Brief summary of baby tsakhes. Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober. A Note on Mental Qualities

The peasant woman Lizi had an ugly son, whose name was Tsakhes. One day she was returning home from the forest with him and, stopping to rest, fell asleep. Fairy Rosabelverde, passing by, saw them. She felt terribly sorry for Tsakhes, and she decided to help him. The fairy combed his hair with a magic comb. After that, three fiery hairs appeared on the freak's head, which endowed him with witchcraft. All the merits and successes of others were now assigned only to him. And all his bad sides (of which there were quite a lot) - to others. And only a few people were able to see the truth. When Lisey woke up and started on the road again, she met a local pastor. He was so fascinated by this imaginary beauty of Tsakhes that he took him to his upbringing.

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Lisey, of course, happily got rid of the dwarf, who had always been a burden to her.

A young man named Balthazar is studying at Kerepes University. He is madly in love with the daughter of his teacher, Professor Terpin - Candida. Little Tsakhes, taking the name Zinnober, comes to this university. He rubs himself into Turpin's confidence and charms Candida. Everyone around admires the dwarf. Only Balthazar and his friend Fabian see everything as it really is. Zinnober takes the place of a freight forwarder in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then a Privy Councilor for Special Affairs. But here again, magical power helps. Arrives in Kerpes under the guise of Dr. Prosper Alpanus, in which Balthazar guesses the magician. He reveals the secret of Tsakhes. When Rosabelverde comes to the magician, guilty of this whole story, he convinces the fairy to refuse protection to the dwarf and breaks the magic comb.

Meanwhile, Turpin is already arranging Zinnober's engagement to Candida. Balthasar comes to the feast and, tearing the magic hairs out of the dwarf's head, burns them. The magic dissipates instantly. Then everyone finally begins to see what Zinnober really is. Struck by this course of events, Tsakhes runs away from the people to his palace. He tries to hide in a jar and gets stuck and dies. After death, the fairy returns the dwarf to its former attractive appearance. And she gives the mother of Tsakhes a magical sweet onion, and she becomes the personal supplier of this onion for the court. Balthazar and Candida marry, and Alpanus leaves them his possessions and leaves for India himself.

Retelling prepared for you Strange

Hoffmann, like no one else, demonstrates with his work the versatility of the possibilities of romanticism. And he, like Kleist, revises the basic ideas of romanticism and rises above them, opening up new horizons. The famous fairy tale of Hoffmann "Little Tsakhes", which I liked very much, confirms this to an even greater extent. This time the action does not take place in everything known German city, but in a certain kingdom, a certain state, called Kerepes by Hoffmann. The world depicted in this tale is also dominated by various forces, but everything is not so simple here. Good forces are personified in the images of the fairy Rosabelverde and Dr. Prosper Alpanus, partly competing, partly supporting each other. She is the embodiment of a good heart, he is a good mind.

There are no evil wizards at all, because the evil here is not magical at all, but the most earthly: petty-bourgeois narrow-mindedness, dull rationality, police-bureaucratic zeal, the fetishization of gold. However, if wizards make mistakes, they can aggravate evil, while people can be kind and beautiful without any wizards. So just the opposition of good and evil is not enough to understand the contradictions depicted in this tale. The irony of Hoffmann, by its romantic nature, does not allow unambiguous judgments at all. As soon as there is an assumption that the answer to the question has been found, another answer arises, followed by a third, and so on.

It can be seen that the ratio of the forces of good and evil in this tale is somewhat different than in the tale "The Golden Pot". There, the spirit prince Salamander openly demonstrated superiority over the evil witch. Here, the stupid and soulless Prince Pafnuty takes over the good wizards for a while, and the Rosabelverde fairy has to hide under a different name and secretly manage her affairs, which, moreover, being good by design, turn into obvious evil, so that their consequences have to be corrected later Prosper Alpanus. In the kingdom of Paphnutius, the pseudo-scientist Moshe Terpin flourishes, who “concluded all of nature in a small elegant compendium, so that he could always use it and extract the answer to every question, as if from a drawer”; he examined birds and animals boiled, and the liquid in the wine cellar. In this dwarf state, insignificant lackeys and officials prosper, who imagine themselves to be high-ranking persons, and the poor are starving.

