Part 9 (1/2)
Free is the Bursch!
Stosst an! Free speech! live it! Hurrah, hoch!
He who knows the truth yet dare it not speak, Despised for ever remain the sneak.
Free is the Bursch!
Stosst an! Bravery, live it! Hurrah, hoch!
He who counts the cost ere the battle hour, Will basely stoop to the hand of power.
Free is the Bursch!
Stosst an! Burschen-weal, live thou! Hurrah, hoch!
Till the world is consumed on the judgment-day, Be true, ye Burschen, and sing for aye-- Free is the Bursch!
After the singing of every verse they _stossen an_, or meet gla.s.ses, and whatever quant.i.ty of wine the _Pawk-Bursch_ drinks, be it a half or a whole choppin, or even two choppin, the unhappy Brand-Fox must drink as much. Wo to him that falls into the hands of a thorough toper, who is inclined to run him hard. After the conclusion of these ceremonies the _Commers_ is commonly held, so that many a young Bursche on returning home is pretty much in the condition of the Austrian who had been at a Baccha.n.a.l-party, and was seen, on its breaking up, by one of his companions standing in the middle of the square in which his house lay, with his house-door key in his hand, which he was swinging from one side to another in an extraordinary manner. ”What are you doing there?” asked his friend. ”Ah,” said the man, ”the houses are all running round the square, like mad, and I'm waiting till the right one comes. It has been here several times already, but somehow, it has always escaped me.”
CHAPTER VII.
THE DUEL.
Shall I for fame and freedom stand, For Burschen-weal the sword lift free?
Quick blinks the steel in my right hand, A friend will stand and second me.
_Crambambuli._
The duel is one of the few inst.i.tutions of the Middle Ages which have come down to our times. Club-law, shaken to its foundation by the unceasing exertions of the German Emperors, must give way before a pliant and cunningly calculating policy. We see only in the duel its still surviving sparks, and this we see more commonly resorted to amongst students, than amongst any other cla.s.s, any other corporate body; and, moreover, we find the German students making use of it to do themselves justice more frequently than all others, and how can we wonder at it? Where a great number of young men live a long time together, there, ever and anon, will certainly disagreements arise.
This we see to be the case every where, and it must the oftener arise amongst students, who, streaming from so many different places, with so many different views of things, which early education has implanted in each mind, many of them, moreover, placed high by birth, now find themselves placed as it were on a level, that they may enter into the necessary intercourse. ”There is no love without strife,” says an old proverb, and accordingly this gathering together, this dividing and coalescing into separate companies, which takes place more in the German universities than in those of any other country, must inevitably lead to more frequent disputes. Moreover, the free, developement of all physical and intellectual powers, in which the German students especially delight, must more easily occasion differences than is the case amongst other cla.s.ses of society; and therefore we find the duel even more frequent amongst them than amongst the military cla.s.s. But if it enjoy a legal toleration in the military cla.s.s, as being considered to a certain degree necessary, we must admit that amongst students, where it is punished by the laws, it wards off worse things, and as an unavoidable evil could not be very easily or speedily annihilated.
Can we blame very severely rash and impetuous youth, which, in the feeling of its strength fancies that it can fight out and achieve any thing--which has not yet learnt to accommodate itself to the notions of strangers and the opinions of others--if it betake itself to other weapons than well-considered words and the discreet pen? And regarded from this point of view, the duel appears an evil small in comparison, and much to be preferred to the cudgel to which the _Handwerksburschen_, the journeymen artisans, addict themselves; and from which, we suppose, they have acquired the appellation of Knoten, which is contemptuously given them--as people who, to settle their quarrels, have recourse to a knotty stick--_Knotenstock_. It is very rare that a student degrades himself by the use of the cudgel, and this offence would be even more strongly punished by the laws, while it would be visited by the students' own court of honour with the _Verruf_, or Bann. Nor must we forget that in the interval between the offence and the duel, time is afforded for a more quiet consideration of the rashly-spoken words, and a possibility created for the withdrawal of them. But the duel, has many times grown in such a turbulent manner that it has required all the force of the laws to repress the rage for combat, which often surpa.s.sed all conception. As the tournay of the Middle Ages degenerated, so has this Middle Age practice now lost much of its original signification; and far the greater number of duels serve, not to terminate disputes between individuals, but to afford an entertainment to the Ch.o.r.e, which is rendered doubly attractive by the charm of danger. The origin of almost every duel would prove the truth of what we have here said.
