With the Pandects, life for life.
Then after, examen, office calls, and then for marriage.
An unbounded jollity, etc.
I'm a great philosopher, of the school of Hegel,
And his system follow I to the life.
The Beadle is upset, the Philistine is teased;
Goes all wrong--the Prorector is appeased.
_Spoken_.--"Well, Sir! last night you have again cudgelled and
floored five watchmen; and for this you must spend four weeks in the
Carcer."--"Your Magnificence, I think nothing of that!"--"You will go
on cudgelling watchmen till you get the Consilium abeundi."--"Youth
must sow its wild oats;--that's an old rule. Your Magnificence was
young once: certainly it's a good while ago; but spite of this, I hope
one of these days to become an honest, brave fellow, and do service to
my Fatherland, and become a special honour to your Prorectorate."
Thereupon drops he a tear;
Thinks of his youth--"Ah! it was dear!"
Gives me an examen summa cum laude.
An unbounded jollity, etc.
Happy are they who carry on with them this free and cheerful
disposition into after-life, which for most of those who now live so
gaily and happily at the university, brings an arduous succession of
labours loaded with cares and fatigues, which, however, sometimes leave
as their reward at the end of their career of life, a consciousness of
having discovered a certain portion of truth, and of having been able
to benefit their fellow-citizens. Student-life thus belongs to those
things which can come only once in our existence, but which are on that
very account the fullest of happiness, and must often extend their
influence so far as at least to refresh by their memory a later,
solemn, and joyless life. The songs of a happy youth accompany him who
has entered on the more serious path of his existence, and their melody
is able to bring him back for a moment now and then into the dream of
his young years. With a song of sorrow the student too, follows to the
grave the brother who departed this life, and then turns from the image
of death, and rejoices that he yet longer can enjoy the happy Burschen
period.
GAUDEAMUS IGITUR.
Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenesdum sumus;
Post jucundam juventutem,
Post molestam senectutem,
Nos habebit humus.
Ubi sunt, qui ante nos
In mundo fuere?
Vadite ad superos,
Transite ad inferos,
Ubi jam fuere.
Vita nostra brevis est,
Brevi finietur;
Venit mors velociter;
Rapit nos atrociter;
Nemini parcetur.
Vivat academia,
Vivant professores,
Vivat membrum quodlibet,
Vivant membra quaelibet;
Semper sint in flore.
Vivant omnes virgines,
Faciles, formosae;
Vivant et mulieres,
Vivant et mulieres
Bonae, laboriosae.
Vivat et respublica,
Et qui illam regit;
Vivat nostra civitas,
Mecenatum caritas,
Quae nos hic protegit.
Pereat tristitia,
Pereant osores;
Pereat diabolus,
Quivis anti-burschius
Atque irrisores.
CHAPTER XV.
DRINKING CUSTOMS OF STUDENT LIFE, ANCIENT AND MODERN.
Seize the glittering wine-cup there!
See ye not, no purply winking,
Blood of nature, rich and rare?
Let us grasp it, boldly drinking,
That a fire-strength may glow
Through each vein--a new creation!
Sacred is of wine the flow--
Is of youth the glad elation!
_Uhland_.
Have the gods drunk nectar!--the gods, exempt from all the cares of
mortal existence, and shall then poor mankind be envied the enjoyment
of their earthly nectar? No; not without cause was it celebrated by all
the ancient poets. Even the great Reformer himself joined in its
praise; and Horace says--
Narratur et prisci Catonis,
Saepe mero caluisse virtus.
Then come the moralists truly and say, "You should not purposely throw
yourselves into an artificial gladness; the true gladness comes from
within." Very true; and the genuine healing of sickness comes from
within, and you shall and cannot subdue it by art? It is therefore that
the Turks believe that you ought not to assist nature in her marvellous
operations by a healing means. If that be your faith, do as the Turks
do, and drink no wine. But have we not thus a thousand things which are
to a certain degree necessary to our well-being, necessary to preserve
the proper tone of mind and body? And would you blindly condemn all
these? Wherefore then do you imagine that wine was made? Would you
banish all poetry out of life, and say
Who then would cheat himself with phantom shapes,
That with a borrowed charm do clothe existence,
And with a false possession follow Hope?
_Schiller_.
Will you do that? Then, indeed, must you banish wine; for it is, so to
say, an incarnate poetry. For if it were not that, it were nothing to
us; and to whomsoever it is not that, him counsel we to refrain, and to
hand it over to other and happier mortals. But think well on it ere you
banish all poetry out of the world.
The roseate-tinted veil of dreams
Falls from Life's countenance of pallid gloom,
And the world showeth as it is--a tomb.
_Schiller_.
Who, then, would wish to live in such a world? No; we value the wine
which calls forth the poetry of the inner man of him who is not totally
abandoned of the Muses. But you, perhaps, reprobate the enjoyment of
wine as too ignoble and material. But is it then the material portion
of the wine which confers on us its witchcraft? No; it is the fine
spirit, and that ethereal life which the German calls the flower of the
wine. They ascend to the exhausted brain, and brace the relaxed chords.
Know you then whether the strength which gives to life poetry and fresh
grace, may not be one and the same? Whether the strength which is here
bound to the material substratum, be not the same which there seizes
thee mightily in the creations of Shakspeare? whether it be not the
same which lives in the accord of the violoncello; whether it be not
the same which dwells so entrancingly in the voice of the beloved? Yes,
the spirits of the wine are related to others; and when they discover
their brothers in the breasts of men, so combine they vigorously, and
bursting their bonds, rush forth into active operation. All those noble
feelings which had long, perhaps, by their possessor, who had
experienced the bitter deceits of life, been beaten down and slept in
obscurity--now, touched by the magic wand of wine, start again from
their tomb. But when the spirits of the wine find there only strange
and ignoble associates, then raise they with them a fierce conflict, in
order from such guests of hell to free man; whose difference from all
other beings, says Goethe, consists in this--that he be noble, helpful,
and good! Therefore despise not wine, which is capable of accomplishing
such rare ends, which can raise phantasies such as were dreamed in the
Rathskeller at Bremen.[36] No; we acknowledge the wisdom of him who
gave the wine to mankind, and of the good old patriarch who so
thankfully received it.
OLD NOAH.
Noah from the ark had got,
The Lord came to him on the spot;
He smelt his offering in the wind,
And said to thee I will be kind.
And since a pious house thou art,
Thyself shall name the gracious part.
Then Noah answered, as he stood,
"Dear Lord, this water smacks not good.
Therefore I, poor old man, would fain
Some different kind of drink obtain,
Since that there hath been drowned therein
All sinful beasts, and men of sin."
To Paradise, God stretched his hand,
And gave him thence a vine-stock grand;
He gave him counsel good and right,
Said, "Tend thou this with all thy might."
He him instructed,--so, and so,--
Till Noah's joy no bounds did know.
Both wife and child did Noah call,
His servants and his house-folks all.
He planted vineyards all about--
For, trust me, Noah was no lout;
Built cellars then, and pressed the wine,
And tunned it into hogsheads fine.
Old Noah was a pious man;
Soon to a row his barrels ran.
To God's high praise he drained each cask,
Nor deemed it, faith, a heavy task.
He drank, thereafter, as appears,
Three hundred yet and fifty years.
A knowing man thence see it will,
That wine well used, can do no ill.
And farther,--that no Christian more
Into his wine will water pour,--
Because there hath been drowned therein,
All sinful beasts, and men of sin.
The Germans never despised their cups. Tacitus, in his time, said of
them--"To drink day and night brings disgrace to no one." Tacitus
might, in truth, have said pretty much the same of his own people. If
in the beginning they mixed their wine with water, this is not to be
taken as the fact in an after period. Who does not recollect the son of
Cicero, the most celebrated drinker of his time, with whose exploits in
tippling scarcely the Germans could match themselves, stout drinkers as
they were? It is well known that the ancient Germans transacted their
most important affairs when they were elate with Bacchus, and
reconsidered them, the next day, with a sober understanding. This
custom they retained, in many places, during the Middle Ages, and this
was the case in the free city of Bremen. Wine and song have maintained
their standing in every true Brotherhood, and this still continues to
be the practice in Germany. This ancient German custom then, least of
all could be expected to be abandoned in Burschendom, and their songs
are, for the most part, sung over the cup.
We may here find a place for some words of Schluck's persiflage on the
_Burschen-Comment_.
"The songs which are sung by the Commerses are called Burschen songs,
and besides the students, nobody may sing them--since they,
"1. Are only composed in honour of the studentship; and,
"2. Are chiefly composed in Latin, as the language belonging to the
learned."
(This is no longer the case. Latin songs become daily rarer yet some
still remain in use, as--_Mihi est propositum_.)
"Should a Knote dare to sing a student song, he is to be well
cudgelled; not so much on account of the excellence of the song, as on
account of the audacity of the Philistine, presuming to desecrate songs
sacred to the students especially as it is impossible that he can have
so much feeling as to appreciate the elegance and beauty of such
songs."
As the occasions on which men sing are very different, it is natural
that the contents of the songs should be so too. Some contain--
_Firstly_.--An incitement to joy. Amongst these I reckon "Up Brothers,
let us joyful be;" or, an Exhortation to Friendship, as that _bonne
amitie_ song, with which a Commers is always opened, and whose object
is solely to create a friendly feeling in the Old Burschen towards the
Foxes.
_Secondly_.--Others are Freedom and Fatherland songs; amongst which,
high above all, stands "The Landsfather."
_Thirdly_.--Songs which express the spirit and bravery of the students;
as--"The Bursch of genuine Shot and Corn;" or "The Sword on my left
side:" "Know ye the happy way to conquer;" "Brave 'tis 'neath the free
blue Heaven," etc. One of these we may here give at length, as a
PICTURE OF THE OLD-FASHIONED BURSCH.
The Bursch of real shot and corn,
His courage still doth bloom;
On heavy boot the spur is worn,
From hat doth sway the plume.
The huge hat makes a gallant show,
With the sword cut through;[37]
It guards him more from thrust and blow,
Than were it sound and new.
The Bursch his ornament doth bear,
Which him such pleasure brings,
The sword which with a fearful air
Upon his left side swings.
As Bursch, when through the town he stirs,
Majestic in all eyes,
The sparks they lighten round his spurs,
And fire crossways flies.
