"The Pledge" (German: "Die Bürgschaft", ) is a

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

published by the German poet Friedrich Schiller in his 1799 ''

Musen-Almanach A ''Musen-Almanach'' ("Muses' Almanac") was a kind of literary annual, popular in Germany from 1770 into the mid-19th century. They were modelled on the '' Almanach des Muses'' published in Paris from 1765. Development in the 1770s The first exam ...

''. He took the idea out of the

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

legend of

Damon and Pythias The story of Damon (; grc-gre, Δάμων, gen. Δάμωνος) and Pythias (; or ; or Phintias, ) is a legend in Greek historic writings illustrating the Pythagorean ideal of friendship. Pythias is accused of and charged with plotting against ...

issuing from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''Fabulae'' by Gaius Julius Hyginus, as rendered in the medieval collection of the ''

Gesta Romanorum ''Gesta Romanorum'', meaning ''Deeds of the Romans'' (a very misleading title), is a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales that was probably compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a two-fold l ...

''. It magnifies the belief in

fidelity Fidelity is the quality of faithfulness or loyalty. Its original meaning regarded duty in a broader sense than the related concept of ''fealty''. Both derive from the Latin word ''fidēlis'', meaning "faithful or loyal". In the City of London fin ...

and loving friendship, and remains today one of the most famous German poems.

Synopsis

The ballad is set in the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

polis ''Polis'' (, ; grc-gre, πόλις, ), plural ''poleis'' (, , ), literally means "city" in Greek. In Ancient Greece, it originally referred to an administrative and religious city center, as distinct from the rest of the city. Later, it also ...

of Syracuse. After a failed attempt by Damon to kill the gruesome tyrant Dionysius, he is caught and sentenced to death but asks for a delay to marry his sister to her designated husband. Dionysius allows him an extension of three days on condition that his friend remains with him to guarantee Damon's return. If he would not be back on time, his friend would suffer his punishment, while Damon would go with impunity. To Dionysius' astonishment Damon, despite facing floods, an assault by a bandit gang, beating sun and lack of water on the way back to his own execution, at the last minute returns to save his friend. Ashamed by this deed, the tyrant admits the moral value of fidelity and asks to be considered as a friend in their midst.

Versions

Schiller wrote the original version in summer 1798, simultaneously with his poem '' Der Kampf mit dem Drachen'', and published both in 1799. In 1804 he re-worked the ballad and changed the name of the main character (from initially Moerus to Damon). It was translated into English by 1842 when it appeared in ''Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine''. In the late 1930s, Bertolt Brecht wrote a verse commentary "Über Schillers Gedicht 'Die Bürgschaft'", a sonnet ironically praising the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...

in which contract had such moral force that the tyrant realizes that he is hardly needed. This has been set to music by

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

. In 1940 the Japanese author

Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as ''The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and ''No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shiki ...

published the short story ''

Run, Melos! is a Japanese short story by Osamu Dazai. Published in 1940, "Run, Melos!" is a widely read classic in Japanese schools. The story is a reworking of Friedrich Schiller's ballad ''Die Bürgschaft'', which tells the story of Moerus and Selinuntiu ...

'' reworking Schiller's poem. It is a widely read classic in Japanese schools.

Musical settings

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wo ...

set it to music twice: first as a song for voice and piano in 1815 ( D 246), and then as an opera in 1816 (D 435) but left off work on the latter the middle of the third act. There is also the setting for narrator and piano by Baltic German composer Gustav von Giźycki (1883).

External links

* (4.36 MB, OGG)
The same at Project Gutenberg

A very recent translation
*
mp3 recording of Franz Schubert's song, legal and free download

Text from "Die Bürgschaft" used in the song "Schiller" (a parody of Michael Jackson's "Thriller") by German a cappella group, Wise Guys.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burgschaft, Die Ballads Poetry by Friedrich Schiller Lieder composed by Franz Schubert 1798 poems 1815 songs