The Marvellous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass

The Hundred and Eighth Adventure

How that our for ever prized Master Owlglass was buried

And at the burying of Owlglass was there a most wondrous strange thing. For when that they all stood in the graveyard round the coffin in the which he lay, they took ropes to let it down into the grave, and, of these twain ropes, brake the one which was under his feet, and the coffin fell down, and stood on end. Thus stood Owlglass in his grave. And the folks around marvelled greatly thereat, and said: “Nay, let him stand an if he will; for in his life wrought he many great marvels, and he will be strange in death likewise.” Then they filled the grave with earth, and above his head set a stone, and on it did they cunningly hew the likeness of an owl, who within his claws bare a glass, and upon the stone set the words which stand written in the chapter which here followeth.

The Hundred and Ninth Adventure.

Telleth what stood upon his gravestone.[13 - This device is faithfully copied from that in the edition of 1519.]

EPITAPHIUM

This stone dare none to overthrow,
For Owlglass upright stands below.

Anno MCCCL.

The Hundred and Tenth Adventure

How in after time our most excellent Owlglass was esteemed so worthy that he was made a holy Saint; and on the day of All Fools in April do the folk alway keep his memory, as also when they do a foolish thing, the which maketh him continually esteemed of great and small

That which is accomplished of a great man must at some season bring him honour and glory; therefore be not astonished at the matter which came to pass when that Cardinal Raymundus lay at Möllen great number of years after. For in those parts did many bear in mind the virtues of the illustrious Owlglass; and the cardinal himself went and looked upon the gravestone of Owlglass, and had report made unto him of his doings and sayings. And, for as much as the people of Möllen gave great glory unto his memory, the good cardinal wrote unto the Holy Father at Rome; and unto the great content and delight of the townsfolk of Möllen, Master Owlglass was made a Saint, and beareth rule over all manner of chousings, beguilings, cozenings, cheatings, and knaveries having fellowship with Saint Nicholas; and when that a man goeth about to do a foolish thing, remembereth he that holy man, Saint Owlglass, and doth call upon his name—and of a verity is Saint Owlglass, of all the saints that be in the calendar, that one which hath the government of the greatest number of devout folks here on earth. For fools be there many; and upon the first day of that fair month of April, the weather of which is as various as were the adventures of the holy saint—upon the first of April, I say, do all men honour him, and indeed every day; for in that hour in the which they accomplish any idle vain work, do they increase his glory. So that Saint Owlglass doth receive the continual esteem of both great and small.

The Hundred and Eleventh, and Last, Adventure

Reciteth a few grave reflections of this present chronicler

That thing which a man maketh his own, and causeth aye to be his beloved work, be it evil or good, will beset him for ever, nor, save in the prickings and movings of his trembling conscience, and timorous spirit, will he acknowledge his own desperate courses, the which seemed fair to enjoy, but turn unto the apples of Sodom and Gomorrah i’ the mouth; and like unto the red-hot ploughshare, over the which the hardened criminal walketh, doth the sin all done in life sear the aspen soul, which quivereth in terror at evil doing. And verily when that I look me back over the book, my good master, which now I present unto thee, do I perceive right well that deep meaning and truthful lesson which can be gathered by the careful reading of such a life as that one of good Master Owlglass. It hath been said unto us, that we should not do evil that good may arise therefrom; yet from such actions and enactments as those of our master came forth good, for we are taught therein to know the wisdom of the saying of Solon unto that ancient King Crœsus, that until the end be perceived ye should esteem no man happy. And what profit had Master Owlglass of his knaveries? A life of continual change and hurrying to and fro upon the face of the earth—of carking care, and, oftentimes, pinching hunger and parching thirst. For whatsoever he wrought was a thing spoiled thereafter, and his knavery and wickedness at not any season brought him content. Lo! do we not live in other times; but yet those very same things which lay so heavy upon Owlglass, sit yet openly among us, in defiance of the judgment which the voice of the righteous man pronounceth against them. O that folly, knavery, and injustice, could be rooted up from the fair soil of this world, and cast forth unto the burning! This book was brought forth with not a little travail, for while it should cause the merry laugh upon the cheek of old and young, peradventure it may enter into the hearts of some, and they may read that lesson which we do all merit. If that Master Owlglass had not been a knave and a beguiler, might he not, with his rare wit and ingenious brain, have waxed strong in good and noble things? Therefore strive we to understand the intent of his life, and use those talents with the which God hath endowed us, to the greater glory and honour of the Giver; for truly hath it been here clearly set forth how the fool’s cap doth extinguish all light of use, beauty, or excellency.