What careth he, though hole there be,
Upon his elbow now;
The jolly Bursch remaineth he,
Before whom all must bow.
But wo to thee! if on his course
In perfumed garb thou rub;
He'll curse thee for Pomatum-horse,
And threaten with his club.
For friends still beats his heart so warm,
He feels their grief and care;
For them he wields his mighty arm,
Nor would his own life spare.
Whoever saw him shrink a-back,
Or do a coward deed?
Shame on him he would never take,
Though kingdoms were the meed.
They law how in the battle-shock
His flashing sword he drew;
They saw how from its sweep, like smoke,
The slaves before him flew.
Courage in danger and distress
Is aye the conquering plan:
Aye though all hell upon him press,
He'll show himself a man!
Hears he of Hermann's spirit proud,
Of his high deeds the fame,
His German blood warns him aloud--
"Be worthy of the name!"
He drinks the German vine-juice bright,
And German feels and great;
In his right arm dwells giant might,
And freedom's his estate.
Then live hoch! every German man
Who thinks and speaks as he;
But they who falsehood basely plan,
Extinguished may they be!
Weighs care upon his heart's repose,
He takes his pipe so dear,
And as the Knaster fumes and glows,
All troubles disappear.
He is a Bursch,---lives _sans facon_
Him all their friend may deem;
His heart is good, although we own
At times it different seem.
Fair maids he wishes free from wrongs,
With joy to their life's goal;
And lauds them still in all his songs,
With all his heart and soul.
See! though all glasses empty stand,
Full jugs to us appeal;
So send the wine from hand to hand,
And drink the Bursch's weal.
Already from the jug's full flood
To glass the wine doth flow,
And to our worthy Brotherhood,
We'll sound this hearty hoch!
Baden I call my Fatherland,
As life I prize its weal;
Therefore I wear the Baden Band,
And guard with hand and steel.
_Fourthly_.--Others are drinking songs; as "Crambambuli, that is the
title;" or "When carousing I shall die;" "The year is good, the brown
beer thrives;" "Bring me blood of noble vines;" "The dearest sweetheart
that I have;" "I have throughout the forenoon long;" "I and my dear
bottle;" "Now sing in dulci jubilo;" or that maiden song, in which the
maiden is drunk for, while he who empties most measures is declared the
conqueror, and entitled to marry the maiden; while the rest cry and
chorus.
He's done it stout, he's done it stout,
So will he not be laughed right out.
And the maiden, who all the while is perfectly unconscious of these
proceedings, and has given no consent to them, is declared to be won,
and is pronounced to be the beloved of the victor. Ah, poor maiden! so
wouldst thou, not out of love, but truly contrary to thy will, be
thrown into the arms of a drunkard!
This maiden song is now, to the honour of the studentship, quite out of
use; yet Zackariae describes such a scene as common in the days of his
Renommist.
And therefore filled he with beer that mighty glass,
And drank it off the first unto that fair endearing---
A maiden yet whose name had scarcely met his hearing
He held in hand, as sceptre, the solid room-door key,
Thus acted he as chief, and to his realm gave he
A sacred law, unpausing the measured draught to end;
And oft his judge's arm let the heavy key descend.
Wo unto him who then this law as rebel brake,
When he that thunder-word _pro p[oe]na_, to him spake.\
Then must another measure his luckless throat o'erflow,
Or stood he in great danger the damsel to forego.
* * * * *
"But now, ye Brothers--hoch! and let Selinda live.
Vivat Selinda, hoch! with roughest throats now roar,
Vivat Selinda, hoch! cry mightily once more!
Shout for the third time--hoch!"--the very room did quiver,
And on the long wet table the glasses ring and shiver.
As in old Homer's story, upon the Trojan plain,
Mars, like ten thousand men, sent forth a cry of pain,
Till the whole army trembled, with rock, and hill, and valley,
So trembled now this chamber with this Studenten sally.
Then Torf her lovely countenance with such a beauty draws,
That each one swearing gave a thundering applause.
The Renommist then cried--who inly now grew warmer--
Here I myself do choose her--I choose her for my Charmer.
"The fiend thou dost!" said Torf, right loath to give her o'er,
But Raufbold straight defied him to twenty choppins more.
Torf yielded up the contest--strength did his hope betray,
And Leipsic's crown was thus far from the faint-heart drunk away.
_The Renommist_.
Certain songs belong to the conclusion of a Commers, or drinking
meeting. With the last song, the glasses are turned upside down
according to the old song, and the brother revellers, wish each other a
good night.
I take my dear glass in my hand
And bear it to the Underland.
I fetch again my glass so dear,
And hold to th' right and to th' left ear.
My glass unto my mouth set I,
And drain it to the bottom dry.
The right thing to the glass do we,
What was above must under be.
The glass must walk the land O!
From one to th' other hand O!
He who in drinking or singing shoots a buck--that is, has broken the
rule--must _pro p[oe]na_, or in other words as a penalty, empty an
extra choppin or two. He who often associates himself with a Commers,
is called a Commers-brother.
* * *
Give us a prime good glass, so will our praise be ample,
Only be 't not too scant a sample;
For when on wine I must decide
With mouth right full I'd have it tried.
_Goethe's Faust_.
So thought the German students in earlier times, and so think they
still. Drinking had reached a dreadful height in the Middle Ages, and
many laws were passed, but in vain, to put a check on the madness. It
was the same amongst the Burschen, who carried it to a most incredible
extent. At the time that those students who were the best drinkers,
were most regarded amongst their fellows in the universities, a
Westphalian studying in Halle, made a visit to a countryman who was
studying at Jena. The Jena student, to show his friend that he
understood life, immediately on the first evening, called all his
companions together, and they all drank to the welcome visiter so
strongly in beer and wine, that on the following morning he had hardly
slept off the effects of it before twelve o'clock. Scarcely had he
dressed and despatched his dinner, when he was anew conducted to the
drinking-place. Thus the revel continued for eight days in succession,
when he travelled back to Halle. After his return he related many
strange things of the mode of life of his countrymen in Jena, and
always added--"Children,--it is very curious in Jena,--there is no
forenoon there."
Such madness is now gone by; yet, ever and anon, there are students who
might boldly challenge the gentlemen of the old school to a trial at
toping, if they would rise out of their graves to it. Beer is the
general beverage of the students, and as the best sorts of the same, as
the Bavarian, and the formerly celebrated Heidelberg beer, are not
strong, the health of the consumer, even in a long-continued course, is
not injured by it, as it is in other universities, where, through the
want of beer, wine and spirits are drunk. Beer, at the same time, is
the cheapest liquor, and on that account is liked by the student not
less than by the common man, amongst whom it is equally the custom to
drink much. In one year, when the choppin (pint) of beer cost one-third
of a penny, or, about half the usual price, a coachman achieved a most
extraordinary feat in drinking. Some students promised to pay for a
hundred choppins if he would drink it with only short intervals. He
accepted the offer, and had all the hundred measures set in a row on a
bench. He drank the first, walked slowly to the end of the hall and
back, drank off the second, and so on till finding not another drop, he
said quietly to the landlord--"So, now let me have just another choppin
for my money."
The students drink generally beer at their Kneips, and if this is done
in the open air, a large company is accustomed to pile up the emptied
jugs into a pyramid.
Not by trophies, marbled over,
Will posterity discover
What we brothers here have done;
But of triumph our memorial,
These drained pitchers in their glory all,
Pile, a pyramid of fun!
_Hauff_.
At Commers, and on other festive occasions, are also frequently drunk
wine, or ardent glee-wine and punch. It is a very ancient custom,
amongst drinkers, that the glasses must be emptied after certain and
manifold practices and prescriptions. Horace describes a similar wont
in his time, where the drinkers are accustomed to elect a king, who
presided on the occasion. Such rules are now become quite voluminous
amongst the students, and are collected into their so-called
Beer-Comment. This, therefore, contains the guiding laws of the
Beer-Court. We will give this Beer-Comment at the end of the volume, as
an example of the elaborate style into which this old and deep-rooted
custom of German student-life has come to be carried out. Strange as it
may appear to other nations, it is a custom in Germany, old as the
universities themselves; and as our object is to probe to the very
bottom of student-life, and give a full and faithful portraiture of it,
those of our sober readers who may not think these very wise or
commendable laws, may, having read the rest of the book, there close
it, without perusing this Beer-Code. We also precede the account of the
Commerses with a collection of all the phrases which the Germans employ
to clothe in a tolerable garb of decorum that dreamy condition into
which Bacchus frequently throws his votaries. These modes of expression
were collected by Lichtenberg, and a few only have been added to them.
HIGH GERMAN
He scents wine
He has got a shot
He is shot through
He has got a blow
He has got a touch
He has got a Jesuit
He has got too much
He is tipsy
He is foggy
He has got a saintish look
He has a dizziness
He is inspired
He is full
He takes a Bauer for an earth-bear
His head is heavy
He has dim eyes
He is not right in the upper story
He has glass eyes
He rocks
He has something in the roof
He is full and furious
He has his load
He has been in a good spot
He has something in his head
He has enough
He has got a bag-wig
He has drunk a glass too much
He has pept into the glass too deep
He is illuminated
He staggers
His tongue is too heavy
He can't lift his tongue any more
He floats
He makes crosses
He is sated
He saw wooden cans in heaven
He is up to his throat full
He has made himself a beard
He goes in a flourish
He is well blessed
He is loaded awry
He has made himself black
His house is haunted
He tacks about
He can't keep his legs
He is funny
He is well drunk
He has been present
He is ready
He is off
He is away
He is happy
He takes the sky a bass viol
He sees the letters double
He is as sick as heaven-hail
He is dull and full
He has followed his own fancy
He is _a tout_
He has daubed himself
He has a rattle
He has a ditto
He has round feet
He has leaned too far over
He is star-blind thick
He yearns after the brandy bottle
He has lamed his tongue
He is as full as a bagpipe
He is lost
He is covered
He sees two suns
He is thick as poodle-hail
He goes as if all houses were his
He is totally away
He sails with full sails
He leans against a shutter
He is poodle thick
He has his tally
He has his part
He can't spit over his beard
He makes a _pas frise_
He is thick
He has had too much of a good thing
He has been in his cups
He has something in the top
He is cat thick
He has washed himself
He has drammed himself
He has done it pretty well
He has taken good care of himself
He has a giddiness
He can scarcely stammer
He has Moses' tongue
He is led about
He is under the table
He takes a church-spire for a toothpick
He has armed himself with a sword
He has sprinkled his nose
He has endowed himself
They have buried him
He is hail-blind full
He stares like a stuck calf
He looks like a duck in thunder
He is be-kneipt
He is split
He doesn't come home alone
He brings Geiselbrecht with him
He is a drunken swine
He falls off
He is in dulci jubilo
He has chopped beyond the line
He is tufted
He cannot walk in the line
In the Low German are some fifty other phrases on the same subject.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE COMMERS.
