93. “Hofgunst”

Comedy in four acts by Thilo von Trotha
Performance at the Neues Theater, Berlin

Trotha's "Hofgunst" is about a small royal court. The princes themselves are good and noble people. Only the cads spoil everything with their silliness and intrigues. Only the finance minister is also one of the "nobles". He has to be there, of course, so that the courtiers' low sense of humility stands out accordingly. The daughter of a baron who lives far from the court, a kind of higher "innocence from the country", is the epitome of all cleverness, rectitude and other beautiful virtues. She allows herself to be persuaded to go to the court, which she hates and hates her father, and immediately becomes lady-in-waiting there. In a few hours, the clever woman does more good at court than a crowd of courtiers could do in centuries. She is the right person to bring about the marriage between the young prince and his cousin, which is necessary for a reconciliatory outcome, while before she can act, the misguided relatives want to sell the two people, who are made for each other, to others who are not suitable for them, in order to observe all kinds of considerations. The old theater characters of the Moser-Schönthan generation with new names and slightly different finery.