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

Botius – a philosopher – lives a happy life. He succumbs to despair and madness when his partner Opina leaves him for another man. He is then attacked by hooligans, who pull his eyes out. Police offices come to his aid, but they lead him near his mother’s skeleton. He falls into a sort of grave and does not manage to escape. He tries to find reassurance in reminding himself that he still has the ability to think. Hooligans urinate on him, and he catches a glimpse of Opina’s legs, which are dangling. A rope appears. He tries to haul himself out of the hole, but the rope only leads to a void. His head is cut in half and his brain explodes and spills all over the floor. His lookalike appears, then so does Opina. She kisses the lookalike and leaves with him. Hooligans are being carried on crosses, on which they are crucified upside down. Their wails torment Botius. He comes closer to them and realizes that they are dead. A cart driver and a horse arrive. Botius calls out to the cart driver so that he may pick up his brain. The horse tears off one of the hooligans’ head and holds it by the hair between its teeth. They leave. Botius meets a pregnant woman and an old man. The couple begins to make love. A child walks up tentatively. The horse comes back and devours the child. Botius asks it to eat him too, to put an end to his misery, but the horse goes away. He concludes that his soul must be difficult to digest.