And there is grandfather, who, letters still extant,
Though now somewhat ancient, give sure text on't.
In many a Commers and Burschen-feast,
As sword-bearing Praeses his fame increased.
_Preface to the Renommist_.
Our discourse shall now be of a beautiful feast of the Students--the
Commers. We describe the Commers of the present day; since in earlier
times this festival bore another shape, and was disfigured by rude
customs, so that we may justly say of the Commers, that it has not,
like most other feasts, degenerated in the course of years, but has
already improved itself. We will hereafter speak of these customs of an
earlier time, and of some which in many places still remain, but which
do not necessarily belong to the Commers. We understand by a Commers,
as it now exists, a festive assembly, which consecrates itself by a
higher tone and signification by the singing of "The Landsfather."
The Commers is divided into the general and the special. In the former,
the assembled Chores, and all other students who wish it, take part. In
describing the constitution of a Chore, we have already spoken of
these. In the special Commers, only a particular Chore, with all those
that are attached to it, and such other members of other friendly
Chores as are invited, take part. The Commerses are distinguished into
Entrance and Farewell Commerses, with which the Semesters open and
close. The Fox-ride generally takes place at the Entrance-Commers. Each
particular Chore, moreover, has its Foundation-Commers, on which it
celebrates the anniversary of its establishment. Many Chores also are
accustomed to hold a Commers in honour of the birthday of their Land
Prince.
First, of the General Commers. To this, assemble themselves all who
take part in it, in a spacious room, either in the city or in its
immediate neighbourhood.
Those students who are not themselves in any Chore, attach themselves
to one or other of them, and each Chore has its particular table; and
two presidents sit at the head of each table. The chief president is
the Senior of that Chore which has the secretaryship.
When the Commers shall begin, the presidents cry "ad loca!" which
command every one must be careful to obey, if he would avoid the
consequence of a beer penalty. In these Commerses, the rule is to drink
beer, and this is called a Commers in beer. The chief president has now
to give out the songs which shall be sung, and he also dictates the
particular verses. Certain songs are on these occasions brought forward
from time immemorial, as "Heidelberg, live thou! hurrah hoch!" or the
following, at a Farewell Commers.
THE TRAVEL SONG.
Away! we have drunk it, the sparkling wine,
Adieu, now, ye loved ones, to wander is mine.
Adieu, now ye mountains, thou fatherly home,
For mightily drives me the passion to roam.
For mightily drives me the passion to roam.
The sun in the heaven won't pause without change,
But speeds on through lands and o'er oceans to range;
The wave will not cling to the same lonesome strand;
The storms, they go roaring with might through the land.
--(The land).
With clouds, fast careering, the bird floats along,
And sings in the far-land its home-loving song;
Through forest and field so the Bursche is hurl'd,
To be, like his mother, the wandering world.
--(The world).
There greet him the birds which beyond seas he knew;
From fields of his home-scenes 'tis here that they flew.
The sweet flowers around him familiarly grow,
In airs from his country, far wafted, they blow.
--(They blow).
The birds! O well know they his father's own towers;
For garlands of love once he planted those flowers.
And love, it still follows, still gives him the hand,
And makes him a home in that furthermost land.
--(That land).
Before each president lies a drawn sword, with which, as signal of
command, he strikes upon the table. It is forbidden to every one, on
pain of a beer-penalty, to interrupt the song in any manner whatever.
So now the singing and drinking go forward in regular course. At a
later hour a supper is eaten, and the Commers is closed by the singing
of "The Landsfather," after which there is no more singing, but it
immediately becomes free to every one to stay and kneip on as long as
he likes.
When "The Landsfather" is to begin, the presidents command "ad loca!"
Every one must quietly take his seat, and it is allowed to no one, as
otherwise commonly happens at kneipings, to take off his coat, and sit
in his shirt-sleeves. All must be conducted solemnly and seriously. All
voices join in--
THE CONSECRATION SONG, OR LANDSFATHER.
Silence all ye, each one call ye
Unto solemn tones his ear!
Hark, the song of songs I raise now,
German brothers, join in praise now,
Sound it, Sound it back a chorus clear!
Of your Fatherland the song;
Fatherland! thou land so famous,
Sacred to thy glory claim us;--
Germans proudly, swell ye loudly,
We, our swords, to thee belong!
Life and living to thee giving,
We are all prepared to bleed:
Ready at each hour for dying,
Death, with all his wounds defying,
If our Fatherland it need.
He who feels not; he who zeals not,
In true worth to be arrayed,--
He shall not our bond dishonour;
This our Bride,[38] swear not upon her;
Nor the German sword degrade.
Song the proudest, swell it loudest;
Brave and German be we too;
See the consecrated band here,
As brave Burschen take your stand here,
And the free-cap strike ye through.
See it gleaming, softly beaming,
In my left this stain-free glave;
Thus I strike the cap through, swearing,
Honour bright for ever wearing,
Still to be a Bursche brave!
During the singing of the preceding stanzas, the two presidents hold
their swords across each other, each holding his sword in his left
hand, and placing the fingers of the right on it, to ratify the oath;
and this being done, they pierce their caps through, and leave them
hanging on the swords. While they do this, all sing:
Thus thou strik'st the cap through, swearing,
Honour bright for ever wearing,--
Still to be a Bursche brave!
Each president then sings thus to his next neighbour while he reaches
him the cup:--
Drinker! swimming, bright o'erbrimming,
Take this Fatherlandish cup!
The presidents give their swords each to their next neighbours. These,
who sit opposite to each other, have risen from their seats, and now
hold the swords which they have received from the presidents, crossed,
over the table. The presidents continue their song:
Thy left hand the keen sword bearing,
Boring through the cap, and swearing--
To thy country drink it up!
[Here they empty the cups.
The two who have drunk now sing,--
See it gleaming, softly beaming,
In my left this stain-free glave!
All repeat--"See it gleaming, softly beaming," etc.
Each of the two individuals sings on:--
Thus I strike the cap through, swearing,
Honour bright for ever wearing,
Still to be a Bursche brave!
While all repeat this in chorus, the caps of the two are spitted on the
swords to the former two. With the last words the presidents take back
the swords, and as they hand the caps to the next two, sing, "Drinker!
swimming, bright o'erbrimming," etc. So go the presidents, repeating
the same ceremony with each opposite two, till they reach the bottom of
the table. Here they exchange with each other the swords, on which the
assembled caps are hanging, but without changing their respective sides
of the table. As they do this each president sings:
Come thou, drawn sword, consecrated,
Of freemen the weapon free!
With transpierced cape thus freighted,
Yield it solemnly to me.
Let us gaily it discumber,
Cover each one now his head;
And unspotted in his bed,
Till next feast-day let it slumber.
All sing-- Up! ye feast companions, guard them,
All our hallowed rites and fair;
All your heart and soul award them,
As stout men should ever dare!
To the feast, ye brothers valiant,--
Worthy of your fathers, stand!
And may he ne'er wield the brand,
But who noble is and gallant!
Each president now reaches across the table to the brother sitting
opposite to him, his cap, which he has taken off the sword, and
stretches the sword over his covered head; both the presidents
singing:--
So take it back;--
Thy head I now will cover,
And stretch the sword it over,
And live to this our Brother, hoch!
A dog's-foot who insult him shall!
Wherever we shall meet him,
We'll aye, as Brother greet him,
And live to this our Brother, hoch!
While all are singing, the president reaches to him whose head he has
covered, his right hand. The presidents thus gradually, and in
succession, cover all heads, till they have again arrived at that place
at the table where they have presided. Returned thither, they cover
each other under the same ceremonies. In conclusion, all sing:--
Rest thee from the Burschen feast-rites,
Now, thou dedicated brand,
And be each one's high endeavour--
Freedom for his Fatherland!
Hail to him who still is haunted
With his father's &me in field;
And the sword may no one wield,
But the noble and undaunted!
This is the simple description of a Commers, as it is now celebrated;
and when we ask what it is which distinguishes the Commers from other
festive meetings, the reply must be, that it consists in the singing of
"The Landsfather," as its solemn and ceremonial conclusion. To this
celebration we certainly are not at all disposed to refuse our
approbation. It contributes strongly to maintain a unity amongst the
students, divided and subdivided as they are into different Chores, and
separated again from the private people--as the Camels, as a more
polite name, are called. They contribute to bring back to the
consciousness of every one, that Germany, though separated into so many
states and territories, is yet One Germany! The hole which is pierced
in the cap is at once a symbol of death of the Fatherland, and a
memorial of Commers pleasures enjoyed in companionship with those of
many names and places.
In order to bring under notice certain customs of the Commerses, which,
however, are not general, and which in recent years at least have not
been practised in Heidelberg, we may here give the regulations of the
Beer-Comment thereupon, and which indeed take up the Comment, where it
will be found left off at the end of this volume, and conclude it.
TITULUS X.
OF THE BEER-COMMERS.
Section 142.--Beer-Burschen alone can preside, and out-to-be-fought
Branders, who then, as presidents, have unlimited power. (By
out-to-be-fought Branders, are to be understood those who, in this same
Commers, shall be advanced to Young Burschen.)
Section 143.--The Beer-commers proceed in the following manner. After
the presidents have cried, "ad loca!" and every one has seated himself,
they command silence, and every one must pay the strictest attention to
this command, upon which the song begins.
Section. 144.--When the song is ended, one of the presidents cries
"_Smollis_, ye brother presidents," which is answered by the other
presidents, with "_Fiducit_ and _Smollis_, gentlemen;" upon, which all
the commanders answer "_Fiducit_."
_Smollis_ is, in this place, a kind of salutation; whence comes the
word _Smolliren_, by which it is understood that the parties drink to a
brotherhood; so that the two new friends or brothers, from this time
forward, instead of the polite term "You," use to each other the
familiar word "Thou." When two individuals _smolliren_ with each other,
it is thus performed. The two kling, or touch their glasses together,
drink them quite off, and then reach to each other the right hand,
saying to each other, "Be thou my friend."
