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CORONA
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CORONA
Studies in Celebration of the Eightieth Birthday of
SAMUEL SINGER
Professor Emeritus, University ofBerne, Switzerland
Edited by ARNO SCHIROKAUER & WOLFGANG PAULSEN
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1941
Copyright, 1941, by the Duke University Press
C 8 Z Z
6 . 2.
Corona is presented to Samuel Singer by his friends and former students in the United States, edited by Arno Schirokauer and Wolfgang Paulsen, and spon- sored by the German Department of Southwestern, Memphis, Tennessee.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BV THE SEEMAN PRINTERY, INC., DURHAM, N. C.
DEDICATION
E
Lieber, guter Singer!
RBLICKE in diesem Buch unsern freudigsten Dank dafür, daß Du — mit Thomas Mann zu sprechen — die •^ organische Geduld gehabt hast, achtzig Lebensjahre zu vollenden und so zu vollenden, daß die Wahl des Zeitworts in mehrfachem Sinn gerechtfertigt ist. Wir sind es, die sich dazu gratulieren, und Du bist es, der uns mit dem Faktum Deines Daseins beschenkt. Es ist nicht einmal sicher, daß w^ir mit un- serer Gabe die Rollen für einen Moment vertauschen; so w^eit das hier Mitgeteilte etwas wert ist, ist es Frucht vom Samen, den Du in uns gelegt hast, bestenfalls wirst Du Dich wieder- finden und keinen andern Gewinn haben als den, in matte Spiegel geblickt zu haben.
Unser Verhältnis zu Dir ist am ehesten mit einer Anekdote beschrieben: Dem Radio-Bern war ein Vortrag angeboten worden, zehn Seiten lang, jede zu vierzig Zeilen, betitelt "Was steht noch vom Alten Europa?" Anstelle der langwierigen Antwort hatte einer der Redaktoren mit Blei eine knappe ge- geben: Der Alte Singer! — Das war 1934 und Du warst noch nicht einmal alt, nur eben ein Stück dieses Alten Europa, dessen Verwüstung heute uns elend macht und tief versehrt. Angesichts so apokalyptischer Vorgänge kämen wir uns als Gratulanten und Festredner peinlich vor, handelte es sich um jemand anderen als Dich. Aber Du bist uns nachgerade die Garantie, daß keine Vernichtung vollständig sein kann. In- mitten so vieler Untergänge und Einstürze Deinen Geburstag
[V]
zelebrieren ist nicht nur Zeitentrotz und ein Tun, quia ab- surdum est, sondern ist, was jede Zelebration ist, ein Akt der Beschwörung und der feierlichen Bestätigung, daß wirklich ist, was wir wünschen, es solle sein.
Mit diesem Buch bestätigen wir Dir und uns Deine Wirk- lichkeit und Deine Wirkung, die weder an den Grenzen Deines Kontinents noch Deines engeren Fachgebiets zu Ende ist. Wir, Deine in Amerika wirkenden Freunde und Schüler, kennen unsere Aufgabe, hinüberzuretten und weiterzugeben, was drüben bei Euch von Vernichtung bedroht ist; Du sollst um Dein Lebenswerk nicht trauern, das fromme Hände hier weiter pflegen und fördern. Europa und Amerika sind keine Antithese, es gibt Grenzen, die weit entscheidender sind als der Atlantische Ozean; keiner von uns war gezwungen irgend etwas aufzugeben, um Amerikaner zu werden; er hatte nur zuvor ein guter Europäer zu sein. Als solcher warst Du immer schon unser geistiger Landsmann, unser Unternehmen ist also legitim.
Nicht die geographische sondern die spirituelle Reichweite Deiner Existenz als Germanist, die vielseitige Wirkung, die grosse Streuung und Strahlung eines Fachmanntums wie des Deinen wird Dich vielleicht selbst verblüffen: Arabist und Essayist, Folklorist und Medievalist, Geistesgeschichtler und Literarhistoriker haben zu diesem Band beigetragen. Wäh- rend Du lebenslang in meisterlicher Selbstbeschränkung auf Deinem schmalen Felde ackertest, gab es Zaungäste aus andern Feldern, denen Dein treues Pflügen Vorbild für ihr eignes For- schen wurde. Sie alle wünschen Dir zu bestätigen, daß sie ihr Denkbild eines gelehrten Mannes, eines Humanisten, aus Deiner Existenz abgezogen haben.
Corona also, das sind wir selbst, eine bunte Reihe, ein Kränzchen von Freunden und Schülern, die allerlei Laub und Pflückwerk zusammengetragen haben, Dir etwas zu flechten, was Du gütigst als Corona ansprechen möchtest. Die Krone, die wir zu verleihen haben, gebührt Dir vor allem für diese Leistung aus dem Randgebiet der Germanistik, der Wortge- schichte: Du hast aus Freund und Lehrer ein Synonym ge- macht. Niemand lernte bei Dir, ohne Dich lieben zu lernen.
[vi]
Die Herausgeber haben sich für jede Mühe belohnt ge- macht, wenn sie auf ihre Anfrage Antworten erhielten, wie die eines Deiner älteren Schüler, der seit vielen Jahren tief im Süden beamtet ist, er freue sich so, einen Beitrag zu Ehren seines unvergeßlichen Lehrers beisteuern zu dürfen.
So war in weniger als drei Monaten das Manuskript zusam- mengebracht. Der seelische Notstand, auf den die Herausgeber hinwiesen, als sie den Plan dieses Buches faßten, wurde sehr schnell von allen Mitarbeitern begriffen. Vielleicht wären aber die Herausgeber im Materiellen gescheitert, hätte sich nicht Dr. Charles E. Diehl, Präsident des Southwestern College, mit ganzer Seele für den Plan eingesetzt. Sein energisches Interesse räumte die finanziellen Schwierigkeiten aus dem Wege. Ihm gelang es, den Oberlaender Trust an dem entstehenden Werk zu interessieren, so daß dessen Sekretär Dr. Wilbur K. Thomas dem German Department von Southwestern eine Summe zur Verfügung stellte, die den größten Teil der Druckkosten deckte, wofür ihm auch an dieser Stelle aufs wärmste gedankt sei. Für das Fehlende sprangen mehrere Mitarbeiter mit klei- neren Beträgen ein.
Die Zeit hat den Entschluß, den Band zu veröffentlichen, nicht erleichtert. Wir faßten ihn im Glauben, daß Zeitverbun- denheit ebenso sehr ein Fluch wie ein Segen ist, und der Vor- wurf, die Wissenschaft sei zeitfremd, ihr heiligstes Privileg. So mischen wir unsern Stimmenchor in den der Kanonen in der Überzeugung, er werde dauern, wenn sie schon schweigen.
ARNO SCHIROKAUER.
Memphis, 31. Mai 1940.
[vü]
CONTENTS
Folklore
Archer Taylor, A Metaphor o£ the Human Body in
Literature and Tradition 3
Alfred Senn, On the Sources of a Lithuanian Tale 8
Richard Jente, A Review o£ Proverb Literature Since 1920 23
Friedrich C. Sell, Ein Lobspruch von eim schiessen zu
Augspurg 1509 45
Linguistics
Anna Granville Hatcher, Son Cors in Old French 63
Robert H. Weidman, The Orthographie Conflation of Nominal Compounds in MHG Based on a Study of the Manesse Manu-
script 89
Leo Spitzer, Zwei französische Neologismen 100
Middle Ages
Arno Schirokauer, Der zweite Merseburger Zauberspruch 117
Gustave von Grunebaum, On the Development of the Type of
Scholar in Early Islam 142
Lawrence Ecker, Die Blumenbeschreibungen der spanisch- arabischen Hofdichter 148
Henry W. Nordmeyer, Hohe Minne bei Reinmar von Hagenau:
MF 176, 5 158
Hans Sperber, Kaiser Ottos Ehre (Walther 26, 33) 183
Modern German Literature
Thomas Mann, Goethes Werther 186
Ernst Feise, Clemens Brentanos Geschichte vom braven Kasperl
und schönen Annerl 202
Gustav E. Mueller, Solger's Aesthetics — A Key to Hegel (Irony
and Dialectic) 212
Wolfgang Paulsen, Adalbert Stifter und der Nachsommer 228
Ludwig W. Kahn, Fortschrittsglaube und Kulturkritik im
bürgerlichen Roman 252
Francine B. Bradley, Zwischen Naturalismus und Symbolismus:
Eine Stilanalyse einiger Jugendgedichte Rene Schickeies 268
[ix]
CORONA
A METAPHOR OF THE HUMAN BODY IN LITERATURE AND TRADITION
ARCHER TAYLOR, Ufitversity of California
SO FAR as I can see, no one has commented on the diverse uses of a symbolism which compares the human body to a house. This symbolism appears in the oldest Version of the fable of the Body and the Members. The pertinent portion of the text, v^^hich was scrawled by a Student in the New Empire, is as follows:
Gerichtsverhandlung über einen Streit. Der Rechtsstreit des Bauches mit dem Kopfe, um zu ermitteln, was als Urteil ausgesprochen werden muss, wenn man beschuldigt wird vor den Dreissig Richtern. Der Bauch \lagt den Kopf an. Siehe, ihr (d. h. der Glieder) Kopf, ihn klagte (?) man der Sünde an, dass sein Auge weine. Die Wahrheit wurde ermittelt vor dem Gott, dessen Abscheu sündige Eigenschaften sind. Der Bauch sagte seine Anklage. Der Kopf verteidigt sich. Der Kopf aber schrie seinen Ausspruch gänzlich nieder (und sagte): "Ich, ich bin der eigentliche Riegel dieses ganzen Hauses, der die anderen Riegel vorschiebt, und der die anderen Riegel einspannt. Jedes Glied, das sich auf mich stützt, ist froh."^
Brief as this allusion is, it suggests clearly enough that the head compares itself to some part of the house which unites all of the other members of the structure. Heinrich Gombel, who writes at length in Die Fabel "Vom Magen und den Gliedern" in der Weltliteratur (mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der ro- manischen Fabelliter atur),^ does not comment on the presence
1. I omit the remainder o£ the spcech and of the fable as not pertinent to our purposes. The text is taken from G. Reeder, Altägyptische Erzählungen und Märchen ("Die Märchen der Weltliteratur"; Jena, 1927), p. 108. See also pp. xiv and 334. The editing and translating of the text need, according to Roeder, revision.
2. "Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie," LXXX (Halle, 1934). See also J. Pauli, Schimpf und Ernst, ed. J. Bolte (Berlin, 1924), No. 399.
4 CORONA
of this symbolism in the Egyptian text, and his materials do not include any other example of the fable in which this sym- bolism occurs. The early versions, chiefly in Sanskrit, are chiefly concerned with a dispute over the rank of the various Organs.
A second example of the house as a symbol for the human body is perhaps seen in the famous passage, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7:
Remember now the Creator in the days o£ thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
While the sun, or the Hght, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain;
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the Windows be darkened,
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a bürden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
The allegorical interpretation of this passage, which obviously describes man's old age, is disputed,^ and when commentators on the Biblical text difTer, I shall not venture to insist upon either a literal or an allegorical interpretation. Let it suffice to point out that commentators have seen here a symbolism which compares the human body to a house.
An example of this symbolism is familiär to every reader of riddles, but its similarity to the metaphor which we are dis- cussing has not been remarked. A typical example is
3. D. Buzy, C. S. J., "Le portrait de la vieillesse," Revue biblique, XLI (1932), 329-340, defends the literal interpretation. Harry Torczyner, "The Riddle in the Bible," Hebrew Union College Annual, I (1924), 136-138, defends the allegorical interpretation. I am indebted to Professor W. Popper for kind assistance at this point.
A METAPHOR OF THE HUMAN BODY 5
There's a house wid two winder upstairs. Is red, an' downstairs is white. An' two doors. — Face.'*
A variant carries out the metaphor more eflectively by specify- ing the nature of the Building:
A large theatre has two window upstairs, two window downstairs, a large door with white people, a red stage.
In various forms, which we need not detail here, this metaphor is known to riddlers from Europe and North America to Hawaii and the Philippines.
A comparison of the head to a church occurs as a variety of the "chin-chopper" rhymes. I take the following example from a Standard work, which the author graciously declares owes much to the encouragement and support of Professor Samuel Singer. This specialized comparison is, I am inclined to believe, an elaboration and sophistication of the original theme in much the same way that the riddle which compares the head to a theater is an elaboration. The text is as follows:
Das isch der Altar (Stirn ) , Das sind die beide LiechtH (Augen), Das isch e Leschhernli (Nase), Das isch d' Sakristei (Mund), Und das isch der Bibabater (Kinn), Und da got domine (Hals).^
Parts of this metaphor are often found as riddles or in other uses. The eyes, for example, are referred to as Windows,^ and
4. Elsie Clews Parsons, Foll(lore of the Sea Islands, South Carolina ("Memoirs o£ the American Folklore Society," XVI; New York, 1923), p. 167, Nos. 93 and 93 var.
5. G. Züricher, Kinderlieder der deutschen Schweiz ("Schriften der schweizeri- schen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde," XVII; Basel, 1926), p. 49, No. 794. The "Leschhernli" is a candle-snuffer. For the Suggestion of these children's rhymes I am indebted to Professor James R. Caldwell.
6. A. Joos, Raadsels van het Vlaamsche vol\ (Brüssels \ca. 1928]), No. 72; F. Ström, Svens\a jolk^gator (Stockholm, 1937), p. 78, "Ögat," No. i; Y. Wich- mann, "Syrjänische Volksdichmng," Memoires de la societe finno-ougrienne, XXXVIII (1917), Nos. 64, 65; F. Starr, A Little Bool{ of Filipino Riddles (Yonkers, 1909), No. 39.
The metaphor of the eyes compared to Windows occurs in a Flemish riddle (Joos, No. 547) which enumerates the parts of the body in somewhat the same manner as we find in the famous cow-riddle: "An oven, four pillars, two men-frighteners, onc fly-frightener" (F. Boas, Journal of American Fol^-Lore, XXV, 191 2, 230, No. 22). For discussion of the cow-riddle and its congeners see A. Arne, Vergleichende Rätselforschungen, II ("FF Communications," XXVII; Helsinki, 1919), 60-172.
6 CORONA
new Clements may be introduced, e.g., "One looks out of the house, but not into it" or "The whole world looks in, the whole World looks out." The Syrjanian comparison of the eyes to pearls in a window frame is perhaps the most poetical of such metaphors. The Filipino riddle "There are seven Windows: only thrce shut. — Ears, nostrils, eyes, mouth" probably repre- sents a contamination with the ancient riddle of the seven holes in the headJ The Wotyak create a vivid and picturesque rid- dle for combing hair in "A snowshoe glides down over the house-roof."^ The ordinary processes of poetic invention may create these metaphors as in the accusation uttered by the ghost of Hamlet's father, "And in the porches of mine ears did pour the leprous distilment" {Hamlet, Act I, scene v, IL 63-64) and such current phrases for mental derangement as "He is off in the Upper story" or "He has bats in his belfry."
I have not found parallels to a curious use of this symbolism in the Scottish bailad "Sweet William's Ghost." Motherwell reports the pertinent stanza as traditional, but it does not ap- pear to occur in any other version of the ballad. Margaret comes to her sweetheart's grave and asks to lie with him. He replies that there is no room at his head, feet, or side and describes his Situation thus:
My meikle tae is my gavil-post, My nose is my roof tree,
My ribs are kebars to my house, And there is no room for thee.
7. See references in Reinhold Koehler, Kleinere Schriften, III (Berlin, 1900), 368, n. 1; F. Coelho, Revista lusitana, I (1887-89), 254; Archer Taylor, "Problems in the Study o£ Riddles," Southern Folklore Quarterly, II (1938), 8, n. 13. A Baloche riddle "There is a house built by the Creator which has seven doors, while others have but four. By your wisdom guess and explain this. — A man's body" (M. L. Dames, "Populär Poetry of the Baloches," Publications of the FolkjLore Society, LIX, London, 1907, p. 200, No. 17) may be compared to the Filipino riddle cited above. Mr. William A. Kozumplik of die University of Chicago is investigating the history of this riddle.
8. Y. Wichmann, "Wotjakische Sprachproben," Journal de la societe ßnno-ou- grienne, XIX (1901), 34, No. 258. We might perhaps see the allegory of the body in riddles beginning "Behind the mill" or "Behind the house," e.g. "Behind the mill there is a two-pronged fork. — Braids of hair" (Wichmann, p. 30, No. 220) and "Behind the house there is a hop-pole. — Braid of hair" (Wichmann, p. 34, No. 256), but here "mill" and "house" are probably understood literally, since these intro- ductory phrases occur again and again in Wotyak and other riddles.
A METAPHOR OF THE HUMAN BODY 7
As a last example, I quote the elaborate development of the Symbol in Thomas Dekker's Gul's Horn-Booke (1609), Chap- terVIII:
For the Head is a house built for Reason to dwell in; and thus is the tenement franied. The two Eyes are the glasse windowes, at which light disperses itself into every roome, having goodly pent-houses of haire to overshadow them: As for the nose, tho some (most injuriously and improperly) make it serve for an Indian chimney, yet surely it is rightly a bridge with two arches, . . . the cherry lippes open, Hke the new-painted gates of a Lord Mayor's house, to take in provision. The tongue is a bell, hanging just under the middle of the roofe; and lest it be rung out too deepe . . . , there are two even rowes of Ivory pegs (like pales) set to keep it in. The eares are two Musique roomes into which as well good sounds as bad, descend downe two narrow paire of staires, that for all the world have crooked windings like those that lead to the top of Powles steeple. ... So would this goodly palace, which we have modeled out unto you, be but a cold and bald habitation, were not the top of it rarely covered. Nature . . . has thatcht it all over, and that Thatching is haire.
Additional illustrations of so simple and obvious a metaphor as the comparison of the body to a house are perhaps unneces- sary. It is dif&cult to know whether these instances spring from a Single root or whether they have originated independently. The interest which attaches to the discussion of these questions is apparent, and the present brief note may direct attention to them.
ON THE SOURCES OF A LITHUANIAN TALE
ALFRED SENN, University of Pennsylvania
IN 1921 the Lithuanian writer Vincas Kreve brought out the first edition of his volume of short stories entitled Dainavos salies sentf. zmonit^ padavimai ("Stories Told by Old People of the Dainava Country"). The author whose füll name is Vincas Kreve-Mickevicius and who, in addition to being the outstanding living poet of the Lithuanians, is also a philologist and collector of folklore material was later (1932) presented to the outside world by the Italian Giuseppe Salvatori in a lifelike picture printed in the Journal Studi Baltici, Volume II, pages 23-34 (published by the Istituto per l'Europa Orientale, Rome, Italy). Kreve's tales are all written in rhythmic prose and are based on folklore material, such as semihistorical legends and fairy tale motifs. In the introduction we find the author's asser- tion that he is only relating what he has been told by people living in that region. All the tales are definitely connected with actual localities in the Dainava Country (extending to the south from Alytus). The time of action is projected into pagan antiquity. The third tale in the collection (pp. 49-73), entitled "Gilse," has been made available in a German translation by Horst Engert in his publication Aus litauischer Dichtung. Deutsche Nachdichtungen (Second Edition; Kaunas and Leip- zig: Ostverlag der Buchhandlung Pribatsch, 1938), pages 25-54, where the name is spelled Gilsche. A brief sketch of the plot f ollows :
The daughter of a rieh nobleman falls in love with a servant of her father and therefore refuses all other suitors, When her lover asks for her hand, the old nobleman answers in this way: "I will give you my
A LITHUANIAN TALE 9
daughter when you are as rieh as I. Now, leave my manor." There- upon the servant becomes a highwayman, robs and murders three mer- chants, whose bodies he buries under a bridge. With this stolen wealth he buys himself an estate and builds a magnificent manor house. Now the old nobleman consents to the marriage. In answer to the question as to the origin of this wealth the suitor declares that he has gone to the wars and has brought home rieh booty, To his betrothed, however, he confesses the truth. But she now fears the revenge of the gods and refuses to marry before she knows what kind o£ punishment the gods have in störe for them.
The youth desires to know what he may expect and upon the advice of an old hermit, who is endowed with supernatural power, he keeps a three-night vigil under the bridge where the three bodies are buried. Each night one of the three murdered merchants appears to accuse him before the gods. Upon the accusation of the first one the voice of the gods promises punishment after ninety-nine years. At this news the girl is willing to marry the young man, because in all probability they would not live that long anyhow. After the accusation of the second merchant the period of grace is reduced to thirty-three years. Even this does not deter the girl. In the third night the period is reduced to thirteen years. But even now the girl is still willing to marry her beloved, for, she says, "Thirteen years is a long time, during which we both will spend many happy days and blissful nights. Afterwards, we shall perish together, sufifer together, and thus share fortune and misfortune." And she marries him.
Years pass and the young couple prospers. But the inner unrest of the man grows continually. Especially fearful for him is the thought that his beloved wife will have to suffer for his crime. A raven, which he is about to shoot while hunting one day, speaks to him and promises him a remedy for his tortured soul. He is told to seek an old man in the land of the Prussians. This he does. This ancient one, who is the high priest of the heathen Prussians, advises him to take part in the war against the enemies of his country, the Teutonic Knights. Before his de- parture he must plant a dry linden twig in the earth at the place where the murdered merchants lie buried. When this twig brings forth leaves and blossoms, he will be called back from the battlefield, if at that time he is still alive.
The young man agrees to this and prepares for the campaign. But he gives up his plan upon the entreaties of his wife who wants to share fortune and misfortune with him.
Toward the end of the thirteen years Sarünas, the legendary prince of the Dainava Country, while on a hunting trip, comes to the manor house of the couple and is hospitably received. But during the night a voice awakens him, urging him to leave the place. He does leave only
to CORONA
after he has seen on the horizon a fiery glow indicating that his own Castle must be in flames. After going quite a distance, he becomes suddenly aware that he has forgotten his sword. He therefore returns to the manor house but finds in its place a deep lake and a table floating near the shore with his sword upon it. The manor house had sunk with lord and lady into the earth and in the place remains a deep lake named Gilse. But every year on the night in which the manor house had disap- peared, a lad and a lass play out in the moonlight in the middle of the lake, shrouded by mist.
n
This Story has a number of motifs which are known also to other peoples outside the Lithuanian language-area :
(i) We are reminded of tale No. 28 ("The Singing Bone") of Grimm's Childrens and Household Tcdes^ where the body of the murdered brother is buried under a bridge and where vengeance eventually comes also.
(2) A three-night vigil at the grave is also to be found in No. 195 ("The Burial-Mound") of the Grimm collection.
(3) A raven speaking to a hunter who is about to shoot it appears also in tale No. 191 ("The Sea-Rabbit") of the Grimm collection.
(4) The Tannhäuser motif (the dry twig sprouts anew) is widely known. Here reference is made only to No. 6 of Grimm's Kinderlegenden ("The Three Green Twigs").^ The motif is of Greek origin. In Greek iconography St. Basil is always pictured with a dry stafl.^
(5) The act of atonement which the man is ready to per- form (although he does not actually perform it) is a Christian motif and also appears elsewhere in Kreve's poetic works. Thus in the mystery play called On the Faths of Fate the Seer teils little Vincent: "You must take upon your Shoulders the
1. I am rcferring to Paul Neuburger's edition of Kinder- und Hausmärchen, gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm. In zwei Teilen herausgegeben, mit Einleitung und Anmerkungen versehen (Berlin and Leipzig: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong und Coo).
2. Cf. Paul Ncuburger, Kinder- und Hausmärchen, II, 320 f.
3. Cf. the legend of St. Basiliskos in the OXd C\x\ixch.S\z\onic Codex Suprasliensis. See A. Leskien, Handbuch der altbulgarischen {ah\irchenslavischen] Sprache, p. 240.
A LITHUANIAN TALE ii
troubles of all our people. By your sacrifice you will redeem this unfortunate country."^
(6) Christian in origin is also the motif of the Crusade, which however here is pointed against the Christians.
(7) The motif of the sunken manor, a variety of the Vineta motif,^ is well known in Lithuania as well as in other coun- tries.*^ The Motif Index of Lithuanian Narrative Folk^Lore by Jonas Balys'^ under No. 3610 gives thirty-nine references to legends about towns, manors, Castles, churches, and bells swal- lowed up by the earth: "At certain periods they reappear for a short time on the surface of the earth; all efforts to save them turn to no account through some error made by the would-be rescuer (tales of this kind are generally attached to certain places)." However, none of the following passages is referred to in Balys's Index:
a) C. Jurkschat, Litauische Märchen und Erzählungen (Heidelberg, 1898), pages 1 08-1 10, gives a local legend about a sunken Castle from Galbrasten (East Prussia). The castle with everything in it is said to have sunk into the Marshes of Strasine for the sins of its lord, especially for the tyranny he exercised over his dependents. The place is now all grown over with moss and dwarf-pines.
b) Bolte-Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Haus- märchen der Brüder Grimm, II, 218, refer to a Lithuanian variant of the tale of "The Poor and the Rieh" (No. 87 of Grimm's coUection) in which the barn of the poor man is filled with grain while the house of the rieh man sinks into a lake on the surface of which a table is floating with the prayer book of the priest on it.
4. Kreves Rastai, VII, 122.
5. We find it also in the above-mentioned mystery play of Kreve's, e.g., Kreves Rastai, VII, 69 and 85. According to Albert Wesselski, Märchen des Mittelalters (1925), p. 200, the motif of sunken Castles, towns, etc., is discussed by M. Winter- nitz in his study on Die Flut sagen des Altertums und der Naturvölker (1901), p. 312.
6. The motif is testified to for Estonia by Antti Aarne, Estnische Märchen- und Sagenvarianten ("FF Communications," XXV; Helsinki, 1918), p. 134, Nos. 86-87, and for Livonia by Oskar Loorits, Livische Märchen- und Sagenvarianten ("FF Com- munications," LXVI; Helsinki, 1926), p. 76, No. 252.
