Leander is in love with Leontine, the daughter of the rich Gebhard. Leander’s footman, Hanswurst, is in love with the maid, Katharinchen. Old Gebhard spends his time reading two books from the "Das Reich der Todten" (The Empire of the Dead) series, which collects imaginary conversations between dead people. He is against his daughter’s wedding. Leander only has a chance at marrying her if he learns the books by heart. The lovers decide to give a sleeping pill to Gebhard, to take him to the garden, and to make him believe that he died. They dress up to stage the chaos happening in The Empire of the Dead. Leontine, Leander, Katharinchen, and Hanswurst go to meet the old man one by one. They explain to him that they too died and that it was his fault. Gebhard thus ends up giving his consent for the wedding. Ernst, a cereal merchant from whom Leander sought advice, enters the stage to expose the trickery to Gebhard, who learns that none of them is dead.

String marionette

Not specified

Hofmann Anton

Germany

Augsburg

Manuscript

Hell

Death

Reading

Illusion

Deception

Wedding prevented

Father

Dialogue of the dead

Comical

Farcical

Poster from Joseph Peter Seelig, Augsburg, circa 1820 (Stephan Oettermann: Ankündigungs-Zettel von Kunstreitern, Akrobaten, Tänzern, Taschenspielern, Feuerwerkern, Luftballons und dergleichen, Wiesbaden 1993, no. 1683)

German

Die bestrafte Einbildung, oder: Das Reich der Todten mitten im Reich, der Lebendigen

Rentier

Fiancée

Chambermaid

Merchant (man)

Fiancé

Leandre

Hanswurst

Servant

Disguise

Illusory world

Final wedding

Monologue

Cross-dressing

Das Reich der Todten

The Empire of the Dead

A poet comes out of his bath to walk on a bridge and enjoy the sunset. A gardener walks past him and mentions the glorious life he gave up in order to cultivate flowers. A young man relates his day spent hunting alone. Then comes a stranger, and after him a girl who is listening to a traveling singer. Night has now fallen. A group of three people arrives on the bridge: a madman, his servant, and a doctor. The madman is a young nobleman who had a life of abundance before devoting himself to solitude and to roaming. He meditates on the illusion of all things while leaning on the bannister. He tries to throw himself in the water, but his comrades prevent him from doing so.

Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August

Austria

Bad Fusch

Printed

Bath

Evening

Landscape

Flowers

Loneliness

Glory

Misery

Hunting

Dream

River

Childhood

Night

Destiny

Melancholy

Madness

Suicide

Lyrical

Oder die Glücklichen

Gardener

Poet

Street singer

Fool

Domestic servant

Physician

Teichoscopy

Light effects

Song

Off-stage voice

Das kleine Welttheater

The small theatre of the world

The play takes place on a island of dreams. Mère-Grand learns that Myrrhine has distanced herself from her five sisters to dream on her own by the sea. She worries about it, as this daydreaming can only carry the young woman off towards reality. Myrrhine confirms that the “bandeau d’illusion” (the blindfold of illusion) has indeed been lifted from her eyes, and that she no longer believes in fairytales, only in love: she loves the Chevalier Tavonin (Knight Tavonin) and believes that she is loved by him too. The Knight appears on a small boat with Aurore, his new lover, and rejects Myrrhine. In her despair, she calls on the Génie des Arbres (the Genie of the Trees) and the Fée des Mousses (the Moss Fairy), but they are powerless—they cannot console her now that she has lost her illusions. Myrrhine kills herself by jumping into the sea. Mère-Grand blames her death on the Knight, but he replies saying that he is Love incarnated and that all of Myrrhine’s sisters will suffer the same fate, as their eyes will eventually be opened too.