When this is done with a number in a Kneipe, they are accustomed,
holding the glass in one hand, to link that arm with the other arm of
the new Thou-brother, and thus turning and crossing to touch each
other's glasses and drink them off, as already it is described in the
Renommist.
The hands to the Smollis, entwined thus crossing--
"_Fiducit_, Sir Brother," together _antossing_.[39]
It is the custom in some universities, that all students address each
other with "thou." This is called the "Thou-comment," in
contradistinction to others; as Heidelberg, where the "You-comment" is
in use. But students who in any manner are often associated in parties
of enjoyment, will soon become "Thou-brothers," and it arises of itself
amongst those who are of the same Chore. Therein it is the custom that
the younger student always offers the Smollis to the elder; if the
contrary happens, it must be regarded as a peculiar favour. That
in the very different paths of life which succeed the university-years,
it must give occasion to some singular scenes, when the early
university-companions, who so quickly knit this kind of bond of amity,
in after-life find themselves together again, and are obliged to use
towards each other their familiar "Thou," we may well imagine.
Section 145.--After this, the song is sung "The Foxes under the bann
have gone." Upon which the Crass-Foxes, with bare heads, standing up,
must each drink off half a choppin; the Brand-Foxes, with bare heads,
sitting, must drink each a choppin.
Section 146.--When the song is sung, one president asks the rest, "Has
any of the brother presidents any thing to dictate, or to recommend?"
Whereupon, each of the presidents dictates or commands to them who have
disturbed in any manner the song or the Commers. But they may not
command to any one more than two choppins at one time.
Section 147.--If any one does not drink the quantity dictated to him
within five minutes, the president has the right, without further
proceeding, to write him down on the Beer-tablet as a Beer-schisser.
The quantity which he has yet to drink is to be added to the four
choppins. Yet is the Beer-schisser regarded during the Commers as
Beer-honourable.
Section 148.--If the presidents declare that they have nothing further
to recommend or to dictate, there follows a short pause, during which
each Beer-Bursch can fore-drink to the presidents, what these have
immediately to after-drink. But during this pause the quantity
fore-drunken to any one of the presidents must not exceed four
choppins.
Section 149.--If all is now drunk, the presidents may dictate nothing
further, but they close the presidentship with the exclamation--"_Ex
est! Colloquium!_"
Section 150.--There may be no fore-drinking during the presidentship,
except to the presidents during the pause after their dictation and the
commendation.
As already stated, these customs, which must always precede the singing
of "The Landsfather," are not every where observed in Commers, and do
not necessarily belong to them. In earlier times, the word Commers had
a wider comprehension. It meant, in general, a convival meeting, in
which a president had the direction and control of the singing and
drinking. The meetings were often of a very rude character, and if we
even do not hold up the Commerses of the present day as specimens of
temperance, yet they acquire a nobler sentiment from the solemnity of
"The Landsfather." To those earlier Commerses, rather than to the
present, apply those satirical remarks in the Dissertation of the Old
Schluck. He makes these observations:--
"A Commers is a drinking-meeting, in which a number of students elect
one from amongst themselves, under whose presidency to sing and drink.
The drinking goes on partly at their own cost, and partly at the cost
of others. He who invites others, as guests, and pays the shot
(schmaust),[40] is styled host, or hospes, from hoc and spes; as if
some one should say, I have placed my hope on him. He who directs the
drinking-meeting, is president.
"A Commers is more or less strict. It is a strict Commers when the
members of the company mutually pledge themselves faithfully to perform
whatever the president commands, be it even with danger of life. The
signs of the unlimited power of the president, are--
"(1) A sceptre, generally a house-door key,[41] with which he either
dispenses with drinking, or exhorts the delinquent to drink or sing, or
finally points out the defaulters.
"(2) A naked sword, which is laid on the table, and with which the
disobedient are compelled to obedience. Hereupon it is clear:
"(_a_) That no one, without the permission of the president, may stand
up. If any one withdraws himself, without having asked permission
aloud, he must, for his culpable stiffneckedness, drink from two to
four glasses.
"(_b_) That no one may refuse to drink the glasses which are dictated to
him, since, as shown above, he is pledged to obedience, even at the
risk of his life. _Quere_--Can one who has drunken so much that he
falls dead in the Commers be obliged to drink more? _Answer_--No! since
death discharges all obligations."
These Commerses, of an earlier and ruder time, are discarded. In the
Renommist such a one is described, and it concludes with these lines:
Worn fairly out with song, with drinking and with noise,
Go reeling now along, those three wild roaring boys.
Mid shattered pipes and glass, their staggering way they strive,
Till in the distant market, by lamplight they arrive.
As other men awake, to bed they take their flight,
And bellow to each other--"Sir Brother, a good-night!"
CHAPTER XVII.
THE SPECIAL COMMERS.
Bumpers in oar left-hands draining,
We will drink thy long maintaining,
Ancient, jovial Burschendom!
Swords in our right hands extending,
We will fight for thy defending,
Free and gallant Burschendom!
_Hauff_.
These lines of Hauff's, who himself enjoyed in Tuebingen the pleasures
of the Burschendom with a fresh spirit, express the sentiments which
altogether in the life of the student, but especially in its most
beautiful feast, the Commers, are felt and abound. We have described
the General Commers; and we have now to make our readers acquainted
with the so-called Special Commers, that which each individual corps
celebrates at the commencement and conclusion of each Semester. These
Commerses are seldom held in the city. We see a jocund train issuing
forth from one of the city gates. A troop goes before on horseback,
who, in earlier times, were still more distinguished by their peculiar
style, but who still may sometimes be seen in full costume, that is, in
buckskins and huge jack-boots, Polonaise frocks; on their heads, their
Cerevis caps; over their breasts, wearing the broad Chore-band, while
they carry in their right hands their naked swords. The rest follow
them in carriages drawn by two or four horses; or the Senior precedes
in a four or six-horse equipage, and the rest follow in two-horse ones.
In their customary negligent student-dress, they lounge at their ease
in their carriages, smoking their long pipes. The Foxes show themselves
especially consequential, since it is the first time that they have
been privileged to present themselves to the eyes of the astonished
world in such a public procession. The Pawk-doctor is always invited to
this festivity, and frequently honours the Chore with his presence; but
the Red Fisherman is an invariable attendant, arrayed in the oddest
style, as the black frock-coat, and his other habiliments, by no means
correspond with the open breast and outlying shirt. He is generally
posted as servant behind the last carriage.
If now the reader were, on such a day, already at Neckarsteinach, so
might he, from the little pavilion in the garden of the Gasthouse[42]
of the Harp, right commodiously observe the approach of such a train,
as it emerges from one of the windings of the road which follows the
serpentine course of the Neckar, and permits him even from afar to see
the flashing of the drawn swords, and the shimmering of the coloured
caps and Chore-bands. Or he sees the new guests approaching in a barge
which they have mounted at Neckargemuend, where they have left their
horses and carriages. The barge is hung with garlands and festoons,
pennons stream from the masts; the sons of the Muses, in their
many-coloured costume, are picturesquely grouped, and some of them are
singing in the overflowing of their spirits to the sound of the jocund
music.
The inhabitants see gladly these guests arrive in the place; as the
Burschen, on one such day, make a greater expenditure, or in common
parlance, moult more feathers than as many honourable inhabitants of
the little town do in a whole year. On this account, their approach is
first announced to the spectator in the garden of the Harp, by the
firing of small cannon, which are planted for the purpose of doing all
possible honour to these high guests, on the Dielsberg, a town
opposite, situated on a lofty conical hill, where the earliest view of
the approaching train is obtained, and by others fired from one of the
old castles of Neckarsteinach. The garden of the inn now speedily
swarms with the jovial Burschen, who here play off all sorts of pranks
and whims.
But within, the whole house is in the most universal bustle.
House-servants and waiters run to and fro; in the kitchen all the hands
of the cooks are in active agitation, in order to fulfil the command of
the landlady. There will sit a sleepy maid nodding in a chair, since
for two days, that is, since the Commers was announced to them, there
has been no sleep in the eyes of any of the ministering spirits; but
she is quickly roused up with a vengeance in order to assist in the
general activity. All, however, is still and solitary in the yard; for
the poor feather-cattle have been compelled to yield up their young
lives in order to parade on the table of these honoured and swarming
guests. Above, in the great hall, is a long table covered. Every window
is adorned with green and flowery garlands and festoons, and at that
end of the hall where the seat of honour is placed, there is emblazoned
on the wall the great and painted coat-of-arms of the Verbindung,
embellished with flowers and ribands. The musicians now take their
places in the orchestra above; the sons of the Muses appear in the
hall, and the feast is opened. After the cloth is drawn the proceedings
at table are such as we have described in the General Commers, except
that, at this Commers, no beer is drunk, but wine only; and you may
soon hear the report of outflying Champagne corks, as the toasts of the
Chore are given, or those upon and connected with the Land Prince, when
the Commers is celebrated on his birthday.
In the so-called Foundation Commers, it is customary for the Senior, to
deliver a short speech, in which he takes a review of the fortunes of
the Verbindung, or Chore, from its establishment, and particularly
mentions the names of those who have belonged to it, and are now gone
forth from it into busy life.
As they do not return from such a Commers, at the earliest, till the
noon or the evening of the next day, all kind of follies and madcap
playfulness are resorted to, to make the time pass merrily. Amongst
these may be classed the "Lord of Fools." A great throne is built up of
tables and chairs, upon which one of the students is placed. He is
equipped as a king, with his crown, sceptre, and other insignia. The
others are his devoted subjects, who bring him a great humper, or large
glass, such as every Chore possesses. The Prince of Fools now sings:--
THE PRINCE OF FOOLS.
Prince.--I am the Prince of fooling,
Here, o'er the topers ruling;
And ye the gods do send on,
My Princeship to attend on.
All-- To wait on your divineness,
With wine of every fineness,
That's why we here are standing,
All at your dread commanding.
Prince.--Ye sportsmen with your thunder
Shoot me the foxes under,
And ye there all before us,
Blow in your horns a chorus.
All.-- 'Ith horn, 'ith horn, 'ith hunter's horn,
'Ith horn, 'ith horn, 'ith hunter's horn,
Drink off, drink off, thou Prince of Fools.
