The puppeteer Gaston Cony, who performed his shows in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont (Paris), actively took part in the war effort by renaming his small theatre “Guignol de la Guerre” (“Guignol of War”) starting from August 1914. He also staged a repertoire of warmongering and anti-German plays. Then, he published some of the texts in his report Artistique-revue. Les Secrets de Polichinelle (Polichinelle’s Secrets) acts as a prologue to the show La Revue des Pantins (The Jumping Jacks Review) in which the author displays the principles of literary creation.

Polichinelle introduces the character of the Auteur (Author) followed by allegories of different elements useful to him for his writings: Fantaisie (Creativity), Temps (Time), Actualité (News), and Oubli (Forgetfulness). Each allegory shares its importance in the writing process.