The shepherdess Philis is loved by Silvandre, whom she loves in return, but she is also courted by Microton. Dorine promises Philis that she will ask the magician Orcan to calm Microton's ardour. Surprising Philis and Silvandre's love dialogue, Microton calls on Orcan to take revenge on Silvandre and force Philis to love him. Orcan performs various magic tricks. He has prepared the potion, but Microton refuses to go and thank the demons. Orcan tries to seduce Elise, who rejects him. Philis reveals to Silvandre that Microton has played the role of a guardian for her. The god of love appears and promises to help Silvandre. Elise convinces Orcan to support Silvandre and Philis' love and to cure Microton of his madness. Orcan forces Microton to go and see the Demons; il conjures up Goblins, Serpents, a Dragon, Demons that frighten Microton and make him give up Philis. Microton announces that he will devote himself only to his flock. Orcan laughs at him. Microton gets angry, but he realises that he has been magically cured of his love for Philis and joins the wedding banquet. Microton wants to eat some of the dishes, but they turn into snakes and toads. The appearance of demons makes Microton run away. Shepherds and shepherdesses sing and dance.

Marionette with counterweight

Not specified

La Grille (Dominique de Normandin, aka Sieur de La Grille)

France

Paris

Printed summary

Rivalry in love

Magic

Fantasy animal

Animated object

Unwelcome seducer

French

ou les charmes d'Orcan

Hunter

Sheperherdess

Demon

Statue

Gardener

Magician

Love

Bohemian woman

Goblin

Snake

Dragon

Caterer

Shepherd

Appearance

Metamorphosis

Les Amours de Microton

Microton's Loves

Kasperl is the knight Kuno’s squire. While hunting in the woods, he meets a hermit who offers him food and drink. As he is in a good mood, Kasperl slaps him in the face. The situation degenerates and he ends up skewering the hermit on his halberd. Kuno arrives, unaware of this. The magician Murischuripixtimixtistopheles sets out to capture them both and cook them in his wizard's kitchen. He transforms into a monster and wants to eat Kasperl: Kasperl feeds him the hermit's corpse, but this is not enough to satisfy him. Kasperl then hits him with his halberd until he collapses, dead. The knight Kuno finally arrives, but the magician suddenly reappears: the monster was only an illusion. Kuno runs away. Kasperl does not have time to follow him. The magician takes him into his service and gives him a cauldron to watch over, threatening to cook him in the cauldron if he does his job badly. But instead, Kasperl pushes him into the cauldron, which explodes: Kasperl flies to the moon and returns to Earth after visiting all the taverns there...

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Middle Ages

Knighthood

Troubadour

Squire

Wood

Forest

Gluttony

Sorcery

Wizard

Moon

Heroism

Assassination

Tavern

Farcical

Parodistic

German

Ein Ritterstück aus dem finstern Mittelalter

Hermit

Kasperl

Knight

Der Zauberer Murischuripixtimixtistopheles

Devil

Sung scenes

Address to the public

Monologue

Versified passages

Metatheatre

Word for another

Parody of formal language

Blow-with-a-stick

Murder on stage

Devil's apparition

Pyrotechnics

Magic act

Stichomythia

Macaronism

Kasperls Heldentaten

The heroic deeds of Kasperl

Martin, a woodcutter, frees a fairy from an oak tree she has been trapped in for 500 years. The fairy gives him a ring that allows him to fulfil three wishes. Martin confides the secret to his wife Margreth, who tells Casperl, their neighbour. While Martin goes to ask the mayor and the priest for advice, Margreth, in conversation with Casperl, takes it upon herself to wish for a plate of sausages, even though she has the ring on her finger: her wish is immediately fulfilled. Seeing this, Martin retrieves the ring and, in his anger, vows that his wife will have sausages hanging from her nose. The wish comes true and the two men are no longer able to amputate Margreth's sausage appendages: all they can do is wish them away, and the gift of the three wishes is wasted.

Poverty

Spell

Dwarf

Ring

Secret

Beer

Hypocrisy

Sausage

Lust

Marvelous

Burlesque

Humorous

Grotesque

Fée

Bûcheron

Song

Off-stage voices

Die drei Wünsche

The three wishes

Incarcerated for his debts, Casperl is freed from prison by a small child, Capricerl, who is the guide of Fortuna, the blind goddess. While being pursued, Casperl finds refuge with Klaus, a hermit who reveals himself to be the Devil. However, Fortuna bet against Bios, the genie of life, that her gifts could make someone happy: Casperl will be her guinea pig. She repels the Devil and makes Casperl win the lottery. But the newly rich man is tyrannical and angry to the point of becoming sick. He goes so far as to miss the simple and modest life he once had, and curses his fortune. The goddess understands her defeat and brings him back to his normal self. Casperl goes to the inn.

