Judith and Holofernes (Nestroy)
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| Title: | Judith and Holofernes |
| Genus: | Travesty in one act |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Literary source: | Judith by Friedrich Hebbel |
| Music: | Michael Hebenstreit |
| Publishing year: | 1849 |
| Premiere: | March 13, 1849 |
| Place of premiere: | Carltheater |
| Place and time of the action: | the action takes place partly in the camp of Holofernes, partly in Bethulia |
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Judith and Holofernes is a travesty in an act by Johann Nestroy . The first performance took place on March 13, 1849 in Vienna's Carltheater .
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The vain general Holofernes basks in his war glory, treats ambassadors from subjugated kingdoms with contempt and mocks his king Nebuchadnezzar (with Nestroy Nabucadnezzar ), for whose success he is solely responsible.
- “I am the highlight of nature, I have not yet lost a battle, I am the maiden among generals. I should like me Einmahl with myself together rush just to see who the Stärckere is', I or me. " (3 te Scene)
When he learns that the people of Bethulien (a city of the Hebrews) have not yet surrendered, he immediately sets out with his soldiers to destroy them. The Bethul army is weak, but heaven works miracles for them, which does not impress him:
- "On, then, to Bettltuttien!" (9 th Scene)
Ammon and Hosea are appalled by the huge army at the gates of their city. Their conversation, however, revolves around concerns that stocks will fall and how to make a profit out of the situation. The citizens called to arms show no desire to actually go into battle. Even the high priest Jehoiakim has no consolation:
- "If you should also all be killed by the swords of the enemies, so denckt that you have earned so's by your sins." (12 th Scene)
When Assad suggests opening the city gate to Holofernes and recognizing him as ruler, his mute brother Daniel suddenly speaks and demands that Assad be stoned. Because Nathan announces that all shares will fall by 50 percent, Daniel demands that Nathan also be stoned and Heman too, who mentions Daniel's clothing debts. Assad appeases the citizens:
- "You have to take yes, he is blind, and does not know what he red't." (17 th Scene)
Jojakim's son Joab got the idea to sneak into the camp of Holofernes disguised as Judith. Confident of victory, Holofernes announces the pillage of Bethulia for the following day. Disguised as Judith, Joab appears in the tent of Holofernes, who immediately takes a liking to the beautiful Hebrew woman and therefore takes her to himself. Joab / Judith tells him why she is a widow but still a virgin:
- "I am the only one, by a fate, a rass,
- And who is to blame? The Manasseh. " (24 th Scene)
While Holofernes sleeps off what appears to be an intoxication, Joab believes that he has found the opportunity to murder the hated besiegers. He cuts off his head, but Holofernes suspected this and prepared a doll with a cardboard head. Now he wants to have Joab arrested, but his soldiers fled when Joab showed them the cardboard head. This is how the Hebrews manage to take the camp and take Holofernes prisoner.
Factory history
Many years after the successful parodies The soulful Kerckermeister (1832), Zampa der Tagdieb (1832), Robert der Teuxel (1833) and Neither Laurel Tree nor Bettelstab (1835), Nestroy tried Martha or Die Mischmonder Markt-Mägde-Miethung (1848) again in this genre. On March 13, 1849, the first performance of the work Judith and Holofernes , a satire of the tragedy Judith by Friedrich Hebbel . The Hebbel drama had been very successful in Berlin and Hamburg, and it was also met with great approval in Vienna - Nestroy's version, parodying the heroic military, was no less successful. In total, the work was performed 67 times during Nestroy's lifetime.
Nestroy managed to combine the 5 acts of the tragedy into a single one, although he had used some scenes of Hebbel's play almost unchanged, albeit parodistically. By transforming the violated widow Judith into her disguised brother Joab (who does not appear in the original), Nestroy had saved the element of a sexual problem, which is dangerous for any parody, from becoming obscene and instead diverted it into the harmless burlesque. The description of the wedding night between Judith and Manasses is similarly humorous defused. The captain Ephraim, who appears at Hebbel and is in love with Judith, was originally also included in his play by Nestroy, but then removed the scenes between him and Judith / Joab.
The name Nestroys was not mentioned as the author at the first introductions, probably because of Nestroy's respect for Hebbel (after Ahrens), but possibly also to avoid the harsh criticism of his enemy Moritz Gottlieb Saphir (after Rommel). From 1856, however, he was on the theater bill. In March 1849 the play was performed nine times in the Carltheater, the reason for the cancellation is no longer known, McKenzie suspects pressure from some critics because of the alleged anti-Jewish tendency of the work. From 1856 it could be seen again in the Carltheater and in 1861/62 in the Theater am Franz-Josefs-Kai .
Johann Nestroy played the volunteer Joab, Wenzel Scholz played Holofernes, Alois Grois played the blind Daniel, Friedrich Hopp played the shoemaker Amon; after Scholz's death in 1857, Nestroy took over the role of Holofernes, Karl Treumann played Joab, Friedrich Hopp the high priest Jojakim, Wilhelm Knaack the Assad.
