Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 11

formed annually on or around All Souls’ Day, November 2, often in churches. The mass Spanish and Spanish American public has come to regard it as a sort of modem version o f some medieval miracle or mystery play. I could allege other plays, popular in the narrower sense, such as Shaw’s Man and Superman (1901-03), widely appreciated and filled with humor, even argue that most o f them, at least peripher ally, are popular in both senses. But, not to put too fine a point on my contention, I will move into more purely popular areas. All during the eighteenth century, in Italy, Germany, Austria, France, Holland, even the United States (at least late in the seven teen hundreds), we find Don Juan farces, pantomimes, and vaude ville performances that did very well, as can be proven from the few extant scripts and more frequent references. Even more in the popular vein was the puppet show, truly a part o f folk theater. This genre adopted the commedia deU’arte characters; not unexpect edly, once again Hans W urst appears in the role o f Don Juan’s servant. Juan himself often plays second fiddle to the actions of that popular figure. The dialogues feature funny dialects, gay, often coarse. These characters, remember, are puppets, and subtlety is not their long suit. In one scenario, Hans observes that his master has no business worrying over his inability to seduce a certain stubborn woman. Plenty of them around, he adds: they are cheaper than beef (Mandel 263). When some tourists enter an inn, the landlady says, “Chase out the pigs; w e’re having guests” (271). Such puppet shows were ubiquitous, cropping up here and there, like the farces and vaudevilles, all over Europe, but especially in Germany and the Austrian Tyrolean highlands, among the more uneducated areas. As for the pantomimes, one entitled Don Juan, or The Liber tine Destroyed, extant only in summary form, goes back at least as far as a London Drury Lane Theatre staging o f 1782, more probably back to 1775; it was said to have been produced by David Garrick 5