The success of the symphonic poems The Water Sprite, The Noon Witch, The Golden Spinning Wheel, and The Wild Dove, finding the source of their themes in folk ballads, encouraged Dvořák to seek the inspiration for his next opera in a Czech folk tale. After the historic topics and comic plots (Dimitrij, Jacobin, The Stubborn Lovers etc.), it is a fairy tale from Chodsko where, in the libretto, we can meet everything belonging to it: a puzzleheaded devil, vixenish Kate, who resists even Lucifer himself, witty shepherd Jirka, and the justice as the final reward for ordinary people – just thanks to the shepherd´s wit, and the horrifying authority of the hell. After its successful premiere (1889), a cheerfully warm folk tone of the opera contributed to its rapid domestication not only at the scene of the National Theatre.