Hanswurst is thrown out like trash from the stage of the Berlin theatre following the success of Voltaire’s tragedy Alzire. He is exiled to Salzbourg, where he lodges at Stoffel Knips’ house and seduces his host’s wife. Stoffel Knips catches them in the act and throws them out. Hanswurst’s distress is such that he tries to kill himself. But thunder strikes the branch on which he was hanging. Two Turks pass by the unconscious couple and take them aboard their felucca going to Turkey. During the trip, Madame Knips gives birth to two children – a boy and a girl – who grow extremely fast. In Turkey, Hanswurst is castrated to be made a eunuch in the Sultan’s seraglio. Madame Knips fell in the sea with her son during the trip, but she manages to swim to shore. She competes with her daughter for the Sultan’s favours; Hanswurst takes offence and makes a scene. He is banished by the Sultan as a result, and returns to Berlin, where he meets a prostitute. He recognizes one of the brothel’s clients as his own son, who also escaped drowning and became a pedant professor of philosophy. During a lecture he gives on the German almanac Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, published by Friedrich Christoph Nicolai, all the characters on stage die from atrocious diarrhoea.

Not specified

Schink Johann Friedrich

Germany

Berlin

Printed

Turkey

Sultan

Seraglio

Unfaithfulness

Prostitution

Suicide

Education

Literary criticism

Sturm und Drang

Genie

Adventure

Navigation

Human castration

Mutilation

Childbirth

Storm

Tempest

Scatology

Colic

Fart

Fornication

Triviality

Obscenity

Satirical

Anonymous illustration on the title page of Johann Friedrich Schink's collection Marionettentheater

German

Hanswurst

Madame Knips

Turk

Sailor

Daughter

Physician

Slave

Lady

Old woman

Prompter (theatre)

Scene of recognition

Bawdy equivocation

Splitting of the body

Prologue

Address to the public

Love story

Hanging scene

Play in verse

Epilogue

Unexpected turn of events

Brothel scene

Foul language register

Allusion to current literary events

Hanswurst von Salzburg mit dem hölzernen Gat

Hanswurst of Salzbourg with the wooden arse

Charon asks Pluto – the ruler of the underworld – to make devils deliver more souls to him. In Wittenberg, Doctor Faust dreams of knowing everything there is to know and learns necromancy: he then makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles. They leave together for Prague, where they make Alexander the Great and his wife Padamera appear. When he is back in Wittenberg, Faust wants to repent, but Mephistopheles tempts him by offering him the fair Helen of Troy. In the end, during a dinner with his students, everyone abandons Faust: he knows that his final hour has come. At midnight, he will be damned.

String marionette

Hell

Wittenberg

Scholar

Necromancy

Laziness

Prague

Future punishment

Penitence

Judeophobia

Tragic

Burlesque

First page of the play in Johann Scheible's Das Kloster, 1847

Charon

Pluto

Devil

Faust

Angel

Mephistopheles

Pickelhering

Christoph Wagner

Student

Vizibuzli

Noble

Alexander The Great

Helen of Troy

Monologue

Dilemma

Thunderbolt

Word reiteration

Appearance

Versified passages

Doktor Johann Faust

Polichinell argues with Pierrot and beats him to death with a stick. Then he kills an infant whose screams were bothering him, along with the nanny – Gänsehals. Polichinell shows more affection for his kitten, but the cat almost chokes because Polichinell feeds him without restraint. The apothecary, who heard the cries, arrives; Polichinell kills him too, because he suggested that his hump could be a deformity that should be operated on. The superintendent Spürnase arrives as well to determine what is happening in the house, and ends up being killed too, just like the two police officers that came to arrest Polichinell. As for the executioner Knüpfauf, he is hung to his own gallows by Polichinell. Finally, the Devil appears. Polichinell fends for himself, and when his opponent thinks him dead, he gets back on his feet abruptly…and kills him with a single stroke.

Glove-puppet

Young audiences

Leipzig

Pickle

Nose

Hump

Funny face

Nurse

Insults

Noise

Serial murder

Gallows

Legion of Honour

Farcical

The first of ten engravings on copper

Kleinkinderbuch

Polichinelle

Pierrot

Baby

Apothecary

Police Superintendant

Constable

Executioner

Song

Blow-with-a-stick

Murder on stage

Comic Equivocation

Der siegreiche Held Polichinell

Polichinell the Victorious Hero

Casperl gets drunk with the hunter Thomerl and Thomerl offers to put Casperl’s wife Grethl to the test: Casperl has to fake an illness that will lead to his death, and Thomerl, disguised as a doctor, will come and certify the death. As soon as Casperl is pronounced dead, Grethl tries to console herself in the arms of Lieutenant Pulvermann. The fake dead man is resurrected, a fight ensues in which Pulvermann is killed and the corpse is taken backstage. A police officer comes to seize Casperl, but husband and wife join forces against the impetuous man, who is forced to give in to the violence. To celebrate their reconciliation, Casperl and Grethl go to the inn, where they also meet with Thomerl.

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Wedding

Household

Philosophy

Beer

Wine

Gluttony

Doctor

Drunkenness

Medicine

Grief

Reconciliation

Tavern

Comical

Ein beispielloses Spektakelstück

Kasperl

Thomerl

Madame Kasperl

Lieutenant

Police officer

Macaronism

Word for another

Spying scene

Parody of formal language

Aside

Fake death

Disguise

Dream

Brawl

Dance

Slaps

Die Prüfung

The test

While fishing in a lake despite the prohibition, Casperl catches a crawfish, which tells him its story: it is actually called Zimbimbimperl and was transformed into a crawfish by her father, the magician Crocodilus, after a violent argument with her mother, the Egyptian fairy Persea. Persea travels the world to find her daughter, when she meets Casperl who informs her of Zimbimbimperl's fate. The gods of Egypt return her daughter to her, but demand that she sacrifices Casperl to them in return. In the meantime, Crocodilus has been captured and sold in a menagerie. But he manages to escape and takes refuge in the lake, surprising the reunion of mother and daughter. He wants to devour them, but Casperl intervenes and knocks him out. Crocodilus is calmed by the blow to the head. He has barely reconciled with his family when the owner of the Löwenmajer menagerie comes to claim him for his circus. Casperl kills him and declares the sacrifice to the gods complete. The play ends with a grand finale and an apotheosis of 'Casperl the Wise'.