Street puppeteers used trained animals in their shows for a long time. The most famous was Brioché's monkey Fagotin, dressed in a lackey's livery and equipped with a sword without a point. According to the Combat de Cyrano de Bergerac avec le singe de Brioché, au bout du Pont-Neuf, a text written around 1650 and published in 1704, it was killed by a sword blow from the writer Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655). In the 19th century, the French puppeteers staging the character of Polichinelle and performing in the streets and public gardens were always accompanied by a cat who fought against the executioner as he raised his gallows to hang Polichinelle. In England, a dog called Toby traditionally took part in the Punch and Judy shows.

Trained animal

Mourguet Laurent

Policarpo Jaume

Niccolini Francesco

Maeterlinck Maurice

Ginzkey Franz Karl

Nigot (Simpleton), M. Pigetout (literally, Mr Understands-Everything) and M. Machin (Mr Thing) are having lunch together and waiting for M. X…, the author who is supposed to bring the manuscript. However, when M. X… arrives, he is forbidden to enter. Later, M. Forfrais [play on words between “forfait” (flat rate) and “frais” (cost/fee)] , the treasurer, and M. Machin, director of the theatre, have a meeting during which they count the money they made from the performances. M. Machin needs a great sum of money to stage the performance with the leading actor M. Chose (Mr Stuff). Shortly after, M. Chose arrives and asks M. Forfrais for ten thousand francs; the latter tells him that the performance he was hired for has been cancelled and offers to buy his royalties. Then, M. X… visits M. Forfrais and asks for an advance on his royalties. M. Forfrais also suggests for him to drop his share of royalties and tickets for a hundred francs. The young author signs the agreement. M. Chose wishes to modify the play so that his character is constantly on stage; M. Pigetout decides to write to M. X… and asks him to rewrite the play. The play is very successful, but when M. Chose mentions the producers of the performance, he omits the author, who was not even able to see the performance.

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

France

Paris

Lemercier de Neuville, I Pupazzi. Front cover of the first edition, 1866.

Le Vrai Bonhomme

Skirted hobby horse

Since 2019, the Musée des Arts de la Marionnette (MAM) has been collaborating with the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and the team of Didier Plassard, professor and head of the PuppetPlays European research programme. 
As part of this project, the MAM - Gadagne documentation centre has made its collection of Guignol repertoires available for digitisation, analysis and distribution on the Puppetplays online platform.
The most popular Guignol plays are comedies such as Le Déménagement, Les Frères Koch and Le Pot de confiture. But other genres have also contributed to the puppet's success, including fairy tales, military plays and parodies. 
The lectures and readings on this day aim to show the huge variety of these shows, the diversity of their audiences and the contexts in which they were performed. The recent discovery of manuscripts performed by puppeteers from Lyon in Paris between 1866 and 1868 will also provide an opportunity to reflect on the language of Guignol and its evolution.
PuppetPlays is a research project funded by the European Union as part of its Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant Agreement 835193.

Ponctuation 1 - Gnafron se suicide

Bear

Christmas Eve

Classical music

Coffee

Death

Gluttony

Historical event

Homme sauvage

Mauvaise fréquentation

Meals

Monarchy

Monkey

Naturalisation

Nuclear energy

Pity

Purgatory

Royal audience

Vienna

Western (cow-boy movie)

Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio

Huma-Num

IdRef

Isidore

Jagiellonian Library

Münchner Stadtmuseum

Musée de la Vie Wallonne

Musée des Arts de la Marionnette - Gadagne

Nakala

Pôle International de la Marionnette – Jacques Félix

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Université Haute Alsace

The play takes place on a island of dreams. Mère-Grand learns that Myrrhine has distanced herself from her five sisters to dream on her own by the sea. She worries about it, as this daydreaming can only carry the young woman off towards reality. Myrrhine confirms that the “bandeau d’illusion” (the blindfold of illusion) has indeed been lifted from her eyes, and that she no longer believes in fairytales, only in love: she loves the Chevalier Tavonin (Knight Tavonin) and believes that she is loved by him too. The Knight appears on a small boat with Aurore, his new lover, and rejects Myrrhine. In her despair, she calls on the Génie des Arbres (the Genie of the Trees) and the Fée des Mousses (the Moss Fairy), but they are powerless—they cannot console her now that she has lost her illusions. Myrrhine kills herself by jumping into the sea. Mère-Grand blames her death on the Knight, but he replies saying that he is Love incarnated and that all of Myrrhine’s sisters will suffer the same fate, as their eyes will eventually be opened too.

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