Till Eulenspiegel As a “Recurring Character” in the Works of Hans Sachs
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Narrative Arrangement in 16th-Century Till Eulenspiegel Texts: The Reinvention of Familiar Structures A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Isaac Smith Schendel IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Advisor: Dr. Anatoly Liberman June 2018 © Isaac Smith Schendel 2018 i Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my doctoral advisor, Dr. Anatoly Liberman, for his kind direction, ideas, and guidance through the entire process of graduate school, from the first lectures on Middle High German grammar and Scandinavian Literature, to the preliminary exams, prospectus and multiple thesis drafts. Without his watchful eye, advice, and inexhaustible patience, this dissertation would have never seen the light of day. Drs. James A. Parente, Andrew Scheil, and Ray Wakefield also deserve thanks for their willingness to serve on the committee. Special gratitude goes to Dr. Parente for reading suggestions and leadership during the latter part of my graduate school career. His practical approach, willingness to meet with me on multiple occasions, and ability to explain the intricacies of the university system are deeply appreciated. I have also been helped by a number of scholars outside of Minnesota. The material discussed in the second chapter of the dissertation is a reformulated, expanded, and improved version of my article appearing in Daphnis 43.2. Although the central thesis is now radically different, I would still like to thank Drs. Ulrich Seelbach and Alexander Schwarz for their editorial work during that time, especially as they directed my attention to additional information and material within the S1515 chapbook. Gratitude for scholarly assistance and general helpfulness during my year in Karlsruhe (2014-2015) belongs to Dr. Mathias Herweg. Last, but certainly not least, I will mention Dr. Ármann Jakobsson’s readiness to read both the second chapter and the conclusion. The support of my family cannot be understated. The warmth and encouragement of my wife, Dr. Rachel Schendel, kept me motivated to see the project to its completion, and her work as a proofreader for the fourth chapter and smaller sections leads me to suspect ii that her altruism borders on the superhuman. I would also like to thank my parents for encouraging me to make independent critical judgements from a young age. When I was a child, I may not have appreciated it when my mother responded to my daily complaints with the simple imperative, “think,” but I now realize that the command was not a dismissal but rather a prompting. iii FOR MY FATHER iv ABSTRACT The popular trickster character Till Eulenspiegel first appeared in the prose novel Ein kurtzweilig Lesen von Dil Ulenspiegel (1511/1515). Once in printed form, he caught the attention of two German-language authors, Hans Sachs and Johann Fischart. The former wrote comical poems and Shrove Tuesday plays centered on Eulenspiegel; the latter devoted an epic, Eulenspiegel reimenweis (1572), to the character. In all three cases, a proper understanding of the adaptation of Eulenspiegel-stories depends on a knowledge of the current literary contexts. Lesen holds a superficial resemblance to fool literature, but Eulenspiegel’s modus operandi is more reminiscent of trickster narratives as known from all over the world. His biography is a similar case of misdirection: although the chapter arrangement derives from hagiographic tradition, the redactor of S1515 uses the tactic to create a book meant to be flipped through at leisure, like a modern joke collection. Sachs’s and Fischart’s adaptions are also instances of authorial bait-and- switch: Sachs adopts Eulenspiegel as a tool to introduce other characters or themes, and Fischart’s Eulenspiegel reimenweis reinvents a biographical form developed in his earlier polemics. In all three examples, the traditional stories of Eulenspiegel serve as the basis for experimentation with an established narrative structure. Eulenspiegel, as a character, is never explored in depth: instead, the authors use familiar pranks as raw material to attract the readers’ interest and reinvent a storytelling form for their own purposes. Eulenspiegel is a case of design irony, of the use of known structures in experimental ways. Such findings are important for the history of fiction, as they reveal a new understanding of character as a means to address formal phenomena. v Table of Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vii List of Common Abbreviations ....................