The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
Of the Ways and Works of Soldiers Nowadays, and How Hardly a Common Soldier Can Get Promotion explained
This chapter uses the extended metaphor of a tree to describe the harsh and hierarchical life of soldiers.
What happens
This chapter uses the extended metaphor of a tree to describe the harsh and hierarchical life of soldiers. The lowest branches endure extreme hardship, while promotion is nearly impossible for common soldiers due to a 'smooth place' on the tree that only nobles can scale. Advancement for the few who succeed comes only in old age, and often through bribery or luck, while deserving soldiers are passed over in favor of nobles or favorites.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Nobility
The 'smooth place' on the tree symbolizes the insurmountable barrier of noble birth, preventing common soldiers from rising regardless of merit.
War and Destruction
The chapter vividly depicts the endless cycle of violence, suffering, and death that defines a soldier's existence during wartime.
Greed and Money
Higher-ranking officers enrich themselves through 'war-contributions' and bribery, while common soldiers starve, highlighting the corruption and greed within the military hierarchy.
Folly and Wisdom
The futile ambition of common soldiers who endlessly strive for promotion, only to face envy, bad luck, or death, underscores the folly of seeking advancement in a corrupt system.
Key passages
“Hunger and thirst, and cold and heat, and work and woe, and all we meet; And deeds of blood and deeds of shame, all may ye put to the landsknecht’s name.”
Soldiers endure hunger, thirst, extreme weather, hard labor, and misery, along with violent and dishonorable acts—all of which define the life of a mercenary.
This rhyme encapsulates the relentless suffering and moral degradation of a soldier's life.
“For gluttony and drunkenness, hunger and thirst, wenching and dicing and playing, riot and roaring, murdering and being murdered, slaying and being slain, torturing and being tortured, hunting and being hunted, harrying and being harried, robbing and being robbed, frighting and being frighted, causing trouble and suffering trouble, beating and being beaten: in a word, hurting and harming, and in turn being hurt and harmed—this was their whole life.”
A soldier's existence is a cycle of excess and deprivation, violence and victimhood, where every action brings reciprocal suffering.
This passage emphasizes the chaotic and reciprocal nature of violence in a soldier's daily life.
“Just above these the trunk of the tree had an interval or stop, which was a smooth place without branches, greased with all manner of ointments and curious soap of disfavour, so that no man save of noble birth could scale it, in spite of courage and skill and knowledge, God knows how clever he might be.”
There is a barrier in the military hierarchy that only those of noble birth can cross, no matter how brave, skilled, or intelligent a common soldier may be.
This metaphor illustrates the rigid class barrier preventing merit-based promotion.
“And these took the very bread out of the mouths of those that had deserved it, and forthwith were made Ensigns.”
Unqualified favorites—such as clerks, footmen, and poor nobles—were promoted to officer positions, stealing opportunities from deserving veteran soldiers.
This highlights the injustice and corruption in the promotion system.