A Marchande (female merchant), in love with an employee of the shop (the Courtaud (Shorty)), believes that he is interested in her daughter. A Servante (female servant) arouses the jealousy of a Laquais (male servant). A drunk Musicien (male Musician) tells a Suisse (Swiss man) that his wife is unfaithful to him. Polichinelle tries to seduce a Grisette (Shop girl), meets a Peintre (male painter) who wanted to paint his portrait, and then joins a Troupe de Buveurs (a Group of Drinkers): they dance a divertissement and sing a vaudeville at the end of the play.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Love

Seduction

Unfaithfulness

Drunkenness

Wine

Cabaret

Valet

Comical

Satirical

First page of the manuscript of Polichinelle à la guinguette de Vaugirard.

French

Merchant (woman)

Shop employee

Maid

Swiss

Musician

Polichinelle

Grisette

Painter

Inn scene

Play with drawers

Comical foreign accent

Love story

Final song

Dancing entertainment

Conversation

Aria

Polichinelle à la guinguette de Vaugirard

Polichinelle at the guinguette of Vaugirard

While all poor people on the outskirts of Munich deposit their savings in Adele Spitzeder's bank, sometimes even selling their businesses to live on their income, Kasperl is looking for a job. Through his brother Baldhauser (also known as Baldes), a door-to-door salesman, he was placed as a doorman at Adele Spitzeder's house. He introduces the bank's customers to the bank office, where she receives them with her proverbial frankness. But at the end of his first day on the job, the police come and arrest the banker for fraud and close the place down: Kasperl beats down the poor people who come to claim their money. The fourth act or epilogue is a picture of country life: following a quarrel with his wife, Kasperl's other brother, Melchior, goes drinking with the town crier. Kasperl and Baldes enter the stage to conclude the play with a song.

String marionette

Gailler Gabriel

Germany

Munich

Scandal

Stock exchange

Bank

Embezzlement

Swindling

Money

Bavaria

Beer

Politics

Society

Peasantry

Popular class

People

Poverty

Misery

Bankruptcy

German

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Waiter

Peasant (man)

Shepherd

Police officer

Employé municipal

Kasperl

Flying machine

Spectacular turn of events

Catastrophe

Political allegory

Slang

Argument

Dialect as a social marker

Caricature

Brawl

Adele Spitzeder

The action takes place in the backstage of a puppet theatre, where the puppets are hung. To his companions’ disbelief, the Doctor claims that he has read in a book that puppets are carried by strings manipulated by men. Colombina proposes to show that men are also held by a string – a string that binds their heart. All the puppets tell a story about the meanness or the sadness of human life. Colombina concludes that, perhaps, the string is invisible to those who are held by it, and that, just like men, puppets do not realise what ties them. Her companions do not believe her, and while they lay out of their belief that they are autonomous, the puppeteers remove them one by one from the room where they were kept and makes them go on stage – the show is about to begin.

Italy

Turin

Thread

Avarice

Vanity

Philosophy

Autonomy

Wickedness

Philosophical tale

Illustration by Edoardo Calandra, representing Eleonora Duse

Italian

Scena filosofico-morale per marionette

Puppeteer

Apparition of the puppeteer

Prologue

Play in verse

Metatheatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Alternating narrative / dialogue

Speechless character

Il Filo

In a prison, two exceptional prisoners, Jesus and Pinocchio, talk to each other from the communicating wall of their prison cells, without seeing each other. They talk about the gymnastics they do to distract themselves, about homecountry and homesickness, about their fiancées, everything they miss outside of these four walls. Pinocchio does not believe in the miracles Jesus tells him, but when questioned, he claims to believe in them and his nose gets longer. In their dialogue, they discover they have a lot in common: their condition as persecuted by justice or the fact that they can both walk on water. In the end, the guards come for Jesus; while he is happy and thinks that the men have realised that they have made a mistake in imprisoning him, Pinocchio has a bad feeling and, in vain, shouts at him from his cell not to follow them.

Glove-puppet

Adults

Brunello Gigio

Mogliano Veneto

Justice

Imprisonment

Miracle

Innocence

Nose lengthening

Tragic

Pinocchio

Heureux ceux qui sont persécutés pour la justice, car le royaume des cieux est à eux.

Jesus

Dialogue between characters who do not see each other

Confinement

Beati i perseguitati a causa della giustizia perché di essi è il regno dei cieli

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven