Jason lands in Colchis with Teseu (Theseus) and an armed escort; he seeks to obtain the Golden Fleece. As he admires the King’s beautiful daughter, Medeia (Medea), and her cousin Creúsa, his servant Sacatrapo is coveting Arpia, Medeia’s servant. Sacatrapo, hidden inside a sideboard, overhears Medeia declaring her love for Jason to her servant. Jason promises to marry Medeia if she helps him find the Golden Fleece. But he is in love with Creúsa: he declares his love to his servant and entrusts him with inquiring into the young woman’s feelings. The King is sceptical about the motifs of Jason’s coming and asks Medeia to find out about his true intentions. Because Jason urges her to, Medeia carries him on a cloud to the enchanted garden. On Pegasus’s back, Jason enters the garden, where he fights against a fire-breathing dragon; laid down, the dragon disappears into flames. Medeia summons Sacatrapo thanks to a dragon who spits the servant out of its month. Casting her spells, she makes the flowers of the garden move and transforms them into nymphs (which Sacatrapo sees as donkeys). Jason confirms again that he loves Medeia, even though he is thinking about Creúsa. Jason is preparing to flee with Teseu and asks Sacatrapo to go fetch Creúsa. The servant tells the King that Jason stole the Golden Fleece from him. Medeia, abandoned, confides in Creúsa. The young women order Jason to explain himself. The King asks Medeia to vouch for Jason; she agrees. Sacatrapo meets Medeia: mistaking her for Creúsa during a night scene, he reveals that Jason is unfaithful. Furious, Medeia buries him slowly to feed the dragons with him, and replaces his head with a donkey’s. He must look for his head in the depths. Arpia fools Sacatrapo by promising that he will discover a donkey with golden droppings; this donkey is said to be kept by an ant. Sacatrapo is determined to kill the ant and steal the donkey using the hat given by Arpia, which should make him invisible. Medeia walks in on Creúsa and Jason during a romantic duo scene; she buries her rival inside a mountain. The King begins a war against the Argonauts: Sacatrapo arrives with a rag on his head and believes that he is invisible. He and Jason are taken prisoners. Riding a chariot drawn by dragons, Medeia divides the armies with a river. The King disowns his daughter, as she raises a tower from which she defies him. While Sacatrapo believes that he has found a treasure, snakes come out of the chest he is dragging: he has once again been fooled by Arpia. Creúsa and Jason flee during a night scene, but Medeia unleashes the winds, leading to a storm scene, so that they are forced to go back to Colchis. The King pardons Jason, offers him to marry Creúsa and promises to kill Medeia, who escapes on a cloud.

Rod and string marionette

Giant marionette

Not specified

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

Portugal

Lisbon

Printed

Magic

Dragon

Golden Fleece

Theft

Treason

Love

Unrequited love

Mock-heroic

Lyrical

Parodistic

Fantasy

Farcical

Summary of the play Os Encantos de Medeia (edition of 1759)

Portuguese

Jason

Theseus

Prince

Nephew

King

General

Medea

Princess

Creusa

Niece

Maid

Servant

Guard

Soldier

Choir

Enchantment

Set that comes to life

Avista

Metamorphosis

Flying machine

Love rivalry

Clouds

Fighting a monster

Animalised character

Night scene

Stormy scene

Shipwreck scene

Animated natural element

Battlefield scene

Battle against a sorcerer

Entering with vehicle

Splitting of the body

Headbutt

Spying scene

Thunderbolt

Apotheosis

Final wedding

Dancing entertainment

Music

Ballet

Os Encantos de Medeia

Medea's Spells

A wealthy baker chef asks his cousin the apothecary to help him poison Pierrot, who is constantly robbing and assaulting him. When this plan fails, he sends his dog after the thief, but Pierrot kills the dog. Knowing that Pierrot has always wanted to learn pastry-making, the baker pretends to take him on as an apprentice to get revenge. But Pierrot plays many tricks. The gendarme, who has come to arrest him, is swindled, then hanged in the villain's place. Pierrot kills the baker and the apothecary, as a worthy disciple of Polichinelle.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Pastry

Money

Wickedness

Poison

Learning

Revenge

Criminal

Perseverance in Evil

Cruelty

Cruelty to an animal

Comical

French

Pierrot

Pastry chef

Apothecary

Constable

Blow-with-a-stick

Fight with an animal

Lazzi

Back Stroke

Hanging scene

Pierrot et le pâtissier

Pierrot and the baker

The wealthy Cassandre is so distressed by his son Pierrot’s foolishness and insolence that he is willing to spend a fortune on a private tutor. Polichinelle is hired, but his poor lessons in obedience, geography, arithmetics, moral and fencing turn Pierrot into a brawler, drinker, liar and thief who ends up hanged after having cheated the tavern keeper Arlequin and beating up the Gendarme (Constable). When Cassandre asks Polichinelle for explanations about his son’s death, Polichinelle beats him to death with a stick. When Arlequin denounces Polichinelle as Pierrot’s accomplice, Polichinelle kills the Gendarme who has come to arrest him. He is carried off by the Diable (Devil).

