Cheats, Stratagems | & | Contrivances | of Tiel Eulespiegel. Let none
Eulespiegle’s Artifices blame, | For Rogues of ev’ry Country are the
same. | Made English From the High Dutch. London: Printed in the Year
MDCCXX.” This edition is the only other version ever made of the work
presented in this volume. It differs widely, however, from the popular
German Owlglass; many stories are introduced which the original editions
did not contain, and the taste for tales of the Decameron class has been
consulted in the compilation of it. Dr. Lappenberg, in his
bibliographical section, assigns to it the date of 1709; but the only
two copies I have seen, one of which is in my possession, give the date
1720 as above. It is an octavo and of extreme rarity, the British Museum
contains no copy of it; the only other copy is in the Douce Collection
at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. That which I have was formerly the
property of Mr. Bernard Quaritch, who priced it at £2 12_s._ 6_d._ A
note on the fly-leaf states the rarity of the book, and that the
annotator never met with another; and Mr. Thoms says, that he only saw
the one in Douce’s Collection. The number of pages is 111, and of
chapters forty-four. Signatures B-P 4, with title and preface. The
rarity of the book is not much to be regretted; for its contents are not
in any way of a nature fitted for quotation or great remark.
72. 1736. “Lustige Historien oder Merckwürdiges Leben, Thaten und Reisen
des Weltbekandten Tyll Eulenspiegels. Mit vielen Historischen,
Politischen, und Moralischen Anmerckungen, Auch allerhand Tugend-,
Staats und Sitten-Lehren, Nach aller Ständen durch und durch, bei jeder
Historie, erläutert und beschrieben (Dresden bei Hilscher).” An octavo,
preserved at the Royal Libraries of Dresden and Göttingen.
73. 1774. “Wonderbaerlyke en zeldzame Historie van Thyl Ulenspiegel, van
zyn Schalke..... Zeer teydkortig en geneuglijk on te lezen. Vor Oude en
Jonge Lieden. Te Amsterdam, by Joannes Kannewet.” A small octavo, of
eighty-eight numbered pages, and four pages without numbers, preserved
at München.
74. A popular romance on Owlglass appeared in two volumes in 1779 and
1784.
75. A Danish translation was published in 1787 at Copenhagen; twelve
sheets in octavo without pagination.
76. 1794. “Leben und Sonderbare Thaten Till Eulenspiegels.” An octavo of
136 pages.
77. 1795. The same, republished at Prague and Vienna.
_18th Century, without particular date._
78. In the Bodleian at Oxford (Douce Collection, p. 280, press-mark TT
iii) is a French Eulenspiegel, entitled, “Histoire | Plaisante | de |
Tiel Ulespiegel | Contenant les faits & subtilités dont | il s’est
servi. | Revue et Corrigée de Nouveau. | A Limoges, | Chez F.
Chapoulard, Imprimeur-Libraire, | place de Banc.” It is an octavo of
twenty-nine pages, and the number of adventures far from complete. It is
printed on very bad paper, and evidently with a view to cheapness.
79. “Wonderbaarlyke | en zeldame | Historie | van | Thyl Ulenspiegel,
&c. Te Leyden. By P. van Leeuwen. In the de Pieters Choorsteg.” Chiefly
curious from a cut on the title, representing Eulenspiegel holding a
mirror up for an owl to look in, with the inscription above it, “Broeder
myn.” Ninety pages duodecimo, with the ordinary adventures and rude
cuts. Preserved in the Bodleian.
80, 81. Several stories of Eulenspiegel were translated into Jew-German,
and printed at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in octavo, according to Wolf,
“Bibliotheca Hebraica,” vol. iii., p. 86, 1727. Another Hebrew-German
edition appears referred to in the same work, vol. ii., p. 1255, 1721.
82. Flögel mentions, in 1789, an old Polish version (p. 473): “Sowizrzal
Krotochwilny Smiezny Poczatek, zywot y dokonanie iego.” Without year or
place, in octavo.