Little Tsakhes is a miserable freak born to a poor, already offended by the fate of a peasant woman. Fairy Rosabelverde took pity on the unfortunate woman and decided to help her boy by sticking three golden hairs into his crown. It was they who caused many disasters, which, however, would not have happened if there had not been prepared ground for this in the state of Paphnutia.

A miserable two-year-old freak with senile features, who can neither walk nor speak, looks like a forked radish, “a real alraun” (alraun is the root of a mandrake plant, resembling a man in its shape; many legends and beliefs are associated with it, and the Compendium is an abbreviated presentation foundations of any science), suddenly began to attract universal, ever-increasing admiring attention. The priest, touched by this, as it seemed to him, a lovely child, adopts him. When Tsakhes becomes a student, he seems to everyone to be stately, handsome, talented, although neither his appearance nor his mind improved.

During a tea party with Professor Moshe Terpin, the piercing meow of Tsakhes (he is now called Mr. Zinnober) is attributed to the poet Balthazar, in love with the professor's daughter Candida, but Balthazar's poems about the nightingale's love for the scarlet rose, dedicated to Candida, are attributed to Little Tsakhes and praise him in unison. He is also applauded for the virtuoso playing of the famous violinist Vincenzo Schiocca. He is also given excellent marks for Pulcher's answers during competitive tests for a position in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Pulcher is told that he failed. Tsakhes is appointed to a high position, rewarded ribbon for a report prepared by Ministry official Adrian.

In a word, whoever does something talented or simply successful, the freak Tsakhes is thanked and rewarded for all this, and everything vile that comes from Tsakhes is attributed to other innocent people. Moreover, Tsakhes does not show any initiative - he himself is not capable of anything, his strength is borrowed, or rather, he is just a sign, a symbol of some anonymous force: everything happens apart from his personal efforts. Before us is an allegorical depiction of the so-called alienation characteristic of bourgeois society, where labor is the subject of purchase and sale. This is a social satire on a society in which all ideas about values are shifted. Everyone shows respect and admiration for a person who is incapable of anything good, a completely insignificant person, who appropriates the fruits of the labor and talent of others. He is credited with various virtues that he never had in his birth, and his vices, no matter how monstrous they may be, no one notices. And all this is done by money, gold, in a fairy tale, the very three golden hairs with which the fairy, out of compassion, awarded the freak Tsakhes.

There was no such thing in the short story "The Golden Pot": there the prince of spirits did good deeds, and the witch did evil deeds. Here, the good fairy, taking pity on the poor peasant woman, gave rise to consequences by her act, which she could neither foresee nor stop. Hoffmann, in fact, like Kleist, depicted the element, but not the element of growing passion, but the element of increasing blindness of people who began to take white for black, and black for white, that is, the growing loss of true value standards. A dark, destructive chaos sets in, the roots of which are in the golden mirage, which, according to Hoffm'an, spreads with the expulsion of poetry and the imposition of a police-bureaucratic order that mortifies all living things.

For a moment, Little Tsakhes influences even the poet Balthasar, which would hardly be possible with any other romantic. It is also unconventional for romanticism that Balthasar's sober-minded friend Fabian resists this evil influence longer than others. True, then he just as stubbornly does not want to believe in the power of good miracles, for which the magician Prosper Alpanus punishes him in the same magical way: no matter what Fabian puts on himself, this clothes immediately shrink and shorten, and he falls into a strange dependence on the most simple things that should just serve him. But things are not always subject to a person - in a fairy tale they can rebel and even control him. In each of the young people whose work or art is inexplicably appropriated by Tsakhes, the initial blindness is replaced by insight. The spread of general madness is gradually beginning to be countered by the development of a reverse process. The number of enemies of Mr. Zinnober, who fits into the system introduced by Paphnutius so well that it already threatens the system itself, is growing. It is noteworthy that among the enemies of Tsakhes are not only people of art - the poet Balthasar and the violinist Vincent Schiokka - but also the officials Pulcher and Adrian, who seem to be "not musicians." They grab the little monster, Balthazar pulls out three golden hairs from his crown, throws them into the fire - and the delusion immediately disappears.