7. Foll^lore Studies, II (Kaunas, 1936). Publication of the Lithuanian Folklore Archives.
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c) In the annual Journal Tauta ir 2.odis, I (Kaunas, 1923), page 129 and the foUowing, V. Kreve-Mickevicius printed pop- ulär tales about the destruction of the legendary city of Raigrod originally situated between Ratnycia and Pervalka. The in- habitants of the city led a life of wickedness. The prophet Elias from the Old Testament came to preach penitence but was so seriously threatened that he feared for his life and gave up his mission. Only an old priest was saved from destruction by a voice which he heard several times in his sleep and which urged him to get out of the city immediately. When he was already quite far away from the city he noticed that he did not have his prayer book with him. He then returned but found in place of the city a large lake. Near the shore a little table was floating, and on it was the prayer book of the priest.
d) In the bailad "Cicinskas" of the late poet laureate Mai- ronis^ the Castle of the blasphemer is swallowed up by the earth: At the place where previously the magnificent palace of Cicinskas had been standing we find now a glittering pond, filled to the brim with water, and in its middle an island framed in by brush.
e) A folktale relates that the Castle of the legendary king of the Samaits or Samogitians was swallowed up by the earth together with the king and his faithful followers after the king had stamped his foot powerfuUy on the ground.^
f) Finally, may I refer to a variant which Kreve-Mickevicius himself published in the Journal Müsii Tautosakß^^ where we find a number of folktales about Prince Sarünas ? Sarünas has
8. Cf. Maironis-Maciulis, Pavasario Balsai (Kaunas, 1920), No. 28, pp. 33-35. Svento Kazimiero Draugijos leidinys. No. 232. This poem is not mentioned in Balys's Motij Index. A difTerent type is mentioned, however, in No. 3748 of the Index, where ten records (only one of which is printed, namely, M. Dowojna- Sylwestrowicz, Podania zmujdzl^ie [Samogitian Tales], II, 52, Warsaw, 1894) of the Story o£ Squire Cicinsf^is are registered with the following Statement o£ contents: "The cruel lord of Upyte, an historical personage, to whose account populär tradi- tion ascribes many a great iniquity. Finally one Easter morning, after riding into church on horseback and murdering the priest holding mass, he, on his way home, was Struck dead by lightning, his manor swallowed up by the earth; his body was persistently being cast up by the earth, and for a long time resisted decay."
9. Cf. the chapter "2emaiciij karalius" in Vikt. Kamantauskas, Kirciuota lietuvit[ literatüros chrestomatija (Kaunas, 1929), p. 79.
IG. Müsq Tautosal{a, I (Kaunas, 1930), 90-112.
A LITHUANIAN TALE 13
there all the familiär traits of Antichrist. When his attacks against God became too outrageous the Lord sent "St." Elias to fight him. With a thunderbolt Elias destroyed the Castle of his adversary. The earth opened and swallowed up the blasphemer with his foUowers. Where previously there had been a Castle there was later only a large lake.
There is unquestionable agreement between the variants^and c (priest and prayer book) on the one band and c and / (Elias) on the other. The motif of the sunken Castle is ultimately to be traced back to the Biblical legend of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the origin of the Dead Sea (Moses 1:19). This conclusion seems to be indicated by the reference made in most of the variants to the evil life of the person or persons involved. Just as in the modern tale only one person is saved, so in the Biblical story, too, of all the inhabitants only Lot and his family escaped.
in
The story of Kreve's Gilse in its entirety, the underlying plot, is not well known in modern literature. It is not to be found in any of the familiär German, Danish, or French col- lections of fairy tales and legends. The motif is not registered either in the international type index.^-^ To be sure, it is listed in a recent Russian publication/^ and in Balys's Lithuanian Motif Index, No. 787, we find even twenty-three entries with the foUowing summary: ^^Late Revenge. A farm lad wishes to marry, but is poor. He murders a merchant and seizes his property; confesses to the girl the circumstances of his sudden prosperity. She demands him to find the nature of the penalty in Store for him. The vigil at the murdered man's grave. They marry. At the appointed time the punishment takes place: the house sinks, leaving only an article, the property of a guest (priest), floating on a table in the water. The guest spending
11. Antti Aarnc, Verzeichnis der Märchentypen ("FF Communications," III; Hel- sinki, 1910), and Srith Thompson, The Types of the T6l\-Tale ("FF Communica- tions," LXXIV; Helsinki, 1927).
12. N. P. Andrejev, 'ü\azatel s\azocnych siuzetov po sisteme Aame (Leningrad, IQ29), No. 751 I.
14 CORONA
the night at the ill-fated house is forewarned by a mysterious voice, bidding him flee." However, during my own reading (extended over two decades) in Lithuanian populär literature I never came upon this story.
Of the twenty-three entries under No. 787 of Balys's Lith- uanian Moüf Index, only iive are printed, the other eighteen being unpubHshed records in manuscript form kept in the Lithuanian Folklore Archives in Kaunas (fourteen items) and in the Archives of the Lithuanian Scientific Society in Vilna (four items). The Lithuanian Scientific Society (Lietuvii^ Mokslo Draugija) was founded in 1907/^ while the Lithuanian Folklore Archives (Lietuviij Tautosakos Archyvas) are only a fev4^ years old. Much of the material collected by these tw^o in- stitutions must of necessity be of doubtful value on account of lack of experience on the part of the collectors. Furthermore, in our case the possibility that Kreve's literary tale might have had something to do with the great number of items should not be disregarded. Thus, some of the eighteen unpublished records may w^ell be reflexes of Kreve's tale, while most of the rest are reflexes of the tale printed in L. Ivinski's Almanac^'^ of the year 1862. Ivinski's story represents the oldest printed record, the remaining four dating from the years 1878/^ 1887/*^ and 1894/^ None of the publications mentioned here are avail- able in this country, nor can they be obtained from Germany or Poland^^ on account of the present war. Furthermore, re-
13. Cf. Antanas Valaitis, Is Lietuviti MoJ^slo Draugtjos istorijos (Vilnius, 1932). Perspausdinta is Lietuviti Tautos, IV kn. 3 sas.
14. L. Ivinski, Kalendorius arba mets^a-jtlus u'l{isz\asis (Vilnius and St. Peters- burg, 1862), p. 25. Our tale was copied and republished by A. Janulaitis under the title "Lietuviskos pasakos" in Mitteilungen der litauischen literarischen Gesellschajt, Vol. IV, Heft 24 (Heidelberg), pp. 516-527. Heft 24 of the Mitteilungen is out of print. About Ivinski and his almanacs cf. M. Birziska, Müsti rastq istorija (id ed.; Kaunas, 1925), pp. 97-100; J. Tumas, Lietuviti literatüros pas\aitos . . . Latirynas Ivins/{is (Kaunas, 1924).
15. A. G. Langkusch, "Litauische Sagen" in Altpreussische Monatsschrift XV (1878), 429, No. 13.
16. J. Karlowicz, "Podania i bajki ludovve zebrane na Litwie staraniem" in Zbior tviadomosci do antropologji l^rajowej, XI, p. 275, No. 34 and XII, p. 10, No. 52 (Cracow, 1887).
17. M. Dowojna-Sylwestrowicz, Podania ztnujdz\ie (Warsaw, 1894), II, 294.
18. My friend Prof. Jozef Birkenmajer, who was to get me the Polish publications, died during the siege of Warsaw.
A LITHUANIAN TALE 15
peated inquiries made over a period of several years at the University of Lithuania in Kaunas were left without any re- sponse. Therefore, I know nothing about the printed material beyond the references given here. In spite of these difficulties we should be able to trace the type farther back and to indicate its ultimate source.
IV
In contrast to the scarcity of tales of the type "Late Revenge" in modern folk literature, this motif enjoyed a certain degree of popularity in medieval times, especialiy in medieval Eng- land. I am able to bring forward three medieval Latin tales of our type, two of which were written in England.
(i) No. 112 of a collection of tales (Liber exemplorum)^^ compiled by an English Franciscan monk in the thirteenth Century, translated into German by Albert Wesselski and pub- lished under the title "Späte Rache"^'' ("Late Revenge"). The f ollowing is a brief Statement of its contents :
A rieh widow had many suitors, and among these was one who was more handsome than the others, but poor. In her heart she favored him, but she did not Hke his poverty. Finally she said to him: "How could I marry you, since you are so poor and unimportant? If you had money and Position, I would be glad to take you."
Thereupon the suitor ambushed a wealthy merchant, slew him and took all his possessions. Then he went again to the lady and asked for her band. Astonished at this suddenly acquired wealth, she asked him how he had obtained it. She gave him no rest until he revealed the truth. Whereupon she said that if he wanted to have her, he had to go to the place where the dead man lay buried and spend there the night watching. This he did. In the middle of the night the dead man arose and prayed to God that justice be done him. And from above came a voice saying: "Thirty years from today you will be avenged."
The lady thought that by the end of that time the knight would have done enough atonement, and thus she married him. Day by day they became richer and gained worldly honor. As the years went by one after the other, the lady often urged her husband to do atonement.
19. Published by P. Meyer in Nottees et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque nationale et d'autres bibliotheques, XXXIV, Part I, 29 f., and by A. Little in Aberdeen, 1918, pp. 65 f., based on the Durham MS.
20. Albert Wesselski, Märchen des Mittelalters, pp. 27 f., with bibliographical references on pp. 199 f.
i6 CORONA
He however put it off from day to day until finally the thirtieth year arrived.
On the day set for his punishment the knight invited all his friends to a feast. For merriment a minstrel was admitted into the Castle. But somebody had damaged his fiddle for a joke, and for that reason he left again. He had already walked some distance, when he noticed that he had lost one of his gloves, and he returned to the Castle. But when he arrived there, he found level ground instead of the Castle. In the middle was a spring, and near the spring lay his glove. The castle had sunk into the ground with everybody in it.
(2) Another tale with a similar plot, but of more recent date, is to be found in Chapter LXXVIII of the Anglo-Latin Gesta Romanorum in Cod. Londin. Bibl. Harl. 2270.^^ The following is the text of Swan's EngUsh version:^^
A law was made at Rome that no man should marry for beauty, but for riches only; and that no woman should be united to a poor man, un- less he should by some means acquire wealth equal to her own. A certain poor knight solicited the band of a rieh lady, but she reminded him of the law, and desired him to use the best means of complying with it, in order to effect their union. He departed in great sorrow, and after much inquiry was informed of a rieh duke, who had been blind from the day of his birth. Him he resolved to murder, and obtain his wealth; but found that he was protected in the daytime by several armed domestics, and at night by the vigilance of a faithful dog. He contrived, however, to kill the dog with an arrow and immediately afterwards the master, with whose money he returned to the lady. He informed her that he had accomplished her purpose; and being interrogated how this had been in so short a space of time, he related all that had happened. The lady desired, before the marriage should take place, that he would go to the spot where the duke was buried, lay himself on his tomb, listen to what he might hear, and then report it to her. The knight armed himself, and went accordingly. In the middle of the night he heard a voice saying: "O duke, that liest here, what askest thou that I can do for thee?" The answer was: "O Jesus, thou upright judge, all that I require is vengeance for my blood unjustly spilt." The voice re-
21. Hermann Oesterley, Gesia Romanorum (Berlin, 1872), pp. 678-680, No. 277, app. 81, with a description of the MS on pp. 187-192. The same text appears as No. 76 in Wesselski's book Mönchslatein and in The Early English Versions of the Gesta Romanorum, by Sidney J. H. Herrtage (London 1879), pp. 208 ff. A German translation was made and published by J. G. Th. Grässe in Gesta Romanorum üba-- setzt. Zweite Hälfte, pp. 234-236.
22. Gesta Romanorum, trans. Charles Swan, with a Preface by E. A. Baker. (London, 1824), chap. Ixxviii, pp. 45-47.
A LITHUANIAN TALE 17
joined: "Thirty years from this time thy wish shall be fulfilled." The knight, extremely terrified, returned with the news to the lady. She reflected that thirty years were a long period, and resolved on the mar- riage. During the whole o£ the above time the parties remained in perfect happiness.
When the thirty years were nearly elapsed, the knight built a strong Castle, and over one of the gates, in a conspicuous place, caused the fol- lowing Verses to be written:
In my distress, religious aid I sought: But my distress relieved, I held it nought. The wolf was sick, a lamb he seemed to be; But health restored, a wolf again we see.
Interrogated as to the meaning of these enigmatic lines, the knight at once explained them, by relating bis own story, and added, that in eight days time the thirty years would expire. He invited all bis friends to a feast at that period, and when the day was arrived, the guests placed at table, and the minstrels attuning their Instruments of music, a beautiful bird flew in at the window, and began to sing with uncommon sweet- ness. The knight listened attentively, and said: "I fear this bird prog- nosticates misfortune." He then took bis bow, and shot an arrow into it, in presence of all the Company. Instantly the Castle divided into two parts, and, with the knight, bis wife, and all who were in it, was precipitated to the lowest depth of the infernal regions. The story adds, that on the spot where the Castle stood, there is now a spacious lake, on which no substance whatever floats, but is immediately plunged to the bottom.
(3) The third medieval record of our type is to be found in a Latin manuscript of the University Library of Breslau, Germany/^ dating from the thirteenth Century. The following is our EngHsh translation of the tale:
One finds in the Tripartite Chronicle that once upon a time a count loved a countess in sinful love, who responded to it. This count secretly murdered the husband of that countess and sent to her messengers de- manding that she marry bim. But she replied to him that she did not want to marry him until after he had spent one night watching at the tomb of her husband. This he did. While he was sitting at the tomb all
23. MS Universitätsbibliothek Breslau. I. F. 115, 161 rb — 163 ra. A description o£ the MS is given by Joseph Klapper, Erzählungen des Mittelalters in deutscher Übersetzung und lateinischem Urtext (Breslau, 1914), pp. 3-8. The Latin text, cntitled De amore inordinato ad mulierem, No. 7 of the collection, is printed on pp. 235 £. of Klapper's edition. Cf. the German translation. Von der göttlichen Rache an einem Mörder und Ehebrecher, pp. 24-26.
i8 CORONA
alone, behold, a voice spoke from the depth: "Lord, avenge my blood, which was spilled unjusdy." And a voice from heaven answered: "Rest in peace," and immediately that voice ceased and the grave closed again. The unhappy murderer returned to the lady, reported that he had ful- filled her demand, and told her what he had seen and heard. She re- pUed: "You must watch again at the grave tonight, otherwise you will not get your wish." Against his will, he watched again, and the same thing happened to him as before. When he reported this to the lady, she said: "You have to watch once again." Although he tried very hard to get out o£ this, compelled by his love for the woman, he spent a third night watching at the tomb of the murdered man. And behold, a light shone round the tomb, and out of the tomb ascended the murdered count, crying in a lamenting voice: "O Lord, avenge my blood, which was spilled unjustly." The Lord told him to rest in peace, for he had given the murderer a respite of thirty years, after which he would judge him, if by that time he had not done atonement. The light then disap- peared. When the court reported this to the lady, the wretched woman said: "This is what I wanted to know. This is a long time. In thirty years we will find enough time to do atonement. Now let us get mar- ried." After they spent twenty years in worldly delights, the count said: "Today is twenty years since I had that horrible vision of your husband, and it seems to me as if it only happened today." The lady answered: "God is merciful, and there is still much time. Let us first find husbands for our daughters and wives for our sons; then we can do atonement." They married off their daughters and their sons, but in the matter of atonement they behaved just like the raven, which always shouts, "Cras, crasl" and puts everything off until tomorrow. Thus the thirty years finally came to an end. At the end of the thirtieth year a blind man came down from the castle of the guilty count. On his way he met the murdered count, who asked him: "O man of God, whence do you come?" He answered: "Sire, I come from the casde." The murdered man continued: "Where is the lord of the castle at this moment?" The blind man answered: "Before I left the casüe, he entered the bedroom to see his wife." The murdered count continued: "Go, I heg you, to him, and teil him that today the thirty years which God granted him as a respite and for atonement are over. Now I summon him before the heavenly judge, and this night he must appear before me, for I am that count whom he murdered in order to get my wife." To this the blind man answered: "Even if I teil him this, he will scarcely believe me." The count then stood before the blind man, enveloped in great radi- ance, and said: "Behold, I touch your eyes with my finger, and you shall now have sight, although, as all know, you were born blind." Im- mediately he received sight and recognized that it was the count, whom he had previously recognized by his voice, and he said to him: "Sire, I
A LITHUANIAN TALE 19
know that you are a holy man." The count however continued: "Go now as fast as possible up to the Castle, and summon in my name your master before the tribunal of God, in order that he answer me this night in the court. As soon as you have deHvered this message, leave the castle quickly, and in no case stay there over night." With these words he vanished. The man who formerly had been bhnd immediately climbed up to the Castle and reported to his master as he had been told. The people of the castle who saw that the blind man had received sight were amazed, and fearing punishment, all of them left the castle with him. At nightfall fire feil from the sky, as once it had fallen on Sodom and Gomorrah, and consumed the castle with all the people who had re- mained in it. Oh how horrible is such a murder and such depravity! How much more abominable and detestable the fact that not once in thirty years had he been ready for a thought of penitence for such a grave crime! How inconceivable the obduracy of that man, that not even at the miraculous sight of the grave which opened did he feel compelled to repent! How unpardonable that he did not return to the Lord, who had given him so much time for repentance, and that he did not improve his ways even then, when he saw before himself the man to whom the murdered count had given sight!
V
A comparison of the three medieval versions with Kreve's tale "Gilse" and Balys's summary in his Lithuanian Motif In- dex^'^ gives the following picture.
(i) / gives no specific indication as to: a) the number of nights spent at the grave of the murdered
man, h) the length of the period of grace, c) signs of remorse on the part of the murderer and his w^ife.
(2) K agrees with / in the following details: The suitor is poor, wants to get married, his relations to the girl are first free of any guilt; the house is swallowed up by the earth and in its place we find water; an innocent stranger is saved, he returns to the house in order to get a forgotten article, finds it floating on a table in the water.
24. The following abbreviations are used here: K = Kreve's "Gilse."
E = No. 112 of the Anglo-Latin Liber exemplorum. G '=■ No. 78 of the Anglo-Latin Gesta Romanorum. B = No. 7 of the Breslau collection. I := Balys's summary in the Lithuanian Moiif Index, No. 787.
20 CORONA
(3) K disagrees with / in one major point: In K three mer- chants are killed, in / only one. In this detail K Stands com- pletely alone, since also in E, G, and B only one person is murdered, a merchant in £", a blind duke in G, the husband of the adulterous woman in B.
(4) K, I, E, G, as opposed to B, agree in four points :
a) The suitor is poor.
b) The woman is either unmarried or a widow (in B she is
married).
c) The relations between the two main persons are based on
orderly love (in B on adultery).
d) In B the Castle is destroyed by fire and no water is men-
tioned.
(5) B Stands alone in six details, namely, in addition to the four points mentioned in paragraph 4:
a) The killed person is the husband of the woman;
b) A stranger acts as a messenger to the culprit before the
catastrophe.
(6) B agrees with E and G in the length of the period of grace, namely, thirty years, while K Stands alone with its ninety-nine years which are first reduced to thirty-three and then to thirteen. I have not been able to find out whether this is Kreve's own invention or whether he found it already in his source. Anyway, as a result of this innovation, the medieval period of limitation ("Verjährungsfrist") after which a claim was superannuated"^ is given up in favor of the evil-boding number thirteen.
(7) On the other band, B agrees with K in two important points:
a) The vigil at the grave is held during three nights {E and G
have a one-night vigil).
b) The wife stifles her husband's Impulse to do atonement (in
E the wife urges her husband to do atonement, while in G this point is left out).
(8) In the destruction of the house the Lithuanian versions {K and /) diff er not only from B, but also from E (where the
25. Cf. A. Wesselski, Märchen des Mittelalters, pp. 199 f., where further references may bc found.
A LITHUANIAN TALE 21
forgotten article is found near the water and not in the water) and G (where nobody is saved and no substance floats on the water).
(9) K shows a number of changes, made either by Kreve or his source. Among Kreve's innovations have to be counted the projection of the action into pagan antiquity and the intro- duction of Sarünas. This man, who in populär tradition enjoys the reputation of a wicked despot, appears here as a congenial prince. Sarünas is a favorite character in Kreve's Hterary pro- duction^^ and, therefore, could not be identified with the evil- doer who is punished at the end. The poet found two versions of the type called "sunken castle," one with Sarünas as the oflender (going back to the BibHcal tale of Sodom and Go- morrah) and the other with the poor farm lad who wants to marry a rieh girl ("Late Revenge"). Kreve welded both tradi- tions into one story by assigning Sarünas the role of the inno- cent stranger who in the Lithuanian tradition is mostly a priest. By making this change, the poet succeeded in placing the tale in the Dainava Country.
VI
The conclusion drawn from this comparison is that none of the three medieval versions could be the direct or indirect source of the Lithuanian tale. There must have been at least one more medieval version which was translated into Polish and through this Polish Channel reached Lithuania and Russia. To make this study complete, I should give a detailed descrip- tion of the way which this spread took. For reasons explained above such a description is not possible at the present time. It is, however, clear beyond any doubt — since this story is un- known in Germany — that the Lithuanians received it through a Polish and not a German intermediary. Until relatively re- cently the Polish language had been the literary vehicle for the great majority of the Lithuanians.^^ As a result, most of the
26. Kreve devoted to Sarünas a monograph, a lyric novel o£ two volumes in Kreves Rästai, Vols. IV-V (Kaunas, 1923 and 1925): Sarünas, Dainavos }{unigaH^tis. Senqjq dainiif gyvenimo pasa\a ("Sarünas, Prince of Dainava: The Tale of a Life According to the Ancient Poets").
27. About German influence upon the Lithuanians consult G. Gerullis in Archiv für slatvische Philologie, XXXIX, 52.
22 CORONA
earlier cultural achicvements of the Lithuanians wcre in one way or another due to Polish influence. As to folk poetry, it must be assumed diat in the areas of mixed (Lithuanian- and Polish-speaking) population the same stories were told in both languages, for the people were united by the same reUgious creed, Roman CathoUcism, and the Church was the most pow- erful cultural Institution. Even Vincas Kreve himself wrote in the Polish language in his earlier days."^ Most — probably all — of the Lithuanian folktales originated in Polish chapbooks which were orally translated into Lithuanian. How these Polish stories infiltrated into the Lithuanian language is de- scribed by Kreve-Mickevicius: "There was in our village a man named Kacinskas Antanas. He was regarded as a highly educated man, and, indeed, he knew many things and used to have many Polish books. In the evenings many people, old and young, would assemble at his place and he would teil them various beautiful stories.""^ There is no doubt but that the tale of the type "Late Revenge," which L. Ivinski published in his Almanac of 1862, had previously found its way into Lithuania from a Polish chapbook.
Concerning the origin of the Polish folktales may I quote an unquestionable authority: "With only very few excep- tions they (the Polish folktales) are closely connected with those of Central Europe, both as to subject matter and form. The tales populär in Western Europe, Biblical and apocryphal legends, collections of stories and anecdotes to be used for ser- mons such as the Gesta Romanorum, the Seven Wise Masters, and numerous merry tales, penetrated into Polish literature and descended into the masses through the intermediary of chap- books which have been reprinted until very recently. Through Polish mediation this literature wandered even farther to the east and penetrated into Russian literature."^^
28. Ci.' Kreves Rastai, I (Kaunas, 1922), 99-136. In Boehm-Specht, Lettisch- litauische Volksmärchen (Jena, 1924), p. 157 f., Specht makes the following State- ment: "One can never be sure whether a Lithuanian tale is not just a translation of a Slavic tale."
29. Müsq Tautosal{a, I, 107.
30. Bolte-Polivka, a. a. O., V (1932), 136.
A REVIEW OF PROVERB LITERATURE SINGE 1920 RICHARD jENTE, Univcrsity of North Carolina
WHEN THE history of folklore studies is written, it will surely be noted that, for many countries in Europe and America, the two decades between the end of the World War and the beginning of the present Euro- pean conflict represent a deiinite period in the development, growth, and expansion of various phases of folklore interests. With the close of the World War several countries in Europe were created and began a new existence; some of the others established new forms of government. There developed at once a conscious emphasizing of the national characteristics, with particular attention to the native language, literature, customs, and institutions. In many countries, for example, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Ireland, etc., folklore commissions were created to assemble and publish the aspects of folklore survivals, and among them the proverb received its deserved attention. In other countries not directly aflected by the World War, folk- lore studies also took on new life. The international aspects of folklore have led to the interchange of ideas and methods, so that the folklorists of one country have profited and been stimulated by those of another. Recent annual folklore con- gresses have emphasized the international scope of folklore and are doing much to stimulate the collecting, publishing, and treatment of folklore materials. The past two decades have thus Seen the establishment of several large and fundamental enterprises in the field of folklore. Bibliographies and hand- books are now available, so that in several fields of folklore, including the proverb, it is now easier to work than it was a few years ago.
24 CORONA
Since the proverb has received particular attention in many countries during the past two decades, it seems both profitable and fitting to survey the product and call especial attention to the important books that have appeared, and also to note the large number of projects known to the writer that are in progress or about to be published.
The annual V olkjkundliche Bibliographie, begun in 1919 by E. Hoffmann-Krayer and now edited by Paul Geiger, repre- sents a milestone in the new development of folklore. The most recent volume published in 1939 treats the literature of 1933 and 1934. We trust that the next volume, which should cover the years 1935 and 1936, is in press, and that the present war will not interfere with the further progress of this bibliography. Section XXI treats Folk^ Speech, particularly the proverb. To the paroemiologist this bibliography is indispensable, although in scope it aims to cover only Europe and America, and even here is not as complete as it might be. Another handy guide which lists over four thousand items from the earliest coUec- tions down to 1928 is W. Bonser and T. A. Stephens, Proverb Literature, A Bibliography of Wor\s Relating to Proverbs, pub- lished for the Folk-Lore Society, LXXXIX (London, 1930). Since this volume includes primarily only printed books, a de- sideratum would be a supplementary bibliography of Journal literature, especially that up to the appearance of the Volks- \undliche Bibliographie.
