After having locked the devil up in a box (in <a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5840/kasperl-und-der-teufel" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kasperl und der Teufel</a>), Kasperl wants to throw him in the water. Suddenly, it is his wife who emerges from the box… and who starts to slap him many times to take revenge, for he wanted to get rid of her (<a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5777/frau-kasperl-und-die-k%C3%B6chin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frau Kasperl und die Köchin</a>)! Kasperl ends up throwing both his wife and the box out of the glove-puppet booth, and then goes to the inn. On the way, he encounters a curious animal peeping at him; he pets the animal, which bites him. He fetches a sausage to feed the animal, but decides to eat it and gives the skin of the sausage to the animal. The animal catches Kasperl’s arm with its maw, then catches him by the back of his pants… Kasperl goes to get his stick, which the animal tries to steal from him; the animal gets beaten and runs away, followed by Kasperl who wants to knock it out.

Glove-puppet

Not specified

Reinhardt Carl

Germany

Munich

Printed

Sausage

Animal

Beast

Stick

Mace

Woman

Devil

Nightingale

Crocodile

Tavern

Jaws

Glutton

Hunger

Tralala

Hits

Radirullala

Comical

Grotesque

Farcical

Carl Reinhardt, Das geheimnisvolle Tier, 1852.

German

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Chase

Blow-with-a-stick

Domestic scene

Slaps

Das geheimnisvolle Tier

The mysterious animal

Mrs Kasperl comes to ask her husband for money when Kasperl finds a cook to whom he has promised to marry her and who has just brought him a sausage and some wine. The two women argue with Kasperl and start fighting. Kasperl knocks them both out and locks them in a chest. Alerted by the noise, the night watchman comes to question him. Kasperl explains to him that the two women had a quarrel over some plums inside the chest, offers some to the watchman and closes the lid on the unfortunate man who has put his head in it. Then he leaves, announcing that he will throw the chest into the water...

Wine

Shrew

Couple

Household

Married life

Kitchen

Plums

Quarrel

Unfaithfulness

Satirical

Night watchman

Argument

Frau Kasperl und die Köchin

Mrs Kasperl and the cook

Kasperl leaves for America on a boat, but is swallowed by a whale that spits him out on an island inhabited by cannibals. They salt him and smear him in whale fat. Attracted by the smell of fat, an eagle kidnaps Kasperl on the verge of being eaten and takes him back to Europe. Kasperl manages to escape and meets a horseman who takes him back to his family. The play ends as a prologue with an invitation to take a seat in front of the puppet theatre for the start of the main performance.

Shadow theatre

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Boat

Navigation

Navy

America

Shipwreck

Fish

Leviathan

Unknown land

Island

Beer

Thirst

Cannibalism

Savage

Kidnapping

Horse

Family

Fantasy

Baleine

Cannibal

Eagle

Horserider

Child

Monologue

Play in verse

Chorus

Sung scenes

Macaronism

Unexpected turn of events

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Kasperl bei den Menschenfressern

Kasperl among the anthropophagi

Martin, a woodcutter, frees a fairy from an oak tree she has been trapped in for 500 years. The fairy gives him a ring that allows him to fulfil three wishes. Martin confides the secret to his wife Margreth, who tells Casperl, their neighbour. While Martin goes to ask the mayor and the priest for advice, Margreth, in conversation with Casperl, takes it upon herself to wish for a plate of sausages, even though she has the ring on her finger: her wish is immediately fulfilled. Seeing this, Martin retrieves the ring and, in his anger, vows that his wife will have sausages hanging from her nose. The wish comes true and the two men are no longer able to amputate Margreth's sausage appendages: all they can do is wish them away, and the gift of the three wishes is wasted.

String marionette

Poverty

Spell

Dwarf

Ring

Secret

Hypocrisy

Lust

Burlesque

Humorous

Fairy

Bûcheron

Song

Off-stage voice

Metatheatre

Apparition

Metamorphosis

Die drei Wünsche

The three wishes

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.

Excessive drinking

Rain

Joke

Aristocracy

Luxury

Metempsychosis

Black

Doctor

Magic

Otto von Bismarck

Moralische Komödie in drei Aufzügen

Prince

Moorish

Valet

Spying scene

Parody of formal language

Word for another

Disguise

Cross-dressing

Brawl

Pyrotechnics

Board

Current affairs

Incognito

Casperl als Prinz

Casperl prince

Kasperl leaves his wife Grete and resigns from his job at Stoffelbauer’s farm to explore the world. On the road, he meets the genius of the mountains, Cuivre Curpus. The latter is dressed as an old man and Kasperl gives him three of his copper coins. Cuprus thanks him and gifts him a magic violin in turn. Kasperl uses it to make the Jew Mauschl dance until he faints, after discovering that he was embezzling money. Two robbers – Fangauf and Schnapper – take advantage of the opportunity to steal Mauschl’s purse. Kasperl is then introduced to Duke Richard’s court as the violinist Spagatini, and he seduces the Duke’s daughter, Princess Amalie, as well as her lady-in-waiting. One day he is caught serenading them by night, but he makes the guards, the whole court, the princess and the lady-in-waiting dance. However, he is brought to justice and accused by Mauschl of having stolen the purse. As a result, he is sentenced to death. At the gallows, he asks to play one last tune on his violin, in the hope of making everyone dance and escaping. But Cuprus appears with Grete. He takes away the magic of the violin but promises to save Kasperl’s life, on condition that he goes back to his wife.

Laziness

Money

Mines

Nature

Copper

Music

Concert

Genie

People and history

Love

Impossible love

Romanticism

Seduction

Serenade

Justice

Musician

Royal Court

Scaffold

Gallows

Faust

Parodistic

Lyrical

Title page illustrated by the author in the original edition of the play

Duke

Lady in waiting

Marshal

Judge

Clerk

Waiter

Guard

Versified passages

Dance

Caricature

Parodic trial

Deus ex machina

Die Zaubergeige

The enchanted violin

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.

Das geheimnisvolle Tier

Frau Kasperl und die Köchin

Kasperl bei den Menschenfressern

Die drei Wünsche

Casperl als Prinz

Moralische Komödie in drei Aufzügen

Die Zaubergeige

Don Juan der Wilde

Der Dichter

Der steinerne Gast

Ein schauerlich-schönes Spiel in 5 Akten mit Sing-, Flieg- und Keilerei