The Marvellous Adventures and Rare Conceits of Master Tyll Owlglass

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 ligt
her vnder begrauen
marcket wol vnd
dencket dran. wat
ick gwest sivp .. e
… de her vor …
… an moten mi
glick 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 daran
Wat ick gwest sivp … e
… de her vor (uber)
(Gh) an moten mi
glich 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 simple[17 - “Simple” is here used in the sense of “cunning,” “bad.”] 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 - Charles V. was in England from the 26th of May, when he landed at Dover, till the 1st of July, 1522.] 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:—

Howleglas

Mars with septer[19 - Septer, sceptre.] a king coronate,
Furius[20 - furius, furious.] in affliction, and taketh no regarde.
By terrible fightyng he is our prymate
And god of battell, and person ryght forward,
Of warries[21 - warries, wars.] the tutor, the locke and the warde.
His power, his might, who can them resyst?
Not all this worlde, if that him selfe lyst.