The Adventurous Simplicissimus · Chapter
XX: How It Doth Fare with a Man on Whom Evil Fortune Doth Rain Cats and Dogs explained
Simplicissimus reflects on Oliver's tale, marveling at God's providence and realizing how his own past as the Huntsman of Soest protected him from Oliver's wrath.
What happens
Simplicissimus reflects on Oliver's tale, marveling at God's providence and realizing how his own past as the Huntsman of Soest protected him from Oliver's wrath. Oliver recounts a humiliating incident where a cat, trapped in a sack and released to be chased by dogs, instead latched onto his head, scratching his face severely as the dogs joined the fray, leaving him permanently scarred.
Themes in this chapter
Fortune and Fate
Simplicissimus reflects on divine providence and the ironic twists of fate that protected him from Oliver.
Folly and Wisdom
Oliver's foolish cat-and-dog scheme backfires, leading to permanent scars and mockery.
Characters to notice
- Simplicissimus
Narrator who reflects on Oliver's story and his own past as the Huntsman of Soest.
- Oliver
Tells the tale of how he got his facial scars from a cat and dogs.
- Ulrich Herzbruder
Mentioned for his dark prophecies that Simplicissimus now interprets.
- Jump-i'-th'-field
Referenced as the one who previously scratched Oliver's face while disguised as a devil.
Key passages
“Now when Oliver had ended his discourse, I could not enough admire the Providence of God.”
After Oliver finished speaking, I was amazed at how God's plan had worked.
Simplicissimus marvels at divine protection.
“the cat, when I did open the bag, seeing only an open field and on it her two fierce enemies, and nothing high whereto she could escape, would not so easily take the field and so be torn to pieces, but betook herself to mine own head as finding no higher place”
When I opened the sack, the cat saw the open field and the dogs, and since there was no tree to climb, it jumped onto my head as the highest spot.
Oliver describes how the cat escaped the dogs by climbing onto his head.
“I shot both dogs dead, and did so bastinado my mistress that had given me cause for this fool's trick that she ran away from me”
I shot both dogs and beat my mistress so badly that she ran away, unable to love my scarred face.
Oliver's violent reaction to his humiliation.