The first act is set in a church, where a group of Dévotes (pious persons) and a group of Sans-culottes (revolutionaries during the French Revolution) confront each other. The revolutionaries want to punish Parisian priests for their abuses and their crimes. As for the Dévotes and the priests, they are impatiently expecting a Catholic army to storm through Paris and put an end to the Revolution. The abbot Blondinet is disguised as a bourgeois and tries to rape Rose, a young girl who manages to escape him. The Sans-culottes want to get rid of the priests. A Magistrat (Magistrate) arrives and seizes the church’s furniture, but Blondinet tells the Dévotes that he managed to hide some of it. The second act is set just outside the church, on a public square. Blondinet set up a “Temporary Chapel” inside the shop of a Savetier (cobbler), next to that of a Fruitère (fruit merchant). A Chansonnier (Singer) and his wife arrive on the square and the people come closer to listen to their songs. A puppeteer, Brioché, joins them with his wife and performs his play of a “new genre” – La Calotte au tombeau. Together, the puppeteer and the Chansonnier condemn the Church’s abuses with the help of puppets and songs. The Sans-culottes exit the church with a stretcher as they perform a symbolic burial of objects of worship. A child from the choir, Cascaret, denounces Blondinet as a thief. The Sans-culottes take him alongside the Dévotes so they can be judged by the Committee of Public Safety. The third act is set in a cave in which three see-through paintings are displayed – La Saint Barthélémy, Le Massacre des Cévennes and Les Vêpres Siciliennes. Standing on a pile of bones, Superstition, Célibat (Celibacy) and Fanatisme (Fanaticism) are chained to posts. The action assumes an allegorical form with these three monstrous figures and several other symbols of crimes caused by religious intolerance. Several references are made to Christoph Willibald’s opera – Orpheus and Eurydice. The Ombre (Shadow) of the revolutionary Marat (murdered in July 1793) is called by the Génie de la France (France’s Genie) who arrives on a cloud. The Ombre rises out of the earth with a bloody shroud around it. The three monsters disappear in a volcano. Instead, a magnificent and luminous temple appears – the Temple of Truth. Liberté (Liberty), Vérité (Truth) and Égalité (Equality) are placed on an altar. The Troup of Sans-culottes also appears and dances with a Magistrate of the people. The Peuple (the People), Orphelins de la Patrie (Orphans of the homeland), the Députés (Deputies) of the National Convention and the Artisans (Craftsmen) march victoriously. The Convention’s President reads out a speech commending the revolutionaries. An Évêque (Bishop) admits his faults and after making a speech praising Raison (Reason), he burns his priestly vestments. The Orphelins and Orphelines who were harmed by fanaticism sing with defenders of the homeland and do gymnastic exercises. The Citoyens (Citizens) of the first requisition showcase military exercises which draw parallels between scenes from Antiquity and from the Revolution. The play ends on an ode to Vérité (Truth), a mention of the victory over the Austrians and the emigrants, and finally a collective ballet.

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

French Revolution

Sans-culotte

Comic opera

Religion

People

Priest

State

Wealth

Abuse

Justice

Truth

Satirical

Dramatic

Comical

Fantastic

Le Tombeau des imposteurs et l'Inauguration du Temple de la Vérité, 1793 (title page).

