You may wish to know how puppets found their way from Italy to France. There were two brothers, Giovanni and Francesco Briocchi. Francesco was a skilful wood carver and mechanic. Giovanni was very clever with his speeches and jokes. As children, they loved marionettes. They hardly knew which they enjoyed more, sitting in the audience watching the play, or standing behind the stage watching their friends manipulate the puppets. They decided that when they grew up they would be puppeteers, make their own puppets and travel from town to town and to the fair land of which they had heard so many interesting tales. This they did. Giovanni made the figures skilfully and dressed them beautifully. Francesco made them say and do such clever and amusing things that their fame went before them into small towns and into the large cities. When they had made enough money they said, “Now we can go to France. We can easily carry our little stage and puppets on our backs. We can earn our way by giving plays.” This they did, to the delight of all who saw them. Finally they reached the city of Paris. In those days great fairs were held where people came to buy and sell and to make merry. Here was just the place for Giovanni and Francesco. When the fairs became permanent the brothers decided to settle down and make a real home for their marionettes. This at first was a simple kind of theater, but later came to have every beautiful thing that French taste and ingenuity could provide. One day the king and queen made them a visit and engaged them to come out to their beautiful château at St. Germain en Laye and give puppet plays for their young son, the dauphin, and his friends. In the records of France you may still see the account as it stands: “Sept. 1669, to Jean Briocchi, divertir les enfants de France, 1365 livres.” When the Frenchmen saw the success of the Italian showmen, they, too, began to make puppets and to take them to the places where people gathered who might be willing to spend a few sous for entertainment. Among these was an old dentist, who found it difficult to earn a living. He made some marionettes and a clever little boxlike stage with a curtain about it. It was just large enough for him to stand inside and manipulate the puppets. He decided to take his stand to the Pont Neuf, one of the principal bridges of Paris. Here he would pull teeth when anyone needed his services and for the rest of the time would entertain the people. He had also a very celebrated monkey, called Fagotin, that he knew would attract a crowd. Fagotin he dressed as a sentry, gave him a sword, and trained him to march up and down in front of the little puppet booth. One day a great poet, whose name was Cyrano de Bergerac, was crossing the bridge and stopped, as did most of the people, to see Fagotin and the puppets. It happened that the poet had a very large nose and was a very sensitive person. When he saw Fagotin marching up and