Der Staupbesen - Johann Friedrich Schink

Der Staupbesen

Eine dramatsche Fantasei

Johann Friedrich Schink | 1778 | Berlin, Germany
Genre (as defined by the author)
Dramatsche Fantasei
Characters
Fantasei, Apollo, Merkurius, Minerva, Die Musen, Die Grazien, Die neuern Genien
Number of acts
2
Note

Der Staupbesen was placed after Hanswurst von Salzburg in Johann Friedrich Schink’s collection of plays Marionettentheater (1778). It would seem that these plays were not written for puppeteers—the mention of “puppet theatre” seems to point to the satirical and parodic intent behind the plays, just as Siegried August Mahlmann (1771-1862) used puppet theatre to rehabilitate less serious forms of theatre, as opposed to the pompous theatre of the bourgeois circles. In this play, Schink lampoons the literary production of his time – more particularly those of the Sturm und Drang generation. Here, puppet theatre helps paint the literature of the time in the most provocative and outrageous manner: Schink’s puppet have no qualms defecating on stage.

Plot summary

A god punishes perverted writers

Apollo has fled the wretchedness of German literature for the land of Utopia. Mercury relates how German poets have turned the Parnassus into a brothel and reminds Apollo of his responsibilities. They go to the Parnassus and find that Minerva has been raped and is on the verge of hanging herself. Then, Apollo dispenses justice and punishes muses and the members of their cult: he transforms them into pigs, donkeys, dung beetles, spittoons and dustbins, and serves the rest up to journalists. Once their work is complete, they will be hung by their feet.

Composition date
1778

Other titles

Apoll

Publications and translations

Publication

Johann Friedrich Schink: Marionettentheater. Vienne/Berlin/Weimar, 1778.