French

President

Magistrato

Choirboy

Peasant

Zapatera

Bishop

Charlatan

Jean-Paul Marat

Ghost

Countess

Mother

Daughter

Governess

Troupe de Satellites du fanatisme travestis en Furies

Puppeteer

Puppet

Musical pause

Chorus

Monologue

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Changement de langue

Dialect as a social marker

Allegory

Speechless character

Dance

Public announcement

Avista

Music

Aria

Versified passages

Popular speech

Ballet

Le Tombeau des imposteurs et l'Inauguration du Temple de la Vérité

The impostors' Tomb and the Inauguration of the Temple of Truth

Guignol – Vincent’s servant – has lost his wife Madelon, who ate a melon and died of food poisoning. Vincent plans on having him marry Louison – Gnafron’s daughter – so that his two servants are bound to one another. But Guignol deeply misses his wife, with whom he was always quarreling. He leaves his master’s house with the intention of going down to the Underworld to get her back. However, Gnafron finds Guignol sitting in a wine shop. After an enjoyable meal, they go back to their master. As the marriage settlement is being drafted, Louison is delighted to have finally found a husband. She pushes Guignol in front of her with a hairpin and promises him that she will be as mean as his first wife. But Guignol manages to escape before the contract is signed: Gnafron and Louison chase after him, while Vincent decides to sit at a table to eat with his neighbour Durand.
Guignol is exhausted while looking for Madelon. He falls asleep and sees the Génie of goodness, who presents him in his dream with an image of his wife accompanied by an imp. When he wakes up, Guignol summons the Génie, who warns him about the dangers that await. He also describes the five rivers of the Underworld. But Guignol is a proud man from Lyon: he knows how to swim, and he is not scared! Before Charon lets him on his rowboat for free (Guignol promises that with such prices he will be a most loyal client), he warns the hero that Madelon is Proserpine (Proserpina)’s companion, and Proserpine might not give her back to him. Guignol insists and repeats that he is not afraid of Cerbère (Cerberus). In fact, he means to coax its seven heads with bread and cheese. When he meets Pluton (Pluto), Guignol asks for his wife to be given back to him. The king of the Underworld remembers that the man appealing to him is protected by the Génie of goodness and thus summons his wife. Proserpine refuses to let Madelon go—she clings on to her as to her meanest companion. Then she yields, on condition that the wife consents to it. Madelon arrives, hits her husband and hurls insults at him. But Guignol provides good arguments: he has just come into an inheritance of sugar, coffee, eau de vie and absinthe… After thinking it over for a few minutes, Madelon agrees to follow him, on the flying dragon that Pluton lends Guignol to take them back up to the surface. Before they leave, the king of the Underworld promises to organise a feast for them. They are delighted about the idea, but the flames of the Underworld force them to flee before they can taste anything.

Glove-puppet

Vuillerme-Dunand Victor-Napoléon

Manuscript

Wedding

Descent into hell

Resurrection

Glutton

Boat trip

Burlesque

Mock-heroic

Farcical

La Descente de Guignol aux Enfers (cover page)

Notary

Rentier

Guignol

Domestic servant

Gnafron

Concierge

Young woman

Genie

Pluto

Proserpina

Devil

Charon

Dinner scene

Dream

Apparition of a genie

Domestic scene

Flying machine

La Descente de Guignol aux Enfers

Guignol's Trip to the Underworld

In Jeu-Maloches, a village in the French department of Indre, flageolet player Arthur Graboyos became a waiter at the inn Hôtel du Veau Qui Désire Téter (Hotel of the Calf That Wants To Suckle) in order to grow closer to Dorothée – the daughter of the innkeeper Friturin. Arthur and Dorothée both want to marry each other, but Friturin refuses to let an artist marry his daughter. Arthur is expecting a donation from an uncle in America. Bidet – the postman – brings a letter of marriage proposal to Friturin. Bidet himself would also like to marry Dorothée; however, she rejects him. The shipowner Chandelle, who sent Friturin the letter to offer his nephew to Dorothée, arrives at the hotel with an enormous trunk filled with pepper. Friturin dismisses Arthur after they quarrel. The latter comes back disguised as a cook and hides in Chandelle’s trunk to abduct Dorothée during the night. But the trunk snaps shut on him with a padlock. Several misunderstandings and quarrels happen one after another – Dorothée believes that Chandelle is Arthur in disguise, Friturin mistakes Chandelle for Arthur and Chandelle does not understand that Arthur is his nephew because he assumed the name Graboyos for his career as a musician. Arthur comes out of the trunk and makes himself recognised. All the misunderstandings are clarified and Chandelle gifts Arthur forty thousand French francs so that he can marry Dorothée.