Marionettes, masks and shadows

CHAPTER I
The Marionette—Its Family Tree

This is the family tree of the marionette. Its roots are deep in the life of ancient Egypt, India, Persia, China, Japan, and Java. Its great trunk springs from the soil of Greece and Rome. Its branches spread over Europe and reach to America.

Long ago, in Egypt, there were little carved figures of wood and ivory with limbs that could be made to move by the pulling of strings. We do not know for what use these little figures were intended. They may have been the very first dolls in the world or they may have been little images of the great gods which the people of that country worshiped. We do know, however, that they were treasured, and were buried with the kings and queens of ancient Egypt in their tombs near the banks of the Nile. Some people tell us that the great idols in the Egyptian temples were puppets and that the priests concealing themselves inside their bodies could make them move their hands and open their mouths. This so amazed many of the people who saw them that they fell down and worshiped them.

Imagine a very long avenue with a row of carved stone figures called sphinxes on either side, leading all the way up to a great temple. Imagine a slowly moving procession of a hundred priests on its way to the temple to do honor to the great god Osiris. These priests are carrying a colossal golden boat on their shoulders. But more wonderful than the temple with its lotus-flower columns and its beautiful colors, more wonderful than the golden boat carried by these white-robed priests, was a marvelously made statue of the god Osiris, which rode in the golden boat. It moved its head constantly from side to side. The priests knew which way it wished to go by the way it turned its head. This figure of the god was a marionette. We also know that the ancient Egyptians had miniature puppet stages. One has been unearthed which has doors of ivory with the rods and wires still in their places. Among the Egyptian puppets that have been found was one of a crocodile. Its lower jaw moves on a pivot and its feet are connected with a kind of hinge.

INDIA

It is possible that India rather than Egypt may have been the first home of puppets. The people of India believed that puppets lived with the gods long before they came down to this world. There is a story of Parvati, wife of the god Siva, that tells of a puppet which she made, that was so beautiful that she was afraid to let her husband see it, she carried it away secretly, to the Malaya Mountains. But Siva suspected his wife and followed her. When Siva saw the beauty of the puppet that she was trying to hide from him, he fell in love with it, and brought it to life.

Another story is told in India about a basket of wonderful wooden dolls that was given to a little princess. These dolls were made in such a way that when the princess touched a small wooden peg one would run and bring her a cool drink, another would fly through the air and return with a wreath of flowers, still another could dance and one could even talk. Sometimes, when puppets were made to represent the gods, they were made of pure gold and birds that could talk were placed in their mouths.

The fame of these wonderful Indian puppets reached Persia and Turkey, China and Burma, Siam and Java, in each of which countries the puppets were different and different kinds of temples and theaters were made for them. Even the elephants carved for them to ride upon were different in each country.

In many eastern countries there were two kinds of marionettes: the round kind that we know and another thin, flat kind called “Shadows.” No one seems to know just when the first shadow figures were made. An old legend says they came from the time when all that the people saw of the religious ceremonies was the shadow of the priest on the walls of the sacred tent.

CHINA

We do not know just when the earliest travelers brought puppets from India to China and Japan. There is a legend that an old Chinese ruler who lived more than three thousand years ago invited a famous showman to bring his marionettes to the royal palace. This invitation delighted the showman whose name was Yen Sze. In fact, he was so anxious to please the king and his wives that he made his puppet courtiers smile at the royal ladies, which so stirred the old king’s jealousy that he ordered Yen Sze’s head cut off. Poor Yen Sze had to tear his puppets to pieces to make the angry old ruler believe they were not real people.

Another story of Chinese puppets is one that comes from the old city of Ping at the time it was besieged by a great warrior and his army. It happened that the king of Ping had a very crafty adviser. This adviser told the king to send for his chief marionette maker and order him to make a very large and beautiful marionette, one that could dance on the walls of the city, and this the king did. When the wives of the soldiers of the besieging army saw the beauty and grace of this marionette dancer, they became so jealous that they made their husbands give up the siege and march away at once.

It is always interesting to see how human puppets are, no matter when or where you find them. In China, some were aristocrats and lived at Court with the Emperor and the royal family. They wore beautiful robes and gave a great deal of thought to their speech and manners. Others were very religious and lived with the priests in the temples; still others seemed to have liked the out of doors, to travel and to meet and to please the common people, and to be very much like them in all their thoughts and ways. When these plebeian marionettes traveled, they took little with them for they were poor and had few clothes and possessions. This made travel very easy. Sometimes a small box would hold the stage, properties, and all the puppets.