Space limitations make it necessary to exclude from this survey of the proverb literature of the past two decades the abundance of Journal articles. Only rarely, therefore, will men- tion be made of works other than books or distinct parts of serial publications. Even here limits will have to be drawn, for frequently coUections of miscellaneous folklore materials in- clude a limited number of proverbs. Unless, therefore, a work deals dominantly with proverbs it has not been included. The writer, who has been following proverb literature during this period, possesses a large number of the volumes named.
During the past two decades much attention has been given to the English proverb. Not only have two large and exhaus-
PROVERB LITERATURE 25
tive collections appeared, but we now have several basic books on the study of proverbs and many monographs of fundamen- tal importance. Until a decade ago, there existed no collection of English proverbs in the modern sense. The work of Hazlitt (Third Edition, 1907) was nothing but the old collection of Ray with a few additions of his own finding. The order was still alphabetical by initial letters. Therefore a most welcome book was that of G. L. Apperson, English Proverbs and Pro- verhial Phrases; a Historical Dictionary (London and New York, 1929). This book is based on historical principles and introduces an arrangement according to the significant word, which unfortunately is not consistently carried out. In some respects this book is better than that of W. G. Smith, The Ox- ford Dictionary of English Proverbs (Oxford, 1935), which unfortunately indeed follows the antiquated arrangement of Hazlitt. There is, of course, an extensive index of catch-words, but with many items it is maddening to use this; e.g., under cat, money, etc., there are over sixty references.
Several Standard books of quotations, which have been re- peatedly revised and reissued, contain large collections of prov- erbs, but add little new material or Information. The best of these are: J. Bartlett, Familiär Quotations, a Collection of Pas- sages, Phrases and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources. . . ., Eleventh Edition, by C. Morley (Boston, 1937); J. K. Hoyt, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations . . ., revised by K. L. Roberts (New York and London, 1927) ; W. G. Benham, Benham's Boo\ of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words . . . (Revised Edition, London, 1936), The American edition bears the title: Putnam's Complete Boo\ of Quotations . . . (New York, 1929). In the "Everyman's Library," edited by Ernest Rhys, there is : J. K. Moorhead and C. Lee, A Dictionary of Quotations, an Alphabet of Proverbs (London and New York, ca. 1935). The most recent and most voluminous book of this kind is: B. Stevenson, The Home BooJ{ of Quota- tions, Classical and Modem (New York, 1934). An authorita- tive work on the study of the problems of the proverb is: Archer Taylor, The Proverb (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1931).
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This basic handbcK)k should be known to all who are interested in this field. An Index to "The Proverb" appeared as No. 113 of the Finnish "Folklore Fellows Communications" (Helsinki, 1934). Archer Taylor has issued numerous monographs and articles on proverbs, of which the following represent supple- mentary material to The Proverb: "An Introductory Bib- liography for the Study of Proverbs," Modern Philology, XXX (1932), 195-210; "Problems in the Study of Proverbs," Journal of American Fol\-Lore, XL VII (1934), 1-21.
One of the most active w^orkers in proverbs is Dr. B. J. Whiting of Harvard University. He has produced besides a large number of monographs on various phases of the proverb, two excellent books: Chaucers Use of Proverbs (Cambridge. 1934) and Proverbs in the Earlier English Drama, with lllus- trations from Contemporary French Plays (Cambridge, 1938). As chairman of a Committee on Proverbs of the Group "Com- parative Literature 11" of the Modern Language Association of America, Dr. Whiting has edited a stimulating report entitled "The Study of Proverbs," Modern Language Forum, XXIV (1939), 57-83. The other members of the Committee are F. C. Bradley, Richard Jente, Archer Taylor and M. P. Tilley. Sev- eral of them are now engaged upon important projects in the field of proverbs which will be mentioned at the end of this survey.
D. M. Marvin has compiled two readable books: The Antiq- uity of Proverbs; Fifty Familiär Proverbs and Fol\ Sayings . . . Found in All Parts of the World (New York and London, 1922). This is a better work than his earlier Curiosities in Proverbs, a Collection of Unusual Adages, Maxims, Aphorisms, Phrases and Other Populär Dicta from Many Lands (New York and London, 1916).
The following contain an abundance of proverbial phrases and some proverbs: A. M. Hyamson, A Dictionary of English Phrases (London and New York, 1922) ; Eric Partridge, Dic- tionary of Slang and JJ nconventional English (London, 1937; Second Enlarged Edition, 1938). A voluminous collection of
PROVERB LITERATURE 27
similes, most of which have been cuUed from known writers, is that of F. J. Wilstack, A Dictionary of Similes (London, 1917; Second Revised Edition, Boston, 1924). Of less importance is Grenville Kleiser, Similes and Their Use (New York, 1925). Interesting here is the fact that many of these invented similes have become a part of our populär Speech. W. J. Humphreys, Weather Proverbs and Paradoxes (Baltimore, 1923), treats only a few proverbs of this kind, particularly those based upon ac- curate Observation. Several monographs are available on the proverbs of definite localities, e.g.: E. L. Snapp, "Proverbial Lore in Nebraska," University of Nebraskß Studies in Lan- guage, Literature, and Criticism, XIII (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1933), 51-112; F. W. Bradley, "South Carolina Proverbs," Southern Folklore Quarterly, I (1937), 57-101. Donald F. Bond has treated the legal proverb: "English Legal Proverbs," Publi- cations of the Modern Language Association, LI (1936), 921- 935; "The Law^ and Lawyers in English Proverbs," American Bar Association Journal, XXI (1935), 724-727.
The general interest in proverbs is shown by the publication in both England and the United States of small populär coUec- tions in English of the proverbs of diflerent peoples. I refer to the little booklets published in London by Hill and by Palmer, and in Girard, Kansas, by Haldeman-Julius, of which enor- mous numbers have been sold. Insignificant though these booklets are, their widespread popularity may contribute some- what to the survival of old proverbs and the introduction of foreign proverbs into English speech.
The only important book of Scottish proverbs that we have noted is that of Erskine Beveridge, Fergusson's Scottish Prov- erbs from the Original Print of 1641, Together with a Larger Manuscript Collection of about the Same Period Hitherto Un- published (Edinburgh and London: Scottish Text Society, 1924). ,
A good selection of 648 Gaelic proverbs chosen from over 4,000 is that of T. D. Macdonald, Gaelic Proverbs and Pro- verbial Sayings with English Translations (Stirling, 1926). The
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article of Angus Macgillivray, "Our Gaelic Proverbs: a Mirror of the Past," Caledonian Medical Journal, XIII (1928), 307-326, has been commended.
Of Irish proverbs we possess no really satisfactory coUection and we trust that with the present folklore activity in Eire, attention will be given to folkspeech. The best we have to date is: Thomas F. O'Rahilly, A Miscellany of Irish Proverbs (Dub- lin, 1922), and An Seabhac (i.e., Patrick Shughrue), Seanfhocail na Muimhneach ("Gaelic Folkspeech from Munster") (Dublin and Cork, 1926).
The polyglot coUections of proverbs may be treated sep- arately in two groups, namely those in the original languages, and those in translation only. An excellent and convenient volume with variants of 1,483 current proverbs in several lan- guages is: A. Arthaber, Dizionario comparato dt proverbi e modi proverbiali italiani, laüni, francesi, spagnoli, tedeschi, inglesi e greci antichi con relativi indici sistematico-alfabetici (Milan, ca. 1929). More limited in scope is: A. Boecklen, ^^^^ Sprichwörter, Proverbes, Proverbi, Proverbios (Stuttgart, 1922). A second enlarged edition including the English proverb ap- peared in 1924; the third edition, 1939, was prepared by G. Schmidt. Quite similar is: E. Herg, Deutsche Sprichwörter im Spiegel fremder Sprachen, unter Berücksichtigung des Englischen, Französischen, Italienischen, Lateinischen und Spanischen (Berlin, 1933). The foUowing polyglot volume has experienced many printings : H. P. Jones, Dictionary of Foreign Phrases and Classicd Quotations, Comprising 14,000 Idioms, Proverbs, Maxims, Mottoes, . . . in Latin, Gree\, French, Ger- man, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Alphabeticdly Arranged, with English Translations and Equivalents (New and Revised Edition ; Edinburgh, 1929) . Most of the volumes of "the world's best proverbs" are of little importance and cater to the general reader. Here we can call attention only to a few, e.g., J. G. Lawson, The World's Best Proverbs and Maxims, Gleaned from Many Sources (New York, 1926) ; W. E. Bush, iSoo Se- lected Proverbs of the World, Ancient, Medieval and Moder?! (Boston, 1938); S. G. Champion and E. Mavrogordato, Way-
PRO VERB LITERATURE 29
side Sayings (London, 1922), of which a second series appeared in 1924. To the general reader we can recommend the com- prehensive collection of S. G. Champion, Racial Proverbs; a Selection of the World's Proverbs Arranged Linguistically (London and New York, 1938). This book contains over 26,000 proverbs from nearly 200 languages and dialects. It rep- resents a labor of enormous industry, but the compiler's premise, that it is possible to assign all these proverbs to definite lan- guage groups, is open to serious doubts.
Germany has produced in recent years a number of basic books which should be in the hands of all those interested in the proverb, Friedrich Seiler wrote during the decade be- fore his death in 1928 a long series of fundamental books and articles on various aspects of the proverb. One of his two leading works is Deutsche Sprichwörter\unde (München, 1922), a book of over 450 pages dealing with all aspects of German proverb lore. It should not be confused with: Das deutsche Sprichwort (Strassburg, 1918), a small monograph of seventy-seven pages, perhaps the best short introduction to proverb lore in any language. Seiler's other large proverb study appeared as part of Die Entwicklung der deutschen Kultur im Spiegel des deutschen Lehnworts; namely, Part V: Das deutsche Lehnsprichwort, I (Halle, 1921), II and III (1923), IV (1924). This work treats a vast number of proverbs that have come into the German language from foreign sources. In most cases a brief history of the proverb is given. Since many of these same proverbs became common medieval or common European proverbs, much of the material here assembled holds for the borrowed proverb in other European countries besides Ger- many. Seiler prepared the groundwork for this valuable book with a number of monographs, the most important of which is : "Die kleineren deutschen Sprichwörtersammlungen der vor- reformatorischen Zeit und ihre Quellen," Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, XL VII (1916), 241-256; (1917), 380-390; XLVIII (1919), 81-95.
Several fundamental works are: J. Klapper, Die Sprich- wörter der Freidankjpredigten, Proverbia Fridanci. Ein Beitrag
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zur Geschichte des ostmitteldeutschen Sprichworts und seiner lateinischen Quellen (Breslau, 1927) ; Karl Rother, Die schlesi- schen Sprichwörter und Redensarten (Breslau, 1928), a coUec- tion of over twenty thousand proverbs conveniently arranged in groups. German legal proverbs have been assembled by L. Winkler, Deutsches Recht im Spiegel deutscher Sprichwör- ter (Leipzig, 1927). The well-known collection of Georg Büch- mann, Geflügelte Worte. Der Zitatenschatz des deutschen Volkes, has been reissued several times during the past two decades. The last one to appear in the spirit of Büchmann is that edited by L. Heinemann (Berlin, 1929). A "purified edi- tion" was edited by V. Tornius (Leipzig, 1936), in which cur- rent sayings coined by non-Aryans are omitted from the body of the book but marked as such in the alphabetical list at the end with obvious intent. A large number of utterances of the present-day political leaders are included, not because they are household words but "ought to become such." Two Standard works often revised and enlarged are: W, Borchardt and G. Wustmann, Die sprichwörtlichen Redensarten im deutschen Volksmunde nach Sinn und Ursprung erläutert (Sixth Edition; Leipzig, 1925), and A. Richter, Deutsche Redensarten, sprach- lich und kulturgeschichtlich erläutert (Fourth Edition; Leip- zig, 1921). A populär book containing much interesting matter on proverbs is: K. Faustmann, Aus tiefem Brunnen. Das deutsche Sprichwort. Mit Beitrag: Lebensweisheit der deut- schen Sprichwörter (Freiburg, 1920). Several smaller coUec- tions of material are: W. G. Oschilewski, Deutsche Sprich- wörter. Ausgewählt und eingeleitet (Jena, 1924) ; E. Pastor, Deutsche Volksweisheit in Wetterregeln und Bauernsprüchen (Berlin, 1934); W. Mönch, Schwäbische Spruchkunst. In- schriften an Haus und Gerät (Stuttgart, 1937). A good hand- book of folkspeech is: Robert Petsch, Spruchdichtung des Volkes, Vor- und Frühformen der Volksdichtung; Ruf, Zau- ber- und Weisheitsspruch, Rätsel, Volks- und Kindetreim (Halle, 1938). In the comprehensive work of Adolf Spamer, Die deutsche Volkskunde (Leipzig, 1934-35) there is an ex- cellent chapter "Die Volkssprache" by Friedrich Maurer.
PROVERB LITERATURE 31
Many essays and articles treat the proverbs of definite localities. One of the best is the pamphlet by Hermann Tardel, Bremen im Sprichwort (Bremen, 1929). Perhaps we can mention best here the excellent collection of E. M. Fogel, Proverbs of the Pennsylvania Germans (Fogelsville, Pennsylvania, 1929).
The Dutch proverb has received excellent treatment in a book, which is also valuable for knowledge of the European proverb in generali F. A. Stoett, Nederlandsche Spreekwoor- den, Spreekwijzen, UitdrukJ{ingen en Gezegden, tvjo volumes (Fourth Edition; Zutphen, 1923-25). Proverbs based on pop- ulär beliefs have been treated extensively by A. de Cock, Spree\- woorden, Zegswijzen en UitdrukJ{ingen op Vol\sgeloof berus- tend, two volumes (Antwerp, 1920). Several volumes on populär humor, much of it drawn from proverbs and pro- verbial expressions, have been written by J. Cornelissen, Neder- landsche Volkshumor op Stad en Dorp, Land en Vol\ (Ant- w^erp, 1928-32), A small volume of Dutch maritime proverbs is that of F. Kerdijk, Alles wel aan boord (The Hague, 1935). The South African Dutch proverbs have been collected by D. F. Malherbe, Afrikaanse Spree\woorde en verwante Vorme (Bloemfontein, 1924).
The books of a fev^^ authors have been investigated for their proverb content. The Age of Shakespeare is represented by several good studies : M. T. Tilley, Elizabethan Proverb Lore in Lyly's "Euphues" and in Pettie's "Petite Palace" (New York, 1926) ; K. Pfeffer, Das Elizabethaijische Sprichwort in seiner Verwendung bei Ben Jonson, a dissertation (Giessen, 1933); R. Jente, "The Proverbs of Shakespeare with Early and Con- temporary Parallels," Washington University Studies, XIII (St. Louis, Missouri, 1926), 391-444. A model example of the treatment of the proverbs used by an author is: M. Len- schau, Grimmeis hausens Sprichwörter ("Deutsche Forschun- gen," X; Frankfurt am Main, 1924). Several other German authors have been treated: H. H. Eberth, Die Sprichwörter in Sebastian Brants Narrenschiß ("Deutsches Werden," 3; Greifswald, 1933) ; A. Proksch, Theodor Storms Sprache und Stil nebst Sprichwörtern und Redensarten (Berlin, 1920); J. F.
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SuUivan, Das Sprichwort bei ]ohann Fischart (New York, 1937). The last mentioned is a mere list of materials, being only part of a dissertation. Comprehensive and well done is the following dissertation: A. Anstensen, The Proverb in Ibsen; Proverbial Sayings and Citations as Elements in his Style (New York, 1936). We have not seen Kurt Hülsemann, Die niederdeutschen Sprichwörter in den Wer\en von Nicolaus Gryse, a dissertation (Hamburg, 1930), and David Heft, Pro- verbs and "Sentences" in Fifteenth Century French Comedy, a dissertation (New York, 1938). Thomas H. Russell has com- piled The Sayings of Poor Richard: Wit, Wisdom and Humor of Benjamin Fran\lin in the Prefaces, Proverbs and Maxims of Poor Richard' s Almanacks for 7755 to iy^8 (Chicago, 1926).
Wellerisms have been treated by F. Seiler in Volume IV of Das deutsche Lehnsprichwort, referred to under German prov- erbs. Additional material is found in the following articles: P. Bartels, "Das apologetische Sprichwort im Niederdeutschen und Dänischen," Niederdeutsche Zeitschrift für Vol^s^unde, VIII (1930), 223-250; B. }. Whiting, "A Handful of Recent Wellerisms," Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen, CLXIX (1936), 71-75; F. Sanchez y Escribano, "Dialogismos paremiologicos castellanos," Revista de fililogia espanola, XXIII (1936), 275-291.
Of the Scandinavian paroemiologists the Swedes have been most active. We might expect this, for there does not exist as yet a reliable book of Swedish proverbs. At the end of this survey we shall note two large unpublished collections. The Swedish proverbs of Finland have been assembled in exemplary manner by V. Solstrand, Finlands svenska folkdi\tning III. Ordstäv ("Skrifter utgivna av svenska litteratursällskapet i Fin- land," CLXXII; Helsingfors, 1923). A humorous, amusingly illustrated book is that by Fredrik Ström, Svensl^arna i sina ordspräJ{, jämte sju tusen svens\a ordspräJ^ om Gud och djävu- len, mannen, \vinnan ach kßrleken, livet och dödeii, glädjen och sorgen, ämbeten och yr\en . . . (Stockholm, 1926). Two smaller books are: G. Cederschiöld, Om ordstäv och andra
PROVERB LITERATURE 33
ämnen (Lund, 1923), and J. L. Saxon, Närkjngarnas ordspräkj- bo\ (Stockholm, 1930).
From Norway and Denmark we have only a few smaller coUections: R. T. Christiansen, Gamle visdomsord (Oslo, 1928); M. Bonnevie, Ord som lever (Oslo, 1928); and the two books of Emil Thomsen, ^400 Ordsprog, Talemaader og Skjaemtesprog (Copenhagen, 1919) and Ordsprogens Verdens- gang (Copenhagen, 1922). A. Hansen and C. Behrend have issued a new edition of the 1506 print of Peter Laales danske ordsprog (Copenhagen, 1929) with a translation into modern Danish. Besides bringing facsimiles of pages of the several early prints, we have here in facsimile four pages of a man- uscript fragment upon w^hich Laale drew, dating from about 1450.
A good collection of modern Icelandic proverbs is that of Finnur Jonsson, tslens\t Mälshättasafn (Copenhagen, 1920). A reprint of an old collection with commentary has been made by G. Kallstenius, Jonas Rugmans Sämling av isl'äns\a tcdesätt ("Skrifter utg. av Kongl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Sam- fundet," XXII, No. 8; Uppsala, 1927). Of interest for the older proverb is the article by G. Kallstenius, "Nordiska ordspräk hos Saxo," Archiv för nordis/{ filologi XLIV, Tillaegsbind (1927), 16-31, and Gudmund Olauus, Thesaurus adagiorum linguae septentrionalis antiquae et modernae ("Skrifter utg. av Veten- skaps-Societeten i Lund," XII; 1930).
The Baltic republics have all developed an active interest in folklore, and in each there are folklore commissions which are busily assembling materials for publication. The most am- bitious project, one not yet completed, is that undertaken by the Lithuanian V. Kreve-Mickevicius, Patarles ir priezodziai ("Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions"), Volume I (Kaunas, 1934). This volume contains over seven thousand items ar- ranged according to initial letter A to E. A second volume was issued in 1935 with four thousand items; a third in 1937. When completed this will be one of the monumental works in the field of proverbs. The Latvian proverbs have been assem-
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bled by P. and M. Birkerts, Latviesu Sakämvärdi un Parunas (Riga, 1927). A second enlarged edition of Estonian proverbs is that of M. J. Eisen, Eesti vanasönad. Suurest kprjandusest \oWu pöiminud (Tartu, 1929). It is hoped that further mate- rials collected by this author will also be published. The Fin- nish Folklore Commission has assembled a vast number of proverbs which have not yet appeared. The large coUection of A. V. Koskimies of 1906 has been published in abbreviated form under the title: Valikpima suomalaisia sananlas\uja. A. Ahlqvistin mu\aan (Tampere, 1929).
There has been great activity in the field of proverbs in Spain and Spanish America, and although many large, valuable and interesting collections have appeared, we still lack a con- venient and reliable comprehensive work on the Spanish prov- erb. In 191 0 Jose Maria Sbarbi, know^n to all paroemiologists as the editor of the ten-volume El refranero genercd espanol (1874-88), died at the age of seventy-six, leaving a large man- uscript collection of proverbs. In 1922 this was published at Madrid in two volumes by M. J. Garcia under the title: Dic- cionario de refranes, adagios, proverhios, modismos, locuciones y frases proverbiales de la lengua espanola. The advantage of this work is that it is arranged according to key word, and material sought is easy to locate, but it lacks sources for cach proverb and earliest date of appearance, so that its value as a scientific work of reference is limited. Another posthumous work first published in 1906 is that of the early seventeenth- century humanist Maestro Gonzalo Correas, Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales y otras formulas comunes de la lengua castellana en que van todos los impresos antes y otra gran copia (Madrid, 1906; Second Edition, 1924). Overtwenty- six thousand items are brought together here with occasional notes and explanations, but the order is alphabetical by first word, and the book is thus difficult to use. A third still larger collection of materials supplementing Correas and assembled in the same unsatisfactory order is represented in the three large volumes of F. Rodriguez Marin, Mas de 21,000 refra?ies castellanos, no contenidos en la copiosa coleccion del maestro
PROVERB LITERATURE 35
Gonzalo Correas, allegolas de la tradicion orcd y de sus lecturas durante mäs de medio siglo (Madrid, 1926). Volume II fol- lowed in 1931 as 12.600 refranes mäs, etc., and Volume III in 1934: Los 6.666 refranes de mi ultima rebusca, que con "Mäs de 21.000" y "12.600 refranes mäs" suman largamente 40.000 refranes castellanos no contenidos en la copiosa coleccion del maestro Gonzalo Correas. Another paroemiologist who has been most active is G. M, Vergara y Martin. In 1923 he issued his large Diccionario geogräfico populär de cantares, refranes, adagios, proverbios, locuciones, frases proverbiales y modismos espanoles. An abbreviated edition of the same came out in 1929. In a series entitled "Estudios folkloricos geogräficos," Vergara y Martin has published a large number of monographs dealing with various aspects o£ the Spanish proverb. A populär collection intended for the general reader is V, Acocella, Re- franero cläsico. Dos mil doscientos refranes castellanos (Bar- celona, 1930). Catalonian proverbs have been treated by J. Amades, in the "Biblioteca de Tradicions Populars," Serie A, namely, Calendari de Refranys and Origen i sentit d'alguns proverbis (Barcelona, 1933). Comprehensive dialect collections are E. Alberola i M. Peris Fuentes, Refraner Valencia (Valencia, 1928), and A. Sevilla, Sabiduria populär murciana (Murcia, 1926).
Spanish America has produced several works of note. De- spite its faults in content and arrangement the largest and best is: Dario Rubio, Refranes, proverbios y dichos y dicharachos mexicanos (Mexico, 1937). A small but good collection of Chilean proverbs is: R. A. Laval, Paremiologia Chilena (San- tiago de Chile, 1923; Second Edition, 1928). Paraguayan prov- erbs have been collected by N. R. Colman, Mil refranes guaranies . . . (Asuncion, 1928). We note in conclusion several works of less value : R. Blanco y Sanchez, Refranero pedagögico hispanoamericano (Third Edition; Madrid, 1920); A. L. Campa, "Sayings and Riddles in New Mexico," University of New Mexico Bulletin, No. 313 (Albuquerque, 1937).
An important collection of Portuguese proverbs and sayings is: Alfredo da Cunha, Ditames e Diterios . . . , three volumes
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(Lisbon, 1929, 1930, 1931). The Portuguese proverbs of Brazil have been gathered together in installments by Afränio Peixoto, "Adagios brasiieiros," Portucale, I (1928), 124-137; II (1929), 214-215.
A miscellaneous collection of 162 Basque proverbs contrib- uted by various people appeared under the title: "Refranes y dichos populäres" in the Änuario de la Sociedad de Eus\o- FolJ{lore, I (Vitoria, 1921), 43-58.
