The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
V: How Simplicissimus Was by Four Devils Brought Into Hell and There Treated with Spanish Wine explained
The pastor warns Simplicissimus that his master plans to make a fool of him, gives him a powder and ointment to protect his wits, and advises him to pretend to believe everything.
What happens
The pastor warns Simplicissimus that his master plans to make a fool of him, gives him a powder and ointment to protect his wits, and advises him to pretend to believe everything. That night, four men disguised as devils drag him from bed, lead him to a cellar, and try to convince him he is dead and in hell, plying him with Spanish wine and tormenting him with a hot prong. Simplicissimus feigns drunkenness and terror, but inwardly laughs at their foolishness. After three days and two nights of sleep deprivation and abuse, he devises a trick to end the torment, is trounced in a sheet, and loses consciousness.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Appearance
Simplicissimus feigns terror and belief in the devils' charade, while the devils themselves are disguised grooms; the pastor also provides secret remedies to deceive the tormentors.
Innocence and Experience
Simplicissimus's youthful innocence is targeted by the plot to make him a fool, but he uses the pastor's counsel to preserve his wits and outsmart his tormentors.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
Warned by the pastor, he pretends to believe the devils' tricks and endures torment in the cellar.
- The Hermit
Mentioned by the pastor as the reason for his sympathy toward Simplicissimus.
Key passages
“O Simplicissimus: for thy youth I am sorry, and thy future misery moveth me to sympathy.”
The pastor expresses pity for Simplicissimus's youth and the suffering he is about to endure.
The pastor's warning and compassion set the stage for the chapter's events.
“So tomorrow must thou go to school: and in that school thou art to unlearn thy reason: and in that school without doubt they will so grievously torment thee, that, unless God help thee and other means be used against it, without doubt thou wilt become a madman.”
The pastor tells Simplicissimus that his master intends to make him lose his reason through torment, calling it a school where he will unlearn his wits.
This reveals the master's plan and the pastor's attempt to thwart it.
“I marked at once they were my lord’s grooms: yet I let them not perceive this, but laughed in my sleeve that they that would make me a fool must themselves be my fools.”
Simplicissimus recognizes the disguised men as his master's servants but hides his awareness, secretly amused that their attempt to fool him makes them the real fools.
Shows Simplicissimus's cleverness and the theme of deception.