Drink, dear, drink quickly

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The couplet " Drink, dear, drink quickly ", which singing teacher Alfred intoned in the 14th act of Act 1 of the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss (son) , which was premiered in Vienna in 1874 , became world famous along with it. This is especially true for the chorus , in which the aforementioned "darling" Rosalinde von Eisenstein enthusiastically joins:

"Happy is the one who forgets what cannot be changed!"

However, this rhyme was already considered a proverb or a winged word in the German-speaking world . You can find it in Wanders Deutsches Sprich emphasis -Lexikon Volume 1, Leipzig 1867 with all kinds of sources, including Karl Simrock's The German Proverbs of 1846 and the Latin “ Feras, non culpes, quod vitari non potest ” (yield, don't complain, what you won't change can) from the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus .

"I think like that wise man: 'Happy is he who forgets // that which cannot be changed'", it even says in Master Johann Strauss and his contemporaries , comic novel by Eduard Maria Oettinger , fourth part, published in 1862 in Berlin had appeared. These verses, writes Georg Büchmann in Winged Words . The Citatenschatz of the German people , Berlin 1872 are already with the date "Jena, September 12, 1753" in the possession of the Oldenburg Judicial Council Strackerjahn located pedigree entered a certain Daelhausen who have studied in the years 1751 to 1753 in Jena. They should be "right after the hearts of the people"; because they “found accommodation in the most varied folk songs”, including one from the 18th century. Daelhausen's family record is now supposed to be part of the inventory of the Museum Angewandte Kunst (Frankfurt am Main) . The manuscript of a lecture by Ludwig Strackerjan regarding the studbook of the student Anton Wilhelm Daelhausen, Oldenburgensis JUC is said to be in the Lower Saxony State Archives in Oldenburg .

In the register of Lorenz Schüpfel from Altdorf near Nuremberg , which is kept by the Erlangen-Nuremberg University Library, the “Med et Chir Doct.” “Happy is who forgets what cannot be changed” and the date “Altorf: d 19 Sept 1784” “And [reas] Roesslein from Moscow immortalized.

In 1979 the historian Manfred P. Fleischer stated that “from the same emotional situation”, namely the Roman law damnatio memoriae , which “in the figurative sense had been repeated many times since the French Revolution” , “was the motto of Emperor Frederick III. (1440–1493), Rerum irrecuperabilium felix oblivio , as at the end of modern times the winged chant from 'Fledermaus' (1874): 'Happy is he who forgets what can no longer be changed.' “Word for word had the same German translation 1764 Adam Friedrich Kirsch's Latin-German dictionary Abundantissimum Cornucopiae Linguae latinae et germanicae selectum presented under the keyword “Oblivio”: “ Corn. Nep. Irreparabilium felix oblivio rerum, happy is the one who forgets what can no longer be changed . ”In contrast, in 1720 Mr. Burcard Gotthelff Struvens “ Explanatory German Empire History ”, translated into German by PZVN for the variant“ Summa felicitas est, rerum irrecuperabilium obliuio: Happy is the one who forgets what cannot be changed ”decided, of which the Germanization can also be found word for word in the“ Fledermaus ”.

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée ; Act 1, Appearance 14, No. 5 Finale: Drinking song, at zeno.org ; Variant i 1st act, 15th appearance: "Happy is someone who forgets what can no longer be changed!" Zeno.org . See also piano reduction for voice and piano arrang. by Richard Genée, Friedrich Schreiber Vienna, undated [1874], Pl. No. FS 23.422, p. 42 ff. , p. 43 with the repetition “Happy is happy if you forget what cannot be changed is someone who forgets what cannot be changed. "
  2. ↑ Wander 1867, keyword Glücklich No. 22, zeno.org
  3. ↑ Simrock 1846, p. 175 books.google No. 3815
  4. ↑ Oettinger 1862, p. 113 books.google
  5. ↑ Georg Büchmann: Winged words. Der Citatenschatz des Deutschen Volkes , Seventh improved and increased edition, Berlin 1872, p. 78 books.google
  6. ↑ Catalog of music and dance performances Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale , ridim-deutschland.de ; Directory of records and fragments of records Repertorium Alborum Amicorum , raa.gf-franken.de
  7. ↑ JUC = Juris Utriusque Candidatus, candidate for both rights, secular and canon law, cf. Doctor of both rights
  8. ↑ arcinsys.niedersachsen.de
  9. ↑ Lorenz Schüpfel (1716–1789), bookseller and publisher ( Officina Schupfeliana )
  10. ↑ nbn-resolving.org p. 23r And: Roesslein; See also Adolph Callisen : Medicinisches Writer Lexicon of the now living doctors ..., Volume 16, Copenhagen 1833, p. 257 books.google
  11. ^ Manfred P. Fleischer: Hans-Joachim Schoeps as a Prussian historian . Journal of Religious and Intellectual History, Volume 31, No. 1 (1979), p. 12 and footnote 18; also in Hans-Joachim Schoeps : Unmanaged history (Collected Writings Part 3, Volume 10), G. Olms 2001, p. 11 books.google.de
  12. ↑ Abundantissimum Cornucopiae Linguae latinae et germanicae selectum , Regensburg and Vienna 1764, p. 805 books.google
  13. ↑ Mr. Burcard Gotthelff Struvens, Hochfürstl. Saxons. Ernestine line of the whole of Rath, [...] Explained Teutsche Reichs-Historie: From the Teutschen origin on, bit on present times ; Carried out from the most armed and best scribes, and with the evidences of each Orths cited, confirmed / Hiebevor published in Latin, Anjetzo translated into German for more convenient use, by PZVN / Jena at Johann Felix Bielcke 1720. P. 658 books.google