Wow, a libretto from a composer named Zeller:
sure it isn't Zelter? It would be just like me
to conflate two different composers with similar names, of course.


And yes, I have an old rhyme in German for you --
from the seventeenth century.
This rhyme became one of those sayings
that Germans of the time -- and the following century --
could quote out of context.

I had to look it up because
twentieth-century Lieder composer, Max Reger,
set a variant of this rhyme to music.

The German isn't all that hard
but it still poses challenges for the likes of me,
so here goes.



TUGEND EINES BÖSEN WEIBS. VOM POETEN JOHANN KRAUT BESCHRIEBEN.

Dem Meer magst wohl ein Schiff vertraun
Aber dein Herz nicht jungen Fraun
Denn sie viel unbeständger sind
Als etwann das Meer und der Wind
Und wenn gleich wär das Firmament
Lauter Papier und Pergament
Und alle Wasser sammt dem Meer
Nichts den [denn?] nur lauter Dinten wär
Die Stern im Himmel allzumal
Deren doch viel sind ohne Zahl
Ein jeder sich zum schreiben richt
Könnten sie doch die Bösheit nicht
Beschreiben eines bösen Weibs
Der Teuffel in der Höll beschreibs.

-- from Rosetum Historiarum, ed. by Matthäus Hammer,
Zwickau: Melchior Göpner, 1657, pages 165 - 166.
Johann Kraut, 1570 - 1634, also published by his scholarly name of "Johannes Brassicanus"

(to quote Anna Russell:
'I'm NOT making this up, you know!')

Punctuation would have helped ME, goodness knows,
but that is not how it was printed back in the day.
And that is the first time I have seen the word
'etwann,'
although I am certainly familiar with 'etwa' and 'etwas'.

Any comments, translations, or opinions are welcome!