It was forbidden after two acclaimed performances in Vienna due to "offensive remarks in the text",[5] but later revived and probably revised as Der neue krumme Teufel ("The New Lame Devil",[6] 1757 or 1758), Hob.

[9] The music was intended as a vehicle for Joseph Felix von Kurz [de], who wrote the text under the stage name "Bernardon".

Having recently lost his soprano voice, and hence his job as a chorister at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Haydn was maintaining a precarious existence as a freelance musician.

His version of the tale (in which Haydn is said to be 21, not 19) characteristically embellishes that of Griesinger, giving details of how the comic actor conducted the interview:

"[5] However, the work was performed again in 1752, and a revised version, Der neue krumme Teufel ("The Return of the Lame Devil",[6] lit.

5), for example, has as its theme an almost literal quotation from the aria "Wurstl, mein Schatzerl, wo wirst Du wohl seyn" in Leopoldl, der deutsche Robinson.

[14]Der krumme Teufel, and the collaboration with Kurz more generally, helped the early career success of Haydn, who by 1757 was no longer a struggling freelancer but a Kapellmeister with his own orchestra to direct; see Count Morzin.