Quarlous and Winwife visit the office of their friend John Littlewit, a legal clerk. Both men want to marry Littlewit's mother, Lady Purecraft. They argue over which of them has the better chance of winning her heart. They are joined by other characters, including Bartholomew Cokes, who has come to collect a license to marry Grace Welborn. Littlewit invites the characters to come to the Bartholomew Fair to see the puppet show he has put on. Adam Overdo, a judge and Grace Welborn’s guardian, decides to disguise himself in order to uncover all the crimes committed during the fair. The plot shifts to the popular world of the Smithfield district, and Littlewit’s group soon finds itself confronted with the debauchery of the fair: Overdo is tricked by Mooncalf, a waitress, and Edgworth, a thief. Edgworth then steals money from Bartholomew Cokes. Overdo, in disguise, is suspected of being the thief’s accomplice. Quarlous and Winwife discover that the culprit is none other than Edgworth, and Quarlous hires him to steal Cokes’s marriage license. Overdo, Wasp (a servant of Cokes who caused a brawl) and the false preacher Zeal-of-the-Land Busy are sentenced to the gallows, while Win Littlewit and Mistress Overdo are encouraged to drink to excess. Trouble-All, a madman, has a fit of madness because no arrest warrant has been issued for Overdo, Wasp and Busy. His outburst creates a diversion and the three men manage to escape from their sentence. All the characters go to John Littlewit's puppet show, which brings together the love story of Hero and Leander and the friendship of Damon and Pythias. Zeal-of-the-Land Busy constantly interrupts the show to denounce its immoral and blasphemous nature. Puppet Dionysus puts an end to the debate by pulling up its costume, reminding Busy that puppets have no sex: its status as an "object" prompts Busy to change his mind, transforming him into a model spectator.

Not specified

Jonson Ben

Great Britain

London

Printed

Theatre

Debauchery

Fair

Religion

Love

Friendship

Comical

Farcical

English

Puppeteer

Leandre

Puppet

Waiter

Pythias

Damon

Hero (priestess)

Dionysos

Dialogue between actor and puppet

Undressed character on stage

Punching

Kicking

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Bartholomew Fair

La Foire de la Saint-Barthélemy

Leandro (Leander) meets Hero while she is working in Venere’s (Venus’s) temple: it is love at first glance for the two of them, and their love story develops according to chivalric standards. The romantic dialogue finds an echo in the more prosaic duo between Lesbia and Millo, the two servants. When Hero, faithfully devoted to the goddess, refuses herself to Leandro, he grabs her coat and rips it. She begs him to spare her honour and declares her love before she decides, driven by passion, to die in the breast of her new divinity. Arbace and his suite of singing hunters cross the stage. Lucilla, the fickle lover of Tigrane, placed by the latter in the care of Leandro, tries to seduce Leandro and fails. The first act ends on a burlesque note, with Millo followed by a choir of seamen singing and smoking. Arbace, who fell in love with Lucilla, is helped by Giocasta (Jocasta): she organises a (rigged) love game, for Tigrane and his lover. The game consists in proving one’s faithfulness by blindly finding a sign of love. While her lover is blindfolded, Lucilla can enjoy Arbace’s kisses. Then she pretends to have won the game and dismisses her lover; Giocasta is amused by women’s cunning. In the meantime, Hero, dressed as a gypsy, puts Leandro’s faithfulness to the test. Seeing Millo, she predicts that he will have a blissful future if he presents her at Court: introduced as a great magician to Lucilla, she is entrusted with the writing of a lover letter intended for Leandro. Arbace understands that his new lover has betrayed him, and Tigrane is sorrowful. Lucilla dances with her suite at the very end of the act. While Leandro is desperately looking for Hero, the latter, disguised as a gypsy, gives him Lucilla’s letter. She is convinced of his good faith because he rips the letter before even reading it. Leandro decides to join his beloved at night by crossing the water; Hero plans on waiting for him on the neighbouring beach. Unfortunately, Lucilla overhears the conversation between the lovers and asks Arbace to avenge her and to kill Hero. At night, Leandro is about to drown. On her cloud, Venere summons the choir of Nereidi (Nereids) and asks them to save him and take him up in the sky. Arbace wants to hit Hero, who is anxiously waiting for her lover; he kills Lucilla while Hero transforms into Leandro’s plant (oleander). While Lucilla is dying, paying the price of her wrongdoing, the lovers reunite in Elysium, by Venere’s side.