Drink off, drink off, thou Prince of Fools.
As they sing this, he empties his humper.
The Prince.--What helps me now my lofty throne,
My sceptre, wad my Burschen-crown?
What helps me now my high command?
I lay it down in N. N.'s hand!
He now descends from the throne, and the next takes his place, till it
has thus gone the whole round.
The convivial meeting sits till late in the night; and the next day
they amuse themselves with all kinds of frolics and merriments, in
which the Red Fisherman often becomes the butt of no gentle jokes. They
sometimes make processions through the village at the head of which one
of them rides on the back of the Red Fisherman, or on an ass. They
climb the neighbouring ruined castles, which are perched on the
mountains, and let their songs thence resound over the country.
These gambols and outbreaks of youthful spirits, full of life,
strength, and enjoyment, and which thus are ready to overleap all
bounds in the excitement of leaving behind for a day or so all study,
and giving themselves up in fine weather, and beautiful scenery, to the
full swing of their fancies and feelings, especially such a troop of
youngsters being together, have always characterized the students. An
old popular ballad describes their pranks in these rural Commerses, as
far back as 1650; probably then a little more freely indulged in than
at present.
WAYS OF THE STUDENTS.
Queer chaps are these students, say folks every where,
Although you should have them but once in the year;
They make in the village such riot and reek,
There's nought else left for us but plague for a week.
Now must we be caring for St. Mary's day,
And every one is wishing that Galli come may;
Then come they with swords and fowling-pieces too,
And make in the village a horrid to-do.
There's nothing then in safety; no pigeon, no hen,
As though they were made but for plunder of men;
No goose dare even venture out into the meadow,
These gents with their swords would soon whip off its head oh.
Are gardens with boards and bars all fenced too?
They burst them asunder that the sun doth shine through;
In clambering for apples the trees too they break,
'Tis well if each home but a pocketful take.
With fire and with powder we're in constant fears,
That e'en our small house be burnt over our ears;
Their crackers they let on our roofs hop and bound,
And a devil cares not though they burn to the ground.
Has one a good dog by his house-door to stay,
And that from his chain could not break away,
Straight let they him loose, when, troth 'twere no need,
Potz hagel! they've shot, and the poodle is dead!
Students 'ith Wirthshouse, are jolly and able.
For all that they need is a great mighty table;
They drink and they shout, as the house theirs had been:
They drink and they cry till they're sky-blue and green.
Now they talk Lapodeinish![43] I know not what 'tis;
But one knows very well, it is we that they quiz--
Now they dance in the market, they leap and they play,
And take from the hinds their own dance-place away.
Then turn the men-servants, and cudgel them out,
Till like mice they are running the streets all about;
They gather to battle in furious throngs,
And smite, lunge, and cry with right deafening lungs.
Then they're off through the fields with their play to undo them,
'Tis just as if thunder should tear its way through them,
They tread down the corn-field, they don't understand,
What 'tis to eat black bread raised by their own hand.
Is a horse in the meadow, his strength to recruit?
The students soon seize on the poor weary brute,
They're up, and their heels in his sides go ding-dong,
Ah! might he, at least, but go slowly along!
Two centuries have produced a proportionate improvement in the
students; though as full of fun as ever, the country people have
nothing like the wanton mischief here recorded to fear from them.
The Commers then, being brought to a close, they generally return by
boat to the city of the Muses. If this is in the evening, the barge is
illuminated, and when they approach the city, fireworks are played off.
As they land they proceed to their Kneip, and there wind up the feast.
On the arrangements of a Kneip, nothing further is necessary to be
said, as we, in becoming acquainted with the Beer-tablet, beheld the
only particular in which it differs from other drinking-places; but, in
speaking of the different drinks that are consumed in a Kneiping, we
must not forget the Crambambuli. In order to prepare this liquor, an
earthenware dish is used, into which a sufficient quantity of sugar is
poured, and it is then filled up with rum. It is then set fire to; and
the company, who sit round the flaming dish, sing--
THE CRAMBAMBULI SONG.
Crambambuli, this is the title
Of that good drink we love the best,
It is the means of proof most vital,
When evil fortunes us molest.
In evening late, in morning free,
I drink my glass Crambambuli.
Have I into the inn ascended,
Most like some noble cavalier?
I leave the bread and roast untended,
And bid them bring the corkscrew here.
Then blows the coachman--trantanti--
Unto a glass Crambambuli.
Are head and stomach both distracted;
For eating have I little zest;
A plaguy cold have I contracted;
Have I catarrh within my chest?
What need the doctor trouble me,
I drink my glass Crambambuli!
Were I a prince of power unbounded,
Like Kaiser Maximilian,
For me were there an order founded,
'Tis this device I'd hang thereon:--
Toujours fidele, et sans souci,
C'est l'ordre du Crambambuli!
Comes there no bill my needs to better?
Have I at play my money lost?
My maiden, writes she not a letter!
Come grievous tidings by the post?
Then drink I, from anxiety,
A brimming glass Crambambulli.
Ah! if the dear old folks but knew it,
How we young Gents, their sons, were stead,
How we must pinch and sorely rue it,
They'd weep till their old eyes were red.
Whilst make themselves the Filii
So bene by Crambambuli.
And has the Bursch his cash expended?
To sponge the Philistine's his plan.
And thinks it folly all extended,
From Burschen unto Beggarman.
Since this is the philosophy
In spirit of Crambambulli.
Shall I for fame and freedom stand then;
For Burschen weal the sword lift free?
Quick blinks the steel in my right hand then,
A friend will stand and second me.
To him I say, Mon cher ami,
Before a glass Crambambuli.
It grieves me sore, ye foolish-hearted,
That ye love not, and drink not wine;
To asses are ye now converted,
And might be angels all divine.
Drink water like the cattle free,
And think it is Crambambuli.
Crambambuli, it still shall cheer me,
When every other joy is past,
When o'er the glass Friend Death draws near me,
And mars my pleasure at the last.
I'll drink with him in companie
The last glass of Crambambulli.
Then who 'gainst us, Crambambulisten,
His spiteful mouth with envy screws,
We hold him for no kind of Christian,
Since he God's blessings doth abuse.
I'd give him, though for life cried he,
No single drop Crambambuli.
* * *
During the singing the rum has burnt out, and the beverage, of a syrupy
consistence, is ladled into the glasses. At eleven o'clock at night,
which is the hour of the police, the kneips are closed. For some years
it has been the practice in Heidelberg that a bell should be rung at
this hour, which should be the signal for all landlords to close their
houses. At first this order received much opposition from the students,
and they endeavoured to make it ridiculous. As the order was, that at
eleven the bells should be rung, on its first appearance in the
Heidelberg wochenblatt (newspaper), at this hour all the dogs of the
students ran about the city with bells hung to their necks, and their
masters, to fulfil the order to the letter, began, to the terror and
amaze of the inhabitants, to set all the bells of the private houses in
full swing.
CHAPTER XVIII.
NEW YEAR'S EVE.
The year's last hour retreating,
Peals out with solemn sound;
Drink brothers! your last greeting,
And wish him blessings round.
'Tis gone! with gray years blended,
That are for ever ended.
It brought much gladness, many woes,
And leaves us nearer to our close.
_Voss_.
The last evening of the year had arrived. It found the two friends
Hoffmann and Freisleben in the room of the latter, where the friends
were accustomed gladly to assemble. "Shall I light the lamp?" asked
Freisleben. "No! let us sit in the dark. When the eye does not distract
itself with outward objects, it then turns with delight to those images
which memory brings before the mind." So the two sate; and they thought
over all which this year had given and taken away; on all, after which
they had striven, and which they had achieved; and on much, after which
they had desired to strive and accomplish. Each was lost in this
internal review, and the silence was only broken by one of the friends
being so powerfully seized with the recollection of the past, that he
must communicate his feeling to the other. "So then," said Freisleben,
"another year of this beautiful university life is over! and when I
call to mind that this year is a quarter, or a fifth of the whole, the
words of a German writer are irresistibly forced upon me:--'The world
may easily roll on, as it has hitherto done, yet for a million years;
and in that period, five thousand years would be exactly proportionate
to a quarter of a year in the life of a man of fifty,--scarcely a
twelfth of our university life!' What have I done in the last quarter
of a year? Eaten, drunken, electrified, made a calendar, laughed over
the tricks of a kitten, and so are five thousand years of this little
world run out, in which I move!"
Hoffmann.--Away with this calculation! To embellish the life of our
friends, and to enjoy ourselves that life cheerily, that is the
business of existence.
Freisleben.--The time spent at the university is certainly the most
lovely time of our life; but even in that I am amazed to-day how one
can be so merry, when one recollects how much more of unpleasant than
pleasant the year has brought.
Hoffmann.--There I differ. Past pain is pleasant in memory, and past
pleasure is pleasure both future and present Thus, it is only present
and future pain that troubles us; a strong presumption of a sensible
preponderance of enjoyment in the world, which is augmented by this
circumstance, that we are constantly endeavouring to create enjoyment,
whose fruition we can, in many cases, foretell with tolerable
certainty, while, on the contrary, future pain can be much seldomer
prognosticated exactly.
"Yes, to be sure! That is now clear, and I understand it," said Von
Kronen, who had caught the end of this demonstration, "but that on
which I have been reflecting is not yet clear to me. Perhaps you
gentlemen who to-day are in so philosophical a mood can enlighten me
upon it."
Freisleben.--What will come of it then?
Von Kronen.--The phenomenon is one of the most mysterious in nature.
Yet--
Hoffmann.--Only out with it!
Von Kronen.--Tell me then how it comes to pass that cats have holes in
their skins exactly where their eyes are?
Hoffmann.--Thou whimsical herring!
Von Kronen.--Without a joke, this is one of the three riddles that I
will lay before you. If you can solve them, you shall smoke the whole
evening genuine Havanna cigars, that I have received from Hamburgh as a
Christmas present.
Freisleben.--That's worth something!
Hoffmann.--Samiel, help!
Von Kronen.--The first you have; so solve it.
Freisleben.--I will explain it to thee. The nose has here stretched the
skin too much outwards, so that it has cracked it on both sides,
exactly where the eyes are.
Von Kronen.--Well hit! Now for the second. Why do the hares sleep with
open eyes?
Hoffmann.--Because their skin is too short to permit them to shut their
eyes.