Everyone now sees Tiny Tsakhes in his real form, "there was a rumor among the people that this is a hilarious monster ... - indeed Tiny Tsakhes, .. exalted by all sorts of dishonorable deceit and lies." A real uprising breaks out. "Down with that little bastard! Down with! Knock him out of his ministerial jacket! Put him in a cage! Show it for money at fairs! .. Up! “And the people began to break into the house ... The doors were broken down, and the people stomped up the stairs with wild laughter.” Fleeing from the indignant crowd, the unfortunate freak drowns ingloriously in a chamber pot, and in the country of Kerepes the most beautiful, very similar to theatrical, miracles are arranged - this time in honor of the wedding of Candida and Balthazar. They are satisfied with Prosper Alpanus, who, as the bride's father assured, "was none other than a rogue youngster - an opera decorator and a prince's fireworks."

Brief retelling of Hoffmann's fairy tale "Little Tsakhes"

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Rozdіl first

Little virodok. Like Prince Pafnutiy, having ordered the illumination of his homeland, and the fairy Rozhabelverde got to the porch of noble girls

A peasant woman, tormented by hunger and torn apart by a sword, fell onto the path. Behind her shoulder she has a box of khmizom. Vaughn cursed her unfortunate lot, on her zhestka life, on slander, as she brought її sim "ї child-virodok, peopled by herself. on my own feet I did not learn to speak. її blue rich їv, like an octagonal lad, but there was no hope, what if you were guilty of pracyuvatime. At the box, the woman carried at the same time from hmisom and her virodka: "the head in turn deeply sunk between shoulders, on the back of a virus a hump, like a pickle, and at once thin, dumb lіshchinovі sticks, legs hung from the breasts, and the whole wine was similar to a bifurcated radish ". Tsya showed a small long-lived nіs, black cloaked hair, and on a wrinkled, like an old one, "a pair of black eyes" vibrated.

The woman was having a deep sleep, and the lad, wilting out of the box, got into trouble with her. At the same hour, the patroness of the back was walking along the forest. Having turned this picture, she became embarrassed, for she could not cause grief to her woman.

The panna took care of the lad, combed the rozkuyovdzhen’s hair and virishila in her own way to help his grief, sprinkling the child with fragrant water.

If the village woman leaned over, then she thought of herself as a good old woman, praised the coachmen of her little Tsakhes, cheered, for she could walk and talk.

On the way home, out, on the pastor’s path, zupinilas like a white house. Panotets wailed її little son, who seemed to you to be a reasonable and smart lad. The pastor, having asked Liza to deprive Tsakhes of the yoma for vikhovannia, having become angry at the village woman for її perekonannya in the foolishness of his son, taking away the indulgence and clattering the door.

Lisa turned back home with a light heart and a box, which now, without Tsakhes, seemed to be unfamiliar.

As our reader understood, the whole mystery was under the spell of the patroness. Really, the head was an unimaginable woman. Everyone, who knew, said that from that hour, as a patroness, she appeared at her majesty, her antrohi did not change, she did not grow old. she spoke like animals and birds in the woods, then like a litala on the earth - they wanted to throw it by the water to confirm their thoughts. and no longer chipped її.

Qiu's lady's name was Mrs. von Rozha-Gozha, or, as she said to herself, Rozha-Gozha-Zelenova. She has a friendly look, especially the garna was given out at an hour, if faces bloomed.

Having recognized Panna Rozha-Gozha as a patroness, the prince himself, Baron Pretextatus could not say anything, even though the woman did not suit you, because in the current chronicle of wines he did not know the nickname of Rozha-Gozha-Zelenova and could not say anything about his birth.

