Doctor Faust is disillusioned with academic disciplines. He learns black magic and makes a deal with the devil Mephistopheles, promising him his soul if the latter accepts to serve him for twenty-four years. Faust’s new domestic servant, Casperle, also learns to summon demons, and engages the services of the devil Auerhahn. However, he refuses to sell his soul to him. During the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Parma, Faust makes the Ancient Testament appear before them and attempts to seduce the duchess. But he is pursued by her husband, the Inquisition and the outraged people, because Casperle has used his links with the devil to carry out miracles. Faust flees to Constantinople and Auerhahn brings Casperle to Mainz. The final act relates Faust’s damnation. He does penance, but he is doomed when Mephistopheles promises him the most beautiful woman in the world – Helen of Troy. Faust is carried off by demons, while Casperle, now a night watchman, takes his revenge on his wife at the end of the play, for the domestic violence she inflicted on him.

String marionette

Not specified

Simrock Karl

Germany

Bonn

Printed

Scholar

Necromancy

Magic

University

Monkey

Pluto

Crow

Mainz

Perlicke

Drink

Pigtail

Dragon

Seduction

Inquisition

Italy

Couch

Vanity

Repentance

Nightwatchman

Lust

Future punishment

Spousal abuse

Tragic

Humorous

German

Monologue

Dilemma

Off-stage voice

Tragic irony

Misunderstanding

Comic Equivocation

Aside

Lazzi

Song

Pact with the devil

Versified passages

Dream

Apparition

Pyrotechnics

Chase

Theatre within the theatre

Domestic scene

Dance

Doctor Johannes Faust

The fisherman's daughter Lisi and the young bird-catcher Wastl live by a lake in Germany. They offer hospitality to the painter Wilhelm, who has just returned from Italy. The short play ends with a song to nature and joy.

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Manuscript

Fishing

Bird

Nature

Painting

Picturesque

Countryside

Birdcatcher

Bucolic

Forest

Wood

Happiness

Painter

Music

Journey

Hospitality

Childhood

Lyrical

Allegory

Metatheatre

Final song

Am See

By the lake

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.

Young audiences

Excessive drinking

Beer

Army

Comical

Burlesque

Satirical

Ein politisches Trauerspiel, aus dem Italienischen übersetzt

Clerk

Kasperl

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

Lord Grey and John Bull are looking for a pretext to declare war on Germany, which is competing with England in the field of industrial development. The announcement of the murder of François-Ferdinand in Sarajevo, related by Kasperl, Grey’s servant, provides them with one such pretext, but they have to distort the event and make it seem as if Austria attacked Serbia. Grey and John Bull gather their allies from the Triple Entente, Prince Wodkasoff and Delcassé. They also join forces with the devil of lies. Kasperl lets a word of indignation slip, and he is thrown in prison. On the German side, Germania warns her husband Michel about the rapacity of their neighbours, when Kasperl, just escaped from prison, comes to warn them about the conspiracy planned by the countries of the Entente. The devil of lies tries to play Hans off against his parents, Germania and Michel, but he is struck with a stick. Wary of Italy, the Germans ally themselves with Josef (the Czech) and Janos (the Hungarian): the Triple Entente goes to war. In 1914-1915, the countries of the Entente fail to make progress against the enemy. Desperate, Grey seeks advice in hell, where King Edward VII plays cards with Pluto and Kitchener. Mammon, the devil of money, is thus sent to corrupt the countries who remained neutral. In Italy, he will even corrupt the poet D’Annunzio in order to make the people rise against Germany. In order to hasten Mammon’s return, Pluto puts the clock forward by one year: it is now 1916-1917, and Grey has been replaced by Lloyd George, a more energetic man. But Lloyd George also goes seek advice in hell. Mammon’s intervention was not sufficient to weaken Germany’s resistance. The devil of lies comes again on the stage, disguised as an angel of peace, to announce that the United States have entered the war. There is an uproar in hell. Pluto concludes the play with a reminder that he will always be the one to win, no matter what: either Germany is victorious, and he retrieves the souls of Grey, Lloyd George, Iswolski, Northcliff, Delcassé “and so on”, or England wins, and planet Earth becomes hell, meaning that Pluto could enjoy his retirement.

Fritz von Ostini (Friedrich von Ostini, aka Fritz von Ostini)

England

Hell

Propaganda

Conspiracy

Politics

Government

Treason

Gabriele d'Annunzio

Austria-Hungary

Bohemia (Czech republic)

United States of America

Russia

France

Trade

Industry

Money

Capitalism

Imperialism

First World War

Title page of Grey &amp; Co, showing a caricature of Lord Grey

King Edward's unselige Erben

Devil

Black Man

Germania

Hans

King Edward VII

Mammon

Moneylender

Fury

Ghost

Catastrophe

Apparition of the Devil

Splitting of the body

Play in verse

Personification

Caricature

Final intervention of the devil

Grey & Co

Teste calde tells the story of patriot Angelo Pradman, a baker who defends Fort Marghera against the Austrian invasion in 1848. He is engaged to the young Teresa, housekeeper to the Austrian baroness, the wife of the Austrian general Standeiskj. Pradman is also a lover of the Baroness herself, and meets her at her home every Thursday evening. The patriot Moser entrusts him with a very delicate mission: to sneak into General Standeiskj's house and get some rifles. Pradman tells Moser that it will be very easy for him, as he has free access to the Baroness's house. Teresa has heard everything and decides to take revenge: she sends a letter to the baroness in which she tells her that her lover, the baker, is talking to everyone about their love affair. The Baroness, in response, sends the General an anonymous letter informing him that Pradman will attempt to enter his home the following Thursday. The mission turns into a massacre: four of Pradman's comrades are killed in Standeiskj’s garden. Only Pradman manages to save himself, but for this he will be killed by his comrades who take him for a traitor. A few years later, another patriot, this time a true double agent, would have a successful career in the kingdom of Italy.