Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cuckoo, Cuckoo: Seeing, Hearing, and Singing the Fool in Thomas Murner’s Die Geuchmat

  • Published:
Neophilologus Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This essay explores how the Franciscan monk Thomas Murner, in his sixteenth century satire Die Geuchmat, concretizes the metaphor of the cuckoo as fool. Paying particular attention to the verb “gucken” and its auditory and visual meanings, the paper suggests that Murner’s work elides the distinction between symbol and symbolized. In addition to the linguistic play of the text, several of the accompanying woodcuts in the 1519 edition also attempt to merge the avian with the human cuckoo, thus reinforcing the concretization of the metaphor of cuckoo as fool. Parallel to the focus on the fool in the text and woodcuts, this paper also considers the ways in which Murner thematizes the problem of the extra-textual fool’s self-recognition, that is to say, how the reader is made to recognize his own foolishness. The various ways in which Die Geuchmat emphasizes and exploits the metaphor of cuckoo as fool ultimately provide a thematic unity to a work which has previously been seen as lacking coherence. Largely ignored by modern scholarship, Die Geuchmat is a rich and fertile work that offers a sophisticated interplay of the sensory experiences of sight and sound, ultimately mirroring the fool in text, picture, and music.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. It was printed on April 5, 1519 (“A1”); differences in a second copy (A2) printed on the same day are listed in Eduard Fuchs’s introduction to his edition (1931: lxxxviii–xc). In Frankfurt am Main in 1565, another edition, “B,” was printed by Sigmund Feyerabend and Simon Hüter. For a description of this edition, see Fuchs (1931: xc–xcv). Fuchs also provides an extensive introduction to Die Geuchmat, including previous scholarship (1931: vii–cii). All quotations and line numbers in this paper refer to Fuchs’s edition; translations are my own. For an overview of the scholarly fate of Murner’s works, see Dollinger (1987). Murner was an outspoken critic of Luther and later Zwingli, a stance which Dollinger asserts contributed to the fate of his works among Protestant scholars.

  2. The Bavarian State Library has digitized a copy of Murner’s Die Geuchmat. München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Rar. 1791. http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0002/bsb00025698/images/index.html?seite=1&fip=193.174.98.30.

  3. The fools in the text are male, and given the subject matter—men who have made fools of themselves—assuming the targeted reader is male seems appropriate.

  4. The Latin text and a German translation of the letter are available in Fuchs (1924: 86–88).

  5. “Disz bůch, ir Baszler, merckt mich eben,/Das hab ich üch zů letzen geben.” (lines 5418–19). For more details on additions see Fuchs (1924: 89–92). The edition uses superscript vowels, which I have replicated in my quotations. I have resolved abbreviations in the text for “n” or “m.”

  6. Koegler attributes four to Ambrosius Holbein: Venus (Prologue and Chapter 4), Chancellor (2), Lament of Female Modesty (3) and Most Noble Gauch (47), and suggests that perhaps “Sich für ein gouch anschriben lassen,” (46) is based on a Holbein sketch (1926: 133). “C.A.” refers to Conrad Appadecker or Apotheker (“Pharmacist”), a painter who had moved in 1519 from Constance to Basel; he was later often known as Conrad Schnit(t) (Falk 1987:126). On Conrad Schnit(t) see also Hieronymous (2011). Stumm (1908) has shown that C. A. used Niklaus Manuel Deutsch’s woodcut series “Kluge und Törichte Jungfrauen” (1518) as models for his female figures and suggests that the woodcut for Chapter 47, “der adelichest gouch uff erden,” was Manuel’s work.

  7. This is not the place to explore whether or not Murner was involved in the design of these woodcuts, but Murner’s artistic endeavors are explored by Falk (1987) and Heger (1997).

