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See also:MARIONETTES (probably from Ital. morio, a See also:fool or buffoon, but also said to be derived from the mariolettes, or little figures of the Virgin See also:Mary), FANTOCCINI (from fantino, a See also:child) or PUPPETS (Fr. poupee See also:Lat. pupa, a baby or See also:doll), the names given to figures, generally below See also:life-See also:size, suspended by threads or wires and imitating with their limbs and heads the movements of living persons.
The high antiquity of puppets appears from the fact that figures with movable limbs have been discovered in the tombs of See also:Egypt and among the remains of See also:Etruria; they were also See also:common among the Greeks, from whom they were imported to See also:Rome. Plays in which the characters are represented by puppets or by the shadows of moving figures, worked by concealed performers who deliver the See also:dialogue, are not only popular in See also:India and See also:China, but during several centuries past maintained an important position among the amusements of the See also:people in most See also:European countries. See also:Goethe and See also:Lessing deemed them worthy of See also:attention; and in 1721 Le See also:Sage wrote plays for puppets to perform.
The earliest performances in See also:English were See also:drawn or founded upon See also:Bible narratives and the lives of the See also:saints, in the same vein as the " morality " plays which they succeeded. Popular subjects in the 16th See also:century were The Prodigal Son and See also:Nineveh, with See also:Jonah and the See also:Whale. And in a pamphlet of 1641, de-scribing See also:Bartholomew See also:Fair, we read, " Here a See also:knave in a fool's coat, with a See also:trumpet See also:sounding or a See also:drum beating, invites you to See also:bee his puppets. Here a See also:rogue like a See also:wild woodman, or in anantic shape like an See also:incubus, desires your See also:company to view his See also:motion." In 1667 See also:Pepys recorded how at Bartholomew Fair he found " my See also:Lady See also:Castlemaine at a puppet See also:play, Patient Grizill." Besides The Sorrows of See also:Griselda, other puppet plays of the See also:period were See also:Dick See also:Whittington, The Vagaries of Merry See also:Andrew, and The Humours of Bartholomew Fair. See also:Powell's noted marionette show was the subject of an See also:article in The Taller, 1709, and again in The Spectator, 1711. The latter refers also to Pinkethman, a " motion-maker," in whose scenes the divinities of See also:Olympus ascended and descended to the strains of See also:music. An See also:idea of the class of See also:representation may be gathered from an See also:advertisement of Crawley, a See also:rival of Pinkethman, which sets forth—" The Old Creation of the See also:World, with the addition of See also:Noah's See also:Flood," also several fountains playing See also:water during the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time of the play. The best See also:scene represented " Noah and his See also:family coming out of the See also:ark, with all the animals two by two, and all the fowls of the See also:air seen in a prospect sitting upon trees; likewise over the ark is the See also:sun rising in a gorgeous manner; moreover a multitude of angels in a See also:double See also:rank," the angels ringing bells. " Likewise See also:machines descending from above, double, with Dives rising out of See also:hell and See also:Lazarus seen in See also:Abraham's bosom; besides several figures dancing jiggs, sarabands, and See also:country dances, with the merry conceits of See also:Squire See also:Punch and See also:Sir See also:John Spendall." See also:Yates showed a moving picture of a See also:city, with an artificial cascade, and a See also:temple—with See also:mechanical birds in which attention was called to the exact See also:imitation of living birds, the See also:quick motion of the bills, just swelling of the See also:throat, and fluttering of the wings. The puppets were See also:wax figures 5 ft. in stature. Toward the end of the 18th century, Flockton's show presented five See also:hundred figures at See also:work at various trades. See also:- BROWN
- BROWN, CHARLES BROCKDEN (1771-181o)
- BROWN, FORD MADOX (1821-1893)
- BROWN, FRANCIS (1849- )
- BROWN, GEORGE (1818-188o)
- BROWN, HENRY KIRKE (1814-1886)
- BROWN, JACOB (1775–1828)
- BROWN, JOHN (1715–1766)
- BROWN, JOHN (1722-1787)
- BROWN, JOHN (1735–1788)
- BROWN, JOHN (1784–1858)
- BROWN, JOHN (1800-1859)
- BROWN, JOHN (1810—1882)
- BROWN, JOHN GEORGE (1831— )
