The fisherman's daughter Lisi and the young bird-catcher Wastl live by a lake in Germany. They offer hospitality to the painter Wilhelm, who has just returned from Italy. The short play ends with a song to nature and joy.

Not specified

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Manuscript

Fishing

Bird

Nature

Painting

Picturesque

Countryside

Birdcatcher

Bucolic

Forest

Wood

Happiness

Painter

Music

Italy

Journey

Hospitality

Childhood

Lyrical

German

Allegory

Monologue

Metatheatre

Song

Final song

Am See

By the lake

The widow Werner lives with her young son Ludwig in misery: a sad Christmas is coming. To surprise her son, Mrs Werner goes out to buy a small pine tree and some apples. In her absence, Ludwig writes a letter to baby Jesus, asking for an illustrated Bible: he throws the letter out of the window addressing it to the angels. On Christmas morning, a package is delivered containing the Bible he asked for. The donor is Friedrich Walter, an old friend of the deceased Karl Werner: he has just returned from a long trip to the Orient and is inquiring at the police station about the widow's address, when some officers tell him of the amusing discovery of Ludwig's letter. Friedrich Walter takes the widow and child under his protection.

String marionette

Young audiences

Printed

Poverty

Reading

Education

Hanswurst

Kasperl

Bible

Crib

Piety

Sentimentalism

Social realism

Christmas

Realist

Pathetic

Letter

Transforming scenery

Chorus

Deus ex machina

Der Weihnachts-Brief

Christmas Letter

Wiltrud and Scohlint, the bad witches, make Princess Röslein (or Dornröslein, “Thorn Flower”) fall asleep, along with the whole court of King Purpur and of Queen Hermelin, by pricking her finger on a distaff when she turns fifteen. The fairy Sconea mitigates the curse by promising that it will turn into a blessing. Years later, the knight Minnamunt finds the bewitched castle, defeats the giant Schlafdorn (“Sleeping Thorn”) who was guarding the gates and wakes the princess and her court.

Romanticism

Poetry

Sorcery

Philosophy

Adult

Mechanization

Heroism

Sleep

Shakespeare

Fantasy

Humorous

Illustration by Franz von Pocci for the original edition of the play

Queen

Prince

Poet

Valet

Fairy

Old woman

Herald

Giant

Apparition

Versified passages

Address to the public

Word for another

Talking at cross-purposes

Talking animal

Fight

Current affairs

Dornröslein

Sleeping Beauty

A poet comes out of his bath to walk on a bridge and enjoy the sunset. A gardener walks past him and mentions the glorious life he gave up in order to cultivate flowers. A young man relates his day spent hunting alone. Then comes a stranger, and after him a girl who is listening to a traveling singer. Night has now fallen. A group of three people arrives on the bridge: a madman, his servant, and a doctor. The madman is a young nobleman who had a life of abundance before devoting himself to solitude and to roaming. He meditates on the illusion of all things while leaning on the bannister. He tries to throw himself in the water, but his comrades prevent him from doing so.

Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August

Austria

Bad Fusch

Bath

Evening

Landscape

Flowers

Loneliness

Glory

Misery

Hunting

Dream

River

Night

Destiny

Melancholy

Madness

Illusion

Suicide

Oder die Glücklichen

Gardener

Street singer

Fool

Domestic servant

Physician

Teichoscopy

Light effects

Off-stage voice

Das kleine Welttheater

The small theatre of the world

The play takes place on a island of dreams. Mère-Grand learns that Myrrhine has distanced herself from her five sisters to dream on her own by the sea. She worries about it, as this daydreaming can only carry the young woman off towards reality. Myrrhine confirms that the “bandeau d’illusion” (the blindfold of illusion) has indeed been lifted from her eyes, and that she no longer believes in fairytales, only in love: she loves the Chevalier Tavonin (Knight Tavonin) and believes that she is loved by him too. The Knight appears on a small boat with Aurore, his new lover, and rejects Myrrhine. In her despair, she calls on the Génie des Arbres (the Genie of the Trees) and the Fée des Mousses (the Moss Fairy), but they are powerless—they cannot console her now that she has lost her illusions. Myrrhine kills herself by jumping into the sea. Mère-Grand blames her death on the Knight, but he replies saying that he is Love incarnated and that all of Myrrhine’s sisters will suffer the same fate, as their eyes will eventually be opened too.

Belgium

Love

Reality

Unfaithfulness

Death

Belief

Island

Teenagers

Genie

Plant world

Funeral procession

Tragic

French

Grandmother

Knight

Revelation

Le Bandeau d'illusion

The Blindfold of illusion

The widow Schulzen is as happy about her daughter Rosa as she is worried about her son Peter. This wild child with tousled hair and long nails stopped going to school, has no respect for anything or anyone, and his persistent acts of mischief targeting the villagers could send him to prison. Rosa leaves the house and sets out to find the wizard Albaras, who appeared to her in a dream and promised to improve her brother’s behaviour. Her quest takes her to the court of King Arthur, whose son Tugendreich is old enough to marry and take charge of the kingdom, but wallows in the increasingly insolent jesting of his servant Kasper. His jokes go far enough that he is soon driven out of the kingdom as a bad subject. He wanders in the mountains where Albaras’s castle stands and, reformed, decides to become his servant. In the meantime, Peter became a drifter: he too crosses paths with Albaras’ servant, but he makes fun of his face because it is black, and spirits start possessing him. Rosa comes in, after a long journey from the king’s court. Albaras urges Peter to turn his life around, but he refuses stubbornly. As a punishment, the spirits dip Peter into a large inkwell, until he is completely black. As for Rosa, she came back to her mother’s house. Kasperl joins them with Peter, who is now clean and obedient. Prince Tugendreich then comes in and proposes to Rosa, who he saw at his father’s court. Albaras appears and ends the play.

Apel Heinrich

Saxony

Disobedience

Wedding

Wickedness

Disrespect

Respect

Vagrant

Good-for-nothing

Learning

Magic

Inkwell

Didactic

Der Strubbelpeter

Die Reise ins Zauberland

Marshal

Magician

Famulus

Widow

Schoolteacher

Peasant (man)

Laundress

Initiatory quest

Der Strubbelpeter im Tintenfass

Shock-headed Peter in the inkwell

In Florence, Lully, the son of a miller, hides so that he can listen to religious songs. Le Père Cordelier (Father Cordelier) gives him his first music classes. He starts to sing in public with Arlequin and Pantalon. The Chevalier de Guise (Knight of Guise) brings him to France, but he is hired as a kitchen hand for the Grande Mademoiselle (​​Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier). Playing the violin in front of Mazarin and the Grande Mademoiselle, he obtains the right to continue to study music. With Madeleine Lambert, he makes Louis XIV, who came incognito, dance. He is in charge of composing a show in which Louis XIV dances.

All audiences

Choisy Laure

Switzerland

Geneva

Typed or electronic text with handwritten annotations

Humiliation

Royal Court

Kitchen

Commedia dell'arte

Lully le petit musicien

Priest

Composer

Pantaloon

Arlecchino

Cardinal

Writer

Cook

Donkey

Monkey

Parrot

Misunderstanding

Comical foreign accent

Dance

Theatre within the theatre

Incognito

Lully enfant prodige

Lully child prodigy

Princess Dana of Gurkistan is kidnapped and sequestered by the sorcerer Khalakuck and she must prepare him eight noodle dishes a day and clean his nose every morning. But after a year, the magician gives her a choice: either to marry him or be devoured! At this moment she discovers that the rocking horse that was in her room is none other than Prince Schaukelpferd from Spielzeugland transformed into a toy. With the help of Tziptzap, a magic tit (bird), they manage to escape from their prison, flying on Schaukelpferd’s back, which has grown wings during the night. But they are caught by Khalakuck. The prince knows that he only has three and a half metamorphoses left to win the final battle against the sorcerer. The tale ends with a triple wedding: the prince with the princess, the market gardener with the policeman, and Kasperl with Grete. The last couple was indeed already married, but marriage, according to Kasperl, is something you can never do too often.

Fühmann Franz

Berlin

Fairy play

Tale

Wonderland

German Democratic Republic (GDR)

Socialism

Freedom

Jail

Emancipation

Das Spiel von der glücklichen Flucht des Prinzen Schaukelpferd vom Spielzeugland mit der Prinzessin Dana von Gurkistan aus der Burg des bösen Zauberers Khalakuck

The play about the happy escape of Prince Rocking Horse of Toyland with Princess Dana of Gurkistan from the castle of the evil sorcerer Khalakuck