The Adventurous Simplicissimus: being the description of the Life of a Strange vagabond named Melchior Sternfels von FuchshaimGrimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoph von
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The Adventurous Simplicissimus: being the description of the Life of a Strange vagabond named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim
Grimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoph von
German fiction -- Translations into English; Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 -- Fiction
"All which time I thought no little of myself but carried me right
foppishly: every day was for me a feast-day, and because I behaved
myself as a man of estate, and spent not only the great sums that
my father sent me for my needs, but also my mother's plentiful
pocket-money, therefore the women began to pay us court, but specially
to my tutor. From these baggages I learned to wench and to game: how to
quarrel, to wrestle, and to fight I knew well before, and my tutor in
no wise forbade my debaucheries, since he himself was glad to take part
in them. So for a year and a half did this monstrous fine life endure,
till my father did hear of it from one that was his factor in Liège,
with whom indeed we had at first lodged: this man received orders to
keep a sharper eye upon us, to dismiss my tutor at once, to shorten my
tether, and to examine into my expense more carefully. Which vexed us
both mightily: and though he, my tutor, had now his congé, yet did we
hold together, one way or the other, both by day and night: yet since
we could no longer spend money as before, we did join ourselves to a
rogue that robbed folks of their cloaks at night; yea, or did drown
them in the Meuse: and what we in this fashion earned with desperate
peril of our lives, that we squandered with our whores, and let all
studies go their way.
"So one night as we, after our custom, were prowling by night, to
plunder students of their cloaks, we were overcome, my tutor run
through the body, and I, with five others that were right rascals,
caught and laid by the heels: and next day we being examined and I
naming my father's factor, that was a man much respected, the same was
sent for, questioned concerning me, and I on his surety set free, yet
so that I must remain in his house in arrest till further order taken.
Meanwhile was my tutor buried, the other five punished as rogues,
robbers and murderers, and my father informed of my case: upon which he
came himself with all haste to Liège, settled my business with money,
preached me a sharp sermon, and shewed me what trouble and unhappiness
I had caused him, yea, and told me it seemed as my mother would go
desperate by reason of my ill conduct: and further threatened me, in
case I did not behave better, he would disinherit me and send me
packing to the devil. So I promised amendment and rode home with him:
and so ended my studies."
_Chap. xviii._: OF THE HOMECOMING AND DEPARTURE OF THIS WORSHIPFUL
STUDENT, AND HOW HE SOUGHT TO OBTAIN ADVANCEMENT IN THE WARS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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