The Pawning

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Title:     The Pawning
Author: Joseph Victor Scheffel [More Titles by Scheffel]

Und wieder sass beim Weine
Im Waldhorn ob der Bruck
Der Herr vom Rodensteine
Mit schwerem Schluck und Gluck.

Again there sat hard drinking,
All in the Hunting Horn,
The Rodenstein ne'er winking,
Accurst with thirst forlorn.

The landlord wept the hour
He came his wine to try--
'He sits there like a tower,
And drinks me high and dry.

'How will it end? by thunder!
He never pays me--no!
I'll have to pawn his plunder,
Or else he will not go.'

The beadle went to work in
The tap-room of the Horn:
'Pull off your velvet jerkin,
Your boots, and all you've worn.

'Pull off the mantle round you,
Your gloves and sable hat;
Unto this host you've bound you
With all you have at that.'

Loud laughed the Rodensteiner--
'Go in!--that will not hurt.
It's airier and finer
To sit and drink in shirt!

'And till you pawn the swallow
Wherewith I drink my wine
I'll vex full many a fellow
In taverns on the Rhine.'

[The end]
Joseph Victor Scheffel's poem: Pawning

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