The master of the puppets stood inside a blue cloth sack when he gave his play. These traveling puppets were apt to be rough and ready. They loved to make the people laugh, but best of all they loved to please the children. They gave plays about everyday life, about animals that could talk, and about great Chinese heroes. They touched the hearts of the people.

PERSIA

Puppets have helped even to make friends out of enemies, as you may see in this old Persian story. One day, a puppet play was being given before the Emperor Ogotai. In this play the showman thought he would please His Majesty by showing him some of his enemies, the Chinese, being dragged along tied to the tails of horses. Instead of pleasing the Emperor, this cruelty greatly distressed him. He ordered the showman to come to his palace. When the showman came, the Emperor showed him many beautiful things that had been made by Chinese and Persian artists, explaining to the showman that both the Chinese and Persian people loved beautiful things. He endeavored to make the showman understand that if he had respect for the art of the Chinese people, he could not be their enemy.

JAPAN

From China puppets traveled to Japan where the children still hear the story of the old emperor who ordered his best showman to travel from temple to temple for he knew that the gods would be entertained by his wonderful marionette plays. Because they made their puppets entertain the gods as well as the people, may be the reason that the Japanese have become more expert in making puppets than any other people. Japanese marionettes move their hands and their fingers and can even lift their eyebrows to show scorn and surprise. The costumes for Japanese marionettes have always been of the richest silks and brocades. Special thought is given to embroidering the designs on their costumes. Sometimes their gowns are covered with jewels. When a marionette has a beautiful new gown, a boy comes forward and holds a light just in front of the marionette, so that the audience can plainly see how beautiful the costume is.

The great poets of Japan have written more than a thousand plays for marionettes. In these plays the Japanese puppets do just the same things that Japanese people do. They have gardens and enjoy walking in them. The old ladies water the flowers, the young women play the kotes; the puppet children dance and play games, the boys fly kites, the girls carry dolls. The Japanese puppets are very silent little people. They do not talk, they simply act. There are specially trained people who read and chant their plays, and still others who are trained to play the musical instruments that accompany them.

GREECE

In the old Greek cities puppets were very much at home. They interested the older people as much as they interested the children. Puppets were taken to banquet tables and made to act. Such cities as Athens and Ephesus were rivals in the art of making them.

Greek boys and girls, instead of going to the movies, went to wonderful marionette shows. These were given in the public square, in the theaters, and even in the temples. The marionettes used in these plays could bend their heads, turn their eyes, and move their hands as though they were alive. This need not surprise us, because in those days, great engineers and mathematicians planned their mechanism. You probably remember the story of Archimedes, who burned the ships that came to attack his city of Syracuse by the use of concave mirrors. This great Archimedes, it is said, made such a wonderful marionette that it seemed to move of itself. One of the old Greek plays showed a temple in which there stood a puppet god with small figures dancing about it, and a fountain that, by means of weights and measures, jetted forth milk.

The best of the Greek puppet plays seem to have been taken from the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer. In a play of five scenes, one scene showed the seashore, with men hammering, sawing, and building ships, a second showed the men launching their boats, a third showed the coming of a storm on the sea, the fourth showed the ships being driven toward the rocks, the last scene showed the wreck of the ships and the drowning of Ajax.

ROME

Since the Romans seem to have copied so much from the Greeks, it is not surprising that they copied the Greek marionettes. In fact, the Romans and Greeks seem to have been equally fond of them. Roman writers mentioned them in their books, Roman Emperors filled their palaces with showmen and their puppets, and built small, richly furnished theaters for them. Roman marionettes were sometimes covered with gold and silver, precious stuffs, and shining armor. Their mechanism was amazing. Almost every sort of transformation could be carried out. At one time, Roman rulers became so interested in puppets that affairs of the government were almost forgotten.

There were three kinds of Roman marionettes. The simplest kind was the Burattini, a kind of marionette that is much like a mitten. They were shown on the street corners by a showman who needed no more than two—one for each hand. It cost almost nothing to see them. The shopkeepers, gladiators, slaves, and surely the Roman children came to look whenever they heard the showman’s fife. He would make them act droll little dialogues or pretend to sing popular songs. There was another kind called Fantoccini. These were jointed dolls strung on cords that were drawn across the knees of the operator. He usually sang or played some musical instrument while he made certain movements with his legs that caused the puppets to advance or retire or to move all in one direction. A third kind of marionette was manipulated by strings or wires from above.