For the French language there is still no adequate collection to supersede that of Le Roux de Lincy (1859), but during the past two decades several important works have appeared w^hich Supplement it. The most significant among these is that by J. Moravi^ski, Proverbs frangais anterieurs au XV^ siede (Paris, 1925), which brings together in convenient form twenty-five hundred proverbs recorded in manuscripts before 1500. It is one of the basic books for proverb study in general. Moraw^ski has otherwise been quite active in publishing articles on pro- verbs and making available ancient manuscript material. We can mention here only Les diz et proverbes des sages (Paris, 1924). W. Gottschalk is the author of several books of high value: Die sprichwörtlichen Redensarten der französischen Sprache, Parts I and II (Heidelberg, 1930) ; Die bildhaften Sprichwörter der Romanen. I Die Natur im romanischen Sprichwort (Heidelberg, 1935). // Der Mensch im Sprichwort der romanischen Völ\er (Heidelberg, 1936). A beautiful and valuable book is that by Grace Frank and Dorothy Miner, Proverbes en rimes; Text and lllustrations of the Fifteenth Cen- tury from a French Manuscript in the Walters Art G aller y, Baltimore (Baltimore, 1937). Grace Frank has published from a later manuscript in the British Museum further "Proverbes en rimes" in The Romajiic Review, XXXI (1940), 209-238. A fourteenth-century manuscript of proverbs has been well edited by A. C. Thorn, Les proverbes de bon enseignement de Nicole Bozon (Lund, 1921). A French "Bartlett" containing much proverbial matter is: O. Guerlac, Les citations frangais. Recueil de passages celebres, phrases familieres, mots historiques avec Vindication exacte de la source (Paris, 1931). Several populär
PROVERB LITERATURE 37
collections have been repeatedly reprinted, e.g., L. Martel, Petit recueil des proverbes frangais (Paris, 1883; Twelfth Edition, ca. 1925); Eman Martin, Deux cent locutions et proverbes. Origine et explications (Paris, 1888; nineteenth thousand, 1936). An illustrated coUection published in a limited edition is A. LePetit, 7/92 Proverbes de France, de partout et d'ailleurs. Illustre en couleurs (Paris, 1929). A large book which has re- produced older source materials, but which unfortunately does not give references, is Henri de Vibraye, Tresor des proverbes frangais anciens et modernes, reunis et commentes (Paris, 1934). A number of good works on the proverbs of various parts of France are: L. Morin, Proverbes et dictons recueillis dans le departement de l'Aube (Troyes, 1932); fi. Ramond, Histoires marseillaises, galejades et proverbes de Provence (Paris, 1926) ; £. Dulac, Gasconades, mots, historiettes , contes, legendes et proverbes de Gascogne (Paris, 1927) ; F. P, Raynal, Sagesse auvergnate; recueil de proverbes (Rodez, 1935) ; M. Lateur, Un peu de jolhlore: Quatre cents locutions et dictons de nos regions minieres de l'Artois (Arras, 1934). A good col- lection of proverbs of the sea is : A. Hayet, Dictons et tirades des anciens de la voile (Paris, 1934).
Italy still has no representative comprehensive coUection of proverbs, and we do not knov;^ that any undertaking of this kind is in progress. The few works noted are particularly those that deal with the proverbs of definite areas or particular as- pects, as for example: G. Nardi, Proverbi, frasi e modi pro- verbidi del Revennate (Imola, 1922) ; S. La Sorsa, La sapienza popolare nei proverbi pugliese (Bari, 1923). U. Rossi Ferrini, Proverbi agricoli (Firenze, 1931). An old work which still seems to enjoy popularity in Sicily is the coUection of poems on proverbs by Santo Rapisarda, Raccolta di proverbi siciliani ridotti in canzoni (Fourth Edition; Catania, 1924).
A large and excellent Latin coUection, highly recommended as a source book, is that of L. De-Mauri (i.e., Ernesto Sarasino) Flores sententiarum. Raccolta di ^000 sentenze, proverbi e motti latini di uso quotidiano in ordine per materie con le fonti indicate, schiarimenti e la traduzione italiana (Milan, 1926).
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The only other Latin book of importance here is W. C. Korf- macher, Othloni Libellus proverbiorum (Chicago, 1936). It is hoped that competent scholars will continue to investigate the medieval Latin proverb. It represents a field that has been quite neglected and one which should yield valuable results toward a knowledge of the history of the vernacular proverbs of many European countries.
The modern Greek proverb has been treated in a large number of short articles. The most comprehensive work we have noted are the many serial coUections of the proverbs of Cyprus by N. Kvpia^T^s, Kv-rrpiaKal Trapoi/xlai, w^hich liave appeared throughout four volumes of the KvirpuxKa XpoviKd , V to VIII (1927-31). Published in book form this collection w^ould Cover over tv^o hundred and hfty pages.
In some of the Slavic countries there has been activity in the collecting of proverbs, but no really significant works have yet been published. The follow^ing "Book of Proverbs" is intended for populär use: V. Knjazev, Kniga poslovic (Leningrad, 1930). Proverbs on "priests and religion" have been assembled by M. I. Sachnovic, Poslovicy i pogovorkj 0 popach i religii (Moscow, 1933). A small book treats "Moscow in Proverbs": B. Scheydlin, Moskj/a v poslovicach (Moscow, 1929). For the English reader we mention the foUowing booklets by F. Baucr- Czarnomski, Proverbs in Russian and English and Proverbs in Polish and English, both printed by Hill (London, 1920). A treatise and collection of a large number of Polish proverbs is: }. St. Bystron, Przylowia polskje (Krakow, 1933). A book treat- ing the Polish proverbs concerning the days of the year is W. Strzyzowski, Przyslowia ludowe na poszczegolne dni w rokß (Bromberg, 1926). Of the Czech proverb we have a small volume with introduction by K. Chapek: Karel Kraus, CesJ{a pHslovi. Üvod od K. Capkß (Praha, 1931). A new edition of the Serbian folklore materials coUected by V. St. Karadzhic and published in 1853 has been reissued in augmented form under the title: Srpske narodne poslovitze . . . (Beigrade, 1933). The German translation of this work (Berlin, 1854) contained over a thousand Serbian proverbs. We have a small
PROVERB LITERATURE 39
book of the "Populär wisdom" of Bulgaria by T. N. Balabanov, Narodna mudrost (Sofia, 1928). W. M. Petrovitch was work- ing on a large coUection of Montenegrin proverbs when he died recently. He published fifty-two proverbs under the title: "Wit and Wisdom of the South Slavs," 'Notes and Queries, CLXV (1933), 344.
The Gypsy proverbs have been collected in a large volume and published in Bulgarian by T. Djordjevic, Ciganske na- rodne pripovet\e (Belgrads, 1933).
The Hebrew^ proverb has been commonly treated in connec- tion vi'ith the older literature; for example: G. Boström, Paronomasi i den äldre hebreiskß maschcdlitteraturen. Med särs^ild hänsyn tili Vroverbia (Lund, 1928); H. Gressmann, Israels Spruchweisheit im Zusammenhang der Weltliteratur (Berlin, 1925) ; Israel Davidson, "Wisdom and FoUy in Medie- val Hebrew Proverbs," in Essays and Studies in Memory of Linda R. Miller (New York, 1938). The Talmudic elements in the Yiddish proverb have been treated by L. Tojbesh, Tal- mudishe elementn inem jidishn shprichwort (Vienna, 1927). An improved and enlarged edition came out in 1928. Of espe- cial interest to American Jews is the splendid article by Leah R. Yoffie, "Yiddish Proverbs, Sayings, etc. in St. Louis, Mo.," Journal of American Folk^-Lore, XXXIII (1920), 134-165.
Those who know Arabic are enthusiastic over the quality and abundance of proverbial wisdom preserved in the common sayings of this widespread language. The Turkish language has taken up thousands of these and has helped to spread them into Southeastern Europe. The close affinity of the Hebrew and the Arabic has also led to an interchange of proverbs and a consequent spread of this wisdom. Several large and important collections have recently appeared. The well-known work of C. Snouck Hurgronje, Mexikanische Sprichwörter und Redens- arten, which first appeared in 1886, was reprinted in 1929 in Volume V of his "Verspreide geschriften." Sa'id 'Abbüd in collaboration with M. Thilo and G. Kampfimeyer has compiled ^000 arabische Sprichwörter aus Palästina in a supplementary volume to the Mitteilungen des Seminars für orientalische
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Sprachen an der Universität Berlin, Volume XXXVI (Berlin, 1933). Enno Littmann has translated a sizable volume of Kairiner Sprichwörter und Rätsel ("Abhandlungen für Kunde des Morgenlandes . . .," XXII, 5; Leipzig, 1937). The Yemenic dialect is excellently represented in the collection of S. D. F. Goitein, ]emenica Sprichwörter und Redensarten aus Zentral- jemen (Leipzig, 1934). A large volume of Syro-Lebanese prov- erbs with Arabic text, translation, and commentary has been compiled by M. T. Feghali, Proverbes et dictons syro- libanais (Paris, 1938). Of a more populär nature are the fol- lowing: A. B. and E. H. Hyman, Poetry, Proverbs, Philosophy from the Arabian Nights (Los Angeles, 1928) ; £, L. Montet, Choix de proverbes, dictons, maximes et pensees de l'lslam (Paris, 1933) ; S. Hillelson, Arabic Proverbs, Sayings, Riddles and Populär Belief s (Khartoum, 1921), L. Brunot, "Proverbes et dictons arabes de Rabst," Hesperis, VIII (Paris, 1928). Tw^o large books treat the proverbs of Morocco. The better by far is that by E. A. Westermarck, Wit and Wisdom in Morocco; a Study of Native Proverbs (London, 1930). The long Intro- ductory Essay deals w^ith form, linguistic peculiarities, content, and sociological significance of the proverbs, many of which have been collected from the lips of the native Moors. The original text w^ith transliteration and translation of these 2,013 items is foUowed by a complex index. This book is a remark- able example of how the native proverbs may be treated to demonstrate the many sociological aspects of a people. Similarly valuable, but in a less degree, are the three hundred Proverbes inedits des vieilles femmes marocaines, collected by Si Ahmed Sbihi, with translation and notes by A. Benchehida (Fez, ca.
1931)-
The foUowing tv^o small volumes of Turkish proverbs
are not very significant: Hamid Izzet, Proverbes turcs et
frangais (Constantinople, 1923); Lufti Muzzafer, Turg atalar
sözü ("Turkish Ancestors' Sayings") (Constantinople, 1928).
A small collection from Bulgaria is: G. Karadimitrov, Mädri
turs}{i izrecenija ("Wise Turkish Sayings") (Sofia, 1933).
Russo-Turkish border provinces are represented by the follov^^-
PROVERB LITERATURE 41
ing: M. Geldiew, Sborni\ tur\mens}{ich narodnych pogovoro\, poslovitsi i zagadoß{ ("CoUection of Turkomen Sayings, Pro- verbs and Riddles") (Poltorack, Ashabad, 1925) ; Ch. Seinally, Azerbaidshanske poslovitsi i pogovorkj (Turkish title: Azer- baidshan atcdar sözü, i.e., "Azerbaidjan Ancestors' Sayings") (Baku, 1926). The Russian titles of these two rather füll col- lections are misleading. They are both in Arabic type and are not translated.
Little that is important seems to have been published during the past two decades on the proverbs of Central and Southern Asia. A Selection of Telagu Proverbs appeared at Madras in 1922, oflfering less than half the material found in the larger work of M. W. Carr (Madras and London, 1868). Otherwise the publications are of less importance: L. Paul-Marguerite and L'Emir Kamuran Bedir Kahn, Proverbes Kurdes (Paris, 1937) ; Rai Bahadur Gang-ar-ama, Punjabi Agricultural Proverbs and their Scientific Significance (Labore, 1920); }. B. Degeorge, "Proverbes, maximes et sentences Tays," Anthropos, XXVII (Vienna, 1927), 911-932, Some ancient proverbs are contained in Sumerian Texts of Varied Contents, edited by E. Chiera (Chicago, 1934). Champaklal Chunilal Shah edited in 1923 three small pamphlets in the "Haldeman- Julius Series," namely, Proverbs of India, Proverbs of Hindustan and Sans\rit Prov- erbs, w^hich presumably do not bring new materials.
The w^ell-known CoUection of Chinese Proverbs by W. Scar- borough of 1875 has been Revised and Enlarged by the Addi- tion of 600 Proverbs by C. W. Allan (Shanghai, 1927). In its new form this book is a Standard work, the best that we have. C. H. Plopper, Chinese Religion Seen Through the Proverb (Shanghai, 1926), is a voluminous treatment of all phases of the subject by a man well acquainted with it. The same author has also published two short addresses : Chinese Proverbs: The Relationship of Friends as Brought out by the Proverbs; Eco- nomics as Seen through the Proverbs (Peiping, 1932). A very readable book is that of B. Brown, The Wisdom of the Chinese: Their Philosophy in Sayings and Proverbs (New York, ca. 1920). A second, apparently stereotyped, edition was published
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at Garden City, New York, about 1938. The following Book I have not seen: H. H. Hart, "joo Chinese Proverbs (London, 1937). Of less importance seem to be: A. Guiterman, Chips of Jade: Being Chinese Proverbs . . . (New York, 1920) ; Sun-po Lin, Words of Wisdom from Chinese Sages (New York, ca. 1933); L. A. Lyall, The Sayings of Confucius (London, 1925).
A voluminous coUection of Japanese proverbs with German translations is the second enlarged edition of P. Ehmann, Sprichwörter und bildliche Ausdrücke der japanischen Sprache (Leipzig, 1927). A good work in English, giving the roman- ized Japanese, Chinese and Japanese characters, and literal translation into English with the nearest EngUsh equivalent pro- verb is: Aisaburo Akiyama, Japanese Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases (Kyoto, 1935). An interesting but unpretentious pamphlet sufficiently described by its title is: W. E. Griffis, Proverbs of Japan: a Little Picture of the Japanese Philosophy of Life as Mirrored in their Proverbs (New York: Japan So- ciety, ca. 1924). As with the Chinese, the Japanese proverb reflects the religious thought of the people. A German disser- tation treats this subject: G. Sudau, Die religiöse Gedankenwelt der Japaner im Spiegel ihres Sprichworts (Leipzig, 1932). The Japanese Board of Tourist Industry has just issued a hand- somely illustrated volume of Japanese proverbs edited by Otoo Huzii.
We note two collections of Malay proverbs, namely, that of E. S. Hose (Singapore, 1933) and A. W. Hamilton (Singa- pore, 1927). Maori proverbs are represented by A. F. McDon- nell, Maori Songs and Proverbs (Auckland, 1923), and R. Firth, "Proverbs in Native Life with Special Reference to Those of the Maori," Folk-Lore, XXXVII (1926), 134-153, 245-270. The native proverbs of Hawaii, which are fast disappearing, have been treated in two works published by the Bernice P. Bishop Museum: E. E. V. Collocott and J. Havea, Proverbial Sayings of the Tongans (Honolulu, 1922), and H. P. Judd, Hawaiian Proverbs and Riddles (Honolulu, 1930). Some proverbs are included in the following: L. S. Green, Hawaiian Stories and
PROVERB LITERATURE 43
Wise Sayings ("Publications o£ the Folk-Lore Foundation," No. 3; Poughkeepsie, 1923).
In the non-Arabic parts of Africa there has been consider- able activity in the coUecting and preserving of native proverbs. Several of these works are by missionaries, who, being close to the common people, know the value of the populär wisdom contained in the proverb and realize how its use at once opens between the native and the foreigner a common basis for mutual understanding. Here only printed books will be men- tioned. English, German, and French Journals of anthropology and folklore contain numerous articles on the proverbs of the various tribes and peoples of Africa and should be consulted by those interested, since the few books that have appeared do not give a true picture of what has actually been done. S. G. Cham- pion in his recent work Racial Proverbs (London and New York, 1938) has listed many of these articles. Dr. Champion's bibliography seems to be quite complete, and the following titles are intended as a Supplement. Congo proverbs and fables are treated in detail in a large volume by L. de Clercq, De Bakongo in hun taal. Spreekwoorden en fabeis (Brüssels, 1939). The best book of the proverbs of Madagascar is that by Hubert Nicol, Proverbes et locutions malgaches (Paris, 1935). Dr. Champion has listed the following excellent book incor- rectly: G. Herzog and C. G. Blooah, Jabo Proverbs from Liberia (London, 1936).
On the Negro proverb of Jamaica two basic works have been produced, both of them modeis of thoroughness in form as well as content; namely: L Anderson and F. Cundall, Ja- maica Negro Proverbs and Sayings (Second Edition; London, 1927), and Martha W. Beckwith, Jamaica Proverbs (Pough- keepsie, 1925). H. A. Franck has coUected 468 proverbs with- out much comment in Dialect Notes, V (1921), 98-108.
The writer is acquainted with a number of important enter- prises in the field of proverbs which are in progress and should for the most part appear within the next few years. Space will permit only a very brief report. The following American scholars may be mentioned first. Dr. B. J. Whiting of Harvard
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University has ready for publication a cross section of the American proverb as found in several hundred novels pub- lished between 1928 and 1938. He is also working on a collec- tion of the early English proverb up to 1550. Dr. M. P. Tilley of the University of Michigan is editing a volume of English proverbs from 1550 to 1700 as part of a Dictionary of Early Modern English now^ being compiled by a group of professors at the University of Michigan. Dr. R. S. Boggs and Dr. F. C. Hayes of the University of North Carolina have been vi^orking for several years on a historical dictionary of Spanish proverbs. Dr. R. Jente of the University of North Carolina has ready for publication an edition w^ith extensive commentaxy of the early Dutch Proverbia Communia.
Dr. Selwyn Gurney Champion in the Introduction to his Racial Proverbs has noted several projects, which may be re- ferred to briefly. The Finnish Literature Society and Diction- ary Endovi^ment has coUected 1,450,000 proverbs, and the Esto- nian Folk-Lore Archives over 110,000 Estonian proverbs. On pages xxvii-xxxiii Dr. Champion has recorded several unpub- lished collections in various languages without giving details. One of the most important of these seems to be the manuscript of Carl A. Bäckström comprising 30,000 proverbs in Sv^edish, German, French, and English, which the collector presented to the Royal Library in Stockholm in 1928. This together v^^ith a manuscript coUection also deposited in the same library by K. Strömbäck over fifty years ago w^ill, w^e hope, attract a competent editor.
The man in whose honor this testimonial volume is pub- lished by his pupils, friends, and admirers, Dr. S. Singer, has for years had a deep interest in proverbs. Among his v^ritings there are several that treat the early Swiss proverb. We have also been informed that Dr. Singer now has almost completed a manuscript of voluminous proportions that brings together the entire body of medieval and early vernacular proverbs of Western Europe. We trust that the publication of this work may be assured at an early date.
EIN LOBSPRUCH VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 1509
FRIEDRICH c. SELL, Harvard TJniversity
IN DER erlesenen Sammlung von Erstausgaben der deut- schen Literatur, die Curt von Faber du Faur zusammenge- bracht und vor kurzem in Harvard aufgestellt hat, befindet sich ein sehr merkv^^ürdiger Pergamentband aus dem 16. Jahr- hundert. Er enthält verschiedene Schriften, die sich auf die Schützen- und Volksfeste jener Zeit beziehen und geeignet sind, ein neues Licht auf eine Literaturgattung zu v^^erfen, die meist nur im Zusammenhang mit Fischarts Glückhaftem Schiff von Zürich gew^ürdigt w^ird: die Pritschmeisterdichtung. Es sind vier Pritschmeistersprüche und zwei Berichte über "Glücks- häfen," d. h. Lotterien, die bei Gelegenheit der Schützenfeste abgehalten wurden. Drei von den Pritschmeistersprüchen sind seltene Drucke: Lienhart Flechsels Spruch von dem Wiener Schiessen 1563,^ Kaspar Lerffs Spruch von dem Regensburger Schiessen 1586" und Heinrich Gerings Spruch von dem Stutt- garter Schiessen 1560,^ der vierte Spruch jedoch ist eine Hand- schrift vom Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts, die hinter den Drucken eingeheftet ist, der "Lobspruch von eim Schiessen Zu Augs- purg: A° 1509."
1. Noch ein weiteres Exemplar dieses Druckes ist bekannt (Mayer, Wiens Buck- druc\er geschickte, I, 8i, Nr. 397) ausser der Handschrift, welche A. Camesina 1875- 76 abdruckte {Blätter des Vereins jür 'Landes\unde für Niederösterreich. N. F., 9.-11. Jahrg.)
2. Von diesem Druck sind drei weitere Exemplare vorhanden, in Berlin, Nürn- berg und München. Vgl. Goedeke 2. 327.
3. Zwei weitere Exemplare dieses Druckes sind bekannt, eines in Zürich (Weller, Deutsche Annalen, I, 321) und eines in der Württembergischen Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart.
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Diese Handschrift ist anscheinend nie gedruckt worden und bisher unbekannt. Ihre besondere Bedeutung besteht darin, dass sie den ältesten bis jetzt zu Tage getretenen Pritsch- meisterspruch wiedergibt.
Wie sie zu Stande gekommen ist, lässt sich nur vermuten. Die Schrift ist die eines Berufsschreibers, kaUigraphisch und meist leicht lesbar; von der gleichen Hand sind der in dem Codex folgende Bericht über den Glückshafen zu Nürnberg im Jahr 1579 und das Titelblatt des an erster Stelle in den Band eingehefteten gedruckten Spruchs von Lienhart Flechsel. Der Schreiber hat also die Zusammenstellung des Bandes über- wacht, nachdem er den Spruch nach einer geschriebenen, nicht gedruckten Vorlage kopiert hatte. Das geht aus V. 178 hervor, in dem er den Namen nicht entziffern konnte und ein Frage- zeichen setzte. Gesammelt hat die Stücke jemand, der nicht nur am Literarischen sondern auch am Technischen interes- siert war, denn der Bericht über den Glückshafen ist lediglich eine Liste der Gewinner und Gewinste in kaufmännischer Aufzählung. Ein solches Interesse muss zunächst bei den Schützengesellschaften gesucht werden; es war um 1600 be- sonders lebendig, als das Bürgertum sich seines Niederganges bewusst zu werden anfing. Hans Heinrich Grob, ein Züricher, berichtet 1602, wie sehr ihn die Schützen drängten, alles, was er über die vor hundert Jahren üblichen Bräuche und Sprüche gesammelt habe, zu veröffentlichen.^ Es liegt nahe, einen Schützenhauptmann oder einen Beauftragten einer Schützen- gilde in dem Sammler zu vermuten.
Als Verfasser des Lobspruches auf das Schiessen in Augs- burg nennt sich (V. 281) ein gewisser Hans Werthmann, der in anderen Quellen Wordtmann heisst. Er war ein Glaser zu Schwäbisch Hall und übte das Pritschmeisteramt aus.
Pritschmeister waren die Aufseher und Ausrufer bei den Schützenfesten, die unter vielen Spässen mit Pritschenschlägen Ordnung zu stiften hatten. Sie verfassten öfter gereimte Be- schreibungen der grossen Ereignisse, die sie in illustrierten Handschriften dem Rat der Stadt, in der das Fest stattgefunden
4. Zs.f-d.A., III, 240,
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 47
hatte, überreichten, um sie dann in einfacherer Ausstattung drucken zu lassen.
Es besteht in der Wissenschaft Übereinstimmung darüber, dass der künstlerische Wert dieser Sprüche gering ist, dass sie aber als Quellenmaterial für die Kulturgeschichte höchst schätz- bar sind. Aus den unbeholfenen Versen schimmert die saftige Lebenslust des 16. Jahrhunderts. Was konnten die derben Bür- ger damals für Feste feiern, an denen alles teilnahm, vom Rats- herrn herab bis zu den "huren und buben," denen auch ihr Teil offiziell verstattet w^urde! Was w^urde da an Essen, Trin- ken und an bunter Prachtentfaltung geleistet! Das Bild der selbstbewussten Stadtgemeinschaft des späten Mittelalters w^ird noch einmal lebendig. Gustav Freytag hat seine Schilderung der bürgerlichen Waffenfeste v^esentlich auf Wolfgang Ferbers Pritschmeisterbericht über das Coburger Schiessen 1614 ge- stützt.
Die literarischen Wurzeln der Pritschmeisterdichtung finden die Fachleute einmal in der Heroldsdichtung,^ dann aber auch in dem Stadtgedicht, das sich im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert reich entfaltete.^ Diese Anschauungen beruhen vor allem auf der Produktion des Königs der Pritschmeister, Lienhart Flechsel, von dem nicht weniger als 9 Sprüche aus den Jahren 1554-77 erhalten sind, eine stattliche Anzahl, v/enn man bedenkt, dass Goedeke überhaupt nur 15 eigentliche Pritschmeistersprüche kennt. Sie sind alle im 19. Jahrhundert veröffentlicht, zum Teil leider an sehr obskuren Stellen.^ Man kann bei Flechsel das allmähliche Anwachsen beider Elemente verfolgen. Eine Schilderung der Feststadt findet sich bereits in dem Spruch auf das Passauer Schiessen 1555, die Neigung zum Heraldischen in dem Wappenschmuck, der den Handschriften über die Schie-
5. G. Baesecke, Neudrucke 182, XV.
6. A. Taylor, Studies in German Literary History, p. 122.
7. Heidelberg 1554: K. Wassmannsdorfl 1886; Passau 1555: M. Radlkofer, Verh. d. Hist. Ver. f. Niederbayern, XXIX, 129 flf. Ulm 1556: G. Vesenmeyer, Württemb. Vierteljahr shejte f. Landesgesch., 5 H. 4. (Ausz.); Rottweil 1558: J. Ott, Alemannia, VI, 201 ff.; Stuttgart 1560: L. Uhland, Schrijten, V, 301 ff. (Ausz.); Wien 1563; A. Carmesina, a. a. O.; Innsbruck 1569; A. Edelmann 1885; Worms 1575: Festgabe zum ersten deutschen Bundesschiessen in Franl^furt a. M., 1862; München 1577: E. v. Destouches, Festzeitung für das 7. deutsche Bundesschiessen, 1881 (Ausz.).
