THE ADVENTUROUS Simplicissimus

The first English Edition of Simplicissimus is limited to 1000 copies of which this is No. 11.

SIMPLICISSIMUS Teutsch

Das ist: Die Beschreibung dess Lebes eines seltzamen Vaganten / genant Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim / wo und welcher gestalt Er nemlich in diese Welt kommen / was er darinn gesehen / gelernet / erfahren und aussgestanden / auch warumb er solche wieder feywillig quittirt. Überauss lustig / und männiglich nutzlich zu lesen. An Tag geben Von German Schleifheim von Sulsfort.

Monpelgart / Gedruckt bey Johann Fillion / Im Jahr M DC LXIX.

Facsimile title page of the first German Edition.

THE ADVENTUROUS

Simplicissimus

Copyright 1912

Lecturer in German in the University of Edinburgh, as a tribute to his successful endeavours to promote the knowledge of the German Classics in Britain, and in memory of a mutual friend, Robert Fitzroy Bell

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

BOOK I.

Chap. i.: Treats of Simplicissimus' rustic descent and of his upbringing answering thereto

Chap. ii.: Of the first step towards that dignity to which Simplicissimus attained, to which is added the praise of shepherds and other excellent precepts

Chap. iii.: Treats of the sufferings of a faithful bagpipe

Chap. iv.: How Simplicissimus' palace was stormed, plundered, and ruinated, and in what sorry fashion the soldiers kept house there

Chap. v.: How Simplicissimus took french leave and how he was terrified by dead trees

Chap. vi.: Is so short and so prayerful that Simplicissimus thereupon swoons away

Chap. vii.: How Simplicissimus was in a poor lodging kindly entreated

Chap. viii.: How Simplicissimus by his noble discourse proclaimed his excellent qualities

Chap. ix.: How Simplicissimus was changed from a wild beast into a Christian

Chap. x.: In what manner he learned to read and write in the wild woods

Chap. xi.: Discourseth of foods, household stuff, and other necessary concerns, which folk must have in this earthly life

Chap. xii.: Tells of a notable fine way, to die happy and to have oneself buried at a small cost

Chap. xiii.: How Simplicissimus was driven about like a straw in a whirlpool

Chap. xiv.: A quaint comedia of five peasants

Chap. xv.: How Simplicissimus was plundered, and how he dreamed of the peasants and how they fared in times of war

Chap. xvi.: Of the ways and works of soldiers nowadays, and how hardly a common soldier can get promotion

Chap. xvii.: How it happens that, whereas in war the nobles are ever put before the common men, yet many do attain from despised rank to high honours

Chap. xviii.: How Simplicissimus took his first step into the world and that with evil luck

Chap. xix.: How Simplicissimus was captured by Hanau and Hanau by Simplicissimus

Chap. xx.: In what wise he was saved from prison and torture

Chap. xxi.: How treacherous Dame Fortune cast on Simplicissimus a friendly glance

Chap. xxii.: Who the hermit was by whom Simplicissimus was cherished

Chap. xxiii.: How Simplicissimus became a page: and likewise, how the hermit's wife was lost

Chap. xxiv.: How Simplicissimus blamed the world and saw many idols therein

Chap. xxv.: How Simplicissimus found the world all strange and the world found him strange likewise

Chap. xxvi.: A new and strange way for men to wish one another luck and to welcome one another

Chap. xxvii.: How Simplicissimus discoursed with the secretary, and how he found a false friend

Chap. xxviii.: How Simplicissimus got two eyes out of one calf's-head

Chap. xxix.: How a man step by step may attain unto intoxication and finally unawares become blind drunk

Chap. xxx.: Still treats of naught but of drinking bouts, and how to be rid of parsons thereat

Chap. xxxi.: How the Lord Governor shot a very foul fox

Chap. xxxii.: How Simplicissimus spoiled the dance

BOOK II.

