Casperl wants to immigrate to America, but is cast ashore on an African island populated by cannibals. There he meets the German naturalist Gerstlmaier, who at first mistakes him for a parrot and ends up hiring him as a servant. But the cannibals capture him while he is sleeping. He swears not to drink any more beer if he manages to escape, whereupon the god Neptune frees him and allows him to return to Europe on the back of a dolphin. Casperl is then abducted by a large bird which releases him in the market place of his hometown, where his arrival causes general panic. Casperl has sworn not to drink any more beer, so he goes to the tavern to drink several to celebrate his return home.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Printed

Africa

Navigation

Island

Robinson

Cannibalism

Natural sciences

Ornithology

Savage

Scholar

Exoticism

Beer

Small town

Comical

Parodistic

Marvelous

German

Ein culturhistorisches Drama in zwei Aufzügen

Kasperl

Veilleur

Tambour

Neptune

Crocodile

Dolphin

Instrumental tune

Macaronism

Monologue

Word for another

Song

Talking animal

Deus ex machina

Scene of recognition

Parody of formal language

Casperl unter den Wilden

Casperl in the wilderness

Mr. Casperl, a wealthy man of private income, has an appointment with Lieutenant Säbelmaier and the wife of the secretary Federspitzen for an excursion to Lake Starnberg near Munich, but his barber comes too late and he has to leave in a hurry to catch his train, which had been announced late. In the second part of the play, the boat of the three excursionists is wrecked by a sudden storm on the lake. Säbelmaier and Mrs. Federspitzen probably managed to save themselves. Casperl has been living like Robinson for eight days in a deserted forest by the lake. He finally meets a sheep with whom he can talk about philosophy, because it is in fact the reincarnation of a professor and living proof of the truth of metempsychosis. But they argue and the sheep flees in the face of another coming storm. A hunter then finds Casperl passed out and wants to bring him to justice as a poacher, but ends up recognising him as the man who disappeared eight days ago, and Casperl concludes by recommending that the audience take the steamboat instead.

Manuscript

Train

Railway

Train station

Independently wealthy person

Military

Secretary

Civil servant

Bourgeoisie

Barber

Shipwreck

Hunger

Lamb

Sheep

Professor

Metempsychosis

Reincarnation

Philosophy

Hinduism

Pantheism

Poacher

Loneliness

Burlesque

Humorous

Die Parthie nach Starnberg; Herr Casperl als Robinson

Die Parthie nach Starnberg

Lieutenant

Hunter

Mouton

Dream

Unexpected turn of events

Criticism of actors' theatre

Off-stage voices

Address to the public

Aria

Argument

Caricature

Philosophical dialogue

Casperl als Robinsohn

Casperl as Robinson

The knight Huldbrand gets lost on a stormy night by a lake and finds refuge with fishermen. He falls in love with the foundling Undine. The girl is in fact a mermaid, cursed by her people to dissolve into a wave if she is rejected by men, and to join them underwater if her true identity becomes known. Huldbrand marries Undine, but offends Berthalda, the adopted daughter of Prince Heinrich. When Heinrich visits Huldbrand, the fishermen recognise Berthalda for the child they had lost, but Berthalda rejects them with contempt. Heinrich banishes her from his presence. In despair, advised by the water genie Kühleborn, Berthalda publicly reveals Undine's identity and Heinrich curses her and Huldbrand. Huldbrand refuses, however, to abandon his wife and she takes him with her to live among her people under the waters, in a crystal palace.