Punch is furious because his sister, Mopsa, has been insulted. He offers to avenge her, but Mopsa prefers to go to court to ask their father, the magistrate Gormoncho, to punish the insult. Gormoncho comes on. The stage direction states that he should be wearing regalia, but that thieves have attacked the puppeteers on their way to the city and have stolen it. In court, Wyario, the clerk, reads Gormoncho an accusation against unknown people for robbing the regalia. The magistrate promises to punish the thieves, and moves on to the next case – Mopsa’s complaint. Mopsa accuses Alanio of having sung a bawdy song under her window. Alanio bursts into the room attended with two constables: it turns out that the thief is none other than Gormoncho himself.

Rod and string marionette

Ireland

Printed

Revenge

Judgment

Thief

Morality

Burlesque

English

Magistrato

Clerk

Daughter

Constable

Sergeant

Arrest scene

Court scene

Burlesque upon Magistracy; or, Punch out of Humour

A policeman must arrest two criminals. Clown proposes to Pantaloon to accompany him fishing and boasts that they will need a large pan to cook all the fish he will catch. He thinks he caught a great prize but reels in only a cast iron pan. While Pantaloon mocks him, he insists that he did it on purpose. Pantaloon learns that Old Buffer is looking for a parrot and tries to sell him a talking parrot. When Old Buffer expresses his wish to eat it, Clown threatens to eat Old Buffer. The latter calls the police officer, who promises to help and hides to catch the scoundrels. Dude, a passerby, wants to know the time. Pantaloon advises him to not address the police officer since he is not himself. He shows him the time on a watch upon which the arrows are turning very rapidly. Harlequin and Columbine dance, and the police officer chases them since dancing is forbidden in the streets. A man hides in a letterbox, which troubles the mailman. This man is none other than Clown. The police officer notices Pantaloon and Clown, but he forgot his club at home; his family uses it to whisk the batter for birthday cakes. He decides to hide and to listen to them. All of the characters enter the scene to capture Pantaloon and Clown, who reveal themselves to be the two criminals being searched for.

Toy theatre

Young audiences

Strete

Arrest

Fishing

Eating

Investigation

Farcical

Comical

Policeman

Captain

Clown

Pantaloon

Arlecchino

Colombine

Postman

Comic distortion of language

Hidden character

Dance

The Wonderful Travellers or The Gamesome Princes and the Pursuing Policeman

Pulcinella appears on stage. He cannot find the audience, as he is facing away from them. After a short skit in which the puppeteer explains to him that the audience is on the other side, Pulcinella introduces the performance and warns the audience: “Si vulit’ capì, v’avita vutà” (If you want to understand, you have to turn around). The play starts. Pulcinella talks with his stomach, which tells him through gurglings that it is hungry. A hen comes. Pulcinella kills it, plucks it, and eats it. Then, his stomach lets him know that it is content and wants to sleep. Pulcinella is awakened by a dog that came to eat him, because he has eaten the hen of the dog’s owner. Pulcinella knocks the animal out with a stick. The owner of the dog and the hen, a peasant, comes to get Pulcinella. Pulcinella introduces himself as the owner of the trousers ripped by the dog, and demands to be reimbursed. They settle accounts by beating each other with a stick until Pulcinella kills the peasant. Pulcinella puts the corpse in a casket, and when Death comes to get it and frighten Pulcinella, Pulcinella chases Death away by beating him with the casket. After several lazzi and puns, a carabinier arrests Pulcinella. We then see Pulcinella’s trial. The judge, also playing the prosecution and the defence lawyer, accuses Pulcinella of having murdered the dog’s owner, the dog, the hen, and, above all, of having eaten the hen. For those crimes, Pulcinella is sentenced to death. A monk hears his confession, and blesses him with a macaronic Latin spell which evokes a series of dishes. Pulcinella has to be hanged, but he cannot put his head in the slipknot. He asks the hangman to show him how to do it, and hangs him in his stead.