Guignol – a ragman – is upset as he finds nothing to resell. He comes across Gnafron, who is sleeping. Guignol is engaged to Louison – Gnafron’s daughter – but the three of them are lazy and penniless. They find a poster of the aeronaut Baloffet, who is about to take off for the Moon in a balloon and offers two thousand francs to whoever will go with him. Guignol volunteers and shares half of the advance on the reward with Gnafron. Louison is staying with her father and reproaches him for spending all the money he makes repairing shoes on wine. But the Bailli (bailiff) comes in and offers Gnafron twenty francs so that he shares with him the letters Guignol will send from the Moon. The balloon flies over a few forests then lands in the North Pole, before finally taking off for the Moon. Louison reads out Guignol’s first letter to the Bailli: Guignol is still on his way. On the Moon, the King and Queen attend a party where “mechanised dancers” are performing. Some guards bring in Guignol, who has just arrived. The King and Queen show him their wings. They are surprised to see that Guignol does not have any. They first consider putting him in a cage, but instead they ask him questions about life on Earth and how he travelled to the Moon. Guignol offers to establish business relationships between the Moon and the Earth. The King’s subjects revolt. Having been impressed by the gun Guignol carries, the King appoints him general-in-chief of his army. Guignol sends Baloffet back to Earth so that he brings Louison and Gnafron, who were already packing their things. Back on the Moon, Guignol has defeated the rebels, and he celebrates his victory by drinking wine. The Queen privately confesses her love to him. Gnafron and Louison have arrived on the Moon and come celebrate Guignol’s victory too. Gnafron is appointed as the King’s sommelier and the plays ends with a grand finale and a last verse.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Josserand père Louis

France

Lyon

Manuscript

Moon

Gas balloon

Meals

Wine

Celebrity

Misery

Revolt

Seduction

Scatology

Comical

Fantasy

French

Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol

Gnafron

Inhabitants on the moon

Bailli

Prime Minister

Aeronaut

Queen

Guard

Monologue

Teichoscopy

Song

Off-stage voice

Letter

Ellipsis

Aside

Apotheosis

Versified passages

Final song

Flying machine

Word warping

Le Voyage de Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol travels to the Moon

Polichinelle, Pierrot, and Arlequin, want to marry Colombine, the daughter of the wealthy Cassandre. The three suitors are alike in their mediocrity; Cassandre asks his daughter to choose the one that will be her husband. To win her hand, Polichinelle gifts her a ham, Pierrot a bottle of wine, and Arlequin a dandelion bouquet. She violently rejects Polichinelle and Pierrot, and chooses Arlequin. Polichinelle and Pierrot team up to isolate Arlequin, murder him and bury his corpse. They plan on pretending to be Arlequin and his valet in order to marry Colombine and get hold of her father’s money. However, Arlequin, exhumed and reanimated by a pig, arrives just in time to interrupt the wedding between Pierrot (who took his appearance) and Colombine. Pierrot and Arlequin made the pig, the only witness of their crime, disappear (they ate it), so Cassandre does not know what is the truth and who the real Arlequin is. He will accept as the real Arlequin the one who will bring him 1,000 écus. However, Arlequin is poor, and Pierrot gained 1,000 écus after selling his kitchenware: he will marry Colombine the next day. Distressed by their conscience and their gut issues, Pierrot and Polichinelle suffer from a terrible Cauchemar (Nightmare) accompanied with a Gendarme-Saucisse (Sausage-Constable) and a Commissaire-Andouille (Andouille-Superintendent) who repeatedly hit them. Polichinelle and Pierrot call for help, admit to their crimes and express remorse. Colombine and Arlequin can now marry.

Paris

Printed

Conspiracy

Murder

Cipidity

Gluttony

Disguise

Deception

Nightmare

Marrying for money

Remorse

Relationship between man and animal

Hunger

Parodistic

Farcical

Grotesque

Duranty, ilustration for "La Tragédie d'Arlequin" (Théâtre des marionnettes du Jardin des Tuileries, 1862).

