Charlemagne

Charlemagne is represented in the puppet show as the emperor and supposed father of Melisendra, whose rebuke of Don Gaiferos turns an account of neglect into a demand for action. Crowned and holding a sceptre, he confronts his son-in-law for failing to rescue his captive wife and warns that the delay imperils his honor.

Identity and Role

The audience encounters Charlemagne through the interpreter’s explanation of the puppet show, not as a participant in the surrounding events. In the tale being performed, he is identified as Melisendra’s supposed father and as the emperor angered by Don Gaiferos’s inaction. His crown and sceptre make his authority visible, while his role in the episode is to insist that the threatened honor of the family requires a rescue.

Rebuke and Its Consequences

Charlemagne’s reproach is forceful enough that the interpreter says spectators might think he was about to strike Don Gaiferos with the sceptre. The account preserves some uncertainty about whether the blows occur: the interpreter notes that credible authors say Charlemagne did strike him. He then gives the rebuke its decisive conclusion, telling Don Gaiferos that enough has been said and that he must act.

Charlemagne’s intervention provokes the response the show has been building toward. Don Gaiferos flings away the gaming table and board, calls for his armor, and asks Don Roland to lend him Durindana. When Don Roland offers to accompany him instead, Don Gaiferos refuses the company, insisting that he can rescue Melisendra alone. Charlemagne does not undertake the journey himself; his function in the scene is to make continued inaction untenable.