Chapter I: DINKS I'll go a vightin'" - outshpoke der Breitemann (5)

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.
Emancipation, 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
mass 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,
entitled "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
quantity, 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 passage 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 pass.

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
Emancipation. 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. Pronounced
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."

48. "O maiden fair in Heaven!"

49. Nancy, the "light of love" of Lorraine. - London
Times, Dec. 6, 1870.

50. "I require you to surrender:
I have thirty thousand men
Not far from here, parbleu!
But give me first champagne:
I've a wondrous thirst, you know-
About a dozen cart-loads;
And then I'll let you go."

51. "O Lord, Lord, Lord!
We are ruined!"

52. "We will take the ready gelt."

53. "Yes, give a hundred thousand francs
'Tis all to me, you know."

54. "Ah, that will make you trouble,
Which I would not gladly see;
So follow all my counsels,
And take advice from me.
I have two thousand bottles,
The best"-

55. "From the wrath of the Northmen, deliver us, Lord!"

56. There is a German student's song which begins with this
couplet.

57. La Redoute - the gambling-room at Spa.

58. Spa is famous for painted ornamental wooden ware, such as
fans and boxes.

59. "And to him who sung this song,
God give a happy year!"

60. "If wine is better than loving,
Or if love doth much more than wine."

61. "Yes, when the flower is plucked,
And taken from the stem."

62. "What is sweeter than this drinking?
Yes - naught can better be
Naught is sweeter, though, than loving;
It tastes better than wine to me.
There's nothing like the maidens,
There's nothing like good beer,
And he who does not love them both
Can be no cavalier."

63. "The colours are not unknown to me."

64. "Ils etaient deux alors; ils sont mille aujourd'hui.
Sur ces temps primitifs le doux progres a lui,
Et chacque jour le Rhin vers Cologne charrie
De nombreux Farinas, tous 'seul, 'tous 'Jean Marie.'"
- Le Maout,"Le Parfumeur," cited by Eugene Rimmel
in Le Livre des Parfums, Paris, 1870.

65. Bierstadt - Herr Schwackenhammer had evidently here in
view, not only the American artist BIERSTADT, but also the great
city of Munich, specially famous for its manufacture of beer.

66. Rattenkonig, or Rat-king, is a term applied in German to a
droll mixture of incidents or details. It is derived from an
extraordinary story of twelve rats, with one (their king) in the
centre, which were found in a nest with their tails grown
together, firmly as the ligament which connects the Siamese
Twins.

67. "Lucifers." The first name applied in America to friction
matches, and one still used by many people.

68. Scalawag - an American word, of very doubtful origin,
signifying a low, worthless fellow.

69. "If we can in our monastery collect our rents, we do not care
a red cent for infallibility."

70. This verse is parodied from the lines of a ribald old Latin
song, "Viginti Jesuiti nuper convenere."

71. "If I could throw myself outside of, or around, a glass of
Rhenish wine." "If I could see a glass of whisky," said an
American, "I'd throw myself outside of it mighty quick." Since
writing the above, I have seen the expression thus given in a
copy of La Belle Sauvage. - Bill of the Play, London, June 27,
1870.

"Nay these natives - simple creatures-
Had resolved that for the future
Each his own canoe would paddle,
Each his own hoe-cake would gobble,
And get outside his own whisky."

72. "Deus se fecit olim homo,"&c. A very curious epigram to this
effect was placed upon "Pasquin" while the writer was in Rome,
during a past winter. It was as follows:- "Perche Eva mangio il
pomo Iddio per riscattarci si fece uomo, Ed ora il Nono Pio Per
mantenerci schiavi, si fa Dio."

73. M'Closky. An Irish adventurer, admirably depicted by Mr.
Charles Lever.

74. "Do you not see that if you are infallible, and wish to give
it out."

75. "During its life."

76. "Thou art a very puppy."

77. This was the late Charles Astor Bristed of New York, to whom
many of these ballads were addressed in letters.

78. Lines from Gudrun, each of which is freely translated by the
lines following it.

79. "Go forth, my book, through all the world,
Bear what thy fate may be!
They may bite thee, they may tear thee,
So they do no harm to me!"

80. "Pull on your boots so rough and tough,
And whet your sword beside,
We have been lazy long enough,
The road is worth the ride."

81. Schicksal, Destiny.

82. Menschheitsideal, Human Ideal.

83. A little stream in Cincinnati, beyond which lies the German
quarter, is known as the Rhine.

84. That was a dark young gypsy.

85. Ah, Rosalie, my lovely one!

86. Blood-coloured is the lovely rose.

87. Who roses picks his finger pricks
No matter what befall;
In winter-time he finds them gone
And gets no rose at all.
Our petting and caressing here,
Our joy or misery
It all shall rest sub rosa, love,
And our own secret be!

88. "Thou'rt right, my darling son."

89. "Good-bye, my friend, my Frederick!"

90. Woppenshield, coat of arms.

Here ends the Project Gutenberg edition of Charles G. Leland's "The Breitmann Ballads"

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