  8. Fuchs sees the Geuchmat as marking the end of the Minne allegory genre: “Diese [Die Geuchmat] ist ein letzter Ausläufer und durch ihre satirische Behandlung der Garaus der Minneallegorien, die im deutschen Schrifttum mit Hartmanns von Aue ‘Büchlein’ beginnen, im 14. Jahrhundert in der ‘Jagd’ Hadamars von Laber und anderen Dichtungen fortleben und dem 15. und 16. Jahrhundert besonders durch Hermanns von Sachsenheim ‘Mörin’ und das ‘Abenteuer vom Spiegel’ vertraut bleiben.” (1931: xxiv).

  9. This story is found in the first-century BCE work of Diodorus Siculus (1933: 417–419).

  10. Die Geuchmat, lines 3958–3987. The relationship with the horse is suggested in the following: “Ein wysz rosz liesz ich nach mir fieren,/Das ich mit golt liesz all zyt zieren;/Mit dem ich ouch zů schaffen hatt:/Darumb hab ich die funffte [she is the 5th in the series of seven bad women] statt!” (lines 3984–3987). There is a great diversity in the stories of Semiramis. In many medieval ones, she gains the throne not by incarcerating her husband, but rather by disguising herself as her son upon her royal spouse’s death. See Beringer (2016).

  11. “Doch het ich nit gegucket ouch,/So wer ich doch ietz hie kein gouch.”

  12. “Also wurdt yedem gouch geschehen,/Der syn huszfrouw můsz herschen sehen!”

  13. Prose passages usually occur when the author makes a list. In addition to the above example, the twelve articles in Chapter 48, which discuss the necessity of the fool wearing clean undergarments (“rein hempt,” line 4518)—and how to pretend the clothing is clean—are in prose, as are the nine articles in Chapter 57, which instruct how to treat fools: they should be left alone to act as they please. These nine articles are introduced by a brief prose paragraph in which the Chancellor reminds his readers and listeners of his identity and the purpose of the articles. Chapter 47, “Der adelichest gouch uff erden,” is subdivided into sections describing the deeds of this most noble cuckoo. Two of these sections include prose.

  14. Chapter 5 begins with two rhymed couplets (lines 652–655), but then switches to prose. Each sub-section is marked by a letter of the alphabet (a–y).

  15. “…Murner … beschenkte die Basler mit seiner 1514 in Strassburg gedichteten ‘Gäuchmatt’, einer gut angelegten, aber nicht durchgearbeiteten Satire über die Weiberdiener ….” (von Liebenau 1913: 86).

  16. “Über die groszen Mängel der Dichtung ist sich der Herausgeber am wenigsten im Unklaren. Vor allem ist die Idee nicht einheitlich durchgeführt; aber wann hätte Murner das jemals gethan?” (1896: 4).

  17. Fuchs also cites Uhl’s words, and asserts that the contemporary scholarly consensus deems the structure of the Geuchmat “the most ephemeral and most frivolous” (“flüchtigste und zerfahrenste dichtung”) of Murner’s works. (1926: 419).

  18. “Die geuch ein schlechtlichs liedlin handt,/Darff weder basz noch ein discant;/Wenn er nur ‘guck, guck’ singen kan,/Für einen gouch nym ich in an.” “Gucken” also occurs in the “Vorred” as well, but as this was added, I start with the original beginning.

  19. “Als Helena ir locken dadt,/Zů Troy Paris das gehoͤret hadt,” lines 790–791.

  20. “Pfifft sy: ‘guck, guck, henszly kum!’ (line 799).

  21. “So bald guckt er ir wider umb/und laszt vom gucken nümer ab,/Bisz er syn kumpt an bettelstab.” (lines 800–802).

  22. “Wenn er dann sitzt in maiestadt,/Als in die schon gesetzet hatt,/So kent er sich dann selber nym,/Verendret bald syn menschlich stym/Und gucket mit den andren geuchen ….” (lines 1768–1772).

