Prince Abdal and his servant Kasper are lost in an enchanted forest. Kasper eats all the supplies while his master cannot satisfy his hunger. For three years, the prince has been searching for a woman who appeared to him in a dream. Then the king of the dwarfs and his subjects appear to the two men. The woman they are looking for is Princess Olanda, who is held captive in the forest by the magician Brandarbaran. They decide that Kasper will kill the magician, while Prince Abdal saves the princess. They are both given magical objects, and the dwarfs offer to help them. Kasper goes back to court using an invisibility cloak, and delivers fake news – that his master has died – then disappears. Olanda has been held captive for three years in Brandarbaran’s dungeon. Although she was treated like a princess in all respects by her maid Margaretha, she was raised by poor people. Brandarbaran tries to seduce her, but she resists him. Since this will cause him to look powerless, he decides to kill her. Prince Abdal and Kasper are at the foot of the dungeon, and about to fulfill their mission. Pimperle and Pitschkerle, two dwarfs, come to their aid and put the dragon to sleep. But Kasper does not succeed in killing the magician: in fact, the dwarfs did not wish him to, because Brandarbaran is actually Olanda’s father! Brandarbaran gives Kasper and Olanda their blessing. The maid Margaretha recognises Kasper: he is her husband, who ran away years before. They reconcile after quarrelling several times.

String marionette

Not specified

Germany

Saxony

Manuscript

Magic

Dwarf

Jail

Hunger

Love

Enchanted forest

Magic object

Dragon

Father-daughter incest

Dramatic

Comical

Fantasy

First page of Die Zwerge, c.1750.

German

Queen

Prince

Commanding officer

Master of ceremonies

Servant

Magician

Maid

King of the dwarfs

Dwarf (female)

Apparition

Stream of consciousness

Final wedding

Metamorphosis

Flying machine

Scene of recognition

Stormy scene

Fake news

Appearance

Die Zwerge

The dwarfs

Hanswurst is thrown out like trash from the stage of the Berlin theatre following the success of Voltaire’s tragedy Alzire. He is exiled to Salzbourg, where he lodges at Stoffel Knips’ house and seduces his host’s wife. Stoffel Knips catches them in the act and throws them out. Hanswurst’s distress is such that he tries to kill himself. But thunder strikes the branch on which he was hanging. Two Turks pass by the unconscious couple and take them aboard their felucca going to Turkey. During the trip, Madame Knips gives birth to two children – a boy and a girl – who grow extremely fast. In Turkey, Hanswurst is castrated to be made a eunuch in the Sultan’s seraglio. Madame Knips fell in the sea with her son during the trip, but she manages to swim to shore. She competes with her daughter for the Sultan’s favours; Hanswurst takes offence and makes a scene. He is banished by the Sultan as a result, and returns to Berlin, where he meets a prostitute. He recognizes one of the brothel’s clients as his own son, who also escaped drowning and became a pedant professor of philosophy. During a lecture he gives on the German almanac Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek, published by Friedrich Christoph Nicolai, all the characters on stage die from atrocious diarrhoea.

Schink Johann Friedrich

Berlin

Printed

Turkey

Sultan

Seraglio

Unfaithfulness

Prostitution

Suicide

Education

Literary criticism

Sturm und Drang

Genie

Adventure

Navigation

Human castration

Mutilation

Childbirth

Storm

Tempest

Scatology

Colic

Fart

Fornication

Triviality

Obscenity

Satirical

Anonymous illustration on the title page of Johann Friedrich Schink's collection Marionettentheater

Hanswurst

Madame Knips

Turk

Sailor

Daughter

Physician

Slave

Lady

Old woman

Prompter (theatre)

Bawdy equivocation

Splitting of the body

Prologue

Address to the public

Love story

Hanging scene

Play in verse

Epilogue

Unexpected turn of events

Brothel scene

Foul language register

Allusion to current literary events

Hanswurst von Salzburg mit dem hölzernen Gat

Hanswurst of Salzbourg with the wooden arse

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.

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Munich

Africa

Island

Robinson

Cannibalism

Natural sciences

Ornithology

Savage

Scholar

Exoticism

Beer

Small town

Parodistic

Ein culturhistorisches Drama in zwei Aufzügen

Kasperl

Night watchman

Tambour

Neptune

Crocodile

Dolphin

Instrumental tune

Macaronism

Monologue

Word for another

Song

Talking animal

Deus ex machina

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.

Train

Railway

Train station

Independently wealthy person

Military

Secretary

Civil servant

Bourgeoisie

Barber

Shipwreck

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

Criticism of actors' theatre

Off-stage voices

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.

