After Polichinelle’s greeting to the public, the play starts with the entry of Aveugle (Blindman), who begs for money. Aveugle accidentally hits Polichinelle with his cane; the two of them quarrel and Polichinelle knocks Aveugle unconscious. La Femme de l’Aveugle (Blindman’s Wife) is furious; she attacks Polichinelle and bites his nose. He knocks her unconscious as well and throws them both out of the hand-puppet booth. Commissaire (Superintendent) arrives and wants to take Polichinelle in. He asks Chat (Cat) for help, but the cat scratches him. Commissaire makes Chat believe that the gallows are destined for someone else. Pretending not to know how to slide his head through the slipknot, Polichinelle asks Commissaire to show him how to do it and takes advantage of the opportunity to hang him. He leaves, carrying Chat under his arm.

Glove-puppet

Trained animal

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Beggary

Clumsiness

Cruelty

Cunning

Trap

Disobedience

Cheekiness

Comical

Farcical

French

écrit sous sa dictée aux Champs-Élysées

Polichinelle

Blind

Wife

Police Superintendant

Song

Address to the public

Blind character

Fight

Blow-with-a-stick

Character thrown out of the scene

Comedy of language

Fight with an animal

Hanging scene

Drame du Polichinelle français

Drama of the French Polichinelle

Florestant – a young married man – left his wife in their house and went to see Urinette – a prostitute. However, neither Urinette’s touch nor his own imagination succeed in animating the young man. After several unsuccessful attempts, Urinette – desperate and furious – leaves Florestant alone and ashamed.

Adults

Vaudeville

Slang

Prostitution

Brothel

Adultery

Eroticism

Erotic

Félicien Rops, frontispiece for the Théâtre érotique de la rue de la Santé (1864).

Young man

Prostitute

Monologue

Scene of copulation

Situation comedy

Sung scenes

Posture corporelle comique

Un caprice

A whim

The play is set in Orleans in 1867. Madame Pétenvert (a widow) and Mademoiselle Euphémie are accommodating two captains – Vachard and Chiclair – for three months. They quickly fall in love with their guests and would like to marry them. However, the two captains take advantage of the situation and spend their time talking, in a light-hearted manner, about politics, the army and, at the same, about women, billiards and their love of good food. One day, they are invited to dinner at the colonel’s house. The dinner ends with the two captains being drunk and getting the landladies’ houses mixed up. Thus, the two men being sick, captain Vachard spends the night with Mademoiselle Euphémie while captain Chiclair sleeps with Mademoiselle Pétenvert. The following day, after leaving the houses, they both accuse each other of having disrespected them, because of the state of their slippers and of the beds. However, this conversation about honour ends up being a commentary on the night they have just spent with the two women. The captains accuse the colonel of having treated them “too well” and the latter, in response, orders them to go back to their respective landladies and to marry them.

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

Nohant

Politics

Army

Soldier

Dinner

Glutton

Entertainment

Unfaithfulness

Wedding

Satirical

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : marionette de Madame Pétenvert.

La Garnison d’Orléans, Les Deux Capitaines.

Captain

Colonel

Waiter

Widow

Host

Servant

Domestic servant

Allusion to current political events

Nous dînons chez le colonel

We are dining at the colonel's

The shepherd Tityre lives in the Arcadian mountains with his beloved, a Zither player named Lycoris. One day, Lycoris strays away from their home and is captured by Lycophon, a pirate who sells her to a slaveholder Flagellantus, then to the Emperor’s barber Pelliculus and finally to the senator Mamillarus. Tityre follows the pirate ship to save his beloved. In the meantime, Mamillarus and Titus are waiting for a feast to begin. Tityre decides to buy his beloved back, but he does not have enough money. Therefore, he decides to start serving Mamillarus and his wife Mamillara. However, it is discovered that Tityre is in fact Mamillarus’ legitimate son, who was kidnapped by bandits. At the end of the play, César Titus arrives and sings his goodness and his absence of pride, in the fashion of street “hits”. He gives Lycoris her freedom back and offers to pay for the wedding.

Ancient history

Love

Piracy

Slavery

Adventure

Emperor

Relationship between father and son

Maurice Sand, hand-puppet (between 1850 and 1875).

Le Berger Tityre

Senator

Citizen

Shepherd

Lover

Barber

Pirate

Storyteller

Guard

Slave

Coryphaeus

Sheperherdess

Dinner scene

Prologue

Allusion to the audience

Quote

La Clémence de Titus

The Clemency of Titus

In Paris, every Monday, the countess of Valtreuse welcomes her guests. The servants, Javotte, Lebrancho, and Baptiste, go on strike and demand a raise. Madame de Saint-Rémy takes advantage of a door left open, and visits the countess to offer her a money match for her daughter Marguerite, as well as the services of her servant to organize a reception in honor of the future groom. The same day, Balandard, a nobleman, and Parasol, Madame de Saint-Rémy’s servant, both arrive. The countess gets them mixed up, believes that Parasol is an aristocrat, and introduces him as her future son-in-law. Balandard gets caught up in this game and does the tasks of a servant. The solicitor arrives, and wants to sign the prenuptial contract between Marguerite and Parasol ; the latter unsuccessfully tries to clarify the whole situation. Madame de Saint Rémy arrives and the truth is revealed. The evening gets out of hand with the intervention of Baptiste and of the superintendent.

