Materials related to rehearsal and performance, including a published copy (Berlin: Eduard Bloch, n.d.; Eduard Bloch's "Volk's-Theater" Nr. 45), which has been annotated as a prompt-book; and 14 handwritten role books, for all the main parts: Arthur von Schmettwitz; Ella, seine Frau; Curt von Hageln; Egon, ein Reisender; Dr. Rathgeber, Badearzt; Busch, Badecommisarius und Polizeiverwalter in Kieserthal; Schnepf, Geheimer Registrator; Clotilde, seine Frau; Bertha, seine Tochter; Blanknagel, Kaufmann; Rosette Hasenklein, Vorsteherin eines Damenpensionats; Peter Schnips, Kellner im Gasthause "zum goldenen Tannzapfen"; ein Führer; and ein Hirte. The published copy and all of 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 library, dated 1886 (see box 34). The published copy dates from around 1873, when the play was first published. On the page listing characters it gives the contemporary casts of the play at the Hoftheater in Berlin and the Hoftheater in Vienna. Noted by hand on the same page are the names of cast members familiar from casts of other German-language plays in Philadelphia, reflecting a cast that would have performed in 1894-1895. The role books are all written out in the same hand, and almost always signed on the last page "König." (The collection's holdings of theater newspapers and playbills contain no reference to this play.)
