Part 39

From a line in his poem saying that the Narrenschiff was to be found in the neighborhood of Aix, it is supposed that Brandt received his idea from an old chronicle which describes a ship built near Aix-la-Chapelle in the twelfth century, and which was borne through the country as the centre-piece for a carnival, and followed by a suite of men and women dressed in gay costume, singing and dancing to the sound of instruments. The old monk calls it "pagan worship," and denounces it severely; but Brandt saw great possibilities in it for pointing a moral, according to the fashion of his time. The illustrations contributed not a little to the popularity of the book, for he put all his humor into the pictures and all his sermons and exhortations into his text.

Just as Brandt in his literary qualities has been compared to Rabelais, so his satirical pencil has been likened to Hogarth's. Boldness, drollery, dramatic spirit, force, and spontaneous satire characterize both artists. He does not mount a pulpit and speak to the erring masses with sanctimonious self-righteousness; but he enters the Ship himself to lead the babbling folk in motley to the land of wisdom. His own folly is that of the student, and he therefore begins caricaturing himself.

To open the 'Ship of Fools' is to witness a masquerade of the fifteenth century. The frontispiece shows a large galley with high poop and prow and disordered rigging. Confusion reigns. Every one wears the livery of Folly,--the fantastic hood with two peaks like asses' ears, and decorated with tiny jingling bells. One man on the prow gesticulates wildly to a little boat, and cries to the passengers, "Zu schyff, zu schyff, brüder: ess gat, ess gat!" (On board, on board, brothers; it goes, it goes!)

In these pages every type of society is seen, "from beardless youth to crooked age," as the author asserts. Men and women of all classes and conditions, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned: ladies in long trains and furred gowns; knights with long peaked shoes, carrying falcons upon their wrists; cooks and butlers busy in the kitchen; women gazing into mirrors; monks preaching in pulpits; merchants selling goods; gluttons at the table; drunkards in the tavern; alchemists in their laboratories; gamesters playing cards and rattling dice; lovers in shady groves--all and each wear Folly's cap and bells.

Another class of fools is seen engaged in ridiculous occupations, such as pouring water into wells; bearing the world on their shoulders; measuring the globe; or weighing heaven and earth in the balance. Still others despoil their fellows. Wine merchants introducing salt-petre, bones, mustard, and sulphur into barrels, the horse-dealer padding the foot of a lame horse, men selling inferior skins for good fur, and other cheats with false weights, short measure, and light money, prove that the vices of the modern age are not novelties. Other allegorical pictures and verses describe the mutability of fortune, where a wheel, guided by a gigantic hand outstretched from the sky, is adorned with three asses, wearing of course the cap and bells.

The best German editions of this book are by Zarneke (Leipsic, 1854), and Goedecke (1872). It was translated into Latin by Locker in 1497, into English by Henry Watson as 'The Grete Shyppe of Fooles of the Worlde' (1517); and by Alexander Barclay in 1509. The best edition of Barclay's adaptation, from which the extracts below are drawn, was published by T.H. Jamieson (Edinburgh, 1874).

THE UNIVERSAL SHYP

Come to, Companyons: ren: tyme it is to rowe: Our Carake fletis[6]: the se is large and wyde And depe Inough: a pleasaunt wynde doth blowe. Prolonge no tyme, our Carake doth you byde, Our felawes tary for you on every syde. Hast hyther, I say, ye folys[7] naturall, Howe oft shall I you unto my Navy call?

Ye have one confort, ye shall nat be alone: Your company almoste is infynyte; For nowe alyve ar men but fewe or none That of my shyp can red hym selfe out quyte[8]. A fole in felawes hath pleasour and delyte. Here can none want, for our proclamacion Extendyth farre: and to many a straunge nacyon.

Both yonge and olde, pore man, and estate: The folysshe moder: hir doughter by hir syde, Ren to our Navy, ferynge to come to[o] late. No maner of degre is in the worlde wyde, But that for all theyr statelynes and pryde As many as from the way of wysdome tryp Shall have a rowme and place within my shyp.

My folysshe felawes therfore I you exort Hast to our Navy, for tyme it is to rowe: Nowe must we leve eche sympyll[9] haven and porte, And sayle to that londe where folys abound and flow; For whether we aryve at London or Bristowe, Or any other Haven within this our londe, We folys ynowe[10] shall fynde alway at honde....

Our frayle bodyes wandreth in care and payne And lyke to botes troubled with tempest sore From rocke to rocke cast in this se mundayne, Before our iyen beholde we ever more The deth of them that passed are before. Alas mysfortune us causeth oft to rue Whan to vayne thoughtis our bodyes we subdue.

We wander in more dout than mortall man can thynke. And oft by our foly and wylfull neglygence Our shyp is in great peryll for to synke. So sore ar we overcharged with offence We see the daunger before our owne presence Of straytis, rockis, and bankis of sonde full hye, Yet we procede to wylfull jeopardye.

