The narrator describes a king who lives only to joke. The king’s seven ministers are, like himself, committed jokers. They even resemble him physically—fat and oily. The narrator supposes that there is a connection between corpulence and joking, given how often jokers are fat.
The king’s humor is unrefined, and he prefers practical jokes to verbal ones. He, like other kings at the time, owns a jester who amuses him at court. The jester’s name is Hop-Frog, and he is a dwarf and crippled. The king delights at this confluence of traits, as he can laugh both at Hop-Frog’s witticisms and his stature. In order to walk, Hop-Frog must perform a very strained movement; his upper limbs have considerable strength, however, and he can climb abnormally well. When Hop-Frog climbs objects, he resembles a squirrel or small monkey more than a frog.
Hop-Frog was taken from a distant country when the king’s general conquered it. Along with a dancer girl named Trippetta from an adjacent province, he was given to the king as a gift. Due to her grace and beauty, Trippetta possesses influence that she uses to benefit her companion Hop-Frog. The jester, by comparison, has no courtly favor with which to gain benefits.
The king plans to hold a masquerade ball on a grand state occasion. Hop-Frog is inventive in designing costumes and characters, so he assists greatly with such events. On the night of the ball, the hall is elaborately set up in accordance with Trippetta’s guidance. Every masquerader has a costume except the king and his ministers, who are presently indecisive. For that reason, Hop-Frog is brought in to assist them in choosing costumes.
The king is in poor humor and forces Hop-Frog to drink copious quantities of wine, a beverage that makes Hop-Frog unpleasantly mad. Hop-Frog is confused after drinking the wine and cannot suggest anything immediately. The king is angered and tells Hop-Frog to drink more, joking that he is sulky and must need more wine. Trippetta intervenes and implores the king to spare Hop-Frog. The king is stunned and unsure what to do, but eventually shoves Trippetta to the floor.
After a period of silence, there is a harsh grating noise which, unbeknownst to the king and his ministers, is the sound of Hop-Frog angrily grinding his teeth. Hop-Frog placates the king by saying he will drink as much as the king wants, and states that he has an act for eight people that will cause great astonishment. He calls it the “Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs,” and it portrays a set of beasts that have escaped their captors. The king roars with approval and agrees to perform the masquerade act.
Hop-Frog equips the king and his ministers with tight-fitting flax and wax costumes. Then he chains them together. In the circular masquerade hall, a chain hangs from the skylight that would normally hold the chandelier. The chandelier is removed for this occasion, on Trippetta’s advice.
The masquerade begins, and the king and his ministers wait outside until midnight. They burst in when the clock strikes and instruct Hop-Frog, who has the keys, to lock the door. A great fright ensues, and people rush to the doors. During the height of the tumult, the skylight chain descends to just a few feet above the floor.
The king and his ministers eventually find themselves at the center of the hall. While Hop-Frog incites them to maintain the commotion, he attaches the chain binding them together to the chandelier-chain. Suddenly, this chandelier-chain is pulled upwards, hoisting the king and his ministers into the air. Hop-Frog leaps onto the chained group and announces, with a torch in his hand, that he will soon find out who they are. The chained group is pulled further upwards, with Hop-Frog on top of them. After a minute’s silence, Hop-Frog produces the same grating noise with his teeth, but this time the audience knows it’s him.
Hop-Frog pretends to scrutinize the king and his ministers with his torch and sets fire to the flax of their costumes. He climbs higher on the chain to avoid catching fire and then announces to the aghast audience that he sees clearly who the masked individuals are. They are a king who would strike a defenseless girl and the king’s complicit ministers, he states. He declares, furthermore, that he is the jester Hop-Frog and that this is his final act, before escaping onto the roof through the skylight. The narrator explains that his companion Trippetta likely aided him from the roof and that neither was seen again.