At the prince's office they knew that the panna was glorious, the fairy Rozhabelverde was seen in the whole world.

Axis yak everything was trapalos.

Fairies settled in the beautiful, warm, calm and turbo-free land of Prince Demetrius, who loved freedom and warm climate. Meshkantsi forces - for the princedom did not have a suitable place - believed in miracles. After the death of Demetrius, becoming the ruler of Yogo son Pafnuty, who was tormented by one thought: why are the people zanedbany and dark. Vіn, in a right way, having planted a keruvate on the edge, recognizing his valet Andres as the first minister, who, if he had made a service for him, having posited six ducats.

Andres, having pleased Pafnutia, sent the consecration. Ale, I’ll take it better, I’ll need a lot of something else to grow: give school, build roads, virubati foxes, grow a ship-floating river, plant poplar and acacia, grow potatoes, teach young people to sleep in the evening and in the morning, in the wake of two voices the lands of people who are zavazhat by their unsafe attitudes. With such people, the minister took the fairies, because the stench created a diva and robbed people who were not ready to serve the light. To that it was destined to sharpen the castles of the fairies, to destroy them, to confiscate mine, and to hang the fairies themselves in the homeland of Dzhinnistan, about how they saw "Thousands and One Nights".

Prince Pafnutiy signed a decree on the provision of consecration. That one fairy was robbed, so that she would win over like a korisna robot among people, then the villagers would forget about the fairies. Such a rite of "domestication" was done not only by a fairy, who killed a brown member of the household, but also by creatures and birds, confiscated from these sisters.

The Fairy Rozhabelverde, a few years before the consecration was over, let her swans go free and grab her magical trojans and different koshtovnosti.

Pafnutiy having settled Rozhabelverde up to the porch of noble girls, she called herself Rozha-Gozha-Zelenova and began to order there.

Split another

University near Kerepes. Yak Mosh Terpin asking student Balthazar for tea

The all-luminous teachings of Ptolomeus, resting at the mandras, writing leaves to his friend Rufin:

"Love Rufine, I'm afraid of a hooting sleepy promenade, to see that in the daytime, and at night to mand. I was kind to the place, de nuisance of wonderfully inflated people. My chosen one was sick, it was getting worse from the back. The stinks from the pipes let out a piece of haze. Filister!" I want to know about the sounds and habits of this wondrous people, etc.".

My favorite reader, the great teachings of Ptolomeus Philadelphus did not know what to stay near Kerepeskoy University, and all the wondrous barbarian people are students. Some kind of fear, having hobbled yoga, like a year ago, I leaned against the booth of Mosh Terpin, professor of natural sciences. The students loved the lectures themselves the most, for Mosh Terpin could explain why I’m going to dress, why I’m shining and make-up, why the sun shines in the daytime, and at night - moon. I explain wine in such a way that a skin child would understand. Permit me, gentle reader, to correct you at Kerepes to the booth of this vchenogo. Among the students of the professor, your respect will be entrusted to one young man, rokіv twenty three chi chotiroh. The new mayzhe has a merciful look, but on the pale face, the hot prominence of the eyes extinguished the tightness of the eyes. Tsey yunak, wearing an old-timer frock coat, no one else, like a student Balthasar is the son of a good old father, modest and sensible.

All the students went to the fencing maidanchik, and after making up their minds, Balthazar leaned in and went for a walk.

Yogo comrade Fabіan, after having corrected himself at the "gentry's art of fencing," and not melancholy hung out with a fox, more than - a filthy zvichka.

Fabian pishov will take a walk with a fellow student and write a rozmov about Mr. Mosh Terpin and his lecture. Balthazar rehearsed that the lectures of the professors and the narrations of nature - tse "an evil slander from the divine nature." "Often I want to gut my flasks and flasks. After these lectures, I'm given, that they will lie on my head, and the gnat zhakh will drive me out of my place. But I can't go to Terpin's lectures, because the wondrous strength of me is pulling me," Balthazar comrades.

Fabian exclaimed this wondrous power, naming it "I Candidia, the professor's daughter," Balthazar died in a yak.

