Polichinelle wants to be loved while he is dressed as the shepherd Philemon, but is rejected by Issé. Doris accepts Pan's love for a while. Hylas is in turn rejected by Issé. Issé questions the oracle of the oaks of Dodona who tells her that she will fall in love with the god of light. Issé refuses because she prefers Polichinelle. Polichinelle reveals himself to her as Apollo.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Manuscript with songs and dialogue summaries

Oracle

God disguised as a mortal

Greek mythology

Shepherd

Unrequited love

Seduction

Rivalry in love

Parodistic

French

Polichinelle

Philémon

Mother Gigogne

Doris

The Interpreter

Pierrot

Hylas

Priest

Peasant (female)

Apollo

Misunderstanding

Unveiling

Spectacular turn of events

Ballet

Song

Dialogue with a character in the audience

Apollon Polichinelle

Apollo as Polichinelle

Don Juan has asked his servant Kasperl to sell his last shirt and coat, but Kasperl has spent the money from the sale on beers. He sends him to borrow money from his father, the knight Pantolfius. When Pantolfius refuses, Don Juan himself comes to ask him to comply, but in vain, and Kasperl kicks him in the nose. To find money, Kasperl then has the idea of summoning the devil, but when Don Juan wants to sell him his soul, he replies that it already belongs to him and takes it to hell.

Reinhardt Carl

Germany

Munich

Printed

Tralala

Excessive drinking

Drunkard

Drinking

Credit

Father

Perlicke

Money

Debt

Hits

Radirullala

Devil

Future punishment

Satirical

Grotesque

Farcical

German

Don Juan

Pantolfius

Kasperl

Final intervention of the devil

Pact with the devil

Kasperl und Don Juan

Kasperl and Don Juan

The bachelor Gripandouille courted Polichinelle's wife, Colombine, who rejected him. Two jealous neighbours, Mrs Cassandra and Mrs Cababuche, slandered Columbine. To warn her of this, Gripandouile wrote her a letter in which he made an appointment with her. But this letter fell into the hands of the neighbours. Gripandouille found out about it and, wanting to take revenge, told Cassandra that his wife had an appointment with a lover. In the meantime, Mrs Cababuche told Polichinelle that Colombine had an appointment with her lover. Polichinelle went to the appointment but, mistaking Mr and Mrs Cassandra for Colombine and her lover, he beat them up. Then, realising his mistake, he hit Mrs Cababuche because she had lied to him. The two shrews then urged their husbands to kill Polichinelle, but he persuaded the two men to go and consult a sorcerer instead to find out the truth about their wives. The sorcerer revealed the wickedness of the two women. The Gendarme and the Commissioner, called in to administer justice, hanged the two women to the great satisfaction of the husbands.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Gossip

Vilification

Malice

Jealousy

Neighbour (Woman)

