Picture a decor of roses of fabulous size and hue, among which flits what the programme notes refer to as a 'Papillon Fantasque', to the delight of a 'Jardinier Romantique', who catches the Papillon in his net. But lo, here comes the Gardener's employer ('Le Prince' on the programme), and for his special benefit the Jardinier, who practices sorcery as a sideline, transforms the Papillon into a Princess who suddenly appears among the fabulous roses.
The Prince, after one look at her, decides she's 'the goods' and makes passes at her accordingly, to the annoyance of the Jardinier who falls for her himself and thinks he is entitled to author's rights. At first the rivals support their claims with innocent showing-off in the form of pirouettes, tours-en-l'air, and odds and ends of tumbling; but these inoffensive diversions develop into a contest in which the poor Papillon, even in the more material form of a tough little Princess, gets all but torn to shreds the way the rivals throw her about and seemingly endeavour, to whisk her away. Hoisted to dizzy heights by the Prince who starts to carry her off in an overhead arabesque, she blows a coquettish kiss to the despairing Jardinier below and, holding herself straight as a ramrod, falls with a cartwheel motion towards him, he catching her, head downward, within an inch of the floor and an ace of killing herself. The rivals then seize the persecuted Papillon by her arms and legs—an arm and leg each— and whirl her violently, round and round in the air like a wheel, they, themselves also turning with each revolution, enough to make the whole audience feel giddy.
Eventually the Princess, or what is left of her, decides she's had her fill of that sort of thing for one performance, and contrives, another dramatic leap plump into the bosom of the fabulous roses, preferring after all the existence of a Papillon to the tender mercies of the lovelorn Prince and Jardinier.
From The Unending Quest
Autobiographical Sketches by Sir Paul Dukes
