About the work
A two-act Posse with songs by Johann Nestroy, first performed on 6 February 1849 at Vienna's Carltheater as a benefit for the author, with music by Michael Hebenstreit. Nestroy wrote it shortly after the crushed 1848 revolution and noted on the playbill only that the plot was partly taken from the French.
Plot
The vain tailor Hyginus Heugeign is commissioned to sew a ball gown for a lady and convinces himself he has stumbled into a political conspiracy. In truth he is merely a pawn in a feud between two brothers. Once his misunderstanding unravels, he returns to his fiancée Linerl and his trade.
Cultural significance
Because critics suspected a veiled comment on the recent revolution, the play met with mostly hostile reviews and vanished after just six performances, not returning to the stage until 1954. Later scholars read it as Nestroy's coded reckoning with the political reaction after 1848.