83. “La Vie | joyeuse et récréative de Thiel Ulespiègle ... qu’il a
eues. A Douai. Chez Deregnaucourt. Imprimeur-Libraire, rue Jacques, no.
45.” Three sheets of forty-eight pages in duodecimo, in the Imperial
Library at Paris.
84, 85. Of the eighteenth century. “Historien von dem wunderlichen &
seltsamen Till Eulenspiegel. Hamburg.” Twelve sheets in octavo. Another
edition published by Solbrig of Leipzig.
86, 87. 1804 and 1806. Two Dutch editions, published at Amsterdam and
Deventer.
88. 1807. A German Leipzig edition.
89. 1819. Dutch book of the Eulenspiegel character, but not containing
the same Adventures. “Het | Leven | van den | Jongen | Ulenspiegel, &c.
Te Amsterdam. By B. Koene, Boekdrukker in de Boomstraat.” 12mo. in
ninety-six pages, in the Bodleian (v. 58, Douce Collection).
90, 91. A quarto edition, consisting of fifty-five plates, published by
Ramberg at Hanover. In the Museum (press-mark, 554 _b_ 40). At Rotterdam
in the same year an edition in Dutch appeared, which contained several
adventures differing from the common version.
92. 1830. Baron von Halberg in this year published a versified edition
in octavo at Crefeld. In the Museum, with the press-mark 11526 _d_.
93–96. “Der ganz neue wiedererstandene Till Eulenspiegel,” in 100
chapters, with 102 woodcuts. “München, 1833, 1836–7, 1844.” This edition
has been used in the preparation of this volume.
97, 98. “Avantures de Tiel Ulespiegle et ses bon mots, finesses et
amusantes inventions. Par Joseph Octave Delepierre. Bruges. 1835.”
Ninety pages in octavo. Only fifty copies of this edition printed.—1840.
“Les Aventures de Tiel Ulespiegle. Par Delepierre.” An octavo of 222
pages. This edition of M. Delepierre affirms with amusing mock gravity
the entirely Flemish origin of Owlglass, and the names are ingeniously
altered to suit Flemish localities. Use has been made of the edition in
this version.
99, 100, 101. In the years 1838 and 1839, several editions appeared, one
of them that of Cornelius, which, together with the 1519 edition and the
preceding, has been consulted in this edition.
102. 1841. An edition belonging to Dr. Simrock’s Collection of German
Folkbooks, at Berlin.
103. “Tyll Eulenspiegel’s wunderbare und seltsame Historien. Von Carl
Frölich. Reutlingen, 1849.”
104. 1854. Dr. Thomas Murner’s Ulenspiegel. By Dr. J. M. Lappenberg.
Leipzig, Weigel. This is the best and completest edition yet published
of Owlglass, and one which has formed the groundwork of the translation
now published.
Several editions have appeared since, but none of them possessing value
sufficient to render notice necessary; the only one which need be
mentioned being—
105. “Histoire Joyeuse et Récréative de Tiel L’Espiègle. Nouvelle
Edition. Avec une étude littéraire sur Tiel L’Espiègle par Pr. van
Duyse. Gand, 1858.”
We have thus, without referring to the numerous badly printed versions
of the illustrious Eulenspiegel, given here a complete review of all the
editions of this remarkable book, which, from its length, will serve to
show how popular it has been from its very first appearance.
In connection with Eulenspiegel literature, it may be interesting in
this place to give a description of a curious work, of which three
copies are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Douce
Collection, Catalogue, page 290 A. Press-marks, R 328, 90), and which,
by the kind permission of Dr. Bandinel, and of my friend, the Rev. A.
Hackman, M.A., Precentor of Christ Church, I have been permitted to
examine. It is entitled—
“The | French | Rogue. | Being a pleasant | History | of | His Life and
Fortunes | adorned with variety of other | Adventures | of no less
Rarity | With | Epigrams | suitable to each Stratagem | London: |
Printed by T. N. for Samuel Lowndes, | and are to be sold at his Shop,
over against | Exeter House in the Strand, 1672.”
