PUPPET (OF. poupette, doll. from Lat. pupa, doll, puppet ). A small jointed figure, com monly of wood or cardboard, representing a char acter on the stage of a puppet theatre. and moved with strings, or iron rods, o• otherwise by a con cealed agent. Fo• the dialogue in this mimic drama, the invisible operator varies his voice as he takes the different roles. The more elaborately installed puppets are now commonly called mar ionettes, from the French term, marionnetfrs, a diminutive, perhaps through the form mar/o/d/es, of Marie, and denoting originally little figures of the Virgin Mary. Of the simpler form of pup pets, the familiar representatives are Punch and Judy. See PUNCH.
The origin of this form of entertainment is lost in antiquity. It was known to both Greeks and Romans. Figures with movable limbs have been found even in the tombs of ancient Egypt and of Etruria, though many of these were probably only dolls for children and afford little evidence of a puppet drama. Of this perhaps the earliest development was in India. It is significant that the Sanskrit equivalent for stage-manager, sa tradh(ira, literally means thread-holder. In China puppet-shows are likewise known, and also an adaptation of them in which the movable figures cast their shadows upon a curtain, whence the name. ombres chinoises. See SHADOW-PLAY.
Puppet-shows have received perhaps their high est development among the •Javanese. who may have derived the idea from India. The Javanese puppets are ordinarily about tw•o feet high, and of elaborate, usually grotesque formation. They are used for shadow-plays as \yell as for direct representation, and the dramas in which they are employed are of great elaboration—often Hf re ligious and eeremonial significance. In Java, also, women sometimes dress as puppets and act in shadow-plays, imitating the stiff posturing of their models. Although choruses may be given them, the dialogue remains with a separate speaker. This affords a living analogs• to a simi• lar stage in the development of Oriental drama, tradition of which is preserved in China. Among the Turks, too, and in Mohammedan countries generally, the puppet-show is a popular enter tainment, in whic•lr, it is asserted. the marionette actors exhibit a style of immorality even more atrocious than does our own Punch. Puppet shows were used in the Middle Ages by the (u•is tian (hurc•h. among other dramatic means. such ns miraele-plays. In England these religious pup pet-plays were called motions. The earliest exhi
bitions of this kind consisted of representations of stories taken from the Old and New Testa ments, or from the lives and legends of saints. Several men gained reputation in the eighteenth century as puppet exhibitors, among them Powell, Pinkethman, Yates. and Flockton. In Germany puppets are said to have been known as early as the twelfth century. and Goethe in their day thought the subject not unworthy of their serious artistic attention. A favorite piece in the German puppet theatres early in the nineteenth century was Do1.•tor Johanne.F. Faust. which was published at Frankfurt in 1546. In France the introduction of regular marionettes is commonly credited to Pierre who had a show on the Pont Neuf at Paris, in the reign of Louis XIV.. hut there is reason to believe that they were really known there much earlier. They have been especially popular at Lyons, where the character of Mtignol was invented, but naturally they are a familiar adjunct to fairs and other periodic festivities generally.
Of the marionette drama of Western Europe the real home, however, seems to be armour the Italians. Puppet theatres have been known for centuries at Naples, Milan, and elsewhere. and in America the best-maintained marionette shows are among Italian immigrants. The dialogue in these mimic is in its detail larggel• ex temporized. The favorite themes are legends of the Court of Charlemagne. There is. moreover. a considerable literature for the marionette -tage. Thus. besides what has already been mentioned. may be cited such I:orman collections as Engel. Drosehr Puppcnkoutliidiuu (Ohlenhurg.
Kollmarn, Deutsch( Puppcnspiele Leipzig. and Mahlm ann. 11ar•iouethntlitaIrr HOG), and also some of the best-known pieces of Maeterlinck. to say nothing of his imitators. A distinction might. however, properly he drawn he tweeen plays actually for marionette performance and the so-called 'plays for marionette.' which merely form a modern literary type subtly de fined through the associations of the name. On the puppet theatre there are observations in The spectator and The r, and Addison v% rote a Latin poem entitled Machina' Gestieulantes (An glice, m, pp, t the history of the subject: Magnin. llistoire Jt.s marionwttes ed., Paris. 1S'413) Pischel, Die Ileimat des Pumemspiels (Halle, 1900) indron, Marion nettes et guignols (Paris, 1900).