"On foot and by rod" puppet

Marionette with counterweight

Badovero Camillo

Italy

Venice

Jealousy

Gipsy woman

Deception

Drowning

Venus (Goddess)

Ovid

Lyrical

Heroic

Tragic

Fantasy

Italian

Gli amori fatali

Lord

Favourite

Priestess

Virgin

Chaperon

Lover (woman)

Secretary

Lover (man)

Nurse

Servant

Venus

Guard

Hunter

Bridesmaid

Nereids

Love story

Thwarted love

Music

Seduction scene

Erotic scene

Love rivalry

Dancing entertainment

Interlude

Smoke

Wandering

Disguised character (false identity)

Investigation

Hunting scene

Scene in the dark

Night scene

Metamorphosis

Apparition of a god

Deus ex machina

Clouds

Ascent to heaven

Flying machine

Il Leandro

Leander

Madame du Croisy gives Madame Henriette de Frémicourt and Madame Louise de Laveneur a tour of the apartment they are moving into. Once alone, the two women get into the same bed. Their conversation, polite and respectful at first, slowly takes an errotic turn. They end up confessing their mutual affection. In the end, their dialogue turns into kisses and caresses; they undress and engage in love making.

Glove-puppet

Adults

Monnier Henry

France

Paris

Woman

Tenant

Sexual intercourse

Homosexuality

Erotic

Félicien Rops, frontispiece for Le Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1864).

French

Landlord

Young woman

Lady

Maid

Situation comedy

Scene of copulation

Les Deux Gougnottes : dialogues infâmes

The Two Lesbians: foul dialogues

Pulcinella sings songs from Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The intrigued Teresina would like to see this show, but Pulcinella deters her by saying that it is not appropriate for women. Then the two puppets disappear, and the Puppeteer comes out of his booth to announce the staging of a new show and the destruction of his old theatre. He goes back inside the booth. The guarattelle puppets sing the story of a traditional show: the Dog, a Guappo (a gangster) and Death assault Pulcinella, who drives them away so that he can finally marry his fiancée Teresina. Don Giovanni comes on and invites Pulcinella to his marriage with Teresina. Pulcinella asks the Puppeteer for help, but he refuses to get rid of Don Giovanni; instead, he encourages Pulcinella to find another fiancée. Don Giovani sings and dances with several women whom he seduces – a butterfly, a fan, a feather duster and a mouse. Then the women come back crying because Don Giovanni has abandoned them. Then Don Giovanni seduces Teresina. All the characters played by guarattelle arrive to invite Pulcinella to Teresina and Don Giovanni’s marriage. Pulcinella is overcome with sadness and asks every one of them to kill him. The Dog takes his hat off, the Guappo strikes him with a cane, Death removes his black mask and, at the end, the Puppeteer finds the lifeless puppet. But he rejoices, because he will soon serve Don Giovanni and become rich. The Puppeteer waits on the booth’s stage for the feast for Don Giovanni and Teresina’s marriage to be served. But he will only have an olive and a drop a wine. He announces the end of the show, when Pulcinella comes back. Because Don Giovanni will not repent, Pulcinella kills him by removing his head and his clothes and hitting the puppeteer’s hand. As a result, he reunites with Teresina, who tells him that Don Giovanni is impotent. They both dance a last tarentella. At the end, a giant puppet of Pulcinella comes on.

