by Hasse Nilsson ©
Titles and lyric excerpts as translated by Paul Britten Austin.
Epistle 1: Good health, both day and night [Gutår båd natt och dag]
A great prologue to the epistles and a magnificient prelude to the world of Bellman’s poetry. The watchmaker Fredman, the foremost apostle of Bacchus, holds a roll call of his disciples and invites them and us to his bacchanalia. Everybody ready? Good health, both day and night!
Epistle 2: So screw up the fiddle [Nå skrufva Fiolen]
This is one of the most tumultuous and boisterous tavern and dance epistles. Father Berg caresses his silver strings and leads his audience like a fiddler of dark powers. The ball spins to its climax where Fredman in the last lines proclaims the golden rule of the bacchanal gospel: “Make an end, sir, and have your wench, sir! Drink and Fredman’s gospel know!”
Epistle 3: Father Berg his horn is blowing [Fader Berg i hornet stöter]
Father Berg, “the Town’s virtuoso on several instruments” screwed up the fiddle in the previous epistle. Here he blows his horn. With the jester’s sympathy Bellman describes drunkenness and you and for the first time celebrates Ulla Winblad and her “sisters”. Dancing, drinking and love-making finally brings Fredman to extacy, he sees fiery darts and staggers onboard Charon’s ferry.
Epistle 4: Hi there musicians, give vent to the waldhorn [Hej Musikanter ge Valdthornen väder]
In the oldest epistles Bellman paints a tavern world of unbridled orgies of drinking, dancing and sex. Here Fredman eggs on his musicians as at a life-and-death rock concert. He also commands them to worship Venus and make temples of love in stairways and alleys and wherever wenches dally. “Hi there musicians” is one of the more risqué epistles.
Epistle 5: Dear brothers, let us tipple in peace [Käre bröder, så låtom oss supa i frid]
This epistle is the first Bellman wrote. The lyrics are a strong Bible parody and show Fredman in his original role as “preacher” in a congregation of drunkards at the Terra Nova tavern in Gaffelgränd. The epistle is a mass to Bacchus in which Fredman solemnly urges his disciples to drink.
Epistle 6: Dearest brothers, sisters, and friends [Käraste Bröder Systrar och Vänner / Med helso och frid]
A Bible parody dedicated to the gallivants on Djurgården. The epistle is the second oldest of the collection. Fredman is, as originally intended, a preacher of drinking and eroticism, talking to his congregation in Biblical terms.
Epistle 7: Bring out the bass, pluck and screw [Fram med Bas-Fiolen, knäpp och skrufva]
The eroticism of Fredman is often in a minor key—tears, jealousy and death are often the sounding board. Here we meet him at his and Ulla Winblad’s bed and we are taken through the love-making to the orgasm, la petite morte, accompanied by the minor cadences of Father Berg. Instruments as symbols of genitalia are common with Bellman.
Epistle 8: Doors open, fiddles ready! [Dörrarna öpna, Fiolerna klara!]
Dance is important in the epistles; the eight is dedicated to the dance-master of the epistles, Corporal Mollberg. But the dance that Fredman lets Mollberg lead is hardly suited for more refined company. Wild and extatic it spins out and in through the windows, the dancers break arms and legs and the floors collapse.
Epistle 9: Come, dearest brothers, sisters, acquaintance [Käraste Bröder, Systrar och Vänner]
To the tones of a minuet from J. H. Roman’s Drottningholm music Father Berg yet again tunes his fiddle for a dance and Fredman observes the ball with the eye of an artist. He comments and lets us join in, while taking part himself. The dearly beloved ninth epistle summarizes the essence of Fredman’s universe: “Bacchus come to table, Cupid if he’s able; Here are all things, here am I!”
Epistle 10: Sisters, hear my music play [Systrar hören min musik]
Bellman had an unsurpassed feeling for the music of words. Sometimes you can hear the melody just by reading the epistles. Here the flutes trill through every line. The message is joy and happiness: let us drink and dance without caring about the ourside world.
Epistle 11: Hi! said Fredman whenever he heard horns [Hej! sade Fredman hvar gång han hörde Valdthorn börja skråla]
One of the more life-affirming of Bellman’s epistles. It’s a wonderful world as long as there are girls, plenty of ale and good music in the taverns. Fredman urges all to dance and when dance ends love-making begins—“the best is yet to be”. Extatic joie de vivre softening harsh reality is a recurrent theme in the Fredman poems.
Epistle 12: Play, Father Berg, in tears [Gråt Fader Berg och spela]
Accompanied by Father Berg’s elegiac flute, Fredman cries after the big fight at Gröna Lund where he himself got the worst of it. He has bitterly paid for having drunk too much and danced with another’s woman. Bruised and hung-over he contemplates the smashed-up and pillaged tavern.
Epistle 13: Well, are all gathered [Nå ä nu alla församlade här]
In the oldest epistles the balls are drunk debauches. In this epistle Fredman goes through his flock of drunkards. Almost everybody is there and Father Berg is sweating over his horn. The ball is joyous for everyone, except for the jealous.
Epistle 14: Hear Ye, O Servants of Orpheus! [Hör I Orfei Drängar]
The famous Uppsala choir is named for this epistle and it is their signature tune. Originally the epistle was dedicated to the wedding poet Wetz, a less successful poet whose work for Apollo is unappreciated, but among cups and beakers, drunk at the tavern, he becomes a genius in his own eyes, and in the eyes of Fredman.
