Not by trophies, marbled over,
Will posterity discover
What we brothers here have done;
But of triumph our memorial,
These drained pitchers in their glory all,
Pile, a pyramid of fun!
_Hauff_.
At Commers, and on other festive occasions, are also frequently drunk
wine, or ardent glee-wine and punch. It is a very ancient custom,
amongst drinkers, that the glasses must be emptied after certain and
manifold practices and prescriptions. Horace describes a similar wont
in his time, where the drinkers are accustomed to elect a king, who
presided on the occasion. Such rules are now become quite voluminous
amongst the students, and are collected into their so-called
Beer-Comment. This, therefore, contains the guiding laws of the
Beer-Court. We will give this Beer-Comment at the end of the volume, as
an example of the elaborate style into which this old and deep-rooted
custom of German student-life has come to be carried out. Strange as it
may appear to other nations, it is a custom in Germany, old as the
universities themselves; and as our object is to probe to the very
bottom of student-life, and give a full and faithful portraiture of it,
those of our sober readers who may not think these very wise or
commendable laws, may, having read the rest of the book, there close
it, without perusing this Beer-Code. We also precede the account of the
Commerses with a collection of all the phrases which the Germans employ
to clothe in a tolerable garb of decorum that dreamy condition into
which Bacchus frequently throws his votaries. These modes of expression
were collected by Lichtenberg, and a few only have been added to them.
HIGH GERMAN
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