1 - Chapbooks — Popular Texts for a Large Audience

Summary

CHAPBOOKS, “SCHWÄNKE” OR “Schwanksammlungen,” were immensely popular and relatively inexpensive publications in the vernacular that were often reprinted over and over again in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. In no way a new genre, it seems that the compilations of often humorous short stories of the kind that were found in Germany in the sixteenth century — starting with Johannes Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst in 1522 — have certain characteristics in common. They have often been accused of crudeness and lack of stylistic elegance, as well as stereotypical and prejudiced portrayals of different occupations and social groups, and a rather extreme misogyny. It is nevertheless dangerous to exaggerate the similarities of these texts; the stories vary in length, language, and style, as well as in their use of stereotypes. Hence, it is impossible to find the typical “Schwank,” a text that can be regarded as representative for all texts included in the compilations, especially since texts defined as “Schwänke” are normally of different origin. They are often based on the learned Latin facetiae but they can also be translations from French or Italian into German, or they might originate in the oral tradition. They sometimes present current topics and events or sensational occurrences that were likely to attract a large readership. It is, however, not my intention to once more try to find a definition for texts as different as the ones found in the “Schwanksammlungen.” I agree rather with Peter C. M. Dieckow that the word “Prosaerzählsammlungen,” used in analogy with the term “Prosaromane,” is a better term for these very heterogenic texts. The expression “Prosaerzählsammlungen” does not imply moral or aesthetic values and is general enough to include all shorter texts that can be found in the sixteenth-century compilations that were often defined as “Schwänke” by their authors. It is not, however, generally accepted or used. For lack of a better term in English I therefore use the common term “chapbook” for compilations, and the German “Schwank” or “Schwänke” when discussing the different stories.

In this chapter I intend to look closer at the chapbooks Rollwagenbüchlein (1555) by Georg Wickram, Gartengesellschaft (1556) by Jakob Frey, Der Wegkürzer and Das ander theyl der Garten gesellschafft (1557?) by Martin Montanus — this last a book the author in the preface claims to be a continuation of Frey's text.