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The Nuremberg Schembart Manuscripts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Samuel L. Sumberg*
Affiliation:
The College of the City of New York

Extract

The chief difficulty in tracing the origin of the secular drama in Germany is the lack of texts to prove the performance of other than religious plays. Nevertheless a sufficient number of secular texts have been brought to light to contradict the old belief that expansion of the comic scenes in the religious dramas resulted in the early Carnival play. M. J. Rudwin, in his notable study, proved the Carnival play to have been “the natural outgrowth of the Carnival customs themselves.” Modern historians of literature agree with him on this point but discuss the development of the Fastnachtspiel in Nuremberg no further than to declare its origin to have been in the most important masque of the time, the Schembartlauf. Yet in the recent special work on the history of the German drama, Das deutsche Drama, F. Michael disclaims any immediate connection between the Schembartlauf and the plays. Up to the present no detailed examination of the manuscripts in which the Schembartlauf was recorded, the so-called Schembartbücher, has appeared. It will be of advantage to study the actual content of the manuscripts in order to estimate their importance for the history of German literature. Conclusions may then be drawn as to the possible relation of the Schembartlauf to the Fastnachtspiele.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , September 1929 , pp. 863 - 878
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1929

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References

Note 1 in page 863 The writer is deeply indebted to Professor Max Herrmann of the University of Berlin for his valuable advice and assistance in the preparation of this study of the Schembartbücher. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to Professor R. H. Fife of Columbia University for his interest and suggestions.

Note 2 in page 863 For a complete bibliography of this material cf. M. J. Rudwin, The Origin of the German Carnival Comedy, New York, 1920, pp. 67-68.

Note 3 in page 863 Such are the episode of the Krämerszene and the scenes about the mouth of hell, in which the devils (or clowns) appear.

Note 4 in page 863 Op. cit., p. 1.

Note 5 in page 863 Cf., for example, Golther, Die deutsche Dichtung im Mittelalter, Stuttgart, 1912, p. 543: “Das Fastnachtspiel ist eine Gelegenheitsdichtung, die aus den Maskeraden und Umzügen sich herausbildete. . . . . In Nürnberg war das Schembartlaufen besonders üblich, Schembart bedeutet bärtige Maske usw.”

Note 6 in page 863 Das deutsche Drama, hrsg. v. R. Arnold, München, 1925.

Note 7 in page 863 Op. cit., p. 41: “Für Nürnberg ist ein unmittelbarer Zusammenhang zwischen Schembartlauf und dramatischem Spiel nicht bezeugt.”

Note 8 in page 864 The libraries with the largest collections of Schembartbücher are the Nürnbergisches Stadtarchiv, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, and the Hof- und Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Several Schembart costumes and masks are on view at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg and at the Baierisches Nationalmuseum in Munich. The Lipperheidische Kostümsammlung in the Staatliche Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, contains two MSS. With the kind advice of Professor Fritz Brüggemann (Aachen) three MSS were selected for special study as being most representative; they are two from the Nürnbergisches Stadtarchiv, listed as ‘Norica 444’ and ‘Amberger 54’ (the so-called Bernhaupt’ sche Chronik), and one from the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, listed as Gs. 2196. Reproductions of the text and drawings of the MSS have been made as fllowos: New paragraph, as in case of M. M. Mayer Flögel, etc.

G. A. Will, Die kleine Geschichte des Nürnbergischen Schönbartlaufens. Altdorf, 1671, includes the whole text and drawings of a Schembartbuch. The text has been added to by Will, and the drawings are very small and not in colors, though true copies.

M. M. Mayer, Des alien Nürnbergs Sitten und Gebräuche in Freud und Leid. Erste Abteilung. Das Schembartbuch, I Heft, Nuremberg, 1831. 20 drawings are here reproduced in colors, and the text of the MS is reprinted.

Flögel's Geschichte des Groteskkomischen, hrsg. v. F. W. Eberling, Leipsic, 1862. Contains colored reproductions of 3 costumes (for the years 1459, 1460, 1463) on Plate XVII.

R. Koenig, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte, Leipsic, 1879, contains (I, 212-13) drawings of 3 Schembartläufer and of 2 wooden masks used by them.

Alwin Schultz, Deutsches Leben im XIV. u. XV. Jahrhundert, Vienna, 1892. Fig. 479 is a reproduction of the dance of the butchers, Fig. 480, 481, 547 are drawings of the Höllen for the years 1506, 1518, and 1521 respectively. On Plates XXXI and XXXII are given the costumes for the years 1459, 1482, 1506, 1513, 1519, 1520, in colors.

