The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
IX: Of an Unequal Combat in Which the Weakest Wins the Day and the Conqueror Is Captured explained
Simplicissimus, flush with pride and newly acquired arms, goes drinking with his comrade Jump-i'-th'-field at an inn in Rehnen.
What happens
Simplicissimus, flush with pride and newly acquired arms, goes drinking with his comrade Jump-i'-th'-field at an inn in Rehnen. A quarrel with a group of troopers leads to a duel: Simplicissimus, on foot with a musket, faces a mounted trooper. Using a trick with false priming, he wins the duel, but both he and his comrades are arrested by musketeers for violating the ban on dueling.
Themes in this chapter
Folly and Wisdom
Simplicissimus's pride and reckless challenge to a duel exemplify folly, while his cunning trick with the musket shows a glimmer of tactical wisdom.
Deception and Appearance
Simplicissimus deceives his opponent by feigning a misfire, using false priming to gain an advantage in the duel.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
Narrator and protagonist; prideful and reckless, he instigates and wins a duel but is arrested.
- Jump-i'-th'-field
Simplicissimus's comrade; accompanies him to the inn, warns him against the duel, and is arrested alongside him.
Key passages
“But with my good fortune my pride so increased that in the end it could bring me nothing but a fall.”
My success made me arrogant, and that arrogance led to my downfall.
Opening reflection on the consequences of pride.
“So I threw him my glove and, 'See then,' said I, 'if I get this not from thee in fair field with my musket only and on foot, so hast thou right and good leave to hold and to reproach me for such a one as thy presumption has even now named me.'”
I challenged him by throwing down my glove, saying that if I couldn't defeat him in a fair fight with just my musket and on foot, he could call me whatever he liked.
Simplicissimus issues a formal duel challenge.
“Then the enemy, believing that my musket had missed fire and that the touch-hole was stopped, rode straight down upon me pistol in hand, and all too anxious to pay me there and then for my presumption, but before he was aware I had the pan open and shut again, and gave him such a welcome that ball and fall came together.”
The trooper thought my musket had misfired, so he charged at me with his pistol, but I quickly opened the pan and fired, hitting him so that he fell from his horse.
Climax of the duel: Simplicissimus's trick succeeds.
“But even when I deemed my reputation to be at its height, came five-and-twenty musketeers from Rehnen, who laid me and my comrades by the heels.”
Just as I thought I had won great honor, twenty-five musketeers from Rehnen arrested me and my friends.
Immediate reversal of fortune after the duel.