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ssen zu Heidelberg, Ulm und Stuttgart beigefügt war. Beide Elemente sind vereinigt in der auffallenden Einleitung zu dem Bericht auf das Wiener Schiessen 1563, die erzählt, wie der Dichter auf einem Spaziergang in einem wunderschönen Wild- park eingeschlafen sei und von einem herrlichen Rosengarten, den ein Adler hegte und schützte, geträumt habe. Ein Herold, "den man nennt ein Parsifandt" habe ihn geweckt und den Traum gedeutet: der Garten ist Wien, wohin das grosse Büch- senschiessen ruft. Und nun folgt eine Beschreibung der Stadt. Eine derartige Einkleidung war in der Dichtung seit dem 14. Jahrhundert recht beliebt,^ bei Flechsel erscheint sie hier zum erstenmal; sie ist aber nicht, wie man bisher annahm, originell,® sondern ein glattes, vielfach wörtliches Plagiat aus Hans Sachs' Lobspruch auf Nürnberg (1530). Die literar- historische Frage ist nun die, ob diese Neigung zum Heraldi- schen und zum Stadtgedicht von Lienhart Flechsel aufgebracht wurde oder ob sie auch vor ihm der Pritschmeisterdichtung eigentümlich war. In diesem Falle müsste sie sich in früheren Sprüchen nachweisen lassen. Dafür kommen nur zwei Berichte in Frage. Der eine ist der Spruch auf das Joachimstaler Schie- ssen 1521,^" verfasst von Hans Lutz. Das war — was Baesecke noch nicht wusste — der Vater von Lienhart Flechsel,^ ^ ein heruntergekommener Kürschner, der sich als Söldner und ge- legentlich als Pritschmeister durchbrachte. Im Dienst ver- schiedener Herren hat er es gelegentlich zum Herold gebracht, verfasste auch geschichtliche Tatsachenberichte und nannte sich stolz "Ernholt des Römischen Reiches." Das hat sicher auf seinen Sohn Eindruck gemacht. Wenn irgendwo, so müsste bei Hans Lutz die Tendenz zum Heroldmässigen sich finden. Das ist jedoch nicht der Fall. Anders sieht es mit dem Stadtgedicht aus. Dreissig Verse der Einleitung des Lutzschen Spruches beschäftigen sich mit der Geschichte von Joachimstal. Das hat seinen guten Grund. Die Stadt war nämlich erst vier Jahre vorher gegründet worden und das Schiessen wurde vom
8. A. Taylor, Literary History of Meistergesang, p. 123.
9. Radlkofer, a. a. O., 136.
10. R. Wolkan, Böhmens Anteil an der deutschen Literatur (1892), II, 57.
11. Fr. Roth, Oberbayr. Archiv für vaterländische Geschichte, LXII, 96 ff.
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 49
Rat veranstaltet, um Publikum anzulocken, "das sy darmitt in ein Handel kemen." So ist die Stadtgeschichte mit dem Schie- ssen logisch und ungezwungen verbunden. Die Stadtbeschrei- bung bei Flechsel ist wahrscheinlich stärker als von seinem Vater von Hans Sachs beeinflusst. Dieser hat ausser auf Nürn- berg auch einen Lobspruch auf Salzburg 1549 verfasst, und das ist die einzige Stadt in der Nähe von Flechsels Heimat, die laut William Hammers Liste^^ zwischen 1530 und 1555 auf deutsch besungen wurde. Der Spruch des Hans Lutz ist reich an an- schaulichen Einzelheiten, jedoch um die Hälfte kürzer als die Gedichte seines Sohnes.
Die zweite zeitlich noch frühere Pritschmeisterdichtung vor Lienhart Flechsel, die existiert, ist Hans Werthmanns nachstehend abgedruckter Spruch; anderes Vergleichsmaterial steht nicht zur Verfügung.
Über das Fest zu Augsburg sind wir historisch gut unter- richtet durch die Augsburger Chroniken von Clemens Sender, Wilhelm Rem^^ und Achilles Pirmin Gasser^^ sowie durch die offizielle Einladung, die in einem an den Rat der Stadt Fried- berg gesandten Exemplar erhalten ist.^^ Dieser Reichtum an Quellen ist kein Zufall, denn das Augsburger Schiessen war das grösste und prächtigste seiner Art, das je gehalten wurde: es kamen 1452 Schützen zusammen und es dauerte vom 5. Juli bis zum 26. August ! Die Mehrzahl der von Lienhart Flechsel später verherrlichten Schiessen sah weniger als 200 Schützen und nur eines wies 500 Besucher auf. Werthmanns Bericht ist für unsern Zweck sehr aufschlussreich, aber weniger durch das, was er sagt, als durch das, was er verschweigt. Er erwähnt nichts von dem Ausschreiben des Rats, in dem so ausführliche Einzelheiten mitgeteilt werden, dass ein moderner Reporter schon daraus allein seinen Bericht herstellen könnte. Nichts wird gesagt über die Wahl der Schiedsrichter und ihre unge- wöhnlich grosse Zahl, und gerade so etwas war ein beliebter Gegenstand in den späteren Pritschmeisterdichtungen. Nichts
12. W. Hammer, Latin and German Encomia of Cities (1937).
13. Chroniken der deutschen Städte, XXIII, 122 ff. = DStChr.
14. J. B. Mencken, Scriptores Rerum Gertnanicarum (1728), i, 1747 f. 1^. Alemannia, XVIII, 193-201. = Einladung.
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auch über den bedenklichen Zwischenfall, der sich dabei ereig- nete und viel böses Blut machte. Dr. Conrad Peutinger näm- lich, der berühmte Humanist, war der Vertreter des Rats, aber er "verstuend sich nichtz auff das schiessen und wollt doch vil ausrichten."^ "^ Er schlug, was ungebräuchlich war, selbst die Kandidaten für das Schiedsrichteramt vor und überging dabei die bayerischen Städte, Darüber waren die Bayern so erbost, dass sie zuerst heimziehen wollten. Aber "es ward niderge- stillt." Werthmann übergeht die amtliche Inspektion der Bol- zen, die Hans Lutz z. B. ausführlich beschreibt, ebenso den feierlichen Aufzug, der schon im Ausschreiben angekündigt war. Auch dem zahlreichen Adel, der im Gefolge des Herzogs von Bayern erschienen war und sich alle Preise in den sportli- chen Wettkämpfen, dem Laufen, Springen und Steinstossen holte, schenkte er wenig Beachtung, ein Zeichen dafür, wieviel bürgerliches Selbstgefühl im Anfang des i6. Jahrhunderts noch vorhanden war. Am Ende des Säkulums hatte es höfischer Servilität Platz gemacht. Diesen Wandel zeigen die Pritsch- meisterberichte deutlich: noch 1521 wurden Fürsten und edle Herren genau so gepritscht und lächerlich gemacht wie ge- meine Bürgersleute, wenn sie Fehlschüsse getan hatten. Sender erzählt, dass in Augsburg 1509 sogar der Ehrengast, Herzog Wilhelm von Bayern, "gepritzot wurde und 4 vor ihm und wohl 10 nach ihm." Indessen meldet Werthmann hiervon nichts, ebensowenig von anderen komischen Vorfällen und Veranstaltungen, dass z. B. unter den vielen Wettkämpfen auch ein Wettlügen um einen Hahn war, und dass der Hauptgewinn aus dem Glückshafen ausgerechnet auf einen Kanonikus aus Mainz fiel. Die Schiebung bei dem Pferderennen, von der Rem erzählt, wird übergangen. Es fehlen die anschaulichen Einzelheiten, die Einteilung der Schützen in verschiedene Lose, die Namenverzeichnisse der Gewinner, alles Dinge, welche die späteren Pritschmeisterberichte ausführlich behandeln. Nur an die fünf ersten Siegerfahnen und wohin sie gekommen seien, weiss sich Werthmann zu erinnern.
Die kulturhistorische Ausbeute des Spruches ist geringer als
16. DStChr, XXIII, 122.
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 51
die der Chronikberichte und der späteren Pritschmeistersprüche, wenngleich die Tatsachen, soweit berichtet, stimmen. Lebhaft wird Werthmann nur bei der Schilderung der Festwiese, der Prachtbauten — der gelernte Handwerksmeister staunte — und der Veranstaltungen zum Essen und Trinken. Das Lob, das er der Stadt Augsburg in dieser Hinsicht spendet, ist sicher ehr- lich gemeint. Haben wir es nun mit einem dürftig begabten und etwas langweiligen Spiessbürger zu tun ? Ein solches Bild stimmt nicht mit dem überein, was wir sonst von ihm wissen. Der Chronist Wilhelm Rem schreibt :^^ "es kam einer her von Schwäbischen Hall, hies Hanns Wordtmann, der pritschet die schützen und ander leut, der kund wol darzu singen; warumb dann ainer gepritschet ward, wann man im die mainung ain wenig sagt, so kund er es von stund an dichten, dergleichen nie gesehen oder gehört was. die statt hie schanckht im ain klaid und 14 fl. und gab im ainen fanen, und stuend 14 gülden daran gemalet, und ain pritschen." Eine Persönlichkeit also von übersprudelndem Humor, der sich ganz im Moment verausgabte. Und darum vielleicht fehlt der Witz in dem Bericht! Der Meister hatte ihn schon ausgelassen in den Stau- nen erregenden Sprüchen, die er beim Pritschen improvisierte. Hans Sachs hat "etliche Pritschengsang" dieser Art gedichtet,^^ sie waren — am Schreibtisch ersonnen — formal sicher besser als das, was Hans Werthmann im Augenblick produzierte, aber mögen einen Anhalt geben, wie etwa Werthmanns Scherze lauteten.
Dies besondere Talent des Pritschenmeisters gibt aber nun den Schlüssel zum Verständnis unseres Berichts. Er macht zweifellos einen ungeordneten und flüchtigen Eindruck. Nach der Beschreibung des Büchsenschiessens will der Ver- fasser seine Rede beschliessen, ohne erst die Sieger aufzuzählen, und nach den letzten Empfehlungen an den Rat, der üblichen Bitte um einen Zuschuss zu dem versprochenen Lohn, dem Versprechen, seinen Bericht dem Dr. Peutinger zu geben, nimmt er Urlaub, denn seine Schützen wollen alle davon und er will mit ihnen heim nach Schwäbisch Hall ziehen. Er
xT.DStChr, XXIII, 123. 18. Hans Sachs, XXII, 487.
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schliesst feierlich mit der Formel, die doch nur am Ende einer Dichtung gebraucht wird: "spricht Hanß werthmann glaser Zu schwebisch Hall." Und dann auf einmal fängt er von neuem an und zählt im Widerspruch zu dem Vorhergehenden auf, wohin die Preise im Büchsenschiessen gekommen seien. Eine solche Pause mit einem Wiederbeginn ist auch V. 247/48 vorhanden und dem Schreiber durchaus bewusst gewesen, denn er hat sie durch einen langen Strich markiert. Unord- nung und Widerspruch lassen sich erklären, wenn man den ganzen Bericht als eine Improvisation auffasst, die noch ehe das Fest zu Ende war, notiert und vorgetragen wurde. Für diese Annahme sprechen verschiedene Umstände. Die Anrede an das Publikum klingt viel weniger formelhaft als z. B. Flechsels stereotype Wendungen: "Hört ir herren Frawen und man." Die Sprache ist arm an Variationen, ebenso die Reime. Ein Viertel aller Verse reimt sich auf -an : han, verstan, than, Fahn, daran, man, Plan, lan. Die Reime sind besonders eintönig von V. 180 bis 247, wo über Preise und Gewinner gesprochen wird, einen Teil, den der Improvisator nicht lange vorher überlegen konnte. Eine Vorbereitung wäre denkbar bei der Schilderung der Zurüstungen, und dies ist vielleicht der Grund, warum diese so umfangreich ausgefallen ist. Freilich hätte Werth- mann auch den Rest in den langen Wochen, die das Fest dauerte, etwas eingehender überlegen können, aber wir wissen ja, er war ein übermütiger Bursch, den der freie Ausschank von Wein und Bier und seine Pritschergeschäfte zu keiner literarischen Vorbereitung kommen Hessen.
Alle diese Argumente werden aber erst beweiskräftig durch die Verse 248/49: "welcher den Pesten Fahn thett gewinnen das werdet ir o n mich wol innen." Das kann man nicht einem Leser sagen, der garnicht dabei war, sondern nur einem Publikum, das am Schiessen teilnahm. Man könnte an die Ratsherren denken, denen er durch Peutinger später den Spruch auch schriftlich zukommen lassen will, oder an Zu- hörer bei einem Bankett, die vielleicht die im Saal aufgestellten Siegesfahnen vor Augen hatten. Ein solches Publikum kannte ja auch bereits seine Spässe, so konnte er sie nicht wiederholen.
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 53
Es ist auch verständlich, dass er nichts über die GeistUchkeit oder den Rat sagte, dass er so wenig Namen aufzählte und die wenigen, die er behalten hatte, nur nach dem Klang zitierte (V. 200, 319). Anscheinend waren die Zuhörer mit diesem summarischen Verfahren nicht zufrieden, so dass Werthmann, nachdem er Abschied genommen hatte, noch einmal anfangen und wenigstens die Städte aufzählen musste, wohin die Preise im Büchsenschiessen gefallen waren. Oder aber er fügte diese Liste erst später seinem schriftlich niedergelegten Bericht hinzu. Sie ist jedenfalls nicht im Augenblick improvisiert, da sie nicht etwa die Sieger nacheinander aufzählt, wie ein Im- provisator auf Grund eines Verzeichnisses hätte tun können, sondern die Gewinste sind nach Städten zusammengefasst; daher springt die Numerierung der Preise von 8 auf 11, von 12 auf 14, 16, 18, von 20 auf 26. Die dazwischenliegenden Städte sind schon erwähnt. Das ergibt der Vergleich mit der von Sender mitgeteilten Siegerliste, von der Werthmann nur an drei Stellen abweicht. So etwas muss vorher auf dem Papier ausgerechnet werden. Das nimmt aber dem Vorhergehenden nicht den Charakter der Improvisation.
Wenn man Werthmanns Spruch als typisch auffassen dürfte, so wäre damit bewiesen, dass die Pritschmeisterdichtung sich weder an die Heroldspoesie noch an das Stadtgedicht anlehnte. Erst mit Lienhart Flechsel wäre dann bewusst die Wendung ins Heraldische eingetreten. Mit Sicherheit lässt sich dieser Schluss jedoch nicht ziehen, denn wenn auch Werth- manns Spruch der älteste uns bekannte ist, so bedeutet das nicht, dass er der älteste seiner Gattung war. Zum mindesten aber zeigt er, dass die naive Reimlust der Kleinbürger ohne literarische Beziehungen wenn nicht die einzige, so doch eine Quelle der Pritschmeisterdichtung war.
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EIN LOBSPRUCH VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG: A° 1509:
WoUett ihr mirß nit für vbell han,
So will ich ein Klaines Hoffrecht than,
vndt wills mit Kurtzen wortten bschliesßen
ich will euch sagen von dem schiessen 5 welchs man hatt außgeschriben Zwar,
Da man Zehlett 1509 Jar:
Man hatts manchem Schützen Kunth gethan
Da ich dasselbig wardt verstan
macht ich mich auff Zur selben Zeitt 10 nam mitt mir Prittschen vndt trumscheitt
Da will ich yetzt nit vil von Sagen
man hatt mich da wol hören schlagen
Ich kam gen Augspurg in die Stadt
Da man mich erlich empfangen hatt, 15 von Stund an wardt mir ein bescheidt
gab mir die Prittschen, schenckhet mir ein Claidt
vndt auch dartzu den Prittschen Fahn
auch gar ein Erliche gab daran
Alß ich hinauß gieng auff dz feldt, 20 Zelett ich 100 Hütten vndt 20 Zeltt:
Da kam ich auff die Rosenaw
Sähe ich den AUerschönsten Paw:
Ein Hütt waß im Zirrkl außgemesßen
dar mancher schütz ist druntter gsessen 25 die maß ich an dem Anfangkh
war vierthalb hundertt schritt Lang
die mitt dem ArmPrust gschossen han
warn vuerhundert vndt 40: solt ir verstan
Nach dem gieng ich weitter hinein 30 da sähe ich den hupschtesten SchießRäin
der war gemachett allso Schnell
vnde gleichett wol einer schönen Capell
2 Hofrecht = Vergnügen.
10 Trumscheit: "ein musikalisches Instrument, welches aus dünnen Brettern zusam- mengesetzt, in die Länge zugespitzt, und oben mit Einer oder auch wohl mehre- ren Saiten bezogen ist, welche mit einem Bogen gestrichen werden, da es denn den Klang einer oder mehrerer Trompeten nachahmt . . ." Adelung 4,709.
21 Sender: "ain rat hat in der Rosenaw vil zeltten auflgericht, daß es in die ferde hat gesechen wie ain stat und da keller graben."
24 Es wurde Vorsorge getroffen, dass auch bei schlechtem Wetter geschossen werden konnte.
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 55
wie er auff dem feldt da stath
vndt vier schöner errkher hatt 35 auch der Stadt Färb daran
auff yedem errkher steckhet ein fahn
vndt gesetzet nach der Mensur
Zwischen yedem errkher stundt ein vhr,
die warn gemachett also klucg 40 yedhche die drey virtell schlug
Zu letzt fing sie Zu laufiEen an
darmitt warnett sie yederman
So halt sie aber gar liefif ab,
Da fiel ein tarttschen oben herab 45 die bedeckhett die Poltz schier alle sam
da fiengen die schützen Zu Lauflen an
auch sähe ich aufl demselben Plan
den AUerhübschten Prunnen stahn
der Zierett dz schiessen am Pasten 50 vndt lieff frey in ein hülczen Kasten
den sähe ich auß dermasßen gern
er hett sex hübsche messene Rören
Zwo gegen dem himel springen
da lugt ich weitter nach den dingen 55 Sähe ich noch sechs Prunnen stahn
die haben die Hern alle machen lahn
da Kam ich für die hutten auß
Sähe ich daß Schöneste dantz hauß
welches die herrn gebawen haben 60 ein hübschen Keller darunter graben
darinn hatte man wein, keeß vndt Prott
33 Sender zählt 549, Gasser 544, Rem 536 "armbrostschützen und waren dannoch vil wider wegkgezogen, daß sie besorgten, es gieng zu lang zue."
37 nach dem Maß, d. h. senkrecht.
42 Es mussten 42 Schüsse auf eine Scheibe abgegeben werden (Einladung Z. 26), offenbar in einer bestimmten Zeit, die durch den Ablauf der Uhren angezeigt wurde. Am Ende dieser Zeit fiel ein Schild (Tartsche) herab, das die Bolzen innerhalb der Scheibe bedeckte. Die Vorrichtung wird genauer beschrieben von Caspar Lerff in dem Bericht über das Schiessen in Regensburg 1586.
58 Rem: "Man hett vil hutten und zellt auffgeschlagen, man het ein grossen ror- kasten und sonst 6 rorkasten und ain tantzhaus und ain grossen weiten keller darunder. da hett die statt in welschwein, rott und weis, und Necker und schwabacher pier. Und wer in keller gieng von erberen leutten oder frembden leutten, dem gab man zu trincken, wein oder pier, was er wollt, und man schanckht den schützen alle tag in die hutten welschwein, kes und prot genug, aber kain pier schanckht man; welcher schütz pier haben wolt, der gieng in der stat keller, so gab man ihm, was er wolt, ich hab dergleichen schiessen so herlich nie gesehen oder hören sagen, daß kain solch schicssen nie gewesen sei."
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ein Feine Speiß Camnier darinnen statt
Es kam darein weyb oder man
den hatt man Alln grosse ehr gethan: 65 Mitt Neckhar, Reihn, vndt welschem wein
vndt allen schützen, die da sindt gsein:
denet thett man rath, nach Allen ehrn:
Ich lob Zu Augspurg die weissen Herrn
da thett man Keinen Costen sparn: 70 alle die schiessen, so ich hab erfahren:
die sindt gegen diesem schiesßen nihtt:
er (!) war alles Cöstlich zu gericht:
daß will ich für ein warheit Jehen.
Stadtlichers schiessen hab ich nie gesehen. 75 Ich stundt da bey dem Keller bßunder
der Costliche Paw, der nam mich wunder
So man dasselbsten hatt gethan
sollte dz in ewigkeit bestan:
So war es doch gar wol besonnen 80 da sähe ich ein Radt, dz trieb den Prunnen
daß hett auß dem grundt sein gang:
der welbaum war fumpftzig schue Lang:
die Prunnen daruon ich hab gesprochen
Braucht man Zu trinckhen vndt zu Kochen 85 vndt küellett auch darin den wein
wann sie auß der Massen Kaltt sein.
Auch sähe ich au£E dem selben Plan,
gar ein höflBichen visch Kasten stan
den hatt Sixt Pfefferlein Pawen Lan 90 Welcher da gutte visch wolt Kauffen
dorfft nicht darumb in die Stadt Lauffen
Zway Wasser lauffen vmb den Plan:
wertach vnde Sinckell soltt ir verstan
auch sähe ich an demselben Pach 95 gar vil der haimblichen gemach:
Manß auch solches allen Zu wissen thon
die hatt, den schützen Pawen Lohn
Auch stundt am selben wasser fein
ein Hauß da legt man in Haffen ein 100 da war Funffzig gülden dz Pest
welcher aber gern west
89 der Zunftmeister der Fischer.
99 Der Glückshafen wurde als besondere Belustigung aufgefasst, "ne quid jocosi
deesset" bemerkt Gasser. Es waren 21 Gewinne im Wert von 50 bis i Gulden
ausgesetzt (Einladung Z. 77).
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 57
waß sonsten dasselbsten gewesen sey,
von golttschmidt vndt von Kramerey
von gülden Hauben vndt seyden Portten 105 da w^ar ein gass Zu Paiden ortten,
mitt hübschen Kramen wol getan:
auch sähe ich ein güldenes w^exel stan:
Alß ich yetzunder hab vermeldt.
dasselbst warn auch ettlich Zeltt iio da warf? man durch den trichter ein
die Röhrn so weit gewesen sein
daß roß vndt Achs dardurch sein gfallen
bey disen dingen war ich allen:
da brauchett ein yeder seinen fleiß 115 einer war ff schwartz der Ander weiß
mancher verwarf? all sein geldt vndt Petth:
welcher dz schiessen gesehen hett.
auch will ich für ein warheit sagen
Es fiel einem durch, Roß vndt wagen: 120 So warn auch gerüstet hütten vndt Zelt
alß wann ein Fürst gelegen wer Zu feldt
woltt einer Zwagen oder Parbieren lan:
Daß fandt er alles auf? disem Plan:
Essen, trinckhen, oder Leben im Sauß 125 auch fandt man schöne Frawen drauß
wie es die herrn außgeschriben han
daß wurdt voUendett, solt ir verstan:
mit Leggeldt vndt Allen gewinneth frey:
Ich main, dz nie Keinß gewesen sey, 130 da man hab braucht ein solchen ratt,
alle tag mit keeß, wein vndt Prott:
dann da wurdt gsättigt yederman:
man trug mit wannen wider daruon
waß den schützen war vber gebliben: 135 wirtt dz niht in ein CronicKh geschribn:
So gönntt man den von augspurg nit ehr,
dann deßgleichen sähe ich nie mehr
man schenckett in Alle herberg den wein
allen schützen die dar kommen sein 140 den wein hab ich vberschlagen.
Eilff hundertt Kantten hörtt ich sagen
ohn Andere ehr, die man hett thon:
die Zumpft haben sie Alle Laden Lohn:
Ein yedliches Handwerkh besonder,
107 Vorrichtung für ein Glücksspiel, vermutlich das, was Sender "scholder" nennt.
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145 ab solcher ehr thett ich mich verwundern
man Nam von Kaim, Kein Pfenning nitt
es wardt alleß Costfrey außgericht
Disßen allen, sag ich Danckh vndt ehr
Wann ich selbst so vermöglich wer 150 woltt ichs verdienen Zu der Frist
Hörtt waß für schützen da gewesen ist:
daß thue ich euch allen beckhantt.
Hertzog wilhelm auß Payrlandt
auch seine Ritterschafft vndt Hern 155 die thetten Allen vleiß ankheren
mitt schiessen lauffen vndt springen
alß ir werth hören nach disen dingen
die Schützen allsambt in gemain
wie sie dann vorbegriffen sein 160 Kan ich nitt yeden in sonder erklern
da waß vil ritterschafft vndt hern
Hertzog wilhelm hatt da verehren than
vier hirschen, den Schützen allesam,
die schenckhett er in die vier Loß: 165 da huob sich an ein gsellschafft groß
vndt thetten seiner gnaden danckh sagen
die von Augspurg thetten Auffschlagen
Ein Zeltt, alß ich hab gesprochen
da thett man Pratten sieden vndt Kochen 170 vndt Lebt da yederman im Sauß:
auch furrn vil schöner frawen hinauß
Die waren alle geschmuckhet schon:
Deßgleichen ich kaum gesehen han:
da wurdt die Kurtzweil alle gantz 175 vndt fieng sich an ein schöner dantz:
dz hatt man Zum offtermal gethan:
auch Rennett man scharpff auff disen Plan
147 Es war üblich, dass die Schützen selbst für ihr Essen bezahlten. "Der Koch thett niemants da vergessen, Vmb geld gab er aym yedlichen sein essen," berich- tet Lienhart Flechsel vom Büchsenschiessen in Passau (V. 343). In Augsburg wurde eine Ausnahme gemacht. Gasser hebt es besonders hervor, dass der Rat die Gäste zum Vesperbrot "Cereris et Bachi muneribus" ehrte, und dass überdies alle zugereisten Handwerksmeister von ihren Zunftgenossen zu statt- lichen Banketten eingeladen wurden.
162 Sender: "Desselben tags schanckt hertzog Wilhalm den schützen 4 hirß, jedli- chem viertail seinen besundern hirß. also schanckten die schützen die 4 hirß den bürgermaistern; die luden die schützen des andern tags alle und ire weiber und gaben inen ain under (= Zwischenmahlzeit) mit pfeif er und bratten und wein, keß und brots genug."
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 59
Hannß thummer von Nürnd? war gerüstet fein.
