Hans Breitmann Gife a Barty

Subject: Hans Breitman Gife a Barty
From: Kenny B (inactive)
Date: 24 Mar 02 - 10:09 AM

Gott in Himmel!
Since reading thro the German Marches thread I stumbled across this site of Ango?/German? poetry when searching for something completely different.
I thought it might interest those of you who are interested in dialects such as in the previous Scots dialect posts ...... a humerous Teutonic/American equivilent.
A quote from the introduction....,
"HANS BREITMANN GIFE A BARTY" - the first of the poems here submitted to the English speaking public - appeared originally in 1857, in Graham's Magazine, in Philadelphia, and soon became widely known. Few American poems, indeed, have been held in better or more constant remembrance than the ballad of "Hans Breitmann's Barty;" for the words just quoted have actually passed into a proverbial expression. Click here for the Hans Breitmann site

Subject: RE: BS: Hans Breitman Gife a Barty
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Mar 02 - 02:52 PM

Here in Canada, a similar type of verse was written by a man named Drummond, using the French-Canadian ("By Gar!") dialect of the time. Now deemed politically incorrect and racist, it is no longer acceptable.
Joel Chandler Harris and Roark Bradford wrote similar dialect tales based on Negro speech of the 19th C. and the pre-WWII period which now are condemmed. Some of of the Brer Rabbit tales by Harris survive in modified form but Bradford's "Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun," unfortunately, is outside the pale.
It seems only the Scots (and others in the British Isles and Ireland) take delight in their native dialect or language and seek to preserve it.

Subject: RE: BS: Hans Breitman Gife a Barty
From: Wilfried Schaum
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 09:52 AM

As a former German student I came across C. G. Leland's works some decades before. His excellent knowing of German student life and songs date from the time when he was a student in Heidelberg.
He also wrote some excellent and funny poems in Chinese pidgin; there is a translation of Excelsior! = Topside galore! which nearly made me roll laughing and frolicking on the floor.
Very funny, too, the story about the orphan in a missionary's house who is educated by the Chinese servants and never having heard about Jesus is burning joss sticks on a Chinese altar.
I strongly recommend his works for R&R and a good laugh.

Wilfried

Subject: RE: Hans Breitmann Ballads
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 08:01 PM

Dover published an inexpensive paperback edition of Hans Breitmann's Ballads. I've browsed through it and liked what I read, but don't know much about it. Can anybody tell us more? Are there musical settings for Breitmann's ballads?
-Joe Offer-

---

ingeb.org thinks it may have all the Breitmann Ballads-

Click here

Subject: RE: Hans Breitmann Gife a Barty
From: toadfrog
Date: 25 Mar 02 - 10:15 PM

Mostly, I remember the ones that Kipling used to begin his stories:

Wohlauf! my pully cavaliers,
We ride to church today!
And he who hasn't got a horse
Must steal one, straightaway!
***
Be reverent men, remember
This is a Gottes Haus.
Du, Konrad, slip along the aisle
Und schneck der Whisky raus!

Or:

Die juengere Uhlanen
Stand round mit open mouth,
While Breitman tell dem stories,
Of fighting in the South,
And gif dem moral lessons,
How before der battle pops,
Take a little prayer to Himmel,
And a gut long drink of Schnapps!

Actually, what strikes me most about Breitman is how bloodthirsty he gets about killing Rebels. Its not really in keeping with the usual sentimental views of the Civil War.