EARLY MODERN AUTOBIOGRAPHY – creative non-fiction or material for a reality show?
This story
comes from Johannes Butzbach’s Hodoporicon
(1505):
Johannes’
parents entrust him to a traveler who promises to make a scholar of the boy but
instead bullies him. The two travelers arrive at an inn where the landlord greets them: If your money is good and you are good
drinkers, you will be welcome guests.
The
companion turns out to be a very good drinker and spends all of Johannes’ money,
then forces him to beg for a living.
Shades
of Oliver Twist here? He regarded me a
something delivered over to him, indeed as a stray that he had picked up
and made his property.
If I came back
empty-handed, he beat me furiously. If I succeeded in getting something good,
he devoured it at once, and I got only what remained…Indeed he was so
suspicious that he often forced me to rinse my mouth with water and spit it out
that he might see if I had perhaps appropriated something from my begging.
Johannes
flees and makes his way back home. The relationship between his parents is
rocky. My father soundly beat my mother
and pulled her hair severely. When I saw that, I threw down my pack and with my
brothers and sisters rushed to my mother’s aid, against my father. I succeeded
in dragging her from under his feet. Weeping bitterly I left the house and
vowed never to set foot there again.
Johannes
works hard, saves up money, and begins his studies, but now he is dogged by bad
health: burning fevers,
tumorous affections, quinsy, swelling of the larynx, boils on various portions
of my body, swelling of the feet and thigh, which a woman cut out with an iron instrument, and an itching malady called fig-warts which covered my body like the bark
of an oak tree.
He
overcomes his health problems and enrolls in the school of Deventer. In his
second year there, the Abbot of Laach canvasses classes to recruit monks for
his monastery. None of the students are interested since they have already paid their course fees and rented lodgings for
the term. Besides, it was an
unsuitable time for travelling as a great cold prevailed. But Johannes
volunteers, takes the vows, and eventually becomes abbot of Laach himself.
If
you ask me, he would have made a great guest on the Oprah Show.
No comments:
Post a Comment