The Wondrous Bird's Nest I

The Wondrous Bird’s Nest I The Wondrous Bird’s Nest I Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen Translated & Annotated by Robert L. Hiller and John C. Osborne Newfound Press THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LIBRARIES, KNOXVILLE The Wondrous Bird’s Nest I © 2011 by Ute Stargardt and Martha Lee Osborne Digital version at www.newfoundpress.utk.edu/pubs/hiller Newfound Press is a digital imprint of the University of Tennessee Libraries. Its publications are available for non-commercial and educational uses, such as research, teaching and private study. The author has licensed the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ For all other uses, contact: Newfound Press University of Tennessee Libraries 1015 Volunteer Boulevard Knoxville, TN 37996-1000 www.newfoundpress.utk.edu ISBN-13: 978-0-9846445-0-6 ISBN-10: 0-9846445-0-4 Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoph von, 1625-1676. [Wunderbarliche Vogelnest I. English] The wondrous bird’s nest I / Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen ; translated & annotated by Robert L. Hiller and John C. Osborne. xxxiv, 190 p. : digital, PDF file. Translation of: Wunderbarliche Vogelnest I. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648 —Fiction. I. Hiller, Robert Ludwig, 1915- II. Osborne, John C., 1928- III. Title. PT1731.A4 E588 2011 Book design by Jayne W. Rogers Cover design by Andrea E. Markel Contents Chronology of Grimmelshausen’s Works . ix Preface . xi Translator’s Note . xiii Introduction . .xv Foreign Words and Phrases Used in the Text . xxxiii The Wondrous Bird’s Nest by Michael Rechulin von Sehmsdorff The Ballad of the Wondrous Bird’s Nest Chapter One: [Michael comes by the wondrous bird’s nest, becomes invisible, and uses his belly gases to gain his freedom.] . 1 Chapter Two: [Sir Pnnlss goes a-wooing for a wealthy wife, or: The deceiver deceived.] . 5 Chapter Three: [Sir Pnnlss’ screams and what they mean; item, a breakfast with a band of beggars.] . .15 Chapter Four: [Two Capuchins and a parson’s wife, a disputation between Calvinists and Catholics, and the miraculous chastisement of a blasphemer.] . .23 Chapter Five: [A skinflint’s plans are thwarted by a seduction, and Michael repays the skinflint’s wife for flavoring her cheese.] . .33 Chapter Six: [May bewails the passing of December, and Michael is mistaken for December’s ghost.] . .39 Chapter Seven: [The ardor of a parson who would seduce a young married woman is cooled in a right merry way, and Michael runs afoul of hobgoblins in the winecellar.] . .45 Chapter Eight: [A disputatio on Pre-Adamites, and how two studiosi are saved from certain death.] . .53 Chapter Nine: [Michael is an unseen wedding guest and witnesses the devil being put into hell.] . .61 Chapter Ten: [A visit to a rich man’s house, and a vain young lady’s fright at what she sees in her mirror.] . 65 Chapter Eleven: [Michael saves a poor man’s nanny, feeds his starving family, and comes to understand Simplicissimus’ symbolum.] . .73 Chapter Twelve: [Michael sees a thief sell a cow back to its rightful owner, and is the unwilling judge of lovemaking both upstairs and below stairs, before he intercedes to prevent robbery and murder.] . .79 Chapter Thirteen: [A shepherd and his wife cheat their master, and the miraculous transformation of a ham into a shoe effects the reform of a dishonest innkeeper.] . 91 Chapter Fourteen: [Michael gets a new pair of shoes and hears of a plot against young Simplicissimum, which plot, however, he is unable to foil.] . 97 Chapter Fifteen: [The cow thief and murderer gets his just deserts, an innkeeper misinterprets the actions of young Simplicissimi and the innkeeper’s wife, old Simplicissimus vents his spleen against the learned author of Asenath, and Michael sees to it that young Simplicissimus is exonerated of a charge of lechery.] . 105 Chapter Sixteen: [Michael hears a golden rule and warning from the mouth of a peasant lad and punishes a cavalier for trying to do to a cobbler’s wife what the cobbler had done to the cavalier’s shoe.] . 117 Chapter Seventeen: [Michael is witness to a palm-greasing but cannot decide whom to punish.] . 123 vi Chapter Eighteen: [A right tall tale about an encounter with a wolf; Michael seduces a maiden while both are flushed with drink.] . 129 Chapter Nineteen: [Michael prevents a herdsman from committing a sin which cries to heaven and realizes that the salvation of his own soul is on shaky underpinnings.] . 135 Chapter Twenty: [Michael is punished by a swarm of bees and casts away his wondrous bird’s nest, only to see another poor sinner come into possession of it.] . 141 Short References and Abbreviations Used in the Notes . 155 Notes: Title Page . 157 Notes . 159 Bibliography . 185 vii Chronology of Grimmelshausen’s Works* Note: included for each work is the German short title, the nom de plume (in parentheses), and the English short title (in brackets). 1666 Satyrischer Pilgram I (Samuel Greifnson von Hirschfeld), [The Satirical Pilgrim, Part ]I Der keusche Joseph (Samuel Greifnson von Hirschfeld), [Chaste Joseph] 1667 Satyrischer Pilgram II (Samuel Greifnson von Hirschfeld), [The Satirical Pilgrim, Part II] 1668 Simplicissimus I-V (German Schleifheim von Sulsfort), [Simplicis simus] 1669 Die Continuatio [Simplicissimus VI] (German Schleifheim von Sulsfort), [Continuatio] 1670 Dietwald und Amelinde (H. J. Christoffel von Grimmelshausen), [Dietwald and Amelinde] Ratio Status (Hans Jacob Christoph von Grimmelshausen), [Ratio Status] Landstörtzerin Courasche (Philarchus Grossus von Trommenheim), [Runagate Courage] Der seltzame Springinsfeld (Philarchus Grossus von Tromerheim), [Heedless Hopalong] Der erste Beernhäuter (Illiteratus Ignorantius), [The First Sluggard] *Not listed are the various Europäische Wundergeschichten-Calender [Euro pean Calender of Wondrous Stories], the authorship of which is now disputed. 1670 (continued) Simplicissimi Gauckeltasche (Illiteratus Ignorantius), [The Simplicis simi Magic Book] Musai (Samuel Greifnson von Hirschfeld), [Musai] 1671 Der ewigwährende Calendar (Simplicissimus)] [The Perpetual Calender] 1672 Rathstübl Plutonis (Erich Stainfels von Grufensholm), [Plutus' Council Chamber] Die verkehrte Welt (Simon Lengfrisch von Hartenfels), [The Topsy -Turvy World] Proximus und Lympida (H. J. Christoffel von Grimmelshausen), [Proximus and Lympida] Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest I (Michael Rechulin von Sehmsdorff), The[ Wondrous Bird's Nest, Part ]I Der stoltze Melcher (no author given), [Proud Melcher] 1673 Der Teutsche Michel (Signeur Messmal), [German Michel] Der Bartkrieg (no author given), [The War of the Beards] Das Galgen-Männlin (Israel Fromschmidt von Hugenfelss), [The Mandrake] 1675 Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest II, [The Wondrous Bird's Nest, Part II] x Preface The Wondrous Bird’s Nest is the fourth of the five novels by Hans Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen which constitute the so- called Simplician cycle. The longest and most famous novel of the cycle, Simplicissimus, has long been acclaimed as the first great German novel, and several English translations of it are available. Our own renderings of the next two volumes, The Runagate Courage and Heedless Hopalong, presented them to the English- speaking public. The Wondrous Bird’s Nest is a complete and fully annotated version of Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest. Within the next few years we hope to complete our translation of the remaining novel, The Wondrous Bird’s Nest, Part II, so that the entire Simpli- cian cycle, one of the most significant and delightful groups of prose fiction works in world literature, will be available in English translation. Translators’ Note The Wondrous Bird’s Nest is based primarily on J. H. Scholte’s edition of the first edition (1672) of Grimmelshausen’s Das wunderbarliche Vogelnest, but the texts and notes of a number of other editions were consulted (See Bibliography, Part A). In order to preserve as much as possible the flavor of the German original, we have chosen, as we did in our translations of Die LandstÖrtzerin Courasche (The Runagate Courage, Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1965) and Der seltzame Springinsfeld (Heedless Hopalong, Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1981), to leave most of the many foreign words and phrases in the text untranslated, and to retain the “Baroque” sentence structure and rhetorical flourishes whenever they do not obscure the meaning. Even though in virtually all instances the meaning of the foreign words and phrases should be obvious from the context or from English cognates, a list of them and their English equivalents precedes the text. The vagaries of seventeenth-century spelling of proper names have been retained in the Chronology of Grimmelshausen’s works, the Notes, and the Bibliography. Thus there may be several variations in the spelling of a single name. Although the narrative in the editio princeps is uninterrupted, we have divided it into twenty chapters as all modern German editions do. We have also supplied short chapter headings, which is not customary in German editions but which may be of help to the reader who is searching for a specific episode. Notes to the text, arranged by chapter, are appended. A list of the short titles of the secondary works cited precedes the Notes. TRANSLATORS’ NOTE References to works by Grimmelshausen are given by book and chapter, so that any edition may be consulted. All translations from German in the Notes are our own. xiv Introduction The Wondrous Bird’s Nest The Wondrous Bird’s Nest, the fourth of the five Simplican novels, first appeared in late 1672 and, like the three earlier works—Simplicissimus, The Runagate Courage, and Heedless Hopalong—suffered the fate of almost all literary successes of the time: it was immediately pirated. The legitimate publisher countered by issuing a reprint of the novel which was like the editio princeps in almost every respect, except that it listed the place of publication as Amsterdam instead of Monpelgart.

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