Don Juan is displeased with his servants and employs Hans Wurst. He goes see his father to beg for money, but the latter lost everything and reprimands him, while also suggesting that he live with him again. Don Juan kills him. In the following scene, Hans Wurst meets his sister in the woods – she is on her way to Paris, where she wants to report her brother as a father-killer to the king. Don Juan hears her and murders her. Then he asks Hans Wurst to find the hermit who lives in the woods to take his trousers, so that he can flee incognito. The hermit, who vowed never to change his clothes, refuses. Don Juan kills him too. Then they go to a cemetery, where Don Juan wants to summon spirits. His father’s ghost appears, Don Juan invites him over for dinner (at six in the evening) and, on this same evening, the ghost invites him back. As they agree to the meeting with a handshake, lighting flashes in the sky – Don Juan is damned. Devils carry him to Hell.

Not specified

Germany

Printed

Father

Parricide

Sister

Assassination

Murder

Serial murder

Hell

Future punishment

Sorcery

Spirits

Necromancy

Devil

Treason

Debt

German

Ulmer Don Juan-Puppenspiel

Old man

Don Juan

Hanswurst

Schwester des Don Juan

Ghost

Final intervention of the devil

Disguise

Murder on stage

Running away

The only spirit which the magician Negrocephalus is able to invoke on that day is the rooster spirit of Gockelhahn. The spirit informs him that his wife, the Gackerackack chick, is hatching a golden egg, which he promises to bring to Negrocephalus. The tired magician goes to his cabinet and asks his famulus Putzlmayer to keep watch. However, Putzlmayer prefers having fun by doing magic, thanks to Negrocephalus’s spellbook. He too invokes Gockelhahn, who comes back with the promised egg. Putzlmayer gets scared after hearing a voice coming from the egg and informs Negrocephalus before fleeing. Whoever is inside the egg keeps asking to be let out, and Negrocephalus starts worrying too. He swears to the being inside the egg that he will not eat it before daring to break the shell with his magic wand. After a series of thunderclaps and lightning, Kasperl comes out of the egg.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Manuscript

Birth

Nativity

Myth

Wine

Donkey

Rooster

Magic

Learning

Faust

Laziness

Nonchalance

Cheekiness

Fantasy

Parodistic

Magician

Famulus

Cock, cockerel

Verschiedene Erscheinungen welche nicht zum Vorschein kommen

Apparition

Kasperl

Prologue

Spectacular turn of events

Magic act

Comical regional accent

Unveiling

Talking animal

Off-stage voice

Object coming to life

Address to the public

Versified passages

Pyrotechnics

Das goldene Ei

The Golden Egg

The play is set in Cannes in 1871. Madame Palmer, her daughter Miss Kate (both Americans), Monsieur Balandard and his nephew Arthur, a young painter, are staying in a hotel. The young painter is in love with Miss Kate and paints her portrait. However, Miss Kate does not recognise herself in the painting and suggests, in Arthur’s face, that he find a “real” job. The young man is hurt: he draws a caricature of Miss Kate’s silhouette and complains to his uncle – Monsieur Balandard. Meanwhile, Madame Palmer organises an occult ritual with her daughter to find out the name of the daughter’s future husband. Cléophée, Madame Palmer’s occult “friend”, writes the name “Bal…”. From that moment on, Madame Palmer tries to arrange a marriage between her daughter and Monsieur Balandard. However, the uncle decides to help his nephew. To do so, he organises a fake occult ritual and hides Arthur inside a speaking bubble. In the end, the farce is revealed and faith in occultism is shattered.

Glove-puppet

Maurice Sand (Maurice Sand)

France

Nohant

Casino

Hotel

Bourgeoisie

Painter

Unrequited love

Arranged marriage

Occultism

Trap

Comical

Satirical

Farcical

Eugène Lambert, George Sand, Maurice Sand : puppet of Arthur Dupinceau.

French

L'Oncle et le neveu

Balandard

Young man

Innkeeper

Constable

American

Woman of the bourgeoisie

Young woman

Aside

Situation comedy

Invocation of the spirits of the dead

Aria

Plot twist

Les Esprits frappeurs

The Spirits that strike

Unable to sleep, Casperl complains about his lot in life and even says that he is ready to appeal to the spirits, following the example of Faust, when a headless ghost appears in front of him. The ghost asks him to save him from hell by performing the necessary rites at midnight at the gallows. In exchange, Casperl will get hold of the treasure that the ghost buried at this location when he was still a bandit. The next day, Casperl, who has forgotten the ritual words, asks the witch Moosmayerin to help him: she gives him Holofernes’ magical belt. In the next scene, Casperl has become rich, but he considers that the money shouldn’t be used to pay his debts and he sends his creditors away with injurious words. When a police officer comes to arrest him, he manages to lock the police officer inside his house and goes to the tavern. When he returns to his place, he discovers that the police officer has hung himself by accident with the rope with which he tried to slip away. Casperl is thrown in prison, but he is freed by the ghost, who tells him that the police officer has not died and that he has resumed his work.

Beer

Night

Melancholy

Robber

Scaffold

People and history

Coffee

Market

Wealth

Scatology

Tavern

Perlicke

Romanticism

Burlesque

Schicksalsdrama in vier Aufzügen

Madame Kasperl

Tailor

Police officer

Shoemaker

Chimney sweeper

Monologue

Word for another

Metatheatre

Thunderbolt

Chorus

Animated natural element

Song

Parody of formal language

Macaronism

Hanging scene

Transforming scenery

Board

Instrumental tune

Casperl wird reich

Casperl gets rich

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

Money

Phantom

Sausage

Woman

Love

Excessive drinking

Nature

Vanity

Dramatic

Tragic

Lyrical

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

Don Pietro

Anna

Guard

Hermit

Waitress

Dance

Role reversal

Inn scene

Apparition of the Devil

Comic Equivocation

Dialect as a social marker

Don Juan der Wilde

Don Juan the Wild Man

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.