KOMEDIJA, ZGODOVINSKA IGRA: dramatični prizor v dveh delih
ŠTEVILO OSEB: 16 (4ž 12m)
KRAJ IN ČAS DOGAJANJA: 28. 12. 1789 zvečer v Zoisovi palači. Prvi del prikazuje dogajanje pred odhodom na krstno uprizoritev Županove Micke, drugi del pa slovesno praznovanje po predstavi.
Besedilo je v Slovenskem gledališkem inštitutu ohranjeno v rokopisni obliki pod signaturo DD 673. V zvezku (21 x 17 cm) je 40 oštevilčenih listov, torej 80 strani. V besedilu je nekaj popravkov z Vošnjakovo pisavo, pripisal pa je tudi prvo zasedbo Županove Micke (1789).
Leta 1905 je Gabrščkova tiskarna v zbirki Talija, ki jo je urejal Fran Govekar, natisnila Linhartovo The Mayor's Miciko (Talija, št. 20). Linhartovi komediji je Govekar dodal predigro in poigro in se podpisal kot Anonimus, ki je igro napisal po osnovi dr. Josipa Vošnjaka. Drobna Govekarjeva knjižica je bila navdih tudi za Bratka Krefta in njegove Kranjske komedijante.
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Praizvedba besedila je bila 12. decembra 1905. Uprizoritev je režiral Lev Dragutinović, ponovitev pa je bila 7. januarja 1906.
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Josip Vošnjak (1834-1911), pisatelj in zdravnik, je bil eden najvidnejših slovenskih politikov in kulturnih delavcev druge polovice 19. stoletja. Leta 1867 je bil izvoljen za poslanca v štajerskem deželnem zboru, kjer se je v naslednjem desetletju zavzemal za jezikovno enakopravnost in Zedinjeno Slovenijo, za slovensko ozemeljsko in upravno enovitost. Od 1873 do 1885 je bil poslanec v državnem zboru na Dunaju, od 1877 do upokojitve (1895) pa v kranjskem deželnem zboru. Kot vodilni politik slovenske liberalne stranke je zagovarjal pomen izobraževanja in slovenske gospodarske osamosvojitve; sodeloval je pri ustanavljanju domačih bank in zadrug. Kot politik in publicist se je zavzemal za izboljšanje nevzdržnih socialnih razmer kmečkega in delavskega prebivalstva.
Bil je med ustanovitelji Slovenske matice (1864), in časnika Slovenski narod (1868). Zanj je pisal članke o gospodarstvu, financah, politiki, socialnih in medicinskih vprašanjih ter tudi o kulturi. Strokovne in leposlovne prispevke je objavljal še v Slovenskem gospodarju, Ljubljanskemu zvonu, v publikacijah Mohorjeve družbe in drugje. Konec šestdesetih let je uspešno nastopal na slovenskih taborih, pozneje pa je dejavno sodeloval pri zbiranju sredstev in postavljanju spomenikov pomembnim Slovencem, pri ustanavljanju Glasbene matice, Ciril-Metodovega društva in Pisateljskega društva. Kot sodelavec Dramatičnega društva je pomagal pri nastajanju in razvoju slovenskega gledališča.
Vošnjak's first dramatic attempt in German, which he also staged, dates back to his student years. After completing his medical studies in Vienna, he returned to his native land, switched from German to Slovenian in his writing, and wrote a tragedy in verse, which has not survived. Vošnjak's early literary attempts and publications, encouraged by his friend and colleague Josip Jurčič, were interrupted by a steep political career. He took up writing again when he completed his second term in the National Assembly, i.e. after his fiftieth birthday. Literary historians note that during this time he completed previously conceived or planned texts, including the novel Twins (1889) and numerous dramatic works that he submitted to the Dramatic Society a few months after the novel's publication. For these texts, which in terms of form and content belong more to the 1870s, France Koblar used the term "late reading drama" (Slovenian Drama I, 1972, p. 139). Vošnjak, who after 1885 set about working for the Slovenian theatre with all his energy and diligence, wrote these texts for the small, cramped stage of the Ljubljana reading room, which was revived in the years after the fire of the Estates Theatre and before the construction of the new theatre building (1887 – 1892), so that it must be written in his defense that his drama is not "late reading room" only in the sense of content and form, but is literally reading room. When the opportunity finally arose for the Slovenes to get their own theatre, Vošnjak actively participated in this project as a councilor in the Carniolan Provincial Assembly and treasurer of the Dramatic Society. As a young politician, he attended the opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1868 and appeared as a speaker, and at the age of almost sixty, he also lived to see the opening of his home theatre.