APPENDIX A

Bibliographical Notes for the Literary History of Eulenspiegel

In the foregoing volume, as has been announced in the preface, the edition followed in chief has been the oldest Low German quarto, printed at Strasburg in the year 1519. This is the one with which the Franciscan Friar, Doctor Thomas Murner, has been identified; and, as all reasonable surmise and possible evidence indicate him to be the author of the original Eulenspiegel, we have no reason to believe that any older edition will ever be discovered, although there is a rumour of a Low German edition of 1483. The title page is as follows:—“Ein kurtzweilig lesen von Dil Ulen | -spiegel geboren, vsz. dē land zū Brunszwick. Wie er | seī lebē volbracht hat. & evt (?) seiner geschichten.” Underneath Owlglass on horseback with owl and glass. It consists of one hundred and thirty paged leaves in small quarto, and contains twenty-five sheets, marked A–Z, and a–b iiii; but the number of pages in a sheet varies from four to six and eight. The number of stories contained in the edition is ninety-six, and, with the exception of nine stories, each is provided with a rudely-executed woodcut, in all of which Eulenspiegel is represented in the ordinary dress of the period, his head uncovered, and without the fool’s dress which it has been the custom since to bestow upon him. Panzer was only acquainted with one copy of this edition mentioned in Wenker’s Catalogue, Strasburg, 1783, p. 215, No. 3175. This is preserved in the Ducal Library of Gotha, and no other is known to exist. It is now readily accessible to the student, being reprinted by Dr. Lappenberg (Dr. Thomas Murner’s Ulenspiegel. Leipzig, T. O. Weigel, 1854).

2. In 1520–30, we meet with another edition, the title of which we here transcribe: “Ayn Kurtz Wylich | lesen van Tyel Ulenspiegel: geboren | vyss dem land Brunzwyck. Wat he seltzamer boitzen be | dreuen hait syn dage, lüstich tzo lesen.” Printed by Servais Kruffter, in quarto, in old Gothic letters; thirteen sheets, A-N, with 104 unnumbered pages. This edition is known from two imperfect copies, which, however, restore, when collated, the whole. The first twelve sheets are in the Imperial Library of Vienna, and the Royal Library of Berlin has the last eleven. This edition differs from all others by possessing no preface. There are seventy-eight stories; and the one which appears second in this edition (which has been taken from the English Black Letter) first makes its appearance as an Eulenspiegel, as do Adventures 93 and 95.

3. A Dutch edition is first found about this time (1520–30), printed at Antwerp by Michiel Van Hoochstraten. The following is the title page:

En̄ schimpelicke werckē, en̄ wōderlijcke auontueren die | hi hadde want he en liet hem gheen boeuerie verdrieten.”

The sheets run to K ij., and forty leaves in small quarto. The only known copy is at Copenhagen, in the Royal Library, and wants two leaves. Forty-six, perhaps forty-eight, stories (counting two for the missing leaves) are contained in this edition, but they are not numbered.

4. 1528–1530. The two editions now to be described are perhaps more interesting to English readers than any others, and deserve careful examination. Of the English “Howleglas” two copies only remain, of different editions and presumed years. At the time when Dr. Lappenberg, in 1854, completed his bibliographical list, one of these copies only had reached the British Museum. They are both imperfect; but, fortunately, what is wanting in one copy is completed in the other. The title is as follows:

“Here beginneth a merrye Jest of a man that was called Howleglas, and of many marueylous thinges and Jestes that he dyd in his lyfe, in Eastlande and in many other places.”

Occupying nearly the whole of the remainder of the quarto page is a rude woodcut of a king upon his throne with two people standing before, alluding evidently to the story of the King of Poland’s Jester and Eulenspiegel.[14 - Adventure the 24th, pp. 38–39.] The colophon of the earliest edition, which has no date, but to which 1528 is assigned by the British Museum Catalogue (Dr. Lappenberg dates it at 1540–1556), is as follows: “Imprynted at London in Tame Street at the Vintre on the thre Craned wharfe by Wyllyam Copland (·.·).”

The book begins immediately at the back of the title with the following preface:

“For the great desyryng and praying of my good frandes. And I y

first writer of this boke might not denye thē. Thus haue I compled & gathered much knauyshnes & falsnes of one Howleglas made and done within his lyfe, whiche Howleglas dyed y

yeare of our lorde God .M.CCCC. & .L.[15 - This should be M.CCC. & L.] Nowe I desyre to be pardoned both before ghostly & worldly, afore highe & lowe afore noble and unnoble. And right lowly I requyre all those y

shall reade or heare this presēte Jeste (my ignoraūce to excuse). This fable is not but only to renewe y

mindes of men or women, of all degrees frō y

use of sadnesse to passe the tyme, with laughter or myrthe. And for because y

simple knowyng persons shuld beware if folkes can see. Me thinke it is better to passe the tyme with such a mery Jeste and laughe there at and doo no synne: than for to wepe and do synne.”

