intention and construction to the German Eulenspiegel, is a legend
current among the Wallachians, entitled “Bakâla.” The hero goes through
a few adventures savouring much of the wily malice of Owlglass; but
there are only thirteen of these adventures in all. The first introduces
us to Bakâla, at the death of his father, who leaves a single cow behind
him. The question arises between Bakâla and his two elder brothers, as
to which is to become possessor of the cow. They agree at last to build
three sheds, and, placing the cow in the middle, give her the
opportunity of deciding the ownership. Bakâla builds his shed of a
grassy material, which the cow perceives, and instead of entering the
sheds of stone built by Bakâla’s brethren, enters his, and thus becomes
his property. He then sells his cow to a tree, which agitated by the
wind, appears to bargain with him. His brethren mock at him for a fool
in selling the cow to a tree; and next day, when payment is to be made,
the cow has broken loose and departed, and when Bakâla asks for the
money, there being no wind, the tree is silent. Then Bakâla cuts down
the tree and finds a pot of money in the roots; thereof he takes the
agreed price, and goes home, and his brethren are astonished at his
receiving money from a tree. The two brothers plague him until he tells
them the whole story as to the treasure, which they go and take. Bakâla
is then sent to borrow a fruit measure from a neighbour, who asks him
what he wants it for, and Bakâla tells him that it is to measure his
money. So the neighbour follows him, and peeps through the window. This
is seen by the inmates of the house, and Bakâla is told to go and kill
him, which he does; the brothers only meaning that Bakâla should give
him a beating. When they find, however, that Bakâla has killed him, they
are obliged to depart from that place.
An adventure by which Bakâla becomes possessed of a sack of incense,
obtains him a gift from the Almighty (who, as in the ancient
miracle-plays, is brought into the story) of a marvellous bagpipe, which
causes every one to dance. When a shepherd the sheep dance; and his
master, who is watching him, is obliged to dance also; and afterwards
his master’s wife dances herself to death. Other mischief Bakâla also
contrives to do. After cutting the tails of his master’s dogs off, and
killing the youngest child by washing it and hanging it up to dry, the
master resolves to depart; for he is bound by a treaty to Bakâla. But
Bakâla gets into the sack, which the master prepares to carry books in,
and is discovered at last. Then the master and his son conspire to drown
Bakâla; but he overhears them, and the son gets drowned instead. Bakâla
appears here to be analogous to the Old Man of the Sea, of whom Sindbad
cannot rid himself. At last the contract between them, to the effect
that either on breaking it should forfeit a long strip of skin in the
back, has to be completed by Bakâla on the body of his master, who has
broken it by the attempt to drown his servant. And as the master’s back
is sore, he takes the book-wallet and departs. This story, as our
authority, Schott, says (_Walachische Mährchen_, p. 362), reminds us of
the agreement between Apollo and Marsyas. Then he sets a bride free from
a disagreeable bridegroom by a stratagem, and after acting the bride’s
part himself, escapes.
The last story in the series is worthy of translation entire, therefore
here it is:—
“_How Bakâla findeth a fellow, and thereafter is not any other
news heard of him._—After that Bakâla had in such wise departed
from the bridegroom, he gat, whence I know not, a sack filled with
sawdust. No longtime had he journeyed, when he encountered by the
way another man, who likewise bare a sack. Then did they greet
each other, and after awhile proposed that they should change
sacks. And so did they; then they hasted to open the sacks, and in
that which Bakâla had received lay nought but flint stones, and
what the other received that do we know. For a time they looked
upon their prizes with great wonder; but thereupon laughed hugely.
‘Truly,’ quoth Bakâla, ‘we have beguiled each other!’ ‘That is
truth indeed!’ cried the other. And great content had these twain
one of the other, and embraced thereupon, and made agreement that
thereafter would they journey everywhere in company. From that
time hath no more been heard of Bakâla.”
Schott, in his work, finds analogy between the various adventures of
Bakâla, and the course of the sun through the months of the year; but it
is foreign to our present purpose to enter upon such a speculation. Yet,
as a curious exemplification of the love of trickery to be found among
all races, this Wallachian Owlglass is worthy of mention.
APPENDIX F.
_Works akin to the Eulenspiegel literature._
Although the Eulenspiegel folk-book has become the best known of the
special class of books in which the middle age took such pleasure, there
are many other compositions of a kindred nature worthy of mention, and
of these I shall here describe the most important. The first on which
any remark is necessary is the celebrated legend of Salomon and
Marcolphus, which, in Latin, German, Anglo-Saxon, and French, has
survived to the present time. Marcolphus is a jester in a more sober
sense than is Owlglass; the jests of the former, though some of them are
analogous to those of the latter, rarely touch upon the humourous. They
are capable of application to far more serious things, to matters of
speculative philosophy and science. Luther, for instance, applied a
story of Marcolphus in reproof of persons who shut their eyes to the
good, but afterwards were compelled, whether they would or no, to behold
the evil.[29] But the Marcolphus legend is an exemplification rather of
the combats of wit and wisdom common to the earlier part of the middle
age, than a vivid reflex, as is the Owlglass, of the manners and customs
of the time to which it belongs. One story borrowed from the Marcolphus,
or from Morlini, at an early period, appears in Owlglass, being the
second adventure in this edition, p. 3.
The _Narrenschiff_ (“Ship of Fools”) of Sebastian Brandt was published
in 1494. It is also called the _Welt Spiegel_, or “World Mirror,” and it
enjoyed a great and deserved reputation in its time, but was far too
pedantic and tiresome to survive to the present age, or be profitable
now. A few remarks upon it, extracted from Hallam, will be found in the
Preface.