Vošnjak, who participated in discussions about the repertoire conundrums of Slovenian theatre during this period, also tried to solve them with his own dramatic texts: he offered the Dramatic Society five mostly lighter texts or comedies. Foam, To their own and Minister's letter were also staged this year, comedies A hundred years ago and Women's victory but they failed to make it to the stage during this period.
The next type of Vošnjak's plays is closely related to his attempts at a Tolstoyan story with material from the lives of ordinary people with directly expressed moral teachings (Condemned, You father to the threshold, your son across the threshold, Two neighbors, Blessed are the merciful...). He developed his version of Mohorian literature not only in prose experiments, but also in drama. Thus, a rural version of the bourgeois play was created. To their own, which he published in the Calendar of the Society of St. Mohor (1891). This also includes two texts that were published in the book collection Slovenske večernice Sodružbe sv. Mohorje. Game Walnut, subtitled Scenes from Farm Life, was published in volume 45 (1991), a short story in one act Let's not give up! and in volume 53 (1901).
The third set of Vošnjak's dramatic works and his literary peak are represented by the plays Beautiful Vida (book edition and performance 1893) and Doctor Dragan (1894), which was not performed at the time of its creation due to problematic content. Compared to earlier texts, these are works that are complex in content and form, characterized by more contemporary tones and motifs, although they remain trapped in melodramatic sentimentality and euphemism.
During this time, they put on stage Coal mine (1994), a less successful and accomplished work, according to literary history, depicting a strike in a coal mine.
With their contemporary content and complexly drawn characters, the aforementioned Vošnjak plays indicated the rapprochement of Slovenian dramatic literature with modern European literary trends, a rapprochement that was only fully realized by Ivan Cankar.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE SLOVENIAN THEATRE INSTITUTE: VOŠNJAK'S WORKS IN BOOK EDITIONS AND A SELECTION OF MATERIALS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
In 1889, a one-act play was published To each their own. In the same year, as the first booklet of the Vošnjaks Collected dramatic and narrative writings published novel Twins, printed in the National Printing House in Ljubljana. Of the planned five volumes, only three were published. The other two were printed by the Celje printing house of Dragotin Hribar, the former manager of the National Printing House in Ljubljana. Drama Beautiful Vida was published in 1893, Doctor Dragan and a year later.
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Singing game Coal miner It was never fully printed. France Koblar included the work in an anthology Older Slovenian drama (1951). He decided to publish the second act; he merely summarized the other three.
In the last years of his life, Vošnjak published Memories in two volumes (1905, 1906). The work was republished in 1982 by Slovenska matica. The selection was made by historian Vasilij Melik, who is also the author of the accompanying study.
The first and only volume of the book collection Slovenska meščanska dramatika was published in 1996. The editor and writer of the foreword, Igor Grdina, decided to publish Vošnjak's Doctor Dragan and Matches Anton Funtek.
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Vošnjak's dramatic work was discussed by Frank Wollman in the book Slovenian drama (1925) and France Koblar in Slovenian playwrights (1972). It also has an important place in Dušan Moravec's monograph Townspeople in Slovenian drama (1960).
Dušan Moravec also published an extensive analysis of Vošnjak's drama in issue 43 of Documents of the Slovenian Theatre Museum (1984).
The most comprehensive overview of Vošnjak's literary, political, and cultural activities is the monograph by Malina Schmidt Snoj, published in the book collection Znameniti Slovenci pri Nova revija (2003).
