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EULENSPIEGEL [ULENSPIEGEL], TILL

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 887 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EULENSPIEGEL [ULENSPIEGEL], TILL , the name of a See also:German folk-See also:hero, and the See also:title of a popular German See also:chapbook on the subject, of the beginning of the 16th See also:century. The See also:oldest existing German See also:text of the See also:book was printed at See also:Strassburg in 1515 (Ein kurtzweilig lesen von Dyl Vlenspiegel geboren vss dem See also:land zit Brunsswick), and again in 1519. This is not in the See also:original See also:dialect, which was undoubtedly See also:Low Saxon, but in High German, the See also:translation having been formerly ascribed—but on insufficient evidence—to the See also:Catholic satirist See also:Thomas See also:Murner. Its hero, Till Eulenspiegel or Ulenspiegel, the son of a See also:peasant, was See also:born at Kneitlingen in See also:Brunswick, at the end of the 13th or at the beginning of the 14th century. He died, according to tradition, at Molln near See also:Lubeck in 1350. The jests and See also:practical jokes ascribed to him were collected—if we may believe a statement in one of the old prints—in 1483; but in any See also:case the edition of 1515 was not even the oldest High German edition. Eulenspiegel himself is locally associated with the Low German See also:area extending from See also:Magdeburg to See also:Hanover, and from See also:Luneburg to the Harz Mountains. He is the wily peasant who loves to exercise his wit and roguery on the tradespeople of the towns, above all, on the innkeepers; but priests, noblemen, even princes, are also among his victims. His victories are often pointless, more often brutal; he stoops without hesitation to scurrility and See also:obscenity, while of the finer, sharper wit which the humanists and the Italians introduced into the See also:anecdote, he has little or nothing. His jests are coarsely practical, and his See also:satire turns on class distinctions. In fact, this chapbook might be described as the See also:retaliation of the peasant on the townsman who in the 14th and 15th centuries had begun to look down upon the See also:country boor as a natural inferior. In spite of its essentially Low German See also:character, Eulenspiegel was extremely popular in other lands, and, at an See also:early date, was translated into Dutch, See also:French, See also:English, Latin, Danish, See also:Swedish, Bohemian and See also:Polish.

In See also:

England, " Howleglas " (Scottish, Holliglas) was See also:long a See also:familiar figure; his jests were rapidly adapted to English conditions, and appropriated in the collections associated with See also:Robin Goodfellow, Scogan and others. See also:Ben See also:Johnson refers to him as " Howleglass " and " Ulenspiegel in his Masque of the Fortunate Isles, Poetaster, Alchemist and Sad Shepherd, and a See also:verse by See also:Taylor the " See also:water poet " would seem to imply that the " Owliglasse " was a familiar popular type. Till Eulenspiegel's " merry pranks " have been made the subject of a well-known orchestral See also:symphony by See also:Richard See also:Strauss. In See also:France, it may be noted, the name has given rise to the words espiegle and espieglerie. The Strassburg edition of 1515 (See also:British Museum) has been re-printed by H. Knust in the Neudrucke deutscher Literaturwerke See also:des z6. and 17. Jahrh. No. 55-56 (1885) ; that of 1519 by J. M. See also:Lappenberg, Dr Thomas Murners Ulenspiegel (1854). W.

See also:

Scherer (" See also:Die Anfange des Prosaromans in Deutschland," in Quellen and Forschungen, vol. xxi., 1877, pp. 28 if. and 78 ff.) has shown that there must have been a still earlier High German edition. See also C. See also:Walter in Niederdeutsches Jahrbuch, xix. (1894), pp. I if. Further See also:editions appeared at See also:Cologne, printed by Servais Kruffter, undated (reproduced in photo-See also:lithography from the two imperfect copies in See also:Berlin and See also:Vienna, 1865); See also:Erfurt, 1532, 1533–1537 and 1538; Cologne, 1539; Strassburg, 1539; See also:Augsburg, 1540 and 1541; Strassburg, 1543; See also:Frankfort on the See also:Main, 1545; Strassburg, 1551; Cologne, 1554, &c. Johann See also:Fischart published an See also:adaptation in verse, Der Eulenspiegel Reimensweis (Strassburg, 1571), K. See also:Simrock a modernization in 1864 (2nd ed., 1878) ; there is also one by K. See also:Pannier in Reclam's Universalbibiiothek (1883). The earliest translation was that into Dutch, printed by Hoochstraten at See also:Antwerp (Royal See also:Lib., See also:Copenhagen) ; it is undated, but may have appeared as early as 1512. See facsimile reprint by M.

Nijhoff (the See also:

Hague, 1898). This served as the basis for the first French version: Ulenspiegel, de sa See also:vie, de ses cenvres et merveilleuses aduentures See also:par luy faictes . . nouuellement translate et corrige de Flamant en Francoys (See also:Paris, 1532). Reprint, edited by P. Jannet (1882). This was followed by upwards of twenty French editions down to the beginning of the 18th century. The latest translation is that by J. C. Delepierre (See also:Bruges, 1835 and 1840). Cf. See also:Prudentius See also:van Duyse, Etude litteraire sur See also:Tiel l'Espiegle (See also:Ghent, 1858). The first See also:complete English translation was also made from the Dutch, and bears the title: Here beginneth a merye Jest of a See also:man called Howleglas, &c., printed by See also:Copland in three editions, probably between 1548 and 156o.

Re-See also:

print by F. Ouvry (1867). This, however, was itself merely a re-print of a still older English edition (1518?), of which the British Museum possesses fragments. Reprinted by F. See also:Brie, Eulenspiegel in England (1903). In 1720 appeared The German See also:Rogue, or the See also:Life and Merry Adventures of Tiel Eulenspiegel. Made English from the High-Dutch; and an English illustrated edition, adapted by K. R. H. See also:Mackenzie in 1880 (2nd ed., 1890). On Eulenspiegel in England, see especially C. H.

See also:

Herford, Studies in the See also:Literary Relations of England and See also:Germany in the Sixteenth Century (1888), pp. 242 if., and F. Brie's See also:work already referred to. (J. G.

End of Article: EULENSPIEGEL [ULENSPIEGEL], TILL

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EULER, LEONHARD (1707-1783)

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