Johannes von Tepl: The Plowman
Chapter 16, lines 22-33
Du fragest, was wir sein. Wir sein nichts vnd sein doch etwas. Deshalben nichts, wann wir weder leben weder wesen noch gestalt noch vnterstent haben, nicht geyst sein, nicht sichtigclich, nicht greyffenlich sein. Deshalben etwas, wann wir sein des lebens ende, des wesens ende, des nicht wesens anfang, eyn myttell zwüschen jn bayden. Wir seyn ein geschicht, die alle lewt fellt. Die grossen hewnen müssent vor vns vallen. Alle wesen, die leben haben, mussent verwandelt vor vns werden. Jn hohen schulden werden wir gezigen. Du fragest, wie wir sein. Vnbeschedenlich sein wir, doch vant du vns zu Rome jn einen tempel an einer want gemalett als ein man auff einem ochssen, dem die augen verpunden waren, syczend. Der selbe man fürent ein hawen jn seiner rechten hant vnde ein schauffel jn der linckten, domit vacht er auff dem ochssen. Gegen jm sluge, warff vnd streyt ein michel menig volckes, allerley lewt, jgliches mensch mit seynes hantwercks gezewge; do was auch die nunne mit deme psalter. Die slugen vnd wurffen den man auff dem ochssen. Jn vnnser betrubnüß bestrait der Tot vnde begrub sie alle.
Translation
You ask what we are. We are nothing and yet we are something. Nothing because we have neither life nor essence nor form nor matter, we are not spirit, we are not visible, we are not tangible. Something because we are the end of life, the end of essence, the beginning of non-essence, a middle part between the two. We are something that happens and causes all people to fall. The great giants must fall before us. All beings that have life must be transformed by us. We are accused of great things. You ask what we are like. We are indecipherable, but you could find us in Rome, painted on a wall in a temple: as a man blindfolded, sitting on an ox. This man had a hoe in his right hand and a shovel in his left, and with these he fought from upon the ox. A great crowd of people struck him, threw things and fought against him, all kinds of people, every human being with his tools; there was also the nun with the psalter. They beat and threw stones at the man on the ox. In accordance with our lamentable world order, Death fought them and buried them all.
Audio sample
The Encounter with Death
In the Middle Ages, the figuration of death served to confront the recipients with their own mortality and to negotiate an unavoidable, everyday topic.
Death is personified in the Plowman by giving him the ability to speak and act. Nevertheless, he remains a strangely formless and bodiless element that seems to stand outside of this world and thus evades any definition of its existence. He answers the widower’s question: “You ask what we are. We are nothing and yet we are something.” Death is a kind of mediator between the worlds, between this world and the next, which is reflected in the design of the personification: Although he is an equal discussion partner of the widower, he remains rather shadowy overall and only ascribes meaning and form to himself through his statements.
Contents
In The Plowman, a man accuses Death of robbing him of his young wife and mother of his children. A dynamic dialogue develops between the Plowman and the personified Death. The man’s arguments are very emotional due to his personal loss, but Death remains rational in his defence. He refers to his work as a force of nature which intervenes in the events of the world as an ordering authority and is intended by God. The dispute ultimately ends when God appears as the judging authority and declares both positions to be right.
What else?
It is new that a single person (even if in literary terms) rebels so extensively against the order of the world. Death also repeatedly underlines his artificial nature (he is something and yet nothing) and emphasises his powerful position in the world. The intensive dialogue with death has fascinated people, as is reflected in the wide reception of the text.