In the tomb of the tragic Empress Marie, wife of the Emperor Honorius, who lived 365 B.C., were found the puppets of her little child. She probably cared more for these puppets than for all her jewels. The great Antiochus, when he became king of Syria, surrounded himself with mimes, burattini, and showmen, seemingly caring little for his huge empire.

When Rome fell, the gods and temples were destroyed and puppets were almost forgotten. But we find the world could not live long without them. In a very short time, when the early Christians wished to help each other to picture the precious story of the Christ, they again began to make puppets. We must now try to picture them in the great underground cities that we call catacombs—probably living in what were the world’s first churches, and enacting for these persecuted peoples the scenes of the new religion. We know that these early Christians revered them, for they carved them on their tombs.

It was before the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem that the greatest of the early passion plays were given by marionettes, plays so simple and religious that they were greatly loved by the devout pilgrims who came to that sacred shrine. It was here that puppets were probably seen by the first crusaders who, no doubt, had much to tell of them when they returned to their far-distant homes. Puppets lived in the churches, just as they once had lived in the temples. The plays they gave were called Mysteries. These puppet mystery plays were to be seen in both the churches and the monasteries of all medieval Europe. They were solemn festivals of sacred commemoration. Into the naves and chapels of these early churches, large wooden stages were built, carpets were spread on the floors, tapestries were hung on the walls. At the back of these stages, evergreen trees were placed and in front of the trees there were stones. These were covered with plants and moss in imitation of the hills and valleys and pathways of the Holy Land. Everything was so arranged that these marionettes could give the most dramatic scenes in the life of Christ. The little figures were carved from wood, colored to life, richly clothed, adapted by mechanisms so that their limbs could be made to move by the action of springs and levers.

As time went on the people seemed to lose much of their strong religious fervor. Marionettes did the same. Finally almost ceasing to be religious they became interested only in entertaining people. At last Savonarola banished them from the churches of Florence, and in the year 1550 the Council of Trent tried to banish all marionettes from the churches. The Council did this because it felt that marionettes were very irreligious.

Then the puppets rebelled and forsook the church for the theater. Thereupon they were accused of witchcraft and magic, were tortured, burned, beheaded, and even buried alive. All this was done in the XVIth Century. But all these indignities did not drive the marionettes far from the churches. They established themselves just outside the church grounds. Here they were sure to be on the days when crowds of people were coming to the great church celebrations. The plays they gave were episodes taken from the Holy Scriptures. These episodes taken from the miracles came to be known as Miracle Plays, and these plays became even more popular than the Mystery Plays that had been given inside the churches.

Sometimes puppets received invitations to visit great knights and ladies in their castles. They were eager for such invitations because they enjoyed the experiences of traveling. As always happens in travel, they saw new things to interest them and met new people, many of whom were quite different from their earlier and more serious-minded friends. They enjoyed the life of the castle, the songs of the wandering minstrels, and the heroic stories that the traveling bards told in the evenings about the fire in the great halls. They liked the noble lords and ladies, their speech and manners and dress. These marionettes became what you might call aristocrats.

The marionettes that were religious found a home in the quiet of the monasteries. They were the marionettes that were scholarly and were interested in Latin plays as well as in the Mysteries and Sacred Dramas.

The greater number of marionettes preferred to live in the towns with the common people and to know what was going on. These puppets were full of health and good humor. It was this sort of marionette who changed his name and his character almost everywhere he went. If he were in Naples, he was Scaramuccia; in Venice, he was Messer Pantaleone; in Bergamo, he was Arlequino; in France, he was Guignol or Polichinello; in Germany, he was Hans Wurst and Kaspare; in Holland, he was Jean Pickel Herring; and in England, he was Mr. Punch.

