Polichinelle retiré du monde (Polichinelle withdrawn from the world) is one of the 24 plays written by Louis Edmond Duranty for the puppet theatre he was permitted to set up in the Tuileries Garden (Paris) in 1861. He kept performing there until 1870 – the year his puppets were seized by creditors.

Denial of the world and confinement in a barrel are themes inspired by the life of Greek philosopher Diogenes (5th century before B.C.). Émilie Valantin’s company staged this play as part of a trilogy dedicated to Polichinelle (La Bosse du théâtre - Trois farces d'autrefois, Le Teil, 2012). The two other plays were Lesage and Fuzelier’s Polichinelle Roy des fées and Émilie Valantin’s Bosses en trop.

Polichinelle has cloistered himself in a barrel to escape the world’s malice. Despite the pleas of Pierrot, Cassandre and a pork butcher, he is determined to stay cloistered (although he took the wine, the money and the ham they brought to try and lure him out). Everyone misses the old Polichinelle and his love for life, but Pierrot comes up with an idea. He makes sure that Polichinelle watches a puppet show in which a harmless Polichinelle has withdrawn from the world. The real Polichinelle is outraged – he knocks the booth over and drives the puppeteer out. Meanwhile, Pierrot takes the barrel away. Polichinelle sorely misses his barrel, which he claims was a trick to better swindle people. The policeman arrives to arrest Polichinelle, for “disturbance to civilisation”, but the latter escapes. Pierrot, who fled when he saw the policeman, comes back with his arms full of the wine, ham and money he found in the barrel.