Little matters often conduct to great evils; and though we are disposed to consider the duel, as ordinarily fought, no very great evil, yet the causes out of which it springs are proportionably still less. Honour is truly a thing which does not admit of much modification, or suffer much tampering with; and what will not a strong phantasy see in any thing with its microscopic vision? The delicate and exaggerating nature of these qualities, reminds one in fact of the sportsman who happening to put on a pair of spectacles of much greater magnifying power than usual, suddenly fired off at a fly which pa.s.sed before his eyes, taking it for a partridge. Many a one vexes himself likewise when others are pleased. He is not in good humour, and their satisfaction or equanimity is an offence to him. A country fellow was angry with a traveller for asking him whether the next village was far off, when its first houses were only a few paces further on. He knew that; but he did not consider that the stranger could not know it, and what was more, he had himself been thinking neither of that village nor any other, but only that he had just lost a lawsuit. In short, every one knows how it is accustomed to happen in such affairs. A son of the Muses is in a bad humour, and so any thing gives him occasion to call thee a _dummen jungen_; or he sends to thee a _dummen jungen_, and the business is settled. The conveyance of such a message is generally consigned to a student of some standing, who knows how to conduct himself in such affairs.
We above all things counsel him who is no friend to the duel to banish that little word ”_dumm_,” stupid, entirely out of his mouth; for if he uses it to a student in the presence of another, the student, were he his best friend, must challenge the user of the unlucky term to fight, unless he recall the offensive expression. Every duel drops through, where the challenger recalls his _dummen jungen_, and this he can do with unblemished honour, if he has convinced himself that the other did not insult him purposely. Yet no student is willing to do this frequently, lest it might appear that he would cut a swell with challenges, and yet has not really the courage to fight. Every duel must be announced to the convention of seniors, which, if the affair goes off in smoke, must see that the challenge is returned as null. In earlier times the insulted party, that is, the person who heard the above opprobrious name applied to him, sent immediately to the offender a cartel-bearer, to inform him that after what had occurred, he must fight him in this or that manner.
Come I athwart a proud _Pomadenhengst_,[17]
Who with full sails of stale and puffed-up pride Draweth me near--I tread upon his toe.
Thereat he wonders;--I tread on it again;-- Then grows he wroth:--”Hark ye,” he cries, ”was that Foot on purpose set there?”--”No, it was the heel,”
”The heel--So? Nay, that find I very strange.”
Then add I--”Oh, do me this only favour-- Find _nothing_ strange--_thou art a_ Dummer Junge!”
At the present day people spare themselves this trouble, and also hold the time not so exact that the duel, as formerly, must come off within three days. As we have before observed, the weapons with which all student duels are fought belong to the Ch.o.r.es. An insulted party now, therefore, addresses himself to one of the Ch.o.r.es--that to which he belongs, or to which he has attached himself as a friend, though not a member--and prays the use of these weapons. His request is granted; if he be not a member he pays a certain sum for their use; and at the time which is agreeable to him, the Ch.o.r.e sends a Bursche to the _Ch.o.r.e-Kneipe_, where it is expected the challenger will be found, to announce to him the appointed day and hour of the duel. It is not necessary to name the place, as that is almost always the same, at Heidelberg being the well-known _Hirsch-ga.s.se_, or, in plain English, Stag-lane. The students term this ”to fix one.” If this hour is convenient to the challenger, who has thus been fixed or determined, the Ch.o.r.e the same evening sends a Fox to the _Pawk-doctor_, a surgeon who regularly attends all the duels.
In what manner the duel shall be fought, the insulted party need not yet make known. Up to this point we know nothing more than that it is to be fought with swords. The usual weapon amongst the students is a long two-edged sword, with a basket hilt, round which the colours of the Ch.o.r.e are wound. It is long and flexible, in order that the blade may throw itself over that of the opponent when he parries, as the duel is generally fought by cutting and not by thrusting. This sword runs not to a point, but is, as it were, at the end cut square off. In some few universities they fight in the Paris fas.h.i.+on, that is, by lunging with the rapier, as in Wurtzburg, Jena, and others. If the cause of offence or injury is heavy, they resort to the crooked sabre, or to pistols. In such cases, the person who gives the offence implying the challenge, does not style the insulted party a _Dummen jungen_, but an _Infamen_, an infamous fellow.
The crooked sabre is a dangerous weapon of great weight, resembling in its curve and length the dragoon sabre, and occasions the deeper and more dangerous wounds, in that the duellist having made his stroke draws it back with full strength, and is thus in a condition to cut through every thing which comes within the sweep of his curve. It requires strength to use it well. Student with student only can make use of the Schlager, or regular duelling sword. With those who are not students he fights with the crooked sabre, or with pistols; with a military man, with the straight sabre, which also is a dangerous weapon.
By far the fewer number of duels spring out of actual insults or injuries, or rather we should say, the student seldom fights because he is insulted, but insults because he wishes to fight. Contests, on account of actual and genuine insults, are generally amongst the _Camels_, or those who do not belong to any Ch.o.r.e: seldom amongst the Ch.o.r.e members. When these, however, become, on any occasion, very hostile to each other, or have a particular desire to measure one another's skill, this is always fought in the Single Round, of which more anon. But that duels may not be wanting in which the Bursche may set his bravery in its true light, a fine opportunity is afforded by the so-called Allgemeinen, or general Kneips, which are held every Friday. We shall farther on, come to these again.