Fipps the monkey

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Title page of Fipps, the monkey

Fipps, the monkey is a picture story by the humorous draftsman and poet Wilhelm Busch . The story was published by Bassermann Verlag in 1879 .

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Beginning

The picture story begins with the words:

"Pegasus, you old racer, take
me to Africa,
all because of such black men
and such colorful birds."

This is followed by a brief description of Africa and the birth of a monkey named Fipps . The beginning ends with the following words.

“He seldom shows himself consistently,
once he helps out of need;
At first he is quite alive,
and in the end he is dead. "

Chapters 1-5

Second chapter: Schmidt abducts Fipps to Bremen.

The home of the monkey Fipps is a region with palm trees . The first to try to catch him is "a black man " who wears a bast skirt and a large ring through his nose. To do this, he camouflages himself with pumpkin covers (one on each hand and one on the head) and hides under a bundle of straw. However, contrary to what the man had planned, Fipps grabs the pumpkin cover on his head and then grabs the nose ornament with his tail before he clamps it to the branch of a nearby tree.

In the second chapter a man ( Schmidt ) rows in the boat to the island on which Fipps lives, and brings a small and a large pair of boots with him, which he carries “carefully under his arm”. He complains of pain, but it suddenly eases after putting on one of the boots. Meanwhile, he is watched by Fipps , who is on the crown of a palm tree. After the skipper Schmidt has put on the second boot as well, he seems to be carefree, leaves the small pair of boots next to the palm tree and goes back to his boat. Fipps then climbs down from the palm tree and puts on his boots expectantly. However, he is surprised by Schmidt , who packs him in his boat and takes him to Bremen .

The third chapter begins in Master Krüll's hairdressing salon , from whom Schmidt has his hair cut. Since Master Krüll sees the monkey and thinks it would be a pleasure in front of him and his customers , he buys Fipps . Shortly afterwards, Master Krüll enters his side room to cook pomade and build wigs . At the same time, Farmer Dümmel enters the salon "and confidently hopes that he will be sheared, which is really necessary". As a result, Fipps sits down on his neck and begins to hairstyle Dümmel's head, injuring his auricle with a sharp cut. Dümmel yells, "Stop upp!", But edited Fipps the injured ear Dümmels with a Kräuselzange . When Master Krüll comes out of the side cabinet and "swings his right hand up like a battle", Fipps smashes a mirror on his head - to free himself from his domestication - and puts him out of action . “It seems to me that I'm unpopular here,” thinks Fipps and leaves the hairdressing salon.

Chapter five: Doctor Fink punishes Fipps with a stick and locks him in an empty chicken coop.

In the fourth chapter, Adele has a hot pudding with red sauce for dinner “with the friend of her soul” . Fipps , attracted by the “fragrances” of the pudding, sneaks unnoticed at the table where Adele and her boyfriend are sitting and grabs the pudding in his hands. But because it is too hot, he frantically places it on Adele's friend 's head and pours the red sauce down her neck.

Since Fipps is getting hungry, he escapes in the fifth chapter through a side street into a pastry shop , where he helps himself to donuts , carrots , pretzels and almonds . "What is there between my pastries ?!", thinks confectioner Köck , but before he can see the situation, Fipps escapes him with "Pretzels [...] in a row on the tail as if it were a stick" and donuts, "Same as on cones [impaled] on all four thumbs." On his escape from the pastry shop, Fipps runs into Mamsell Miecke, who falls to the floor as a result. A shoemaker boy throws a freshly lubricated boot at Fipps to stop him, whereupon Fipps loses the donuts, but is not stopped. He runs an on crutches supporting beggar to the Fipps also overthrows. Fipps rushes out of town over a bridge with one last pretzel and then swings over a garden wall to relax. There he steps into a trap , whereupon a gentleman steps out of the apartment building, Fipps - whom he takes to be someone who wants to steal his chickens - packs in a sack, punishes him with a stick and locks him in an empty chicken coop overnight.

Chapters 6–12

Chapter 10: Professor Klöhn speaks of the wisdom of creation and human dignity.

In the sixth chapter it turns out that the gentleman is Doctor Fink . He goes to the chicken coop, unlocks it, and opens the sack in which he had put Fipps . Fipps gets out of the sack and shows himself to be "modest, gentle and tame, humble and lame" and bows to Doctor Fink . Then the doctor hands him an apple and the nanny Jette starts laughing together with the cute Elise . Schnipp the dog and Gripps the cat don't trust the monkey Fipps .

