“Marionettes touch. . .on everything in the world which is most consequential; on sciences, on fine arts, on poetry, on religious ceremonies, on politics. Enchanting little creatures. . .marionettes have received from sculpture, form; from painting, color; from mechanics, movement; from poetry, words; from music, song; from the dance, grace and the measure of steps and gesture; and finally from improvisation, the most precious of privileges, liberty of free speech.”

Charles Magnin, Historie des Marionettes en Europe, 1862 [quoted in John Bell's Strings Hands Shadows: A Modern Puppet History]