Dorisbe arrives in Rome with her servant Lucillo: she rejoices at the idea of meeting her future husband, Dottore Grisanto (Doctor Grisanto). Clorimeno, Grisanto’s servant, refuses to be enchained by love, but his master orders him to fall in love. Outside the Colosseum, Dorisbe meets Nisbe, sister of the Dottore; she guides her to her brother’s house. On her way to announce the arrival of Grisanto’s future wife, Nisbe meets Clorimeno and falls in love with him. As for Dorisbe, she despairs after meeting the Dottore: the man she must marry is old, hoary and stupid. In the grip of her sorrow, Dorisbe meets Clorimeno: they both fall in love at first sight, and the young woman asks her lover to spare her from this gruesome marriage. Grisanto learns about his future wife’s unhappiness and dismisses his students to go comfort her; the Latinist students begin to dance. Clorimeno tells his master Grisanto that he loves Dorisbe. Grisanto laughs until he understands that he is the unfortunate husband; he decides to take revenge. After turning the old Nisbe’s love down, Clorimeno meets Dorisbe on her balcony. But Grisanto asks the cowardly Lucillo to make the lover flee and then to take revenge for him, and he scolds his betrothed; she pretends to be madly in love with Grisanto. Unfortunately, Clorimeno relates the whole story to his master when he sees him: he will come back to his beloved before the sun rises. Grisanto hides to spy on the lovers: Dorisbe has seen him, and she makes an ostentatious declaration to Clorimeno, telling him that she is faithful to her husband. In the following scenes, Nisbe comforts herself with Lucillo, while Dorisbe tries to clear up the situation with her lover, who despaired at her last words. The old pedant and future husband practices curtsying, but he falls, and young dancers begin to dance instead. Grisanto offers Clorimeno to Nisbe, who agrees. Clorimeno, who tried to kill himself, falls into Dorisbe’s arms. The lovers reconcile and agree to meet at night; Grisanto overhears them and decides to spy on them. He orders Lucillo to kill any man or woman in his garden. At night, Nisbe is waiting for Clorimeno: Lucillo arrives instead, and he is about to kill her, following the orders he was given. Grisanto stops her just before he does, and he believes that when Clorimeno talked about his lover, he was in fact talking about his sister: he arranges for Nisbe and Clorimeno to marry. Overhearing them, Dorisbe expresses jealousy, which Grisanto interprets as worry over seeing him with another woman. When Clorimeno arrives in the garden, he understands that Dorisbe is his master’s future wife and apologises; Grisanto promises to forgive him, as well as to give him his properties and the woman of the house. When the young man enters the house, Nisbe welcomes him and tells Dorisbe that she will marry him. Clorimeno protests, which comforts Dorisbe and stops her jealous feelings. Grisanto learns the truth and tries to make Clorimeno flee. But Clorimeno answers that he only followed his master’s advice.

Not specified

Acciaiuoli Filippo (aka Gran Burattinajo)