In the seventh chapter, he gets colorful trousers for making Elise sleep by weighing him. Meanwhile , Jette drives a wasp into a paper bag. She hands it over to Fipps with a smile on her face so that he can suspect something good. He unsuspectingly opens the bag and the wasp sticks Fipps in a finger. Fipps takes a bugger and watches out for the flies in the room. He spots one crawling from Jette's jacket towards her face, who is dozing off. Fipps kills the fly with full force on Jette's cheek and closes his eyes as if nothing had happened.

Snaps and grips that Fipps - who played with a bone at the beginning of chapter eight - suspected from the start, pounce on him. Fipps then escapes to a closet, on which he finds a basket and a ball of wool , among other things . He ties the bone to the string and pulls it through the perforated basket that he holds in his hands on the cupboard while he lowers the bone as bait. Gripps wants to take the bone, but Fipps outwits him and pushes it into the basket. Schnipps , who in the meantime has taken the bone and wants to hurry away, is stopped by Fipps , dragged into the garden and - to frighten him - held over the abyss of the well there and down the gutter. Smoke suddenly rises from the chimney, which bothers Fipps and causes him to drop Schnipps . Gripps accidentally jumps out of a hatch with the basket at the same time, into which Schnipps falls and the fall of both is slowed by the collision with a branch. Since then, they have worshiped Fipps as a master.

Chapter twelve : Dümmel aims his gun at Fipps .

In the ninth chapter, Fipps discovers a piano on which he practices playing with all his limbs and where Gripps and Schnipps join in as a duet . Suddenly Doctor Fink enters the room and drives away the three music-making animals.

In the tenth chapter of Portwein, Professor Klöhn is in a conversation with Doctor Fink about the wisdom of creation through mother nature . He stands up and explains that, in contrast to the harmless and usable animals, humans stand upright and bear everything with dignity. He puts on the hat that Fipps - who observed the action from close quarters - had filled with ink . Professor Klöhn then raises his walking stick threateningly . However, Fipps injured the professor on his thumb with the same stick, whereupon he hastily left.

The eleventh chapter begins with Jette reading Die Gartenlaube in her bed at night and falling asleep. Since she forgot to put out the candle, first a corner of the newspaper burns, then the curtain, the ceiling and finally the entire house. Father Fink , mother Fink and nanny Jette leave the house immediately, leaving Elise in a panic in the burning house. Fipps , who is still in the house, climbs out of the top window with Elise in her arms and goes over a nearby tree to the ground.

In the twelfth chapter it turns out that the house was insured with the Aachen fire insurance bank, and the family moved into the rebuilt house. Since Elise's rescue, Fipps has lived very comfortably with the Fink family , which he finds unbearable because he always wants something different. Because he longs for "nasty pranks", he flees from the Fink family's property while they are on a walk with Professor Klühn and walks into a field. Fipps runs into a hiker's path, whom he jumps onto the shoulders, and overturns a potter's wife , whose pots and pans break. Fipps keeps walking until he has arrived at the property of the farmer Dümmel , whom he had previously injured in Master Krüll's hairdressing salon . He sees Dümmel's little son with a sandwich in hand, which Fipps takes. The little stupid then starts screaming and his mother rushes over, but Fipps pushes her into a bucket full of water. Farmer Dümmel is now on the scene and recognizes Fipps : “Dat is de damned Haresnieder!” He shouts and takes up his shotgun . The neighborhood, armed to fight, has noticed the noise and is also gathering on the farmer's property. Fipps takes refuge in a tree and sits there, fearful and dumb. One of the crowd shouts: “Kiek kiek, da sitt'e!”, Whereupon farmer Dümmel puts his shotgun on, takes aim and shoots.

The End

As if by coincidence, all those whom Fipps had wreaked havoc are present the moment Fipps falls from the tree. Only Elise takes his hand, cries and speaks "poor Fipps". With that Fipps dies . He is buried on the hedge of the Fink family 's garden, where many umbels were also planted. The picture story ends with the following words.

"Yes, that tomcat Gripps and Schnipps the dog are
completely inconsolable, they say for no reason."

expenditure

  • Wilhelm Busch: Fipps, the monkey. Bassermann Verlag, Munich 1879.
  • Wilhelm Busch: Fipps the monkey. In: Rolf Hochhuth (Ed.): Wilhelm Busch, Complete Works and a selection of the sketches and paintings in two volumes. Volume 2: What is popular is also allowed. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1959, pp. 324–401 and 1006–1010 ( Fipps the monkey for children […] ).

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