The Compère (Stooge) is looking forward to the next Polichinelle performance. But one of the actresses, Mademoiselle Godon, is not happy with her role and complains to the author Farinet. A quarrel begins between her sister Manon and their mother. Infuriated, Farinet leaves with his play, which he lends to another theatre. Polichinelle must therefore improvise an impromptu: in it, he plays the lover who abducts his mistress Lolotte, with her consent, to force her father Géronte to let them marry.

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Theaters of the Parisian fairs

Playwright

Argument

Seduction

Kidnapping

Comical

Satirical

Manuscript of La Pièce manquée et de L'Impromptu de Polichinelle (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 9318).

French

Polichinelle

The Interpreter

Poet

Pierrot

Metatheatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Aria

Final song

Prologue

La Pièce manquée et L'Impromptu de Polichinelle

The missed Play and Polichinelle's Impromptu

Alcide (Alcides) is in love with Alceste (Alcestis) and grieves when she marries Admète (Admetus). Straton learns that Céphise is leaving him, since she loves Licas now. Lycomède (Lycomedes), another character in love with Alceste, is planning a party in honour of the newly-wed—Admète and Alceste. He abducts Alceste, taking her to his ship guarded by his sister Thétis, who unleashes a tempest soon stopped by Eole (Aeolus). Licomède holds Alceste captive, but Alcide and Admète arrive with an army to set her free. The assailants win the battle, but Admète is mortally wounded. Apollon (Apollo) announces that he will come back to life if someone agrees to die in his stead: Alceste decides to sacrifice herself. Alcide makes her cross the Styx. Pluton (Pluto) does not care about Alceste’s sacrifice. Alcide arrives and asks for Alceste; she is handed back to him. Licas and Straton ask Céphise to choose between them, then the three of them agree that you should not marry if you want to stay in love. At first, Alcide wants to assert his rights over Alceste; however, he renounces when he witnesses the sorrow of the two lovers: he gives Alceste back to Admète.

Manuscript

Love

Sacrifice

Heroism

Battle

Siege

Grief

Descent into hell

Trap

Greek mythology

Immortality

Parodistic

Hercules

Alcestis

Admetus

Lycomedes

Lychas

Thétis

Eole

Apollo

Mercury

Pluto

Charon

Shadow

Combattant

Choir

Monster

Comical regional accent

Spectacular turn of events

Ballet

Song

Love rivalry

Alceste

Kasperl is the knight Kuno’s squire. While hunting in the woods, he meets a hermit who offers him food and drink. As he is in a good mood, Kasperl slaps him in the face. The situation degenerates and he ends up skewering the hermit on his halberd. Kuno arrives, unaware of this. The magician Murischuripixtimixtistopheles sets out to capture them both and cook them in his wizard's kitchen. He transforms into a monster and wants to eat Kasperl: Kasperl feeds him the hermit's corpse, but this is not enough to satisfy him. Kasperl then hits him with his halberd until he collapses, dead. The knight Kuno finally arrives, but the magician suddenly reappears: the monster was only an illusion. Kuno runs away. Kasperl does not have time to follow him. The magician takes him into his service and gives him a cauldron to watch over, threatening to cook him in the cauldron if he does his job badly. But instead, Kasperl pushes him into the cauldron, which explodes: Kasperl flies to the moon and returns to Earth after visiting all the taverns there...