A slightly damaged original Nestroy manuscript has been preserved; it is now in the manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library (signature Ser. Nov. 9608). Some handwritten notes and drafts are kept in the Vienna Library in the City Hall .
Michael Hebenstreit's score is lost.
Hebbel and Nestroy
Hebbel and Nestroy even met in person once, the columnist and critic Ludwig Speidel had introduced them to each other at a reception. He later wrote about it:
- “Hebbel, who, despite his agile awkwardness, loved to play the man of the world, went to meet the great comedian of Leopoldstadt and welcomed him as a colleague. Nestroy thanked him in his embarrassed manner. There was no in-depth conversation between them, because Hebbel's need to communicate was broken by Nestroy’s shyness and monosyllabic. "
This encounter was probably also the reason that Nestroy, who was quite impressed by Hebbel, was reluctant to admit to the parody. It was only after some time that he gave up his anonymity and condemned the spoken sentences in Hebbel's work as "phrase-like and trivial [...] even if they may flare up" . The very fact that he was dealing with a really excellent writer drove him to this sharp criticism of the pathos imposed on this game.
Originally, Hebbel was quite enthusiastic about Nestroy, so he wrote in his diary on June 27, 1847, after seeing the farce Der Schützling :
- "[...] I myself clapped bravely [...] but I by no means misunderstand his healthy nature, his capable talent and appreciate him more than most of what moves around him on iambic stilts in Vienna."
However, after the author's incognito of Judith and Holofernes was released, Hebbel was seriously angry with Nestroy.
The characters of the action
In principle, Nestroy takes over all characters from the original, except for the main character Judith. Instead, he invents the brother Joab, who takes on the role of Judith and leads Holofernes to believe that he is a woman.
| person | at Hebbel | at Nestroy |
|---|---|---|
| Holofernes | he is vain, irascible and incredulous | these characteristics are parodistically exaggerated |
| Judith / Joab | widowed virgin saves Bethulien by entering the camp of Holofernes and murdering him after being raped, a virtuous woman who lives in a godly manner | Parody of Judith, replaced by her brother; Joab is not as moral as his sister, but he is convinced of the importance of his mission, but he still thinks about the money and the stocks |
| Joiakim | a biblical minister of God, apart from reality, helpless in an emergency, is not related to the other people | Father of Judith and Joab, is at a loss, his only worry is that stocks will fall |
| Achior | wants to protect the Hebrews and therefore warns Holofernes against the wrath of their God, should therefore die with them | completely different; mistrusts Judith, is loyal to Holofernes and stays with him until the end |
| Mirza | Judith's loyal maid and at the same time her best friend, follows her into Holofernes' camp, the mediator between Ephraim and Judith | In contrast to the original, less significant, only Joab's companion in Holofernes' camp, knows his identity and fears that this will be discovered |
| Daniel | does not say a word for 30 years, only to say that his brother should be stoned; his actions are completely unclear, as if God were really speaking through him | parodied particularly heavily, raises his voice against everyone to whom he owes; when he also speaks against his brother, the people think he is mad |
| Bethulier | pious Jews, who nevertheless partially lose their fear of God, characteristic seems to be taken directly from the Bible | clichéd portrayal of the Jews, they only think of money and stocks and have no idea about agriculture or warfare |
| Manasses | in the biblical book of Judit it is mentioned that the widow was married to Manasses; Hebbel alludes to the sexual problem in this regard | while Judith in the Hebbel original is sad about her past marriage, Joab jokes about Manasses in Knittel verse, which reinforce this |
Contemporary reception
Several contemporary critics had mixed feelings about the piece, it was one of Nestroy's most controversial works.
In the Allgemeine Österreichische Zeitung of March 15, 1849 (No. 73, p. 506) it was alleged that Nestroy had used travesty as a “justified comedy” (quote), but that Hebbel's intention was completely misunderstood and on March 18 (No. 76, p. 529 f.) Finally stated:
- “Strange what the author calls travesty. Is it a caricature to turn someone without a god into a straw man and defile him with feces? "
In Wanderer of March 15, 1849 (No. 63), the idea itself was approved, but various aspects were criticized, especially a couplet about the emancipation of the Jews (Joab / Nestroy in the 14th scene). That director Carl celebrated the anniversary of the March Revolution on March 17, 1849 a ceremony at which Judith and Holofernes was performed, uttered in the same newspaper on complete lack of understanding. The Ost-Deutsche Post of March 18 (No. 50) also accused the author (who remained anonymous for the time being) of anti-Jewish sentiments.
