Hvar City Theatre Days, Vol. 52 No. 1, 2026.
Original scientific paper
Hrvati vu Zadru, an Anonymous Kajkavian Play
Jasmina Lukec
Abstract
The Kajkavian play Hrvati vu Zadru (‘Croats in Zadar’) is preserved in the Collection
of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books of the National and University Library in Zagreb
(composite volume Igrokazi horvatski i kratka pripovedanja; shelfmark 3273). It is a translation of the German play (Militärisches Schauspiel – a popular play with a military setting but not focused on warfare) Die Kroaten in Zara by Karl Meisl (1775–1853), an Austrian civil servant who, alongside Adolf Bäuerle and Joseph Alois Gleich, was one of the principal representatives of Viennese popular theatre prior to Ferdinand Raimund. Meisl’s play was printed in Vienna in 1814, performed in the same year at the German Theatre in Zagreb, and translated into Kajkavian in 1822 for the needs of the seminary theatre. The analysis is focused on the 1822 Kajkavian version of the play, and examines its compositional, thematic, and character-related features, and points to the fundamental human values and flaws that are crucial to shaping the play’s ideological foundation.
Keywords
Kajkavian drama; Karl Meisl; German theatre
Hrčak ID:
347168
URI
Publication date:
6.5.2026.
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