ITALY

In Italy at about this time every kind of marionette was very popular. Especially popular were the Burattini. These little figures consisted of a head and two hands held together by a large cloak within which was hidden the hand of the manipulator, who made the puppet act by the movements of his fingers and wrist. The curious word, Burattini, possibly came from a kind of coarse, durable cloth of bright colors known as Burato, which was used for clothing this type of puppet. One of these Burattini was called Arleechino. He was a great baby and played the part of a servant. His dress was made from triangles of red, blue, yellow, and violet pieces of Burato cloth. He wore a small hat that scarcely covered his head. His little shoes had no soles. Michael Angelo, it is said, did not like his head and face. He remodeled them to suit the Burattini’s character, which was an odd mixture of ignorance, ingenuity, stupidity, and grace. Listen to his speech: “Kind sir, I know that you are in want of a servant, after having made 327 changes in a year, and I hope to make up the round number. I am a man who knows how to do everything—eating, drinking, sleeping, and making love to the maids. The only fault I have is that I do not like work. I shall be as punctual as an idler, as faithful as a domestic thief, as secret as an earthquake, and as watchful as a cat. As to my honesty, surely no man can call me a thief, but rather a clever mathematician who finds things before their masters lose them.”

You may like to know how marionettes came by their name. One day, in the year 944, in the city of Venice, twelve beautiful maidens went forth from their homes to marry twelve young men at the church of Santa Maria della Salute. Suddenly a band of Barbary pirates landed near the church, attacked the crowd, and in the confusion that arose, carried away the maidens. In a short time the young men of Venice recovered from the shock, jumped into their ships, followed and overtook the pirates. After much fighting, they rescued the brides. From that very day it was the custom in Venice to celebrate the anniversary of this event by a great festival. Always on the last day of the festival came the marriage of twelve beautiful young women to twelve handsome young men. The wedding gowns and doweries were provided by the state from the public treasury. In the course of time, this led to so much jealousy and so many quarrels among the young men and women of Venice, that the city decided to substitute life-sized wooden dolls for the maidens. By and by, the Venetian toy makers began to make little figures that were exactly like the large figures, to sell as toys for the children. These were called “little maries” or “marionettes.”

When one learns to know the people of Italy, he can easily understand how puppets might feel more at home there than in any other country in the world. The Italian people love music and color and motion and life, above all else they love heroes, their great adventures and romances. All these things are equally dear to the hearts of the marionettes. They repay the sympathy of the Italian people by keeping alive for them their great heroes and hero tales. The people might have forgotten many of their great stories had it not been for the puppets. The legend of the Court of Charlemagne, the story of golden-haired Roland, which Taillefer sang before William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings, have been acted by puppets in Italy for more than three hundred years. One may still see all the characters that were in the story as it was told in the Xth Century. There is Rinaldo of Montauban, his horse Bayard, his sword Flamberge, Malagigi, the magician, and Ganelon, the traitor, fair Clarissa and Charlemagne himself. Italian boys and girls learn much of their history from puppets. Sometimes it requires a whole year to give one of their great plays like Orlando Furioso or the story of the seven Paladins. From Italy marionettes traveled to all the other countries of Europe, to France, Spain, Germany, and England. Finally they came to the United States.

FRANCE

You may wish to know how puppets found their way from Italy to France. There were two brothers, Giovanni and Francesco Briocchi. Francesco was a skilful wood carver and mechanic. Giovanni was very clever with his speeches and jokes. As children, they loved marionettes. They hardly knew which they enjoyed more, sitting in the audience watching the play, or standing behind the stage watching their friends manipulate the puppets. They decided that when they grew up they would be puppeteers, make their own puppets and travel from town to town and to the fair land of which they had heard so many interesting tales. This they did. Giovanni made the figures skilfully and dressed them beautifully. Francesco made them say and do such clever and amusing things that their fame went before them into small towns and into the large cities. When they had made enough money they said, “Now we can go to France. We can easily carry our little stage and puppets on our backs. We can earn our way by giving plays.” This they did, to the delight of all who saw them. Finally they reached the city of Paris. In those days great fairs were held where people came to buy and sell and to make merry. Here was just the place for Giovanni and Francesco. When the fairs became permanent the brothers decided to settle down and make a real home for their marionettes. This at first was a simple kind of theater, but later came to have every beautiful thing that French taste and ingenuity could provide. One day the king and queen made them a visit and engaged them to come out to their beautiful château at St. Germain en Laye and give puppet plays for their young son, the dauphin, and his friends. In the records of France you may still see the account as it stands: “Sept. 1669, to Jean Briocchi, divertir les enfants de France, 1365 livres.” When the Frenchmen saw the success of the Italian showmen, they, too, began to make puppets and to take them to the places where people gathered who might be willing to spend a few sous for entertainment. Among these was an old dentist, who found it difficult to earn a living. He made some marionettes and a clever little boxlike stage with a curtain about it. It was just large enough for him to stand inside and manipulate the puppets. He decided to take his stand to the Pont Neuf, one of the principal bridges of Paris. Here he would pull teeth when anyone needed his services and for the rest of the time would entertain the people. He had also a very celebrated monkey, called Fagotin, that he knew would attract a crowd. Fagotin he dressed as a sentry, gave him a sword, and trained him to march up and down in front of the little puppet booth. One day a great poet, whose name was Cyrano de Bergerac, was crossing the bridge and stopped, as did most of the people, to see Fagotin and the puppets. It happened that the poet had a very large nose and was a very sensitive person. When he saw Fagotin marching up and down and making grimaces, he thought he must surely be making fun of his large nose. At this, the poet was so angry that he challenged him to a duel. Poor little Fagotin drew his sword with the air of a master of the foils, only to be slain by the irate poet.

