Two anonymous manuscripts of the play are kept in M. de Soleinne’s Bibliothèque dramatique (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Manuscripts Department, FF 9312 and FF 9251). The manuscript of the collection FF 9251 introduces it as the last of four handwritten plays transcribed in a “Répertoire des petites pieces de Polichinelle” (Repertory of short Polichinelle plays) – the other three plays being L’Enlèvement de Proserpine par Pluton roi des Enfers, Polichinelle colin-maillard and Polichinelle Grand-Turc. It is sometimes dated 1695, but this date hardly seems possible. The Parfait Brothers transcribed the entire play in the third volume (1756) of their Dictionnaire des Théâtres de Paris and presented it as a puppet play that had been staged by Gillot in 1708. The play has sometimes also been credited to Jean-François Regnard, probably by mistake. The four aforementioned plays were edited by Françoise Rubellin, who observes that the Polichinelle in these plays is largely different from the Polichinelle staged in the “théâtres de la Foire”, who was probably more well-known.

Gaston Baty made a handwritten copy of the play which is kept in the Institut International de la Marionnette (don Temporal).

The Compère character was played by an actor facing the stage and serving as a mediator between the performers and the audience.

Janbroche – a cloth merchant – forbids his daughter from selling anything while she keeps the shop in his absence. To all questions, she will have to answer “really, Mister, nay”. Polichinelle, sent by his master the Marquis to place an order for a suit, takes advantage of this repeated response to take her to bed with him. When he comes back, the merchant Jambroche finds her with Polichinelle and forces her to leave the house without her breeches (“culotte” – an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down to the knees). The Marquis demands that Polichinelle marry the young woman.