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Middle Ages

Knighthood

Troubadour

Squire

Dragon

Wood

Forest

Gluttony

Magic

Sorcery

Moon

Assassination

Animals, Mythical

Tavern

Farcical

German

Ein Ritterstück aus dem finstern Mittelalter

Hermit

Kasperl

Knight

Der Zauberer Murischuripixtimixtistopheles

Magician

Devil

Sung scenes

Address to the public

Monologue

Versified passages

Word for another

Parody of formal language

Blow-with-a-stick

Murder on stage

Apparition of the Devil

Pyrotechnics

Metamorphosis

Magic act

Stichomythia

Macaronism

Kasperls Heldentaten

The heroic deeds of Kasperl

Kasperl returns drunk from the tavern and his wife Grethl refuses to let him in. He meets the night watchman, whom he frightens by pretending to be a ghost. He picks up the halberd and the lantern that the watchman dropped in his flight. That night, the moon is off duty and wanders through the streets. Kasperl apprehends it for wandering at night: as the moon refuses to comply, he strikes it in the face with his halberd, which destroys it. He then meets death and beats it with a stick. Finally the rooster crows. Kasperl is annoyed that the rooster can't say anything except "cock-a-doodle-doo" and kills it, then brings it back to Grethl for a meal: when she sees the poultry, she lets him come inside.

Drunkenness

Drunkard

Couple

Night

City

Village

Celestial body

Phantom

Ghost

Halberd

Poultry

Chicken

Fantasy

Burlesque

Madame Kasperl

Night watchman

Death

Cock, cockerel

Apparition

Disguise

Animated natural element

Personification

Domestic scene

Fight

Kasperl als Nachtwächter

Kasperl the night watchman

Martin, a woodcutter, frees a fairy from an oak tree she has been trapped in for 500 years. The fairy gives him a ring that allows him to fulfil three wishes. Martin confides the secret to his wife Margreth, who tells Casperl, their neighbour. While Martin goes to ask the mayor and the priest for advice, Margreth, in conversation with Casperl, takes it upon herself to wish for a plate of sausages, even though she has the ring on her finger: her wish is immediately fulfilled. Seeing this, Martin retrieves the ring and, in his anger, vows that his wife will have sausages hanging from her nose. The wish comes true and the two men are no longer able to amputate Margreth's sausage appendages: all they can do is wish them away, and the gift of the three wishes is wasted.

Poverty

Spell

Dwarf

Ring

Secret

Beer

Hypocrisy

Sausage

Lust

Humorous

Grotesque

Fairy

Bûcheron

Off-stage voice

Die drei Wünsche

The three wishes

The fisherman's daughter Lisi and the young bird-catcher Wastl live by a lake in Germany. They offer hospitality to the painter Wilhelm, who has just returned from Italy. The short play ends with a song to nature and joy.

Fishing

Bird

Nature

Painting

Picturesque

Countryside

Birdcatcher

Bucolic

Happiness

Painter

Music

Italy

Journey

Hospitality

Childhood

Lyrical

Allegory

Am See

By the lake

The widow Werner lives with her young son Ludwig in misery: a sad Christmas is coming. To surprise her son, Mrs Werner goes out to buy a small pine tree and some apples. In her absence, Ludwig writes a letter to baby Jesus, asking for an illustrated Bible: he throws the letter out of the window addressing it to the angels. On Christmas morning, a package is delivered containing the Bible he asked for. The donor is Friedrich Walter, an old friend of the deceased Karl Werner: he has just returned from a long trip to the Orient and is inquiring at the police station about the widow's address, when some officers tell him of the amusing discovery of Ludwig's letter. Friedrich Walter takes the widow and child under his protection.

Reading

Education

Hanswurst

Bible

Crib

Piety

Sentimentalism

Social realism

Christmas

Realist

Pathetic

Letter

Transforming scenery

Chorus

Deus ex machina

Der Weihnachts-Brief

Christmas Letter

Wiltrud and Scohlint, the bad witches, make Princess Röslein (or Dornröslein, “Thorn Flower”) fall asleep, along with the whole court of King Purpur and of Queen Hermelin, by pricking her finger on a distaff when she turns fifteen. The fairy Sconea mitigates the curse by promising that it will turn into a blessing. Years later, the knight Minnamunt finds the bewitched castle, defeats the giant Schlafdorn (“Sleeping Thorn”) who was guarding the gates and wakes the princess and her court.

Romanticism

Poetry

Philosophy

Adult

Mechanization

Sleep

Shakespeare

Illustration by Franz von Pocci for the original edition of the play