The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
Discourses of the Order of the Marauder Brothers explained
Simplicissimus, now traveling with Herzbruder, adopts the guise of his cousin to gain respect.
What happens
Simplicissimus, now traveling with Herzbruder, adopts the guise of his cousin to gain respect. After losing his horse and servant to Weimar troops, he joins the 'Merode-brothers'—stragglers and deserters who live by plundering and idling, causing harm to the army and peasants. He remains with them until he is captured by Weimar forces before the Battle of Wittenweier and forced into military service.
Themes in this chapter
War and Destruction
The Merode-brothers exemplify the chaos and devastation of war, plundering and burning villages, weakening the army.
Deception and Appearance
Simplicissimus pretends to be Herzbruder's cousin to gain respect, and the Merode-brothers disguise their idleness as noble living.
Folly and Wisdom
Simplicissimus's lack of foresight leads to losing horses and joining the destructive brotherhood, a foolish choice.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
Joins the Merode-brothers after losing his horse and servant; later captured by Weimar troops.
- Ulrich Herzbruder
Agrees to help Simplicissimus by providing a horse and servant, but holds back after the first two horses are lost.
- Duke Bernhard of Weimar
His troops capture Simplicissimus's horse and servant at Kenzingen, and later capture Simplicissimus himself.
- Count Mansfeld
Mentioned in relation to the origin of 'Mansfeld's shoes' and the naming of the Merode-brothers.
Key passages
“Now on the way Herzbruder agreed with me that I should give myself out for his cousin that I might receive greater respect: and he for his part would get me a horse and a servant and send me to the regiment of Neuneck, wherein I could serve as a volunteer till an officer’s place should fall vacant in the army, to which he could help me.”
Herzbruder suggested Simplicissimus pretend to be his cousin to gain respect, promising to provide a horse and servant so he could serve as a volunteer until an officer position opened.
Simplicissimus adopts a false identity to improve his standing.
“And so in a wink I became a fellow that looked like a good soldier: but in that summer I did no great deeds, save that I helped to steal a few cattle here and there in the Black Forest and made myself well acquainted with the Breisgau and Alsace.”
Simplicissimus quickly looked like a proper soldier but accomplished little beyond cattle rustling and learning the local geography.
His early military career is marked by petty theft rather than valor.
“If a trooper lose his horse or a musketeer his health, or his wife and child fall ill and must stay behind, at once you have a pair and a half of Merode-brothers, a crew that can be compared with none but gipsies, for not only do they straggle round the army in front, in the flanks, in the middle, as it pleases them, but also they be like the gipsies in manners and customs.”
Any soldier who loses his horse or falls ill, or whose family is sick, quickly becomes part of the Merode-brothers, a wandering group akin to gypsies in their habits.
The Merode-brothers are described as a disorderly, parasitic group.
“They plunder all they can find before, behind, and beside the army: and what they cannot consume that they spoil, so that the regiments, when they come to their quarters or into camp, do often find not even a good draught of water.”
The Merode-brothers steal and destroy everything in their path, leaving nothing for the regular regiments.
Their actions cause severe hardship for the main army.