Manipulated object

Rod puppet

Giant puppet

All audiences

Leone Bruno

Naples

Seducer

Treason

Hunger

Wedding

Death

Illustration for Bruno Leone's Convitato di Pezza

Pulcinella

Thug

Rogue

Teresina

Don Juan

Aria

Nursery rhyme

Syntactic parallelism

Dialog between a puppet and its puppeteer

Blow-with-a-stick

Death on stage

Dance

Sung scenes

Swazzle

Il convitato di pezza

The feast of rags

A cuntista (storyteller) relates that Carlo Magno has thrown a party for the birth of his first child, gathering the paladins of France and foreign knights. Princess Angelica arrives accompanied by her brother Argalia and four giants. Angelica and Carlo Magno make a deal: the first knight to defeat Argalia in a spear duel will get to marry the princess, but those that will be defeated will be made prisoners. Every paladin and every foreign knight want to fight. Malagigi, the necromancer, discovers Argalia’s deception. He has a magical spear and Angelica has a ring that will make her invisible and will help her escape. Malagigi, however, does not manage to warn the paladins, for he too has succumbed to Angelica’s beauty and has thus been made prisoner. After Astolfo (the first knight to lose the spear duel against Argalia) comes the Spanish Ferraù who does not admit defeat and ends up killing Argalia. Astolfo and Angelica manage to flee. 
At the Royal Palace, Carlo Magno is desperate because an enemy army is besieging the city of Paris and most of the paladins (including Orlando) have gone looking for Angelica. Carlo Magno entrusts the command of the army to Rinaldo. In the meantime, Angelica falls in love with Medoro, a pagan soldier, and Orlando goes mad when he finds out that they love each other. Astolfo finds a hippogriff which takes him to the moon. The cuntista relates that Astolfo finds Orlando’s lost spirit on the moon. He then interrupts his story and announces that he will continue it later.

Armed rod marionette

Single rod marionettes

Rod and string marionette

Palermo

Unrequited love

Moon

Madness

Travel in the air

Magic object

Epic

Sicilian

Angelica alla corte di Re Carlo

Storyteller

Charlemagne (King)

Soldier

Angelique

Astolphe

Orlando

Renaud de Montauban

Ferragu

Paladin

Oliver

Maugis

Magician

Devil

Giant

Archbishop Turpin

King

Peasant

Hippogriff

Ganelon

Apparition of the Devil

Sword fight

Scene of madness

Fighting a monster

Flying character

Address to the public

Interrupting

Dal Catai a Parigi

From Cathay to Paris. Angelica at King Charlemagne’s court

The Conteuse (female narrator), with the help of the Voix Off (voice over), narrates the story of the Roi de Panelange (King of Panelange) who loves to change clothes. One day, two Tisserands (weavers) offer to create a fabric that only intelligent people would be able to see. In return, they ask for as many gold coins as there are ants in the kingdom. The Tisserands work in the dark in a big isolated barn, around a big loom. The Roi (King) sends his Prime Minister to check on their progress, but when he gets there, he is unable to see the fabric. He pretends otherwise to the Roi, so that he is not seen as “the First Imbecile of the Kingdom”. The Roi then sends his Cuisinier en chef (head chef), and another person to check on the Tisserands’ work. The fabric is invisible to their eyes, but they all pretend otherwise. The Roi himself goes to see the result of the Tisserands’ work, but the fabric is also invisible to his eyes. He pretends he is able to see it, so that he seems intelligent in front of his court, and he announces that he will wear the fabric for the next procession. When that day arrives, he undresses and puts on the fabric. He awards an honorary distinction to the Tisserands, and starts parading the streets of the kingdom. The fabric remains invisible to the crowd, who only sees a man in his underpants. They all pretend they can see the fabric, except for a child who admits to not seeing anything. The crowd admits the same thing, and says that they can only see their king half naked. To not lose any of his authority, the discombobulated Roi continues to parade as if nothing had happened.