In the peep box of satire: Johann Friedrich Schink's <i>Prinz Hamlet von Dännemark</i>

Published in 1799, the puppet-play Prinz Hamlet von Dännemark [ Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ] by North German writer Johann Friedrich Schink was fully in tune with its times. Parodying William Shakespeare's play, it encountered a bold reception on German stages at the end of the eighteenth century, satirising the intellectual and literary circles of the day. Yet, Hamlet was also a common motif in the German puppet repertoire. As in his 1776 collection Marionettentheater , Schink uses marionettes in Prinz Hamlet as a distorting mirror of reality and invites us to look into the peep box of satire.