Chap. i.: How a goose and a gander were mated

Chap. ii.: Concerning the merits and virtues of a good bath at the proper season

Chap. iii.: How the other page received payment for his teaching, and how Simplicissimus was chosen to be a fool

Chap. iv.: Concerning the man that pays the money, and of the military service that Simplicissimus did for the Crown of Sweden: through which service he got the name of Simplicissimus

Chap. v.: How Simplicissimus was by four devils brought into hell and there treated with Spanish wine

Chap. vi.: How Simplicissimus went up to heaven and was turned into a calf

Chap. vii.: How Simplicissimus accommodated himself to the state of a brute beast

Chap. viii.: Discourseth of the wondrous memory of some and the forgetfulness of others

Chap. ix.: Crooked praise of a proper lady

Chap. x.: Discourseth of naught but heroes and famous artists

Chap. xi.: Of the toilsome and dangerous office of a Governor

Chap. xii.: Of the sense and knowledge of certain unreasoning animals

Chap. xiii.: Of various matters which whoever will know must either read them or have them read to him

Chap. xiv.: How Simplicissimus led the life of a nobleman, and how the Croats robbed him of this when they stole himself

Chap. xv.: Of Simplicissimus' life with the troopers, and what he saw and learned among the Croats

Chap. xvi.: How Simplicissimus found goodly spoils, and how he became a thievish brother of the woods

Chap. xvii.: How Simplicissimus was present at a dance of witches

Chap. xviii.: Doth prove that no man can lay to Simplicissimus' charge that he doth draw the long bow

Chap. xix.: How Simplicissimus became a fool again as he had been a fool before

Chap. xx.: Is pretty long, and treats of playing with dice and what hangs thereby

Chap. xxi.: Is somewhat shorter and more entertaining than the last

Chap. xxii.: A rascally trick to step into another man's shoes

Chap. xxiii.: How Ulrich Herzbruder sold himself for a hundred ducats

Chap. xxiv.: How two prophecies were fulfilled at once

Chap. xxv.: How Simplicissimus was transformed from a boy into a girl and fell into divers adventures of love

Chap. xxvi.: How he was imprisoned for a traitor and enchanter

Chap. xxvii: How the Provost fared in the battle of Wittstock

Chap. xxviii.: Of a great battle wherein the conqueror is captured in the hour of triumph

Chap. xxix.: How a notably pious soldier fared in Paradise, and how the huntsman filled his place

Chap. xxx.: How the huntsman carried himself when he began to learn the trade of war: wherefrom a young soldier may learn somewhat

Chap. xxxi.: How the devil stole the parson's bacon and how the huntsman caught himself

BOOK III.

Chap. i.: How the huntsman went too far to the left hand

Chap. ii.: How the huntsman of Soest did rid himself of the huntsman of Wesel

Chap. iii.: How the Great God Jupiter was captured and how he revealed the counsels of the gods

Chap. iv.: Of the German hero that shall conquer the whole world and bring peace to all nations

Chap. v.: How he shall reconcile all religions and cast them in the same mould

Chap. vi.: How the embassy of the fleas fared with Jupiter

Chap. vii.: How the huntsman again secured honour and booty

Chap. viii.: How he found the devil in the trough, and how Jump-i'-th'-field got fine horses

Chap. ix.: Of an unequal combat in which the weakest wins the day and the conqueror is captured

Chap. x.: How the Master-General of Ordnance granted the huntsman his life and held out hopes of great things

Chap. xi.: Contains all manner of matters of little import and great imagination

Chap. xii.: How fortune unexpected bestowed on the huntsman a noble present

Chap. xiii.: Of Simplicissimus' strange fancies and castles in the air, and how he guarded his treasure

Chap. xiv.: How the huntsman was captured by the enemy

Chap. xv.: On what condition the huntsman was set free

Chap. xvi.: How Simplicissimus became a nobleman

Chap. xvii.: How the huntsman disposed himself to pass his six months: and also somewhat of the prophetess

Chap. xviii.: How the huntsman went a wooing, and made a trade of it

Chap. xix.: By what means the huntsman made friends, and how he was moved by a sermon

Chap. xx.: How he gave the faithful priest other fish to fry, to cause him to forget his own hoggish life

Chap. xxi.: How Simplicissimus all unawares was made a married man

Chap. xxii.: How Simplicissimus held his wedding feast and how he purposed to begin his new life

Chap. xxiii.: How Simplicissimus came to a certain town (which he nameth for convenience Cologne) to fetch his treasure

Chap. xxiv.: How the huntsman caught a hare in the middle of a town

BOOK IV.

