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.

String marionette

Young audiences

Pocci Franz von

Germany

Munich

Manuscript

Train

Railway

Train station

Independently wealthy person

Military

Secretary

Civil servant

Bourgeoisie

Barber

Robinson

Shipwreck

Beer

Hunger

Lamb

Sheep

Professor

Metempsychosis

Reincarnation

Philosophy

Hinduism

Pantheism

Poacher

Loneliness

Parodistic

Comical

Burlesque

Humorous

German

Die Parthie nach Starnberg; Herr Casperl als Robinson

Die Parthie nach Starnberg

Kasperl

Lieutenant

Hunter

Mouton

Dream

Unexpected turn of events

Monologue

Talking animal

Scene of recognition

Criticism of actors' theatre

Off-stage voices

Address to the public

Aria

Argument

Caricature

Philosophical dialogue

Casperl als Robinsohn

Casperl as Robinson

Marianne – the wife of a poor lumberjack – sends her starving children Hansel and Grethel in the woods, so that they pick some berries. But the children are captured by the cannibalistic naturalist Fleischmann, at the same time as the travelling tailor Kasperl Larifari, who believes he will find bed and board at his house. They are locked inside chicken coops and fattened. Kasperl is enraged. To calm him down, Fleischmann allows him outside the cage to drink some wine with him. He intends on eating him right after. But they both get drunk, while the professor’s maid, Katharine, helps the children escape and reports the cannibal to the police. Kasperl takes advantage of the general confusion to escape too. The professor chases him and then gives up. He wants to find the children but falls asleep in the end, exhausted. Kasperl finds him and sews the two legs of his pants together. Eventually, the court bailiff arrives with the children’s father, Peter. When they find Fleischmann, he is unable to move, and Peter kills him with an axe. The children come out of hiding and, at the end of the play, Kasperl declares that wickedness has been punished, virtue rewarded and that they all need to go to an inn now.

Printed

Cannibalism

University

Natural sciences

Tale

Poverty

Misery

Cage

Forest

Justice

Drunkard

Drunkenness

Cruelty

Perversity

Fantasy

Title page illustrated by the author in the original collection

Der Menschenfresser

Teacher

Night

Moon

Hidden character

Murder on stage

Animated natural element

Chase

Dialect as a social marker

Confinement

Versified passages

Song

Hansel und Grethel

Hansel and Gretel

Kasperl leaves his wife Grete and resigns from his job at Stoffelbauer’s farm to explore the world. On the road, he meets the genius of the mountains, Cuivre Curpus. The latter is dressed as an old man and Kasperl gives him three of his copper coins. Cuprus thanks him and gifts him a magic violin in turn. Kasperl uses it to make the Jew Mauschl dance until he faints, after discovering that he was embezzling money. Two robbers – Fangauf and Schnapper – take advantage of the opportunity to steal Mauschl’s purse. Kasperl is then introduced to Duke Richard’s court as the violinist Spagatini, and he seduces the Duke’s daughter, Princess Amalie, as well as her lady-in-waiting. One day he is caught serenading them by night, but he makes the guards, the whole court, the princess and the lady-in-waiting dance. However, he is brought to justice and accused by Mauschl of having stolen the purse. As a result, he is sentenced to death. At the gallows, he asks to play one last tune on his violin, in the hope of making everyone dance and escaping. But Cuprus appears with Grete. He takes away the magic of the violin but promises to save Kasperl’s life, on condition that he goes back to his wife.

Sausage

Laziness

Money

Mines

Nature

Copper

Music

Concert

Genie

People and history

Magic

Love

Impossible love

Romanticism

Seduction

Serenade

Musician

Aristocracy

Princely court

Scaffold

Gallows

Tralala

Faust

Lyrical

Title page illustrated by the author in the original edition of the play

Madame Kasperl

Duke

Lady in waiting

Marshal

Judge

Clerk

Waiter

Guard

Valet

Domestic scene

Sung scenes

Metamorphosis

Chorus

Board

Dance

Word for another

Macaronism

Parodic trial

Deus ex machina

Metatheatre

Appearance

Die Zaubergeige

The enchanted violin

While all poor people on the outskirts of Munich deposit their savings in Adele Spitzeder's bank, sometimes even selling their businesses to live on their income, Kasperl is looking for a job. Through his brother Baldhauser (also known as Baldes), a door-to-door salesman, he was placed as a doorman at Adele Spitzeder's house. He introduces the bank's customers to the bank office, where she receives them with her proverbial frankness. But at the end of his first day on the job, the police come and arrest the banker for fraud and close the place down: Kasperl beats down the poor people who come to claim their money. The fourth act or epilogue is a picture of country life: following a quarrel with his wife, Kasperl's other brother, Melchior, goes drinking with the town crier. Kasperl and Baldes enter the stage to conclude the play with a song.

Not specified

Gailler Gabriel

Scandal

Stock exchange

Bank

Embezzlement

Swindling

Bavaria

Politics

Society

Peasantry

Popular class

People

Bankruptcy

Satirical

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Peasant

Shepherd

Police officer

Employé municipal

Flying machine

Spectacular turn of events

Inn scene

Catastrophe

Conversation

Political allegory

Slang

Brawl

Adele Spitzeder

The avant-garde painter Kompowski, annoyed by the critics who come to see him in his workshop, goes to the café. The drunken servant, Kasperl, takes advantage of his absence to paint a canvas with a very bad view of Munich. Gallery owners who had come to acquire the master's works bought his paintings from him for a thousand marks. The crowd comes to cheer the artist. But the critic Schaikeles eventually learns the identity of the real creator of the painting. Anzenmaier and Burger, the gallery owners, come to claim their money when Kompowski returns home, and the fight becomes widespread. Kasperl puts an end to this by smashing the paintings over the heads of the gallery owners and knocking Gombrowski out with his easel.

Glove-puppet

Blümel Otto

Painting

Futurism

Modernity

Expressionism

Art criticism

Mean trick

Celebrity

Farcical

Painter

Reviewer

Crowd

Misunderstanding

Parody of formal language

Instrumental tune

Dialect

Die Maler

The painters

Botius – a philosopher – lives a happy life. He succumbs to despair and madness when his partner Opina leaves him for another man. He is then attacked by hooligans, who pull his eyes out. Police offices come to his aid, but they lead him near his mother’s skeleton. He falls into a sort of grave and does not manage to escape. He tries to find reassurance in reminding himself that he still has the ability to think. Hooligans urinate on him, and he catches a glimpse of Opina’s legs, which are dangling. A rope appears. He tries to haul himself out of the hole, but the rope only leads to a void. His head is cut in half and his brain explodes and spills all over the floor. His lookalike appears, then so does Opina. She kisses the lookalike and leaves with him. Hooligans are being carried on crosses, on which they are crucified upside down. Their wails torment Botius. He comes closer to them and realizes that they are dead. A cart driver and a horse arrive. Botius calls out to the cart driver so that he may pick up his brain. The horse tears off one of the hooligans’ head and holds it by the hair between its teeth. They leave. Botius meets a pregnant woman and an old man. The couple begins to make love. A child walks up tentatively. The horse comes back and devours the child. Botius asks it to eat him too, to put an end to his misery, but the horse goes away. He concludes that his soul must be difficult to digest.

Casperl als Robinsohn

Die Parthie nach Starnberg

Hansel und Grethel

Die Zaubergeige

Adele Spitzeder

Marionettenspiel um einen Münchner Finanzskandal im Jahre 1873

Die Maler

All He Fears

Este não é o nariz de Gogol mas podia ser... com um toque de Jacques Prévert

Cide

I doni di papà Cervi