Guignol tries to sell a bundle of little sticks carried by his donkey. The barber Pommadin tries to negotiate the price, but Guignol refuses. Pommadin ends the deal and pays the price required by Guignol, but he requests everything that the donkey carries. Guignol agrees, but Pommadin takes the stick that was holding everything together. Guignol complains to the burgomaster, but he sides with Pommadin. Guignol goes to Pommadin’s barber shop and asks for him and one of his friends to be shaved, reassuring Pommadin that he will pay for both of them in advance. Pommadin takes the money, and Guignol comes back with his donkey and forces Pommadin to shave it. The burgomaster is called again, but this time, he sides with Guignol. Pommadin wants the donkey out of his shop and thus has to reimburse and compensate Guignol. An Apothicaire (Apothecary) sells Guignol a remedy that will make his donkey obedient. A Marchande (Female Merchant), Marie, complains to Guignol that the donkey destroyed her crystal and porcelain shop, and they argue. Guignol and Niafron run away to go and have lunch together out of the city.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Mourguet Laurent

France

Lyon

Printed

Donkey

Beard

Trade

Judgment

Deceived deceiver

Comical

Farcical

Le Marchand de picarlats (Vuillerme-Dunant's manuscript), Fonds Léopold Dor.

French

Le Marchand de génevottes; Le Marchand de fagots; Le Marchand de cotrets.

Guignol

coiffeur

Bourgmestre

Apothecary

Merchant (woman)

Monologue

Dialect as a social marker

Comic distortion of language

Naive character deceived

Misunderstanding

Fight with an animal

Plot twist

Le Marchand de picarlats

The picarlats Merchant

Pulcinella and Rosetta are husband and wife; they quarrel about love and money. Rosetta then meets a man of a certain age, Cassandrino; he tries to seduce her while she thinks he only wants to take her on for a sewing job. Cassandrino mistakes Pulcinella for Rosetta’s father and asks him if he can marry her. Pulcinella plays along with the situation and makes a fool of him by always talking about his daughter Malvinuccia, who is four years old, instead of Rosetta; indeed, Cassandrino does not know the name of the woman to whom he just spoke. Pulcinella settles on a very high price for the sewing job and agrees to let Cassandrino marry his daughter in return. Pulcinella is thrilled at having duped the old man and relates the story to his brother-in-law Rugantino. The latter takes the matter into his own hands: he asks Cassandrino to make a written commitment and begins to negotiate with him. Cassandrino wants to know how long all of this will take, because he is in a hurry and wants to atone for a failed marriage at the end of which his future wife left with a friend. After making repeated threats, Rugantino manages to turn down all his demands; he even gets money to buy a drink. Rugantino calls Pulcinella, who is sleeping, and tells him that the agreement is ready. However, Cassandro wants to see his fiancée Malvinuccia. Pulcinella then calls the children and the young Malvinuccia greets Cassandro merrily, as though he were her grandfather. The man says that there has been a misunderstanding and that he wants Rosetta. Thus, they go fetch her while she is nursing another child. She arrives and the misunderstanding is cleared: she is already Pulcinella’s wife. Rugantino still demands that the contract be honoured. They therefore decide that Cassandro will pay for dinner and wine for everyone, and the latter asks that they all go to Zagarolo (a village near Rome) to relate all that has happened and turn it into a theatre play.

Rod and string marionette

All audiences

Giraud Giovanni

Italy

Poverty

Wedding

Contract

Money

Child

Giovanni Giraud, Opere edite ed inedite, 1841

Italian

Old man

Cassandrino

Cassandre

Rugantino

Husband

Pulcinella

Wife

Young girl

Argument

Situation comedy

Malvinuccia ossia La bambina di quattro anni

Malvinuccia, or the four-year-old girl

The doorman Gnafron makes the cook Fifine believe that they have to cut a piece of the tail of their master’s cat: this way, Gnafron is hoping to enjoy the leftovers usually eaten by the cat. Guignol comes back from the cellar with a bottle of wine that he wants to share with Gnafron. In a clumsy movement, Fifine cuts the entire tail of the cat, who ends up on Guignol’s head. Picot, their master, discovers everything and is about to punish the three of them, but they manage to convince him that what they did was good.