The lads commemorated a horse without a leader in the distance, thinking that the horse had thrown off its owner. The stench rattled the horse, from the side of which the boots "tapped" in order to know the ride. Ale raptom, the little one leaned under the horse's feet. Tse bov humpbacked baby, who, having guessed, is tuned in to see the apple. Fabian roared, and the dwarf in a rude voice drank the road to Kerepes.

Maliuk tried to get up at his boots. Once in a while, he stumbled and fell at the sand, until Balthazar did not build in his thin legs at his boots, lifting the little one uphill and lowering him into boots.

Let's sweat the wondrous verschnik, having sifted the system in the saddle, and I'll start again: I've thrown myself over and fallen. Balthazar helped you again.

Tsej neznayomets formed on Fabіanіv smіh i declaring that he is "studіozus", that lad must fight with him.

Balthasar, having taunted his comrade for his behavior, but Fabian didn’t chime, he wanted to turn around at the place to look at the reaction of the otochyuchih. Smіh will be, if you bang this little smart top. Fabian himself wanted to snort, then he leaned through the forest to the place.

Balthazar, walking for an hour with the fox, chasing Candida with his father. Mosh Terpin, having asked for yoga for tea, greet yourself in the pink reception room. Guilty to come, like a sensible young man.

Razdіl third

Literary tea with Mosh Terpin. Junius Prince

Fabian rozpituvav uh passers-by, chi did not stink of the stink of the chudernatsky little top. Ale, nothing of the kind could be said in an instant, and the lad did not mark the sly smiles on the faces. People less than confessed that two stringy verschniks were passing by, one of them was small for the occasion, the garni was the receptionist for the ranks. Balthazar and Fabian tried to reconcile everyone, although the little one was bright and not harmless, but he did not have any luck. Fabian predicted to others that tomorrow they would stink to "lower mam'selle Candida."

Candida bula garna, as if painted, with interchangeable eyes. There was a string and a crumbly girl, but the arms and legs in it could be more thinned, it would be less tistechok. Kandida loved merrily camaraderie: she played the piano, sang, and danced.

Ale, you can sing at the skin of a woman to know imperfections. їхній іdeal: the girl is obliged to fall for poetry, for їхніми verses, to sing to him a song.

Candida - the very cheerfulness and bezzhurnist, їy befitted roses and humor. Ale, in niy, felt a little, which in no way turned into "banal chulist". To that Fabian and virishiv that Balthazarov does not fit.

Fabian, having gone to Balthasar, laughed, for his comrade was sitting in such a coma. The lads wanted to strike the heart of the kohan maiden.

At Terpіnov's house, Candida treated the guests to rum, crackers and shortbreads. The student simply admired her and could not know the necessary words.

The fairy tale "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober" by Hoffmann was written in 1819. The main idea of the book is a satirical demonstration of the vices and social imperfections not only of Germany of the 19th century, but of society as a whole.

main characters

Baby Tsakhes (Zinnober)- the son of a poor peasant woman, an ugly dwarf who, thanks to magic, could attract people to himself and appropriate other people's merits.

Balthazar- a student, a romantically inclined young man.

Fairy Rosabelverde- a kind, compassionate fairy who endowed little Tsakhes with magical powers.

Other characters

Fabian- a student, comrade of Balthasar, a realist and a merry fellow.

Mosh Terpin- respected person, professor natural sciences, whose lectures Balthasar attended.

candida- the professor's daughter, with whom Balthazar was in love.

Prosper Alpanus- a wandering magician, a healer who helped Balthasar to dispel Zinnober's spell.

Chapter 1

A beggar, ragged peasant woman sat by the road and complained about her troubles, among which one was especially terrible - her own ugly son, whom she gave birth to "to the shame and ridicule of the whole village." By the age of two, he still could not walk and talk, and ate so much, "like an eight-year-old big man." The poor woman was pitied by “Fräulein von Rosenschen, canoness of the nearby orphanage for noble maidens”, who was in fact a good sorceress. She combed the hair on the head of little Tsakhes in a special way, and he immediately spoke and skipped. The village pastor, seeing the boy, decided to take him to his upbringing, and the peasant woman happily agreed.