Von Kronen.--Bravo! Now the third. Where go the cats when they are
three years old?
Hoffmann.--With thy confounded cats! If the talk was of foxes, or of
some other reasonable cattle?
Von Kronen.--Yes! dear Lord Abbot[44] put it together, or I must
pronounce sentence of asses on you.
Hoffmann.--Stop! I have it. They go into their fourth year!
Von Kronen:--
O damsel! O damsel! O damsel! now marry I thee,
Now marry I thee!
Mr. Traveller enters.--How are you, gentlemen? What an Egyptian
darkness there is in the streets! It was all I could do to find the
house.
Hoffmann.--There is moonshine in the calendar to-day.
Freisleben.--The police regulations in our city are very much like the
clapper-mills in the cherry-trees. They stand still when the rattle is
most needed, and make a terrible larum when, on account of the high
wind, the sparrows don't come.
Von Kronen.--Tell me, Hoffmann, can a man blush red in the dark?
Hoffmann.--Another hard question! That a man may become pale with fear
in the dark, I can believe; but blush red scarcely, since a man may be
pale of himself, but blush only on account of himself and another.
Von Kronen.--Ay, that is true; but the question whether ladies can
become red in the dark is a very difficult question; at least, one that
cannot be settled in the light.
Freisleben.--Ask the magistrate why he does not light the streets
better; that would be much more serviceable than these subtleties.
Von Kronen.--Dear Freisleben, in a country where the eyes of people who
are in love shine in the dark, there is no need of lanterns.
Freisleben.--For thy satirical impertinence thou shalt go into the
streets with me, on a voyage of discovery after some red wine. We will
make booty of some bottles in one of the kneips, and then manufacture
some glee-wine. It will relish with the cigars.
Mr. Traveller.--Capital! Hoffmann! let us hasten out too. We will buy
sugar and spices.
Hoffmann.--Good! So every one makes himself a useful member of society.
In a short time all were again assembled; the table was moved forward
to the stove. A light odour of cigars filled the room, and the wine,
which was played around by the flames in the little coffee-kettle,
began to sing. The cloves were now thrown in, the guests each took
sugar, and Freisleben filled the glasses. Hoffmann had brought a guitar
with him, and accompanied on it the following song:--
Down, down with the sorrows
And troubles of earth!
For what is our life made
But drinking and mirth!
Drink, and be glad, sirs,
Laugh and be gay;
Keep sober to-morrow,
But drink to-day!
Love's a deceiver,--
He'll cheat if he can;
Sweet innocent woman
Is wiser than man!
Trust her not, trust her not,
She will deceive!
Who wins her may gather
The sea in a sieve!
Laying up money
Is labour and care;
All you have toiled for
Is spent by the heir!
Knowledge is wearisome,
Save when the wise
Study whole volumes
In beautiful eyes!
So, down with the sorrows
And troubles of earth!
For what was our life made
But drinking and mirth!
Then drink and be glad, sirs,
Laugh and be gay;
Keep sober to-morrow,
But drink to-day.
"Seven Temptations." By Mrs. Howitt.
All repeat the last verse, and drink.
Freisleben.--Mr. Traveller, that song originates in your Fatherland.
She who wrote it shall "live-hoch!" (They touch glasses.) Now, Von
Kronen, let us have a German one.
Von Kronen sings:--
THE SONG OF WINE.
The song of wine is short and fine,
And joy and drinking doth combine.
Oh! he who cannot sing it yet,
Will learn it now we here are met.
The song of wine, etc.
Ye chat not long your cups among;
Wine fires the spirit into song,
He who can sing, high be his laud,--
He who sings not can hum accord.
Ye chat not long, etc.
Wine clears the blood, gives bolder mood,
And makes the heart all mild and good.
Wine is the death-blow to old Care!
A glorious call to do and dare!
Wine clears, etc.
The wine-elate, without estate,
And without castle 's rich and great.
Yes, gods we are when wine flows clear,
And old Olympus yet stands here.
The wine-elate, etc.
Join hand in hand; in Bacchus' land
All men are free, and equal stand.
O magic drink! thou noble wine!
The golden age for ever's thine.
Join hand in hand, etc.
Freisleben.--Our absent friends shall live! (They touch glasses.)
Mr. Traveller.--Will they return soon?
Von Kronen.--We expect them to-morrow, and their Christmas presents,
which their Frau Mamma and Mamsel have given them. Pittschaft will be
well packaged again, who would not on any account fail to spend his
Christmas-eve in his Father-city.
Mr. Traveller.--The exchange of gifts at Christmas, as it is practised
in Germany, pleases me much; and I am especially delighted with the
Christ-tree.
Von Kronen.--Have you seen the huge tree at the Sattlermuellerei,[45]
where the Hanseatic students hold their Christmas?
Mr. Traveller.--No. Do the students then also present each other with
Christmas gifts?
Von Kronen.--One or other of the Chores frequently amuse themselves
with this sport. I recollect that a society to which I belonged agreed
to exchange Christmas gifts, of which none was to cost more than six
kreutzer--twopence English money. The most droll things imaginable were
brought on the occasion.
Hoffmann.--The glee-wine is famous; it warms one right through and
through. Let us sing a beautiful song. He plays and all sing.
TABLE-SONG.
FROM GOETHE.
Heavenly joy entrances me
Far beyond exploring;
Shall it one day bear me up
To the star-lands soaring?
Yet, in truth, remaining here,
More is to my liking;
By the wine-glass and the song--
On the table striking.
Friends, I pray ye, wonder not
At my thus deciding;
For no blessing yet is like--
On the earth abiding.
Therefore swear I solemnly,
Without all concealing,
That I shall not recklessly
Out of life be stealing.
But as here we all have met
Time to speed with pleasure;
Should, methinks, the Beakers chime
To the Poet's measure.
Good friends must, a hundred miles,
Move from one another;
Therefore you met here, stoest-an
Brother as with Brother!
Live then he who is of peace
And of good a donor!
First and foremost to our king,
His of right's the honour.
'Gainst all enemies, the state,
Still he doth defend it;
To uphold it planneth much;
Much more to extend it.
Now the next, salute I her,--
Her the true alone one!
And let each, as gallant knight,
Think upon his own one.
Should a lovely maiden guess
Her of whom I'm thinking;
Let her archly nod to me--
To her own love drinking.
To our friends!--the two or three--
Be the third cheer voiced,
Who with us in sunny days
Quietly rejoiced.
They who from our night the gloom
Swift and lightly scatter--
Lift to them a hearty--hoch!
Old friends, or the latter.
Broader now rolls on the stream
With augmented billows;
"Live they, hoch!" resound the cheer
Unto all good fellows.
They who with combined strength
Plant themselves together;
In the sunshine of good luck;
In the worst of weather!
As we are collected here,
Thousands are collected:
May their sports and joys run high--
Higher than expected.
From the spring unto the sea
Many mills are turning,
Wider far!--my heart streams out--
For the whole world burning!
CHAPTER XIX.
NEW YEAR'S EVE CONTINUED--SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF
HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY.
The company were raised into the best spirits by the song. The splendid
cigars, such as seldom wander to the banks of the Neckar; the sparkling
wine, which welled out of the little machine as inexhaustibly as cash
out of Fortunatus' purse--all contributed to render the conversation,
which turned on the recent festivity, animated and delicious. The
Christmas festival, one of the very few people's feasts, which divided
Germany yet maintained inviolably universal, had given especial
pleasure to the Englishman, to whom it was a novel circumstance. Above
all, he could not sufficiently extol a walk which his friends had taken
him on Christmas-eve.
He who has ever witnessed in Germany a celebration of Christ's gifts to
the children, knows well the joyful expectation with which the children
await in an adjoining room the ecstatic moment when the doors of
Paradise shall be opened to them. How beats their hearts, when at
length the bell rings, after whose sound they have for weeks long
yearned, and in anticipation of which, they have often calculated how
frequently the Sandman[46] must do his duty before that moment arrived.
And now, the instant that it is become dark, the impatience of the
little ones can be no more restrained, and in all, even the poorest
houses, the Bescherung, or distribution of the presents, begins. The
shutters on this evening are closed in scarcely any of the houses, so
that in the dark, as you pass along the streets, you see into the rooms
lit up and embellished for the occasion. The Christ-tree covered with
lights, throws its beams into the very darkness of the street; and the
jubilant cries of the rushing-in children are heard, as transported
with the view of their individual presents, they fly to each other to
show them. This scene his friends had brought to his observation, and
he could not sufficiently thank them for it.
A modest supper was now brought out; the friends seated themselves
round the table, and while they addressed themselves to discuss it,
they heard the reports of pistols every where resounding in the
streets. The conversation turned itself upon the festivity of the
present night, and on the different modes in which it is celebrated in
different countries.
"That shooting," said Freisleben, "is a pleasure that we will surrender
to other people; but the Vivat! we will help to accomplish. The Chores,
Mr. Traveller, which betake themselves this night to their kneips,
make, about twelve o'clock, a procession through the city, and bring to
some of the Professors a 'Lebe hoch!' But till the hour arrive, we will
endeavour to entertain ourselves with the recollection of a former
occasion of this kind. It is so natural, at the conclusion of the year,
for us to bring its circumstances once more before us, and with what
must ours knit themselves?--Certainly with the University-city. I
therefore make the proposal, that every one of us, in rotation, relate
something which has a particular reference to remarkable persons and
events, occurring or existing in Heidelberg in former times, and which
were never wanting in Ruperto-Carolo; and in order to make a worthy
beginning, our great historiographer, Von Kronen, may, as he lately was
on the point of doing, communicate some of the most striking passages
from the annals of the City of the Muses."
The proposal met with general acceptance. The glasses were again
replenished; the cigars sent their curling fumes into the air; and Von
Kronen, throwing himself back in the corner of the sofa, began--
Heidelberg is one of our most ancient university-cities. Heidelberg, in
the unfolding history of German science and German spirit, took a
distinguished stand, and yet exists it, in the full-grown image of this
scientific life of Germany, an important and essential member. At the
mention of this university, start up in the memory renowned names, the
recollection of great crises in the history of literature. It is, to
the whole student youth of Germany, the spot of promise and of desire.
It stands foremost amongst those German universities to which even from
abroad, from beyond the Rhine, the Alps, even the ocean, scholars
assemble themselves.
