Kasperl returns drunk from the tavern and his wife Grethl refuses to let him in. He meets the night watchman, whom he frightens by pretending to be a ghost. He picks up the halberd and the lantern that the watchman dropped in his flight. That night, the moon is off duty and wanders through the streets. Kasperl apprehends it for wandering at night: as the moon refuses to comply, he strikes it in the face with his halberd, which destroys it. He then meets death and beats it with a stick. Finally the rooster crows. Kasperl is annoyed that the rooster can't say anything except "cock-a-doodle-doo" and kills it, then brings it back to Grethl for a meal: when she sees the poultry, she lets him come inside.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Drunkenness

Drunkard

Couple

Night

City

Village

Celestial body

Phantom

Ghost

Halberd

Poultry

Chicken

Tavern

Fantasy

Burlesque

German

Kasperl

Mrs Kasperl

Night watchman

Moon

Death

Cock, cockerel

Apparition

Disguise

Animated natural element

Personification

Domestic scene

Versified passages

Fight

Metatheatre

Kasperl als Nachtwächter

Kasperl the night watchman

M. Prudhomme is the owner of a village called Terrevieille (Oldland) where he lives with his faithful servant Gazette and his neighbour Annexmann. One day, Gazette advises him to build walls around his garden and to arm the inhabitants of his land because other peasants are equipped with stakes. M. Prudhomme commands her to find out the culprit, and Gazette leaves, seeking information. Meanwhile Annexmann arrives to discuss a neighbour called Danois (Danish) and a parcel which used to belong to his ancestors. Fearing a conflict, M. Prudhomme decides to dig ditches and to arm his people. Shortly after, Gazette comes back and informs her master that Annexmann’s men are carrying sticks with a needle on top whilst M. Prudhomme’s men have Chassepot rifles. During the conversation, we learn of a new problem: a certain Victor had promised to respect the presbytery of the village’s vicar that is located in his orchards. However, Victor is now threatening to evict the vicar from his land. M. Prudhomme is outraged by this situation and, with Gazette, decides to defend the vicar’s house. In return for her precious help, Gazette asks M. Prudhomme for a very special reward: freedom.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Lemercier de Neuville Louis

France

Marseille

Neighbourhood

Army

Priest

Current events

Property

Comical

Satirical

Lemercier de Neuville, illustration for Mon Village, 1868.

French

Landlord

Monsieur Prudhomme

Servant

Neighbour

Monologue

Play in verse

Comical foreign accent

Situation comedy

Allusion to current political events

Mon village

My village

Hans is drunk and comes upon the night watchman. He slaps him and beats him to take revenge for having arrested him earlier, when the curfew started. The watchman calls for help and a student arrives. But he also beats him with a cane, for the same reasons as Hans. At the end of the play, Grete comes fetch her husband to bring him home.

Müller Alphons

Frankfurt

Curfew

Municipality

Public order

Farcical

Front cover of the collection Sechs neue Lust-Spiele für das Porzinell-Theater

Nächtliches Schauergemälde mit Mondscheinbeleuchtung in einem Akt

Student

Role reversal

Blow-with-a-stick

Sung scenes

Stichomythia

Hans und der betrunkene Nachtwächter

Hans and the drunk night watchman

A very big and very strong ogre terrifies an entire village. As the ogre sleeps, digesting a cow he has eaten, the inhabitants leap at the chance to tie him down. When he wakes up, they tell him they will not free him unless he does something useful, such as cleaning all the houses’ chimneys and blowing on some clouds so that it rains. Once the ogre has accomplished these tasks, the villagers have him believe that another ogre claims to be stronger than he is. The ogre goes into the mountains to challenge his rival. Because of the echo of his screams, he keeps thinking that his rival always is further and further away, so much so that he never comes back to the village.