For a wedding in the Bach family or circle of friends (cf. G. Kraft, BJ (1956), pp. 140-154).

Poet unknown; fragmentary.

Between 18 September and 17 October 1707?, Erfurt?

NBG XXXII. 2.

...rump

(S)

What sort are these mighty castles
Floating there upon the sea

(T)
And appearing ever larger
As they nearer to us come?

(B)
Are they foe, are they friend,

(S, A, T, B)
What do they now here intend?

(S)
What must I see in the distance,
Tell me, who rides there this way?

(T)
Bears a great wheel on his shoulders,(1)
The hangman therefore must be dead!

(S, A)
Ah, how awkward doth he ride

(B, S, A, T)
There with a mourning-mantle on!

(T)
Therefore that much more urgently ought we to flee the terrestrial

(T, A)
As the more suddenly will pass away things fleeting and idle.

(S)
Who to India would set sail(2)

(A)
Hath by me a choice of ships,

(T)
I am surely no churlish sailor

(B)
For a dough-trough will do just as well.

(S, A, T, B)
Nota bene, crinklebeard, the work of Mister Tailor,

(B)
And require nor mast nor canvas

(S)
As they do round Texel isle.(3)

(S)
He's patching up my britches,

(A, S, T, B)
he's mending now my clothing.

(A)
If we the dough-trough use for boat,

(T)
Gad, we will come in for woe;

(S)
We'll fall then in the pond so chill

(S, A, T, B)
And swim about just like stockfish,(4)
'Tis meet and right!

(T)
O all my thoughts now,
Wherefore torment ye so my soul?

(S, B, A)
Dough-trough!

(T)
Wherefore would ye now waver
As long as hope shall firmly bid me stand?

(B)
Gad, see there now Salome a sour puss is making,

(S, A, T)
Just because the stable boy doth tease her with his pitchfork.

(S)
Ah, how much the servants have consumed in cheese and butter,

(A, T, B)
Were they calves the likes of thee, they'd eat as well the fodder.

(T)
If one with the spinning wheel sits on a great white stallion,

(S, A, T, B)
Gaping are the jaws of almost all the boorish peasants;

(S, A)
If one with the spinning wheel sits on a great bay chestnut,

(S, A, T, B)
Then amidst their laughter the folks almost get hiccups;

(S, A)
If one with the spinning wheel sits on a great big black horse,

(B, T)
Ah, then will the mourning mantle
 (S, A, T, B)
by no means be decent;

(S, A)

If in place of ships of war we use instead the dough-trough,

(T, S, A, B)

Ah, then will we very soon in the water like a fat pike tumble.

(S)
Great the marriage, great the pleasure,
Great the sabers, great the scabbards;

(T)
Great the judges, great the beadles,
Great the hound-dogs, great the cudgels;

(B)
Great the father, great the man-child,
Great the smart-mouths, great the cuspids;

(A)
Great the arrows, great the quivers,
Great the noses, great the nostrils;

(B)
Great the masters, great the weapons,
Great the wine casks, great the spigots;

(S)
Great the barley, great the kernels,
Great the foreheads, great the antlers;

(T)
Great the oat-grains, great the brome-grass,
Great the horses, great the hornets;

(A)
Great the vineyards, great the clusters,
Great the women, great the bonnets;

(B)
Great the bullets, great the skittles,
Great the farmers, great the scourges;

(S, A)
Great the maidens, great the garlands,
Great the jackass, great the tailpiece;

(T)
Great the laughter, great the clapping,
Great the ladies, great the chatter;
Great the knockers, great the rumble,
Great the hornets, great the droning;
Great the linens, great the bleaching,
Great the dough-troughs, great the waters.

(A)
Ah, how much hath he betrayed me, that most cunning Cypris-child.(5)

(S)
Ursula, give me a light now,
So that I can see my way!

(B)
But if thou no light wouldst give me,
Still will I find thee in the darkness.

(S, A, T, B)
Though she's grim, this little hussy,
Yet is the dough-trough still much grimmer!

(T)
Pantagruel was a most comical man,
And many'a courtly servant doth sport blue stockings now,

(S)
And if one were for these greenhorns(6) to tan the hide,
A lot of folks would be naked in many'a princely house.

(A)
If he could count in ducats the many scratches' toll,
Then were indeed our neighbor a millionaire and more.

(B)
My back remains yet strong, I cannot make objection.

(A, T, S)
Thou couldest, I should think, well carry twenty bundles.

(B)
He must a silly jackass be
Who'd rather drink near-bear than wine
And in a chilly tavern sweat
And not a ship but dough-trough take!

(S, A, T, B)
Point made!

(T)
The young master Johann(7) summoned to the Rector the Magnificent in the afternoon at the second hour in re the maiden in the Golden Crown.

(A)
Now students are most jolly, as ye all well know,
As long as one single farthing remains within the purse.

(S)
Were the gallows magnetic, the tailor iron,
How many would before day's end to the gallows travel!

(T)

Were I King now in Portugal, why then should I care,
Let someone else tip over the dough-trough in the brook,

(A)
O good day, Mister Skinner(8), hast thou no foxes more?

(T)
I have sold them all off to court now, my most esteemed good sir.

(B)
And I beheld a maiden, she was so fine and proud,

(S)
Although she had at Urben's not even one shirt on!

(T)
Many paid her honor with gallant tongue

(A, B, S)
While thinking in his bosom like Goldsmith's kid.(9)

(T)
In this one year have we now seen the sun in two eclipses,

(B)

And in Breslau in the beer hall they provide good "sheep."(10)

(A, T)
And within my coin purse doth rule consumption, the crab.

(S, B)
Have ye heard, sirs, one and all,
What hath occurred there in Austria,

(A, B)
Have ye heard, really now,
What hath occurred there in Brabant,

(S, A, T, B)
For there hath given birth some ancient dame
To a little pig!(11)

(S, A)
Be cordially invited
To the banquet!

(S, A, T, B)
Oh, what is that which sounds so fine and fugal?

1. The spinning wheel is the symbol of the marriage-dowry.

2. G. Kraft, BJ (1956), has discovered that a number of Thuringian musicians in Bach's general circle had migrated to the East Indies through Holland.

3. Texel is an island off the Zuidersee.

4. Stockfish = blockhead.

5. Amor, the son of Cyprus-born Venus.

6. Literally, "foxes." Cf. note 8. 7.

7. Kraft, pp. 151-153, suggests that Johann is the organist Johannes Avenarius (1687-1744), who would have been a student at the University of Erfurt in 1707.

8. Max Schneider, the editor of NBG XXXII, 2, suggests that Meister Kürschner 'Mr. Furrier' is Johann Andreas Wiegand, a tailor in Erfurt. He is the husband of Bach's sister Salome (who makes a sour face at the wedding party above).

9. "Goldsmith's kid" was apparently a rogue.

10. According to Schneider Schöps 'sheep' is still a specialty beer at the Rathaus Keller in Breslau.

11. Schneider explains that the deliberately offensive parallel octaves between the soprano and bass make what was called in musical jargon a Sau.

© Copyright Z. Philip Ambrose

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