The two copies which I saw are well preserved, especially the one marked
“R 90,” which is bound up with the letters of Monsieur De Bergerac. The
book is a small 12mo, with 197 pages and two pages of advertisements.
The Signature A is formed of title page and six sides (without
pagination) of preface and lines to the author. It is one of those dull
books so common about that time, and contains the adventures and travels
of a personage who, like Owlglass, but without his wit, cheats and robs
those whom he encounters. He journeys over France, and becomes a member
of a society of thieves, and swears to abide by certain rules of their
order, tedious to be recapitulated here. The book is curious as an
example of the taste of the time. The chapters are twenty-nine in
number, and, as the title page says, epigrams appropriate to the
adventures are inserted. Other works, ancient and modern, akin to
Eulenspiegel literature, will be found in a subsequent Appendix.
-----
Footnote 14:
Adventure the 24th, pp. 38–39.
Footnote 15:
This should be M.CCC. & L.
Footnote 16:
Error _oeuues_ for _oeuures_.
APPENDIX B.
_The historical Eulenspiegel and his gravestone._
It is scarcely necessary to enter upon the question of the historical
Eulenspiegel. That there was such a person seems unquestionable. The
names of his parents were Saxon names, not unfrequent, and the name of
Ulenspiegel appears as early as 1337, being the name of a widow living
at Brunswick, and again in 1473, in conjunction with another name. The
widow Ulenspeygel has even been supposed to be the mother of our hero.
But what little is known of him, is more easily to be read in the book
itself than gathered from other records.
Among the objects of interest which remain to the present time, a
testimony of the real existence of Eulenspiegel, is the gravestone at
Möllen, the place assigned to him as his last resting-place, both by
historical tradition and in the folk-book. Caspar Abel, who in 1729–32
published a collection of old German chronicles, gives one which he
describes as having been the property of the family of Hetling, at
Halberstadt, and which seems to have been written about 1486. In this
chronicle, mention is made under the year 1350 of the ravages of the
Black Death at Braunschweig, and it continues: “Thereof died Ulenspeygel
at Möllen, among the Gheyseler brethren” (“_Dosulffest sterff
Ulenspeygel to Möllen unde de Gheyseler Broder kemen an_”). Yet it is
necessary to remark, that this statement, later than the first presumed
edition of 1486—of which little is known—is not supported by any other
Saxon chronicle of the fifteenth century. The next reference to the
grave at Möllen, is in Reimar Rock’s _Lübscher Chronik_, in the
following jest concerning the Cardinal Raymond; being the original hint,
indeed, which I have amplified in the present book, in adventure the
hundredth and tenth: “The Cardinal abode in the first night at Möllen.
And when he comprehended the German speech, and heard of the holy-living
saint Ulenspegel, an if there had been money in store—after which do all
Italians and Spaniards thirst—Ulenspegel could have been entered on the
Pope his calendar.” This jest, as Dr. Lappenberg well notices, is at any
rate a proof, that at this time the grave was often sought out by
visitors. Michael Heberer, in his voyage to Sweden and Denmark, in 1592,
describes the gravestone, but not in the way depicted in our cut. He
makes no mention of the figure, but only of the owl and glass; and the
same description occurs in Merian (_Topographie von Nieder Sachsen_) as
being there in 1614. But in 1631, in the manuscript Chronicles of
Dethlev Dreyer, a description of the stone, nearly as it now stands, is
given; but a basket of owls is mentioned, so it could scarcely be the
same. Dreyer and Zeiller (_Reiszbuch durch Hoch und Nieder Teutschland_,
1674), both speak of the gravestone having been renewed and fenced off
from the attacks of boys, and other wilful destroyers of antiquities.