- BROWN, ROBERT (1773-1858)
- BROWN, SAMUEL MORISON (1817—1856)
- BROWN, SIR GEORGE (1790-1865)
- BROWN, SIR JOHN (1816-1896)
- BROWN, SIR WILLIAM, BART
- BROWN, THOMAS (1663-1704)
- BROWN, THOMAS (1778-1820)
- BROWN, THOMAS EDWARD (1830-1897)
- BROWN, WILLIAM LAURENCE (1755–1830)
Brown's See also:Theatre of Arts showed at country fairs, from 1830 to 184o, the See also:battle of See also:Trafalgar, See also:Napoleon's See also:army See also:crossing the See also:Alps, and the See also:marble See also:palace of St See also:Petersburg; and at a still later date Clapton's similar See also:exhibition presented See also:- GRACE (Fr. grace, Lat. gratia, from grates, beloved, pleasing; formed from the root cra-, Gr. xav-, cf. xaipw, x6p,ua, Xapts)
- GRACE, WILLIAM GILBERT (1848– )
Grace See also:Darling rescuing the See also:- CREW (sometimes explained as a sea term of Scandinavian origin, cf. O. Icel. kris, a swarm or crowd, but now regarded as a shortened form of accrue, accrewe, used in the 16th century in the sense of a reinforcement, O. Fr. acreue, from accrofire, to grow,
- CREW, NATHANIEL CREW, 3RD BARON (1633–1721)
crew of the " See also:Forfarshire " steamer wrecked on the See also:Fern Islands, with many ingenious moving figures of quadrupeds, and, in particular, a See also:swan which dipped its See also:head into imitation water, opened its wings, and with flexible See also:neck preened and trimmed its plumage. In these mechanical scenes the figures, painted upon a See also:flat See also:surface and cut out, commonly of pasteboard, are slid along grooves arranged transversely in front of the set scenery, the actions of legs and arms being worked by wires from the hands of persons below the See also:stage, though sometimes use is made of clockwork. In See also:recent days the literature for the marionette stage has had an important See also:literary recruit in the See also:person of the Belgian author See also:Maurice See also:Maeterlinck.
Marionettes proper, and the dolls exhibited in puppet shows (not including Punch and his See also:companion actors), are constructed of See also:wood or of pasteboard, with faces of See also:composition, sometimes of wax; and each figure is suspended by a number of threads to a See also:short See also:bar of wood which is commonly held in one See also:hand of the hidden performer while the See also:finger of his other hand poses the figure or gives See also:action to it by means of the threads. In the mode of constructing the See also:joints, and the greater elaboration with which the several parts of the limbs are supported and moved, and especially in the See also:fine degrees of See also:movement given to the heads, marionettes have been so improved as to See also:present very exact imitations of the gestures of actors and actresses, and the postures and evolutions of acrobats; and, in addition, ingenious exhibitors such as Theodon, who introduced many novelties in the 'sixties of the 19th century, have employed mechanical arrangements for accomplishing the tricks of See also:pantomime harlequinade. Among the puppet personages presented in the small See also:street shows are generally included a sailor who dances a See also:hornpipe, a hoop-dancer, a dancer of the Highland fling, a wooden-legged pensioner, a vaulter on a See also:pole also balancing two chairs, a See also:clown playing with a butterfly, a dancing figure without head until the head rises out of the See also:body, gradually displaying an enormously See also:long neck, and a See also:skeleton, seen at first in scattered parts lying about the stage, but piece successively flying to piece, the body first sitting up, then See also:standing, and finally capped by the See also:skull, when the completed figure begins to See also:dance.
Ombres Chinoises are performances by means of the shadows of figures projected upon a stretched See also:sheet of thin See also:calico or a See also:gauze scene painted as a transparency. The cardboard flat figures are held behind this See also:screen, illuminated from behind—the performer supporting each figure by a long See also:wire held in one hand while wires
from all the movable parts terminate in rings in which are inserted the fingers of his other hand.
See also C. Magnin, Histoire See also:des marionettes (1852; 2nd ed., 1862); L. de See also:Neuville, Histoire des marionettes (1892).
End of Article: MARIONETTES (probably from Ital. morio, a fool or buffoon, but also said to be derived from the mariolettes, or little figures of the Virgin Mary), FANTOCCINI (from fantino, a child)
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