Comet song
The comet song is a famous Viennese couplet from the farce Der böse Geist Lumpacivagabundus (premiere: April 1833) by Johann Nestroy . The music comes from Adolf Müller senior . Nestroy had already written the text for the unlisted antics Genius, Schuster and Marqueur as well as The Feenball (but still without Müller's music) and then used it in Lumpacivagabundus .
The comet song laments the decay of the world and the folly of people and predicts the end of the world, caused by a comet falling on earth. The refrain is: "The world will definitely not stand long any more."
The comet song was originally sung by Nestroy himself in the role of the knee strap, who is the only figure who believes in the ultimately non-existent destructive effect of the comet. It is the eighth scene in the third act and is introduced by a pseudoscientific monologue in which astronomy and astrology are mixed and which made Nestroy's comedy famous. - Many Austrian actors have interpreted it and enriched it with current additional verses.
background
Nestroy's play was perceived as particularly innovative and funny in its time because it broke with the traditions of the old Viennese folk theater : the integrated couplets in this genre mostly emerge from the baroque vanitas theme: the world is depicted as transitory, void and foolish . Nestroy's predecessor Ferdinand Raimund tried to turn this idea into the bourgeois virtuous (“ Hobellied ”, “ Aschenlied ”). With Nestroy, however, this effort is thrown overboard and the nothingness of the world emphasized.
The mixture of fairy-tale (“fairy temple”) and modernist (“pass”, “ tube ”) elements seemed funny . Baroque allegories are mocked by comical anthropomorphisms (stars and planets as people) . - What is new at Nestroy is that he has completely freed the traditional doomsday theme from the religious and moved it into the sphere of natural sciences.
1832 was the first year in human history that two comets were heralded, causing a comet fear . Only four periodic comets were known for certain. In early summer, Encke's comet, discovered in 1818, made its eighth return, and in November, Biela's comet, discovered only in 1826, made its second return. The latter should come relatively close to the earth and also almost cross the earth's orbit on October 29th at a calculated distance of about 2½ earth diameter, but this at a point that the earth only reaches a month later.
So there was excitement among the population and even better papers speculated about a collision with the earth, or at least an impact of the tail. The harmless Encke's comet was announced for the summer of 1835 and the much more famous and also harmless Halley's comet for October 1835 . Some inexperienced scribes mixed up the three names, tending to use the name Halley's Comet, regardless of whether it was described, and distributed them as they saw fit between the years 1830 and 1836. Other dangers feared were floods and the outbreak of cholera. Joseph Johann von Littrow , Professor of Astronomy and Director of the University Observatory Vienna and probably the same professor who mentions glue, wrote a correct and soothing book, but with the title "About the dreaded comet of the present year 1832". And after the chapter headings, among other things, the following is dealt with: “Dangerous situation of Biela's comet orbit”, “What does the earth have to fear from the collision with a comet?”, “Was the Noachian flood caused by a comet?”, “Is that Has the earth met a comet in the past? ”And“ Influence of comets on diseases of animals and humans. ”On January 29, 1833, almost half a year after the comet was first sighted on September 24, the reported Theater newspaper about the fears. Nestroy brought the remaining scenes of his astronomical cobbler to the stage in December 1834 in the play Die Familien Zwirn, Knieriem and Leim or The Doomsday Day .
text
[Monologue:] [Peppi] doesn't believe in comets, she'll be amazed. - I've figured it out a long time. The astral fire of the solar circle in the golden number of Urion has moved from the constellation of the planetary system into the universe of parallax by means of the fixed star quadrant into the ellipse of the ecliptic; consequently the next comet must collide with the world through the diagonal of the approximation of the perpendicular circles. This calculation is as clear as Schuhwix. Of course, not everyone has science as small as I do; but even the less educated can notice things enough every day which clearly show that the world is no longer standing. In short, above and below you can see that it is going to go down.
1.
There is no more 'order now in the stars',
otherwise comets would have to be banned;
A comet travels
around the firmament without ceasing and has no passport ;
And now judge a so a vagabond
Us the world with Butz and Stingel 1 on the ground;
But leave it as it says above,
even below you can see that it is going to ruin.
In the evening one does not dare to go into G'wölb 2
For shine, because they set up it like d 'fairy temples;
The magician Luxus looks dazzling,
the evil fairy Krida locks up 's G'wölb'.
There is fear and anxiety,
the world will no longer stand long, long, long, long, long, long.
2.
In the sky the sun is now full of Capriz , in the
middle of the dog day there is no heat;
And the moon goes up so red, on honor 3 ,
not other than when it would be drunk.
The Millichstraßen that loses ihr'n gloss,
the Milli women verpantschen ob'n s' throughout;
But let it go, down, it's colorful,
down, you can see it clearly, the world is going down.
Which one would have liked such a 'checked' winder once,
A harlequin is just a rascal right now;
In summer they wear boots, à jour stockings in the snow,
and instead of hoods they even have whiskers from tull anglais. 4
One gets scared and afraid,
I say: The world is definitely not going to be long anymore.
3.
The moonlight, you can say what you want,
I think it's swollen on one side,
the stars are chilled, me predict that
they are too exposed to the night air.
The sun's health is already gone, you can see it clearly
through a tube , she's got the stain;
But let go of what happens upstairs,
you can see it down, it doesn't do it in length.
You have newspapers now, because the penny magazine ,
There is all sorts of things in it for a penny;
Now comes g'wiß soon a magazine out i parler ' ,
since krieg'n d' Pränumeranten free board and lodging.
There is fear and anxiety,
the world will definitely not stand long.
4.
The fixed stars ', say' n s ', are always in one' spot ',
' s is erlog'n, during the day it's all gone;
Now the very best astronomer brings it
No more tidy solar eclipses.
Venus is also getting quite a 'different shape',
who can get ahead of it, it is just getting old;
But even if everything
cracks , down is something that still gives me hope.
Even if most things go wrong, now third and now over there,
your goodness has always remained unchanged;
So tell me, everything will only fly out of its 'track'
If you withdraw your forbearance and grace from us.
Then 'a' became more and more fearful,
because then the 'world would certainly not be long.
- Remarks
literature
- Franz H. Mautner: Nestroy , Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1978, pp. 182-188
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Joseph Johann Littrow : About the dreaded comet of the present year 1832 . and about comets in general. Carl Gerold, Vienna April 1832 ( online in the Google book search [accessed December 21, 2012]).
- ↑ Carl Ludwig von Littrow : Contributions to a monograph of Halley's Comet . On the occasion of its appearance in 1835 represented in the public domain. Heinrich Friedrich Müller, Vienna 1834, p. 1–11 ( online in Google Book Search [accessed December 21, 2012]).
- ^ A b c Johann Nestroy: Complete Works (Nestroy, Johann) . Ed .: Friedrich Walla . tape 5 . Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1993, ISBN 978-3-224-16924-1 , p. 315-316 (With quotations from Fischer and the Littrows).
- ↑ Knieriem: "[...] The new comet comes along for the year, which will judge the world, afterwards the gentleman will be smack together with his hit." / Leim: "Don't be so stupid, nothing happens, I got it a professor said. "
- ↑ Theaterzeitung No. 21/1833, p. 84
- ^ Gary W. Kronk : 3D / Biela . Cometography. Archived from the original on December 15, 2010. Retrieved on December 15, 2010.