Zimbrecht Lieber von Augspurg trib geglichen ein 180 daß da lagen beyde Roß vndt Man:
da man dz Schiessen hett halb gethan
da hatt man die Roß laufiFen lan
Vmb 40 fl ,dz war ein Schewer
noch warn da, drey Abenthewr 185 Zwen Pecher vndt ein Schwein
noch Zwey lauffen gewesen sein
vmb Zvv^ey Parchett soltt ir verstan
da ließ man lauffen fraw vndt Man
die helfen alß ich han gemeldt 190 geschehen aufl dem Lechfeldt
alß ich euch für ein warheit sag
Am achten nach St. vlrichs tag:
Hatt man die schützen Lauffen Lan
daß war vier gülden, vndt ein Fahn: 195 am dritten tag in solcher massen
thett man Springen vndt stain stosßen
Es war yedlichs vier gülden frey
welcher der Pest gewesen sey
am lauffen vndt dem Springen 200 dem Hrn von Schmitta thet gelingen
der gewan da die Zwen fahn
da nun dz Schiessen auß wardt gähn:
hab ich mit fleiß in acht genomen
daß Pest ist gen Freysing kommen 205 das ander hatt man gen Schongaw glan
dz dritt ein Haffner Zu Augspurg gwan
dz war ein hübsch vergülter schewer
179 Sender: "Darnach randt Simprecht Lieber mit dem Dumer von Nierenberg scharpf, und randt der Lieber dem Dumer sein pferdt durch das plindt tuch."
182 Die Einladung (Z. 60) verheisst, dass am Ende jedes Schiessens ein Pferderennen stattfinden solle, am 11. Juli zuerst "das geranne mit den buben."
183 Schewer :^ Pokal.
184 Abenthewr = Gewinst.
185 Einladung Z. 61: "Item für Sechs guldin. Item drey guldin: vnd eine gemeine saw."
188 Einladung Z. 72: "Wir haben auch zu yedem Rennen den lauffenden knechten und gesellen auf fünfhundert schritt und den Lauffenden diernen vnd frawen auff zweyhundert schritt yeder parthey ein Barchandtuch verordnet." Diese Belustigung berücksichtigte die nicht "ehrbare" Gesellschaftsklasse, die vom freien Weinausschank ausgeschlossen war. Sender: "Es sind auch huren und buben geloffen."
200 Bei Sender heisst er Freiherr von Schmiechen, bei Rem von Schmiechow, "was ein Behem."
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Er gewan noch ein Abentheur
die golttschmidt legten auff ihn ein 210 Soll neuntzig gülden werth sein
man gab ihm seinen theil daruon
vndt schenckhten den Knechten i fl Zu Ion
dz viertt, dz ist gen Lindaw komen:
dz fünfft hatt einer Zu Augspurg gewonnen 215 Zu Augspurg blieben wol Ailff Fahn
die andern hatt man hinwegkh gelahn
Es warn gar hübsche abentheur:
von Pecher, Köpffen vndt von schewer,
man gab einem yeden sein gewinnett oder geldt 220 wie man im Außschreiben hatt vermeldt:
Daß Armprust schiessen ich beschlossen han
da fing dz Füchsen schiessen An:
alß ich erzelen will vndt sag
Kürtzlich nach St: Jacobus tag 225 da schrieb man die schützen Alle an:
Neun hundertt vndt 40: solt ir verstau:
deß sag ich den von Augspurg ehr,
Sie richteten auf? ein scheuben mehr:
dann sie vor außgeschriben han: 230 darmit wardt befordertt yderman:
Den Achten tag solt ir verstau:
Hatt man Abermalß Rennen vndt Lauflen Lan
die schützen lieffen alß ich sag
vndt geschach an St. Laurentzen tag: 235 Der ist von Augspurg auß der Stadt
der dz Pest im lauffen gwonnen hat:
Er strich weitt für, ihnen Allen ein,
vndt haisset steffan Zwingenstein
Ihm thett hernach aber gelingen: 240 er gewan ein Pecher an dem Springen
Man hatt aber noch ein Springen than
dasselbig einer von Sali gewan
darnach thett man den stain stosßen
daß gewan einer von Aidtgnossen
214 Sender zählt noch weitere 30 Städte auf, Rem fügt die Namen der Gewinner und die Zahl der Schützen hinzu.
224 26. Juli.
227 Sender zählt 918, Rem 916 Büchsenschützen, ebenso Gasser.
232 Einladung Z. 66: "Rennen mit gesattelten Pferden: vnder dem lascht (= Bela- stung)." Rem deutet eine Schiebung an, man habe die Last in diesem Handicap ungewöhnlich gering, nämlich zu iio Pfund, angesetzt, dem offenbar sehr leichten Hanns Baumgartner zuliebe, der schon das erste Rennen gewonnen hatte. Schliesslich ritt er aber garnicht mit.
242 Rem S. 126: Hans Jacob vom Sali vom Wintcrthaur.
VON EIM SCHIESSEN ZU AUGSPURG 6i
245 Man hatt auch damals Kugeln Lon:
Daß Pest war Sechs gülden vndt ein fahn: Darmitt will ichs beschlossen han:
Welcher den Pesten Fahn thett gewinnen
dz werdet ihr on mich woU Innen 250 vndt bitt euch Hrn Allesam
Ir wöUett mein Dienst für guth han
den ich gebrauchett hab biß hirher
wo ich aber vnfleissig gewesen wer
daß were mir von Hertzen Leidt 255 dann ich bin willig vndt beraitt:
yetzt vndt Zu Aller Frist:
den Soltt der mir versprochen ist:
den hab ich verzertt biß hieher
Nun ist mein fleissige Pitt vndt beger 260 ir wollet mir ein Verehrung than
So will ich machen ein Prittschen fahn:
vndt den mitt mir haim tragen
vndt ewerer weißheit grossen danckh sagen:
Ein kleine Übung hab ich than 265 Die will ich euch Zur letzt Lan
vndt sag grosßen danckh meinen herrn
wo sie hinfur mein thetten begern:
Es wer gleich früe oder Spatt
wann man mich dz wissen lath 270 Es sey Zu ernst oder Zu schimpf!:
So thue ich es, mit fug vndt glimpflE
Nun will ich ein freundlichs vrlaub han:
dann mein schützen wollen All daruon
So gehe ich auch mit ihn gen Hall 275 darmitt gnade ich meine Hrn All
Darbey will ichs nun lassen stan:
wan dz schiessen auß wirtt gähn:
Beschleuß ich disen spruch gar eben:
vndt will ihn dem doctor Peuttinger geben 280 So wirdt er meinen Herrn All
Spricht Hanß werthmann glaser Zu schwebisch Hall:
Nun merckhett weitter ohn all verdrießen wer da gewan am Püchsen schiessen die von Augspurg haben 8 fahnen frey: 285 dz Pest vndt auch den Krantz dabey
245 Einladung X. 73: "Wir haben auch zum Keglen yedes vermeldten Schiessens verordnet fünff kleinat vnd gauben." Sie galten 6, 5, 4, 3 und 2 Gulden (Rem).
62 CORONA
Zwen Fahnen kamen gen Lindaw schon
dz ander vndt sonst noch ein Fahn
dz dritte kam gen Memmingen ein
vrach dz nam Zwey fähnlein heim 290 dz sechste ist gen vlm kommen
mitt vier fahnen hab ich vernomen
Daß Sibentt hatt Fridtberg mit gewaltt
dz Acht, hatt Zu Pfortzheim sein Auffenthalt
dz Ailfift ist kommen gen schwatz 295 mitt andern Zwen fahnen ohne tratz
dz Zwölfft ist kommen gen Hall
Mitt Zweyen Fahnen in dz Inthal:
Ein fan der kam gen düncklspüel
Zwen fahnen gen münchen ohne Zil: 300 Dillingen dz Acht Zehende hatt:
gen Reuttlingen hin mit Allem Rath:
dz neun Zehende ist kommen hin:
Nun merckhett fürbaß meinen Sin:
Schwebischen gmündt hatt auch ein Fahn: 305 Nüremberg, dz bracht Zwen hindan:
Ein fan gen Göppingen kam
dz Sex vndt Zwaintzigst damitt hin Nam:
Lawingen, dz Acht vndt Zwaintzigst gewan
Regenspurg. dz waß auch daran 310 Behueben dz 29: st mitt schall
dz drey vndt dreissigst kam gen St: Gall:
Daß ligt in schweitz in schneller Farth
dz viervndtdreissigste, hatt Studtgartt
die sach, die laß ich bleiben schlecht 315 Junckher Popiliuß von stain Knecht
der hatt ein ritterschuß gewonnen
Noch einß, deß hab ich mich beßunnen
Auch wo der weyttest Fahn hinkam
Einer von Offen ihn da Nam: 320 darbey will ichs verbleiben lahn
Gott wolle vnß allen beystandt than: En n d e :
316 Sechs "Ritterschüsse" mit Preisen von 6 bis i Gulden waren bestimmt für diejenigen, die gar nichts gewonnen und auch in kein "Stechen" gekommen waren. Jeder durfte nur einen Schuss abgeben, wer "zu dem Nagel allernechst- hin" traf, hatte gewonnen (Einladung Z. 17).
318 Einladung (Z. 13) verspricht "dem/oder denen/ so zu yeden obgemeldten Schiessen am ferresten her komen zwen guldin."
319 Offen ^ Ofen = Buda-Pest. Gasser: "Qui autem remotissimo loco inter hos venerat, e Buda Ungariae metropoli erat, Ulrichi Aschawerus vocatus." Von den Armbrustschützen war am weitesten hergekommen ein Pariser "nomine Johannis Hebeberi."
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH ANNA GRANViLLE HATCHER, T/ie Johns Hopkjns Ufiiversity
THE USE of the word "body" to refer to the person-as- a-whole seems to be a characteristic of Indo-European. We find it in Latin with corpus, in Greek with soma, and in many medieval tongues: Old Italian (persona), MHG (Up), Old Spanish (cuerpo), Middle English (body)} Accord- ingly, the development of OF cors in the same direction is, in itself, hardly worthy of note. What is noteworthy, however, is a special nuance which seems to have obtained with the ex- pression son cors in OF.^
Now in Order to determine the particular nuance of cors =^ "person," one must of course be sure that the cors in question does indeed refer to the person and not primarily to his body. For example, in Mes or vos veil par amors demander Que tu me soffres ton cors a adouber (BA 4810-4811) do we have to do with a periphrasis (ton cors = toi), or should the cors be accepted at its literal value? With a great many of the ex- amples of son cors this could be a ticklish question: in the Chansons de Geste son cors is always acceptable as a "Personen-
1. And, according to Grimm ("Kleine Schriften" in Abhandlungen zur Litt. ti. Gram., III, 265-266), in Finno-Ugrian languages.
2. Tobler has briefly treated this function of OF cors in his article "Umschreibung der Personenbezeichnung mittels cors" (in V ermischte Beiträge, I, 30-36) in which he discusses the different circumlocutions by which a person could be designated in OF. Though, as his title suggests, he is mainly concerned with the use of cors in this connection, he also considers such terms as personne, char, chies, membres, jotwente, nom, afaire, fait, which could also be used in forming a periphrasis for the personal pronoun. After listing examples of all these forms, he states that the connotation which they all shared in common was an emphasis on the person-insofar-as-he-is- distinguished-from-others — that is, a demonstrative emphasis: son cors ^= "this per- son himself (and no other)."
64 CORONA
bezeichnung" — but, on the other band, whenever a physical activity is involved, a literal translation is likewise possible.
The difficulty of this problem, however, seems to me to be definitely reduced if we compare the Hmited reference of the expression le cors (li cors): whenever the Situation is unequiv- ocally such that an exclusively carnal, biological, anatomical emphasis is inevitable, then, practically without exception, it is le cors, not son cors, that we find. It is le cors that is used in descriptions of scenes of warfare:
Par mi le cors son reit espie li passe CL 915^ Le cors li trenchet tres Tun costet qu'a l'altre CR 1667
l'espie enz el cors li repont Gl 297
L'une le fiert par mi le cors Yon 315 Et li quarz navrez et maumis
Par mi la cuisse et enz el cors. Chai 122-123
Dedenz le cors l'ont plaie et navre. BA 1087
Parmi le cors li mis le confanon. CN 208.
It is le cors that we find in the treatments of the theme "body vs. soul," "body vs. heart," that appear so frequently in me- dieval Uterature (where the meaning of cors is necessarily restricted to a bodily significance) :^
3. For an Interpretation of the abbreviations used in references to OF texts, see the list at the end of this essay.
4. These two contrasts are very frequent in the Chansons, the first being filled with theological implications, the second usually concerned with the psychology of love. The metaphysical relationship between cors and cuers is amusingly illustrated by a passage from Yvain:
Mes sire Yvains mout a anvis Tel mervoille nus hon ne vit.
S'est de la dame departiz Ceste mervoille est avenue;
Et si que li cuers ne s'an muet. Qu'il a la vie retenue
Li rois le cors mener an puet, Sanz le euer qui estre i soloit,
Car del euer n'an manra il point, Que plus siure ne le voloit.
Qui si se tient et si sc Joint Li cuers a buene remenance,
Au euer celi qui se remaint, Et li cors est an esperance
Qu'il n'a pooir que il l'an maint. De retorner au euer arriere,
Des que li cors est sanz le euer, Si fet euer d'estrange meneire
Don ne puet il vivre a nul fuer; D'esperance qui mout sovant
Et se li cors sanz le euer vit. Traist et fausse de covant. 2639-2660
For the history of OF euer cf. Moritz Schittenhelm, Zur stilistischen Verwendung des Wortes "euer" in der altfranzösischen Dichtung (Halle, 1907).
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 65
Dex penst de l'ame que li cors est finez! BA 5650
Pensez des ames, et si les recevez!
Des cors sera einsi com vos vorrez! CV 457-458
Et si viaut si avoir le cors
Que nen li cuers n'an soit defors. Yv 1923- 1924
And, finally, it is le cors that is used in reference to a dead body:
le rei Gormont at trove mort;
treis feiz se pasme sur le cors. Gl 424-425
// cors chiet jus, si s'en vait l'anme. Gl 77
Because of the fact, then, that le cors was regularly used in situations where the connotation must needs be strictly bodily, it is surely legitimate to assume that a distinct diÜerence was feit between the two expressions le cors and son cors; that the former is concerned only with the body, and the latter is re- served for the larger reference of "the person." Thus, it be- comes unnecessary to quibble over individual examples in which son cors appears, in an attempt to weigh the probable amount of "physical" emphasis intended; instead, one is justified, I think, in accepting this expression, in general, as a designation of the person-as-a-whole at least in the Chansons.^ Accord- ingly, in the first example cited (ton cors adouber), though the strong physical nuance cannot be ignored (since a physical activity is involved), still the proper Interpretation will take into account the larger reference of cors: "But this I ask, by the love I bear: sufTer me to gird thyself for battle."
In grammatical terms, this means that we are, regularly, to accept son cors as a periphrasis for the personal pronoun. Now we are ready to consider the point raised at the beginning: in how far does son cors difler from the personal pronoun; what
5. In prose, on the other band, and in the less sophisticated literature in gen- eral, exceptions to this may be found. However, in the Chansons, the few examples for which this interpretation would not be possible have been limited, in my texts, to cases where the presence of son is necessary to show possession; for example, in Del sanc luat sun cors e sun visage (CR 2276) it would have been impossible, for syntactical reasons, to Substitute *se luat le cors — as OF did not possess the con- struction with the reflexive pronoun represented in Modern French by se laver les mains etc. But such examples amount to less than 2 per cent of all those I have found.
(^ CORONA
is the special nuance that distinguishes mon cors, ton cors, son cors from the terms moi, toi, lui? The answer to this might seem to be self-evident from the etymology of the word itself : surely this expression of bodily origin was intended to insist on the actuaUty, the "flesh and blood"-ness of the person: to recreate him in the flesh, living, breathing, incarnate; to portray the person in so far as he is perceptible to the senses.
And, indeed, this much we may take for granted: son cors = "the person in the flesh." Moreover, such an Interpreta- tion is thoroughly consonant with that love for the concrete, the actual, the "seen" that is so characteristic of the Chansons. But this emphasis on embodiment is not the only nuance to be met with in son cors, nor, as I beUeve, the predominant nuance. For, if son cors were mainly intended as a more vivid reference, then we should expect to find it used most frequently of all in dramatic descriptions where the Jongleur seeks to reproduce before our eyes the events of bis story and the heroes who took part therein.
Yet, this is where we are least apt to find son cors! Seidom, indeed, does the author himself make use of this expression to designate one of his characters. On the contrary, son cors is nearly always to be found inside quotation marks — used by one of the characters himself to designate another to whom, of whom, he speaks,
Now conversation in the Chansons was not the perfunctory, trivial chatter that it so often is in real life and that is repro- duced in contemporary novels. These medieval characters sel- dom spoke unless they were aroused by the circumstances, unless they were moved by intense feeling or deep concern to express themselves: their speech usually represents an emotional out- burst, revealing a subjective attitude on the part of the Speaker toward the person he addresses or mentions. And, when his feelings are most intense, it is son cors that he is apt to use — as if his emotion would recreate the person, the presence of the other, as food for his feelings.
These feelings, of course, may vary: son cors is frequently found in direct expressions of love or lamentation :
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 67
C'est mes deduiz, c'est mes deporz.
C'est mes solaz, c'est mes conforz.
C'est mes avoirs, c'est mes tresors.
Je n'aim tant rien come son cors. Erec 543-546
La roine accola, si dist: corps savoreus,
Onkes Tristrans n'ama si bien la belle Yseus
Comme je fai vo corps qui tant est pretieus! B. de Seb. (Godefroy)
Sire cumpainz, mar fut vostre barnage!
Jamals n'iert hume ki tun cors cuntrevaillet. CR 1983- 1984
Sire Guillaume, mar vi vostre barnage,
Vostre gent cors et vostre vasselaige. PO 1459-1460
Bei a le cors, eschevie est et gente,
Blanche la char ...
Dex! mar i fu ses cors et sa jovente. PO 204-208
— but also in demonstrations of hate:
as vis deables soit ses cors commandez! BA 4670
Sun cors seit huniz e destraint! Tr 13 18
Tristran, vostre cors maldeit seit. Tr 1353
Floire et Blanchefleur fönt de par Pepin salus Berte
et de par Forde serve, ses cors soit confondus! (B-W, 234, 134-135)
Nor is it surprising to find the same expressions used for the two distinct emotions of tenderness and hate: they are the two poles of the same current. And a curse cloaks itself in the imagery of a blessing.^
But even when the emotional attitude is not so expressly stated in the context, often, because of the presence of son cors it seems to hover in the atmosphere, giving an added warmth and intensity to the words of the Speaker, indicating a tie that his emotion creates between himself and the one to whom, of whom, he speaks. The affective nuance that is thus betrayed (if not expressed) is almost limitless:
(aversion) Maleoit soient mi parent ...
Qui a cest jalos me donnerent
Et a sun cors me marierent. Yon 85-88
6. Compare af vis deables soit ses cors commandez with Biaus dous amis, vos en ireis: A Den soit vos cors commandeis (cited below).
68 CORONA
(vengeance) ... Prenez le vif ...
Par tot l'Archant soit son cors trai'nez
Si en sera Guillaumes plus irez." CV 1348-1350
(admiration) • — Veir," dist li Turs, "tu ies de grant fiert^ Quant en bataille ne puis ton cors tenser. Come as tu nom? Ne le me deis celer. CL 813-815
(reproachful Vus faites mult grant vilanie, concern) A vostre cors hunisement Quant il vus aime ... E vus vers li vus cuntenez Cum vers home que nient n'amez. Tr 1564-1568
Again there may be a plaintive note, as if the Speaker would awaken a spark of sympathy in the person addressed, remind him of the bond between them:
Helvis, biaux tres dous filz, por Diex, car retornez
Tant que j'aie a vo cors ... parle. LesLoh. (Godefroy)
he! Auberons, tes gens cors que fera.^
moult ies malvais, se de moi pite n'as. Huon (B-W, 138, 128-129)
But most common of all, perhaps, is the nuance of unmixed affection and tenderness:
fiz, chiers amis, que ferions,
se ton cors perdu avibns? Troie (B-W, loi, 257-258)
Biaus dous amis, vos en ireis:
a Deu soit vos cors comandeis. Chansons (B-W, 188, b. 20)
... car mes compains Amis qui moult m'ama, dou sanc de vos li siens cors garistra,
que gietez est dou siecle. Amis et Amile (B-W, 53, 81-83)
Mes or vos veil par amors demander
Que tu me soffres ton cors a adouber BA 4810-481 1
Ot le Guillelmes, sei corut embracier,
Par Ies dous flanz le lieve senz targier:
"En nom Deu, enfes, eil m'a mal engeignie
Qui te rova a venir a mon pie,
Quar sor toz omes dei ge ton cors aidier." CL 1743-1747
Et dit Guillaumes: "Amis, lessiez ester.
Je me dot moult de vos cors afoler:
Mil Chevaliers ferai o vos aler." BA 7092-7094
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 69
It is with this nuance of tenderness and a note o£ special reverence that the expression ion cors, vostre cors is used with reference to Christ:
... la vierge ...
Ou vos deignastes vostre cors esconser ...
Sainte Anestase vos feistes lever:
N'ot nules mains por vo cors onorer; CL 719-727
En sainte crois fu vostre cors penez
Et vo chier membre travaillie et lasse, CL 766-767
Tot por le pueple que tu vosis sauver
Lessas ton cors traveillier et pener,
Et en la croiz et ferir et navrer ... PO 785
In such examples (indeed, in most of the references to Christ — cf. below, p. 77), the physical reference is particularly strong: one feels the concern of the Speaker for the actual flesh of Christ {et vo chier membre), as he recounts the events of the Nativity and the Crucifixion. But we may also find ton cors used in such an abstract, theological reference as "en troi nom fust tes cors cumandez"^ (quoted by Leo Spitzer in Neuere Sprachen, XL, 485).
So far, all of the examples have been of son cors, ton cors. But quite frequently the Speaker refers to himself with mon (nos) cors. The degree of emotional intensity may fluctuate, but always some note of concern for seif is evident : the Speaker takes himself, treats his "seif" seriously. Sometimes there is a note of tender concern, solicitude, for seif — as when the Speaker
7. We often find the expression li cors Deu, li cors saint ... used in oaths, im- precaüons, where it has become a fixed formula:
Les traitor, cui li cors Deu mal face ... CL 1438
Par cele crois ou li cors Deu fu mis ...
Les traitors eüsse si laidiz ... CL 1 474-1 476
Trop en i a, li cors Deu les maudie! BA 2351
Mar me feristes, par le cors Saint Omer! BA3650 This practice was even extended to the pagans:
Li amiralz en juret quanqu'il poet
De Mahumet les vertuz e le cors. CR 3202-3203
For the many Compound expressions referring to the Deity that are to be found in the formulae of imprecation, supplication, cf. Carl Merk, "Die Lehre und das Leben der Kirche im altfr. Heldenepos," (Z.R.Ph.), Beihefte, XLI, 224-310. He also gives a list of the different saints figuring in such invocations (pp. 250-251, 260-265).
70
CORONA
envisages fearfully a Situation in which hc dreads to become involved:
Car tel hum prendre le purra
Ki noz cors i reconuistra. Tr 2931-2932
Pur nostre cors sui jo em paine Tr 117
Defent mon cors de mort et de prison,
Que ne m'ocie eist Sarrazins felons! CL 1 023-1 024
Garis mon cors de mort et d'afoler. PO 789^
or laments the ill fortune that has already befallen him:
amis, mar £u mes cors nez!
quant pour vous est enserrez,
et autres en a ses volentez,
drois est que m'en plainge: Chansons (B-W, 218, 85-88)
En Aleschans ai fet male gaeigne,
Ja mes h'iert jor que mi cors ne se plaigne. BA 602-603
Again, the subjective nuance of self-interest may show itself in a spirit of bravado, of resolution, of self-importance i**
Mielz voil morir mi cors ne s'i essait
En Rencevals irai mun cors juer, Se truis RoUant, de mort serat finet
Je conduirai mun cors en Rencesvals; Se truis RoUant ne lerrai que nel mat!
— Nu ferai jeo," dist Isembarz, "tant cum li miens cors durera.
Mes cors meismes en la bataille ira
BA 1219
CR 901-902
CR 892-893
Gl 511-512
Enf. Ogiers (Godefroy)
... je n'ai nul homme cha qui ne face tout chou que li miens corps vorra: mult sera fox li hons qui me courechera. B. de Seb. (B-W, 258, 21-23)
(Here we can see the Speaker thumping himself on the ehest: "Do all that / may wish"!)
And in the foUowing, mes cors meismes seems to reveal a tendency towards self-dramatization : the Speaker recreates a
8. This is particularly frequent with the words gtiarir and dejendre that are found so often in prayers for help.
9. In such sentences this expression is comparable to the "editorial we": in both cases the Speaker adds to his substance.
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 71
past event in order to refresh the memory of his listener: mes cors is a reminder of seif, in an appeal to reinforce a bond of sympathy between himself and his hearer:
Rois, quar te membre de la grant ost Oton:
O toi estoient Fran^ois et Borgoignon ...
Mes cors meismes tendi ton paveillon.
Puis te servi de riche venoison. . CN 214-220
Finally, in the rather frequent expressions comander, vouer mon cors the emphasis seems to be: "my selj: all that I am and have; myself, my life, my all":
Par Mahomet, oü mes cors est voez! BA 1564
... Dex est mes avoez,
Et li miens cors en ses mains commandez BA 6638-6639^**
Demain atandre me porroiz
Appareillie de ma puissance,
De metre an vostre delivrance
Mon cors si con je le doi feire. Yv 3724-3727
10. It is often possible to Interpret this mon cors by "my life" — as i£ the Speaker secs his life, his career, as an objective reality. This is a fitting translation for the examples with comander, vouer and garir, defendre (cf. also tant cum li miens cors durerd). However, this "life" does not seem to be the abstraction of life-as-opposed- to-death, so much as the "active" life: not the life within us, but the life we lead. For example, compare the following example where both mon cors and ma vie are used:
Ma vie et mon cors me sauvastes ...
Morz i eüsse este ou pris
Se ne fust vostre buene a'ie. Yv 3638-3642
Herc, vie is opposed to morz, cors to pns. Life = vie is not necessarily affected by captivity; only death can put an end to that. But life = cors — the life of activity, the career — this does indeed come to an cnd with captivity.