Murner himself published a satirical work in 1517, entitled the
_Schelmenzunft_ (“Corporation of Knaves”), but from a want of entirety
it has fallen into little repute. So also the _Gäuchmatt_ has been
forgotten, while Owlglass, published in the same year (1519), will live
a companion to many.
Similar books had preceded Master Owlglass, but not with the same
success, although from them the frequent editors of the latter
abstracted stories to add to the deeds of the wandering knave; from the
legend of the “Priest Amis,” for instance, Murner took the story of the
invisible picture, the reading ass, the wise university examination at
Prague, and the history of the pardoner with the holy head of Saint
Brandonus. Another work, the “Priest of Kalenberg,” preceded Owlglass,
having appeared before the year 1494 at Vienna, being written by Villip
Frankfurter; the only copy known is preserved in the Hamburg Town
Library. The “Priest of Kalenberg” is mentioned by Sebastian Brandt in
the “Ship of Fools;” and Murner, in his _Narrenbeschwerung_, tells a
story concerning him. The book is alluded to by Fischart in the preface
to his Eulenspiegel, as having been a great success. The latest edition
of the “Priest of Kalenberg” appeared under the title of _Der geistliche
Eulenspiegel, oder der Pfarrer vom Kalenberg, nebst Schwänken einiger
anderen lustigen Gesellen_ (“The Clerical Eulenspiegel, or the Parson of
Kalenberg, with the quips of some other merry fellows”). Leipzig, 1818.
Another book which supplied the editors of Eulenspiegel with materials
for its extension was the Jests of Gonella, Court Fool to the Margrave
Nicolaus of Este (†1441), and to his son Borso, the Duke of Ferrara
(†1471); indeed, it is far from unlikely that Murner himself was
acquainted with it, as it was published in 1506 at Bologna. So rare is
this work, that in an appendix Dr. Lappenberg has reprinted it.
The “Jests of Poggio Bracciolini” (1381–1459), a man to whom we owe the
recovery of Quintilian, eight orations of Cicero, twelve comedies of
Plautus, and other classics, also furnished Murner with matter for the
Eulenspiegel. In fact, Murner and his successors must have very
diligently sought out all the literature of the class likely to serve
their purpose in adding to the adventures of their own hero. Thus
several stories are adapted from the “Cento Novelle Antiche” (printed at
Bologna, 1525), from Morlini (Naples, 1520), from Bebel, and from
François Villon.
There are a few books later than Eulenspiegel having a family
resemblance to it; of these the _Schimpf und Ernst_ (“Abuse and
Seriousness”) of John Pauli Pfedersheimer, published in 1522, is the
most noted. The following is the title of the first edition: “Schimpf
vn̄ | Ernst | heiset | das Buch mit namē | durchlaufft e d’ welthandlung
mit | ernstlichen vnd kurtzweiligen exem- | plen, parabolen vnd
hystorien | nützlich vnd gut zu besse- | rung der menschen.” This title
is in an oblong tablet surrounded with woodcuts. Below is Herodias
bringing the head of John the Baptist to her father; to the right is
Adam and Eve; to the left, Bishop Martin; and at the top is St. George
with the dragon. Sheets run from A-X iiii, 124 pages in folio, double
columns. Colophon: “Getruckt zu Strassburg von Johannes | Grieninger,
vnd volendet vff vnser lieben frawentag der geburt, | in dem iar nach
der geburt Christi vnsers herren. Tausend | fünf hundert vnd zwei vnd
zwantzig.” Then follows sheet Y, with six pages of contents. Copies in
the Royal Libraries at Dresden, Berlin, and München. Forty-nine editions
are specified by Lappenberg in “Ulenspiegel” (pp. 368–378), besides
several translations. Pauli, in turn, has borrowed from Eulenspiegel,
and that he understood the spirit of the book is plain from a reference
he makes to it.
Another work akin to the Owlglass is the popular folk-book of Friar
Rush, which is sufficiently well known to need no further description
here. Mr. Thoms has reprinted it in his “Collection of Early Prose
Romances.” Claus Narr von Ranstedt is another successor to Eulenspiegel.
This worthy was court-fool to the Elector of Saxony from 1486 to 1532;
thus a contemporary to Murner, who, indeed, mentions him in the
treatise, “Whether the King of England be a liar or Dr. Luther?” The
earliest edition appears to be of 1572, and its author was Master
Wolfgang Büttner, Priest of Volfferstet. In the preface, Büttner sneers
at Eulenspiegel, and asks why the pure words and good sayings of this
good man should not be preferred and esteemed rather than the shameless
stories of Owlglass.
Noteworthy also is a book containing the adventures of Hans Clauert of
Trebbin, who in a humble manner, yet not without humour, follows in the
footsteps of Owlglass. The only edition of it which I have seen is an
undated folk-book, published in the series of Otto Wigand at Leipzig.
This hero goes to Hungary and other places; but his adventures contain
none of the satiric intention evident in the Owlglass. With these
elucidatory remarks touching Owlglass, and the literature of which his
adventures form the completest example, I bid the reader
A HEARTY FAREWELL.
-----
Footnote 29:
The curious reader will find this duly set forth in Mr. Kemble’s
critical history of the Salomon and Marcolphus tale (Salomon and
Saturnus, p. 70). And in the preface to Dr. Luther’s “Table Talk,”
where this application is made, Stangwald complains of the great
number of people who prefer Marcolphus, Eulenspiegel, and such books,
to these _Colloquia Lutheri_.
[Illustration]
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Changed “Then said then” to “Then said the” on p. 138.
2. All book titles and colophons are rendered as printed.
3. Silently corrected typographical errors.
4. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
6. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript
character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.