Fishing

Hospitality

Foundling

Wedding

Contempt

Faithfulness

Paganism

Christianity

Mermaid

Génie des eaux

Ondine

Knight

Duke

Valet

Cook

Trump blower

Light effects

Chorus

Sung scenes

Transforming scenery

Brawl

Board

Undine, die Wassernixe

Ondine, the water nymph

Périjon, the king of Gaul, dies. His son ascends the throne and asks Fleur de Marie, King Houel de Nantes’ daughter, to marry him. She agrees to do so once he comes back from a pilgrimage to Roma. He leaves for America with his barons to help the king Bougjia, who is fighting the Saracens. King Bougjia’s daughter, Blanche, offers her love to the young king of Gaul called Périjon - just like his father. He accepts her love but goes back to Brittany to marry Fleur de Marie. Blanche finds him, poses as Fleur de Marie in order to seduce him and becomes pregnant with his child. Fleur de Marie gives birth to Paladin Roland, who kills a lion at the age of seven during a hunt. Blanche becomes Fleur de Marie’s servant to take revenge on Périjon, and she attempts to poison the young Paladin. Fleur de Marie dies because of the poison, but Paladin is saved by the knight Captano. Périjon asks his baron to judge Blanche. Paladin Roland brings the young woman to the woods to kill her, but an angel appears and stops him from going through with his plan. Blanche comes back to America and hides her pregnancy. The French emperor Télémak learns that the admiral Mérilus d’Arabie has declared war on him. He asks his brother Périjon for help. Périjon promises that he and his son Paladin Roland will help. During an enormous battle, the admiral Mérilus, Madracar and Solfina take Roland prisoner. Mérilus informs his brother Méridon, King of Syria, who rejoices over his capture and comes join him along with his barons. Rose, Mérilus’ daughter, visits Roland in his cell, but he rejects her advances because she is a pagan. To get revenge on him, she stops bringing him food. Roland learns that the old Delerigni is in the next cell. He digs a hole in the wall and listens to Delerigni recount his feats of arms before he dies. In the end, Roland agrees to marry Rose, on condition that she helps him escape. Rose plots with the prison guard. They pretend that Roland has died and asked, before his death, to be sent back to Britanny in a coffin. Méridon goes back to Syria. The king Périjon worries about his son Paladin Roland. The Chevalier Ténébreux suggests that they ask for king Bougjia’s help. A messenger brings news of Roland’s death, before his coffin is brought. Roland comes out of it and relates his jailbreak. As an act of revenge, he takes command of his father’s army to fight the pagans. Rose searches for him but she will only find him much later. Paladin Roland and the Bon Ténébreux wage battle against Mérilus and kill over a hundred thousand of his soldiers. Mérilus flees on a ship with his wife and his treasure and asks his brother for shelter, while Paladin Roland goes back home. In an enchanted wood, the knight Cocodor meets a devil, who asks him what his religion is. Cocodor lies and pretends to be a pagan. The devil punishes him by turning him into a giant with a flaming head and ordering him to kill everyone who ventures in his mountain. Cocodor thus kills 200 knights. The emperor Télémak receives a message asking him to end to the miseries caused by the giant, then a second message in which the admiral Goutier d’Antioche commands him to give back Lombardy. Télémak summons his army and meets with Périjon. Paladin Roland offers to fight the giant with the flaming head, but Périjon refuses because he is too young. Roland leaves with Télémak to wage war against the admiral Goutier. The pagan army is defeated by Télémak’s, and Goutier’s son – Carolu – is taken prisoner by Roland then killed in a tournament. On the way home, Roland meets knights on their way to fight the giant. Blanche and Périjon’s child, Raimond dit le Cadet (Raimond alias the Youngest), becomes a knight. He leaves Toulouse to go on an adventure. The knights arrive at the fire mountain where the giant lives. Blanches inquires one of the knights about Roland’s whereabouts, and she is told that he is in Britanny. In a forest, she is attacked by robbers, but she fights and kills them. The devil and giant are thrown behind bars, in an enchanted cell, but they kill all the knights. Mérilus and Méridon swear to kill Périjon and to destroy France to take revenge on Paladin. A new battle begins, opposing Christians and pagans. The latter have three times as many combatants (400 000), and Paladin is taken prisoner. The Chevalier Ténébreux takes command of the army and asks for King Bougjia’s help. Blanche remembers that the guardian angel told her to come to Paladin Roland’s aid. She asks her father for the permission to lead an army, dresses as a warrior and leaves for Syria, where she fights Mérilus and Méridon’s army. She triumphs and delivers Paladin, who avenges himself by putting every pagan to death. Blanche goes back to America and Paladin, in Britanny, recounts to his father how Blanche freed him. Pséryion worries as he remembers how Fleur de Marie was poisoned. Millonnaise, Mérilus’ wife, is pregnant with his child. She makes the devil appear to offer her child’s soul, on the condition that the child can triumph against Paladin. The devil agrees to the deal. For a moment, Cocodor is delivered from the devil’s spell. He comes back to Britanny and asks her daughter for news of his two brothers. He learns that he has killed them when he was the giant with the flaming head. A father and his son, the knights Mariguesse and Mulgador, offer their services to Télémak. They want to fight the giant. In Britanny, Rose is attacked by a traitor who wants to charm her. But Paladin Roland arrives and kills him. Roland and Rose recognise one another, cry and kiss. Then Roland presents Rose to his father and says he wants to marry her. Périjon refuses because she is a pagan. Then he sends Roland to fight the giant. Roland meets his half-brother Raimond le Cadet in a forest, but they fight because they do not recognise one another. Neither one of them manages to win. Paladin bandages his wounds at king Bougjia’s castle. Once he is healed, he leaves for the mountain of Triste-Mort (Sad-Death). He comes across messengers who try to persuade him not to go. Then he meets his uncle Mariguesse and his cousin Mulgador, both dying, and they also advise him not to go, before they die. Roland finds the devil and the giant with the flaming head. The devil disappears and the giant is killed. Poor and rich people alike come running to celebrate his victory. Roland comes back to Britanny, where Périjon and Rose believed him dead. They reunite and kiss. A message is sent to Télémak, who joins them. Roland tells Rose that they must fight Raimond le Cadet before they can marry. He comes across Millonnaisse, who tries to poison him, and he kills her along with the knights that were with her. Roland and Raimond le Cadet meet again and fight, but a young companion recognises Raimond and realises that they are brothers. She takes them to Blanche, who relates how she has given birth to Raimond. Paladin takes her back to Britanny with Raimond le Cadet and King Bougjia. Périjon marries Blanche and Paladin marries Rose and is appointed King d’Antioche. His companions are also rewarded.