The General

Götz: General

Kruspe: General

The general is standing before his tent with wig and tricorne. In the back lie dead soldiers and horses after a recent battle. Death arrives with a bone in his hand, maybe the same bone he used when attacking the soldier?

At the bottom of Götz' watercolour is a handwritten note: »Gezeichnet nach Beck im Martins Stieft in Erfurt 1834 von Theod: Goetz i. Weimar«.

Der Tod zum General oder Ritter:
Wirf ab den Schild und Helm, womit der Leib bedeckt
Und den polirten Stahl, der in der Scheide steckt,
Kein Eisen schützet dich vor meinen scharfen Pfeilen;
Du musst mit mir zum Tanz in leichter Rüstung eilen.

Death to the General or Knight:
Cast off the shield and helmet that covers your body,
and the polished steel that is in the scabbard,
No iron will protect you from my sharp arrows;
You must hurry with me to the dance in light armor.

Der General:
Ihr Helden schauet mich in dieser Rüstung an,
Ich focht als wie ein Löw', ich stand als wie ein Mann,
Bis meine Gegenpart gestrecket lag zur Erden,
Nun will der letzte Feind an mir zum Ritter werden.(2)

The General:
You heroes, look at me in this armour,
I fought like a lion, I stood like a man,
Until my opponent lay stretched out on the ground,
Now the last enemy(1) wants to wreak his anger on me.(2)

The dialogue is a copy af Lübeck's "new" text, but this text is about a knight and therefore doesn't fit well with the general who does not wear an armour of iron.

It's a bit paradoxical that in Lübeck the text goes: »schauet mich in diesen Waffen an« (our oldest source, Pohle, writes the same). Waffen has a long range of meanings, e.g. protection and could also designate the general's light breast-plate. In contrast, Götz and Schröer (quoted above) writes, »in dieser Rüstung« ("in this metal armour"), which unequivocally refers to a medieval knight in plate harness like the one on the painting in Lübeck.

Footnotes: (1) (2)

The last enemy is Death - 1^st Corinthian 15:26, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death […] ".

an mir zum Ritter werden . . .: The original (ironic) meaning is to put oneself in an advantageous position or in a favorable light ("become a knight") at the expense of others, taking advantage of a situation.

However, the usual meaning is to wreak anger on somebody. Shakespeare's Henry V, Act 5, scene 1: »Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now?« becomes in German: »Will denn das Glück an mir zum Ritter werden?«.