Cassandre

Cassandra

Colombina

Colombine

Pierrot

Arlecchino

Polichinelle

Scrap metal dealer

Constable

Police Superintendant

Dream

Spectacular turn of events

Fainting

Dance

Bucket of water poured on someone's head

Blow-with-a-stick

Hidden character

Beating with pots

Blow

Dinner scene

Back Stroke

Personification

La Tragédie d'Arlequin

Arlequin’s tragedy

As planet Earth is covered by oceans, molten matter is cooling down. Dinosaurs are cooing among the ferns, and the first rocks are starting to form. A naked man from the Stone Age is proudly mounting a horse he has recently tamed. Jules César (Julius Caesar), also on horseback, is posing. Then come the crusades, and Godefroid de Bouillon is proclaimed King of Jerusalem. Centuries later, his equestrian statue is erected on the Royal Square. The horse is replaced by a boat. The city and its port reach the highest point of their history.

Shadow theatre

Belgium

Brussels

Printed summary

Statue équestre

Nationalism

Géologie

Paléontologie

Darwinism

Essor économique

Epic

Illustration by Léon Dardenne from a programme of the Théâtre du Diable au Corps, December 1896.

Fantaisie lyrique en sept tableaux

Godefroy de Bouillon

Julius Caesar

Ptérodactyles, Plésiosaures, Iguanodons

Prehistoric reptile

Horse

Army

Christian

Barker

Sung play

Seduction scene

Godefroid de Bouillon à travers les âges

Godfrey of Bouillon throughout the ages

As he wanders alone in the woods, the knight Wolfdietrich pays tribute to his sword and to his mount, precious allies in his adventures. Suddenly, a monstrous woman calls out to him, and asks him to spend the night with her. When met with an unequivocal and insulting refusal from Wolfdietrich, the woman insists and threatens him, before sentencing him to seven years of sleep. When he awakes, in the same woods but seven years later, he has neither his sword nor his mount, and he has lost his bearings and his senses. The mermaid appears and asks for the same thing again but the young knight refuses again, repelled by her ugliness. Ashamed of being challenged in such a way by a woman, he prefers to ask for his death. The diabolical mermaid refuses, and takes away his sight, his youth and his sanity. Lost and weakened, Wolfdietrich slowly tries to walk, groping around, and singing tirelessly the same refrain about his past achievements. The mermaid loses hope in being one day delivered by the one she loves, and resigns herself to go back and wait for death in her tower next to the Fountain of Youth. Some time later, she hears Wolfdietrich’s voice as he is being followed by people who threaten to hit him. He wants to know who deprived him of his senses and of his youth. He dwells on his past glory before being reduced to silence, stricken with the mermaid’s provocation. The mermaid dives in the Fountain of Youth where she gets her youth and beauty back, as Wolfdietrich gets his sight back. Now dazzling, she reminds him of his wrongdoings when he was a young and handsome knight. Admitting to his mistakes, Wolfdietrich wants to end his life, and throws himself in the fountain, which gives him his youth, his sword and his mount back. The mermaid rewards him for his remorse, and, now that she has been delivered from her evil spells, she can marry him.

Wolfskehl Karl

Germany

Munich

Initiation tests

Hero

Fountain of Youth

Courtly love

Ugliness

Didactic

Pathetic

Photo of Rolf von Hoerschelmann's sets and silhouettes for the first scene (with Wolfdietrich and the Rough Els)

German

Knight

Mermaid

People

Apparition of a monster

Magic spell

Aria

Wandering

Metamorphosis

Wolfdietrich und die Rauhe Els

Wolfdietrich and the Rough Els

Blind Woman is lying on her bed, which is on top of her house, and narrating her unsuccessful love stories to Doctor Fell. Her tale lasts for a few days. It ends when the curtain falls and a Marionette comes to announce that the Theatre Director found a way to make her stop her storytelling by gifting her a ring which grants one wish. Blind Woman declares to Doctor Fell that she wants revenge on Jupiter. Thanks to the ring, she turns into a Sphinx to force Jupiter to surrender to her power by asking him riddles. She asks Doctor Fell to dress up as a nanny. Jupiter is sailing at sea, dressed as a ship’s captain. He receives a call from Mama Ops, his mother, who wishes him to meet a smart woman and lets him know that she revealed his location to Blind Woman. Jupiter is distraught and reaches the boat of Blind Boy, Cockatrice, and Columbus, who also decide to dress up to mislead Blind Woman. The latter awaits Jupiter on a dock, under the guise of a Sphinx. She is persuaded that he disguised himself as a woman to get away from her. Jupiter, as a captain, lands with Blind-Boy, Cockatrice, and Columbus, who cross-dress as the Three Graces. Blind Woman, who thinks Cockatrice to be Jupiter, asks him a riddle and snatches his veil. Cockatrice appears, wearing a nightgown and makeup as a lady. Blind Woman faints into Doctor Fell’s arms while the others take this opportunity to get back on the ship and flee. 
When she comes to her senses, she meets a Watchman and tries to trick him with a riddle as well, while the curtain falls.