The most numerous and the most living traditions of German literature
and German spirit amongst the French and English, date from Heidelberg,
and Heidelberg is therefore pre-eminently the representative of our
education, the type of the German universities, with those nations.
The founding of the university took place in the year 1386; a period in
which, though literature flourished in Italy, a deep night still
brooded over Germany. The then Emperor Charles IV. had erected a school
of general study at Prague, on the model of the Paris university;
and the advantages of this institution could not escape the eyes
of the Elector, a friend of the Emperor's, in his frequent visits to
Prague--advantages which were derived to the whole country from this
establishment. He, therefore, resolved to erect a university in his
city of residence, Heidelberg. On the other hand, the foundation of the
university had a political object. It was intended to prove an
instrument for advancing the interests of Pope Urban VI., whose
partisan Rupert I. of the Pfalz was. In this cause it stood forth in
opposition to the university of Paris, which had declared for the other
pope, Clement VII. Notwithstanding this circumstance, it was equally
formed on the model of that of Paris, and received part of its first
teachers thence. As there, the scholastic studies acquired an exclusive
influence. Theology was in the ascendant; the Aristotelian philosophy,
and the Canon Law, followed in immediate connexion; medicine, somewhat
later, raised itself out of its scanty beginnings. Dialectical
contentions take up nearly the whole of the early history of the
university. Yet it is to be remarked, that the returned spirit of
living experience announced itself, as it had earlier done here,
through the predominance of Nominalism. Perhaps the study itself of the
physical writings of Aristotle, slight and confined as it always was,
might lay the first foundation of the empirical researches into nature;
which later, here, as in Paris, came forth so conspicuously. On the
contrary, the university closed itself resolutely against the humanity
tendency, which penetrated into Germany out of Italy, and which Philip
the Upright also was anxious to plant in Heidelberg; but which
Frederick II., and his successor Otto Henry, were the first to
accomplish, preparing thereby a way for the Classical languages and
literature themselves. Through Micyle, Ehem, and Melancthon, the
university was reorganized; the predominance of the theological faculty
restrained; and thus, together with the philosophical and humanity
studies, a wider circle of operation opened to the practical sciences.
The study of law flourished under excellent teachers; in the faculty of
medicine professorships of therapeutics, pathology, and physiology,
were established.
The storm which now burst out in the train of the Reformation reduced
the universities to great straits; religion became matter of politics,
and the personal connexions and opinions of the princes, determined
often in a very powerful manner the course of knowledge. The
unfortunate embarrassments of the Elector Frederick V., led to the
storming of the castle of Heidelberg by the Bavarians; to the expulsion
of the professors and students; to the sending away of the valuable
library; and finally, to the total suppression of the university. Carl
Frederick had it entirely to reinstate anew. He did it with a noble
zeal, in the spirit and according to the needs of the time. The most
distinguished teachers, as Cocijus, Spina, Frank, Freinsheime, and
Textor, were called to it; a professorship for State and Popular law,
the first founded in Germany, was established; and entrusted to the
celebrated originator of this new doctrine, Samuel Puffendorf. A freer
spirit arose in both speech and writing; and Carl Ludwig laid it under
no restraint.
New agitations of the time, again disturbed this happy condition of the
university; the political rule changed with the personal affairs of the
princes; and literature felt the influence of this, in the strongest
and most immediate manner. The teaching of philosophy was at a later
period made over to the Lazarists; a dark reaction commenced against
the liberal spirit; and at the same time that the peculiar speculative
element of Heidelberg university fell into the shade, the empirical
sciences rose up again into new existence on all sides.
A society had already, in 1734, established itself under the auspices
of Professor Heuresius, for the cultivation of the history of the
Fatherland, which however fell again. In 1769, a philosophical and
economical society was founded in Lautern; and in 1774, a school of
state economy. Both of these were removed to Heidelberg in 1784, and
richly furnished with books and collections. From Heidelberg went forth
the first impulse towards a scientific treatment of the doctrines of
State economy.
The House of Zaehringen now stepping into possession of the Pfalz, thus
presided over the university. The second of the newly acquired
territories, the Breisgau, erected in the university of Freiburg a
rival to Heidelberg; a circumstance which was not without its effect on
the latter. By the removal of the Catholic seminary to Freiburg, the
scope and operation of the theological Faculty in Heidelberg were
strikingly constringed; but only the stronger, and in this respect in
opposition to the Freiburg university, and in more conspicuous
superiority, advanced the other Faculties of Heidelberg, especially the
judicial and medicinal, and of the philosophical, the section of state
economy; which last, through the new organization of the university,
constituted an especial department, and was placed in rank, at the head
of the philosophical. This scientific tendency has raised itself on the
preponderating necessity of the nation and the times; upon it grounded
itself the fame and consideration of Heidelberg in foreign countries;
and the new government was sagacious enough not to disturb this natural
and historical position of the university by ill-timed interference.
The demands of modern education were so far conceded to, that, by
calling into it men of the highest celebrity in all departments, a
combination of the various ruling tendencies of the spirit of the
times, a universality of studies, was attempted. The two Vosses were
won in order to give new splendour to the university, and demonstrate
the taste for classicality; and a new impetus was given to the novel
speculative tendencies in philosophy and theology.
But it soon became sufficiently convincing that these elements of
education did not naturally assimilate themselves to the scientific
life of Heidelberg, but were only artificially engrafted; that
Heidelberg has not its mission to represent in itself the spirit of
modern science and art; but the simple vocation of working out
education and accomplishment suited to the necessities and interests of
the practical life of the state and of civil offices, in both their
wider and their more circumscribed spheres. It was then suffered to
retain the character which it had established for itself, and those
endeavours to force it into directions which did not naturally
originate in its own bosom and nature, were discontinued. Thus it came
to pass that the philosophy and the speculative theology altogether
dragged; that the classical and antiquarian studies became one-sided;
that even in the practical sciences certain methods became prevalent;
that the electrical shocks of the stream of the new literary topics and
of scientific revolutions in vain thundered and lightened and raged
round the professors of the old--professors who, from their isolated
stools, smiled over that rushing and confused scene of excitement; and
that the men of modern culture, the genial spirits, the speculative
heads, with one voice called down anathemas on that Heidelberg
Philisterium. But this anathematized Heidelberg Philisterium yet
possesses an internal strength and freshness, with which the hollow
inflation of the _soi-disant_ intellectual world found it difficult to
measure itself; these old gentlemen, who seem so far removed from the
spirit of the age, yet rest themselves in the real soil of the time, in
the spirit of the period, in the progression of political and social
life, far deeper than those genialists who in high-sounding theories
and systems imagine that they have seized on the world-spirit. This
scientific life which seems to stagnate, flows on without intermission
noiselessly, steadily, but not by fits and starts.
Hoffmann.--The old gentlemen shall live, and to their health we will
rub a salamander. Every one prepare a half-glass, and then I will
command.
All seize their glasses, which are half-filled. They rub with them on
the table in circles before them, all the time saying--"Salamander,
salamander, salam--," Hoffmann commands, One, two, three! and at the
three the glasses are emptied; One, two, three! they are again set down
on the table altogether with a clap, where they continue rattling with
them, till the command again One, two, three! when they are all lifted
aloft, and at the final command once more set down altogether on the
table with a thump.
CHAPTER XX.
NEW YEAR'S EVE CONTINUED.--UNIVERSITY STORIES.--VON PLAUEN.
Hoffmann.--I will now, for a change, give some passages from the life
and deeds of a hero, whom, were I a Zachariae, I would celebrate in a no
less magnificent epic than he has done the exploits of his Renommist.
The Herr von Plauen, to whom I allude, studied for more than ten years
here, and enacted more mad pranks than the whole united university
besides would have been able to do. He was a little, broad-set fellow,
of prepossessing exterior and expressive countenance, who stood
particularly well with the ladies. His uncommon strength; his
accomplishment in all bodily exercises; his overflowing humour
continually gushing forth in witty conceits, procured him a constant
good reception in the student world, and in the social circles of the
city; and he long played in his Chore, as well as in the ball-room, a
distinguished part, till his total sacrifice of character, and his
really reprehensible actions, which were all alike to him so long as
they carried him to his object, completed his ruin. By his strength he
frequently put to shame the travelling Hercules who exhibit their
powers for money; since, poising himself on a perpendicular pole, he
would stretch himself out horizontally, so as to form a right angle
with the pole, and at his pleasure, could double up strong silver
coins. In the gymnastic ground, which yet existed, no one could stand
against him; and in the fencing-school he beat down every one's guard.
As he once travelled in the Upper-Rhine country without a passport, and
a _gendarme_ on horseback, would have detained him, he threw both the
man and his horse into the ditch by the roadside, and so left them. He
was especially expert in the then so-much-liked shooting of geese, and
thus made many a Philistine the poorer. Understand me right, Mr.
Traveller; to shoot, in studenten phrase, means to abstract without yet
doing any thing unjust or contrary to honour; since, especially in the
olden times, this was a student custom. Small things, as penknives,
sticks, etc., if they were not dedicated, were shootable. One might
take them from another, and with the words--"This is shot," he took
possession of them. It may easily be conceived that it was only the
elder students who indulged themselves in this practice against the
Foxes, and no one could secure himself from this Spartan plundering but
by instantly declaring a thing, which another seemed to have a design
upon,--unshootable.
Von Kronen.--This expression dates itself from the practices of the
schools of the fifteenth century. As then the teacher, with his
helpers, was only engaged by the inhabitants of a place there for a
year or so; so if the parties disagreed, the master, with his
assistants, to whom generally a number of boys added themselves,
proceeded from land to land, and supported themselves with alms, with
singing before the houses, and with all manner of petty plunderings.
The scholars, who stood expressly under the protection of the
assistants, must deliver to them geese, ducks, hens, and the like,
which they became very expert in carrying off from the villages, and
which, in their language, they termed shooting.
Hoffmann.--I have never before heard of this custom of antiquity. It is
a pity that so beautiful a practice is become obsolete, or I could, as
a musician, make most profitable use of it.
Freisleben:--
Friends beloved! there were finer times once
Than are these times--that must be conceded,--
And a nobler people lived ere we did.
Hoffmann.--But to come back to our story. Herr von Plauen possessed a
more admirable dexterity in shooting than any of the schoolboys just
referred to could possibly have; and no wonder,--as they were only
schoolboys, and he was a student. Plenty of stories are related of him;
how he twisted the neck of many a living goose, and popped them under
his cloak; how with ladder and hook, he brought many a plucked goose
down from the lofty store-room; yes, and how he came most easily at one
ready stuffed and roasted.