  23. This story is recorded in Chapter 101 of Boccaccio’s de mulieribus claris (2001: 436–441).

  24. “In allen sachen dett ich wol,/Wie ein babst regieren sol,/Bisz ich verfelt in Venus dingen/Und liesz den oͤden gouch mir singen./Das gesang gfiel mir so usz der mosz,/Das unserem babst der buch wardt grosz …”.

  25. “Myn Cardinaͤl das selbig thetten,/Die leyder mit mir gucket hetten. … Bischoff, Cardinaͤl, Prelaten,/Die all mit mir gegucket haten” (lines 2118–25).

  26. Raabe (1990) in her study of Thomas Murner’s vocabulary gives as the second meaning for “gucken” “(fig.), to behave like a Gauch.”

  27. “Do was es nüt den ‘guck!’ alleyn!/‘Guck, guck!’ har und ‘guck, guck!’ hyn/Es ist ein schlecht gesang gesyn./Nit destermynder, do ichs hort,/Von dissem gsang ich bald das lort,/Das ich mym wyb der red geloubt:/Darumb hatt got uns beyd beroubt/Des grossen lusts im paradisz” (lines 2304–2312).

  28. “Ach gott, ich was der sach nit wysz;/Ich meynt nit, das die wyber liegen/kündten und uns man betriegen!/Ich gloubt ir alles, das sy seyt;/Das brocht uns allen hertzen leyt./Solt ich das yemer gloubet han,/Das unser gouch ouch gucken kan/In dem paradisz besunder?/Das ist ein grusam grosses wunder,/Das ich im paradisz find ouch/Singen unseren lieben gouch!” (lines 2313–2323).

  29. Misled by the bird’s pose, Uhl misidentifies it as a dove (Uhl 1896: 96).

  30. The woodcuts for Chapters 29 and 30, accompanying the stories of Ninus and Semiramis, and Moses and the Queen of the Moors, have no cuckoo. This may have a practical reason; for example, perhaps the woodcuts are being re-used from a different context.

  31. “Wir geuch handt nit all ein geschrey,/Darumb lockt man unsz mancherley;/Wie wol manch gouch har zů unsz stadt,/Ee das man im gelocket hatt” (lines 780–783).

  32. “Es darff nit lockens vill eym man,/Der sunst des gucks sich kan verstan;/Ir wyber syndt offt schuldig dran./Wenn ir üwers lockens schwigen/Und liessendt üwer gucken lygen,/So blyb manch man by gůt und eren;/Lieszt ir nit üwer gucken hoͤren” (lines 828–834).

  33. “Guckstu mir mit dynen brüsten,/Ich wider guck mit mynen gelüsten” (lines 850–851). To entice (“locken, reizen”) is the third meaning offered by Raabe (1990).

  34. “Es ist eyn bsunderlicher list,/Geuch zů fohen syn gerist;/Man foht ir glich so vill mit blicken/Alsz mit iagen, garn und stricken” (lines 904–907). The verb of the chapter title, “fohen,” invites ambiguity, as it is used for both people and animals. Grimm and Grimm (1854–1961: s. v. “fahen”).

  35. Lindner (1959: vol. 1: 27–43) in his work on German hunting tracts discusses “kloben” (“chloben”) extensively and includes several manuscript illustrations.

  36. “Für lieb macht sy im esels oren./Das geschahe, do menschen esel woren;/Jetz so sy aber geuch sindt worden,/So ist es wyt ein ander orden” (lines 916–919).

  37. “An mynem seyl ich draffter yeich/Vil narren/affen/esel geüch/Die ich verfür betrüg vnd leych” (Brant 1962: caption over the woodcut of “Von Buolschaft,” Chapter 13). “Ich züch zů mir der narren vil/Vnd mach ein gouch vß wem ich wil” (lines 3–4). Andersson (2014) explores this iconography in greater detail, also referring to Murner’s Geuchmat. The text (based on the 1962 edition by M. Lemmer) and woodcuts of Das Narrenschiff are available at http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/germanica/Chronologie/15Jh/Brant/bra_n000.html.

