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.

String marionette

Trained animal

Not specified

Geisselbrecht Johann Georg

Germany

Frankfurt

Printed

Manuscript

Robber

Antisemitism

Nationalism

Failure of language

Dramatic

Comical

German

Der große Räuber am Rhein

Julie Blasius

Mayor

Guard

Peasant (female)

Peasant (man)

Porcher

Constable

Recruiter

Tailor

Hanswurst

Address to the public

Monologue

Song

Comical foreign accent

Misunderstanding

Inn scene

Entering with vehicle

Schinderhannes

Sultan Mustapumpum still needs more soldiers to send his army to massacre the Christians, whom he wants to turn into tongue and ear salad for his meal. On the orders of Marshal Morackel, the recruiter of the Sultan's army tries to recruit the Jews Schmuel and Zwirn, who immediately flee; then he recruits Kasperl. But Kasperl knocks Morackel out with the rifle he gave him for the exercise. The marshal catches him in the act and wants to have him hanged. Kasperl does it so badly that Morackel puts the rope around his neck himself to show him how. Kasperl hangs him and then kills the Sultan by hitting him with the gallows.

Reinhardt Carl

Munich

Turkey

Sultan

Muslim

Black

Army

Military service

Gallows

Silliness

Despotism

Cruelty

Farcical

Kasperl

Role reversal

Word for another

Kasperl als Rekrut in der Türkei

Kasperl, a recruit in Turkey

Having graduated from the University of Heidelberg, Anselme has become an assistant at old Hans’s toyshop, in Nuremberg, in order to grow closer to his employer’s daughter, Wilhelmine, whom he secretly loves. The son of the adviser Paykul also courts her. The Jew Mardochée sells them dolls which look like little women sleeping, and he says that they come from the Moon. In the evening, when Anselme is alone, Queen Lunaria and her companions wake up and tell him that they have come from the Moon. Anselme protects them from the monster Angramanyou, genie of underground fire, by delivering toys to him instead. Spiders threaten the women of the Moon, then different objects (household utensils, balloons) become animated, introduce themselves one after the other and dance. Anselme confesses his love to Lunaria, who grows and reveals herself to be Wilhelmine, the two women having been mistaken for one another in a dream. With Hans’s permission, Anselme and Wilhelmine decide to get married.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

France

Nohant

Moon

Dream

Impossible love

Doll

Genie

Sleep

Shyness

Fantasy

Fantastic

Frontispiece for the volume containing the play Jouets et Mystères

French

Merchant (man)

Baroness

Young girl

Maid

Queen

Spider

Balai

Plumeau

Brosse

Balloon

Love rivalry

Fight

Engulfment

Ballet

Dance

One character replaced by another

Plot twist

Apparition

Apparition of a genie

Chorus

Prosopopoeia

Jouets et mystères

Toys and Mysteries

Rosa – the keeper of the “Zum Golden Stern” inn – wants her daughter Analies to marry Kasper, the waiter, so that he does not go to war and can protect the inn. But Analies hesitates. She A Zouave, who promises her a rich life after the war, courts her. Kasperl is disappointed and enlists in the Prussian army. After arresting a Jewish spy, he receives a bonus and finds favour with his major who makes him his Fourierschütz (a soldier assigned to an officer for protection and personal service). Kasperl follows his regiment and arrives near Sedan, where he meets Analies again. She has been abandoned in the middle of a battlefield by the Zouave, who was sick of her. She wants to go back to Kasperl. The major forces them to marry. Analies agrees on the spot, but Kasperl has reservations about it: what if she leaves him again? Analies promises to be faithful and Kasperl agrees to marry her. Kasperl’s major must escort prisoners to Strasbourg. Kasperl and Analies go back to the inn. Rosa was worried about her daughter’s and her waiter’s fates. The wedding is celebrated with dances, while rows of prisoners parade outside the inn.

Electronic text

Money

Anti-Semitism

Loyalty in love

Heroic

Kasperls kriegerische Heldenthaten

Innkeeper

Fiancée

Waiter

Fourierschütz

Zouave

Prisoner

Captain

Lieutenant

Auxiliary

Shopkeeper

Schoolteacher

Surgeon

Soldier

Batman

Battlefield scene

Beating with a broom

Death on stage

Die Schlacht bei Sedan am 2 September 1870

The Battle of Sedan on 2 September 1870

The avant-garde painter Kompowski, annoyed by the critics who come to see him in his workshop, goes to the café. The drunken servant, Kasperl, takes advantage of his absence to paint a canvas with a very bad view of Munich. Gallery owners who had come to acquire the master's works bought his paintings from him for a thousand marks. The crowd comes to cheer the artist. But the critic Schaikeles eventually learns the identity of the real creator of the painting. Anzenmaier and Burger, the gallery owners, come to claim their money when Kompowski returns home, and the fight becomes widespread. Kasperl puts an end to this by smashing the paintings over the heads of the gallery owners and knocking Gombrowski out with his easel.