Glove Puppets in the Middle Ages
Brief Background
The closest thing to extant evidence is the two bits of marginalia from the Roman du bon roi Alexandre Manuscript from 1344. There is nothing known about the puppets or puppeteers in the manuscript illuminations. The puppet show with the men watching looks like there may have been two or more puppeteers since four puppets are visible on stage. The two outer puppets could be on stands and one person performing the battle scene. It is unclear from the image but the booth looks as if it could accommodate at least two puppeteers. The ladies puppet show looks more relaxed and engaging, possibly involving a dialog. It could also have been of considerable length as the women have seated themselves to watch. This is the style of puppet that I imagine was most commonly used in the Middle Ages, especially in England, where Punch is well known then as much as now. The name Punch comes from Punchinella an Italian character. Italian puppet tradition favors the marionette, whereas in England and France the glove style was probably more likely to be used. Other histories might say that Punch was born out of Vice, a common everyman in plays that either learned lessons or didn’t which was intended to teach the audience a lesson. The issue of whether puppets existed in the Middle Ages or not isn't the question. We have enough written about them to assume that they did. The problem is in deciding what they looked like, and how they were made that really gave me a chance to do some wild exploration into what would be the most likely. I thought about what the materials were that existed and followed through by making puppets in many various period mediums. In the beginning, I didn't know how to carve, so I sculpted. There were pros and cons to this. I did eventually gain some rudimentary carving skills and I was pretty happy with the results of wooden heads and fabric bodies. |
What did you do? The early years
My love of puppetry might pre-date Sesame Street. My parents used to lead Sunday School at church and they had a little blue suitcase full of puppets. I played with them a lot. I still many have them. They were not terribly common puppets, mostly handmade, but still representing many of the characters seen today in commercial puppets. We had a dog and a cow and a pig. A girl and a boy. A police officer. Some were sock puppet style, hand knitted, possibly from Germany, and some were the style of a common puppet like Mr. Rogers had. Just a head and arms that moved. No moving mouth. Between Mr. Rogers and the Muppets, most people have at least some knowledge of puppets. For some people they are fun and cute, and other people find them creepy. My husband falls in the latter category, but he is a good sport. These early memories probably shaped what I envisioned medieval puppets should look like.
My use of glove puppets in the SCA began when I started making a pair of puppets for each king and queen of An Tir starting with Vik and Inga in 2009. There is a whole album of these puppets. I started with Crayola Air-dry clay and then I used kiln fired clay and glazed heads and hands. I progressed to papier mache and eventually I was able to actually do some wooden heads that I carved and painted. I always attempted to take into account the royal’s style of garb and their sensibilities. Some specifically requested animals instead of humans. They were not always very pretty, but I think I made some improvements with each set. They went from fragile fired clay to papier mache to wood. I think the ones made of wood are probably the most accurate, but only because I am unable to definitively prove that papier mache was used for puppetry in the Middle Ages. They had papier mache and used it for art and masks, but I do not have evidence that it was used in puppetry, which is not the same as saying they didn’t but I can't prove that they did. I think based on examples of carved wood and faces in things found in churches I am more comfortable with that assumption. I made a set of wool soft sculpted and needle felted puppets for a reigning pair that had a small child who I thought might enjoy playing with them. They looked like a medieval Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. I never did any real performing with these glove puppets, other than parading around at events with the royal pair during their reign, but as soon as they stepped down I gave the puppets to them as a gift. I have a few glove puppets that I still could bring out but I have so few events I can go to each year. After that, I got into more retinue and service for a while and threw myself into the Kingdom Bardic Championship of 2012 with shadow puppets and that was pretty much the end of my glove puppets. Once I was Bardic Champion I started researching jesters and then I stepped into Arts and Sciences Minister right away. I had no time for puppet shows and in a year my life completely changed and we moved overseas as international teachers.
My love of puppetry might pre-date Sesame Street. My parents used to lead Sunday School at church and they had a little blue suitcase full of puppets. I played with them a lot. I still many have them. They were not terribly common puppets, mostly handmade, but still representing many of the characters seen today in commercial puppets. We had a dog and a cow and a pig. A girl and a boy. A police officer. Some were sock puppet style, hand knitted, possibly from Germany, and some were the style of a common puppet like Mr. Rogers had. Just a head and arms that moved. No moving mouth. Between Mr. Rogers and the Muppets, most people have at least some knowledge of puppets. For some people they are fun and cute, and other people find them creepy. My husband falls in the latter category, but he is a good sport. These early memories probably shaped what I envisioned medieval puppets should look like.
My use of glove puppets in the SCA began when I started making a pair of puppets for each king and queen of An Tir starting with Vik and Inga in 2009. There is a whole album of these puppets. I started with Crayola Air-dry clay and then I used kiln fired clay and glazed heads and hands. I progressed to papier mache and eventually I was able to actually do some wooden heads that I carved and painted. I always attempted to take into account the royal’s style of garb and their sensibilities. Some specifically requested animals instead of humans. They were not always very pretty, but I think I made some improvements with each set. They went from fragile fired clay to papier mache to wood. I think the ones made of wood are probably the most accurate, but only because I am unable to definitively prove that papier mache was used for puppetry in the Middle Ages. They had papier mache and used it for art and masks, but I do not have evidence that it was used in puppetry, which is not the same as saying they didn’t but I can't prove that they did. I think based on examples of carved wood and faces in things found in churches I am more comfortable with that assumption. I made a set of wool soft sculpted and needle felted puppets for a reigning pair that had a small child who I thought might enjoy playing with them. They looked like a medieval Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. I never did any real performing with these glove puppets, other than parading around at events with the royal pair during their reign, but as soon as they stepped down I gave the puppets to them as a gift. I have a few glove puppets that I still could bring out but I have so few events I can go to each year. After that, I got into more retinue and service for a while and threw myself into the Kingdom Bardic Championship of 2012 with shadow puppets and that was pretty much the end of my glove puppets. Once I was Bardic Champion I started researching jesters and then I stepped into Arts and Sciences Minister right away. I had no time for puppet shows and in a year my life completely changed and we moved overseas as international teachers.