Italy

Rome

Printed

Jealousy

Confidence

Promise

Pedant

Forced marriage

Burlesque

Farcical

Lyrical

Chi è cagion del suo mal pianga sè stesso, title page

Italian

Fiancée

Pupil

Schoolteacher

Old woman

Sister

Page

Dancer

Love story

Love rivalry

Music

Interlude

Classroom scene

Monologue

Situation comedy

Character leaning against the window

Spying scene

Hidden character

Night scene

Comic equivocation

Misunderstanding

Wedding

Final wedding

Chi è cagion del suo mal pianga sè stesso

Let him who causes his own suffering blame himself

Pulcinella, keeper of a psychiatric institution, is organising a ball in honour of his ward Corinda and her lover Florante. During the ball, Delia, a resident of the asylum, recognises Florante as her unfaithful ex-lover. Vaiano, a sorcerer who wants to marry Corinda, decides to stop the marriage: he tells Pulcinella that he is bound to marry his rich ward. Delia asks for Pulcinella’s help; but he believes that she is insane and in love with him. When she meets with Florante, he apologises and promises to love her: the old Garbina overhears the conversation and understands that he is about to leave Corinda. Delia tells Vaiano about Florante’s promise; he rejoices. The sorcerer gives Pulcinella a rock that should attract Corinda's love, but Pulcinella believes that the rock is attracting Delia instead: she is still pursuing him. Believing Pulcinella, Garbina tells Florante that Delia is being unfaithful to him. Disappointed, Florante decides that he will marry Corinda, but Vaiano tells him that Corinda found a new lover: the couple quarrels. To get rid of Pulcinella, he sends him to look for a treasure and tells Garbina that Pulcinella wants to marry Corinda for her money, even though he truly loves Corinda. These fake confidences spark global confusion. In the woods, Pulcinella rides a donkey; they are surrounded by spirits and monsters. Delia just asked for Vaiano’s help. He promises the young woman that Florante will come back to her. Pulcinella distrusts Vaiano and imagines that he wants to make him fall in love with Delia. Florante rejects Corinda, whom he believes to be in love with Vaiano; he also rejects Delia, believing that she is in love with Pulcinella despite her repeatedly denying it. Seeing Corinda walk into Vaiano’s house, he believes that she is unfaithful. When he stumbles upon Delia, chained like a madwoman, he is finally convinced of her faithfulness. The old lovers reconcile. Corinda, disappointed, reveals that she promised to marry Vaiano if Florante rejected her. Pulcinella is disappointed, but he refuses to marry Garbina.

String marionette

Villifranchi Giovanni Cosimo

Florence

Lucca

Fiancé

Unfaithfulness

Charlatan

Love

Heroic

Melodramatic

Fantasy

Comical

Pulcinella guardiano de pazzarelli, 1705 (title page)

Guardian

Legal guardian

Pulcinella

Ward

Lover (woman)

Lover (man)

Magician

Enchantment

Scene of recognition

Dilemma

Board meeting

Magic spell

Demons dance

Apparition of a monster

Release of a prisoner

Revelation

Pulcinella guardiano de' pazzarelli

Pulcinella keeper of the insane

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.

Glove-puppet

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

France

Nohant

Rivalry in love

Dowry

Father-daughter relationship

Musician

Cunning

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

French

Le Danger des malles à cadenas

Innkeeper

Domestic servant

Postman

Daughter

Popular speech

Letter

Disguised character (false identity)

Instrumental tune

Le Flageolet

The Flageolet

Pierrot visits the marriage broker Marcassin: he wishes to marry a woman with a large dowry, which would allow him to pay off his debts. After questioning him about his preferences, Marcassin recommends Mademoiselle Putiphar, a 45 years old hunchbacked woman with only one eye. He calls his servant Catherine, asks her to go and get Mademoiselle Putiphar, and pretends to leave. Pierrot gropes Catherine and asks her if she wants to be his lover while he will display his future wife in a fairground booth. Catherine agrees, and as they both leave, Marcassin congratulates himself on marrying his daughter. In the second tableau, the messy clothes of Catherine and Pierrot show that they made love. The Commissaire (Superintendent) questions Pierrot and tells him that he has been watching Marcassin for a long time: he opened a marriage agency with the sole intent of marrying his own daughter, Catherine. As Pierrot is caught with Catherine, the Commissaire obliges him to marry her, and weds them with Marcassin’s blessing.

Paris

Manuscript

Money

Marriage agency

Trap

Théâtre de Guignol, Champs-Élysées, Paris (Le Monde illustré, 27/06/1868)

Pierrot

Marriage broker

Police Superintendant

Song

Erotic scene

Les Mariages à la mode

The fashionable Weddings

The Plumcake family arrives in Biskra. The wedding of their daughter, Miss Maud, will happen in the Sahara; however, their arrival in the oasis of merrymaking is delayed: they cross paths with a lion and get lost; a caravan comes by and saves the lost family. The spectacular ceremony can finally take place: the procession and dances begin.

Shadow theatre

Switzerland

Geneva

Printed summary

Orientalism

Sahara

Caravan (travellers)

Algerian infantry

Algeria

Party

Ouled Naïl (Algerian nomadic tribe)

Desert

Dramatic

Maurice Potter, engraving advertising the Théâtre du Sapajou, 1896.