The French people, like the Italians, had a great many heroes celebrated in song and romance. It certainly would have been poor taste on the part of the Italian puppets to have overlooked this. In a short time the puppets forgot Italy and were at home in many new rôles of French literature. New plays were written for them. When that great struggle, the French Revolution, came, the puppets took sides. Some were on the side of the poor starving people, others were unwilling to give up their lives of ease and luxury. During the Reign of Terror many puppets were beheaded. In fact, while one group of people was beheading King Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, another group in almost the same place was beheading poor Punchinello. Many puppets, however, survived, and a whole book might be written about the history of puppets in France and the great men and women who have loved them.

SPAIN

In Spain, the puppets first appeared in the churches, presenting great scenes from the Bible. At first their garments were simple and beautiful, but later they were so bejeweled and vulgar that they offended the good taste of the people and the puppets were driven out. Spain is the only country in which a marionette was ever made a citizen and baptized. Don Quixote saw them, and the great Emperor Charles V, in his retirement in the monastery of Cremona, spent many days with the famous scholar, Torriani, making puppet soldiers and bull fighters, with such skill that they were really able to fight.

ENGLAND

As in almost all other countries, the earliest English puppets were those which gave religious plays in the churches. From the churches, they went out among the people, still giving plays founded on the Bible stories and the lives of the saints. These plays were combinations of shadowgraph and marionette, and the English people sometimes called them “motions.” English puppets were also very fond of going to the fairs. Here is the pamphlet of a play given at the Fair of St. Bartholomew in 1641: “Here a knave in a fool’s coat, with a trumpet sounding or a drum beating, invites you to see his puppets. Here a rogue, like a wild woodman, or in antic shape like an incubus, desires your company to see his motion.”

Probably the most popular puppet play in England in those days was one called “The Old Creation of the world, with the addition of Noah’s Flood.” The best scene showed “Noah and his family coming out of the ark with all the animals, two by two, and all the fowls of the air seen in prospect sitting upon trees; likewise, over the ark is the sun rising in a glorious manner, moreover, a multitude of angels in a double rank, the angels ringing bells. Likewise, machines descending from above, double, with Dives rising out of hell and Lazarus seen in Abraham’s bosom; besides several dancing gigs, sarabands and country dances, with merry conceits of Squire Punch and Sir John Spendall.”

This play was given for fifty-two successive nights. Mr. Powell, the clever but roguish fellow who owned these puppets, once set up his little theater just outside the colonnades of Covent Garden, opposite the parish church of St. Paul. He began his plays at the sound of the church bells, and was successful in diverting so many from the church services that he was severely reproved by the churchmen. It was this same clever Powell, who had a very famous puppet called Lady Jane, who went to Paris every month and came back with a trunk full of gowns of the latest fashion. These marionette style shows delighted all the ladies of fashion in London, including the queen.

About 1642, all regular theaters were abolished in England, but marionette theaters were not included. You can scarcely imagine the good fortune this meant for them, for they inherited everything that had belonged to the great theaters, all the music and opera, the dramas, the tragedies, and the comedies.

When news of this reached Italy and France, many showmen started at once for England. They knew they could gather pennies on the way from almost every pocket. The regular price of these puppet plays was but two pence, but a fine play like The Gun Powder Plot cost eighteen pence. There were plays about giants and fairies, about Robin Hood and Little John, about St. George and the dragon, and a hundred other tales.

