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.”