Unfaithfulness

Revenge of the husbands

Trap

Bad marriage

Shakespeare

Comical

Magician

Police Superintendant

Colombine

Letter

Hanging scene

Blow-with-a-stick

Les Voisines

The neighbours

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

Scandal

Stock exchange

Bank

Embezzlement

Swindling

Bavaria

Beer

Politics

Society

Peasantry

Popular class

People

Poverty

Misery

Bankruptcy

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Waiter

Peasant

Police officer

Employé municipal

Flying machine

Inn scene

Catastrophe

Conversation

Political allegory

Slang

Argument

Dialect as a social marker

Caricature

Brawl

Adele Spitzeder

Canezou – a rich Parisian merchant – suggests that her daughter marry the son of his friend Fromaget – a young, rich, handsome and intelligent man. But the fickle girl turns down all commoner suitors. Arthur Galuchait – the son of one of Canezou’s old friends – returns to Paris after having become rich in the Indies, and he proposes to Caroline. Her father warns Arthur about his daughter’s state of mind. The young man leaves an excellent first impression on Caroline but is then thrown out on the street when she discovers that he does not have noble blood. Arthur stumbles on Oscar, another suitor rejected on the same grounds by the fair girl. They both want to teach Caroline a lesson and join up with the carpenter Billembois. Then Arthur goes to Canezou’s house dressed Indian-style to deliver a message from the king Menemetapa – the King wants his son to marry the fair Caroline, his son having fallen in love after seeing her at the Théâtre des Italiens. For this reason, the young Prince is going to grant Canezou the rank of “Grand Crustacé du royaume” (Great Crustacean of the kingdom). Canezou summons his daughter, who trembles with emotion. Oscar is disguised in the middle of a parade of servants and escorts Billembois, who is wearing a fake moustache and the costume of an oriental prince. Billembois proposes to Caroline in a speech of exotic gibberish, and she is enthralled and agrees to marry him. Billembois kisses Caroline. When Canezou and Caroline are about to sign the prenuptial agreement written by Oscar, Billembois has qualms about hurting Caroline. He reveals the fraud and removes his mask. Arthur gets angry at Billembois, who was supposed to disclose his true identity only after signing the agreement. Oscar removes his disguise too. Oscar, Arthur, Billembois and the rest of the procession leave. Cured of her dreams of greatness, Caroline admits that she is still under Billembois’s spell. Canezou is flabbergasted and keeps talking about Fromaget’s son.

Typewriting

Haughtiness

Vanity

Wedding

Orientalism

Didactic

Jean-François Billembois

Parisian urchin

Artisan

Woodworker

Canezou

Merchant (man)

Domestic servant

Young woman

Choir

Monologue

Aside

Aria

Nervous breakdown

Comic distortion of language

Procession

Music

Disguise

Disguised character (false identity)

Kissing scene

Les Prétendants de Caroline

Caroline's Suitors

Pulcinella and his wife Rosella quarrel. Pulcinella cannot provide his wife with food, despite promising, before they married, that she would never be in need. They only survive thanks to the help of a rich uncle of the wife. Their son arrives in the middle of the quarrel, and he is also starving. He goes with his mother to the rich uncle, who is very sick. At this moment, Pasquariello – Pulcinella’s sidekick – arrives and recounts how he was evicted from his house by the landlord, slept in the street with dogs and, in the morning, was taken by a dogcatcher. Now, he hopes to eat with Pulcinella, but his friend has not eaten for several days. Don Giannattasio Brasciolone, the landlord, comes to ask for the seven months of unpaid rent. Pulcinella pretends to be dead and the landlord leaves. When Pulcinella’s wife comes back crying, the two friends believe that she is lamenting the death of her husband. In fact, Rosella is crying because her rich uncle has just died. Pulcinella receives an inheritance – the head of a Mercury containing a bag full of gold coins. In the end, Pulcinella is a millionaire and pays his rent for the entire year.

Ferrajolo Francesco

Italy

Salerno

Manuscript

Hunger

Rent

Inheritance

Francesco Ferrajolo's I due ciabattini, handwritten notebook

Neapolitan

Pulcinella milionario

Pulcinella

Shoemaker

Wife

Pulcinellino

Landlord

Zapatera

Domestic scene

Fake death

Word for another

Story

Dialect

National language as a social marker

I due ciabattini

The two cobblers

In Carlo Magno’s (Charlemagne) royal palace, paladins are getting ready to fight Agramante, who has besieged Paris, and his army. In a wood, while she is waiting for her lover Ruggero, Bradamante kills a snake; then she saves a soldier who was in danger because of another snake. The solider tells him that Ruggero is going to marry Marfisa and he promises Bradamante that he will lead her to Agramante’s camp, so she can challenge Ruggero in a duel. In the enemy camp, the knights are preparing to fight Carlo Magno’s army. Marfisa tends to Ruggero, who was wounded by Mandricardo. When Bradamante arrives, Marfisa goes to fight her in Ruggero’s stead. The two warriors fight in a duel. Ruggero arrives to split them up. When he learns that the knight fighting Marfisa is his beloved Bradamante, he explains that he could not meet with her at the appointed time because he was wounded. Marfisa eavesdrops on the conversation, without being seen, and discovers that Ruggero is in love with Bradamante. Ruggero and Marfisa are about to fight when the ghost of the magician Atlante appears and reveals that they are the twin children of the Chrisitan king Ruggero di Risa. Ruggero and Marfisa reconcile, decide to be christened and to go with Bradamante to Carlo Magno’s court.

Apollon Polichinelle

Kasperl und Don Juan

Les Voisines

Adele Spitzeder

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Les Prétendants de Caroline

I due ciabattini

Battaglia tra Bradamante e Marfisa

I tre moschettieri

Battaglia tra Bradamante e Ruggero e Marfisa

Riconoscimento

Pulcinella Principe per due ore