  38. “Das sindt ietzundt der wyber sachen,/Wie sy ir lieb gewynlich machen/Und handt betracht so manchen fundt,/Wie der gouch umb syn fedren kumpt,/Das ichs nit als erzelen mag,/Het ich dar zů drytusendt tag!” (lines 1010–1015).

  39. The cord (of the sword handle?) appears to be unravelling, further emphasizing the loss of the man’s power.

  40. “Wer yeman der die gschrifft veracht/Oder villicht die nit künd lesen/Der siecht jm molen wol syn wesen/Vnd fyndet dar jnn/wer er ist/Wem er glich sy/was jm gebrist/Den narren spiegel ich diß nenn/In dem ein yeder narr sich kenn” Brant (1962: lines 26–32).

  41. On books as mirrors in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern, see Wenzel (2009: 80–81).

  42. The men are gathered on the meadow: “Sol ich nun jetz die mat beschriben,/Und uff die selb zů samen triben/Alle gredtschen, wibschen man,/Die sich die wiber aͤffen lan … (lines 155–158).

  43. “Ich strafft sy vormals mit vernunfft … Noch deten sy uff schand verharren,/Bisz ich beschwůr die selben narren” (lines 78–81).

  44. “Ich můsz sy straffen, wie sy wellen,/Und nit, wie es mir thůt gefellen;/Solt ichs straffen nach myn syn:/Ich schluͤg by got mit füsten dryn!” (lines 5266–5269).

  45. “Jederman ein gouch sich syn leuckt,/Bisz das sy es jm im spiegel zeugt;/So bald er dann sicht synes glich,/Dann leugkt er nüm so heffteglich” (lines 1409–1412).

  46. “Darumb verwundren sol sich nieman,/Ob schon ein wybs bild das ouch kan,/Das sy ein gouch lernt ‘guck, guck!’ singen …” (lines 1540–1542).

  47. “.. ‘kum, gouch, hie guck du mir!’” (line 1549).

  48. “Als sy den spiegel im hielt für/Und sprach: ‘kum gouch, hie guck du mir!’/Das selbig wort ‘guck’ das sy sprach,/Do er den gouch im spiegel sach,/Das kan er nymmer verdouwen,/Das hatt er gehoͤrt von eyner frouwen/Und gucket noch kein ander gsang;/Ein mal zů kurtz, das ander lang./Wo er das ‘guck, guck!’ unterladt,/Do focht ers wider an uff stadt./Es ist nüt nuws, das sy uns zwingen,/Zů nachtes uff der gassen singen …. Kein gouch mag syn gesang verschwigen,/Er můsz das uͤben tag und nacht” (lines 1548–1562).

  49. “Welch im feld geuch fahen wellen,/Die muͤssendt geuch zů locken stellen./Darumb das ich wol locken kan,/Handt sy mich gestellet vornan dran….Het ich mich in der heiligen gschrifft,/Und was min orden antrifft,/So vil geuͤbt als geuchmats tandt,/Man geb mir nit den ersten standt …” (lines 218–230).

  50. In discussing a drawing contained in a collection of Murner’s astrological and astronomical texts (London, British Library, Codex Add. 17.340), Heger posits that the drawing is the source for this woodcut of the Geuchmat, and observes that both drawing and woodcut show the figure’s right leg stretched forward rather awkwardly. Heger sees in this a realistic depiction of Murner’s own lame leg, the result of a childhood illness (at the time considered an act of witchcraft), and suggests this detail can serve as evidence supporting the identification of drawing and woodcut as self-portraits (1997).

  51. Quoted in footnote 40 above.

References

  • Andersson, C. (2014). Niklaus Manuel and Urs Graf: Cuckolds, impotence and sex workers in Swiss Renaissance art (c. 1510–1517). In S. F. Matthews-Grieco (Ed.), Cuckoldry, impotence and adultery in Europe (15th–17th century) (pp. 183–214). Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

  • Beringer, A. L. (2016). The Sight of Semiramis: Medieval and early modern narratives of the Babylonian queen. Tempe: Arizona State University Press.