String marionette

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Marina di Pisa

Latin Mythology

Mother

Sphinx

Riddle

Boat

Adventure

Satirical

English

Blind

Physician

Puppet

Jupiter (Jove)

Cybele

Rhea

Blind Boy

Cockatrice

Basilic

Parrot

Columbus

Sailor

Mayor

City councillor

Night watchman

Lowering the curtain during action

Address to the public

Boat mounted on wheels

Talking on the phone

Scene of recognition

Disguised character (false identity)

Cross-dressing

Comic speech

Instrumental tune

Anachronism

Jupiter & the Sphinx

Jupiter et le Sphinx

In the spring, around 1840 in Paris, Jean-François Billembois, a young artisan-carpenter, struggles to find the words to describe to his friend Pancrace the show he saw the night before at the Théâtre des Funambules. Nanette, a sweet young girl, arrives and reminds Billembois that he promised to take her on a walk to Montmorency the following Sunday. But Billembois finds an excuse to break his promise. When Pancrace expresses surprise at this change of heart, Billembois confides that he is madly in love with the beautiful Zéphyrine, an actress at the Théâtre des Funambules, but that he loses his nerve every time he sees her. His friend Pancrace invites him for a drink to cheer him up. Across from Billembois's shop, in a former mansion, a mysterious foreigner, Mr Tenorio, has taken up residence. Pursued to his home by Anaïs, an old bigot, Tenorio instructs Jasmin, his servant, not to let anyone in. Old Anaïs accuses Tenorio of using the church to spy on the prettiest women and seduce them with his devilish ways. After a torrent of curses, Anaïs faints in front of the seducer's door. She is rescued by some women and taken to the herbalist, Mrs Fouillechat. In the evening, on the deserted street, Ratapoil appears, a strange figure in uniform who knocks on Tenorio's door and introduces himself as the Commander. But Jasmin does not let him in. In the back room of the herbalist-witch's shop, Billembois, in despair, complains to Madame Fouillechat that none of the potions or talismans she has given him have made Zéphyrine fall in love with him. She attempts an incantation, but is regularly interrupted by the arrival of other customers. She then asks Billembois to go home and perform a ritual by plucking three hairs, which she will incorporate into a love cake intended for Zéphirine. Meanwhile, Jasmin comes to fetch rejuvenating enemas for his master and a remedy for his fear. When questioned by Mrs Fouillechat, he reveals that Mr Tenorio is in fact the famous Don Juan (albeit aged), who fled Spain to escape the vengeance of the Commander he killed. But the Commander has found Don Juan and has been knocking on their door every night for a week. Jasmin, proud to serve such an illustrious master, makes Mrs Fouillechat swear to keep the secret. When Billembois returns, Mrs Fouillechat changes her plan and sends him to her neighbour Mr Tenorio, so that he can teach him the secret of the secret of making women love him. Meanwhile, Jasmin complains to Mrs Fouillechat that rejuvenating enemas she preapared for his master are ineffective. Offended, Mrs Fouillechat publicly reveals that Tenorio is none other than the famous Don Juan, now ravaged by old age. Hearing this, the other women, fascinated by the presence of the mythical seducer, bombard Jasmin with questions about him and end up quarrelling. Meanwhile, Zéphyrine manages to break into Tenorio's house. In the countryside, in Montmorency, near a guinguette, everyone is gathered together, walking, playing music, singing, dancing or flirting. Zéphyrine allows herself to be seduced by Don Juan and regains her confidence. Billembois falls in love with Nanette, whose purity of soul he perceives, and immediately forgets Don Juan's secret. The Commander has followed Don Juan's trail to Montmorency. Don Juan sees Nanette and wants to seduce her, but she rejects him, calling him ‘old’. It is then that Don Juan accepts the Commander's punishment, as his life as a seducer is over. Hailed as the glory of having been Don Juan's last mistress, Zéphyrine is courted by the wealthy Arthur. While Billembois is overjoyed to have found true love, Nanette seems lost in her thoughts, and her last line refers to the colour of Don Juan's eyes.