The undisputed predominance of puppets upon the German stage gradually subsided in the eighteenth century as Gottsched and Lessing revived the art of poetry and drama. The actors assumed their own place in the theatre; the Puppen returned to a more modest sphere. But they continued to be popular. After Schutz und Dreher in Berlin came Adolf Glasheimer’s humorous satires of which the hero was _Don Carlos_, with Kasperle to amuse the children, the whole arrangement conducted in connection with a _Conditerei_. In 1851 a revival of marionettes in cultural circles occurred and people streamed to see the clever show in Kellner’s Hotel at Christmas time. Richter, Freudenberg and Linde were three other favorite showmen of Berlin. There had been, indeed, some very exclusive and artistic marionettes at the castle of Eisenstadt in Hungary. Here Prince Nicholas Joseph von Esterhazy had his own very elegant stage with dolls exquisitely perfect and magnificently dressed. He even assembled an orchestra for them, the leader of which was no other than Joseph Haydn himself. This great musician did not scorn composing symphonies for the puppets, _The Toy Symphonies_ and _The Children’s Fair_, both charmingly playful compositions. He also wrote five operas for these distinguished marionettes, _Filemon and Baucis_, _Genievre_, _Didone_, _Vendetta_, _The Witches’ Sabbath_. But it was not his noble patron alone who influenced Haydn to compose for the puppets. Previously he had become interested and had written an opera called _The Lame Devil_ for the burattini of an Italian puppet player, Bernardoni, in Vienna. The marionettes have likewise attracted genius in other fields. The Romanticists, Arnim and Brentano, as well as the poets Kerner, Uhland and Mörike had interested themselves in shadow plays rather than puppet shows. But Heinrich Kleist wrote a very sympathetic and profound little essay called _Concerning the Marionette Theatre_. He seeks to discover the mysterious charm in puppet gesture and he suggests that the great dramatists must have watched the puppet plays with unusual interest and that artists of the dance might well learn the art of pantomime from the little figures.