The Student Life of Germany Part 26

The Bursch his ornament doth bear, Which him such pleasure brings, The sword which with a fearful air Upon his left side swings.

As Bursch, when through the town he stirs, Majestic in all eyes, The sparks they lighten round his spurs, And fire crossways flies.

What careth he, though hole there be, Upon his elbow now; The jolly Bursch remaineth he, Before whom all must bow.

But wo to thee! if on his course In perfumed garb thou rub; He'll curse thee for Pomatum-horse, And threaten with his club.

For friends still beats his heart so warm, He feels their grief and care; For them he wields his mighty arm, Nor would his own life spare.

Whoever saw him shrink a-back, Or do a coward deed?

Shame on him he would never take, Though kingdoms were the meed.

They law how in the battle-shock His flas.h.i.+ng sword he drew; They saw how from its sweep, like smoke, The slaves before him flew.

Courage in danger and distress Is aye the conquering plan: Aye though all h.e.l.l upon him press, He'll show himself a man!

Hears he of Hermann's spirit proud, Of his high deeds the fame, His German blood warns him aloud-- "Be worthy of the name!"

He drinks the German vine-juice bright, And German feels and great; In his right arm dwells giant might, And freedom's his estate.

Then live hoch! every German man Who thinks and speaks as he; But they who falsehood basely plan, Extinguished may they be!

Weighs care upon his heart's repose, He takes his pipe so dear, And as the Knaster fumes and glows, All troubles disappear.

He is a Bursch,---lives _sans facon_ Him all their friend may deem; His heart is good, although we own At times it different seem.

Fair maids he wishes free from wrongs, With joy to their life's goal; And lauds them still in all his songs, With all his heart and soul.

See! though all gla.s.ses empty stand, Full jugs to us appeal; So send the wine from hand to hand, And drink the Bursch's weal.

Already from the jug's full flood To gla.s.s the wine doth flow, And to our worthy Brotherhood, We'll sound this hearty hoch!

Baden I call my Fatherland, As life I prize its weal; Therefore I wear the Baden Band, And guard with hand and steel.

_Fourthly_.--Others are drinking songs; as "Crambambuli, that is the t.i.tle;" or "When carousing I shall die;" "The year is good, the brown beer thrives;" "Bring me blood of n.o.ble vines;" "The dearest sweetheart that I have;" "I have throughout the forenoon long;" "I and my dear bottle;" "Now sing in dulci jubilo;" or that maiden song, in which the maiden is drunk for, while he who empties most measures is declared the conqueror, and ent.i.tled to marry the maiden; while the rest cry and chorus.

He's done it stout, he's done it stout, So will he not be laughed right out.

And the maiden, who all the while is perfectly unconscious of these proceedings, and has given no consent to them, is declared to be won, and is p.r.o.nounced to be the beloved of the victor. Ah, poor maiden! so wouldst thou, not out of love, but truly contrary to thy will, be thrown into the arms of a drunkard!

This maiden song is now, to the honour of the students.h.i.+p, quite out of use; yet Zackaria describes such a scene as common in the days of his Renommist.

And therefore filled he with beer that mighty gla.s.s, And drank it off the first unto that fair endearing--- A maiden yet whose name had scarcely met his hearing He held in hand, as sceptre, the solid room-door key, Thus acted he as chief, and to his realm gave he A sacred law, unpausing the measured draught to end; And oft his judge's arm let the heavy key descend.

Wo unto him who then this law as rebel brake, When he that thunder-word _pro p[oe]na_, to him spake. Then must another measure his luckless throat o'erflow, Or stood he in great danger the damsel to forego.

"But now, ye Brothers--hoch! and let Selinda live.

Vivat Selinda, hoch! with roughest throats now roar, Vivat Selinda, hoch! cry mightily once more!

Shout for the third time--hoch!"--the very room did quiver, And on the long wet table the gla.s.ses ring and s.h.i.+ver.

As in old Homer's story, upon the Trojan plain, Mars, like ten thousand men, sent forth a cry of pain, Till the whole army trembled, with rock, and hill, and valley, So trembled now this chamber with this Studenten sally.

Then Torf her lovely countenance with such a beauty draws, That each one swearing gave a thundering applause.

The Renommist then cried--who inly now grew warmer-- Here I myself do choose her--I choose her for my Charmer.

"The fiend thou dost!" said Torf, right loath to give her o'er, But Raufbold straight defied him to twenty choppins more.

