The play was originally entitled "Der Kurmärker und die Picarde, 1815," and apparently dates from 1848 or before (the author himself played the lead male role in Berlin for the last time in 1848); the present work is a revised version of the play, in which the setting has been shifted from 1815 to 1870. The file contains materials related to related to rehearsal and performance, including a published copy (Berlin: Eduard Bloch, n.d.; Eduard Bloch's Theater Correspondenz Nr. 13, 11th edition), which bears minor annotations that indicate its intended use as a prompt-book; and 2 handwritten role books, for the play's 2 parts: Marie, Pächterin in einem Dorfe der Picardie; and Friedrich Wilhelm Schulze, Landwehrsmann. The published copy incudes 3 forewords from Eduard Bloch, one to the 9th edition, dated Jan. 1871; one to the 10th edition, dated Oct. 1875; and one to the eleventh edition, dated Oct. 1881. The 1871 foreword gives details about the play's renewed popularity in the wake of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), which led to the revision of the 9th edition to reflect the latter historical context (the play was originally set in 1815, at the end of the late Napoleonic Wars known in German as the Befreiungskriege, or wars of liberation). That foreword and the 1881 foreword mention biographical details about the author, Louis Schneider, as well as about the actress Adele Polin, who played the female lead opposite Schneider in original productions of the play in Berlin. Although predominantly in German, the text contains a significant number of lines in French, spoken mainly by the character Marie, who is French (the action is set in France). In the published copy there is no attribution for music. One handwritten musical score is included here (see folder 674), dated "Jan. 25th 1878." The score bears the title of the play, and is headed "Scene 4 (pag 13)" and "Tanz"; no composer is given. The music has been tentativley attributed to Hermann Schmidt, who is credited for music in later editions of the play, but the extant musical score, presumably dating from a production of the play in Philadelphia, might possibly be the work of a local music director. The pagination given in the heading of the musical score does not correspond to the extant published copy, in which the dance in scene 4 occurs on p. 16, leaving open the possibility that the music was used in a performance unrelated to the remaining materials. The role books are labeled by hand as the property of Theodor Bloch, who was active in German-language theater in Philadelphia from 1873 until at least the mid 1890s, first as an actor and later as a prompter, and who also ran a theater lending library. The title is listed in Bloch's catalog for his lending library, dated 1886 (see box 34). The role books are slightly soiled on the outside pages but are bare of any annotations. (The collection's holdings of theater newspapers and playbills contain no reference to this play.).
