These two short plays followed one another: La Pièce manquée (The missed Play) served as a prologue to L’Impromptu de Polichinelle (Polichinelle’s Impromptu). According to Françoise Rubellin, who published the plays (Marionnettes du XVIIIe siècle, Anthologie de textes rares (Puppets of the 18th century, Anthology of rare texts), Montpellier: Espaces 34, 2022), these would be the author’s first theatrical works; he was twenty years old at the time.

In La Pièce manquée, the roles of Madame Bienfait, Manon and Godon may have been played by the artists themselves—Nicolas Bienfait’s wife and daughters. Madame Bienfait, born Anne Bertrand, was the daughter of Alexandre Bertrand, a puppeteer and businessman whose work at the Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent fairs was continued by Nicolas Bienfait, his son-in-law. The poet Farinet in the play was most likely inspired by Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792), a writer and the son of a famous pastry chef; he had his play Polichinelle comte de Paonfier played in Bienfait’s booth.

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.