The Viennese magazine of March 15 (No. 52, p. 207 f.) Criticized it sharply:
- “It is incomprehensible to me how a theater director in the residence could lend his stage to a work in which stupidity, meanness and triviality are piled up in a Babylonian tower, it is incomprehensible to me how a director who has such a number of devoted servants around has, among all his counselors and consultants, has not a single one who has objected to such a mistake, or at least made representations. "
Moritz Gottlieb Saphir's humorist ofMarch 15 (No. 63) particularly criticized the use of German with a Yiddish touch; In addition, the reviewer rather Nestroy in the role of the High Priest and the then very popular would Vaudeville - soubrette in director Carl's Ensemble, Ms. Ida Bruning Wohlbrück, wife of Franz Schuselka seen as Judith. Hebenreit's music was also judged negatively.
Only in the Wiener Theater Zeitung of Adolf Bäuerle was to read a positive review. The paper's well-known anti-Jewish theater critic, Adolph C. Naske, considered the choice of material to be a good success and particularly praised the passages that his colleagues had described as anti-Jewish.
The resumption of the work in the theater program in 1856 - Nestroy had now been named as the author - produced much more moderate reviews, with Treumann being praised as Joab / Judith and Nestroy as Holofernes.
Later interpretations
Modern evaluations see the piece in a completely different light: The work is (according to Helmut Ahrens ) “one of the sharpest-tongued, funniest pieces by Johann Nestroy” ; Otto Rommel calls it "one of his most brilliant works" and "a perfect example of parody." (Quotes).
John RP McKenzie sees the play as a final reference to events and attitudes during the revolution of 1848/1849 in the Austrian Empire and, for example, in the siege of Bethulia by Holofernes, a parallel to the siege of Vienna by Alfred I. zu Windisch-Graetz . He explains the success of the work in the “strange amalgamation of parody and political satire.” (Quote) In literary studies, however, the transformation of the Hebrew population of Bethulia into Jews in Leopoldstadt in Vienna has become an object of dispute as to whether Nestroy had created a deliberately anti-Jewish work here . This explains the few performances after 1945.
By Franz H. Mautner this parody is considered one of the classic German literature. Especially the part in Holofernes' camp plays (scenes 1-9 and 21-24), was "the sharpest conceivable critical parody of Hebbel's early work, the unbearable-hyperbolic swaggering and tasteless and intuition loose imagery of Holofernes." ( Quotation) In contrast, the scenes in Bethulien would be a pure joke parody: Nestroy let the citizens of Bethulia act like caricatured Jewish businessmen from the Vienna of his time.
Karl Kraus states that Nestroy knew how to expose the characteristic inadequacies of Hebbel's style of speech with such minimal changes that "the parody is from Hebbel and not from Nestroy." (Quote)
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 .
- Franz H. Mautner (Ed.): Johann Nestroys Komödien. Edition in 6 volumes, Insel Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1979, 2nd edition 1981, 6th volume. OCLC 7871586 , pp. 282-294, 307-308.
- John RP McKenzie (Ed.): Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. In: Jürgen Hein , Johann Hüttner , Walter Obermaier , W. Edgar Yates : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works, Historical-Critical Edition. Franz Deuticke Verlagsgesellschaft, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-216-30314-4 ; Pp. 81-152, 293-482.
- Otto Rommel: Nestroys Works. Selection in two parts, Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Achior, the leader of all the Ammonites several times in biblical Judith mentioned
- ↑ Jehoiakim is mentioned in the 2nd Book of Kings as king of Judah , who was defeated by Nabû-kudurrī-uṣur II. (Nebuchadnezzar)
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. P. 88.
- ↑ Bettltuttien = play on words with Bethulien and the Viennese expression betteltutti , completely without possession
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. P. 92.
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. P. 94.
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. P. 102.
- ↑ rass, raß = Viennese for 1) sharp, fiery; 2) rotten, rancid, bad, vicious (here in the second meaning)
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. P. 107.
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. Pp. 403-404.
- ↑ Facsimiles of the theater bills of March 13, 1849 and May 3, 1856 as well as two Treumann photos as Judith - the second with the paper mache head of Holofernes - in John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, Pieces 26 / II. Pp. 487-488, 490-493.
- ↑ Facsimiles of the 2nd – 4th and 22nd scene as well as an alternative ending in John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. Pp. 490-492.
- ↑ Manuscript collection in the Vienna City Hall, shelf marks IN 3.232, 33.732, 33.733, 33.734, 33.735, 36.760, 94.362, 140.167.
- ^ Friedrich Hebbel: Complete Works, historical-critical edition; Concerned by Richard Maria Werner. Second section, third volume, Behr, Berlin 1904, p. 249.
- ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Pp. 323-326. (applies to the entire paragraph and the quotations)
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. Pp. 392-402. (for the entire chapter on contemporary reception )
- ^ Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroys works. Volume 2, introduction p. 9.
- ^ John RP McKenzie: Johann Nestroy, pieces 26 / II. Pp. 81-82.
- ^ Franz H. Mautner: Johann Nestroys Komedien. P. 307.
- ^ Karl Kraus: The literary lie on the theater . Die Fackel 457-461, May 10, 1917, pp. 53-57.