CONTENTS.
[Joseph Victor Scheffel]. An Introductory Memoir
[Song of the Travelling Students]
[The Cloister Cellar Master's Summer Morning Song]
[The Song of the Widow, Clara Bakethecakes]
[TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.]
This volume contains the greater portion of the poems which constitute the Gaudeamus--'Let us be jolly'--of Joseph Victor Scheffel, who is at present the most popular poet in Germany. Without being presented as such, these ballads, though complete in themselves, form in their connection a droll history of the world and of humanity--advancing from the early outburst of Granite and Basalt, through the boulder of Gneiss to the Ichthyosaurus and Megatherium. Man then appears as a dweller in the pre-historic Swiss-Lacustrine-dwelling on poles, where he bitterly bewails the misfortune of being a pioneer of civilization, and as one born before the invention of modern comforts.
'In stocks I would gladly grow wealthy,
But exchange is not yet understood:
A good glass of beer would be healthy,
But never a drop has been brewed.'
The Early Phœnician is set forth in a droll song (originally published under the title of Jonah) which describes the disasters that befell a guest who could not pay his bill,--presented in arrow-head or cuneiform characters on six tiles. The old Etruscan era and that of the ancient German are also painted in a style which, could the truth be known, would probably be found as genially true to life as it is to the world-old, infinite spirit of Humour, which moved man in the same measure in ancient Egypt as in modern England. In these, as in his serious poems of a more ambitious nature, Joseph Victor Scheffel manifests a remarkable insight into the inner real life of the past. Like a geologist, or poet, he infers from trivial relics the probable feelings and habits of obscure beings or races, or at least imagines them, and assimilates them to modern usages with rare tact. These ballads have been printed, sung, and imitated in Germany of late years to a great extent. Scheffel has in fact founded a school of humorous poetry--that of the burlesque-scientific and historical--which, though by no means pretentious, has at least made the world laugh heartily. I sincerely trust that the following translations will induce the reader to become familiar with the original.
I have omitted a few poems from the Gaudeamus, as deficient in the peculiar spirit of fun which characterises all that are here given; but should the public manifest its approbation of this work, they may be found in another edition. In their place I have given translations of a number of eccentric German-student songs of the new school, nearly all of which have found their way into the popular German song-books of late years.
CHARLES G. LELAND.
London, October, 1871.