Strike

Invitation

Silver wedding

Misunderstanding

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : puppet of Balandard.

Le Célibataire

Noble

Balandard

Valet de chambre

Invitados (invités)

Notary

Coachman

Member of parliament

Lord

Musician

Countess

Daughter

Police officer

Aria

Aside

Word warping

Change of social status

Le Lundi de la comtesse

The Monday of the Countess

In Trépagny-les-Mèches, Piquendaire, the innkeeper, displays his support for the candidate Manandar, and despises his rival Tringlet, whom he describes as a « radical, labourer ». At the same time, the street performer Conquenbois, dressed as Hercules, gives a street performance with his assistant Eloa. After their performance, Piquendaire gets ready to welcome Manandar in his hotel, but gets confused and welcomes Balandard instead, accompanied by Ida and Céleste. Settled in the hotel, Balandard meets Coquenbois and Eloa, and invites them to dinner. Piquendaire, convinced that he is destined for a prestigious job, is in charge of bringing a candidate to an important dinner. During the reception, Balandard is invited to give a speech, but he confesses that he is not Manandar. However, the guests do not realise their mistake. Finally, Balandard introduces the « real » candidate: Coquenbois. Tringlet recognises the street performer immediately, but Coquenbois challenges him to a duel and is victorious, thus becoming the favourite in the elections.

Elections

Artiste

Fighting

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : puppet of Coquenbois.

Le Candidat

Director of the theatre

Street performer

Innkeeper

Worker

Actor

General director

Mayor

Constable

Fireman

Actress

Lady

Maid

Counselor

Brawl

Comic speech

Theatre within the theatre

Le Candidat de Trépagny

The Candidate from Trépagny

The action is set in Châteauroux in 1875. Friturin the innkeeper is going away for a few days, leaving his wife Ursule alone with two servants, Jean and Mariette. A female traveller, Corisande, arrives at the inn but has to share a room with Madame Friturin. Another traveller, Balandard, claims a bed in a shared room that happens to be the one where Corisande sleeps. Balandard cannot sleep because of the snoring of “his neighbour”, and, not knowing that it is actually Corisande, he shakes her up. Thinking that the aggression comes from Madame Friturin, Corisande protests. After quarrelling, they switch beds. Jean, who is in charge of waking up Corisande so that she can take her diligence, gets confused and wakes up Balandard. Corisande misses her diligence and because she believes that Madame Friturin is next to her, she accuses her of not having woken her up. Eventually, the misunderstanding is revealed. Balandard agrees to drive Corisande to La Châtre after having slept. When Monsieur Friturin comes back sooner than expected, he finds a man in his wife’s bed. While this happens, a fire sets off in the inn.

Couple

Journey

Night

Conflagration

Ironic

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : Corisande puppet

Les Oignons de Jeu-Maloche, Une nuit à la Tête de veau

Valet

Traveller

Une nuit à Châteauroux

A Night in Châteauroux

Guignol’s aunt has recently died. She has left him “L’Auberge des Adrets”, a dilapidated inn set remotely in the mountains. Guignol’s cousin, Martin, is staying there and waiting for Guignol to arrive, but he is uneasy: it is rumoured that the building is haunted, and a hiding place for outlaws on the run. Guignol arrives on Christmas Eve and Martin returns to the village. While Guignol inspects the place, Gnafron and Cadet walk into the inn – unbeknown to Guignol. The two friends have come to rehearse a horror scene for a film on a thieving gang that used to steal from isolated houses and kill their residents. Guignol tries to sleep on an old mattress, but he is repeatedly bothered – by a mouse, a spider, a cat, then two snakes, all living in the shack. Gnafron and Cadet rehearse the scene in which they kill the innkeeper. Guignol hears them and believes that they want to murder him. In the dark, he then pretends to be a ghost, to scare them away. Gnafron and Cadet are scared at first, but they finally recognise their friend Guignol. The three of them make a toast and wish one another a merry Christmas.

Lyon

Inheritance

Christmas Eve

Phantom

Fear

Snake

Robber

Fake ghost

Talking cinema

Haunted house

Christmas

Fantastic

ou l'Auberge des fantômes

Guignol

Gnafron

Cadet

Rehearsal (play within a play)

Dramatic irony

Disguise

Final song

Le Noël de Guignol

Guignol’s Christmas or The Inn of the ghosts

Mr. Fish pays a visit to Mrs. Bones and starts a conversation with her. Mrs. Bones uses different excuses to get angry and threaten to kill Mr. Fish. She then asks him to get divorced from his wife, while offering to get a divorce from her husband for them to marry. Mr. Fish, frightened, begs Teddy, his puppeteer, to save him from this situation. The latter pulls at the puppet’s strings to take him back to the fly loft. Then a hand comes down (the puppeteer’s) and threatens Mrs. Bones, while her strings are cut one by one. Cockatrice, Mrs. Bones’ “old friend,” wants to seduce her and take her with him, but Mrs. Bones can no longer move. Cockatrice thus sends for a girl in the audience to take the puppet, which is now merely a doll. The play ends with the appearance of the face of the Governor (the puppeteer) and with a grand finale for Mrs. Bones, who ascends to heaven, to the surprise amazement of a myriad of glove puppets watching her.