7.14 Keller — «Kleider machen Leute» (I) — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the opening of Gottfried Keller's comic novella Kleider machen Leute (1874), about a poor tailor who is taken for a count. Recognise the old forms of polite address: Ihr and Euch to a servant, and the servile third person plural to a guest, Der Herr mögen … Read the past subjunctive in a comparison of preferences: lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich … getrennt hätte . Enjoy irony: notice how the narrator lets every misunderstanding confirm the next. Sentences from this text, before the notes. Read the German aloud; all of them come back below. German English Der Schneider trug in seiner Tasche nichts, als einen Fingerhut. The tailor had nothing in his pocket but a thimble. Endlich faßte er sich einen Muth, nahm seinen Mantel um, setzte die Mütze auf und begab sich hinaus. At last he plucked up courage, put on his cloak, put on his cap and went out. Inzwischen sah der Wirth, daß der Gast nicht trank. Meanwhile the innkeeper saw that the guest was not drinking. Gelobt sei Jesus Christ! sagte die Köchin, ich hab’s behauptet, daß er’s versteht! Praise be to Jesus Christ! said the cook, I said he knows his stuff! Näherte er sich einem Hause, so betrachteten ihn die Leute mit Verwunderung und Neugierde. Whenever he approached a house, people looked at him with astonishment and curiosity. Doch verwickelte er sich jetzt in die erste selbstthätige Lüge. But now he got himself entangled in his first lie of his own making. Prerequisites : 7.13 — you need the past subjunctive from 2.24 Grammar , Konjunktiv I from 2.26 Grammar , and the reading experience of 7.12 Reading and 7.13 Reading . About this text Gottfried Keller (1819–1890) was the great Swiss writer of the nineteenth century, a novelist and poet who for fifteen years also served as chief clerk of the canton of Zurich. His collection Die Leute von Seldwyla is set in and around an imaginary Swiss town, Seldwyla, whose cheerful inhabitants live beyond their means. Kleider machen Leute first appeared in the second, enlarged edition of the collection, volume 3, Stuttgart: Göschen , 1874. The text here is the opening of the novella, its first 31 paragraphs and about 2,500 words, from the transcription in German Wikisource, unchanged except that the printed page numbers are left out. It is in the public domain. The novella continues in 7.15 Reading . The title is a proverb: clothes make people , or as English says, clothes make the man . A journeyman tailor, Wenzel Strapinski, has lost his job when his Seldwyla master went bankrupt. He is penniless and hungry, but he wears a dark velvet-lined cloak and a Polish fur cap, which make him look like a nobleman. A coachman gives him a lift in an empty, elegant carriage; the carriage stops at the best inn of the neighbouring town, Goldach; and from that moment the whole town treats him as a count. Too shy to explain, Strapinski is swept along. The comedy lies less in the tailor than in the townspeople. The innkeeper wants his town's honour to shine before a great guest; the cook interprets every awkward gesture as a sign of breeding. Keller watches all of them with a dry, affectionate irony that you can enjoy even when some words are unfamiliar. Grammar in the text Three ways to say you . The innkeeper addresses his cook with Ihr and Euch : Köchin, ich habe Euch schon einmal gesagt . This older polite form, the second person plural used to one person, was normal for servants and equals in the nineteenth century. To the supposed nobleman he uses Sie , and sometimes an even more deferential form: the third person with a plural verb, Der Herr mögen den Tischwein nicht , literally the gentleman do not like the table wine . Waiters spoke to aristocrats this way. Today, when speaking to one person, standard German uses only du and Sie ; plural ihr is still used to several people. Rather … than, in the past subjunctive. aber lieber wäre er verhungert, als daß er sich von seinem Radmantel … getrennt hätte : but he would rather have starved than part with his cloak . Both halves are in the past subjunctive of 2.24 Grammar , because neither happened. Reported speech. The innkeeper's encouragement is reported in Konjunktiv I : das sei gut bei dem rauhen Wetter , (saying) it was good in this raw weather . The coachman's answer, by contrast, is direct speech: es ist der Graf Strapinski! Spelling of 1874. The familiar patterns continue: Wirth, Muth, Thor, Brodbissen, gethan, erwiederte (today Wirt, Mut, Tor, Brotbissen, getan, erwiderte ). Several food and social words keep the C of their French or Latin sources: Cotelettes , Confekt , Complimenten ; modern German writes Koteletts, Konfekt, Komplimenten . Swiss and old words. das Fechten here means begging , an old journeyman's term; die Zeche is the bill at an inn. auf's Kerbholz refers to a notched stick on which debts were once tallied. Reading it a second time, section by section The tailor and his cloak (paragraphs 1–3). Keller introduces Strapinski through his single possession, a thimble, and his single luxury, the cloak. The cloak is his pride and his problem: dressed like a nobleman, he cannot bring himself to beg. The carriage and the inn (paragraphs 4–5). A kind coachman offers him a seat; the carriage arrives with a flourish at the inn zur Waage , and the crowd sees a mysterious prince. Strapinski lacks the courage to walk away. The kitchen (paragraphs 6–14). A comic scene between the innkeeper, anxious for his town's reputation, and his practical cook. The menu grows with every speech, and the innkeeper's last words reveal his motive: it is um die Ehre , about honour, and about outdoing the innkeepers of Seldwyla. The meal (paragraphs 15–27). Strapinski tries to escape and is led to the lavatory instead; his first selbstthätige Lüge is to stay there a moment. Each shy gesture is read as refinement. Then hunger wins, and with dem Muthe der Verzweiflung he eats half the partridge pie, which the cook takes as proof of