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Eulenspiegel’s Prehistory .................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Hagiographic Background, Chronology, and Chapter Arrangement in S1515 .................................................................................. 63 Chapter 3: Till Eulenspiegel as a “Recurring Character” in the Works of Hans Sachs ............................................................................................ 134 Chapter 4: Johann Fischart’s Eulenspiegel reimenweis, Intertextuality and the Development of Meta-Narrative Form ........................................................................... 222 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 278 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 286 vi List of Tables Table 2.1: Place Names in H. 67 – H. 86 . 100 Table 2.2: Chapter Pattern in S1515 . 113 Table 3.1: Dates of Eulenspiegel-Spruchgedichte and Eulenspiegel-Meisterlieder . 197 Table 3.2: Four Strings of Eulenspiegel-Meisterlieder Composed Sequentially . 197 Table 3.3: Aesop-Spruchgedichte . 203 Table 3.4: Claus Narr-Spruchgedichte . 204 Table 3.5: Neidhart-Meisterlieder . 206 Table 3.6: Aesop-Meisterlieder . 208 Table 3.7: Claus Narr-Meisterlieder . 210 Table 3.8: A Plot Comparison of Spruchgedicht 267 and Meisterlied 946 . 211 Table 3.9: Pfarrer vom Kalenberg-Meisterlieder . 214 vii List of Figures Figure 2.1: Chronological and Thematic Connections in H. 10 – H. 88 . 85 Figure 2.2: Chronological and Thematic Connections in H.2 – H. 9 . 114 Figure 2.3: Chronological and Thematic Connections in H. 89 – H. 95 . 118 Figure 4.1: Reader/Narrator/Text Relationship in DL . 264 Figure 4.2: Reader/Narrator/Text Interactions in ER . 269 Figure 4.3: Reader/Protagonist Relationship in ER . 274 viii List of Common Abbreviations BSK Barfüsser Secten und Kuttenstreit DL Von S. Dominici und S. Francisci Leben Er Eulenspiegel reimenweis F1569 The 1569 Frankfurt printing of the Till Eulenspiegel book NR Nacht Rab oder Nebelkräh PA Der Pfaffe Amis PvK Der Pfarrer vom Kalenberg S1515 The 1515 Strasbourg printing of Ein kurtzweilig Lesen von Dil Ulenspiegel 1 Chapter 1: Eulenspiegel’s Prehistory The Text – Introduction The prose novel Ein kurzweilig Lesen von Dil Ulenspiegel appeared in print in early 16th-century Strasbourg. At time of writing the only copy of the original 1511 text is not available to the public;1 a 1515 reprint (hereafter S1515) serves as the basis for most editions, such as the one in Reclam’s Universal-Bibliothek series.2 The text is written in simple prose with Low and Upper German (oberdeutsch) influence.3 It consists of an introduction and 95 chapters (Historien).4 Each anecdote begins with a titular summary of the plot and, with some exceptions (H.79, H. 80, H. 85, H. 86, H. 88, H. 90 – H. 92, H. 95), features a woodcut illustration. The final Historie, H. 96, depicts the hero’s gravestone. The biography of the protagonist, Dil Ulenspiegel (hereafter Till Eulenspiegel or Eulenspiegel as in modern German) can be divided into three sections: his birth and childhood, his adult life, and his decline into old age and death. Individual stories follow a predictable scheme wherein Eulenspiegel outwits an adversary through unexpected means. The author’s introduction, H. 1 (Eulenspiegel’s birth and baptism), and H. 21 (a short sketch of Eulenspiegel’s psychology) do not feature a prank for obvious reasons. Sometimes Eulenspiegel’s antagonist challenges him directly, either by antagonizing him or assigning him a difficult task. In H. 37, for instance, a priest attracts 1 Hucker (1976) describes the acquisition of the text, but has not yet published it. 2 The convention of designating the text S1515 is adopted from Schulz-Grobert (1999) 44. 3 See S1515, “Zur Textgestalt” 269-270 4 Chapter 42 is missing. 2 Eulenspiegel’s ire by eating the latter’s meal, and Eulenspiegel avenges himself by preparing sausages with rotten meat as a trap. H. 20 depicts a baker who tells Eulenspiegel to sift (bütelen) flour “in dem Monschein” (by moonlight) (60), by which he means “at night and without a candle.” Eulenspiegel punishes him by spreading the flour in the courtyard, ruining it. In other cases, the requests are reasonable and the antagonists are sympathetic, even morally upstanding, but they still cannot dissuade Eulenspiegel. In H. 88, Eulenspiegel is lying incapacitated outside the city Einbeck and is rescued by a peasant. Eulenspiegel repays the man for his kindness by defecating on his plums and returns in disguise