But the most interesting account is given by Zacharias Conrad von
Uffenbach, who visited Möllen in the year 1710, and I shall, therefore,
offer a translation of it:—
“We first,” says the writer, “examined at the church, which stands upon
a slight hill, just by where one goeth up by steps into the churchyard,
near the door, the little hut in which the gravestone of Eulenspiegel is
set up and leans against the wall of the church. Formerly it had lain in
the churchyard not far from the church, under the elm tree, which still
stands in its place, but as by bad boys it was often damaged and went
hard to be destroyed by rain and weather, a most worthy and benevolent
magistrate of this town, a long time ago, had it placed against the wall
of the church, and a small house erected round about it, and closed in,
with only an open window, or hole, in front. The stone is more than four
ells high, and only about one broad. There is not alone an owl and glass
sculptured on the two sides, as Merian or Zeiller says in _Topog. Sax.
infer._ p. 184, but the noble [_vornehmes_] likeness of Eulenspiegel is
upon it in the size of life, although not quite equal to his stature and
tallness, and the above-named things are in his hands. That he wears
bells, may not arise from the fact that he plays the part of a wise fool
or a jesting knave [_Schalksknecht_], but that in those times the bells
were greatly in the fashion, and even worn by great lords (as see in
_Observat. Hallens. ad rem liter. spectant. Germanicas_ concerning
Schellen-Moritz). The inscription on the lower part of the stone, is
somewhat damaged by rain and carelessness; so that it is somewhat
difficult to be read by those who know it not. In the wood of the hut
very many Owlglasses [_Eulenspiegels_, used in the sense of rogues] have
cut their names.”
The expression, that the figure was the size of life, but not quite
equal to the stature and tallness of Eulenspiegel, cannot be otherwise
understood than that the figure was not entirely cut in the stone, but
perhaps only to the knee. It would seem, however, that the figure was
repeatedly replaced, for the one now existing differs from the account
given by Uffenbach. It stands upright at the wall of the tower, with a
wooden shed round it, the lower part of which hides the inscription.
Other relics of this apostle of knavery are mentioned by Uffenbach, such
as an old shirt of mail, preserved in the council chamber at Möllen. His
sword, beaker, and money-pouch, all of a later period, are also shown.
With the beaker, a very narrow and deep one, a sorry joke is connected,
that he had it so made because his mother bade him never to dip his nose
too deep in a glass.
In respect of the gravestone, it is yet to be mentioned, that in a
little descriptive work which appeared some years ago, the figure is
attributed to a certain knight, Tilodictus Ulenspegel, who, in
Westphalian annals of the fourteenth century, is not unknown. Yet for
the sake of romance, and also from historical probability, it is best to
adhere to the story which remains to us. The inscription on the stone is
as follows:—
“Anno 1350 is dŭss
-en vp gehauē ty-
le vlenspegel ligt
her vnder begrauen
marcket wol vnd
dencket dran. wat
ick gwest sivp .. e
... de her vor ...
... an moten mi
glick wer.....”
“Anno 1350 is this sculptured, Tyle Ulenspegel lies here under buried.
Mark well and think thereover what I have been....” (rest too
fragmentary). But to be restored thus:
“Gedenk daran
Wat ick gwest sivp ... e
... de her vor (uber)
(Gh) an moten mi
glich wer (den).”
“Think thereover, what I have been ... who passeth by may to me become
alike.”
At Damme, in Belgium, there is another gravestone with which tradition
connects our hero, but unsatisfactorily. A writer in Meyer’s
“Conversations Lexicon,” vol. ix. p. 331, thinks this gravestone is that
of Eulenspiegel’s father, who might have died at the date of it, 1301.
APPENDIX C.
_Of Dr. Thomas Murner, the author of Eulenspiegel._
As the author of Eulenspiegel, and also as a not unknown man in his own
country, as well as in England, it may be not unwelcome to print here a
few brief notes concerning Thomas Murner. He was born at Ehenheim, south
of Strasburg, the 24th December, 1475, his father being a cobbler at
that place. He was educated in a school of the Franciscans at Strasburg,
and seems afterwards to have visited, in the capacity of travelling
student, the Universities of Paris, Freiburg, Rostock, Prague, Vienna,
and Cracow, and in his nineteenth year (1494) appears already to have
taken orders. In 1499 he published his first work, his _Invectiva contra
Astrologos_, and another piece, the _Tractatus perutilis de phitonico
contractu_, and thenceforward lived a life of extreme literary activity.
