Grimmelshausen’s
picaresque novel, Der abenteuerliche Simplicissimus, like Goya’s
engravings of scenes during the Peninsular War, provides a vivid picture of the
disasters of war. Set during the Thirty Year’s War, one of the most destructive
conflicts in history, in which the population of German lands was reduced by
two-thirds through violence, disease, and starvation, the narration is full of blood,
unrestrained cruelty, and sadism. Like Brecht’s play Mutter Courage und ihre
Kinder which borrows the era and tropes on one of Grimmelshausen’s
characters from a sequel to Simplicissimus, the material is grim and the
work is unapologetically anti-war, though the main character, like workers
throughout history, is willing to enlist in one army after another. Yet the tone of this often violent narrative is paradoxically
profoundly comic in the profound Rabelaisian vein Bakhtin called carnivalistic.
The depredations
of war on the German countryside are depicted in frightful detail. Tortures and
peculiar sexual humiliation like kissing the victor’s anus are described [1] and
the reader learns of the chaos and horrors of battle [2]. The verses that accompany the fascinating
symbolic frontispiece of the book declare that the author’s purpose is to
encourage readers to “abandon folly and live in peace” [3]. By the author’s estimation the human race is
a bestial lot: “People are in part more swinish
than hogs, more fierce than lion, more lecherous than goats, more sly than
foxes, more voracious than wolves, more foolish than apes, more poisonous than
snakes and toads, yet all alike eat human food and only through their shape can
they be distinguished from beasts.” [4]
Human
rapaciousness is evident not only in the
barbaric conduct of war; the entire structure of feudal society is shown to be profoundly
exploitative. Though
many aspects of Grimmelshausen’s own background are obscure, he cannot be said
to have had a privileged upbringing. Orphaned
at an early age, he either enlisted or was conscripted into a Hessian military
unit while still a child. While he later
held various administrative positions of local importance under noble lords, his
novel contains numerous critiques of the feudal order. Though the utopia described by Jupiter is
infected with German chauvinism, it nonetheless suggests the possibility of a
society free from economic or religious discord. Jupiter calls for an end to “corvées,
watches, contributions, assessments, wars, or any other burdens on the people” as
well as ending conflict among the Christian sects [5].
Grimmelshausen questions the socio-economic hierarchy at the very outset, confusing categories by maintaining that Simplicissimus’ father was in a way like a monarch, having a palace (his home), lackeys (sheep and goats), arms (pitchforks and spades), a mode of life he calls “truly noble” [6]. He asks what title Adam had boasted [7], rather as John Ball three hundred years earlier had posed the question, “When Adam delved and Eve span, who then was the gentleman?” This radical point of view simmers throughout the story. At other points, to note only a few examples, Simplicissimus criticizes the practice of making military officers only of aristocrats, notes that only the poor are punished for their crimes, and laments that people are judged less by their own characters than by the opinions of their superiors [8]. When Simplicissimus dreams, he thinks of society as a tree with the workers, the only productive ones, as its roots.
But the root was made up of people
who count for little, like craftsmen, day laborers, mostly farmers and that
sort, who nevertheless gave the tree its strength, and again rebuilt it when it
lost some from time to time; indeed, they made up for the loss of fallen leaves
from their own resources, to their own even greater ruin; besides, they sighed
over those who sat on the tree [soldiers[, and not unjustly, for the entire
burden of the tree rested on them, pressing them so much that all the money
from their pouches, even from behind seven locks, slipped away. [9]
Who is the
character who can so critically assess his own superiors? At times he is a court jester, the figure
considered traditionally to enjoy a particular privilege of speaking truth to
power [10]. In this role he is able to “uncover
all follies and criticize all vanities, for which role my position at the time
suited admirably.” [11] He is identified
as a fool simply because he tells the truth [12]; his job is to “delicately
point out their faults to this person and that” [13].
Simplicissimus’ position
as a “fool,” is expressed as well by his being called a calf (cf. the English
term mooncalf) and by his display (like Midas, Apuleius, and Bottom) of
asses’ ears. While his lack of
experience makes him in some ways ludicrous, it also signifies his purity. He is like the young Parsifal, a genuine naïf,
ignorant of the ways of the world and thus able to react in a fresh and
spontaneous way [14]. His childhood is a
sort of Eden, while the world around him is decidedly fallen.
The vogue for
picaresque novels had been initiated with Lazarillo de Torres (1554) and
Simplicissimus clearly belongs to the genre. Considered in this light, the narrative is an
amusing account of a trickster figure.
The bleak view of the world of unpredictable extreme violence is offset
by the hero’s survival, generally through cunning means. The reader can enjoy his adventures, since,
no matter how often he falls, he always bounces back for another round. As a trickster, he generally succeeds by means
of outwitting his antagonists.
