. The two lawyers blame each other for this failure and fight to death.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Hunger

Lawyer

Trial

Speech for the defense

Parrot

Injustice

Crime

Latin

False testimony

Discord

Farcical

French

Pierrot

Police Superintendant

Animal

Blow-with-a-stick

Chase

Fight to the death

Parodic trial

Hanging scene

Les Plaideurs malgré eux

The Plaintiffs in spite of themselves

Luigi Gambara and Maria da Brescia are happily married. The villain Alvise takes advantage of Luigi’s absence to try and seduce Maria. Faggiolino, the servant in Luigi’s house, notices the situation, and when Luigi comes back, he warns him. Luigi discovers Alvise in his wife Maria’s bedroom as he is talking to her about love. Alvise challenges him to a duel, but he is wounded and flees, promising to take revenge. After making sure of Maria’s innocence, Luigi decides to take her far away from Brescia, so that she can find protection in Venice. Alvise gets ahead of them and goes to meet the Inquisitor to accuse Luigi of wanting to commit an attack against the Venetian Republic. Luigi is imprisoned and sentenced to death, but his servant Faggiolino provides him with the necessary money to bribe the guard Brighella; he then waits for him in a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs to help him escape. Luigi takes revenge on Alvise and kills him. As he is about to kill Maria, his daughter arrives and prevents him from doing so.

Cuccoli Angelo

Italy

Bologna

Printed summary

Unrequited love

Lust

Duel

Venice

Italian

Luigi Gambara

Fagiolino

Meneghino

Brighella

Balanzone

Soldier

Deceived naivety

Murder on stage

Duel scene

Domestic scene

Maria la bresciana e Luigi Gambara con Faggiolino detto il bravo della Lombardia

Maria the Brescian and Luigi Gambara with Faggiolino known as the brave of Lombardy

The collection brings together small stories or short heterogeneous dialogues, everyday or absurd scenes on various themes: family, school, work, social conflicts, justice, war, mendicancy, etc. The human turns out to be disposable, just like crumpled paper is.

Drawn character

Clermont-Ferrand

Trash can

Dehumanisation

Humanity

Remembrance

Paper

Daily

Consumer society

Disposable human

Absurd

Humorous

ou On est bien peu de chose quand même !

Doctor

Leader

Father

Mother

Woodworker

Actor

Cook

Salesman

Postman

Schoolteacher

African

Child

Policeman

Old man

Puppeteer

Judge

Prosecutor

Defendant

Flower

Young girl

Grandmother

Garbage man

Comic distortion of language

Personification

Apparition of the puppeteer

Change of head on sight

Soliloquy

Metamorphosis

Recounting of memories

Histoires post-it

Post-it stories

Jeannot, a child who has a third eye, is adopted by Clémence and Prudent. They take Jeannot to see a doctor who wants to perform surgery on him. Jeannot rebels and a temporary solution is found: his third eye will be blindfolded so that the child can get used to having two eyes and prepare for the future. For a week, Jeannot lives with his eye covered but becomes sick with melancholy. Clémence decides that he will go to school without covering his eye. On the first day, the other children are either surprised or scared, then they are impressed by Jeannot’s “supersonic” eye. Soon enough, they no longer pay attention to that eye, but they pay attention, rather, to what it makes him see. Jeannot contradicts the schoolteacher regarding Romeo and Juliet, and he is chased out of the classroom. Mariette, a classmate, tells him that she shares his point of view. The head of school tells Clémence and Prudent that their son has been expelled for a week. Mariette pays a visit to Jeannot who is stuck in the house, and she reveals to him that she also has a third eye. They dance together until they are interrupted by the arrival of Mariette’s parents. When Jeannot goes back to school, a student mocks him. Mariette defends Jeannot by showing her third eye to everybody in the classroom, which terrifies the schoolteacher, who thinks there is an epidemic. Some parents take legal action and sue for voluntarily contaminating other children. The judge, who is understanding, thinks that Jeannot can see the colour of the human soul thanks to his third eye. Jeannot asks to become an emancipated minor in order to leave on his own, without his parents. His request having been accepted, Jeannot leaves, although it is difficult to accept for Clémence and Mariette. The narrator reveals herself to be Mariette, who has grown old: it is the day of her birthday and she wishes to see Jeannot again more than anything.

Orphan

Jeannot trois yeux

Three-Eyed Jeannot