Having similar tastes to Sebastian Brandt, author of the “Ship of
Fools,” we find Murner printing similar works—works of a satirical kind,
such as the _Narrenbeschwerung_ (“Conjuration of Fools”), the
_Schelmenzunft_ (“Knave Corporation”), and the _Gäuchmatt_, in which the
various classes of society are bitterly treated, but in a way not
interesting to modern persons. The most memorable thing which can
connect Murner with England, is the part he took in the dispute between
Henry the Eighth and Luther; and a book which he published under the
title of “Is the King of England a liar or is Luther?” (_Ob der Kunig
usz Engelland ein lügner sey oder der Luther?_), obtained favour for him
from Henry.
The following letter from Sir Thomas More to Cardinal Wolsey, dated the
26th August, 1523, will tell the story of Murner’s visit to this country
better than any other mode of narrating it. Cardinal Wolsey was then
staying at Easthampstead. The spelling, which is quite intelligible
enough, has been left in its original state, to give the reader an idea
of the unsettled condition of English at that time.
“It may ferther lyke Your Good Grace to be advertised that one Thomas
Murner, a Frere of Saynt Francisce, which wrote a booke against Luther
in defence of the Kinges boke, was out of Almaigne sent into England, by
the meane of a simple[17] person, an Almaign namyng hymselfe servaunt un
to the Kinges Grace, and afferming un to Murner, that the King had gevyn
hym in charge to desyre Murner to cum over to hym in to England, and by
occasion ther of he is cummen over and has now bene here a good while.
Wher fore the Kinges Grace, pitiyng that he was so deceived, and having
tendre respecte to the goode zele that he bereth toward the feith, and
his good hart and mynd toward His Highnes, requyreth Your Grace that it
may lyke you to cause hym have in reward one hundred pownde, and that he
may retourn home, wher his presence is very necessary; for he is one of
the chiefe stays agaynst the faction of Luther in that parties, agaynst
whom he hath wrytten many bokis in the Almayng tong; and now, sith the
cumming hither, he hath translated into Latyn, the boke that he byfore
made in Almaign, in defence of the Kinges boke. He is Doctour of
Divinite and of bothe Lawes, and a man for wryting and preching of great
estimation in his cuntre.
“Hit may like Your Grace ferther to wite, that the same simple person,
which caused Murner to cum in to England, is now cummen to the Court,
and hath brought with him a Barons son of Almaygn, to whom he hath also
persuaded, that the Kinges Grace wold be glad to have hym in his
service. He hath also brought lettres from Duke Ferdinand un to the
Kinge’s Grace, which lettres J send un to Your Grace, wherin he desireth
the Kinge’s Highnes to take in to his service, and to reteyne, with some
convenient yerely pention Ducem Mechelburgensem; of which request the
Kinges Grace greatly merveileth, and veryly thinketh that this simple
felow, which brought the lettres, lykewise as he caused Murner to cum
hither, and persuaded the Barons sone that the King would be glad to
have his service, so hath by some simple ways brought the Duke of
Mechelborough in the mynd, that the Kings Grace wold, at the
contemplation of Duke Ferdinandis lettres, be content to reteign the
Duke of Mechelborough with a yerly pention. The felow hath brought also
fro the Duke of Mechelborough lettres of credence written in the Duche
tong. He bare hym selfe in Almaign for the Kinge’s servaunt, and bosted
that he had a yerely pention of fiftie markes, and that the King had
sent him thither to take upp servauntes for hym; and now he saith, he is
servaunt un to the Empereurs Majeste, and is going into Spaigne, with
lettres to hym; and in dede he hath diverse lettres to his Magestie, and
so it was easie for hym to gete, if he entend to deceive and mocke; as
the Kinges Grace thinketh that he doth. For His Grace never saw hym
byfore, but he understandeth now, that before this tyme he was in
England, when th Empereur was here,[18] and slew a man and escaped his
way. Wherfor His Grace requyreth Yours to give hym your prudent advice,
as well in a convenient answere to be made both to Duke Ferdinand and
the Duke of Mechelborough, as also in what wyse hit shal be convenient
to ordre this simple felowe, that so hath deceived menne in the Kinges
name.”
