The two night walkers
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| Title: | The two night walkers |
| Original title: | The two night walkers or the necessary and the superfluous |
| Genus: | Farce with singing in two acts |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Literary source: | “Painter Klex or the Necessary and the Useful” by Josef Alois Gleich |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1836 |
| Premiere: | May 6, 1836 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater an der Wien |
| Place and time of the action: | The action takes place in a market town and the associated stately castle |
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The two night walkers or The Necessary and the Superfluous is a farce with singing in two acts by Johann Nestroy . The piece was written in 1836 and was first performed on May 6 of the same year as a benefit performance for Nestroy.
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Lord Howart, who has stayed at the inn and is about to travel to his fiancée Malvina, is attacked during the night by five crooks who want to rob him. The nightwalking thread frightens them so much that they flee and are caught by the alarmed guards. Lord Wathfield arrives at this moment with Malvina, Howart wants to make his savior Faden happy , Wathfield doubts that this would be possible with money alone. They bet Howart can't marry Malvina until Faden is completely happy. In the meantime, he still got into Pumpf's night walking and is suspected of molesting his sister Hannerl. Babette also suspects him of breach of loyalty and Strick indignantly resigns from his service. He can conclusively explain his distrust:
- "I believe the worst of all people, even myself, and I have seldom been mistaken." (First act, sixteenth scene)
Howart and Wathfield tell Faden that they are higher powerful beings who intend to make him happy, but warn against ever asking for something superfluous. The first wish for better accommodation and some money is still very modest and is fulfilled immediately. Faden pulls into Howart's gardener's house, where he sees Brauchengeld's daughter Emilie and immediately falls in love. Traditional money demands 10,000 guilders for her hand, Faden demands it from Howart as absolutely necessary and receives it. Emilie is immediately ready to get engaged, and Strick also returns in the hope of better times.
- "I shared the need with you, it is now my most sacred duty not to leave you even in the good day." (First act, twenty-seventh scene)
Faden's wishes soon grew bigger and bigger, because Emilie is not satisfied with the gardener's house and wants to move to Howart's palace. Annoyed, Howart gives in to Wathfield's insistence that it is something necessary for Fadens happiness. But when Faden demands that Wathfield cut off his braid because it embarrasses him, that is a superfluous wish and the whole company is driven out of the castle. Malvina forgives Howart for the ill-considered bet.
The residents of the village viciously comment on their expulsion, only their former lovers Hannerl and Babette have pity. There you see thread and rope wandering about and now the misunderstandings are finally cleared up. Howart leaves the gardener's house and a small amount of working capital to Faden, Strick sums up:
- Hannerl, I've done you an injustice, as a reward I want to share your entire inheritance with you now. (Act two, scene twenty-eighth)
Factory history
The natural magic game with singing in two acts “Painter Klex or the Necessary and the Useful” by Josef Alois Gleich was premiered on December 14, 1819 at the Leopoldstadt Theater as a benefit performance for the then famous comedian Ignaz Schuster . Adrien Comte de Sarrazin's fairy tale “Le Nécessaire et le Superflu” immediately adapted and dramatized on Viennese conditions. The same story deals with the German fairy tale “ Vom Fischer und seine Frau ” by the Brothers Grimm from 1812, which goes back to a much older oral tradition in Low German . The subject was also dealt with by Ignaz Franz Castelli in his one-act singspiel “Aladin or The Necessary” . Nestroy used Gleichs piece as the basis for his farce and created a fairytale-like “ magic piece ” that still manages without any real magic. The performance song Stricks was the first in a series of Nestroy's professional couplets with a subsequent monologue.
Johann Nestroy played the journeyman rope maker Fabian Strick, Wenzel Scholz played his master Sebastian Faden, Friedrich Hopp played the Bandelkramer Pumpf, Ignaz Stahl played the master of Brauchengeld, Eleonore Condorussi played the daughter Emilie, Nestroy's partner Marie Weiler played the housemaid Theres.
Nestroy's original manuscript has been lost; only a title page with a list of people was found in his estate. The original score by Adolf Müller has been preserved.
Contemporary criticism
The criticism in the Viennese newspapers was definitely positive, even if some reviewers were irritated by the realistic rather than symbolic view of the “magic game”.