Josserand père Louis

Josserand Claude Louis François (aka Louis Josserand père)

Manuscript

Glutton

Cruelty to an animal

Wine

Servant

Cure

Gnafron

Address to the public

Hidden character

Final song

Blow-with-a-stick

La Queue du chat

The Cat's Tail

Luigi Gambara and Maria da Brescia are happily married. The villain Alvise takes advantage of Luigi’s absence to try and seduce Maria. Faggiolino, the servant in Luigi’s house, notices the situation, and when Luigi comes back, he warns him. Luigi discovers Alvise in his wife Maria’s bedroom as he is talking to her about love. Alvise challenges him to a duel, but he is wounded and flees, promising to take revenge. After making sure of Maria’s innocence, Luigi decides to take her far away from Brescia, so that she can find protection in Venice. Alvise gets ahead of them and goes to meet the Inquisitor to accuse Luigi of wanting to commit an attack against the Venetian Republic. Luigi is imprisoned and sentenced to death, but his servant Faggiolino provides him with the necessary money to bribe the guard Brighella; he then waits for him in a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs to help him escape. Luigi takes revenge on Alvise and kills him. As he is about to kill Maria, his daughter arrives and prevents him from doing so.

Cuccoli Angelo

Bologna

Printed summary

Unrequited love

Lust

Duel

Venice

Revenge

Dramatic

Luigi Gambara

Fagiolino

Meneghino

Brighella

Balanzone

Soldier

Trap

Running away

Murder on stage

Love story

Duel scene

Court scene

Seduction scene

Domestic scene

Arrest scene

Maria la bresciana e Luigi Gambara con Faggiolino detto il bravo della Lombardia

Maria the Brescian and Luigi Gambara with Faggiolino known as the brave of Lombardy

Arlecchino, a shopkeeper from Bergamo, travels to Venice to marry Angiola, Pantalone’s daughter. During the journey, as he is sleeping in a shed, he is robbed and caught in a fire. He loses both the money and the paperwork needed for the wedding. Pantalone discusses with Tartaglia who asks him if his son Florindo could marry Angiola, but Pantalone says that she is already betrothed to Arlecchino. Tartaglia repeats this to Florindo, who is still determined to marry Angiola. He asks Faccanapa for help. Faccanapa intercepts Arlecchino and, using various ploys, diverts him from Pantalone’s and Angiola’s house. He is first awarded the token of recognition that was meant for Pantalone, then, he shows Arlecchino the asylum and says that he has to go there; he then makes him believe that his betrothed is an ill beggar; he then seizes Arlecchino’s ring so as to sell it and tells him that, in order to get the money, he has to go to the prison. Finally, he has him arrested for possessing a weapon, which was hidden in his bag by Faccanapa, and he makes him bribe the guards to be freed. To pull it all off, Faccapana introduces himself under a new name every time, and tells Arlecchino that, even though he looks like the wrongdoer who has just tricked him, he is just someone who wants to help him. Arlecchino believes him every time. As all of this happens, Florindo convinces Pantalone that he is Arlecchino, and marries Angiola. In the end, Faccanapa puts Arlecchino in a bag to get rid of him once and for all. However, Pantalone realises that something is wrong, and a free Arlecchino tells his version of the story. Florindo and Faccanapa explain that they did all of this to defend the love between Angiola and Florindo. Pantalone decides to solve the problem, and make Arlecchino marry his daughter’s servant, Colombina, with whom Faccanapa is in love; Florindo will find him another wife.

String marionette

Love

Deception

Le disgrazie de Arlechin, ed. Chiopris.

Venetian

Pantaloon

Young woman

Fiancée

Young man

Lover

Father

Colombina

Maid

Arlecchino

Facanapa

Innkeeper

Thief

Old woman

Mendiante

Constable

Aside

Word warping

Comic stuttering

Confinement

Le disgrazie de Arlechin

The misfortunes of Harlequin

Martin is a man who wins every game he plays. This evening, he is preparing for his greatest gamble yet: abandoning his lover Sophie in order to go to Homburg and seduce the scandalous courtesan Eleonora Lambriani. However, his cousin, the blustering soldier Cassian, visits him; soon, the tide turns. Sophie falls in love with Cassian, Martin starts to lose at dice and is then mortally wounded by his cousin in the ensuing fight. Cassian abandons Sophie to meet with Eleonora Lambriani. Sophie jumps out of the window, but Cassian follows her and miraculously saves her; they set off for Homburg. Martin finally dies, having lost everything…