Chapters 2-5

Two students, the modest Balthazar and the merry fellow Fabian, while walking through the forest, witnessed how an ugly dwarf fell from a horse to the ground - it was little Tsakhes. Soon, friends were surprised to find that no one in the city sees the true appearance of a freak. Balthazar was invited to a dinner party with Professor Mosh Terpin, with whose daughter Candida he was in love. There was also a dwarf who introduced himself to everyone as Zinnober. All those present in every possible way praised his subtle mind and deep knowledge in the sciences. Zinnober, on the other hand, "proudly accepted the praises pouring in from all sides." When Balthazar saw how Candida "kissed his nasty mouth, right on the blue lips", he thought he had gone crazy and left the professor's house.

In the forest, Balthazar calmed down a little. Soon he noticed the violinist Sbjock and the referendary Pulcher, who suffered from the ugly dwarf. Suddenly, enchanting sounds were heard in the forest, and a chariot in the shape of a shell, carried by snow-white unicorns, drove past the comrades in misfortune. The wagon was driven by a pheasant, and at the back was a huge golden beetle. In the same wagon sat a man in Chinese clothes. Balthasar immediately realized that this was a powerful sorcerer who would help dispel the "cursed spell of little Zinnober".

Meanwhile, thanks to his amazing influence on people, the freak easily became a privy councilor and was about to marry Candida. Balthasar learned from Fabian that Dr. Prosper Alpanus is the forest charm, who “loves to surround himself with mystical darkness, to put on the appearance of a person who is privy to the innermost secrets of nature.” Fabian accused the sorcerer of quackery, for which he was punished.

Chapters 6-9

Balthazar's friends began to spy on the dwarf, and saw how the sorceress carefully combed his hair. When the freak found out that his secret was revealed, he fell ill from experiences. But even then, he wouldn't let the doctor touch his head.

Rosabelverde came to Prosper Alpanus, and a heated argument broke out between the sorcerers. Prosper showed her a horoscope that clearly stated that Tsakhes was not worthy of such honors. The sorceress was forced to admit defeat. Prosper Alpanus visited the suffering Balthazar, and revealed to him the secret of the freak, which consisted of "three fiery sparkling hairs on the crown of the head." He advised the young man to pull out these hairs and immediately burn them. The wizard left Balthazar his estate and flew off to distant India.

Balthazar managed to pull out the magic hairs from the dwarf right during his engagement to Candida. The inhabitants of the city realized that they were besotted. Fleeing from shame and human anger, little Tsakhes tried to hide in a chamber pot, and choked in sewage. Finally, Rosabelverde again turned Tsakhes into Zinnober, and his burial "was one of the most magnificent that has ever been seen" by the inhabitants of the town.

Conclusion

Hoffmann dressed his mockery of the hypocritical sanctimonious society in a fabulous form. However, in the plot, fairy-tale events are so closely intertwined with real ones that the work is more perceived as a story, and not as a fairy tale.

After getting acquainted with brief retelling“Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober” we recommend reading the work in full.

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Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 112.

In a small state ruled by Prince Demetrius, each inhabitant was given complete freedom in his undertaking. And fairies and magicians value warmth and freedom above all, so under Demetrius, many fairies from the magical land of Dzhinnistan moved to a blessed little principality. However, after the death of Demetrius, his heir Paphnutius decided to introduce enlightenment in his fatherland. He had the most radical ideas about enlightenment: any magic should be abolished, fairies are busy with dangerous witchcraft, and the ruler's first concern is to grow potatoes, plant acacias, cut down forests and instill smallpox. Such enlightenment dried up the flowering land in a matter of days, the fairies were sent to Jinnistan (they did not resist too much), and only the Rosabelverde fairy managed to stay in the principality, who persuaded Paphnutius to give her a canoness position in an orphanage for noble maidens.