However agreeable to the vanity, and useful to the cause, of the King,
the book is a somewhat dreary book to read now; and save that it
consists of a long dialogue between the King, Luther, and Murner, there
need be little more said of it. Those who wish to read it will find it
in its original German in that valuable collection of Middle Age
literature made by Scheible, and entitled _Das Kloster_ (the Convent)
Volume IV. pp. 893–982. The dispute continued to give a tone to his life
henceforth, and all his later years were spent in empty and angry
controversy. Indeed, we lose sight of him altogether in the year 1530;
and it has been suspected that he was murdered at Lucerne, though we
hear the last of him at Strasburg. His death was certainly before 1537.
-----
Footnote 17:
“Simple” is here used in the sense of “cunning,” “bad.”
Footnote 18:
Charles V. was in England from the 26th of May, when he landed at
Dover, till the 1st of July, 1522.
APPENDIX D.
_The verses inserted by William Copland in the English black-letter
Howleglas of 1528._
_How Howleglas came to a scoler to make verses with hym to that vse
of reason. And howe that Howleglas began, as after shal folowe_:—
HOWLEGLAS.
Mars with septer[19] a king coronate,
Furius[20] in affliction, and taketh no regarde.
By terrible fightyng he is our prymate
And god of battell, and person ryght forward,
Of warries[21] the tutor, the locke and the warde.
His power, his might, who can them resyst?
Not all this worlde, if that him selfe lyst.
THE SCHOLER.
Not all this worlde, who told the[22] so?
Where is that written, ryght fayne wold I see?
Ye came lyke a foole and so shall ye go.
By one person only deceived ye may be
And by astronomy, I tell vnto the.
If that will not helpe, some shyft shal I fynde
By craft or cunnyng, Mars for to blynde.
HOWLEGLAS.
Venus a god of loue most decorate,
The floure of women and lady most pvre,
Louers to concorde she doth aye aggregate
With parfyte loue, as marble to dure,
The knot of loue, she knittes on them sure
With frendly amite[23] and neuer to discorde
By dedes, thought, cogitation, nor worde.
THE SCHOLER.
Not to discorde? yed[24] did I never see,
Knowe not here tell of louers suche twayne,
But some fault there was, learne this of me.
Other in thought, or yet in wordes playne
Your reasons be nought, your tongue goeth in vayne.
By naturall person such loue is not found
In Fraunce, Flaunders, nor yet in Englysh ground.
HOWLEGLAS.
The God of wyne, that Bachus hath to name,
The sender of fruytes, that maketh wynes all,
May slake or make or put them in frame,
All at his pleasure and use dynyall.[25]
He may the[26] exalt in lyke wyse to fall,
Their lorde and meister,[27] and chief gouernour
He may then destroye and make in an houre.
THE SCHOLER.
All to destroye it is not by his myght,
Nor yet for to make, of that be thou sure.
“Omnia per ipsum,” Saint Johan sayes full ryght.
Than we call Christ our god and our treasure.
Presume not so hye,[28] you fayle of your measure,
Rede, heare and see, and here well a waye,
Unknowen, vnsayde and for grace thou pray.
-----
Footnote 19:
_Septer_, sceptre.
Footnote 20:
_furius_, furious.
Footnote 21:
_warries_, wars.
Footnote 22:
_the_, thee.
Footnote 23:
_amite_, French _amitié_.
Footnote 24:
_yed_, yet.
Footnote 25:
_dynyall_, denial.
Footnote 26:
_the_, thee.
Footnote 27:
_meister_, master.
Footnote 28:
_hye_, high.
APPENDIX E.
_The Bakâla legend of the Valacqs analogous to Owlglass._