Despair

Thirst

Destiny

Debt

Slap

Happiness

Blindness

Widower

Hot air balloon

Jail

Philosophy

Grief

Breaking out

Latin Mythology

Bingo

Kasperl im Schuldturm

Génie

Goddess of Fortune

Innkeeper

Vieillard

Police officer

Verschiedene Erscheinungen und Verwandlungen

Apparition

Allegory

Flying machine

Pact with the devil

Thunderbolt

Chorus

Story

Transforming scenery

Das Glück ist blind

Luck is blind

While fishing in a lake despite the prohibition, Casperl catches a crawfish, which tells him its story: it is actually called Zimbimbimperl and was transformed into a crawfish by her father, the magician Crocodilus, after a violent argument with her mother, the Egyptian fairy Persea. Persea travels the world to find her daughter, when she meets Casperl who informs her of Zimbimbimperl's fate. The gods of Egypt return her daughter to her, but demand that she sacrifices Casperl to them in return. In the meantime, Crocodilus has been captured and sold in a menagerie. But he manages to escape and takes refuge in the lake, surprising the reunion of mother and daughter. He wants to devour them, but Casperl intervenes and knocks him out. Crocodilus is calmed by the blow to the head. He has barely reconciled with his family when the owner of the Löwenmajer menagerie comes to claim him for his circus. Casperl kills him and declares the sacrifice to the gods complete. The play ends with a grand finale and an apotheosis of 'Casperl the Wise'.

Rail transport

Inflation

Fishing

Waste

Chamber pot

Crayfish

Egypt

Mother

Lost child

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Menagerie

Crocodile

Forgiveness

Freemasonry

Oriental wisdom

Satirical

Oder der Verzauberte Krebs

Madame Kasperl

Miller

Tamer

Fish

Talking animal

Brawl

Instrumental tune

Board

Crocodilus und Persea

Crocodilus and Persea

The Viennese public attends a puppet show in the Prater. The play in question features a hero who is unwillingly involved in a foursome with his lover Liesl and the Duke and Duchess of Lawin. The duel between him and the Duke is cancelled, but he loses the interest of the Duchess and the love of Liesl in the process. Death comes. The audience, which has not stopped commenting on the play, intervenes more and more loudly and the performance turns into a scandal. It is no longer clear who is a spectator, who is a puppet, until a man in a blue coat enters the stage... and cuts the strings of the puppets with a sword, thus discriminating between animate and inanimate.

Glove-puppet

Schnitzler Arthur

Austria

Vienna

Berlin

Representation

Unfaithfulness

Duel

Self-consciousness of puppets

Local color

Argument

Wrangle

Hanswurst

Uproar

Entertainment

Marionetten

Burleske in einem Akt

Director

Poet

Bourgeois

Fille

Comte

Soldier

Waiter

Child

Duke

Le père

Husband

Raisonneur

Wrestler

Dead woman

Valet

Death

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Pantomime

Prologue

Character thrown out of the scene

Zum großen Wurstel

To the big sausage

On a beach by the Tyrrhenian Sea, a woman invokes the devil Serpentone. She wants to ask him to make her invincible and immortal so she can return to her village and take revenge on her compatriots who drove her out, calling her an old witch. The devil arrives, preceded by his deep, dark voice. He is ready to grant her immortality in exchange for something big, something you can see and touch. As the woman has nothing to hand, Serpentone gives her until midnight to find an offering before disappearing into the flames. The woman then prepares a potion in a big pot. Pulcinella, famished, passes by and plunges his head into the pot to eat the soup, but when he stands up again, he discovers he has a big donkey's head. Having effected the transformation, the woman gives the donkey to the devil who takes it to hell where he intends to kill it and make a drum out of its skin. But in trying to kill the animal, the devil frees Pulcinella from the spell. Pulcinella fights with the devil, kills him and escapes from hell to settle scores with the woman who turned him into a donkey. She is about to drink the wine the devil gave her to make her invincible. Realizing Pulcinella wants to kill her, she puts the blame on the audience: she turned Pulcinella into a donkey because the audience asked her to. The "cynical and ruthless" audience responds, saying the accusations are false and the woman is wicked. The audience, thus involved in the performance, finds itself acting out the scene recounted by the woman at the beginning of the show, where her compatriots insult her and drive her out. Pulcinella beats the witch to death with a broom, to much applause from the audience. The moral is that people who are different will always be hunted down without mercy.

Marotte

All audiences

Pulcinella e l'asino del diavolo

Pulcinella et l'âne du diable