  • Boccaccio, G. (2001). In V. Brown (Ed.), De mulieribus claris (1360/1361) [Famous Women]. (V. Brown, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Brant, S. (1962). In M. Lemmer (Ed.), Das Narrenschiff (1494). Tübingen: Niemeyer. http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/germanica/Chronologie/15Jh/Brant/bra_n000.html. Accessed June 20, 2015.

  • Cocker, M., & Tipling, D. (2013). Birds & people. London: Jonathan Cape.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diodorus Siculus (1933). Library of history (C. H. Oldfather, Trans.). The Loeb Classical Library 279. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Dollinger, P. (1987). Das Leben Thomas Murners (W. Schulz and U. Weber, Trans.). In Thomas Murner. Elsässicher Theologe, 1475–1537: Eine Ausstellung der Badischen Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe und der Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg (pp. 21–34). Karlsruhe: Badenia Verlag & Druckerei.

  • Falk, T. (1987). Die Illustrationen zu Murners Sabellicus-Übersetzung. In Thomas Murner. Elsässicher Theologe, 1475–1537: Eine Ausstellung der Badischen Landesbibliothek Karlsruhe und der Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg (pp. 112–129). Karlsruhe: Badenia Verlag & Druckerei.

  • Fuchs, E. (1924). Zur Geschichte der Geuchmat Thomas Murners. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 1, 86–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, E. (1926). Die Komposition der Geuchmat Thomas Murners. Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie, 50, 419–429.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuchs, E. (Ed.). (1931). Editor’s introduction. In Thomas Murners deutsche Schriften. Bd.5: Die Geuchmat. Berlin: de Gruyter.

  • Grimm, J., & Grimm, W. (1854–1961). Deutsches Wörterbuch. Leipzig: Hirzel. http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/. Accessed June 20, 2015.

  • Heger, H. (1997). Der Meister der Murner-Zeichnungen. In N. Bachleitner, A. Noe, & H.-G. Roloff (Eds.), Beiträge zu Komparatistik und Sozialgeschichte der Literatur. Festschrift für Alberto Martino (pp. 529–545). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

  • Hieronymous, F. (2011). Conrad Schnitt. In Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz.Version vom 24.08.2011. http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/index.php. Accessed 20 June 2015.

  • Koegler, H. (1926). Druck und Illustration der Thomas Murner’schen Gäuchmatt, Basel bei Adam Petri 1519. Basler Bücherfreund, 2, 131–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindner, K. (1959). Deutsche Jagdtraktate des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: de Gruyter.

  • Murner, T. (1931). Die Geuchmat (1519). In E. Fuchs (Ed.), Thomas Murners deutsche Schriften. Bd.5. Berlin: de Gruyter.

  • Raabe, S. (1990). Der Wortschatz in den deutschen Schriften Thomas Murners Bd. 2: Wörterbuch. Berlin: de Gruyter.

  • Stumm, L. (1908). Ein Nachahmer Niklaus Manuels. Anzeiger für schweizerische Altertumskunde, Neue Folge, 10(4), 326–331.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uhl, W. (Ed.). (1896). Editor’s introduction. In Thomas Murner. Die Gäuchmatt (Basel 1519). Leipzig: Teubner.

  • Von Liebenau, T. (1913). Der Franziskaner Dr. Thomas Murner. Freiburg i. B.: Herder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenzel, H. (2009). Spiegelungen: Zur Kultur der Visualität im Mittelalter. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Classics and Humanities, Dickson Hall 151, Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave., Montclair, NJ, 07043, USA

    Alison L. Beringer

Authors
  1. Alison L. Beringer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alison L. Beringer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Beringer, A.L. Cuckoo, Cuckoo: Seeing, Hearing, and Singing the Fool in Thomas Murner’s Die Geuchmat . Neophilologus 100, 419–433 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-016-9475-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-016-9475-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation