The Marvellous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass

86, 87. 1804 and 1806. Two Dutch editions, published at Amsterdam and Deventer.

88. 1807. A German Leipzig edition.

89. 1819. Dutch book of the Eulenspiegel character, but not containing the same Adventures. “Het | Leven | van den | Jongen | Ulenspiegel, &c. Te Amsterdam. By B. Koene, Boekdrukker in de Boomstraat.” 12mo. in ninety-six pages, in the Bodleian (v. 58, Douce Collection).

90, 91. A quarto edition, consisting of fifty-five plates, published by Ramberg at Hanover. In the Museum (press-mark, 554 b 40). At Rotterdam in the same year an edition in Dutch appeared, which contained several adventures differing from the common version.

92. 1830. Baron von Halberg in this year published a versified edition in octavo at Crefeld. In the Museum, with the press-mark 11526 d.

93–96. “Der ganz neue wiedererstandene Till Eulenspiegel,” in 100 chapters, with 102 woodcuts. “München, 1833, 1836–7, 1844.” This edition has been used in the preparation of this volume.

97, 98. “Avantures de Tiel Ulespiegle et ses bon mots, finesses et amusantes inventions. Par Joseph Octave Delepierre. Bruges. 1835.” Ninety pages in octavo. Only fifty copies of this edition printed.—1840. “Les Aventures de Tiel Ulespiegle. Par Delepierre.” An octavo of 222 pages. This edition of M. Delepierre affirms with amusing mock gravity the entirely Flemish origin of Owlglass, and the names are ingeniously altered to suit Flemish localities. Use has been made of the edition in this version.

99, 100, 101. In the years 1838 and 1839, several editions appeared, one of them that of Cornelius, which, together with the 1519 edition and the preceding, has been consulted in this edition.

102. 1841. An edition belonging to Dr. Simrock’s Collection of German Folkbooks, at Berlin.

103. “Tyll Eulenspiegel’s wunderbare und seltsame Historien. Von Carl Frölich. Reutlingen, 1849.”

104. 1854. Dr. Thomas Murner’s Ulenspiegel. By Dr. J. M. Lappenberg. Leipzig, Weigel. This is the best and completest edition yet published of Owlglass, and one which has formed the groundwork of the translation now published.

Several editions have appeared since, but none of them possessing value sufficient to render notice necessary; the only one which need be mentioned being—

105. “Histoire Joyeuse et Récréative de Tiel L’Espiègle. Nouvelle Edition. Avec une étude littéraire sur Tiel L’Espiègle par Pr. van Duyse. Gand, 1858.”

We have thus, without referring to the numerous badly printed versions of the illustrious Eulenspiegel, given here a complete review of all the editions of this remarkable book, which, from its length, will serve to show how popular it has been from its very first appearance.

In connection with Eulenspiegel literature, it may be interesting in this place to give a description of a curious work, of which three copies are preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Douce Collection, Catalogue, page 290 A. Press-marks, R 328, 90), and which, by the kind permission of Dr. Bandinel, and of my friend, the Rev. A. Hackman, M.A., Precentor of Christ Church, I have been permitted to examine. It is entitled—

“The | French | Rogue. | Being a pleasant | History | of | His Life and Fortunes | adorned with variety of other | Adventures | of no less Rarity | With | Epigrams | suitable to each Stratagem | London: | Printed by T. N. for Samuel Lowndes, | and are to be sold at his Shop, over against | Exeter House in the Strand, 1672.”

The two copies which I saw are well preserved, especially the one marked “R 90,” which is bound up with the letters of Monsieur De Bergerac. The book is a small 12mo, with 197 pages and two pages of advertisements. The Signature A is formed of title page and six sides (without pagination) of preface and lines to the author. It is one of those dull books so common about that time, and contains the adventures and travels of a personage who, like Owlglass, but without his wit, cheats and robs those whom he encounters. He journeys over France, and becomes a member of a society of thieves, and swears to abide by certain rules of their order, tedious to be recapitulated here. The book is curious as an example of the taste of the time. The chapters are twenty-nine in number, and, as the title page says, epigrams appropriate to the adventures are inserted. Other works, ancient and modern, akin to Eulenspiegel literature, will be found in a subsequent Appendix.

APPENDIX B

The historical Eulenspiegel and his gravestone

It is scarcely necessary to enter upon the question of the historical Eulenspiegel. That there was such a person seems unquestionable. The names of his parents were Saxon names, not unfrequent, and the name of Ulenspiegel appears as early as 1337, being the name of a widow living at Brunswick, and again in 1473, in conjunction with another name. The widow Ulenspeygel has even been supposed to be the mother of our hero. But what little is known of him, is more easily to be read in the book itself than gathered from other records.

Among the objects of interest which remain to the present time, a testimony of the real existence of Eulenspiegel, is the gravestone at Möllen, the place assigned to him as his last resting-place, both by historical tradition and in the folk-book. Caspar Abel, who in 1729–32 published a collection of old German chronicles, gives one which he describes as having been the property of the family of Hetling, at Halberstadt, and which seems to have been written about 1486. In this chronicle, mention is made under the year 1350 of the ravages of the Black Death at Braunschweig, and it continues: “Thereof died Ulenspeygel at Möllen, among the Gheyseler brethren” (“Dosulffest sterff Ulenspeygel to Möllen unde de Gheyseler Broder kemen an”). Yet it is necessary to remark, that this statement, later than the first presumed edition of 1486—of which little is known—is not supported by any other Saxon chronicle of the fifteenth century. The next reference to the grave at Möllen, is in Reimar Rock’s Lübscher Chronik, in the following jest concerning the Cardinal Raymond; being the original hint, indeed, which I have amplified in the present book, in adventure the hundredth and tenth: “The Cardinal abode in the first night at Möllen. And when he comprehended the German speech, and heard of the holy-living saint Ulenspegel, an if there had been money in store—after which do all Italians and Spaniards thirst—Ulenspegel could have been entered on the Pope his calendar.” This jest, as Dr. Lappenberg well notices, is at any rate a proof, that at this time the grave was often sought out by visitors. Michael Heberer, in his voyage to Sweden and Denmark, in 1592, describes the gravestone, but not in the way depicted in our cut. He makes no mention of the figure, but only of the owl and glass; and the same description occurs in Merian (Topographie von Nieder Sachsen) as being there in 1614. But in 1631, in the manuscript Chronicles of Dethlev Dreyer, a description of the stone, nearly as it now stands, is given; but a basket of owls is mentioned, so it could scarcely be the same. Dreyer and Zeiller (Reiszbuch durch Hoch und Nieder Teutschland, 1674), both speak of the gravestone having been renewed and fenced off from the attacks of boys, and other wilful destroyers of antiquities. But the most interesting account is given by Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, who visited Möllen in the year 1710, and I shall, therefore, offer a translation of it:—

“We first,” says the writer, “examined at the church, which stands upon a slight hill, just by where one goeth up by steps into the churchyard, near the door, the little hut in which the gravestone of Eulenspiegel is set up and leans against the wall of the church. Formerly it had lain in the churchyard not far from the church, under the elm tree, which still stands in its place, but as by bad boys it was often damaged and went hard to be destroyed by rain and weather, a most worthy and benevolent magistrate of this town, a long time ago, had it placed against the wall of the church, and a small house erected round about it, and closed in, with only an open window, or hole, in front. The stone is more than four ells high, and only about one broad. There is not alone an owl and glass sculptured on the two sides, as Merian or Zeiller says in Topog. Sax. infer. p. 184, but the noble [vornehmes] likeness of Eulenspiegel is upon it in the size of life, although not quite equal to his stature and tallness, and the above-named things are in his hands. That he wears bells, may not arise from the fact that he plays the part of a wise fool or a jesting knave [Schalksknecht], but that in those times the bells were greatly in the fashion, and even worn by great lords (as see in Observat. Hallens. ad rem liter. spectant. Germanicas concerning Schellen-Moritz). The inscription on the lower part of the stone, is somewhat damaged by rain and carelessness; so that it is somewhat difficult to be read by those who know it not. In the wood of the hut very many Owlglasses [Eulenspiegels, used in the sense of rogues] have cut their names.”

The expression, that the figure was the size of life, but not quite equal to the stature and tallness of Eulenspiegel, cannot be otherwise understood than that the figure was not entirely cut in the stone, but perhaps only to the knee. It would seem, however, that the figure was repeatedly replaced, for the one now existing differs from the account given by Uffenbach. It stands upright at the wall of the tower, with a wooden shed round it, the lower part of which hides the inscription. Other relics of this apostle of knavery are mentioned by Uffenbach, such as an old shirt of mail, preserved in the council chamber at Möllen. His sword, beaker, and money-pouch, all of a later period, are also shown. With the beaker, a very narrow and deep one, a sorry joke is connected, that he had it so made because his mother bade him never to dip his nose too deep in a glass.

In respect of the gravestone, it is yet to be mentioned, that in a little descriptive work which appeared some years ago, the figure is attributed to a certain knight, Tilodictus Ulenspegel, who, in Westphalian annals of the fourteenth century, is not unknown. Yet for the sake of romance, and also from historical probability, it is best to adhere to the story which remains to us. The inscription on the stone is as follows:—

“Anno 1350 is dŭss-en vp gehauē ty-le vlenspegel ligther vnder begrauenmarcket wol vnddencket dran. watick gwest sivp .. e… de her vor …… an moten miglick wer.....”

“Anno 1350 is this sculptured, Tyle Ulenspegel lies here under buried. Mark well and think thereover what I have been....” (rest too fragmentary). But to be restored thus:

“Gedenk daranWat ick gwest sivp … e… de her vor (uber)(Gh) an moten miglich wer (den).”

“Think thereover, what I have been … who passeth by may to me become alike.”

At Damme, in Belgium, there is another gravestone with which tradition connects our hero, but unsatisfactorily. A writer in Meyer’s “Conversations Lexicon,” vol. ix. p. 331, thinks this gravestone is that of Eulenspiegel’s father, who might have died at the date of it, 1301.

APPENDIX C

Of Dr. Thomas Murner, the author of Eulenspiegel

As the author of Eulenspiegel, and also as a not unknown man in his own country, as well as in England, it may be not unwelcome to print here a few brief notes concerning Thomas Murner. He was born at Ehenheim, south of Strasburg, the 24th December, 1475, his father being a cobbler at that place. He was educated in a school of the Franciscans at Strasburg, and seems afterwards to have visited, in the capacity of travelling student, the Universities of Paris, Freiburg, Rostock, Prague, Vienna, and Cracow, and in his nineteenth year (1494) appears already to have taken orders. In 1499 he published his first work, his Invectiva contra Astrologos, and another piece, the Tractatus perutilis de phitonico contractu, and thenceforward lived a life of extreme literary activity. Having similar tastes to Sebastian Brandt, author of the “Ship of Fools,” we find Murner printing similar works—works of a satirical kind, such as the Narrenbeschwerung (“Conjuration of Fools”), the Schelmenzunft (“Knave Corporation”), and the Gäuchmatt, in which the various classes of society are bitterly treated, but in a way not interesting to modern persons. The most memorable thing which can connect Murner with England, is the part he took in the dispute between Henry the Eighth and Luther; and a book which he published under the title of “Is the King of England a liar or is Luther?” (Ob der Kunig usz Engelland ein lügner sey oder der Luther?), obtained favour for him from Henry.

The following letter from Sir Thomas More to Cardinal Wolsey, dated the 26th August, 1523, will tell the story of Murner’s visit to this country better than any other mode of narrating it. Cardinal Wolsey was then staying at Easthampstead. The spelling, which is quite intelligible enough, has been left in its original state, to give the reader an idea of the unsettled condition of English at that time.

“It may ferther lyke Your Good Grace to be advertised that one Thomas Murner, a Frere of Saynt Francisce, which wrote a booke against Luther in defence of the Kinges boke, was out of Almaigne sent into England, by the meane of a simple17 person, an Almaign namyng hymselfe servaunt un to the Kinges Grace, and afferming un to Murner, that the King had gevyn hym in charge to desyre Murner to cum over to hym in to England, and by occasion ther of he is cummen over and has now bene here a good while. Wher fore the Kinges Grace, pitiyng that he was so deceived, and having tendre respecte to the goode zele that he bereth toward the feith, and his good hart and mynd toward His Highnes, requyreth Your Grace that it may lyke you to cause hym have in reward one hundred pownde, and that he may retourn home, wher his presence is very necessary; for he is one of the chiefe stays agaynst the faction of Luther in that parties, agaynst whom he hath wrytten many bokis in the Almayng tong; and now, sith the cumming hither, he hath translated into Latyn, the boke that he byfore made in Almaign, in defence of the Kinges boke. He is Doctour of Divinite and of bothe Lawes, and a man for wryting and preching of great estimation in his cuntre.

“Hit may like Your Grace ferther to wite, that the same simple person, which caused Murner to cum in to England, is now cummen to the Court, and hath brought with him a Barons son of Almaygn, to whom he hath also persuaded, that the Kinges Grace wold be glad to have hym in his service. He hath also brought lettres from Duke Ferdinand un to the Kinge’s Grace, which lettres J send un to Your Grace, wherin he desireth the Kinge’s Highnes to take in to his service, and to reteyne, with some convenient yerely pention Ducem Mechelburgensem; of which request the Kinges Grace greatly merveileth, and veryly thinketh that this simple felow, which brought the lettres, lykewise as he caused Murner to cum hither, and persuaded the Barons sone that the King would be glad to have his service, so hath by some simple ways brought the Duke of Mechelborough in the mynd, that the Kings Grace wold, at the contemplation of Duke Ferdinandis lettres, be content to reteign the Duke of Mechelborough with a yerly pention. The felow hath brought also fro the Duke of Mechelborough lettres of credence written in the Duche tong. He bare hym selfe in Almaign for the Kinge’s servaunt, and bosted that he had a yerely pention of fiftie markes, and that the King had sent him thither to take upp servauntes for hym; and now he saith, he is servaunt un to the Empereurs Majeste, and is going into Spaigne, with lettres to hym; and in dede he hath diverse lettres to his Magestie, and so it was easie for hym to gete, if he entend to deceive and mocke; as the Kinges Grace thinketh that he doth. For His Grace never saw hym byfore, but he understandeth now, that before this tyme he was in England, when th Empereur was here,18 and slew a man and escaped his way. Wherfor His Grace requyreth Yours to give hym your prudent advice, as well in a convenient answere to be made both to Duke Ferdinand and the Duke of Mechelborough, as also in what wyse hit shal be convenient to ordre this simple felowe, that so hath deceived menne in the Kinges name.”

However agreeable to the vanity, and useful to the cause, of the King, the book is a somewhat dreary book to read now; and save that it consists of a long dialogue between the King, Luther, and Murner, there need be little more said of it. Those who wish to read it will find it in its original German in that valuable collection of Middle Age literature made by Scheible, and entitled Das Kloster (the Convent) Volume IV. pp. 893–982. The dispute continued to give a tone to his life henceforth, and all his later years were spent in empty and angry controversy. Indeed, we lose sight of him altogether in the year 1530; and it has been suspected that he was murdered at Lucerne, though we hear the last of him at Strasburg. His death was certainly before 1537.

APPENDIX D

The verses inserted by William Copland in the English black-letter Howleglas of 1528

How Howleglas came to a scoler to make verses with hym to that vse of reason. And howe that Howleglas began, as after shal folowe:—

HowleglasMars with septer19 a king coronate,Furius20 in affliction, and taketh no regarde.By terrible fightyng he is our prymateAnd god of battell, and person ryght forward,Of warries21 the tutor, the locke and the warde.His power, his might, who can them resyst?Not all this worlde, if that him selfe lyst.The ScholerNot all this worlde, who told the22 so?Where is that written, ryght fayne wold I see?Ye came lyke a foole and so shall ye go.By one person only deceived ye may beAnd by astronomy, I tell vnto the.If that will not helpe, some shyft shal I fyndeBy craft or cunnyng, Mars for to blynde.HowleglasVenus a god of loue most decorate,The floure of women and lady most pvre,Louers to concorde she doth aye aggregateWith parfyte loue, as marble to dure,The knot of loue, she knittes on them sureWith frendly amite23 and neuer to discordeBy dedes, thought, cogitation, nor worde.The ScholerNot to discorde? yed24 did I never see,Knowe not here tell of louers suche twayne,But some fault there was, learne this of me.Other in thought, or yet in wordes playneYour reasons be nought, your tongue goeth in vayne.By naturall person such loue is not foundIn Fraunce, Flaunders, nor yet in Englysh ground.HowleglasThe God of wyne, that Bachus hath to name,The sender of fruytes, that maketh wynes all,May slake or make or put them in frame,All at his pleasure and use dynyall.25He may the26 exalt in lyke wyse to fall,Their lorde and meister,27 and chief gouernourHe may then destroye and make in an houre.The ScholerAll to destroye it is not by his myght,Nor yet for to make, of that be thou sure.“Omnia per ipsum,” Saint Johan sayes full ryght.Than we call Christ our god and our treasure.Presume not so hye,28 you fayle of your measure,Rede, heare and see, and here well a waye,Unknowen, vnsayde and for grace thou pray.

APPENDIX E

The Bakâla legend of the Valacqs analogous to Owlglass

The most interesting fiction with which I have met, approaching in intention and construction to the German Eulenspiegel, is a legend current among the Wallachians, entitled “Bakâla.” The hero goes through a few adventures savouring much of the wily malice of Owlglass; but there are only thirteen of these adventures in all. The first introduces us to Bakâla, at the death of his father, who leaves a single cow behind him. The question arises between Bakâla and his two elder brothers, as to which is to become possessor of the cow. They agree at last to build three sheds, and, placing the cow in the middle, give her the opportunity of deciding the ownership. Bakâla builds his shed of a grassy material, which the cow perceives, and instead of entering the sheds of stone built by Bakâla’s brethren, enters his, and thus becomes his property. He then sells his cow to a tree, which agitated by the wind, appears to bargain with him. His brethren mock at him for a fool in selling the cow to a tree; and next day, when payment is to be made, the cow has broken loose and departed, and when Bakâla asks for the money, there being no wind, the tree is silent. Then Bakâla cuts down the tree and finds a pot of money in the roots; thereof he takes the agreed price, and goes home, and his brethren are astonished at his receiving money from a tree. The two brothers plague him until he tells them the whole story as to the treasure, which they go and take. Bakâla is then sent to borrow a fruit measure from a neighbour, who asks him what he wants it for, and Bakâla tells him that it is to measure his money. So the neighbour follows him, and peeps through the window. This is seen by the inmates of the house, and Bakâla is told to go and kill him, which he does; the brothers only meaning that Bakâla should give him a beating. When they find, however, that Bakâla has killed him, they are obliged to depart from that place.

An adventure by which Bakâla becomes possessed of a sack of incense, obtains him a gift from the Almighty (who, as in the ancient miracle-plays, is brought into the story) of a marvellous bagpipe, which causes every one to dance. When a shepherd the sheep dance; and his master, who is watching him, is obliged to dance also; and afterwards his master’s wife dances herself to death. Other mischief Bakâla also contrives to do. After cutting the tails of his master’s dogs off, and killing the youngest child by washing it and hanging it up to dry, the master resolves to depart; for he is bound by a treaty to Bakâla. But Bakâla gets into the sack, which the master prepares to carry books in, and is discovered at last. Then the master and his son conspire to drown Bakâla; but he overhears them, and the son gets drowned instead. Bakâla appears here to be analogous to the Old Man of the Sea, of whom Sindbad cannot rid himself. At last the contract between them, to the effect that either on breaking it should forfeit a long strip of skin in the back, has to be completed by Bakâla on the body of his master, who has broken it by the attempt to drown his servant. And as the master’s back is sore, he takes the book-wallet and departs. This story, as our authority, Schott, says (Walachische Mährchen, p. 362), reminds us of the agreement between Apollo and Marsyas. Then he sets a bride free from a disagreeable bridegroom by a stratagem, and after acting the bride’s part himself, escapes.

The last story in the series is worthy of translation entire, therefore here it is:—

“How Bakâla findeth a fellow, and thereafter is not any other news heard of him.—After that Bakâla had in such wise departed from the bridegroom, he gat, whence I know not, a sack filled with sawdust. No longtime had he journeyed, when he encountered by the way another man, who likewise bare a sack. Then did they greet each other, and after awhile proposed that they should change sacks. And so did they; then they hasted to open the sacks, and in that which Bakâla had received lay nought but flint stones, and what the other received that do we know. For a time they looked upon their prizes with great wonder; but thereupon laughed hugely. ‘Truly,’ quoth Bakâla, ‘we have beguiled each other!’ ‘That is truth indeed!’ cried the other. And great content had these twain one of the other, and embraced thereupon, and made agreement that thereafter would they journey everywhere in company. From that time hath no more been heard of Bakâla.”

Schott, in his work, finds analogy between the various adventures of Bakâla, and the course of the sun through the months of the year; but it is foreign to our present purpose to enter upon such a speculation. Yet, as a curious exemplification of the love of trickery to be found among all races, this Wallachian Owlglass is worthy of mention.

APPENDIX F

Works akin to the Eulenspiegel literature

Although the Eulenspiegel folk-book has become the best known of the special class of books in which the middle age took such pleasure, there are many other compositions of a kindred nature worthy of mention, and of these I shall here describe the most important. The first on which any remark is necessary is the celebrated legend of Salomon and Marcolphus, which, in Latin, German, Anglo-Saxon, and French, has survived to the present time. Marcolphus is a jester in a more sober sense than is Owlglass; the jests of the former, though some of them are analogous to those of the latter, rarely touch upon the humourous. They are capable of application to far more serious things, to matters of speculative philosophy and science. Luther, for instance, applied a story of Marcolphus in reproof of persons who shut their eyes to the good, but afterwards were compelled, whether they would or no, to behold the evil.29 But the Marcolphus legend is an exemplification rather of the combats of wit and wisdom common to the earlier part of the middle age, than a vivid reflex, as is the Owlglass, of the manners and customs of the time to which it belongs. One story borrowed from the Marcolphus, or from Morlini, at an early period, appears in Owlglass, being the second adventure in this edition, p. 3.