This kind fairy, the mistress of flowers, once saw on a dusty road a peasant woman, Liza, asleep on the side of the road. Lisa was returning from the forest with a basket of brushwood, carrying in the same basket her ugly son, nicknamed little Tsakhes. The dwarf has a disgusting old muzzle, twig legs and spider arms. Taking pity on the evil freak, the fairy combed his tangled hair for a long time ... and, smiling mysteriously, disappeared. As soon as Lisa woke up and set off again, she met a local pastor. For some reason, he was captivated by the ugly baby and, repeating that the boy was wonderfully good-looking, decided to take him up. Liza was glad to get rid of the burden, not really understanding how her freak began to look to people.

Meanwhile, the young poet Balthazar, a melancholic student, is studying at the Kerepes University, in love with the daughter of his professor Mosh Terpin, the cheerful and charming Candida. Mosch Terpin is possessed by the ancient Germanic spirit, as he understands it: heaviness combined with vulgarity, even more unbearable than the mystical romanticism of Balthazar. Balthazar strikes at all the romantic eccentricities so characteristic of poets: he sighs, wanders alone, avoids student feasts; Candida, on the other hand, is the embodiment of life and gaiety, and she, with her youthful coquetry and healthy appetite, is a very pleasant and amusing student admirer.

Meanwhile, a new face invades the touching university reserve, where typical burches, typical enlighteners, typical romantics and typical patriots personify the diseases of the German spirit: little Tsakhes, endowed with a magical gift to attract people to him. Having wormed his way into the house of Mosh Terpin, he completely charms both him and Candida. Now his name is Zinnober. As soon as someone reads poetry in his presence or expresses himself wittily, everyone present is convinced that this is the merit of Zinnober; if he meows vilely or stumbles, one of the other guests will certainly be guilty. Everyone admires the grace and dexterity of Zinnober, and only two students - Balthazar and his friend Fabian - see all the ugliness and malice of the dwarf. Meanwhile, he manages to take the place of a freight forwarder in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and there a Privy Councilor for Special Affairs - and all this is a deception, because Zinnober managed to appropriate the merits of the most worthy. It so happened that in his crystal carriage with a pheasant on the goats and a golden beetle on the backs, Dr. Prosper Alpanus, a magician wandering incognito, visited Kerpes. Balthasar immediately recognized him as a magician, but Fabian, spoiled by enlightenment, doubted at first; however, Alpanus proved his power by showing Zinnober to his friends in a magic mirror. It turned out that the dwarf is not a wizard or a dwarf, but an ordinary freak who is helped by some secret power. Alpanus discovered this secret power without difficulty, and the Rosabelverde fairy hurried to pay him a visit. The magician told the fairy that he had made a horoscope for a dwarf and that Tsakhes-Zinnober could soon destroy not only Balthazar and Candida, but the whole principality, where he became his man at court. The fairy is forced to agree and refuse Tsakhes her patronage - all the more so since Alpanus cunningly broke the magic comb with which she combed his curls. The fact of the matter is that after these combing, three fiery hairs appeared in the head of the dwarf. They endowed him with witchcraft power: all other people's merits were attributed to him, all his vices to others, and only a few saw the truth. The hairs were to be pulled out and burned immediately - and Balthazar and his friends managed to do this when Mosh Terpin was already arranging the engagement of Zinnober with Candida. Thunder struck; everyone saw the dwarf as he was. They played with them like a ball, they kicked him, they threw him out of the house - in wild anger and horror he fled to his luxurious palace, which the prince gave him, but the confusion among the people grew unstoppably. Everyone heard about the transformation of the minister. The unfortunate dwarf died, stuck in a jug where he tried to hide, and as a last blessing, the fairy returned to him the appearance of a handsome man after death. She did not forget the unfortunate mother, the old peasant woman Liza: such a wonderful and sweet onion grew in Liza's garden that she was made the personal supplier of the enlightened court. And Balthazar and Candida lived happily, as a poet should live with a beauty, whom the magician Prosper Alpanus blessed at the very beginning of his life.