The Wandering Scholar from Paradise by Hans Sachs

First produced:Der fahrende Schüler im Paradies, 1550; first published, 1880 (English translation, 1910)

Type of work: Drama

Type of plot: Farce

Time of plot: Sixteenth century

Locale: Nuremberg, Germany

Principal characters

• The Farmer, a crude peasant
• His Wife, an ignorant, dreaming housewife
• The Student, a quick-witted young man, more adventurer than scholar

The Story:

A Nuremberg woman claims to all and sundry that her deceased first husband is still her true love. She dismisses her second husband as being no lover at all and describes him as scrimpy, mean, and sour of disposition. One day, while she is voicing her complaints, the wandering Student comes by, doffs his hat in a polite gesture, and begs for alms. Rightly guessing that boasts about his successes in Paris will impress the woman, he immediately uses the advantage it gives him when the Wife misunderstands him to say that he has come from Paradise.

The Wife’s mind is still lost in dreams of her first husband when she asks the Student if he knows the departed one. The Student allows that he does not, but he thinks that on his return to Paradise the acquaintance can perhaps be effected. The Student goes on to tell her how ill-clothed, ill-fed, and completely destitute her late husband is, whereupon the Wife accepts his offer to take gifts back to her husband.

As the Student prepares to leave, the Wife inquires when he might come again to bring word of her first love. He assures her that the road is long and difficult and that he will not be likely to pass her way again. Without delay and with a minimum of ceremony, the Student takes her gifts and strides off—and none too soon, for the Farmer appears just as the young man is taking his departure.

The Wife continues to sing the love song that she had been singing just before meeting the Student, but now, as her husband notices, she sings happily. Naïvely, she tells him of the visitor who has brought her happiness and of her having sent gifts to her first love. Craftily concealing his anger at her simplicity, the Farmer sarcastically orders her to prepare more gifts that he might take them to the Student as additional presents to the man who, though dead, retains her devotion. Then, laden with the gifts, he goes off in search of the Student.

In a rough slough the Student is stuffing his booty into bushes when he hears the Farmer approaching. With cunning and a veil of innocent helpfulness, he directs the Farmer deeper into the furze, where he claims the culprit is hiding. He also offers to help the Farmer by holding his horse while he goes on his search. When the Farmer is out of sight, the Student rides off on the horse, with the Farmer’s and the Wife’s contributions across the saddle. Meanwhile, the Farmer stumbles through the slough, getting muddier and more scratched with each step in his vain effort to find the offending traveler from Paradise.

At their cottage, the Wife is peering into the distance for some sign of the Farmer. Her chief concern is that her husband might be lost in the mist on the moor and unable to overtake the Student to add to her gifts. Her doubts vanish when she sees the Farmer trudging in slowly and wearily, hoping against hope that his horse has come home on its own. Not seeing the animal, he accepts the fact that he has been duped. What can he do or say to the Wife—the stupid one, the gullible one—whom he had intended to beat for giving away a few farthings and some worn-out clothes? She is indeed a lesser fool than he, who has lost his swiftest horse.

Stirred to activity in an effort to ease her husband’s anger, the Wife carries in the milk pails and asks about the success of his search. The Farmer mumbles a halting explanation of his altruism; he decided, he says, to make a gift of his horse to the Student, since the young man was tired and had far to go. The Wife is overwhelmed by her husband’s unexpected kindness. For his thoughtfulness in behalf of her first husband, she promises that were he to die that night, she would send him all manner of presents in Paradise. Such a generous husband should have the goodwill of his neighbors, she declares, and she proceeds to circulate the story of her husband’s generosity throughout the parish. The angry Farmer decides that it is bad enough to be burdened with such a fool of a wife; it is unbearable to think that his neighbors consider him the same kind of fool. The moral is that if married people are to get along, they must cover for each other’s weaknesses and not let others see the flaws in their bonds of wedlock.

Bibliography

Aylett, Robert, and Peter Skrine, eds. Hans Sachs and Folk Theatre in the Late Middle Ages: Studies in the History of Popular Culture. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995. Collection of essays presents analysis of Sachs’s theater works, including discussions of comedy, satire, realism, and victim heroines in his plays. Also included are essays comparing Sachs and Giovanni Boccaccio and addressing word formation in works by Sachs and his contemporaries.

Garland, H. B. “The Sixteenth Century.” In A Concise Survey of German Literature. Coral Gables, Fla.: University of Miami Press, 1971. Places Sachs in the context of the contemporary Protestant burghers of Nuremberg and Augsburg and discusses the prominence given the poet by Richard Wagner’s opera. Claims that Sachs’s influence has less to do with his writing than with Wagner’s famous portrayal.

Liptzin, Sol. “Early German Literature.” In Historical Survey of German Literature. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1936. Discusses the Meistersinger guilds of sixteenth century Germany and points out Sachs’s mastery in such Shrovetide plays as The Wandering Scholar from Paradise.

Merkel, Ingrid. “Literature of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century.” In The Challenge of German Literature, edited by Horst S. Daemmrich and Dieter H. Haenicke. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1971. Discusses Sachs’s regeneration of the Shrovetide play, claiming that his structure, lively dialogue, and realistic characterizations might have laid the groundwork for German comedy but that he had no successors.

Robertson, J. G., and Dorothy Reich. “The Drama in the Sixteenth Century.” In A History of German Literature, edited by Dorothy Reich with W. I. Lucas et al. 6th ed. Elmsford, N.Y.: London House and Maxwell, 1970. Asserts that Sachs was the most prolific humanist dramatist and created new forms. Concludes that The Wandering Scholar from Paradise is one of the best extant Shrovetide plays.

Rose, Ernest. “The Parabolic and Didactic Style: Middle Class Literature.” In A History of German Literature. New York: New York University Press, 1960. Discusses the strengths and limitations of Sachs’s verse and dramas, and concedes that his Shrovetide plays were lively and amusing to contemporary audiences and are similarly well received by modern audiences.