Vogt and Koch, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, Leipsic, 1897, p. 243 (1926, 260) contains one plate of colored reproductions from the Schembartbücher: 2 Schembartläufer, the Wilder Mann, and the Hölle for the year 1522.

Karl Drescher, in 1908, published for the Gesellschaft der Bibliophilen in Weimar the complete Hamburg Schembart MS in the original size and colors, though not in the original arrangement. The preface includes a discussion of the Schembartlauf.

In addition to the histories of literature, the following works offer clarifying information regarding the content of the Schembartbücher: Die Chroniken der deutschen Städte, Nürnberg, Vols. 1, 2, 3, 10, 11; Wilhelm Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen, etc. Berlin 1875; Antike Wald-und Feldkulte, Berlin, 1877; Karl Weinhold, Ueber das Komische im altdeutschen Schauspiel, in Gösches Lehrbuch für Litteraturgeschichte, 1865; Zur Geschichte des heidnischen Ritus, Berlin, 1896; Karl Simrock, Handbuch der deutschen Mythologie, Bonn, 1874; Sebastian Brant, Das Narrenschiff, hrsg. v. Zarncke, Leipsic, 1854; The Ship of Fools, translated by Alexander Barclay, Edinburgh, 1874, containing reproductions of the original wood-cuts by Brant and others; Karl Theodor Hampe, Die Entwicklung des Theaterwesens in Nürnberg, Nuremberg, 1900; Max Herrmann, Forschungen zur deutschen Theatergeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, Berlin, 1914; Julius Petersen, Das deutsche Nationaltheater, Berlin, 1919; M. J. Rudwin, op. cit.

Further: Sigmund Heldt's Trachtenbuch in the Lipperheidische Sammlung (Berlin), a manuscript of the 16th century, containing some thousand colored costume drawings; H. Doege, Die Trachtenbücher des 16, Jahrhunderts, in Beiträge zur Bücherkunde und Philologie, Leipzig, 1903; W. Quinke, Katechismus der Kostümkunde, Leipsic, 1889; Max v. Boehn, Das Bühnenkostüm, Berlin, 1921; Der Tanz, Berlin, 1926; Fr. M. Böhme, Die Geschichte des Tanzes in Deutschland, Leipsic, 1886. The following journals: Zts. des Vereins für Volkskunde, hrsg. v. Karl Weinhold u. a., especially vols. 1895, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1904, 1907, 1911; Mitteilungen des Vereins der Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg, hrsg. v. Mummenhoff; Mitteilungen des germanischen Nationalmuseums in Nürnberg (1898, 1901).

Note 9 in page 865 Cf. Chroniken, op. cit., 3, 276. This account was written in the year 1488.

Note 10 in page 866 Cf. Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen, p. 181 ff.

Note 11 in page 866 This satire was common enough, and tournaments were held among the citizens on sleds instead of horses and with clubs for spears. The masks at the Metzgertanz have nothing to do with the traditionary demoniacal mask, as they do not cover the face, i.e. they do not change the man into a demon.

Note 12 in page 867 Cf. Weinhold Zur Geschichte des heidnischen Ritus, p. 26; Zts. d. Vereins für Volkskunde, 1898, p. 441, Weinhold, Ueber das Faschingsrennen zu Murau, 1904, p. 423, R. Steig, Ueber Fastnachtsbräuche in Bärwalde. Two festivals similar to the Schembartlauf and still preserved in Bavaria, are the Perchtellauf and the Huttlerlauf. For these cf. ibid. 1899, p. 109, and Rudwin, op. cit., pp. 32-33.

Note 13 in page 867 Groups of men celebrating any event (e.g. a marriage) might wear the same . costume, cf. Schultz, op. cit., p. 322 (a quotation from Bernhard Rohrbach's Liber gestorum, 1464); colored costumes, especially costumcs in mi-parti, were very popular at that time, cf. ibid., p. 380; pointed shoes came into fashion just about 1450, cf. ibid. 377; gloves were always worn by ladies and gentlemen, cf. Böhme, op. cit., p. 88; bells had been a regular article of apparel since 1350, cf. Quincke, op. cit., p. 126, cf. also Schultz, op. cit., Figs. 321, 315, and Plate XXIII.

