Polichinelle explains to the audience that, in the fashion of larger theatres, he will harangue them. He justifies the fact that he is presenting a new parody of Atys, which was already performed by Italian comedians, and advocates for the rights of the puppets, “let’s polish the most mischievous” of the Fair.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

Fuzelier Louis

France

Paris

Printed

Public

Comédie Française

Comédie-Italienne

United States of America

Comical

Parodistic

Extract from a reconstitution by Alban Thierry, from company Zouak, and his students of Harangue de Polichinelle, during PuppetPlays' Laboratory of experimental dramaturgy concerning the repertory for puppets of the theatres of the Foire Saint-German in the 18th century.

French

Polichinelle

Monologue

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Address to the public

Oration

Harangue de Polichinelle

Polichinelle's harangue

Polichinelle discovers that the theaters have been demolished. He has ordered a carpenter to make him new puppets but has no play to perform. The author Flonflon asks to be paid in advance, and Polichinelle beats him. Then four spectators come to see Polichinelle. The Compère (stooge) advises him to present a very short play. Polichinelle announces that he has two plot ideas: the relocation of the Comédie-Italienne and the wedding of the fairy Carabosse with Polichinelle. The play ends with a dance and a farce.

Carolet Denis

Life of the theatres

Playwright

Spectator

Relocation

Fair

Satirical

The Interpreter

Author

Nurse

Mitron

Maid

Dance

Final song

Blow-with-a-stick

Bawdy equivocation

L'Impromptu de Polichinelle

The Impromptu of Polichinelle

At the market, Esopo (Aesop) is sold to a new master: the philosopher Xanto. Xanto’s daughter, Filena, is in love with one of her father’s followers, Periandro: Esopo is bought as a matchmaker. Xanto confides in him: he is in love with his wife’s lady-in-waiting, Geringonça. The latter becomes infatuated with Esopo, who rejects her. During a symposium, Xanto bets that he can empty the sea: Esopo helps him untangle himself from this bet, in exchange for freedom. Esopo, drunk, tells Geringonça that his master loves her; his wife Eurípedes hears this too: upset, she leaves the house. Disguised as another woman, Filena is courted by Periandro: she accuses him of being unfaithful and leaves him. Esopo has been sent to prison. He is freed by Xanto, who thus settles his promise; he now promises to free Esopo on condition that he bring Eurípedes back. While Temístocles (Themistocles) and Cresso are waging war against Athens, one of Jupiter’s eagles lands on Esopo, who becomes commander of the armies. Esopo manages to make Eurípedes so jealous that she decides to go back to her husband. As Cresso’s army is standing outside Athens, Esopo begins to tell a fable about love, punctuated with macaronic Latin. The two couples (Xanto and Eurípedes, Periandro and Filena) reconcile. Esopo, who is in love with Filena, recites a sonnet to her, and makes her write an ambiguous letter intended for him. Called to duty, Esopo triumphs over Temístocles, through betrayal and plays on words. During a night scene, Eurípedes goes to the court where Xanto is meeting Geringonça. Xanto meets his daughter there, waiting for her lover. Eurípedes pretends to be Geringonça, to expose her husband’s infidelity. Esopo is fooled, and Geringonça shouts that she has been robbed. After the defeat of the town has been announced, Esopo dresses as a woman and draws Temístocles’ attention: he has fallen in love with the beautiful young woman. Esopo is imprisoned and Cresso tasks him with building a tower in the air. After another turnaround, the King pardons him and he goes back to Athens, where his fellow citizens make peace with him as he narrates a fable to them.

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

Portugal

Lisbon

Slave

Philosophy

Love

Unfaithfulness

Enfranchisement

Burlesque

Philosophical tale

Esopaida, title page and summary of the play (1759)

Portuguese

ou Vida de Esopo

Croesus

King

Xeno

Philosopher

Slave master

Lover (man)

Disciple

Themistocles

General

Daughter

Wife

Aesop

Soldier

Choir

Music

Philosophical dialogue

Love story

Thwarted love

Dinner scene

Statue coming to life

Change of social status

Allusion to theatrical events of the time

Macaronic Latin

Fight

Oracle

Battlefield scene

Cross-dressing

Esopaida

Aesop’s Life

The Compère (Stooge) is looking forward to the next Polichinelle performance. But one of the actresses, Mademoiselle Godon, is not happy with her role and complains to the author Farinet. A quarrel begins between her sister Manon and their mother. Infuriated, Farinet leaves with his play, which he lends to another theatre. Polichinelle must therefore improvise an impromptu: in it, he plays the lover who abducts his mistress Lolotte, with her consent, to force her father Géronte to let them marry.

Theaters of the Parisian fairs

Argument

Seduction

Kidnapping

Manuscript of La Pièce manquée et de L'Impromptu de Polichinelle (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Ms. fr. 9318).

Poet

Pierrot

Metatheatre

Aria

Prologue

La Pièce manquée et L'Impromptu de Polichinelle

The missed Play and Polichinelle's Impromptu

Polichinelle and Pierrot, the survivors of a shipwreck which separated them from their troupe of comedians (made up in fact of other puppets), land on the Île des Fées (Isle of the Fairies). They are welcomed by a benevolent Fée (Fairy) who promises to help them: a Géant (Giant) will take them to Paris, where they are expected in their theatre. While Polichinelle runs to store wine in a cool place, Pierrot meets the Géant; he confirms that he is going to help them. The Fée makes a sumptuous feast appear for Pierrot, who is starving; she also introduces him to a young girl who wants to marry him. The Géant comes back to take Polichinelle, Pierrot and his new wife, and the whole troupe of puppets to Paris.

