In this play, Duranty shows the typical characters and well-known outlines of fairy tales. Indeed, it features a princess captured by a villain and freed by a young hero from a modest upbringing helped by a magical creature. However, the multiplication of jokes (a character falling head first in a cauldron and ending up stuck, a character covered in flour, bumping heads, blows of stick, etc.) make for a farcical play.

The “Roi Noir” (Black King) who takes part in the play was probably the puppet of a black character also used in Cassandre et ses domestiques (Cassandre and his servants).

A Ramoneur (Chimney sweep) falls in the cauldron of the Cuisinière du Roi Noir (The Black King’s Cook), an imposter who murdered his brother the Roi d’Azur (Azure King) and locked up his niece the Princesse d’Azur (Azure Princess) in a cage. Doomed to be cooked in the oven, the Ramoneur is freed by the Corbeau du Roi (King’s Crow) who tells him that the key to the cage where the Princesse is locked up is hidden at the back of the oven. When the Roi Noir discovers that the Ramoneur is still alive, he throws him in the well. The Corbeau asks the Ramoneur to retrieve the Roi d’Azur’s sword at the bottom of the well and to kill the Roi Noir in order to free the Princesse: the Roi Noir threatens the Princesse to kill her if she does not marry him. The Corbeau warns the Roi Noir of the Ramoneur’s intentions, and says that he is invincible; the Roi tells the Corbeau where the royal treasure is hidden to bribe the Ramoneur. The Ramoneur refuses the money, cuts the Roi Noir’s head and frees the Princesse, who wants to marry him in return. The Corbeau lives a happy life with them.