Though he had at
first been described as a tabula rasa [15], he becomes something close
to a culture hero with his inventions and innovations [16]. He resorts to trickery to get the best of a
besieged city, a landlord, and his fellow soldiers [17]. Further, though he began knowing nothing
whatever of God, he becomes something of a divine instrument. His initial instruction by the pious hermit,
his friendship with Herzbruder who is in a way his spiritual double, and his
eventual retirement to the contemplative life at the end mark the foundation of
his values in Christianity. With his “clear
conscience and sincerely pious mind”, he is shocked at the sinfulness of
everyone around him, many of whom make idols of money or food. He seems, in fact, to some “an
oracle or the voice of God “ [18]. Overlaid
atop the folkloric elements of Simplicissimus’ character is a strange sort of
hagiography, in which the main character’s early misdeeds are followed by a
conversion experience [19] and at the end as ascetic a hymn as one might
imagine taking leave of the world [20].
Here Simplicissimus reminds the reader of other fables of spiritual
growth such as Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West, Langland’s Piers
Plowman, or Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
And yet, it is
difficult to take this old confidence man at his word. He has earlier demonstrated such élan
vital, such ebullience, rivalling the comically swollen appetites of
Gargantua and Pantagruel. Grimmelshausen’s
affirmation of things as they are is evident in his style. The picaresque template itself is bouyant,
comic, optimistic. The book mingles
genres as though a single model would be too restrictive including stories
within stories, sometimes verses (as in Bk. I, ch. iii) or a dialogue (Bk. I,
ch. vii). Often the language boils over
in a rich plentitude, as when Simplicissimus lists the daily round of
activities at his Edenic childhood home (Bk I, ch xi) or when he catalogues a
long paragraph of examples of memory (Bk. II, ch. viii) or the much longer
learned catalogue of heroes of humanity (Bk. II, ch. x). Sudden rhetorical effusions belly out at
times, such as when he describes a scene of gambling in a rich manner that
recalls the paintings of Pieter Breughel the Elder. The passage is lengthy, but it represents a
host of similar pyrotechnic displays of language throughout the book.
Quite a few were missing, a number
did win, only to squander what they got.
Because of that some cured and thundered. Consequently some were cursing; some cheated ,
some received sword-blows. Hence the
winner laughed and other bettors ground their teeth. Some sold their clothes and anything else
they cherished, while others won back their money. Some wanted honest dice while others wanted
loaded ones in the game and introduced them surreptitiously. Others then tossed them away, smashed them,
tore them apart with their teeth and tore others’ coats from their
shoulders. Among the loaded dice were
some from the Netherlands which one had to roll in a looping motion. These had such pointed backs like the skinny
donkeys the soldiers rode that they rolled fives and sixes. Others were from the highlands, the sort that
one had to toss from a Bavarian height, others from Hirschhorn, mad heavy on
the top and light on the bottom, while others were filled with quicksilver or
lead, yet others with trimmings of hair or with sponges, chaff, or coal. While some had pointed corners, others were
rounded; some were like long cobs while others resembled broad tortoises. Every one of these varieties was made for
nothing but cheating. T hey did the very
thing they ere made to do. One could
equally well rock or gently let them slide.
It didn’t help with knots, not to
speak of two fives or two sixes or, on the other hand, two ones or two
twos. With these scoundrels they pinched,
plotted, and stole each other’s money, which they might well have robbed or at
any rate risked life and limb or otherwise gained through hard effort and work.
While this passage is more than ordinarily sustained, such effusions occur throughout [21] Simplicissimus and the author’s poetry can (for instance in his best-known lyric “Komm, Trost der Nacht”) sound almost mystical. The unmistakable tone is one of acceptance and affirmation of a monstrously flawed world. If the final message of Rabelais is the motto of the Abbey of Thélème “Do as thou wouldst,” Simplicissimus’ might be “struggle but celebrate.” Grimmelshausen recognizes the suffering inherent in life which people then multiply with added cruelty absent in nature, and yet his hero jumps in whole-heartedly, eager to play the game and suffer the blows and witness all the absurdity of human behavior with a mordantly ironic eye when the scene is too dreadful to laugh out loud. Others might paint a rosier view; unfortunately, it is difficult to imagine a truer.
1. Bk. I, Ch. xiv. See also the tortures for dissenters in even
Jupiter’s utopia, Bk. III, ch. v.
2. Bk. I, Ch. xxvii.
3. “Entferne der
Torheit und Lebe in Ruh.” The artist is unknown.
4. “Wie teils
Menschen säuischer als Schwein, grimmiger als Löwen, geiler als Böck, neidiger
als Hund, unbändiger als Pferd, gröber als Esel, versoffener als Rinder,
listiger als Füchs, gefräßiger als Wölf, närrischer als Affen, und giftiger als
Schlangen und Kröten waren, welche dennoch allesamt menschlicher Nahrung
genossen und nur durch die Gestalt von den Tieren unterschieden waren.” Bk. II, ch. 7.
5. “Daß man von
keinem Fronen, Wachen, Kontribuieren, Geldgeben, Kriegen noch einziger
Beschwerung beim Volk mehr Wissen.” Bk.