The number of adventures in the English Howleglas is forty-six; but they are not numbered, one being a copy of verses (given in Appendix D), and forming an additional chapter, making forty-seven. Of this copy, Signature D is missing; otherwise, excepting the corner of a leaf, it is perfect. Signatures are from A–M, worked in sheets of eight pages, equal to fifty-two pages, of which the last is a blank. It belonged at one time to Garrick, and, with other portions of his library, was transferred to the Museum, where it will be found with the Press-mark C. 21. c.

Of this book a second copy exists, as above mentioned, also in the British Museum. It is a later edition (1530), but differing in nothing from the one already described. It is, however, very imperfect, wanting Signature B and the page marked K iiii, as well as all subsequent pages, comprising L and M. This has been completed from the other copy. On the fly-leaf is the following note, which I copy:

“Such is the rarity of this volume, that only one other copy is known, viz., that in the British Museum, which is of another edition, and is also slightly imperfect (Note by the writer of the fly-leaf comment: On a more accurate inspection of the above volume, I have discovered that it wants an entire sheet, viz. c[d]), wanting the corner of a leaf. This copy was purchased at the Roxburgh sale by the late Mr. Heber, whose note will be seen on the fly-leaf immediately preceding the title.”

Mr. Heber’s note is: “1812. Roxburgh sale £14 5 0. Mem. to examine the Museum copy.”

In 1842, it was marked in Lilly’s Catalogue; and the date placed upon it by the Museum authorities is sixth of October, 1857, with the press-mark 12316 c.

The only record of any other copy of this English Howleglas, also referred to in the preface, is in a paper of Mr. Halliwell’s in the Papers of the Shakspere Society (vol. iv. p. 18, 26–28), where that gentleman describes the library of a certain Captain Cox, quoting from an account of Queen Elizabeth’s entertainments at Kenilworth, made by Laneham, clerk and keeper of the Council Chamber door.

That same Captain Cox is represented by Ben Jonson in the “Masque of Owls, at Kenelworth, presented by the Ghost of Captain Cox, mounted on his Hobbyhorse 1626,” and is made to say:

“This Captain Cox, by St. Mary,
Was at Bullen with King Ha—ry;
And (if some do not vary)
Had a goodly library,
By which he was discerned
To be one of the learned,
To entertain the queen here,
When last she was seen here.”

It has been stated, that Owlglass also existed as a Miracle Play; but this statement does not seem to refer to more than the Easter Play, to which reference has been made in the Preface.

5. 1532. This year we find the first French edition, stated to be translated from Flemish into French (probably from the Antwerp edition) printed at Paris, the title being as follows:—

Between four flowerets there is first an owl then the word: “Ulenspiegel,” and after it a round glass. Next: “De sa vie de ses oeuures | Et merueilleuses aduentures par luy faictes | et des gran- | des fortunes quil a eux, lequel par milles fallaces ne se lais | sa tromper. Nouuellement translate et corrige de Flamant | en Francoys.” The colophon is thus: “Imprime nouuellement a Paris en l’an Mil*ccccc*xxxii*.” Sheets run to K iiij b in quarto, without pagination, and the type all Gothic. The only known copy exists in the Royal Library at Stuttgart.

6. In the same year, 1532, an edition appeared at Erfurt, printed by Melcher Sachsen. The following is the title: “Von Vlenspiegel eins bau | ren sun (son) des lands Braunschweick, wie | er sein leben volbracht hat, gar mit | seltzamen sachen.” Ten sheets in quarto, leaves in number 84, without pagination; the last being blank. There are 102 stories, with 86 woodcuts, some little merit belonging to the first few—the later ones having been considerably worn. Only four copies, nearly all defective, are known of this edition; one was bought for the private library of the King of Prussia, at the sale of the collection of the Viennese antiquary Matth. Kuppitsch, and presented by his Majesty to the Royal University Library of Berlin. There is another in the Royal Library of München.

7. Another edition, in every respect similar to the Erfurt edition of 1532, was printed between 1533–7; but from the last pages being lost, it is impossible to say by whom, where, or in what year. The copy is at the Royal Library of Berlin. The missing leaves are perfected in manuscript; and it ends with a strange note, to the effect that it was printed at Augsburg by Simon Gymell, and “translated from the old Saxon tongue into good German,” in the year 1498. No such person is known to have existed at Augsburg at that time, and the words between inverted commas, first appear in 1539, in the Cologne edition.

8. In 1538, an edition was again issued, in every way similar to that of 1532, by Melchior Sachsen at Erfurt. Copies at Berlin, in the collections of Herr von Meusebach, and Professor J. A. Nasser.