Chap. i.: How and for what reason the huntsman was jockeyed away into France

Chap. ii.: How Simplicissimus found a better host than before

Chap. iii.: How he became a stage player and got himself a new name

Chap. iv.: How Simplicissimus departed secretly and how he believed he had the Neapolitan disease

Chap. v.: How Simplicissimus pondered on his past life, and how with the water up to his mouth he learned to swim

Chap. vi.: How he became a vagabond quack and a cheat

Chap. vii.: How the doctor was fitted with a musquet under Captain Curmudgeon

Chap. viii.: How Simplicissimus endured a cheerless bath in the Rhine

Chap. ix.: Wherefore clergymen should never eat hares that have been taken in a snare

Chap. x.: How Simplicissimus was all unexpectedly quit of his musquet

Chap. xi.: Discourses of the Order of the Marauder Brothers

Chap. xii.: Of a desperate fight for life in which each party doth yet escape death

Chap. xiii.: How Oliver conceived that he could excuse his brigand's tricks

Chap. xiv.: How Oliver explained Herzbruder's prophecy to his own profit, and so came to love his worst enemy

Chap. xv.: How Simplicissimus thought more piously when he went a-plundering than did Oliver when he went to church

Chap. xvi.: Of Oliver's descent, and how he behaved in his youth, and specially at school

Chap. xvii.: How he studied at Liège, and how he there demeaned himself

Chap. xviii.: Of the homecoming and departure of this worshipful student, and how he sought to obtain advancement in the wars

Chap. xix.: How Simplicissimus fulfilled Herzbruder's prophecy to Oliver before yet either knew the other

Chap. xx.: How it doth fare with a man on whom evil fortune doth rain cats and dogs

Chap. xxi.: A brief example of that trade which Oliver followed, wherein he was a master and Simplicissimus should be a prentice

Chap. xxii.: How Oliver bit the dust and took six good men with him

Chap. xxiii.: How Simplicissimus became a rich man and Herzbruder fell into great misery

Chap. xxiv.: Of the manner in which Herzbruder fell into such evil plight

BOOK V.

Chap. i.: How Simplicissimus turned palmer and went on a pilgrimage with Herzbruder

Chap. ii.: How Simplicissimus, being terrified of the devil, was converted

Chap. iii.: How the two friends spent the winter

Chap. iv.: In what manner Simplicissimus and Herzbruder went to the wars again and returned thence

Chap. v.: How Simplicissimus rode courier and in the likeness of Mercury learned from Jove what his design was as regards war and peace

Chap. vi.: A story of a trick that Simplicissimus played at the spa

Chap. vii.: How Herzbruder died and how Simplicissimus again fell to wanton courses

Chap. viii.: How Simplicissimus found his second marriage turn out, and how he met with his dad and learned who his parents had been

Chap. ix.: In what manner the pains of childbirth came upon him, and how he became a widower

Chap. x.: Relation of certain peasants concerning the wonderful Mummelsee

Chap. xi.: Of the marvellous thanksgiving of a patient, and of the holy thoughts thereby awakened in Simplicissimus

Chap. xii.: How Simplicissimus journeyed with the sylphs to the centre of the earth

Chap. xvii.: How Simplicissimus returned from the middle of the earth, and of his strange fancies, his air-castles, his calculations; and how he reckoned without his host

Chap. xviii.: How Simplicissimus wasted his spring in the wrong place

Chap. xx.: Treats of a trifling promenade from the Black Forest to Moscow in Russia

Chap. xxi.: How Simplicissimus further fared in Moscow

Chap. xxii.: By what a short and merry road he came home to his dad

Chap. xxiii.: Is very short and concerneth Simplicissimus alone

Chap. xxiv.: Why and in what fashion Simplicissimus left the world again

APPENDIX A CONTINUATION

Chap. xix.: How Simplicissimus and a carpenter escaped from a shipwreck with their lives and were thereafter provided with a land of their own

Chap. xx.: How they hired a fair cook-maid and by God's help were rid of her again

Chap. xxi.: How they thereafter kept house together and how they set to work

Chap. xxii.: Further sequel of the above story, and how Simon Meron left the island and this life, and how Simplicissimus remained the sole lord of the island

Chap. xxiii.: In which the hermit concludes his story and therewith ends these his six books

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

"Continuatio," chap. xiii.: How Simplicissimus in return for a night's lodging, taught his host a curious art

INTRODUCTION

The translation here presented to the public is intended rather as a contribution to the history, or perhaps it should be said the sociology, of the momentous period to which the romance of "Simplicissimus" belongs, than as a specimen of literature. Effective though its situations are, consistent and artistic though its composition is (up to a certain point), its interest lies chiefly in the pictures, or rather photographs, of contemporary manners and characters which it presents. It has been said with some truth that if succeeding romancers had striven as perseveringly as our author to embody the spirit and reflect the ways of the people, German fiction might long ago have reached as high a development as the English novel. As it is, there is little of such spirit to be discovered in the prose romances which appeared between the time of Grimmelshausen and that of Jean Paul Richter. But the influence of the latter was completely swept away in the torrent of idealism by which the fictions of the idolised Goethe and his followers were characterised, and his domestic realism

has only of late made its reappearance in disquieting and sordid forms.