III, ch. iv. Bk. II, ch. v describes the
plan to reconcile divided Christianity.
The racial component here (the primacy of Germany and the recognition of
England, Sweden, and Denmark as
essentially Germanic) is disturbing.
6. “Sehr adelig.” Bk. I, ch. i.
7. “[Er] fragte,
wie man der Menschen ersten Vater tituliert hätte?” Bk. II, ch. x.
8. Bk. I, ch. xvii;
Bk. IV, ch. xiii, and Bk. II, ch. ii.
9. (Bk. I, ch. xv) “Die
Wurzel aber war von ungültigen Leuten, als Handwerkern, Taglöhnern, mehrenteils
Bauren und dergleichen, welche nichtsdestoweniger dem Baum seine Kraft
verliehen, und wieder von neuem mitteilten, wenn er solche zuzeiten verlor; ja
sie ersetzten den Mangel der abgefallenen Blätter aus den ihrigen, zu ihrem
eigenen noch größeren Verderben; benebens seufzeten sie über diejenigen, so auf
dem Baum saßen, und zwar nicht unbillig, denn die ganze Last des Baums lag auf
ihnen, und drückte sie dermaßen, daß ihnen alles Geld aus den Beuteln, ja
hinter sieben Schlössern hervorging.”
10. This role is
referred to in Bk. II, ch. iv; Bk. III, ch. xi, and Bk. III, ch. xiv.
11. “Alle
Torheiten zu bereden und alle Eitelkeiten zu strafen, wozu sich denn mein
damaliger Stand trefflich schickte.”
Bk. II, ch. x.
12. “My lord himself
said, ‘I toom you for a fool, since you spoke the truth so unashamedly.” (Mein Herr selbst sagte: »Ich halte ihn für
einen Narrn, weil er jedem die Wahrheit so ungescheut sagt.). Bk. II, ch. xiii.
13. “Dem einen und
dem andern seine Mängel artlich verweisen möchte.” Bk. II, ch. xiv.
14. Cf.
representations of the infant Jesus,
Jung’s “wise child,” etc.
15. “Einer leeren
ohnbeschriebenen Tafel.” Bk. I, ch. ix.
16. Some of his
marvelous inventions re described in Bk. III, ch. i. He is an expert at making powder and
artillery pieces in Bk. V, ch xxii.
17. See Bk. III, ch.
ix for the duel and siege, Bk. III, ch. xxiv for landlord, Bk. IV, ch. x for his
comrades-in-arms.
18. “Ein reines Gewissen
und aufrichtig frommes Gemüt.” Bk.
I, ch. xxiv. “Ein Orakel oder Warnung
Gottes.” Bk. II, ch. xiii.
19. Here in Bk. V,
ch. ii., though Simplicissimus had seemed to be religious in earlier
scenes.
20. “Etliche
fehlten; etliche gewannen, etliche verspielten: derowegen auch etliche
fluchten, etliche donnerten; etliche betrogen und andere wurden besäbelt.
Dahero lachten die Gewinner, und die Verspieler bissen die Zähn aufeinander;
teils verkauften Kleider und was sie sonst lieb hatten, andere aber gewinneten
ihnen das Geld wieder ab; etliche begehrten redliche Würfel, andere hingegen
wünschten falsche auf den Platz und führten solche unvermerkt ein, die aber
andere wieder hinwegwarfen, zerschlugen, mit Zähnen zerrissen und den
Scholderern die Mäntel zerrissen. Unter den falschen Würfeln befanden sich
Niederländer, welche man schleifend hineinrollen mußte, diese hatten so
spitzige Rücken, darauf sie die Fünfer und Sechser trugen, als wie die mageren
Esel darauf man die Soldaten setzt. Andere waren oberländisch, denselben mußte
man die bayrische Höhe geben, wenn man werfen wollte: etliche waren von
Hirschhorn, leicht oben und schwer unten gemacht: andere waren mit Quecksilber
oder Blei und aber andere mit zerschnittenen Haaren, Schwämmen, Spreu und
Kohlen gefüttert; etliche hatten spitzige Eck, an andern waren solche gar
hinweggeschliffen; teils waren lange Kolben, und teils sahen aus wie breite
Schildkrotten. Und alle diese Gattungen waren auf nichts anders als auf Betrug
verfertigt, sie taten dasjenige, wozu sie gemacht waren, man mochte sie gleich
wippen oder sanft schleichen lassen, da half kein Knüpfens, geschweige jetzt
derer, die entweder zween Fünfer oder zween Sechser und im Gegenteil entweder zwei
Eß oder zwei Daus hatten: Mit diesen Schelmenbeinern zwackten, laureten und
stahlen sie einander ihr Geld ab, welches sie vielleicht auch geraubt oder
wenigst mit Leib- und Lebensgefahr oder sonst saurer Mühe und Arbeit erobert
hatten.” Bk. V, ch. xiv.
21. See, for
instance, the description of the dinner in Bk. I, ch. xxix or the following list
of drinkers’ activities in Bk. I, ch. xxx.