Torf yielded up the contest--strength did his hope betray, And Leipsic's crown was thus far from the faint-heart drunk away.

_The Renommist_.

Certain songs belong to the conclusion of a Commers, or drinking meeting. With the last song, the gla.s.ses are turned upside down according to the old song, and the brother revellers, wish each other a good night.

I take my dear gla.s.s in my hand And bear it to the Underland.

I fetch again my gla.s.s so dear, And hold to th' right and to th' left ear.

My gla.s.s unto my mouth set I, And drain it to the bottom dry.

The right thing to the gla.s.s do we, What was above must under be.

The gla.s.s must walk the land O!

From one to th' other hand O!

He who in drinking or singing shoots a buck--that is, has broken the rule--must _pro p[oe]na_, or in other words as a penalty, empty an extra choppin or two. He who often a.s.sociates himself with a Commers, is called a Commers-brother.

Give us a prime good gla.s.s, so will our praise be ample, Only be 't not too scant a sample; For when on wine I must decide With mouth right full I'd have it tried.

_Goethe's Faust_.

So thought the German students in earlier times, and so think they still. Drinking had reached a dreadful height in the Middle Ages, and many laws were pa.s.sed, but in vain, to put a check on the madness. It was the same amongst the Burschen, who carried it to a most incredible extent. At the time that those students who were the best drinkers, were most regarded amongst their fellows in the universities, a Westphalian studying in Halle, made a visit to a countryman who was studying at Jena. The Jena student, to show his friend that he understood life, immediately on the first evening, called all his companions together, and they all drank to the welcome visiter so strongly in beer and wine, that on the following morning he had hardly slept off the effects of it before twelve o'clock. Scarcely had he dressed and despatched his dinner, when he was anew conducted to the drinking-place. Thus the revel continued for eight days in succession, when he travelled back to Halle. After his return he related many strange things of the mode of life of his countrymen in Jena, and always added--"Children,--it is very curious in Jena,--there is no forenoon there."

Such madness is now gone by; yet, ever and anon, there are students who might boldly challenge the gentlemen of the old school to a trial at toping, if they would rise out of their graves to it. Beer is the general beverage of the students, and as the best sorts of the same, as the Bavarian, and the formerly celebrated Heidelberg beer, are not strong, the health of the consumer, even in a long-continued course, is not injured by it, as it is in other universities, where, through the want of beer, wine and spirits are drunk. Beer, at the same time, is the cheapest liquor, and on that account is liked by the student not less than by the common man, amongst whom it is equally the custom to drink much. In one year, when the choppin (pint) of beer cost one-third of a penny, or, about half the usual price, a coachman achieved a most extraordinary feat in drinking. Some students promised to pay for a hundred choppins if he would drink it with only short intervals. He accepted the offer, and had all the hundred measures set in a row on a bench. He drank the first, walked slowly to the end of the hall and back, drank off the second, and so on till finding not another drop, he said quietly to the landlord--"So, now let me have just another choppin for my money."

The students drink generally beer at their Kneips, and if this is done in the open air, a large company is accustomed to pile up the emptied jugs into a pyramid.

Not by trophies, marbled over, Will posterity discover What we brothers here have done; But of triumph our memorial, These drained pitchers in their glory all, Pile, a pyramid of fun!

_Hauff_.

At Commers, and on other festive occasions, are also frequently drunk wine, or ardent glee-wine and punch. It is a very ancient custom, amongst drinkers, that the gla.s.ses must be emptied after certain and manifold practices and prescriptions. Horace describes a similar wont in his time, where the drinkers are accustomed to elect a king, who presided on the occasion. Such rules are now become quite voluminous amongst the students, and are collected into their so-called Beer-Comment. This, therefore, contains the guiding laws of the Beer-Court. We will give this Beer-Comment at the end of the volume, as an example of the elaborate style into which this old and deep-rooted custom of German student-life has come to be carried out. Strange as it may appear to other nations, it is a custom in Germany, old as the universities themselves; and as our object is to probe to the very bottom of student-life, and give a full and faithful portraiture of it, those of our sober readers who may not think these very wise or commendable laws, may, having read the rest of the book, there close it, without perusing this Beer-Code. We also precede the account of the Commerses with a collection of all the phrases which the Germans employ to clothe in a tolerable garb of decorum that dreamy condition into which Bacchus frequently throws his votaries. These modes of expression were collected by Lichtenberg, and a few only have been added to them.