The Breitmann Ballads Part 38

3. Bachtallo dschaven is the prose form. Vide Pott's Zigeuner.

4. Stinging. An amusing instance of "Breitmannism" was shown in the fact that an American German editor, in his ignorance of English, actually believed that the word stinging, as here given, meant stinking, and was accordingly indignant. It is needless to say that no such idea was intended to be conveyed.

5. Then only you will be ready in German.

6. In Music and Song all thy life long.

7. Thy feet are white as chalk, my love, Thy arms are ivory bone, Thy body is all satin soft, Thy breast of marble stone @ @ @ @ @ @ Smooth, tender, pure, and fair.

--Liederbuch Pauls von der Helst, 1602

8. Slibovitz.

9. The author does not know who wrote the first part of "Die Schone Wittwe." It appeared about 1856, and "went the round of the papers," acc.u.mulating as it went several additions or rejoinders, one of which was that by Hans Breitmann.

10. I had not seen for many days The handsome widow's face; I saw her last night standing By her counter, full of grace.

With cheeks as pure as milk and blood, With eyes so bright and blue, I kissed her full well six times, Indeed, and that is true.

11. This ballad is a parody of Das Hildebrandslied. Consult Wackernagel's Lesebuch and Das klein Heldenbuch.

"Ich vill zum Land ausreiten, Sprach sich Maister Hilteprand."

12. The Republicans in America were for a long time ridiculed by their opponents as if professing to be guided by Moral Ideas, i.e.

Emanc.i.p.ation, Progress, Harmony of Interests, &c.

13. Gling, glang, gloria, was a common refrain in the 16th century, in German drinking songs. "Gling, glang, glorian, Die Sau hat ein Panzer an." - Tractatus de Ebrietate Vitanda.

14. The boot was a favourite drinking cup during the Middle Ages.

The writer has seen a boot-shaped mug, bearing the inscription, "Wer . sein . Stiefel . nit . trinken . kan .

Der . ist . furwahr . kein . Teutscher . man."

There is an allusion to this boot-cup in Longfellow's "Golden Legend," where mention is made of a jolly companion

----"who could pull At once a postilion's jack-boot full, And ask with a laugh, when that was done, If they could not give him the other one."

15. The German equivalent for a native of Little Pedlington. It is a Suabian joke, commemorated in a popular song, to inquire in foreign and remote regions, "Is there any good fellow from Boblingen here?"

16. "Sonst etwas auf dem Rohr habem" - something else on the pipe or tube - meaning a plan or idea, kept to one's self, is a German proverbial expression, which occurs in one of Langbein's humorous lyrics.

17. "Nom de garce," as an anagram of nom de grace, occurs in Rabelais. G

18. An expression only used in reference to seeing again some jolly old friend after long absence - "Uns kommt der alte Schwed."

19. Wurst, literally sausage, is used by German students to signify indiffer ence. When a sausage is on the table, and one is asked with mock courtesy which part he prefers, he naturally replies - "Why, it is all sausage to me." I have heard an elderly man in New England reply to the query whether he would have "black meat or breast" - "Any part, thank'ee - I guess it's all turkey." There are, of course, divers ancient and quaint puns in Pennsylvania, on such a word as wurst. Thus it is said that a northern pedlar, in being served with some sausage of an inferior quality, was asked again if he would have some of the wurst. Not understanding the word, and construing it as a slight, he replied to his hostess - "No, thank you, marm, this is quite bad enough." The literal meaning of this line, which is borrowed from Scheffel's poem of Perkeo, is "indifferent, and equal, to me."

20. It was, I believe, Ragnar Lodbrog who, in his Death Song, spoke, about as intelligently and clearly as Herr Breitmann, of a ma.s.s of weapons.

21. Is true art-enjoyment.

22. Where art thou Breitmann? - Believe it.

23. In the green wood.

24. Students in the streets.

25. Oh Fatherland! - how thou art far!

Oh Time! - how art thou long!

26. Full details of this excursion were published in a pamphlet, ent.i.tled "Three Thousand Miles in a Railroad Car," and also in letters written by Mr. J. G. Hazzard for the New York Tribune.

27. In American-German festivals, cards are sometimes sold by the quant.i.ty, which are "good" for refreshments. This is done to avoid trouble in making change.

28. Breitmann and bride-man, breit and krumm (bride and groom), or broad and crooked, &c.

29. This refers to the pa.s.sage of bills in the Legislature of a state by means of bribery. In Pennsylvania, as in many other states, bills which have "nothing in them" - i.e. no money - are rarely allowed to pa.s.s.

30. "Die Welt gleicht einer Bierbouteille."

31. Harrisburg is the capital of the state of Pennsylvania.

32. In a certain edition of the Breitmann Ballads, this phrase is said to have originated in 1845. In 1835, I heard it said that General Jackson in a letter spelt all correct "oll korrekt," and this I believe to be the real origin of the expression. - C.G.L.

33. This incident, and the one narrated in the preceding verse, are literally true.

34. "No more interlect than a half-grown shad," is a phrase which occurs, if the author remembers aright, in the Charcoal Sketches, by J. C. Neal. The Western people have carried this idea a step further, and applied it to sardines, as "small fishes," all of an average size, packed closely together in tin cans and excluded from the light of day. A man who has never travelled, and has during all his life been packed tightly among those who were his equals in ignorance and inexperience, is therefore a "sardine."

35. The incident narrated in this part, is told in Pennsylvania as having occurred to a well-known politician, who bore the sobriquet of "With all due deference," from his habit of beginning all his speeches with these words.

36. "Dese outpressions ish not to pe angeseen py anypodies ash schvearin, boot ash inderesdin Norse or Sherman idioms. Goot many refiewers vot refiewsed to admire soosh derms in de earlier editions ish politelich requestet to braise dem in future nodices from a transcendental philological standpoint." - FRITZ SCHWACKENHAMMER

37. Requisish. An abbreviation of the word requisition, which Breitmann had heard during the War of Emanc.i.p.ation. I once heard this cant term used in a droll manner, about the end of the war, by a little girl, six years old, the daughter of a quarter-master. She had "confiscated," or "foraged," or "skirmished," as it was indifferently called, a toy whip belonging to her little brother of four years, who was clamorously demanding its return. "I cannot let you have the whip," said she gravely, "as I need it for military purposes; but I can give you a requisish for it on my papa, who will give you an order on the United States Government." - C. G. L.

38. Bismarck.

39. Disraeli.

40. Uhu. An owl - the bird of kn-owl-edge.

41. Allons. Uhlan slang for go or went, as in America, they use the Spanish word vamos to express every person in every sense of the verb to go. p.r.o.nounced allon'd.

42. "O no, those are no angels Which sail so smoothly on, O no - they're cursed Frenchmen, All in an air-balloon."

43. "And when she came adown Unto the earth's firm surface, She was Mrs. Robinson."

44. Those are thrashed Frenchmen.

45. "Der Uhlan was not shenerally wear pickelhaube, but dis tay der Herr Breitmann gehappenet to hafe von on." - FRITZ SCHWACKENHAMMER

46. "And art thou truly living?"

47. "All my property."