On Holy St. Nicholas's-day, a worthy citizen of the place, whose little
son also was called Nicholas, prepared a feast for some guests, the
chief ornament of which was a goose, as fine as ever gabbled and
screamed in the Pfalz. The goose was carried up; the guests had not,
however, yet made their appearance, but the little son was impatient,
and howling and crying desired a slice from the goose. The father
strove in vain to quiet him; he howled and cried on. "Then," said the
old man, "I will give the goose to the Pelznickel." (In our country
there goes from house to house, on St. Nicholas's-day, fellows in
disguise, who inquire into the past behaviour of the children, and give
to the good ones apples, nuts, and little cakes, but warn the bad and
threaten them with the rod. These disguised personages are styled
Pelznickel.) With the word the old man set the dish with the goose in
it on the outside of the window! This frightened the little one; he
promised to be quiet if the father would take the goose in again;
whereupon the father reached the dish in again, but to his astounding,
the goose was gone! It was already rapidly on its way to the city of
Dusseldorf, (a Wirthshaus in Heidelberg), where the Herr von Plauen and
his companions found it smack right delectably with their red wine.
A similar passage once befell our hero in the village Schlangenbach,
where he was for a long time the guest of the Amtmann. They both, he
and the Amtmann, who had himself been a lusty student, made a call on
the Frau Pfarrerin, the parson's lady. They talked of this and that; of
husbandry, and of poultry and geese. "Ay," said the parson's lady, "I
have a goose hanging above; you may match it if you can. But with what
care and labour have I fed it myself; and stuffed it myself with the
best Indian corn that was to be got. But, gentlemen, you shall judge
for yourselves. I invite you next Sunday to discuss this famous goose."
"And yet," said Plauen, "I will wager that the Amtmann has one that is
quite as good."
"Impossible!" exclaimed the Frau Pfarrerin.
"Amtmann," rejoined Plauen, "you won't admit that! I challenge you to
invite the Frau Pfarrerin and her husband to-morrow, Saturday, also to
eat a goose, and we will afterwards see which goose is the best."
"Done!" said the Amtmann.
"We'll see!" said the parson's lady.
The residence of the plucked goose was soon ascertained by the two. It
was up in the chamber in the roof, where it hung, and made many
ornamental swings and gyrations in the wind that blew through the
dormant windows. It was a ravishing sight, which the world only was
allowed to enjoy for this one day. It was brought away in the night,
and the next day at noon, most deliciously dressed, was served up
before the invited guests.
"Now, how does the goose please you, Herr Pfarrer?" asked Plauen.
"My husband understands nothing of the matter," interposed the Frau
Pfarrerin, "but I tell you the goose is good, but mine is much better.
You shall convince yourselves; that I promise you."
Alas! the Frau Pfarrerin was not able to keep her word; for on the
morrow she became aware, to her horror, that her plucked goose had
taken a greater flight than it had ever done while it was yet
unplucked. She was excessively annoyed; and to propitiate her, the
waggish companions sent her a handsome cotton dress. On the package was
inscribed--"A dressing for the goose." The good woman was completely
conciliated, and highly delighted; but her husband thought that the
words would bear more than one construction.
Freisleben:--
The Pfarrer's wits were sharp and sound,
So let us all drink to him round. (They drink.)
Hoffmann continued.--Another time, in a cold winter, he put, one night,
the figure of Hercules, which adorns the Brunnen in the market-place, a
shirt on, much to the bewonderment of the market people when they
arrived in the place the next morning. Another time, as it was the
fair, the students, at his suggestion, got all the strolling organists
together in the fair, who each kept on playing a different tune, which,
with the accompaniment of the barking of their assembled dogs, produced
the most astounding effect.
I must relate yet another of his tricks, which, however, he played off
in another university city directly before he came to Heidelberg. An
innocent youth, who was just come raw from the school, recognised in
Herr von Plauen a countryman, and begged of him, as he would go away
the next day, that he would accompany him to one of the professors, in
order to enter himself as an attendant of his lectures, as he really
did not know how it was proper to conduct himself on such an occasion.
"With pleasure," answered Von Plauen, gave the Fox at once his arm, and
conducted him to one of the professors, who was completely deaf. As
they entered the room, the rogue presented the new-comer, with the
words,--"Here, thou old Philistine! I bring thee a young gentleman who
will do thee the favour to listen to thy lectures. Take care, however,
that thou art not too tedious with him, for he is my friend."
The startled Fox seemed to have dropped at once out of the clouds as he
heard his friend speak in this manner, and his astonishment mounted to
its height as he heard him again say, as he took his leave--"Farewell,
old Camel!" which salutation the professor answered with a very
gracious bow.
"But for God's sake, then," asked the Fox, "may one then speak in this
manner to a professor of the university?"
"So, and no otherwise," replied he, "must you address them all; they
are accustomed to nothing else; and moreover, they soon lose all
respect for him who does not cock his thumb a little at them. Besides
this, I have been particularly civil to-day, that I might not astonish
thee too much, as is the case generally with youths when they first
come from the school. But thou wilt quickly acquire the proper tone."
"O! if it comes to that," said the Fox, "I'll soon be ready for the
gentlemen."
Von Plauen laughed in his fist as he rode forth the next morning
through the city-gate; and he soon learnt by letters that his protege,
in proceeding to enter himself with the next professor, whom he
addressed in the same style, was speedily sent head foremost down the
steps, as he had unluckily happened to come across a professor who not
only had an excellent pair of ears, but a very fiery temper.
Some pranks which our hero permitted himself afterwards, laid the
commencement of his fall. Once he feigned himself delirious, raged and
cried out, for no purpose, but to have the pleasure of spitting in the
face of the physician who was called in, having, as it is asserted by
some, betted a considerable wager on this point.
He spared the fair sex as little in his wild conceits; which were not,
however, always very graciously received. He asked permission from one
lady in the open street to be allowed to light his pipe at her eyes.
Another time, a carriage, in which were some ladies setting out to the
ball, being drawn up across a narrow street, up which he was coming, he
opened the door, sprung in, and out at the other door, followed by all
his companions in succession, about twenty in number. Once he went with
his acquaintance to walk in the Heidelberg Castle. It began to rain
heavily, and the mistress of a ladies' school, with her pupils, had
taken refuge in the so-called Octagonal House, on the terrace, which
was then not completely closed, and had only one entrance. This the
wild troop beset, and refused egress to the young ladies, except on the
condition that each student should be favoured with a kiss from one of
the ladies. The ladies heard the proposal with horror, and long held
out siege in the little building; but as night was fast approaching,
and not a soul appeared within view, or hearing, on account of the bad
weather, they were at length compelled by necessity to accept the
horrid condition, and were then conducted safely home by the wilful
students. By this exploit, however, Von Plauen, sunk dreadfully in
credit with the world of beauty, as he was well known and immediately
recognised.
Finally, our hero was counselled or ordered to withdraw himself, for a
stated period, from the university on account of his repeated duels,
and concluded with himself to pass the half-year of his exile in the
Hessian Neckarsteinach. As he was intending to withdraw without paying
his debts, he found that his testimonial was taken possession of by his
landlady: for Mr. Traveller, you are perhaps aware, that if a creditor
fears that a student meditates quitting the university without
satisfying his just claims, he lays before the Amtmann of the
university the amount of his bill, and the exit-testimonial, without
which a student cannot be admitted to another university, is refused
him till he has discharged his debts. Plauen immediately procured all
the Hellers (each in value of the twelfth of a penny English, or two
hundred and forty to the gulden, or twenty-pence English) that the
place afforded, and sent them, to the whole amount of his debt, to the
poor landlady in a bag, which, of so small a coin, were so many as took
her several days to count them out.
On a fine spring day he was, to every one's astonishment, seen dressed
as for a festival, leading in a rich silk riband, a lamb gaily adorned
with flowers, along the banks of the Neckar. To those who wondered at
his proceedings, he said that this was the custom of his Fatherland on
that particular day. So went he on to Ziegelhausen, where he spent the
night, and where he was the better entertained at the Wirthshaus,
because he had attracted many people into the house by this unusual
spectacle. The next morning he made a present of his lamb, which,
however, was speedily reclaimed by its real owner, from whom Plauen had
"shot" it; and then betook himself to Neckarsteinach. Here he played
the pious Catholic. On Corpus Christi day, when the Catholics parade in
solemn procession round the town, singing and praying, and say mass at
certain altars which are erected in the open air, he followed the
priest, himself clothed for the occasion, and carried the train of his
robe. Soon afterwards he showed every where a letter sealed with black,
which he professed to contain the intelligence of his mother's death.
Every one took the deepest interest in his apparently deep-felt grief,
and the more so as he caused masses to be said in all the churches
whose priests he had before so much flattered. His mother, however,
lived long afterwards, and the whole was only invented on purpose to
have the masses said. Equally false was a later assertion, that he had
received information that they had appointed him a canon in his
Fatherland; and from that time he went about the little place in full
costume, and carrying a cross.
When the period of his banishment was completed, he returned to the
city on a day in the evening of which there was to be a ball. An
officer who was a countryman of his, then resided in Heidelberg, and
had frequently visited him in Neckarsteinach. He hastened to his house,
and then found that he was absent on a journey. As an old acquaintance,
he ordered his rooms to be opened, managed easily to open his commode,
and to draw out a new uniform of the officer's. Into this, which was
indeed much too tight for him, he forced himself, and appeared in it
that evening at the ball, where he told the people one lie upon
another, of his having succeeded to this new post of honour. He looked,
however, comical enough in the uniform, which was so narrow that when
his partner in the dance let fall her rosette, he was not able to stoop
to pick it up for her.
Von Plauen soon found again a swarm of acquaintance, and again played
over his old tricks. One of his acquaintances received from his native
town, which was somewhere not very far distant, a large and most famous
cheese, and a hamper of good wine. The others soon got wind of it, and
wanted to persuade him to make a merriment over these things. But he
assured them that he could not touch a single thing of them, as he
expected an immediate visit from his family. His father, he said, had
written him that he yet hoped to eat of the cheese with him, and to
drink a glass of the wine with him; and on that account he should leave
every thing untouched till they arrived.