At the turn of the 18th and 19th century, the scholar Faust is a character identified with Johann Fust (circa 1400-1466), a business partner of Gutenberg and one of the first German printers. The belief that Faust invented printing thanks to diabolic powers is at the heart of this play, whose manuscript is dated 1835. The text mentions the toponym Greiz, in Thuringia; this is most likely a reference to where the play was put on: the work of other puppeteers, such as Johann Georg Geißelbrecht (in Weimar) make the same joke about Casper having to leave Hell because no recipient from this or that locality is let inside it. The manuscript is preserved at Yale University; it was transcribed in 1985 by one of Johann August Bille’s descendants, the puppeteer Kurt Bille. The manuscript is a phonetic transcription of the play, which most notably preserves the puppeteer’s dialectal expressions.

Wagner hires Casper to serve his master—Doctor Faust. Destitute and crippled with debts, the latter makes a deal with the devil Mefisdofles: he will make him rich by helping him invent printing. In return, Mefisdofles demands that Faust sacrifice his parents and his wife. Faust murders his father, who has come to blame him for the death of his mother (she died of grief when she learnt that her son made a deal with the Devil). Meanwhile, Mefisdofles poisons Faust’s wife. Then Mefisdofles takes Faust and Casper to the court of Parma. But the courtiers envy the famous scholar and conspire against him: Mefisdofles helps him flee. Casper is sent to Hell, but he is soon let out. Everyone meets in Wittenberg: Faust repents, but he is then seduced by Helehne, whom Mefisdofles introduced to him; she changes into a skeleton when he tries to kiss her. At midnight, Faust is doomed and Casper, now a night watchman, marries the market gardener Anabakuduh, whom he meets in the street after curfew.