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Avtor v prvem delu preplete nacionalne, politične in ljubezenske oziroma snubitvene zaplete. V baronovi hiši so se pred krstno uprizoritvijo Županove Micke zbrali trije narodni buditelji: Žiga Zois, Anton Tomaž Linhart in Valentin Vodnik. Prek njihovih medsebojnih pogovorov nas Vošnjak seznani s tedanjimi razmerami in z načrti protagonistov: dovesti narod do višje omike. Svoj materni jezik bi radi približali drugim evropskim jezikom, pri čemer se jim zdi najpomembnejše slovstveno oziroma splošno kulturno delovanje in tiskanje slovenskih knjig.
Vzporedno z njihovimi modrovanji se zapletajo in razpletajo ljubezenske zadeve: najprej se zbližujeta baronov sluga Janez in Žibertova Neža iz Šiške, Vodnikova nečakinja. Njunemu zgledu sledijo tudi predstavniki višjih razredov: Zoisovi sorodnici, mladi sestri Gabrijela in Milica Garzarolli ter njuni snubci. Gabrijela oziroma Jela je tudi igralka: v Linhartovi igri bo igrala Sternfeldovko, njenega nezvestega moža Tulpenheima pa bo upodobil Oton Desselbruner, sin ljubljanskega tovarnarja. Do slovenstva skeptični Oton je zaljubljen v Jelo, ona pa se je vnela za drugega soigralca, neoporečnega »narodnjaka« doktorja Makovca. Še bolj zapleten in s sorodstvenimi vezmi prepleten je drugi, neigralski ljubezenski trikotnik. Zaljubljena sta Jelina sestra in Zoisova nečakinja Milica ter nečak Karol. Baronova namera, da bo nečaka poslal na oglede belgijskih fužin in angleških jeklarn, v paru vzbudi sum, da bi stari baron rad deklico zase. V tako napetem vzdušju se odpravijo v gledališče: Torej idimo in Bog daj srečo prvi slovenski predstavi!
Na začetku drugega dela so se navdušeni igralci in gledalci po predstavi zbrali v slovesno okrašenem salonu in Zois Linhartu predlaga, naj pripravi za uprizoritev tudi Figarovo svatbo. Možje razpravljajo o pariški praizvedbi, baron pa opisuje svoje navdušenje nad Mozartovo opero, ki si jo je ogledal pred letom dni v Pragi. Linhart se boji, da zaradi preostre Beaumarchejeve kritike plemstva za slovensko uprizoritev ne bo mogel pridobiti igralcev. Pogovor o teatru preskoči na modrovanje o francoski revoluciji, ki jo je po Zoisovem mnenju povzročilo pretirano izkoriščanje francoskega ljudstva. Zdaj se kot plaz širi po Evropi: Nov duh bode prešinjal tudi druge narode in zbujal jih k novemu življenju…
Ko se družbi pridružijo še najuglednejši gostje, Zois v vznesenem vzdušju narodnega slavja izreče tudi naslednje preroške besede:
…meni se nikakor ne zdi nemogoče, da bi kdaj in čeprav še le čez sto let, ta kmetski jezik bil v ljubljanskem rotovži in v deželnem dvorci.
Deželni glavar Auersperg in novoizvoljeni ljubljanski župan Podobnik, ki ju je baron v gledališču povabil na zabavo, se mu posmehujeta in menita, da je za ljudstvo primerno le delo in ne omika. Zoisov protiargument, da je nevedno, surovo ljudstvo še silnejše in nevarnejše, ju ne prepriča in kmalu zapustita prizorišče.
Na hitro uredijo ljubezenske težave in zaročijo ustrezne pare, ki jih bo s slovenskim obredom poročil Vodnik: ta zbrane zabava s svojimi poskočnimi štirivrstičnicami, potem pa ga preseneti mešani pevski zbor. Pevci ob spremljavi orkestra zapojejo Vodnikovo pesem.
Ganjeni pesnik je pripravil Zoisu zahvalo v verzih, ki jo pred zbrano množico vzneseno odrecitira Neža. Igra se zaključi z napitnicami, lovorjevimi venci in gromko zborovsko pesmijo.
Vošnjak je na zadnji strani rokopisa pred stavkom zagrinjalo pade, naknadno pripisal še besedici bengalijski ogenj.