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.