Miss Anna Bräder ("Zur Rolle des Körperlichen in der altfranzösischen Literatur . . ." in Giessener Beiträge zur Rom. Phil., XXIV, Giessen, 1931, p. 321) calls atten- tion to the meaning cors = "Leben" which she evidently interprets as the abstraction "life." Of the three examples which she oflers, the Interpretation of two is proble- matical, but the third does seem, at first glance, to have clearly this significance: Li bon ceval ont ja perdu lor cors {Aspremont 8862). However, it has this meaning only when the context is ignored, for in the following line we find Au trot en vienent auquant et li plusor {ibid. 8863) — rather lively behavior for dead horses! Obviously here cors = Latin cursus: the horses had lost the track.
However, in suggesting the Interpretation "life" I do not mcan to suggest that in these examples cors has a "different" meaning from that in other passages; the one meaning of mon cors is "my own seif." An expression so rieh in significance will of course vary in connotation according to the context, but it is a mistake, I think, to attempt to split the word into separate categories, as does Miss Bräder, who dis- criminates between cors =: person, and cors = attribute of the person, this last catcgory being again divided into "Kraft," "Mut," etc.
72 CORONA
In all the examples so far considered — even in these just above in which the Speaker refers to himself — I feel a distinctly ceremonial flavor in the words son cors, ton cors, mon cors, and an emotional atmosphere of concern. The Speaker who uses them seems to feel an emotional tie that binds him to the per- son-involved ; son cors betrays a recognition of what this person means to him; it designates a person in so far as he "matters" to the Speaker.^ ^ Usually this concern is an affectionate one;
II. Thus the infrequency of this expression outside of conversation is under- standable: son cors, betraying an emotional attitude toward the person designated, would seldom be appropriate in the mouth of the author himself. However, the fol- lowing examples of son cors used by the author represent a peculiar Situation: the poet describes a scene as if witnessed not by himself, but by one of his characters who, as he looks, feels concern for the person that he sees involved (and in every casc that person is himself). Thus the author, as if looking through his character's eyes, uses a term betraying that concern. Consider: Cil de pasmeisons revint, Et li lions son cors retint Yv 3521-3522 Here, we are not simply told that when Yvain came to his senses the lion was holding on to him: we are shown the same picture that the knight saw. In the following examples we have to do with the two visions of Charlemagne: the Emperor in his dream sees himself being attacked; he looks upon himself as another might do, realizing at the same time that it is himself:
... uns grans leons li vient ...
Sun cors me'ismes i asalt e requert CR 2449-2451
... uns leuparz ...
Sun cors demenie mult fierement asalt CR 729-730 (Note the epithet demenie (<Cdominicus: "seigneurial, prive, particulier" — FEW). Bedier translates this simply by "son corps meme," thereby missing the ceremonial flavor of this word that refers, reverenüy, to the royal person of the Emperor).
Thus in these examples, just as in the passages of conversation above, son cors represents the person viewed with concern. Now it is also possible to find this expression used by the author in cases where it is very difficult to perceive any sub- jective connotation — but only, or pracücally only, when son cors is the equivalent of the reflexive pronoun, as:
Si li comande a aporter
Ses armes por son cors armer Erec 2625-2626
Franceis descendent, si adubent lor cors CR 1797
Malpramis siet sur un cheval tut blanc;
Conduit son cors en la presse des Francs ... CR 3369-3370
Tienent oiseaus por lor cors deporter CN 26
Here, for the first time, we see evidence of a tendency toward grammaücalization, formalization, with son cors. This is perhaps to be explained by a peculiar feature of reflexive verbs in OF: many of the OF reflexive verbs in common use were based upon transitive verbs that could also be used intransitively. For example, to express the ideas "rise, lie, sit" two modes of expression were possible: soi lever — lever; sei colchier — colchier; soi aseoir — aseoir. The difference in nuance between the two forms of the same verb was (often) that between announcement of a fact and de-
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 73
often the attitude is that of reverence and tenderness, and son cors constitutes, as it were, a sort of title bestowed upon the other in acknowledgment of his worth. Occasionally the atti- tude is hostile; but nearly always there is an attitude, a recogni- tion of the significance of the other's personaUty, Perhaps son cors might be defined as "the person in the flesh envisaged with concern."
But whence comes this especial nuance of concern for the personahty? Does this follow inevitably (as the emphasis on "the person in the flesh" would seem to follow inevitably) from the "bodily" origin of the word ? Theoretically, such a develop- ment is easily conceivable: love involves a tenderness for the very flesh of the beloved; when we deeply hate another, we "hate his guts." And so, the use of a word that insists on the fleshly reality of the person would seem eminently fitted to express a subjective reaction to his personality. But, if we turn back to the Latin ancestor of son cors, we shall see that such a development was far from inevitable.
It is well known that the development "body" -> "person" had already taken place in Latin with corpus. The distinction
scription o£ an act: lever, £or instance, would be used to State that a person "got up" in the morning {El demain lieve tote sainne: Molt fu haitie la semainne — ^Yonec 217- 218), soi lever was not apt to be used unless the subject is right under our eyes, in the Center of the stage, where we can see him get to his feet {Gui d'Aletnaigne sc leva sor ses piez: Dist a ses omes: ... — CL 2355-2356).
The need thus to distinguish between Statement of fact and description of act led to the addition of a reflexive object to other verbs purely intransitive in origin, when- ever the author desired especially to invite visualization — cf.:
Gesir porrun el burc de seint Denise vs. Lors s'endormi, que toz fu enivrez. CR 973 Pance levee se gist toz enversez.
BA 4613-4614 Now in the case of verbs like (soi) deporter, (soi) armer, that could not be used intransitively, this kind of alternance was impossible. But some kind of aliernance was desired; the reflexive construction could not maintain its emphasis in the absence of a contrasting intransitive form, and so the desire for an "extra" form, more vivid, more descriptive, led to a deporter son cors by the side of soi deporter.
Thus we do not have complete grammaticalization in such cases: though the emotive connotation is not realized, still the vital, dramatic force of son cors is brought into play. Moreover, this Substitution of son cors for soi seems to have been kept within the limits already referred to: I have never found this expression used with a verb that possesses bcth intransitive and reflexive forms — for example, a Hever son cors, *coucher son cors.
74
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between the two meanings is not as clearly drawn as in OF (which possessed the two forms le cors and son cors), and often corpus alicuius, though acceptable as a periphrasis for the person, will have an almost exclusively bodily nuance. For example, in
Primus abit longeque ante omnia corpora Nisus
Emicat et ventis et fulminis ocior alis Aen. V, 318-319
a plastic eflfect is achieved by presenting boldly the naked, glistening bodies of the runners before our eyes. But there are scores of other examples to be found where the physical im- plication is subordinate, where there is no question of the "body" in a carnal or anatomical sense. The passages below^^ clearly reveal the development "body" -^ "person" :
vilia captivorum corpora trucidabant^^
pecuniam exigere corpus retinendo^*
in servorum corporibus amor laudis cerneretur
hie metu externae corpora gentis [ext. gen. = ancillae] agat
corpora regi capta trahant
urbs regi, captiva corpora Romanis cessere
Curt. 5.6.6
Ulp. dig. 48. 13. 1 1.6
Pliny paneg. 33
Ovid Epis. 133.4
Val. Fl. 4.108 Livy XXXI. 46.16
Postero die, libera corpora dictator sub corona vendidit
rapique in vincula egentem jure libertatis, qui liberum corpus in servitutem addixisset
delecta circum sortiti corpora
Praeterea bis sex genitor lectissima matrum Corpora captivosque dabit, suaque omnibus arma
Hasta volans, ut forte novem pulcherrima fratrum Corpora constiterant contra ...
Adspice, sim quantus: non est hoc corpore major Jupiter in caelo
Livy V, xxii.i
Livy IIL xlvi. 8 Aen. IL 18
Aen. IX. 272-273
Aen. IL 270-271
Ovid Metam. XIII. 842-843
12. From the ThLL.
13. Note the epithel vilia (cf. also tnrpin ... corpora — Ovid Epist. 133-134). I have never found a pejorative adjective coupled with cors in OF.
14. In this example, and in corporis coercitationetn {ibid. 48.19.6.2) we seem to have to do with the "corpus" of habeas corpus.
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 75
Cimon . . . vicarium se pro corpore patris dedit Sen. contr. thema 9.1
posuero, qualis sit futurus tyrannus: uUius hie
parcet corpori, qui patrem trucidavit Quint. CCCXII
triticum secundum corpus; id est secundum numerum corporum; per corpus enim numerum corporum, per numerum corporum numerum hominum significat. Aug. loc. hept. 1. 196
In these sentences it is evident that we have to do with the person X, Y, or Z, rather than with his body. And yet, it is only as X, Y, or Z that the person is presented ; there is nothing whatsoever of the atmosphere of jamais n'iert hume \i tun cors cuntrevaillet to be found in any of the examples which I have found/^ Instead, corpus is a most practical, perfunctory term, betraying the impersonal attitude of the legaHst or the census taker toward the persons v^ith w^hom they have to deal, the atti- tude of a slaveov^^ner toward his chattel.
The most frequent type of expression in which corpus is found is Corpora serva, corpora libera, corpora capta, where this word, in the piural/^ merely makes a distinction between bond and free, cataloguing, classif ying, lumping together all the indi- viduals in a mass wherein personality is lost/^ It is frequently used in tabulations {bis sex . . . matrum corpora: in this example matrons, captives, armor are all on the same level; novem . . . fratrum corpora . . .), and the usefulness of the term corpus for statistics, for which persons exist as countable units, is seen in the example from Augustine, where per corpus has exactly the significance of "per capita."
Even when the word is found in the singular, there is noth-
15. The two following examples would seem to be exceptions: nee mare nee tellus nee eaeli lucida templa
nee mortale genus nee divom eorpora saneta Luer. I, 1014-1015
amantes non longe a caro eorpore abesse volunt Cat. 66.32. However, in the first, the materialistie, the "atomistic," Lueretius is probably think- ing, without tenderness, of the eflSuvium of corporeality that emanates from gods as well as humans. In the second, it is true, we do indeed have tenderness — but probably also strong overtones of earnality.
16. The use of the plural itself is signifieant: in OF the only plural form I have noticed is nos cors (=: "you and I") — exeept when a reflexive relationship is in- volved. Conversely, a *nostra corpora did not exist.
17. Note that in English one would hardly say "a crowd of persans".
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ing of the individual, the personal, about it. Usually corpus figures in an impersonal expression (ullius corpori = "any- body"; liberum corpus ^=^''2. [any] freedman"), but even when a particular person is involved the connotation is still per- functory: note the specifying, the legalistic tone of vicarium se pro patris corpore dedit = "in the stead of his father" (X in- stead of A; "the party of the first part . . .").
For corpus could be applied to sticks and stones as easily as to humans :
diviso corpore mundi in maria ac terras et sidera Aetna 102
atomas . . . id est corpora individua propter soliditatem Cic. fin. 1.17
quaedam continua esse corpora ut hominem; quaedam esse composita, ut navem, domum. Sen. CIL 6
(C£. also parietis corpus; corpora ßammarum; corpus aquae; raro cum corpore tellus; coloris et corporis terra.)
Corpus was what all objects possessed and, when designating a person, this word presents him as a human object; instead of emphasizing his humanness, that which sets him apart and entitles him to consideration as an individual, it emphasizes that which he shares with all the different Orders of creation, ref erring to him by means of the lowest common denominator : matter, substance. Corpus simply guarantees that he possesses substantiality, occupies space, can be touched, seen, pointed to, labeled as belonging to a certain class, catalogued X in contrast to A/«
It is obvious, then, that the ceremonial tone of OF son cors, the Suggestion of concern for the personality of the person- designated, is lacking with Latin corpus: such a nuance is not, after all, an inevitable corollary of the bodily etymology of the Word. But not only is this true of the (one might say) "spir- itual" connotation, it is also true of the physical — i.e., in the sense of vital. For, the definition suggested above of son cors was twofold: ''tht-pcrson-in-ihe-flesh envisaged with concern," that is, the living, breathing person. But in these Latin ex-
18. Latin, however, was not lacking a periphrasis that took account of the Personality: this was often achieved by means of the word persona (cf. Hans Rhein- felder, Das Wort Persona, Halle, 1928).
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 77
amples with corpus, he does not even breathe. He is a lump, an object. Corpus respects neither the soul nor the flesh/^
And so the apparent parallel which the Latin development oflers is a specious one: corpus (cdicuius) fails to explain OF son cors.
Just what the source of this expression may be was sug- gested by Professor Spitzer in his reply to Elise Richter: "Alt- französisch td r^ötr = Neufranzösisch ta viandeV {Neuere Sprachen, XL, 1932, 483-486). In his article he rejects her as- sumption that OF ta char originated as a vulgarism ; he insists, rather, that it is the product of a religious milieu (as would likewise be true of ton cors), and owes its use to Christian experience and Christian doctrine: "Aber mit dem Kommen des Erlösers, mit seinem Abstieg in die Fleischlichkeit (Ver- bum caro factum) ist das Fleisch auch wieder rehabilitiert: es gibt ein 'heiliges Fleisch'": in Avant que la virginite de la vierge conneue Ne vostre sainte cars venue ist nicht "die Bedeu- tung schon schillernd zwischen 'Person' und 'pronominaler Umschreibung,' sondern die ganze sinnliche Stärke des ursprünglichen Ausdrucks vorhanden: das heilige Fleisch Christi, das ans Kreuz geschlagen wurde." And, since God himself did not scorn to take on the flesh, so it became possible, as never before, to think of the flesh with tenderness and rev- erence, as a symbol of the indwelling spirit — and thus, to desig- nate a person through reference to his body.
Following this Suggestion, I went back to the earlier texts to examine the treatment of the "fleshly" theme in the religious
19. The use in Greek o£ soma furnishes an interesting parallel to that of corpus. Soma originally designed a swollen mass, according to Boisacq (the older derivation from the stem of sozo "I save": literally "the spoils, the corpses that are reclaimed after a battle" is rejected by modern linguists), and its use in referring to persona seems to have been first restricted to that of dead human bodies. Hesiod is the first to use it to refer to a live body; in Homer it is found only twice in that sense, as compared to six appearances with the meaning "corpse." Then. like corpus, soma began to be used to designate the person himself. but as an "object": the one example that Plato offers of this use is in a legali^tic context (Nomci); the two phrases in which it is most frequently to be found are somata dula (cf. corpora servd) and somata eleuthera (cf. corpora libera). Evidently it was first applied to slaves, to labe! them as chattel, and then the complementary expression designating the freed- men was evolved. (This information was given me by Professor Paul Friedländer.)
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writings. In the Passion^^ chair appears frequently to remind US of the Incarnation of the Savior, of the mystery and the tragedy of his crucified flesh:
des que carn pres. interra. fu. per tot obred que uerus deus per tot sosteg que hom carnals. ... 6-8
De laz la croz estet mariae
de cui ihs uera carn presdre
cum cela carn uidra murir!
quäl agre dol nol sab. cm uius;
Ela molt ben sab. remembrar
desoa carn cum deus £u naz. ... 329-334
Argent ne aur non i donet
masq; son sang et soa carn
deg cel enfern toz nos liudret
en paradis los arberget. ... 385-388
fort ment sun il espauentet
illi non credent que aia carn. ... 437-438
In this work cors is not used of Christ (except in reference to his dead body). But in the hagiographical writings cors ap- pears frequently, used with a connotation hardly less reveren- tial, to refer to the precious flesh of the saints:"^
20. Wendelin Foerster and Eduard Koschwitz, Altfmnzösisches Übungsinich (Leipzig: Reisland, 1911), pp. 59-78.
21. In so far as we can judge from these examples, it seems that (ta) char was rather reserved for reference to Christ, and thus may have retained a connotation slightly more sacred than {ton) cors. This may be the reason for the comparative infrequency of ta char = "toi-meme" in the later, nonreligious texts: the type men- tioned by Tobler and Spitzer (A fin que ma char sott de par luy conseillie) is seldom found. And, indeed, the few examples that we do find may be largely due to the influence of ton cor.f= "toi-meme": neither in the early texts nor in later periods was there any evidence of an important development of char into a periphrasis for designation of the person-as-a-whole (and the same may be said of chies, personne, and membres, which Tobler considers as on the same level with cors).
Interestingly enough, in the Chansons char appears in two connections, quite dis- tinct one from the other: reference to Christ {"sire, pour la sainte char Dien," — B-W, 205.36) and quite carnal reference to humans {il le lad mie en char tiichiet — Gl 133); it could even be used for "meat," since viande did not yet exist in this re- stricted sense. It is as if the forcefulness of its use in designating Christ is enhanced by its very fleshly connotations: either the flesh alone, in its crudest sense, or eise the body of the incarnate Christ. Thus the miracle of the Incarnation is emphasized.
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 79
Leger^^
Apres ditrai vos dels aanz
Que li suos corps susting si granz 9-10
Et cum il l'aud toUut lo quev,
Lo corps estera sobre .Is piez. 229-230
Entro.l talia los pez dejus, Lo corps estera sempre sus. Del corps asaz l'avez audit, Et dels flaiels que granz sustint. L'anima reciut Domine Deus; 233-237
Et si en corps a grand torment, L'anima.n awra consolament. 173-174
Sainte Foi^^
Lo corps es beiz, e paucs l'estaz;
Lo senz es gencer qe dinz jas. 76-77
Corps avez de genta tenor:
Filla semblaz d'emperador. 241-242
la fornaz ...
0.11 corps d'aquella sancta jaz
Raustiz el ferr et escaraz. 357'358
Remas lo corps truncs e rezis
Aissi con.l gladis l'a aucis. 391-392
Sus la paused sobre.l foger,
Lo corps tot nud, cast et enter. 335-336
Aqell angels qei es venguz,
Aujaz quäl deintad i aduz;
Corona d'aur qe plus reluz,
Non fa.l soleilz q'uand es creguz.
Cuberg li'l corps q'era totz nuz
D'un pali q'es ab aur batuz. 364-369
Feiron i dui monge obertura; Traissum lo corps per gran
gentura. 433-435
(Cf. alsOj in reference to Christ: Pres fo.l seus corps, lo precios: Judeu l'aucidrun enveios. 307-308.)
22. Joseph Linskill, Saint Leger (Paris: Droz, 1937).
23. Ernest Hoepffner and Prosper Alfaric, La Chanson de Sainte Foy, Vol. I (Paris: Societe d'edition, 1926).
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Tantes dolurs ad pur tei anduredes ...
E tantes lermes pur le ton cors pluredes! 397-399(471-472)
Sa fin aproismet, ses cors est agravet; 289
Regut l'almosne, quant Deus la li tramist;
Tant en retint dunt ses cors puet guarir; 98-99
Dis e set anz n'en fut ni'ent a dire:
Penat sun cors el Damne Deu servise. 161-162
De la viande ki del herbere li vint,
Tant an retint dunt sun cors an sustint;
Se lui'n remaint, sil rent as poverins;
N'en fait musgode pur sun cors engraisser, 251-254
Trent'e quatre anz ad si sun cors penet; 276
Trestuz le prenent ki pourent avenir;
Cantant enportent le cors saint Alexis,
E tuit li preient que d'els aiet mercit. 506-508
(332; 544; 598 also refer to the dead body) Iloec an portent danz Alexis a certes Ed attement le posent a la terre. Felix le liu ü sun saint cors herberget! 568-570
(grant ... pur cel saint cors qu'il unt en lur bailie. ledice) Co lur est vis que tengent Deu medisme. 538-539
In most cases this cors that is mentioned so often can only be interpreted (even when combined with son), as the body, the holy, martyred body of the saint. Here we have a Situation quite diflerent from that of the Chansons; in most o£ these examples it would be impossible to see in son cors a reference to personahty : instead, it must be interpreted only as the body, the holy martyred body of the saint, But it is interesting to note the frequency with which his body is referred to; such writings are concerned primarily with the physical suffering and martyrdom of the saint, and the author follows this, step by Step, reminding us with cors, that it is the actual body of the saint that has suffered.
Moreover, these texts are permeated with an attitude of con- cern, even worship, for the body of the saint. The body of Leger is accorded mysterious powers. In Sainte Fol it is the
24. christopher Storey, Saint Alexis (Paris: Droz, 1934).
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 8i
martyred body of the saint that receives the crown "shining brighter than the noon-day sun"; the beauty of her body is twice described;"^ and the cruel sword is said to have "killed" her body. In Alexis, nine times is his body, though dead, graced with the epithet "saint" ;^^ it is his body that the people pray to; it is his body that the city desires so anxiously to guard; it is the possession of this body that puts them in such joy that "it did seem to them that God was in their keeping."
In a few cases it would be possible to extend the reference of son cors to the "person-as-a-whole" (Pres fo.l seus corps, lo precios; Penat sun cors el Damne Deu servise; Sa fin aproismet, ses cors est agravet). But I do not believe that in these texts the development son cors = "lui-meme" has been fully accom-
25. Kurt Tromm, "Altfranzösisch bei in der Bedeutung 'lieb' " (Z.f-R-S., XL VI, 441-449), discusses the treatment o£ the theme "beauty of soul and body" that is to be found in the writings of the Church fathers. To many o£ them there was an innate relation between the two; we even find the belief expressed that the relation was an absolute one, the body inevitably reflecting the nature of the soul (p. 466): Corporis in gestu radiant insignia mentis (Engelmodus). But even though this combination may not always be met with in reality, to them it was the ideal condi- tion. Thus we find so frequendy in the writings dealing with the lives of the saints, a description of their physical beauty (p. 443): Pulchra jade sed ptdchrior fide (Marienlegende); bei auret corps, bellezour anima (Etdalie).
But this physical beauty was subordinate to spiritual beauty, prccious only in so far as it was indeed a mirror of the spiritual beauty even more precious: usually it was stated that the beauty of their soul surpassed that of their body, and in one casc where this corrective qualification is missing {Sainte Foi, 241-242) the editor calls our attention to the fact that this flattering physical description comes from the Ups of Dacien, who wishes to seduce the saint! Physical beauty in itself, though a gift of God, is the least of his gifts — and may be a curse, if not illumined by the spirit within. Even Augustine, the lover of beauty, says (448) : ctiius pulchrum corpus est et deformis animus, magis dolendus est, quam si deforme haberet et corpus.
This same balance, according to Tromm, is also to be found in the romances of chivalry: Mout est bele, mas miaus assez Vaut ses savoirs que sa biautez. However, so far as I have been able to observe, this overshadowing of physical beauty by the spiritual was not the current tendency in the worldly literature. For the most part the poet was satisfied to describe the appearance of his characters, to dub them "fair of form and face," and let us take their spiritual worth for granted: Gent cors ot et bele jeture (Equitan 33); Gent ad le cors, gaillart e ben seant, Cler le visage . . . (Rolland 31 15-31 16). Even the beauty of Ganelon is admitted: Cors ad gaillard, el vis gente color {ibid. 3763), though a trace of the theological idea remains, since it is suggested that his spiritual deformity prcvents his beauty from being completc: S'ils fust leials, ben resemblast barun {ibid. 3764).
26. Such epithets are also found in medieval Latin texts; cf. the earlier Latin metrical version of Sainte Foi (Alfaric, op. cit., II, 189-197): membra beata (256); Sacra membra (266); sanctissima corpora (269); saa-a corpora (275).
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plished : I think we would lose the real emphasis of these pas- sages, and would fail to see the reason for the beginning of this development, if son cors were accepted here as equivalent to the person."^
Rather, I think, in these passages where a personal pronoun would not be out of place, we should look upon son cors as a deliberate Substitution for the pronoun in order to emphasize the body. "II fut pris" would present a tragic enough fact, but pres fo.l seus corps reminds us that the wicked enemies of Christ laid hands upon his precious body; se penat ... would inform us adequately of Alexis' self-mortification, but penai sun cors shows a concern for the physical eilects of his self- imposed martyrdom that finally led to the collapse of his body (ses cors est agrevet). Unless an emphasis on the body is pos- sible, son cors is not apt to be found; when this expression is used, there is regularly a streng physical implication present, and this should not be discounted.
This insistence on the body, concern for the body, is an interesting note in texts strictly religious. And it is probably to be explained by the mystical connection that was feit to exist between body and soul: cors is substituted for the colorless pronoun in order to emphasize the body — but the body is em- phasized because of its spiritual connotations ! Thus the em- phasis is at the same time carnal and ascetic. For it was through his body that the saint worked out his soul's salvation. The account of his physical afflictions amounts to a recital of his spiritual victories.
Thus the martyrdom of the saint reflected the miracle of the Incarnation and Crucifixion ; his body was a symbol, a precious vessel of the soul — precious in itself, too, as a chalice is precious that has contained a holy wine.
But it was separate from the soul — as a chalice is separate from the wine. And it did not matter greatly whether the body
27. The one exception in the Alexis is the phrase tantes lermes pur le ton cors pluredes; here we do have a reference ta the person. But this phrase, used once by the father (399), once by the wife (412), of Alexis Stands out in sharp contrast to all the other appearances of son corps: in these lines (and in these lines alone) the "saint" is not involved. We have here to do with a human being — a son, a husband.
