Just rest!
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| Title: | Just rest! |
| Genus: | Posse with singing in Drey Acten |
| Original language: | German |
| Author: | Johann Nestroy |
| Music: | Adolf Müller senior |
| Publishing year: | 1843 |
| Premiere: | November 17, 1843 |
| Place of premiere: | Theater in the Leopoldstadt |
| Place and time of the action: | The action takes place in Schafgeist's house and in the surrounding area, not far from the capital |
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Just rest! is a farce with vocals in Drey Acten by Johann Nestroy . The play was written in 1843 and had its world premiere on November 17th of this year as a “benefit performance” for the poet. Nevertheless, there were public protests at the premiere and the work was therefore deleted from the program after the fourth performance.
content
Although he has lived a leisurely life all his life, Mr. Schafgeist wants to hand over his leather manufacture to his nephew Splittinger at the age of 55 so that he can enjoy “just more peace and quiet” . But on this very day events precipitate:
Because of a carriage accident, the grouchy Herr von Hornissl, who always blames others for his mistakes, his limited wife Barbara ( "... I'm mortally afraid because of the purple dress." ), The dependent daughter Peppi ( "I don't have any Will, if you wish ... " ) and the vain, ruthless nephew Laffberger ( " ... an incomprehensible man of the world, the Hansi " ). Schafgeist's nephew Splittinger is a reckless do-it-all who only thinks about his pleasure, the scheming journeyman Rochus absolutely wants to couple his coquettish foster daughter Leocadia to Schafgeist, the elderly Madame Groning wants the young Splittinger for a husband, only the capable Franz, in love with Peppi, takes care of the business. Splittinger and Laffberger recreate Leocadia. Hornissl once cheated Madame Groning out of an inheritance and wants to dump incriminating documents in the pond.
- “Safe is safe; I don't know what I kept this stuff for anyway. [...] But if, for example - ah, no - such a pond cannot dry out - and even if - the thing is pretty heavy, sinks completely into the mud in a short time. " (II. Act, 10th scene)
When the turmoil is at its height, the innocent sheep spirit is arrested by the hostile clerk Klecks with the help of the quack Patzmann as a woman and child kidnapper, helper in an attempted murder and defamation of office. Only the intervention of the Syndicus Werthner and finding the cassette with Hornissl's papers clears everything up: Peppi is really Schafgeist's daughter, believed dead, who Hornissl foisted on his wife for a stillborn child, so Splittinger does not inherit and marries Madame Groning, Leocadia travels Back to the capital, insulted, Rochus, who was demanding an outrageous reward, flashes off and loyal Franz gets his Peppi, who inherits the leather business. The relieved sheep spirit sums up:
- "Now, however, I hope nothing will bother me until - until one day before the baptism of the child, I will have a bit of shooting around, but then rest again, just rest!" (III. Act, 18 . Scene)
Factory history
Just rest! is a sharp-sighted, cynical reckoning with the rich and comfortable bourgeoisie of Metternich's Vienna in the Vormärz . Since Nestroy denounced all social classes equally and showed them as unchangeable characters despite changing times, most of the audience felt hit and protested loudly at the premiere against this "un-Viennese" piece.
The German Germanist Friedrich Sengle (1909–1994) concretized this disturbing point for the audience in the two opponents Anton Schafgeist and Rochus Dickfell: The “bourgeois” Schafgeist had no “capitalist dynamic” , but was a “good-natured phlegmatic” who was solely responsible wanted to get rid of for his business - the “proletarian” Rochus with his “class struggle gesture, a captatio benevolentiae for the gallery” is in truth just a “crook and half a pimp” , in whom comedy and tendency do not get along well.
The greatest competition for the Viennese local posse, however, was vaudeville , which had become extremely popular in Vienna and was also eagerly promoted by director Carl Carl . The audience had split into fans of vaudeville and folk plays; also at the premiere of Nur Ruhe! the two groups collided in the theater. Since the new Nestroy piece by no means lived up to expectations, both sides made a lot of noise, albeit for different motives.
The criticism was quite partial, which was by no means a rarity at the time. She also criticized the piece's weaknesses - albeit mostly only insignificant things such as the by no means frequent "vulgar expressions", even the enema syringe at the end of the first act (a prop that was quite common in the farce at the time) - but mainly gave the Zwist Vaudevillists as well against Wiener Posse advocates large room. The drastic cuts for the second and the following performances did bring about a moderation of the public protests, but this could not save the work from the rapid removal.
Johann Nestroy played Rochus Dickfell, Wenzel Scholz played Anton Schafgeist, Alois Grois played Herr von Hornissl, Andreas Scutta played old journeyman Sanfthuber, Franz Gämmerler played Franz Walkauer, Ignaz Stahl played Syndicus Werthner.
A source for Nestroy's piece has not yet been established. Fritz Brukner and Otto Rommel suspected a French drama in 1928, but there was no evidence for it. Rommel argued similarly as early as 1908, leaving the question of novel or drama open. He described the piece itself as a "fable with no content or interest" .
An original Nestroy manuscript has been preserved, the pages divided into "fair copy" on the left and "concept" on the right. The original score of Adolf Müller (without couplet texts) is kept in the music collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall .
Contemporary reception
The contemporary theater critics were unanimous - albeit for slightly different reasons and with varying severity - in rejecting the work, and even magazines that were intrinsically friendly to nestroy agreed with the others.
The reviewer of the Sunday papers , Dr. Wagner, stated on November 19, 1843 (p. 1128 f.):
- “With a kind of painful resignation we show the complete worthlessness, the total fiasco of this latest product from Nestroy's pen, since it is the only bright green branch on the withered and yellowed tree of our folk muse. [...] which makes the sad remark that Nestroy has exhausted himself. "
Adolf Bäuerle's Viennese theater newspaper, which was well weighted by Nestroy on November 20 (p. 1203), said that the second performance after the unsuccessful premiere had received a very friendly reception thanks to “cuts and omissions [...]” , but it still had Nestroy does not meet the “expectations and requirements” of a famous poet.
In Wanderer it was stated that the split in the audience was partly to blame for the debacle of the premiere, but the “boringness of the novelty” is unmistakable.
The Österreichisches Morgenblatt wrote about the actors:
- "Little more can be said of the actors and their achievements in a play in which two acts hissed than that they seemed to do their job well."
In other reviews it was mentioned that Nestroy had been provoked a few times ( “with opposition” ) and that Mr Scholz, undeterred by the hissing, played his role with great commitment. In the Wiener Zeitschrift a sharply negative review was ended with the sentence:
- "Enough: Justo publici judicio justificatis est!" (The judgment is justified by public opinion!)
Newer interpretation
In Barbara Rita Krebs you can read that Just Peace! One of the five worst failed pieces by Nestroy, the four others would be Der Zauberer Sulphurelectrimagneticophosphoratus (1834), An apartment is for rent in the city (1837), Die Liebe Anverwandten (1848) and Secret money, secret love (1853).
Krebs notes that in contemporary reception the focus was on Nestroy's social criticism, which, however, also presents itself as aesthetic criticism, for example when Moritz Gottlieb criticizes Saphir instead of an "army show of splendid suits, celebrations, dances, groups, chants, songs etc. ” only to have to endure “ grumpy gestures, disgusting display of frivolous attitudes ” . Taken together, the relentless realism of the presentation was the main reason for the rejection by a disappointed audience, uncomfortably affected by the events, who had to recognize themselves on stage.
Otto Rommel assumes that it was an open war between vaudevillists and buffoons, which would also be proven by contemporary criticism, which was also divided into two parts and aimed precisely in this direction.
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 in fifteen volumes, twelfth volume, Verlag von Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna 1929, pp. 3–108, 537–566.
- Jürgen Hein (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 32. In: Jürgen Hein / Johann Hüttner / Walter Obermaier / W. Edgar Yates : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works, Historical-Critical Edition. Jugend und Volk, Vienna / Munich 1993, ISBN 3-224-16909-5 ; 1-85, 163-241.
- Barbara Rita Krebs: Nestroy's Failures: Aesthetic and Social Conditions. Diploma thesis at the humanities faculty of the University of Vienna, Vienna 1989.
- Otto Rommel: Nestroys Works. Selection in two parts, Golden Classics Library, German publishing house Bong & Co., Berlin / Leipzig / Vienna / Stuttgart 1908.
Web links
- Register of persons, table of contents and full text on nestroy.at/nestroy-stuecke/49
Individual evidence
- ↑ means Vienna
- ↑ Speculant = someone who gets involved in insecure business for the sake of high profits (Franz Funk, Das Büchlein von den Geldkupplern, Zubringern, Unterhändler, G'schaftelbergern, Mäklern or Sensalen , Vienna 1848)
- ↑ Laffe = vain young man, dude
- ↑ Syndicus = legal counsel, here more likely meant judge
- ↑ in the text called Werkführer
- ↑ Senior journeyman = oldest journeyman in a workshop with special rights and duties
- ↑ patzen = Viennese for blotch, stump, quack
- ↑ Wachter = community servant with police function
- ^ Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. P. 66.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 32. p. 85.
- ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Pp. 254-255.
- ↑ captatio benevolentiae = Latin: requesting benevolence
- ^ Friedrich Sengle: Biedermeier period. German literature in the field of tension between restoration and revolution, 1815–1848. Metzler, Stuttgart 1971/72, ISBN 3-476-00182-2 .
- ^ Otto Rommel / Fritz Brukner : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works, 15 volumes, Vienna 1924–30; Volume XII, p. 551.
- ↑ a b Brukner / Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Complete Works. Pp. 550-551.
- ↑ Facsimile of the theater slip in Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 32. p. 354.
- ^ Otto Rommel: Nestroys works. S. LVII-LVIII.
- ↑ Manuscript collection of the Vienna library in the town hall, call number IN 33.342.
- ^ Jürgen Hein: Johann Nestroy; Pieces 32. pp. 170-179.
- ↑ Barbara Rita Krebs: Nestroys Failures , pp. 9-10.
- ↑ Feerien = magic theater with fairies
- ↑ Der Humorist, November 25, 1843, pp. 93 f.
- ↑ Barbara Rita Krebs: Nestroys Failures , pp. 67–68.
- ^ Otto Rommel: Johann Nestroy, Gesammelte Werke , Schroll, 1962, p. 55.