Manuscript

Fairy play

Giant

Journey

Shipwreck

Hunger

Wedding

Rivalry of theatres

Fantasy

ou Le Géant aux marionnettes

Fairy

Mother Gigogne

Young woman

Pantaloon

Sung scenes

Versified passages

Apparition

L'Ile des fées

The Isle of the fairies

At the Foire Saint-Laurent, Polichinelle is conversing with a Poète (Poet), Monsieur de la Rimaille (Mister of the Doggerel), about how low the pay for writers is. A Chanteuse (Female singer) offers to join Polichinelle’s troupe, but she changes her mind when she learns that singers are hidden behind a piece of cloth in puppet theatres. A Marchand (Merchant) is looking for his wife, who is being unfaithful to him with a shop boy; a Petite Fille (Young Girl) is looking for her mother, who left her for a young man; this young girl herself goes to see a “petit jeune homme” (a little young man) whom she is acquainted with. Gros Thomas (Fat Thomas), a famous barker and tooth puller, arrives.

Printed summary

Money

Precocity

Barker

Les Aventures de la Foire Saint-Laurent, manuscript of the play.

Singer (female)

Merchant (man)

Young girl

Gros Thomas

Play with drawers

Les Aventures de la Foire Saint-Laurent

Adventures in the Foire Saint-Laurent

The maître d’hôtel Rapinet (Polichenelle) offers to take Madame Flanchet and her daughter Margot, whom he wants to marry, to the fair. But Rudepogne reminds them that Margot is promised to his nephew Jacquot. He sends Jacquot, who threatens Rapinet and quarrels with Margot. Since it is already too late to go to the fair, Rapinet asks two Savoyards to perform curiosité shows for them. At the end of the play, the characters dance with “small Savoyard women”.

Curiosity

Lantern

Fairground Theatre

Rivalry in love

L'Assemblée des poissardes, Soleinne collection, BnF

Polichinelle maître d'hôtel

Merchant (woman)

Savoyard

Savoyard (woman)

Ballet

Comedy of language

L'Assemblée des poissardes

The Meeting of the fishwives

Monsieur Sapin (Mister Fir Tree) and Monsieur Fagot (Mister Bundle of Sticks) pretend to be philosophers. They convince Polichinelle to do so too. After quarrelling with her husband Polichinelle, Dame Gigogne also decides to become a philosopher. Outside his shop, Polichinelle puts a sign claiming that he is a philosopher. Arlequin and Gille, who want to take revenge on philosophers, assault Polichinelle, but he defeats them. Monsieur Sapin and Polichinelle see Dame Gigogne walk on all fours before giving birth to many children. All the characters sing a vaudeville together and the children dance at the very end of the play.

Cadet de Beaupré (Louis Poinsinet de Sivry, aka Cadet de Beaupré)

Passy

Swazzle

Revenge

Deception

Pedant

Woman

Comédie en un acte

Gille

Arlecchino

Multiplied characters

Childbirth on stage

Comical entrance

Domestic scene

Les Philosophes de bois

The Wooden philosophers

Figaro argues with Suzanne, his wife, because he wants to open a puppet theater. He brings his ill daughter, Friquette, to Paris. She recovers thanks to Doctor Fluidas, a neighbor who accompanies her every day to magnetism sessions. She agrees to help her father in his new undertaking, while Suzanne refuses to be convinced. Friquette confesses to her father that she is in love with a young man. She is enamored with L’Enfumé (The Tricked One), a student physicist, whom she has not seen for four days. Upon L’Enfumé’s arrival in the city, Friquette blames him for his absence, but he explains that it is due to his preparation to fly in a balloon that has her name written on it in golden letters. Fluidas announces that doctors have forbidden his magnetism sessions because he is an impostor. After an accident with the balloon he was supposed to fly in, L’Enfumé is robbed of the money left from the subscription that he started for its construction. Figaro convinces everybody to join him in his puppet theater project.

Theatre

Magnetism

False doctor

Imposture

Gas balloon

Gascon

Flight

Scientific experimentation

E. D., Figaro, directeur de marionnettes, 1785.

Figaro

Physicist

Physician

Comical regional accent

Revelation

Figaro, directeur de marionnettes

Figaro, puppet director

Faust leads a destitute life as a scholar, until he lay hands on a book of black magic. He then sells his soul to the devil Mefistofeles, in exchange for services. Demons also appear to Kasper, whom Faust’s famulus – Wagner – has recently hired. But Kasper adamantly refuses to sell himself to the devil. Mefistofeles takes Faust and Kasper to Parma to lead a loose life. After living in luxury for twelve years, Faust is abandoned by Wagner, who disapproves of his way of life. Faust repents, but eventually gives in to carnal temptation when Mefistofeles presents him the fair Helen, whom he knew in Ancient Greece. Everyone rejects Faust. Kasper, now a night watchman, finds him out in the street within curfew hours and wants to throw him behind bars. But Faust’s final hour has come, and he is taken away by demons.