All the great writers of those days now began to write plays for marionettes. Beautiful new theaters were built for them. It became the fashion to go to puppet plays. Ben Jonson says that many great ladies went every day.

In 1688, Punchinello changed his name to Mr. Punch and he married Judy. When they had a son and went to housekeeping, then the quarrels began. You may have had the pleasure of hearing some of them. Punch had a wide circle of friends and some of them were interested in politics. Many great Englishmen, like Addison, Steele, Fielding, Milton, and Byron, were glad to tell him what to say that would help to set the people thinking. Some of the English puppets disliked cities and were only happy when they were going up and down the lovely English roads, traveling among the villages and country people. There you can still find them.

To-day the most beautiful English puppets are being made by Mr. William Simmonds who began his work with puppet plays for village children. Mr. Simmonds manipulates his own puppets as he cleverly improvises songs, dances, and pantomimes.

GERMANY—AUSTRIA—RUSSIA

Before we follow marionettes to our own country, we ought to take a little time to see them in Germany, Austria, and Russia. These peoples were skilful in wood carving and made their puppets beautifully. Marionettes were used in the early churches of these countries, and gave Holy Plays before the high altars. Then they went to the castles and at last to the theaters. It was only in Germany that great musicians wrote music for them. In 1762, Haydn wrote for them his toy symphony, “The Children’s Fair,” which was followed by five operettas given in the theater at Eisenstadt. Probably the great Passion Play at Oberammergau has grown out of the early puppet plays that were given in the monasteries and cathedrals.

The city of Munich built a little theater for Papa Schmidt, an old man who had spent all his life giving puppet plays. This was done through citizens who felt indebted to him for the pleasure he had given them as children. They said, the least they could do was to build him a theater, a place for himself and his daughter and their thousand puppets, that included all the characters in the beautiful fairy tales.

In Vienna, the artist Richard Teschner has created some remarkable modern marionettes. He has carved them most delicately from wood and has shown great ingenuity in the way he has put his little figures together.

In Bohemia, the puppets were interested in politics, if they were serious, and in comedies if they were not serious. In Hungary, they traveled with the gypsies. In Poland and Russia, they are loved by all the common people, and at Christmas celebrations still appear in their ancient rôles as Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child, as wise men, shepherds, and angels.

AMERICA

Puppets are not new in America. The North American Indians for hundreds of years used them in their great ceremonies. The Hopi Indians used marionettes to represent the mystic maidens who in ancient times gave them, according to their legends, the corn and other seeds. This ceremony is performed in a darkened room—in the center of which is a wooden framework. The marionettes are placed on a stage or platform and when the corn maiden’s song begins, the figures bend their bodies forward and backward in time to the music as they grind the meal between the miniature grindstones before them. The little figures are so cleverly manipulated that they even rub their faces with meal as the young Indian girls are accustomed to do. During the ceremony, two symbolic marionette birds are made to walk back and forth, on the framework, above the maidens, seeming to utter bird calls. The Hopi Indians also made marionettes of their enemies, the serpents, which represented floods and misfortune.

Most of the marionettes that we have known in America, until a few years ago, were Italian. They were very shy and would not leave their Italian neighborhoods. They often spoke no English. They gave plays about heroes that we know little or nothing about.

In America, there is a growing list of friends of the marionette. Probably the name best known to you will be that of Tony Sarg, a charming artist who has taken his puppet plays to the largest cities in our country and delighted us with his Rip Van Winkle, Rose and the King, and Don Quixote. The manager of his marionettes, Mr. Matthew Searle, is also an artist of ingenuity and taste.

In Chicago, the splendid work of Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Brown made new friends for the marionette. Mr. Perry Dilley introduced marionettes and guignol to the people of California. He produced a great number of interesting plays and all of his puppets are exceptionally fine. Mr. William Duncan and Mr. Edward Mabley, creators of the “Tatterman Marionettes,” have brought to the marionette stage unusual imagination and skill, which is admirably shown in their The Melon Thief, The King of the Golden River, and Pierre Patelin.

Madge Anderson has written beautifully of her puppet heroes. Mrs. Helen Haiman Joseph has written an excellent Book of Marionettes. If it were possible one would like to add the complete list of all those who are carrying on the great tradition of the marionette. The interest, already created, leads one to hope that America may take her place high up in the marionette tree.