The nestroy-friendly Viennese theater newspaper by Adolf Bäuerle noted on May 9, 1836:
- "If we have expressed our opinion about ideas, structure and execution quite frankly, then we must also openly admit on the other side that the author equipped the piece with a lot of witty ideas, with an abundance of drolleries and drastic jokes."
The collector , not always well-disposed towards Nestroy, wrote on May 12th:
- “If you are looking for solidity in this piece - because even a farce can be solid - you should stay away, but if you want to keep your diaphragm shaken for a few hours and all the laughing muscles set in motion, you go there and will find yourself satisfied. [...] The performance by the two comedians [Nestroy and Scholz] was perfect. "
The Viennese magazine for art, literature, theater and fashion was more critical in its May 14 review:
- "[...] nevertheless, one might think we are too good if we declare the piece in question to be quite funny and probably amusing, but not a successful one."
Later interpretations
Otto Rommel states that this work is a good example of how much Nestroy's earlier correctional pieces were still connected to the magic antics. His résumé: "The critics found the rationalistic implementation of the magical world into the natural extremely successful, we almost long for the real spirits." (Quote)
Of Helmut Ahrens is noted, content on this farce should as "be considered folk legend in the best sense" (quote). The proximity to the Low German folk tale Von den Fischer und siine Fru would be striking. The Nestroysche about it is that he again states his conviction that man is not really changeable because he always opposes the feeling of happy satisfaction with his own greed.
In Franz H. Mautner you can read that despite the comic elements this work is probably Nestroy's most delicate piece and despite the absence of any magic it is a real fairytale magic game. Stricks performance song was the first of Nestroy's later famous “professional couplets ” followed by a monologue.
Karl Kraus valued the piece very much and often read it aloud in his own arrangement, replacing the effect of Faden's previous demand for the superfluous by summarizing the final scenes (II, 21-28) for a conversation between Wathfield, Howart and Malvina reinforced.
text
- Complete text in nestroy.at/nestroy-stuecke/31_nachtw
literature
- Helmut Ahrens: I'm not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Johann Nestroy, his life. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-7973-0389-0 .
- Fritz Brukner , Otto Rommel : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Historical-critical complete edition. sixth volume, Verlag von Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1926, pp. 289–378 (text).
- Fritz Brukner, Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Historical-critical complete edition. eighth volume, Verlag von Anton Schroll & Co., Vienna 1926, pp. 200–225 (notes).
- Franz H. Mautner (Ed.): Johann Nestroys Komödien. Edition in 6 volumes. 2nd Edition. Volume 2, Insel Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1979, OCLC 7871586 .
- Franz H. Mautner: Johann Nepomuk Nestroy Comedies. (= Insel Taschenbuch Nr. 1742). Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1979.
- Otto Rommel: Nestroys Works. Selection in two parts (= Golden Classics Library). German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908.
- Ulrike Tanzer : Fortuna, Idylle, Moment: Aspects of Happiness in Literature. Königshausen & Neumann, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-3761-0 , pp. 124-125.
Web links
- Table of contents in www.nestroy.at/nestroy-stuecke/31_nachtw/32inh
Individual evidence
- ↑ The name Wahtfield is erroneously written on the theater bill
- ↑ The name Howarth is written erroneously on the theater bill
- ↑ chives = Viennese for chives
- ↑ Pumpf = Viennese for coarse people, louting
- ↑ Bandelkramer = Viennese for street vendors with ribbons, thread, etc.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Volume 6, p. 311.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Volume 6, p. 326.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Volume 6, p. 377.
- ↑ Content in Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. 8th Volume, pp. 208-212.
- ↑ Content in Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. 8th Volume, pp. 204-206.
- ↑ Mautner (Ed.): Johann Nestroys Komödien. P. 265.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Volume 8, p. 213, note *.
- ↑ Music collection of the Vienna library in the town hall , call number MH 706.
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. 8th Volume, pp. 213-229. (for the entire chapter on contemporary criticism )
- ↑ KK priv. Theater an der Wien. In: Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode , May 14, 1836, p. 462 f. (Online at ANNO ).
- ^ Rommel: Nestroys Works. S. XLV-XLVI.
- ↑ Ahrens: I'm not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Pp. 184-185.
- ^ Mautner: Johann Nepomuk Nestroy Comedies. S, 419.
- ^ Johann Nestroy / Karl Kraus: The necessary and the superfluous: after "The two night walkers" . R. Lányi, Vienna 1920.