Relationship between father and son

Silliness

Cheekiness

Education

Lesson

Swindling

Satirical

Polichinelle

Arlecchino

Devil

Slaps

Final intervention of the devil

Characterisation through onomatopoeia

Polichinelle précepteur

Polichinelle private tutor

Starving, Gripandouille goes to the pork butcher to buy some black pudding. Because they’re out of it, he ruins the shop, beats the Charcutier (Pork butcher) to death and puts his corpse in his basket. Still starving, Gripandouille steals a black pudding from a Vieille Femme (Old Woman), then from an Élégant (Sophisticated Man) and finally from a Gendarme (Constable) before killing them all and hiding them in his basket. However, every stolen sausage is taken from him by a Chien (Dog) and then by the Diable (Devil). The Diable leaves, but not before bringing Gripandouille’s victims back to life: they beat their murderer to death to punish him for not resisting his desires.

Hunger

Black pudding

Lust

Basket

Punishment

Trade

Resurrection

Tantalus punishment

Frontispiece of Les Boudins de Gripandouille. Drawing: Duranty. Engraving: V. Cousin.

Pork butcher

Animal

Running gag

Fall of a character

Brawl

Chase

Character dragged by their feet

Character spun in the air by another character

Character thrown in the air

Blow with an object

Strangulation

Destruction of set elements

Les Boudins de Gripandouille

Gripandouille's Black puddings

Catalysterium, a fake doctor, breaks into the Niflanguille's house and diagnoses the couple and their servant with a supposedly fatal disease. He asks them to stay in bed, eats their food and prescribes very expensive medicines (in fact water) to rob them. Mr. Niflanguille finds out about the scam and gets his money back. Cataclysterium is beaten by the Niflanguille and their servant and forced to take an oath to give up medicine forever.

False doctor

Medicine

Illness

Health

Medicines

Swindler

Syringe

Physician

Domestic servant

Les Drogues de Cataclysterium

Cataclysterium's Drugs

Pierrot is harassing his rich neighbour Mrs Trifouillon to get her to marry him. He locks her out of her house, then hides in her wardrobe. He beats her, breaks her dishes, throws her furniture in the street and deprives her of food and rest to make her give in. They fight, then she goes out to find a gendarme. When the gendarme arrives, Pierrot mistakes him for Mrs Trifouillon and pretends to marry him. Then Pierrot beats the Gendarme and throws him out. He finds Mrs Trifouillon's piggy bank, but she manages to take it back. Under threat, she agrees to marry Pierrot, who beats her to the rhythm of a wedding song that she is forced to hum while dancing.

Manipulated object

Silver wedding

Harassment

Cipidity

Stock exchange

Blackmail

Forced marriage

Violence

Threat

Battered woman

Monologue

Misunderstanding

Song

Beating with a broom

Hidden character

Ambush

Off-stage voice

Stone throwing

Aside

Throwing objects

Liquid spray

Final song

Le Mariage de raison

The Marriage of reason

A Ramoneur (Chimney sweep) falls in the cauldron of the Cuisinière du Roi Noir (The Black King’s Cook), an imposter who murdered his brother the Roi d’Azur (Azure King) and locked up his niece the Princesse d’Azur (Azure Princess) in a cage. Doomed to be cooked in the oven, the Ramoneur is freed by the Corbeau du Roi (King’s Crow) who tells him that the key to the cage where the Princesse is locked up is hidden at the back of the oven. When the Roi Noir discovers that the Ramoneur is still alive, he throws him in the well. The Corbeau asks the Ramoneur to retrieve the Roi d’Azur’s sword at the bottom of the well and to kill the Roi Noir in order to free the Princesse: the Roi Noir threatens the Princesse to kill her if she does not marry him. The Corbeau warns the Roi Noir of the Ramoneur’s intentions, and says that he is invincible; the Roi tells the Corbeau where the royal treasure is hidden to bribe the Ramoneur. The Ramoneur refuses the money, cuts the Roi Noir’s head and frees the Princesse, who wants to marry him in return. The Corbeau lives a happy life with them.