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The peasant | |
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Des Danßes neme ik wol Respit, |
I would like to put off this dance. |
Death answers the peasant | |
Grot Arbeit hefstu ghedan, |
Great work have you done. |
The peasant wants to pay the farm rent to his nobleman. It's the same tax that Death reminded the nobleman, that he had received: »Dines Pachtes werstu gewert«.
In Des Dodes Dantz the connection between the peasant and the nobleman is even clearer: »Ok wolde ik mynem iuncheren alle sine pacht wol geuen«. The same is true for Dodendantz: »Ok wolde ik minem junkeren de pacht wol geven«. Junker is a contraction of "junk herre", young lord.
Footnotes: (1)
Is it recht . . .:: All editors except Freytag write: »It is recht«, which of course makes much more sense.
von Melle writes: »It is« in Lubeca religiosa.
Hartmut Freytag has a slightly different interpretation, which in English would be:
God will not reject you.
It is all right with your work and toil.
I'm just telling you, God will reward you in His highest heaven.
This solution requires a little change of punctuation, but it must be said that the comma, which Freytag ignores in the 3rd line (and which I replace by a full-stop), is not included in Lubeca religiosa.