CHAPTER II
The Marionette—Its Famous Friends

Every person is proud of his famous friends. If we know a great artist, engineer, or traveler, we think we are fortunate. Can you imagine having so many famous friends that you could not count them? This has been the good fortune of marionettes. The names of all their Egyptian friends seem to be lost. But it is not so with their Grecian friends. Archimedes, Socrates, and Plato are the names of three famous friends that have come down to us. Archimedes, the greatest inventor of his time, liked puppets, it is said, because he could devise so many clever ways of making them move and appear human. Socrates probably cared nothing for the mechanism. He enjoyed taking a puppet in his own hands, asking it clever questions, and then furnishing the equally clever answers. These most unusual conversations would soon gather about him a crowd of Athenian men and women, who were greatly interested in his humor, irony, and whimsical paradoxes. The dialogues would probably go on and on until his scolding wife, Xantippe, appeared. Plato also cared little for their mechanism, but like his great master, Socrates, was interested only when they were made to talk about the very serious things of life, or when he saw them representing the gods and heroes in the beautiful scenes of the plays given on the small stages built for them in one part of the great theaters.

Kings and queens were among the famous Roman friends of puppets. You may remember that puppets were found in the tomb of the Empress Marie and that the Emperor Antiochus cared so much for them that he neglected the affairs of his great empire. He had clever puppet makers as part of his royal household, and delighted in planning the plays they were to give. He designed the stage settings, and he sometimes assisted the royal puppeteers.

In India, China, and Japan, the great rulers were greatly interested in puppets, and required their presence at court.

One of the most interesting stories of a royal friend of the marionettes is that of the Emperor Charles V of Spain. This strange ruler’s reason was clouded. His devoted minister tried in many ways to divert his beloved king, and finally succeeded when he found that the king could be interested in puppets. Puppet soldiers, puppet generals, puppet kings caught his imagination. The cleverest hands of Spain made them, by the hundred, for His Majesty, who handled them with such interest and pleasure that his reason was finally restored. Two other great kings could be added to the list of royal friends—they are Saladin and Louis XIV of France.

There is a long list of famous literary friends. Greatest of these is Shakespeare, who not only enjoyed marionettes, but wrote plays for them. Many people are surprised when they learn that Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Cæsar were written for marionettes. Shakespeare’s friend, Ben Jonson, wrote a marionette play, Every Man in His Humor. Another great literary friend was Cervantes. Some day you may wish to take his story of Don Quixote and turn some of its wonderful scenes into a play for marionettes. If you do so, you may be sure that their immortal author would approve of your venture.

In France, among their many friends, was the great dramatist Voltaire. At first he disliked marionettes thoroughly. For it happened that they had made fun of him, and, naturally, that was more than this great wit could stand. Finally, the story goes, he was invited to visit a friend who had a little marionette theater and some puppets. When Voltaire took the strings in his own hands, his feeling for them changed. He found they could be made to say witty things, and to make fun of one’s enemies. It ended by his writing short plays for them to act.

George Sand, the famous French novelist, made a very simple but delightful puppet theater for her little boy, Maurice, and set the fashion for puppets among her literary friends. Stories could be told of many other famous French friends, of Molière, Fontaine, Doré, and Rousseau. Great French writers still love marionettes. You probably know two of these: Maurice Maeterlinck and Anatole France.

When we go to Italy, we find other friends, but none greater than Michael Angelo. Picture this artist modeling heads for marionettes. We wonder what they looked like and what became of them. His great patron, Lorenzo de Medici, had a puppet theater built for his palace in Florence.

Marionettes have had famous musicians as their friends. If you are interested in music, you will enjoy reading about Joseph Haydn and the five toy symphonies that he wrote for marionettes.

Goldoni, the greatest Italian writer of comedies, was born in Venice, that city in which, you remember, puppets were first called marionettes. He lived near the street where most of the puppet makers lived and had their shops. As a child he played puppet games with many other children in a little park near his home. When he was seven years old he wrote a puppet play and invited his friends to come to see and hear it. He enjoyed writing plays that made them laugh. When Goldoni grew up he was still the friend of puppets because he felt that they had helped him in learning the art of play writing.

