Or it might have been the cook.

Just outside, upon the Linden,

On an instrument (a wind 'un)

Played a minstrel most demurely,

Dismal as the parish waits.

And so loud he kept on getting,

While his frau stood by him, knitting,

That I thought, "The Baron, surely,

Will demolish all the plates."

"Spare a groschen, princely stranger!