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
Now did the pastor keep me at his lodging till ten of the clock before
he would go with me to the Governor, to tell him of my resolve: for so
could he be his guest at dinner: for the Governor kept open house: 'tis
true Hanau was then blockaded, and with the common folk times were so
hard (especially with them that had fled for refuge to the fortress)
that some who seemed to themselves to be somewhat, were not ashamed to
pick up the frozen turnip-peelings in the streets, which the rich had
cast away. And my pastor was so lucky that he got to sit by the
Governor at the head of the table, while I waited on them with a plate
in my hand as the chamberlain taught me, to which business I was as
well fitted as an ass to play chess. Yet my pastor made good with his
tongue what the awkwardness of my person failed in. For he said I had
been reared in the wilderness, and had never dwelt among men, and
therefore must be excused, because I could not yet know how to carry
myself: yet the faithfulness I had shewn to the hermit and the hard
life I had endured with him were wonderful, and that alone deserved
that folk should not only have patience with my awkwardness but should
even put me before the finest young nobleman. Furthermore, he related
how the hermit had found all his joy in me because, as he often said, I
was so like in face to his dear lady, and that he had often marvelled
at my steadfastness and unchangeable will to remain with him, as also
at many other virtues which he praised in me. Lastly, he could not
enough declare with what earnest fervency the hermit had, just before
his death, commended me to him (the pastor) and had confessed he loved
me as his own child. This tickled my ears so much that methought I had
already received satisfaction enough for all I had endured with the
hermit.
Then the Governor asked, did not his late brother-in-law know he was
commandant of Hanau. "Yea, truly," answered the pastor, "for I told him
myself: but he listened as coldly (yet with a joyful face and a gentle
smile) as he had never known any Ramsay, so that even now when I think
thereupon, I must wonder at this man's resolution and firm purpose,
that he could bring his heart to this: not only to renounce the world
but even to put out of his mind his best friend, when he had him close
at hand."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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