Note 14 in page 867 In the latter half of the 15th century edicts were issued against the “schaurlichen kurzen Kleidung,” cf. Schultz, op. cit., 328 ff., but the doublet always reached “eyner hand breyt under dem gürtel.” The doublet without a skirt is found in the illustrations to the performances of Terence' Eunuchus in Ulm and Strassburg, 1486-96, cf. Herrmann, op. cit., Figs. 22-30, and 44-46; also on an illustration (Plate 18) in the Mittelalterliches Hausbuch (composed after 1450) published by H. Th. Bossert and W. F. Storck, Leipsic, 1912), depicting a sleight-of hand trickster performing before a crowd. The very same costume as the Schembarttäufer wears appears in another illustration of this MS (Plate 2), representing 8 ‘Gaukler’ performing their tricks before the king and his court.

Note 15 in page 868 The ‘Gaukler’ in the Mittelalterliches Hausbuch (cf. note 14) also carry these same requisites, the leaves hiding a firework of some sort as in the Schembartbuch. The devils in the Passionsspiel also used the pike and a bellows which emitted a flame, cf. Herrmann, op. cit., Figs. 113, 122. Poles were also carried by the Fastnachtspieler, cf. Hampe, op. cit., Ratsverlässe Nos. 10 and 11.

Note 16 in page 868 Cf. Mannhardt, op. cit., pp. 151, 299, 303.

Note 17 in page 868 Cf. the reproductions from Sigmund Heldt's MS (op. cit.) in Herrmann, op. cit., Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13.

Note 18 in page 868 Cf. Hampe, op. cit., Ratsverlässe Nos. 2, 4, etc.

Note 19 in page 868 The greatest change was in the doublet, whose front was opened to insert the ‘Brusttuch,‘ usually with a design on it.

Note 20 in page 868 Such are the patterns of flames and flowers, of numbers and initials, of stripes and designs of all kinds. Cf. Schultz, op. cit.

Note 21 in page 868 The Schembartläufer apparently took the name for their stage from the most sensational scene in the Passionsspiel, that before the ‘Höllenrachen.’

Note 22 in page 869 The form given the dragon here was the popular conception, cf. the woodcut by H. S. Behan, in Kulturgeschickte des deutschen Volkes, by O. Henne am Rhyn (p. 49). Cf. also Flögel, op. cit., Plate XXIII.

Note 23 in page 869 Cf. Rudwin, op. cit., 21.

Note 24 in page 869 The custom is still continued; for example, in the Tirol a wagon, in which sit young men dressed as girls, is pulled out to the fields as a Carnival celebration. Of. Zts. d. V. f. Volkskunde, 1900, 80 ff. Texts for Fastnachtspiele based on this custom are to be found in A. v. Keller's edition (1853): No. 76, “Der Gertraudt Einsalzen,” No. 77, “Di Vasnacht von Maigtum Einsalzen,” No. 91, “Ain Einsalzen Vasnacht.” The community had to be cleansed of all that was dead or deadly.

Note 25 in page 869 Sebastian Brant's, Das Narrenschiff (cf. note 8) became popular 1500-1506.

Note 26 in page 870 An elephant appeared at the great fairs in Cologne and Frankfort in the eighties of the 15th century. Cf. Schultz, op. cit., 435-6. The elephant with a castle on its back was adopted as the emblem of the Order of the Elephant, which was founded at this time. Cf. J.H. Fr. Berlien, Der Elephantenorden, etc., Kopenhagen, 1846. The “Elephant-and-Castle” frequently appears as a tavern sign in England, especially for inns where theatrical performances are given.

Note 27 in page 870 Hans Sachs, hrsg. v. A. v. Keller, 1853, II, 395 ff., “Historia von dem kayserlichen sieg in Aphrica etc. Anno 1535.”

Note 28 in page 870 Cf. Zarncke's edition of Brant's Narrenschiff, Einleitung, p. cxxxi ff.

Note 29 in page 870 Hans Sachs, op. cit., 5, 300 ff., “Der narren-fresser.” 1530.

Note 30 in page 870 Was this rime intended?

Note 31 in page 870 Cf. the Höllendiener in Fig. 113, Herrmann, op. cit.

Note 32 in page 870 For this belief in rejuvenation thru bathing in a well, cf. J. Bolte, “Die Altweibermühle,” Archiv für das Studium der neuer Sprachen, CII, 1898.

Note 33 in page 871 Cf. Hans Sachs, op. cit., 5, 305 ff., “Das narren-bad,” also Sämtliche Fastnachtsspiele von Hans Sachs, hrsg. v. E. Goetze, Halle, 1880-86, No. 4, “Das Fastnachtsspiel vom bösen Weib,” 1533. Here the “Magd” says to the “Gesell”: “Ihr schwitzt viel leicht im Narren bad.”

