Kasperl und Don Juan - Carl Reinhardt

Printed

15 pages

Author(s)

Kasperl und Don Juan

Carl Reinhardt | 1852 | Munich, Germany
Genre (as defined by the author)
Kasperltheater
Characters
Don Juan, Ritter Pantolfius, Kasperl, Der Teufel
Number of acts
1
Note

In 1852 Carl Reinhardt published a series of pieces for Kasperl to accompany the illustrated plates he was publishing in the Münchner Bilderbogen. The text, written by an unknown autho, thus serves primarily as a caption for a graphic work that made Reinhardt the father of the comic strip in Germany, and was certainly not intended to be performed on stage. Nevertheless, these short sketches reproduce typical scenes and routines from the puppet repertoire of the time: here Kasperl pushes his pointed hat into Pantolfius' ribs, kicks him in the nose... We find in him the brutality of Pulcinella or Punch, a bad drunkenness and the expressions that will become characteristic of the character: the song "Radi-ridi-rulala - rulala - rulala", as well as the magic formula "Parlicke" to summon the devil, which Kasperl may have learned from the version of Faust published by Karl Simrock in 1846. Don Juan is merely an auxiliary: he is there so that Kasperl can make a spectacle of himself.

Plot summary

The evil son punished

Don Juan has asked his servant Kasperl to sell his last shirt and coat, but Kasperl has spent the money from the sale on beers. He sends him to borrow money from his father, the knight Pantolfius. When Pantolfius refuses, Don Juan himself comes to ask him to comply, but in vain, and Kasperl kicks him in the nose. To find money, Kasperl then has the idea of summoning the devil, but when Don Juan wants to sell him his soul, he replies that it already belongs to him and takes it to hell.

Related works
Kasperl als Rekrut in der Türkei, Carl Reinhardt1852
Frau Kasperl und die Köchin, Carl Reinhardt1852
Kasperl und der Teufel, Carl Reinhardt1852

Publications and translations

Publication

Carl Reinhardt, Das wahrhaftige Kasperltheater, Münchner Bilderbogen, 1852

Translations
  • Louis Lemercier de Neuville, Histoire anecdotique du théâtre de marionnettes. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1892, p.49-55.

    (French)
Language
German
Literary tones
Satirical, Parodistic, Grotesque, Farcical
Audience
Not specified
Licence
Public domain

Key-words

Theatrical techniques

Identifiers

DOI
10.24355/dbbs.084-200806240200-4

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Written by

Jean Boutan