There still exists in the library at Strasburg a manuscript dating from the end of the 12th century, and adorned with a great number of curious miniatures, one of which, under the strange title of _Ludus Monstrorum_, represents a puppet-show. Two little figures, armed _cap-à-pie_, are made to move and fight by means of a string, whose ends two showmen hold. The painting proves not only the existence of marionettes at that period, but also that they were sufficiently common to supply a symbol intelligible to all, since it is put as an illustration to a moral reflection on the vanity of human things. From the equipment of the figures it may also be inferred that military subjects were then in favour on the narrow stage of the puppet-show. And M. Magnin, zealous to track his fox to its very earth, risks the word _Niebelungen_, but brings no evidence to support his surmise. In the 14th and 15th centuries we obtain more positive data as to the nature of the _puppenspiel_, and of its performances. Romantic subjects, historical fables, were then in fashion—the four sons of Aymon, Genevieve of Brabant, the Lady of Roussillon, to whom her lover’s heart was given to eat, and who killed herself in her despair. The history of Joan of Arc was also a favourite subject. That heroine had an episodical part in a piece performed at Ratisbon in 1430. “There exists,” says M. Magnin, “a precious testimony to a performance of marionettes at that period. In a fragment of the poem of Malagis, written in Germany in the 15th century, after a Flemish translation of our old romance of Maugis, the fairy Oriande de Rosefleur, who has been separated for fifteen years from her beloved pupil, Malagis, arrives, disguised as a juggler, at the castle of Rigremont, where a wedding is being celebrated. She offers the company the diversion of a puppet-show; it is accepted; she asks for a table to serve as a stage, and exhibits upon it two figures, a male and female magician. Into their mouths she puts stanzas, which tell her history and cause her to be recognised by Malagis. M. Von der Hagen has published this fragment from the MS. preserved at Heidelberg, in _Germania_, vol. viii., p. 280. The scene in question is not to be found either in the French poem or the French prose romance.” The 16th century was an epoch in the annals of German puppets. Scepticism and sorcery were the order of the day. Faust stepped upon the stage and held it long.