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 83
was alive or dead. It was perhaps more precious when dead: only then was it qualified by "saint" (as if in anticipation of the post mortem miracles whereby the t/ertu of the saint was estab- Hshed). Indeed, when a saint died, it was cause for great rejoic- ing: when Alexis died, "unches en Rome n'en out si grant ledice." The townsfolk, jubilant, rushed to touch him, rejoicing over the possession of this body that was mystically impreg- nated with the hoHness of his soul, confident of the blessings that would accrue to their city from the presence of his body in their midst ("It did seem to them that God was in their keeping"). And when the father wept for the son he had lost, the "Apostle" rebuked him sharply: "What boots thy noise? Thy sorrow to us is joy." For they had the precious body of the saint.^^
Now of course it is not this almost ghoulish note of adora- tion of the flesh that we find in the Chansons. When son cors is taken from the ascetic (carnal-ascetic) atmosphere of the cloisters into that of the more active world of human relation- ships — a World where a hero has lovers and enemies and com- panions who look upon him as a person, rather than worshipers to whom he is near-divinity clothed in flesh — the word grows in human significance. For, to Roland who cries out in his
28. A modern (and especially a Protestant) reader instinctively recoils from the brutality, the callousness to human grief, shown by this spokesman of the jubilant throng. And there is something horrible, faintly sickening, in the picture of the exultant mob, hysterical in their joy, gloating with a "sacred gluttony" (to borrow the phrase that Jules Lemaitre applied to Polyettcte) over the "cors saint," the precious flesh — this holy trophy now in their keeping, in their grasp.
But though repellent to modern instincts, it is just such a greedy attitude that pervades the whole latter portion of this poem. And so it is surprising to find Foerster {San\t Alexius, Göttingen, 191 1) refusing to accept the line go lur est vis qtie tengent Deu fnedisme on the grounds that the desire to "have hold" of God is incomprehensible: ". . . es ist kaum denkbar, dass dem so verständigen und klaren Dichter . . . eine solche Geschmacklosigkeit hätte einfallen können." Emil Winkler ("Von der Kunst des Alexiusdichters," Z.f.R.P., XLVII, 595-596) cites this criticism of Foerster's, asserting that the line in question, though perhaps rationally "ganz unmöglich" (as the latter insisted) is, from a poetic point of view, "von höchster Wirkung."
Moreover, as concerns the concept of "having God," Darmesteter (Formation des mots composes, Paris, Bouillon, 1894, pp. 166-167), in his list of proper names com- poundcd with "-God" that were quite frequent among African Christians, includes among them "Habetdeum."
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grief, "Sire cumpainz ... Jamals n'iert hume ki tun cors cuntxe- vaillet," the flesh of the dying Oliver is not as precious as was that of Alexis to his worshipers. He, like the father, wept for the man who had died. Ton cors to him was not the flesh (made sacred by a miracle, endowed with magic properties that might save him); ton cors was his human friend: the hardy knight, the wise counselor. He was much more concerned with the Personality of the dead hero than were the fellow townsmen of Alexis who, singing, bore him to his grave. A Saint does not have a personality, he has a soul wrapped round with a body. And this wrapping is "Li cors Alexis." But "li cors Oliviers" is the man, Oliver.
Here, the synthesis of body and soul is achieved that was lacking in the saints' lives. But the tone is the same. The fact that ton cors could be used on such an occasion as the death of Oliver, fit to express the passionate tenderness that Roland feit, and the reverence, too, for the man, Oliver; the fact that throughout the epical and lyrical poetry of the OF period, it was used to refer to a person in so far as he mattered deeply — a term recognizant of the worth of the personality of the indi- vidual, evocative of "the person in the flesh envisaged with concern": this is not to be explained by etymology alone. It is perhaps the result of Christian experience and doctrine, of the religion of Christ, who, through the flesh, accomplished the greatest revelation of divinity that the world has known. Thus it was possible in the saints' lives to use cors so frequently, so tenderly and reverently, to speak of flesh that was more than flesh; so that, later still, in the Chansons, the most poignant and the most noble way to address another could be "thy body.""®
29. The combination of possessive adjective + corps has, obviously, continued in the language, but the expression "son cors" as we have seen it in the Chansons, has disappeared. The reasons for this disappearance were perhaps twofold:
In the first place, this expression underwent the fate of many another lyrical creation; it was attacked by formallzation. We have already seen a tendency in this direction with such verbs as armer son cors etc., in which the emotive connotation of son cors was lost. Other evidence of this tendency is to be seen in the use of son cors in certain cliches where the main emphasis is a demonstrative one: I por son cors Encontre mei Ten covendra combatre
Ou Chevalier qui por son cors le face CL 2371-2372
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 85
ABBREVIATIONS
AN Aucassin et Nicolette, ed. Mario Roques (Paris: Champion, 1925)
in "Classiques fran^ais du moyen äge." BA La bataille d' Aleschans in Guillaume d'Orange, ed. M. W. J. A.
Jonckbloet (La Haye: Nyhoff, 1854). Bis "Bisclavret" in Les Lais de Marie de France, ed. J. H. Ed. Heitz
(Strasbourg: Bibliotheca Romanica, n.d.). B-W Bartsch-Wiese, Chrestomathie de l'ancien jranqais (loth ed.:
Leipzig: Vogel, 1910).
2 par son cors (seul) Ne mengere si t'aure chier rendu,
Et par mon cors mate et confondu BA 1254-1255
3 (il) ses cors (metsmes) Ce dit li contes que il ses cors en ocist
les .X. Artus (Godefroy)
4 sans (fors) son cors ... quant il n'a si rice home en cest pais,
sans le cors le conte Garin, s'il
trovoit... A + N XXII, 17
5 // cors d'un tel ... fut tout esbahy comment li corps Lancelot du Lac
d'un seul chevalier povoit ce faire (Godefroy)
— to which might be added the formulae noted above // cors Deu, li cors saint ... and, in later prose writings particularly, // cors le roi.
In (i) and (2) an emotive nuance is still latent, and may have originally been feit quite strongly {por mon cors ^=^ "for my own sake"; par mon cors, emphasizing the idea of self-esteem) — as is also true of the "titles": // cors Deu, li cors le roi. In the case of (4) likewise the demonstrative emphasis need not exclude a subjective connotation: in the example above there is a slight titular flavor, and in such a onc as jurerai ... c'onques nul home fors vostre cors n'amai {^Chanson, B-W, 45, 22) this connotation is quite evident. It is (3) and (5) that represent, perhaps, the expression at its most fossilized, but these seem almost entirely limited to prose writings. As for the Chansons, one may still find in the fourteenth Century son cors used vi^ith füll value (in the brief selection of 152 lines from Baudouin de Sebourc included in B-W one may find five examples of this type) ; however, the formalizing tendency which begins to appear frequendy in the prose works of the thirteenth Century finally succeeded in sapping the vitality of this expression: it may well be that in Baudouin de Sebourc we have to do with a mere mechanical continuation of a stylistic poetic tradition.
But the grammaticalization of an expression does not necessarily entail its dissolu- tion: ossification often acts as a preservative. Why did son cors cease to exist (with the exception of a son corps defendant and «72 drole de corps) even in fossilized phrases? Why do we not srill have a pour son corps, un corps d' komme for demon- strative or impersonal use, or such "titles" as le corps de Dieu, le corps du roi? The answer surely lies in a shift of values that has taken place: after the decline of medieval civilization and of the concepts upon which it was based, the word corps perhaps appeared too "physical" to suit the tastes of latcr generations who favored expressions more abstract (cf. "la personne du roi" by which Du Gange translates corpus regis [fifteenth Century]).
And so son cors, first grammaticalized, and then abandoned as a designation of the person, is, in the modern language, reduced to its original, unsanctified, elements (^chair, likewise, has sufifered: ta chair is now an arrant vulgarism: "amene ta chair!") — le cors Dieu still survives in corbleu.
86 CORONA
CL Le couronnement de Louis, ed. E. Langlois (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1925) in "Societe des anciens textes fran^ais."
CN "Li Charrois de Nymes" in Guillaume d'Orange.
CR Le chanson de Roland, ed. Joseph Bedier (Paris: Piazza, 1921).
CV "Li covenans Vivien" in Guillaume d'Orange.
Eli "Eliduc" in Les Lais de Marie de France.
Erec Erec und Enide, ed. Wendelin Foerster (Halle: Niemeyer, 1890).
Gl Gormont et Isembart, ed. Alphonse Bayot (Paris: Champion, 1914) in "Classiques frangais du moyen äge."
PO "La prise d'Orange" in Guillaume d'Orange.
Tr Le roman de Tristan par Thomas, ed. Joseph Bedier (Paris: Fir- min Didot, 1902) in "Societe des anciens textes francais."
Yon "Yonec" in Les Lais de Marie de France.
Yv Der Löwenritter (Yvain), ed. Wendelin Foerster (Halle: Nie- meyer, 1887).
APPENDIX
In regard to the use o£ "Body" in other medieval languages as a designation of the person, I have found nothing that would indicate that the development represented by OF son cors was quite duplicated else- where.
As for German, Grimm {op. cit., pp. 265-266) calls attention to the tendency in MHD to use the word lip for a person, citing several examples from the Nibelungenlied (dii hast geschendet dinen schoenen lip; si jähen, daz gesunder unser deheines lip . . .); he even suggests that this use of lip influenced the development of son cors. I am not com- petent to judge whether or not lip ever reached the peculiar significance that son cors attained in Old French. However, even if this were the case, the development of lip would still not be quite analogous to that of cors, for the meaning "body" was only the secondary meaning of the German word; its original meaning was "life," and before the second half of the eleventh Century it is to be found only in that meaning and in the meaning "person" (according to Helene Adolf, Wort geschicht- liche Studien zum Leib-Seele-Problem, "Mittelhochdeutsch lip 'Leib' und die Bezeichnungen für ccn-pus," Vienna, 1937, p. 13). Thus with this word "person" is not a development of "body" but of "life."
As for Italian, Rheinfelder {op. cit., pp. 50-54) discusses the develop- ment "body" — > "person" as seen in the use of persona. This word, of long history and involved signification in Latin, was used often in Romance with the meaning "body," and in Italian, particularly, this persona = "body" came to designate the person as a whole (. . . la bella persona che mi fu tolta — Dante), representing, moreover (according to Rheinfelder), an affective term betraying the same nuance of emotional
SON CORS IN OLD FRENCH 87
concern and emphasis on "the person in the flesh" that we have tound with son cors. However, the fact that persona could be used of dead bodies and of the bodies of animals (even though only when a nuance of tenderness was desired) would suggest that its connotation was not quite the same as that of son cors, nor is there any indication that the use of persona could compare in frequency with that of son cors. Again, as was true of lip, we have here to do with "body" as a secondary mean- ing. It is corpo, of course, that has this meaning as the primary one, but this Word, according to Rheinfelder, was completely lacking in an emo- tive implication and was used only to designate the body, never a person (however, one finds in Dante, cited by Tommaso-Bellini: Questi e corpo humano [i.e., not a ghost] che voi vedete . . ., which could well be translated "this is a human being, person").
Finally, in English, a somewhat similar development of "body" has left traces in the modern language: cf. the indefinite expressions "anybody," "nobody" (and "if a body meet a body coming through the rye, and a body kiss a body ..."), and "classifying" epithets such as "busybody." In Middle English, according to E. Einenkel {Geschichte der historischen englischen Syntax, Strasbourg, 1916, p. 65), the frequent use of "body" to designate a person was modeled after the use of cors in Old French, and he calls attention to the expressions with the possessive, "my body," "thy body" (^ "myself," "thyself"), which represent the same tendency of mon cors, ton cors.
However, from the little study that I have attempted of this problem in Middle English — iimiting myself almost entirely to the use of "body" in Chaucer (cf. Fred N. Robinson, Chaucer's Wor\s, Cambridge Edi- tion, New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1933) — I have found no one ex- ample that would clearly indicate that "thy body" ever reached the stage of development that is illustrated in jamais n'iert hum \i tun cors cuntre- vaillet.
In the first place, the distinction between the physical body and the person, as maintained in OF through the distinction between the con- structions le cors and son cors, does not have a parallel in ME. Con- sequently, we often find "thy body," etc. used when the emphasis is strongly or even exclusively physical; contrary to the Old French pro- cedure we find this Compound expression used in reference to a dead body, and in passages contrasting "body" and "soul"; "body" and "heart": "And of thy light my soule in prison highte, That troubled is by the contagioun Of my body" {Second Nun's Priest' s Tale, 11. 71-73); and in situations where the implication is clearly physiological ("That of the fere bis body sholde quake" — Troilus and Criseyde, Bk. V, 1. 1256; cf. Voit le Guillaume , tot le cors // fremist — PO, 1. 687), or carnal ("Certes, this is the foulest thefte that may be, whan a womman steleth hir body from hir housbonde, and yeveth it to hire holour to defoulen
88 CORONA
hire; and steleth hir soule fro Crist . . .," Parson's Tale, 1. 875). Indeed, the carnal emphasis is present quite frequently; for example, the phrases "to sin, trespass with her body" seem to be reserved solely to designate the sexual act {Physicians Tale, 1. 138; Fran1{lin's Tale, 1. 1366). And that such was definitely not the connotation o£ son cors is seen in the example quoted above, Vus faites grant vilanie, A vostre cors hunise- ment, Quant il vus aime ... E vus vers li vus cuntenez Cum vers home que nient n'amez, where the shame of the subject consists in her lack of passion — a coldness which is itself a sin that mars her personality.
Not always of course is there an emphasis upon the physical; in "Oure lige lordes seel on my patente That showe I first, my body to warente" {Pardoner' s Tale, 11. 337-338) no specifically physical emphasis was intended; here we have the person himself. But in so many cases this "person" seems to be very much like the one of the Latin examples — the human object, X, Y, er Z. Notice the legalistic tone of "I have the power durynge al my lyf Upon bis propre body, and noght he" {Wife of Bath's Tale, 11. 158-159) and the Statistical (that has crystallized in "anybody") of "Men neded not in no cuntree A fairer body for to seek" {Romance of the Rose, 11. 560-561); cf. also "a better body drank neyuer wine" (1340; NED). Moreover, the concept ^0(iy = "mass, sub- stance, matter, form" which was found in mundi corpus is also seen in "Parfourned hath the sonne his ark divine; No longer may the body of him sojourne On th'orisonte" {Merchant's Tale, 11. 1795-1797); while the phrase "caitiff body" {Parson's Tale, 1. 270), like the Latin corpora vilia, again contrasts with Old French usage.
However, I have been able to find two examples where a subjective nuance toward the person is undoubtedly present: "My joly body shal a tale teile" (Prologue, Shipman's Tale, 1. 1185) and "Whoso me seeth, he seeth sorwe al atonys, Peyne, torment, pleynte, wo, distresse Out of my woful body härm ther noon is" {Troilus and Criseyde, Bk. IV, 11. 841- 843) — a nuance given by the adjectives woful, joly. But it is also to be noted that in both cases the individual is referred to emphatically in contrast to others: in the first, the Speaker declares that apart from herseif no sorrow exists; she has so much woe that no one eise can have any. In the second, the Shipman, objecting to the Host's Suggestion that a "Lollard" be the next Speaker, insists: "my joly body [i.e., not he] shal a tale teile." And, as long as we find this expression serving the practical purpose of distinguishing X from A (even a "joly X" or a "woful X"), the extent of the emotive content seems to me to be ques- tionable.
It is of course quite possible, however, that a further study of this ME usage would show much more similarity with OF. And, at least, a "joly body" would have surely been impossible in Latin (to say nothing of its use in the first person).
THE ORTHOGRAPHIC CONFLATION OF NOMINAL
COMPOUNDS IN MHG BASED ON A STUDY OF
THE MANESSE MANUSCRIPT
ROBERT H. WEiDMAN, University of Wisconsin
ONE OF the most conspicuous features of the German vocabulary is its wealth of nominal Compounds. (In this study a nominal Compound shall be defined as a Compound containing at least two independent Clements [free forms], of which at least one is a Substantive or of Substantive derivation.) A comparison of German v^ith English reveals not only a diflerence in the number of Compounds in the tw^o languages, but also some differences in the types of Compounds and in their Orthographie treatment.
Although Orthographie usage in English is firmly estab- lished in regard to many Compounds, such as afternoon,church- yard, railway, on the other band in many cases everyone w^ho v^rites in the English language has at times been uncertain as to whether he should w^rite a particular expression as one w^ord, tv^o w^ords w^ith a hyphen, or two vv^ords w^ithout a hyphen. For instance, is it wee\ end, wee\-end, or weekßnd? Upon looking the word up in Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Fourth Edition) one will find it is given as wee\-end, notic- ing, however, that the preceding lemma is wee\ day. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary (1937) confirms the spelling weck- end (dated from 1879), but whereas Webster gives wee\ day, it gives weekßay (dated from 1546 in its usual present-day sense). Nevertheless, in the two illustrative passages it is spelled wee\-day both times.
In contrast to the lack of consistency in the treatment of
90 CORONA
Compounds in English is the consistency governing usage in German. The present regularity of practice in German in this respect has been established, however, only after a long period of the uncertainty that still prevails in English. It is by examin- ing the Orthographie treatment of nominal Compounds in Mid- dle High German, as represented in the Manesse Manuscript, that the writer hopes to throw some light on the evolution of this practice.
The edition of the Manesse Manuscript (Pariser Lieder- handschrift, or Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, often referred to as C) used in this study was that of Friedrich Pf äff : Die große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift in getreuem Textab- druc\ (Heidelberg, 1899-1909). For faithfulness of reproduc- tion the best possible edition would have been the facsimile edition of Sillib, Panzer, and Haseloff (Heidelberg, 1925-1929), but it would have been available to the writer only at great inconvenience. The facsimile edition naturally has an advan- tage over Pfaff 's edition in the matter of accuracy, for no man's eflorts can be as free from error as a Photographie reproduction. However, in favor of the PfafT edition it must be emphasized that the task of reading the entire manuscript and selecting the material used in this study (which is part of a more compre- hensive study of nominal Compounds in C), would have re- quired an impossible amount of time and effort if the facsimile edition had been used. The latter is reproduced on sheets of folio size, arranged not in the sequence of book pages, but in the Order in which the original sheets lay when unbound for Photographie reproduction. Furthermore, Pfaff' s arrangement of the text, giving each verse on a separate line instead of in a continuous line interrupted only by a Reimpmi\t, while a deviation from the strictest conception of a diplomatic repro- duction, certainly makes the text more readily comprehensible without affecting its reliability as far as this study is concerned.
As the question of Pfaff's accuracy in general is naturally an important one for the value of the findings of this study, I shall try next to determine the degree of his accuracy.
NOMINAL COMPOUNDS IN MHG 91
In his comment on the first fascicle (1899) Roethe, An- zeiger für deutsches Altertum, XXV, 152-155, points out a few inaccuracies, commenting especially on Pfaff's tendency to re- produce Compounds written separately instead of as one word, admitting, however, "Es ist nicht immer leicht zu entscheiden, ob in der Hs. zwei Silben zusammengeschrieben sind oder getrennt." He closes his comments with the Statement, ". . . den billig Urteilenden werden die kleinen Fehlerlisten oben in der Anerkennung von PfafTs gewissenhafter Sorgfalt nicht beirren." Ehrismann praises the accuracy of the edition in his comment on the lirst fascicle, in Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, XXXII, 96-100; in a second article, in the same Journal, XLV, 309-311, written upon the completion of the edition, he is slightly more critical of it, but still "dankbar" for it. Baesecke, in Deutsche Literaturzeitung (1910), pages 1824-26, remarks principally on the tendency noted by Roethe, citing two instances of false Separation in the fourteen strophes compared by him with the Photographie reproduction of the original: somer zit, für war in Pfaff instead of somerzit, fürwar. Other reviews of the edition were either without comment on its accuracy, or unavailable.
Carl V. Kraus, page x of his tenth edition of Die Gedichte Walthers von der Vogelweide (Berlin and Leipzig, 1936), re- fers to Pfaff's edition as "ein nicht durchaus verläßlicher Ab- druck." In an eflort to determine just how unreliable Pfaff is, according to Kraus's Standard of accuracy, I have compared his edition of C with Kraus's Mittelhochdeutsches Übungsbuch (Second Edition; Heidelberg, 1926), where on pages 188-199 are reproduced the lyrics of Otto v. Bottenlaube which are to be found in C. Kraus used as his source a Photographie copy of C, and indicates in footnotes discrepancies between Pfaff and the original. Below I shall give in two columns the text accord- ing to Kraus and Pfaff respectively, giving the instances of dis- crepancy noted in Kraus's footnotes; the signature before the words in the first column refers to the Strophe and verse num- ber in Kraus's edition.
92
|
CORONA |
|||
|
V. Kraus |
^M |
||
|
2C7 |
tut |
cvt |
|
|
3C5 |
eines |
einer |
|
|
4C7 |
nv |
nv |
|
|
6C 2 |
lieber |
liber |
|
|
herre |
here |
||
|
iiC 4 |
were |
mere |
|
|
16C 34 |
wirt |
wird |
|
|
98 |
solde |
sold |
|
|
145 |
svsse |
süsse |
But Kraus has süsse in his text, svsse in the footnote. |
|
169 |
svlt |
hvlt |
|
|
219 |
eide. |
eide |
|
|
19C3 |
e |
e |
|
|
21C I |
Wächter |
wahter |
|
|
4 |
müst \sic\ |
müst |
{sic\ |
|
5 |
owe |
0 we |
owe
In 423 lines he has indicated 16 errors; two o£ these (16C 145, 21C 4) cannot be used as a control factor because Kraus errs there himself; hence if we reckon 14 errors in 423 lines there would seem to be an average of one error in every 30.2 lines. It appears that Kraus has been more accurate than Pfa£f, but even he has not been completely successful in avoiding errors, since he is only 88 per cent correct in calling errors on Pfaff. If on this basis we estimate the number of errors in the approximately 64,800 lines of Pfaff's text at about 2,144, only one seventh of these, or roughly 300, would involve errors in the rendering of syllables as written together or separately. It must be remembered of course that not all errors of this nature would involve nominal Compounds.
A further check on Pfaff 's accuracy, however, is oflered by Clara Rieke in her dissertation. Die V o\alzeichen in der großen Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Greifswald, 1917). This work, based on Pfaff's edition as its source, is devoted to a study of the diacritical markings used by the various copyists of the manuscript. On page 2 she writes, "Da Pfafls Abdruck ziemlich viele Fehler enthält . . . habe ich alle von mir be- handelten Spalten mit der photographischen Wiedergabe der
NOMINAL COMPOUNDS IN MHG 93
ganzen Handschrift . . . verglichen." In a section (pp. 148-156) entitled "Berichtigung von Druckfehlern in Pfafls Abdruck" she lists 769 errors among the material used in her thesis. Most of the errors involve confusion of the long -s and round -s, v and u, v and v, -ht and -cht, misplaced or omitted rhyme points, etc. Of the 769 errors noted by her, only 18, or 2.34 per cent, involve Orthographie combination. These are:
|
PM |
MS |
|
ze minnen 28,4 |
zeminnen |
|
en binne 58,26 |
enbinne |
|
al eine 176,5 |
aleine |
|
en siht 180,17 |
ensiht |
|
vn wert 229,44 |
vnw^ert |
|
darane 230,33 |
darane |
|
für war 524,4 |
fürwar |
|
zerichen 59,9 |
ze riehen |
|
verderben 113,11 |
ver derben |
|
geliehen 362,34 |
ge liehen |
|
zefru 645,9 |
ze fru |
|
zergat 646,4 |
zer gat |
|
ansach 649,36 |
an saeh |
|
verswunden 753,21 |
ver swunden |
|
vertrib 755,22 |
ver trib |
|
zvtzir 764,1 |
zvtz ir |
|
meisterschaft 1176,7 |
meister schaft |
|
zelobe 1436,12 |
ze lobe |
In seven cases PfafI errs in reproducing tw^o elements separately, and in eleven cases he errs in giving them written together. On the basis of Miss Rieke's corrections, it w^ould seem that PfafI erred slightly more often in w^riting w^ords together than in v^riting them separately, contrary to the observations of Roethe and Baesecke.
A resume of these various checks on Pfafl's accuracy is as follows: Based on a relatively minute portion of his w^ork, Kraus's examination indicates that Pfaff has made an average of one inaccuracy in every 30.2 lines, and that one seventh of these inaccuracies involve Orthographie conflation. More reliable than these estimates, because they are based on a larger portion
94 CORONA
o£ the material in question, are the findings of Miss Rieke. These indicate that of 769 errors in PfafI, 18 involve Ortho- graphie conflation, therefore that 2.34 per cent of the errors, which occur perhaps once in 30.2 Hnes, might a£fect the accuracy of this present study. The findings of Miss Rieke contradict the observations of Roethe and Baesecke in regard to a tendency one way or the other to reproduce incorrectly elements capable of Orthographie conflation.
When one considers that this study embraces 4,409 occur- rences of nominal Compounds, it seems safe, therefore, as far as the source is concerned, to accept as vaUd the relative statis- tics yielded by it.
In studying the frequency of the conflation of nominal Com- pounds in C, the material was examined from these points of view:
(i) What is the nature of the first dement of the Compound — (a) Sub- stantive, or (b) nonsubstantive (adjective, numeral, etc.)?
(2) If the first element is a Substantive, is the Compound (a) asyntactic (type himelvart), or (b) syntactic (type ögenweide)?
(3) How often does the word occur?
(4) Is it written together as one word (conflated), or separately?
Among the 1,674 nominal Compounds found in C (occurring a total of 4,409 times), the distribution was then found to be as follows:
TABLE I
WoRDs Occurring Only Once
Nature of Substantive
first member: asyntactic syntactic Nonsubstantive Total Written
separately: 313(68%) 563(97%) 84(58%) 960(81%) Written
together: 148(32%) 19(3%) 61(42%) 228(19%)
Total 461 582 145 1,188
TABLE 2
WoRDs Occurring More than Once with Equal Distribution AS TO Conflation Nature of Substantive
first member: asyntactic syntactic Nonsubstantive Total
26(S2%) 10(20%) 14(28%) 50
NOMINAL COMPOUNDS IN MHG 95
These 50 words occurred a total of 112 times.
TABLE 3
WoRDS OcCURRING MoRE THAN OnCE AND WITH No DiVISION
AS TO CONFLATION
Nature of Substantive
first member: asyntactic syntactic Nonsubstantive Total Written
separately: 66(59%) 164(95%) 23(47%) 253(76%) Written