The Adventurous Simplicissimus: being the description of the Life of a Strange vagabond named Melchior Sternfels von FuchshaimGrimmelshausen, Hans Jakob Christoph von
General
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
The same morning the Governor's chamberlain commanded me, I should go
to the before-mentioned pastor, and there learn what his lordship had
said to him in my affair. Likewise he sent an orderly to bring me to
him. Then the pastor took me into his library, and there he sat down
and bade me also sit down, and says he, "My good Simplicissimus, that
same hermit with whom thou didst dwell in the wood was not only the
Lord Governor's brother-in-law, but also his staunch supporter in war
and his chiefest friend. As it pleased the Governor to tell me, the
same from his youth up had never failed either in the bravery of an
heroical soldier nor in that godliness and piety which became the
holiest of men: which two virtues it is not usual to find united. Yet
his spiritual mind, coupled with adverse circumstances, so checked the
course of his earthly happiness that he rejected his nobility and
resigned certain fine estates in Scotland where he was born, and
despised such because all worldly affairs now seemed to him vain,
foolish, and contemptible. In a word, he hoped to exchange his earthly
eminence for a better glory to come, for his noble spirit had a disgust
at all temporal display, and all his thoughts and desires were set on
that poor miserable life wherein thou didst find him in the forest and
wherein thou didst bear him company till his death." "And in my
opinion," said the pastor, "he had been seduced thereto by his reading
of many popish books concerning the lives of the ancient eremites. Yet
will I not conceal from thee how he came into the Spessart, and, in
accord with his wish, into such a miserable hermit's life, that thou
mayest hereafter be able to tell others thereof: for the second night
after that bloody battle of Höchst was lost, he came alone and
unattended to my parsonage-house, even as I, my wife, and children were
fallen asleep, and that towards morning, for because of the noise all
over the country which both pursuers and pursued are wont to make in
such cases, we had been awake all the night before and half of this
present one. At first he knocked gently, and then sharply enough, till
he wakened me and my sleep-drunken folk: and when I at his request, and
after short exchange of words, which was on both sides full cautious,
had opened the door, I saw the cavalier dismount from his mettlesome
steed. His costly clothing was as thickly sprinkled with the blood of
his enemies as it was decked with gold and silver; and inasmuch as he
still held his drawn sword in his hand, fear and terror came upon me.
Yet when he sheathed his sword and shewed nothing but courtesy I must
wonder that so noble a gentleman should so humbly beg a poor village
pastor for shelter. And by reason of his handsome person and his noble
carriage I addressed myself to him as to the Count of Mansfield
himself: but said he, he could for this once be not only compared to
the Count of Mansfield in respect of ill fortune but even preferred
before him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account