Don Juan has asked his servant Kasperl to sell his last shirt and coat, but Kasperl has spent the money from the sale on beers. He sends him to borrow money from his father, the knight Pantolfius. When Pantolfius refuses, Don Juan himself comes to ask him to comply, but in vain, and Kasperl kicks him in the nose. To find money, Kasperl then has the idea of summoning the devil, but when Don Juan wants to sell him his soul, he replies that it already belongs to him and takes it to hell.

Not specified

Reinhardt Carl

Germany

Munich

Printed

Tralala

Excessive drinking

Drunkard

Drinking

Credit

Father

Perlike

Money

Debt

Hits

Radirullala

Devil

Eternal punishment

Satirical

Parodistic

Grotesque

Farcical

German

Don Juan

Pantolfius

Kasperl

Final intervention of the devil

Spectacular turn of events

Song

Pact with the devil

Kasperl und Don Juan

Kasperl and Don Juan

The devil steals the box in which Kasperl, in the previous play (<a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5777/frau-kasperl-und-die-köchin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frau Kasperl und die Köchin</a>) had locked his wife, his lover and the night watchman. He replaces it with another box in which Kasperl almost gets his nose stuck when he comes to sniff if it does not contain sausages. Instead, the devil emerges and wants to take him away. But Kasperl has fun making him disappear and reappear with the magic formula "Parlucke! Parlicke" until the devil gets dizzy and cries for mercy. He insists that Kasperl follow him, who finally announces that he is going to draw his will and returns with a club, with which he kills the devil. He seals him up in the box and goes to throw it in the fire.

Glove-puppet

Woman

Eating

Hunger

Stick

Grandparents

Comical

Role reversal

Running gag

Apparition of the Devil

Blow-with-a-stick

Hidden corpse

Kasperl und der Teufel

Kasperl and the Devil

The tailor Bock lodges a complaint with the mayor Salzmaier against Kasperl, his tenant, for night-time disturbances. Salzmaier wants to put him in prison, but Kasperl, warned by his clerk friend Spritzler, pretends to be Garibaldi, entering the Tyrol leading 50,000 men. He takes up residence in Salzmaier's house, flirts with his wife Margarethe and drinks so much beer... that everyone recognises him: the play ends with a general brawl.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Beer

Spousal abuse

Italy

Army

Seduction

Burlesque

Ein politisches Trauerspiel, aus dem Italienischen übersetzt

Clerk

Madame Kasperl

Tailor

Innkeeper

In der Ferne das Garibaldische Armeekorps

Inn scene

Political allegory

Parody of formal language

Word for another

Dialect

Macaronism

Disguise

Brawl

Kasperl als Garibaldi

Kasperl as Garibaldi

Surprised by a downpour, Prince Alfred and his companion von Edelfels take refuge in Casperl’s household while Grethl waits for her husband to return from the inn. Casperl arrives in a very drunken state and immediately falls asleep. The prince, who had retired with von Edelfels to a nearby hovel, has an idea for a joke. He has the sleeping Casperl taken to a luxurious room, where he is treated with full honours. Soon Casperl does not know whether he is Casperl or Prince Schnuri... Pretending to be his doctor, Prince Alfred gives him a sleeping pill, and Casperl wakes up a few hours later in his old room. Von Edelfels, disguised as a magician, assures him that he is indeed Prince Schnuri, but that as a punishment for being a drunkard he has been turnt into a ‘dumb man’. Casperl finds Grethl and promises to make amends, all while announcing that he will drink many more litres of beer.

Household

Rain

Joke

Aristocracy

Luxury

Sausage

Metempsychosis

Black

Doctor

Magic

Otto von Bismarck

Tavern

Moralische Komödie in drei Aufzügen

Prince

Moorish

Valet

Monologue

Off-stage voice

Spying scene

Cross-dressing

Pyrotechnics

Board

Current affairs

Incognito

Casperl als Prinz

Casperl prince

Donna Anna turns Don Juan away – she prefers her more virtuous brother. Don Juan asks his father for three hundred ducats to win her over. When Don Pedro refuses and threatens to throw him behind bars, he loses his temper and murders him. Don Juan flees the town with his servant Kasperl, whom he pretends is the new sergeant, to fool the guards, and they hide in the woods. There, they meet a hermit and Don Juan wants to borrow his clothes to disguise himself. But Kasperl tells the hermit what crimes his master Don Juan has committed, and Don Juan eliminates this troublesome witness. In the meantime, the devil appears to Kasperl, who promptly gets rid of him. As they arrive to an inn, Don Pedro’s ghost appears to them and Don Juan invites him to dinner. The ghost agrees to the invitation and is poorly received by Kasperl, who go as far as throwing a chair on him. Don Juan refuses to repent. The ghost invites him back, then holds out his hand to him to seal their deal. At this moment, devils come and carry him into the air. Kasperl takes all of his master’s money and celebrates.

Schmidt Leopold

Austria

Vienna

Lover

Brother

Jealousy

Parricide

Murder

Assassination

Ghost

Phantom

Love

Nature

Vanity

Spirits

Dramatic

Tragic

Lyrical

Das nächtliche Gericht, oder Der steinerne Gast, oder Junker Hans von Stein

Don Pietro

Anna

Guard

Hermit

Waitress

Dance

Versified passages

Apparition

Murder on stage

Comic equivocation

Running away

Dialect as a social marker

Don Juan der Wilde

Don Juan the Wild Man

Guignol embarks on a hot-air balloon set for the Moon, in order to escape poverty and make his fiancée’s dreams come true. The balloon takes him first to the Mer de Glace (a glacier in France), then close to the Sun, and finally to the Moon. Guignol is captured by the guards. But when he meets the king of the Moon, he succeeds in convincing him that it would be more profitable for him to keep him as an ally, since he could establish trades between the Moon and the Earth. Guignol also shows the king the power of firearms, which are manufactured on Earth. Firearms being a lot more effective than the low-tech weapons of the Moon, Guignol promises the king that they will help him subdue an enemy neighbour. He is then appointed general. Gnafron and Madelon eventually travel to the Moon too, and the play ends with a feast.

All audiences

France

Lyon

Manuscript

Cosmic journey

Gas balloon

Parachute

Communication

Bear

Trade

Fantasy

First page of the handwritten manuscript of Guignol dans la Lune

French

Pièce féerique en 8 tableaux

Guignol

Gnafron

Madelon

Prosecutor

Queen

Prime Minister

Soldier

Change of social status

Allusion to current literary events

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Letter

Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol on the Moon

Gretl complains about Casperl's absence, as he always comes home late and very drunk. When he finally arrives, she gets angry and wishes he would go to the Gold Star or the Silver Moon (these are the names of the taverns Casperl frequents) and never return. Her wish seems to come true when a small gold star appears to Casperl asleep and takes him against his will to the moon. At the end of an adventurous journey through different regions of the sky, Casperl is welcomed by the moon; but, exhausted, he falls asleep. When he wakes up, he is in his bed. Did his cosmic journey ever take place? No matter: Casperl resumes his tour of the taverns on behalf of the drinkers' association founded the day before and which has elected him inspector of drinking establishments.