Note 34 in page 871 Perhaps this Hölle was meant to represent a so-called Glückshafen, an old-fashioned type of lottery. The Glückshafen were often put up at the festivals (1483 in Cologne, 1504 in Zurich, 1506 in Frankfort, cf. Schultz, op. cit., p. 444). Cf. Chroniken, op. cit., 11, 552 ff., for the one held in Nuremberg in 1489.

Note 35 in page 871 This drawing is very similar to the wood-cuts used by Brant for his chapters entitled “Von Gluckesfall” (No. 37), and “Von end des gewaltes” (No. 56).

Note 36 in page 872 This method was regularly used for snaring birds, cf. Mittlelalterliches Hausbuch (note 14), Plate 18.

Note 37 in page 872 Sämtliche Fastnachtsspiele (Goetze), op. cit., I, No. 2.

Note 38 in page 873 There is nothing peculiar about the form of the ship, but it is also on wheels. The wood-cut on the title-page of Brant's “Narrenschiff” was probably the inspiration here.

Note 39 in page 873 Rudwin, op. cit., p. 4 ff.

Note 40 in page 873 For a map of Nuremberg in the 15th century cf. Chroniken, op. cit., II.

Note 41 in page 874 The Wilder Mann is characterized by his costume: he is clad in leaves, has long, black hair, which is circled by a wreath of leaves, and over his shoulder he carries a branch to which is tied a large doll representing a man. He incorporated the spirit of dead vegetation and was burned during the Carnival. Cf. Mannhardt, op. cit., p. 96; Rudwin, op. cit., p. 16.

Note 42 in page 874 62 costumes and texts for the Schembartlauf is the record for these 90 years, 1449-1539. The Höllen number 21.

Note 43 in page 874 In the Hölle for 1521. In some cases also the windmill and the ass are depicted as standing on the ground, without a cart or sled; the stork in the Hölle for 1493 is drawn with a large worm in its beak, and so on. The texts referring to the Schembartlauf are, however, generally similar.

Note 44 in page 874 ‘Schembart’ was used for any sort of mask, even in the 14th century. Cf. Hampe, op. cit., Ratsverlässe, No. 18; Schultz, op. cit., 411.

Note 45 in page 874 Chroniken, op. cit., II, 660, 698. The editor of the chronicle, C. Hegel, considers Deichsler quite trustworthy, and that his entries were made soon after the events, cf. ibid., p. 540 ff.

Note 46 in page 875 Hans Sachs Werke (Keller), 4, 200 ff.

Note 47 in page 876 Norica 444 (cf. note 8).

Note 48 in page 876 Karl Drescher, op. cit.

Note 49 in page 876 Amberger 54, and Norica 444.

Note 50 in page 876 Amberger 54.

Note 51 in page 876 We cannot tell whether one of the MSS extant is the original, as in each case other chroniclers have added comments. This extra material is often written in three or four hands.

Note 52 in page 876 In many cases the MSS are copies made as late as the 18th century, and they contain supplements with costumes from the later period.

Note 53 in page 877 The text is always written on the back of the costume page. The date and names on the latter are in the same hand as the text. We may assume each MS to have been made originally by one person.

Note 54 in page 877 The MSS contain rimes for various additional costumes in the supplements, particularly the following: with the costume of a Wilder Mann goes the rime: “Jn einer Wildten Manns Gstalt Jch/bey dem Schampart Lüss findten mich.” With him goes his wife (the Fangga, cf. Mannhardt, Antike Wald- und Feldkulte p. 148): “Weil sich mein Mann mach auff die Strassen/soll Jch Jhm folgen gleicher massen.”; a costume decorated with mirrors: “Von Dannen Laub und Spiegel Clar/Jch auch ein Zihr dem Schempart war.” Another: “Mein Kleidtung war Von Kosten Gantz/Darmit Ziert Jch den Schemparts Dantz.”; a costume satirizing the ‘Ablasskrämer’: “Wardt ganzz behenckth mit Ablass Brief/da Jch mit dem Schempart Lüeff.” Three rimes for vegetation demons: “In sollche Klaidtung trat herein/Jch und der Liebste Sohne mein.”; “Mit diesen Zweyen Glocken Hab/Der Fassnacht Jch Geloüth zum Grab.”; “Jn dieser Meiner Rauhen Wahr/Loff Jch auch Zu dem Schempart dar.”

Note 55 in page 877 After 1560, cf. Doege, op. cit.

Note 56 in page 878 Rudwin, op. cit., 36 ff., considers the Fastnachtspiel to have had the following development: the phallic demons of the originally ritual dance, which was by nature mimetic, became the actors of small detached and humorous episodes;when the burghers took over these scenes from the peasants trained actors with cultivated plays resulted.