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

Not specified

Germany

Printed

Hell

Wittenberg

Scholar

Necromancy

Scatology

Laziness

Prague

Eternal punishment

Penitence

Antisemitism

Tragic

Burlesque

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

German

Charon

Pluto

Devil

Faust

Angel

Mephistopheles

Pickelhering

Christoph Wagner

Student

Vizibuzli

Noble

Alexander The Great

Helen of Troy

Prologue

Monologue

Dilemma

Thunderbolt

Repetition of a word

Apparition

Versified passages

Address to the public

Doktor Johann Faust

The tailor Hanswurst is trying to become a spy to arrest the infamous outlaw Schinderhannes. However, he ends up becoming part of the band of outlaws and helps his partners break into the town, which they plunder. Outlaws relate that they have robbed Jewish shopkeepers. Military officials begin to chase Schinderhannes; fights break out. Schinderhannes runs away with his lover Julie. He repents his crimes and protects his future bride, who is crossing the woods with a dowry of 300 Gulden. He even kills an outlaw from his own band to punish him for gratuitous violent acts. Hanswurst is arrested by a French constable for having stolen a farmer’s pigs. Their difficulty to communicate, as they speak two different languages, leads to many amusing misunderstandings. Hanswurst manages to flee and then betrays his leader, who is finally caught by the soldiers.