About the work
One-act farce by Johann Nestroy, first performed on 16 January 1829 at the Ständisches Schauspielhaus in Graz as a benefit evening for the actor Carl Kindler, with Nestroy himself playing the valet Carl Maria Siegelwachs. The piece is documented only by a playbill and an announcement in the Graz newspaper 'Der Aufmerksame' of 15 January 1829; the text itself has not survived.
Plot
The content of the now-lost play is not known. Its subtitle, 'A Stupid Servant of His Master', has fuelled speculation that it parodied Franz Grillparzer's tragedy 'A Faithful Servant of His Master', though the surviving cast list gives little support for a sustained parody.
Cultural significance
The play received one further performance on 22 January 1829; no later stagings are recorded. It dates from Nestroy's years as an actor in Graz, during which he repeatedly wrote his own pieces for benefit evenings, and illustrates how patchy the record of his early work remains.