View source for Guignol

==History==
[[Laurent Mourguet]], Guignol's creator, was born into a family of modest silk weavers on 3 March 1769. The certificate of his marriage to Jeanne Esterle in 1788 shows he was unable to read. When hard times fell on the silk trade during the French Revolution, he became a peddler and, in 1797, started to practice [[dentistry]], which in those days was simply the pulling of teeth. The service was free; the money was made from the medicines sold afterward to ease the pain. To attract patients, he started setting up a puppet show in front of his dentist's chair.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Mourguet's first shows featured [[Pulcinella|Polichinelle]], a character borrowed from the Italian [[commedia dell'arte]] who, in Britain, would become [[Punch and Judy|Punch]]. By 1804, the success was such that he gave up dentistry altogether and became a professional puppeteer, creating his own scenarios drawing on the concerns of his working-class audience and improvising references to the news of the day. He developed characters closer to the daily lives of his Lyon audience, first Gnafron, a wine-loving cobbler, later Guignol, in 1808. Other characters, including Guignol's wife Madelon and the [[Gendarmerie|gendarme]] Flageolet soon followed, but these are never much more than foils for the two heroes.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

{{stack|[[File:Guignol de Lyon.JPG|thumb|Flageolet (left) and Guignol (right).]]}}
Although nominally a silkweaver like much of his original audience, Guignol's profession changes, as does his marital status; he can be in turn valet, peddler, carpenter, shoemaker, or unemployed; at times he is Madelon's husband, at times her smitten suitor, according to requirements of the scenario. What remain constant are his poverty, but more importantly his good humor and his sense of justice. The use in French of "guignol" as an insult meaning "buffoon" is a curious misnomer, as Guignol is clever, courageous, and generous; his inevitable victory is always the triumph of good over evil.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Sixteen of Mourguet's children and grandchildren continued his tradition, and many of the companies performing today can trace their artistic heritage back to him{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}, although Laurent Mourguet's last descendant, Jean-Guy Mourguet, died on 8 October 2012, at the age of 82, after working all his life in the Theatre de Guignol at Lyon. Jean-Guy learned his job helping his grandmother Augustine and then his parents. He later became the director of the theatre until his death.<ref name="Point.fr 2012 i566">{{cite web | title=Décès du dernier descendant du créateur de Guignol | website=Le Point | date=October 10, 2012 | url=https://www.lepoint.fr/culture/deces-du-dernier-descendant-du-createur-de-guignol-10-10-2012-1515279_3.php | language=fr | access-date=January 29, 2024}}</ref>

Guignol's original caustic satire has often been watered down to simple children's fare, and has even been used to parody grand opera, but his original spirit still survives in his hometown of Lyon, where both traditional and original contemporary performances are an integral part of local culture. In addition to his social satire, Guignol has become an important protector of the local dialect, the ''{{ill|parler lyonnais|fr}}'' ("Lyonnais dialect").{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}