It should be remembered as an apology for the stress now laid upon the sociological side of the history of the Thirty Years War, that that side has by historians been resolutely thrust into the background. The most detailed and painstaking narratives of the war are either bare records of military operations or, worse still, represent merely meticulous and valueless unravellings of the web of intrigue with which the pedants of the time deceived themselves into the belief that they were very Machiavels of subtlety and resource. While the Empire was bleeding to death, the chancelleries of half Europe were intent on the detaching from one side or the other of a venal general, or the patching up of some partial armistice that might afford breathing-time to organise further mischief. It does not matter much to any one whether Wallenstein was knave or fool, but it did matter and does matter that the war crippled for two hundred years the finances, the agriculture, and the enterprise of the German people, and dealt a blow to their patriotism from the like of which few nations could have

recovered. Even the character of the civil administration was completely altered when the struggle ended. An army of capable bourgeois secretaries and councillors had for centuries served their princes and their fellow subjects well. It is wonderful that throughout the devastating wars waged by Wallenstein and Weimar, and even later on during the organised raids of Wrangel and Königsmark, the records were kept, the village business administered (where there was a village left), and even revenue collected with wellnigh as much regularity as in time of peace. These functionaries, who had worked so well, were at the end of the war gradually dispossessed of their influence, and their posts were taken by a swarm of young place-hunters of noble birth whom the peace had deprived of their proper employment, and whose pride was only equalled by their incapacity. But neither particulars nor generalisations bearing on such subjects are to be found in the pages of professional historians; they must be sought in the contemporary

records of the people, of which the present work affords one of the few existing specimens, or else in the work of picturesque writers who, laying no claim to the title of scientific investigators, yet possess the power of selecting salient facts and deducing broad conclusions from them. Freitag's "Bilder aus der Deutschen Vergangenheit" indicates a wealth of material for sociological study which has as yet been but charily used; and recent German works dealing directly with the subject are more remarkable for elegance of production than for depth of research.

Such being the purpose for which this translation has been undertaken, an Introduction to it must necessarily be concerned not so much with the bibliography of the book or even the sources, if any, to which the author was beholden for his material, as with his own personality and the amount of actual fact that underlies the narrative of the fictitious hero's adventures. In respect of the first point, we are presented with a biography almost as shadowy and elusive as that of Shakespeare. In many ways, indeed, the particulars of the lives of these two which we possess are curiously alike. Both were voluminous writers; both enjoyed considerable contemporary reputation; and in both cases our knowledge of their actual history is confined to a few statements by persons who lived somewhat later than themselves, and a few formal documents and entries. In Grimmelshausen's case this obscurity is increased by his practice of publishing under assumed names. In the score of romances and tracts which are undoubtedly his work, we find only two to which his real name is attached. He has nine

other pseudonyms, nearly all anagrams of the words "Christoffel von Grimmelshausen." Of these, "German Schleifheim von Sulsfort" and "Samuel Greifnsohn vom Hirschfelt" are the best known; the latter being the name to which he most persistently clung, and under which "Simplicissimus" was published, though the former appears on the title-page as that of the "editor." Only as the signature to a kind of advertisement at the end do we find the initials of "Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen," his full name. Until the publication of a collection of his works by Felsecker at Nuremberg in 1685, the true authorship of most of them remained unknown. But that editor, by his allusions in the preface, practically identified the writer as the "Schultheiss of Renchen, near Strassburg," whom he seems to have known personally. The reasons for anonymity were, no doubt, firstly, the fact that "Simplicissimus" at least dealt with the actions of men yet alive; and secondly, with regard to the other books, the continual references to details of the author's own life and opinions. His dread

of offending a contemporary is shown by his disguising of the name of St. André, the commandant of Lippstadt, as N. de S. A. of L. (bk. iii., chap. 15).