The German poet, Goethe, was a friend of puppets from his childhood. When he was about the age of seven, a friend of his good mother made some puppets and sent them to him and his sister for a Christmas present. The mother had a happy thought. She made a little stage and set it in the doorway of a room, just off the living room. On Christmas morning, after the children had seen their presents, she had the family sit down before the closed door. When she opened it, there was a kind of porch concealed with a mysterious curtain. The children were curious and eager to know what was behind that half-transparent veil. The mother, however, bade each sit down upon his stool. At length, Goethe says, “All were silent, a whistle gave the signal, the curtain rolled aloft and showed us the interior of a temple painted in deep red colors. The high priest, Samuel, appeared with Jonathan, and their strange alternating voices seemed to me the most striking thing on earth. Shortly after entered Saul, overwhelmed with confusion at the impatience of that heavy-limbed warrior who had defied him and all his people. But how glad was I when the dapper son of Jesse, with his crook and shepherd’s pouch and sling, came hopping forth and said, ‘Dread king and sovereign lord, let no one’s heart sink down because of this. If your majesty will grant me leave, I will go out to battle with this blustering giant!’

“Here ended the first act, leaving the spectators more curious than ever to see what further would happen—each praying that the music might soon be done. At last the curtain rose again. David devoted the flesh of the monsters to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field; the Philistine scorned and bullied him, stamped mightily with both his feet, and at length fell like a mass of clay, affording a splendid termination to the piece, and then the virgins sang a song: ‘Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands.’ The giant’s head was borne before his little victor, who received the king’s beautiful daughter to wife.” This is part of the description that Goethe wrote when he grew up and became a famous man.

Do read the delightful and vivid description which Constantin Stanislavsky gives of his boyish experiences with marionettes in his autobiography, My Life in Art. “We had decided to exchange the living actors for actors made of pasteboard and to begin the construction of a marionette theater with scenery, effects, and a full line of theatrical necessities. The marionette theater demanded expenditures. We needed a large table to put in the large doorway. While above and beneath it, that is above and beneath the marionette stage, the openings were covered with sheets. In this manner, the public sat in one room, the auditorium and the other room, which was united to the first, was the stage and all its accessories. It was there that we worked, we the artists, the designers, the stage managers, and the inventors of all sorts of scenic effects. My oldest brother also joined us. He was an excellent draftsman, and a fine inventor of stage effects. His help was important because he had a little money, and we needed capital for our work.

“We began to paint scenery. At first we painted on wrapping paper which tore and crumpled, but we did not lose heart for we thought that with time, as soon as we became rich (for we were to charge ten kopeks as admission), we would buy pasteboard and glue the painted wrapping paper to it. From the moment that we began to feel ourselves managers and directors of the new theater, that was being built according to our plans, our lives became full. There was something to think about every minute. There was a great deal to do. In the drawer of the table there always lay hidden some piece of theatrical work, the figure of a marionette which was to be painted and dressed, a piece of scenery, a bush, a tree, or the plan and sketches for a new production. In the margins of my books and copy books there were always sketches of scenery or a geometric drawing. We always chose moments of catastrophic character. For instance, an act from The Corsair, which called for a sea quiet in the daylight but stormy all night with a wrecked ship, with heroes swimming for their lives, with the appearance of a lighthouse, an escape from a watery grave, the rising of the moon, prayer, and dawn.

“These performances were always sold out, notwithstanding the high price of admission. Many people came to see them, some to encourage us, others to amuse themselves. Our promenades between lessons took on a very deep meaning. Before that we went to the Kugnetsky Bridge to buy the photographs of circus artists. But with the appearance of our theater, there appeared a need for all sorts of material for scenery and marionettes. Now we were no longer too lazy to take a walk. We bought all sorts of pictures, books with landscapes and costumes which served as material for the scenery and the dramatic personæ of our theater. These were the first volume of a rapidly increasing library.”

Perhaps that friend who has done most to keep the world still interested in marionettes is Gordon Craig. He is a great English artist who sees them not as so much wood and cloth pulled about by a few strings at the whim of careless people, but rather as real creatures, human or more than human, quiet and dignified, as the gods of old. It has been his delight to give them again the great rôles of literature. He, too, invited the greatest actors of Europe to come and learn from them.

Possibly you are asking what it is that gives such friendships to the marionette. Perhaps none of its great friends could answer. The marionette is quiet, submissive, dignified, and mysterious. It becomes a different thing in every hand. It expresses every mood, thought, and fancy of the one who pulls the strings. What will it do in your hands?