We dyvers Monsters within the se beholde Redy to abuse or to devour mankynde, As Dolphyns, whallys, and wonders many folde, And oft the Marmaydes songe dullyth our mynde That to all goodnes we ar made dull and blynde; The wolves of these oft do us moche care, Yet we of them can never well beware....

About we wander in tempest and Tourment; What place is sure, where Foles may remayne And fyx theyr dwellynge sure and parmanent? None certainly: The cause thereof is playne. We wander in the se for pleasour, bydynge payne, And though the haven of helth be in our syght Alas we fle from it with all our myght.

[Footnote 6: Floats.]

[Footnote 7: Fools.]

[Footnote 8: Quite rid himself of.]

[Footnote 9: Single.]

[Footnote 10: Enough.]

OF HYM THAT TOGYDER WYLL SERVE TWO MAYSTERS

A fole he is and voyde of reason Whiche with one hounde tendyth to take Two harys in one instant and season; Rightso is he that wolde undertake Hym to two lordes a servaunt to make; For whether that he be lefe or lothe, The one he shall displease, or els bothe.

A fole also he is withouten doute, And in his porpose sothly blyndyd sore, Which doth entende labour or go aboute To serve god, and also his wretchyd store Of worldly ryches: for as I sayde before, He that togyder will two maysters serve Shall one displease and nat his love deserve.

For he that with one hounde wol take also Two harys togyther in one instant For the moste parte doth the both two forgo, And if he one have: harde it is and skant And that blynd fole mad and ignorant That draweth thre boltis atons[11] in one bowe At one marke shall shote to[o] high or to[o] lowe....

He that his mynde settyth god truly to serve And his sayntes: this worlde settynge at nought Shall for rewarde everlastynge joy deserve, But in this worlde he that settyth his thought All men to please, and in favour to be brought Must lout and lurke, flater, laude, and lye: And cloke in knavys counseyll, though it fals be.

If any do hym wronge or injury He must it suffer and pacyently endure A double tunge with wordes like hony; And of his offycis if he wyll be sure He must be sober and colde of his langage, More to a knave, than to one of hye lynage.

Oft must he stoupe his bonet in his honde, His maysters back he must oft shrape and clawe, His brest anoyntynge, his mynde to understonde, But be it gode or bad therafter must he drawe. Without he can Jest he is nat worth a strawe, But in the mean tyme beware that he none checke; For than layth malyce a mylstone in his necke.

He that in court wyll love and favour have A fole must hym fayne, if he were none afore, And be as felow to every boy and knave, And to please his lorde he must styll laboure sore. His many folde charge maketh hym coveyt more That he had lever[12] serve a man in myserye Than serve his maker in tranquylyte.

But yet when he hath done his dylygence His lorde to serve, as I before have sayde, For one small faute or neglygent offence Suche a displeasoure agaynst hym may be layde That out is he cast bare and unpurvayde[13], Whether he be gentyll, yeman[14] grome or page; Thus worldly servyse is no sure herytage.

Wherfore I may prove by these examples playne That it is better more godly and plesant To leve this mondayne casualte and payne And to thy maker one god to be servaunt, Which whyle thou lyvest shall nat let the want That thou desyrest justly, for thy syrvyce, And than after gyve the, the joyes of Paradyse.

[Footnote 11: Three bolts at once.]

[Footnote 12: Rather.]

[Footnote 13: Unprovided.]

[Footnote 14: Yeoman.]

OF TO[O] MOCHE SPEKYNGE OR BABLYNGE

He that his tunge can temper and refrayne And asswage the foly of hasty langage Shall kepe his mynde from trouble, sadnes and payne, And fynde therby great ease and avauntage; Where as a hasty speker falleth in great domage Peryll and losse, in lyke wyse as the pye Betrays hir byrdes by hir chatrynge and crye....

Is it not better for one his tunge to kepe Where as he myght (perchaunce) with honestee, Than wordes to speke whiche make hym after wepe For great losse folowynge wo and adversyte? A worde ones spokyn revoked can not be, Therfore thy fynger lay before thy types, For a wyse mannys tunge without advysement trypes.

He that wyll answere of his owne folysshe brayne Before that any requyreth his counsayle Shewith him selfe and his hasty foly playne, Wherby men knowe his wordes of none avayle. Some have delyted in mad blaborynge and frayle Whiche after have supped bytter punysshement For their wordes spoken without advysement....

Many have ben whiche sholde have be counted wyse Sad and discrete, and right well sene[15] in scyence; But all they have defyled with this one vyse Of moche spekynge: o cursyd synne and offence Ryte it is that so great inconvenience So great shame, contempt rebuke and vylany Sholde by one small member came to the hole body.

Let suche take example by the chatrynge pye, Whiche doth hyr nest and byrdes also betraye By hyr grete chatterynge, clamoure dyn and crye, Ryght so these folys theyr owne foly bewraye. But touchynge wymen of them I wyll nought say, They can not speke, but ar as coy and styll As the horle wynde or clapper of a mylle.

[Footnote 15: Well seen--well versed.]

End of Volume V.