Schnitzler Arthur

Austria

Vienna

Germany

Berlin

Visit

Unfaithfulness

Dice game

Death

Journey

Loyalty in love

Sadness

Nostalgia

Seduction

Encounter

Temptation

Confession

Luck

Battle story

Suicide attempt

Femme fatale

Burlesque

Parodistic

German

Der tapfere Kassian

Puppenspiel in einem Akt

Valet

Teichoscopy

Der tapfere Cassian

The brave Cassian

The comet Halifax 712 is approaching Earth. In the absence of the astronomer, Kasperl, his assistant, makes a journalist believe that a collision is imminent. Sensationalist press spreads panic. Kasperl denounces the selfishness of the Minister, who only thinks about himself. He also mocks people for stupidly believing in what the newspapers say, hires a telescope from a passer-by in order to get a closer look at the comet and suggests ridiculous measures (spraying water towards the comet, sending a spaceship). As the comet approaches, Kasperl disguises as a Capuchin monk and hears the confessions of the Minister as well as those of the journalist and of a salted meat master. When they want to bring their wealth in order to redeem themselves from their wrongdoings, they realize that the comet has drawn away, but Kasperl explains to them that their belongings and their superstition will be the subject of many other plays.

Young audiences

Maticka Adolf

Science fiction

Disaster

Astronomy

Telescope

Panic

Sensational

Press

Credulity

Ignorance

Comet

Politics

Media

Enrichment

Satirical

Front page of Rote Kasper-Texte

Ein Handpuppenspiel in 3 Akten

Kasperl

Teacher

Journalist

Pork butcher

Change of social status

Disguise

Song

Hidden Object Lazzi

Der Komet

The Comet

Saint Peter comes down to earth to grant three people of his choice the fulfillment of three wishes each. The first, a blacksmith, wishes that anyone who climbs into his pear tree to steal his pears can no longer come down without his permission, that people can only enter his house to disturb him through the keyhole, and that his bag fills with everything he wants to have in it. Peterle, the young boy who assists him at the forge, wishes to see his parents again in paradise, to have health, and to always be in a cheerful mood. Kasperl, in turn, goes to see Saint Peter and obtains that three wishes be granted to him, but asks to consult with his wife Gretl beforehand. However, they are unable to agree. Gretl finally blurts out that she would like sausages, which immediately appear on the table. Out of spite, Kasperl wishes that the sausages hang from his nose, but then he can't get them off, tries to shoot them off with a pistol, and accidentally kills his wife. A policeman arrives, whom he murders by suffocating him in the box where the policeman discovered Gretl's body. When he is about to throw the boxinto the water, the devil emerges, resurrects his wife, and beats him up. Now it is the blacksmith's time to die. Death, with a nail through his skull, comes to see him. The blacksmith asks him to pick a pear for him before following him. Death climbs into the tree and cannot come down until he has promised the blacksmith never to come back to see him again. However, he touches young Peterle, who had laughed at seeing him in such an awkward position, and he enters paradise. Then Death sends the devil to torment the blacksmith, but the latter, in the company of Kasperl, catches him in a bag as he passes through the keyhole and giveshim a severe beating. To avenge the devil, Death waits for Kasperl outside, but he manages to nail his skull to a tree and only releases him on the condition that he leaves him alone from now on too. After theFirst World War, however, neither the blacksmith nor Kasperl have any more taste for life. However, they are refused entry to both Heaven and Hell. The blacksmith then throws his bag over the wall of paradise and wishes to be there himself: he thus deceives Saint Peter. Kasperl has one last wish: he asks for theresurrection of the policeman, so as not to have his death on his conscience any longer. Entry to paradise is finally granted to him, but after a few years of purgatory: he will haveto return to his wife.

Le Marchand de picarlats

Malvinuccia ossia La bambina di quattro anni

La Queue du chat

Maria la bresciana e Luigi Gambara con Faggiolino detto il bravo della Lombardia

Le disgrazie de Arlechin

Der tapfere Cassian

Puppenspiel in einem Akt

Der Komet

Ein Handpuppenspiel in 3 Akten

Der Schmied von Jüterbock und sein Geselle Kasper

Nach einer alten Erzählung für das Kasperltheater bearbeitet

L'ogre espantatotsitotes

Besuch aus dem Weltraum

Ein Kasperlespiel nicht nur zur Verkehrserziehung