Epistle 15: My dearest Theophile [Käraste min Theophile]
Here Fredman speaks to his disciple, the dear Theophilos, advising him on how to live a righteous life as a servant of Bacchus. The epistle becomes a paean to those who do not carry their liquor well and gives us a careful review of how a bacchanalian dandy should be dressed at 18th Century balls.
Epistle 16: Father Bergström, touch your oboe and blow [Fader Bergström fingra ditt Oboe, blås]
The epistle, dedicated to the tavern musicians of Djurgården, is about a dance much calmer than those in the other epistles: A barber and a lackey are the protagonists of a sedate ring game, but by midnight both floor and ceiling sway.
Epistle 17: Sisters and friends [Systrar och Vänner]
The sensuously dressed girls move in the charmingly delicate minuet, the wine flows, fritters are offered to all and the erotic atmosphere is intense. Fredman enjoys himself and feels his responsibility as high priest of the congregation. In the last stanza he decides there has been enough sensuous play, grabs a girl and shouts: “Who will be groom? Here is a bride!”
Epistle 18: The men sat down to tipple [Gubbarna satt sig att dricka]
Originally this epistle was not intended for the collection, but in the 1790 edition this odd man out was included. The only thing connecting it to the other epistles is that some of the men at Terra Nova, to whom it was dedicated, are well-known Fredman characters: Benjamin Schwalbe and Jergen Puckel. The epistle describes their drinking binge.
Epistle 19: The drummer comes, good day to the girls [Trumslagarn kommer, flickor god dag!]
Here Fredman invites us to an orgiastic picknick with buttered waffles and fritters, ale and schnapps and a barefoot dance on Djurgården. Of course musicians are there and soon everyone is drinking while the drums are beaten.
Epistle 20: Are you crying? [Står du och gråter?]
Yet another epistle about an orgiastic ball, filled with imitations and scenic capers. The epistle is dedicated to the virtuoso Father Berg. Jergen Puckel, ever the butt of jokes, is dancing as well as he can, while the Berg blows his horn, red and blue in his face. The epistle ends with Fredman’s bacchanalian credo: “To me Wine is often better than Love”.
Epistle 21: Cloud masses thicken [Skyarna tjockna]
The first stanza contains one of the finest descriptions of Stockholm in Swedish literature: a moonlit evening in the Old Town in 1770. We soon enter the hubbub of a warm tavern with noisy musicians and a fight ready to erupt. The epistle ends with another example of Fredman’s standpoint: “Venus I follow, with Bacchus I flee”
Epistle 22: The glasses tremble between the knuckles [Glasen darra mellan knogen]
The 22nd epistle is one of the more remarkable in the entire collection. Bellman has been inspired by a mural in the so-called Apothecary house on Gröna Lund. The owner had interests in the East India Company, from which the oriental exotism. The word artistry of sublime prose lyrics and the orgiastic drinking song are entwined into a fantastic and unique epistle.
Epistle 23: Ah, tell me mother [Ach du min Moder!]
“Ah, tell me mother” is one of the most admired epistles. It has been described as Carl Michael Bellman’s sermon on Job and decribes the life of a drunkard, swinging between the deepest pits of despair and the most orgiastic joy. In the eight verses Fredman brings us from the gutter to heaven, in one of the most congenial masterpieces of Swedish literature.
Epistle 24: Dear sister! I now desire [Kära Syster! Mig nu lyster]
Before the alewife at the Brown Door Fredman paints a picture of the drunkard’s death wish, fear of death, and craving for alcohol. He knows what to say to inspire pity and get a free drink in order not to “die of thirst”. The epistle has been described as a macabre and bacchanalian con.
Epistle 25: Blow ye all [Blåsen nu alla]
The epistle is written as a finale to the first collection of 25 epistles that Bellman intended to publish. It becomes a mighty postlude with the entire antique pantheon on stage to accompany Ulla Winblad on her traverse to Djurgården. The epistle begins like a costume opera but gradually the masks are dropped: Venus becomes Ulla Winblad, her shell becomes a row-boat an the scene turns into a ball at Djurgården.
Epistle 26: Where’s the fiddle, my son? [Hvar står Fiolen? säj min Son]
The badly bruised Movitz cries at Mother Berg’s, while playing his double bass. He has been beaten up and stabbed by a jealous corporal after having shown his interest in the young daughter of the keepers of a tavern in Kolmätargränd. Sad he licks his wounds as the young Lotta was on top of everything else arrested by the vice squad.
Epistle 27: Aged am I, my watch is wound up [Gubben är gammal, urverket dras]
The man is aged. Watchmaker Fredman is running out of time and considers his life. The connection between death and love-making has become clear to him. Of the bombastic drinking hero and first lover remains but a shadow, the small human Johan Fredman opens himself.
Epistle 28: Yestre’en thy child I saw, my goddess [I går såg jag ditt barn, min Fröja]
The epistle describes how Ulla Winblad is almost arrested by the vice squad but manages to escape through her beauty. The dicks were a constant threat to prostitutes. It was never far to the horrific spinning-house where the unfortunate were brought. Fredman launches into an impassioned plea in defence of Ulla and free love.
Epistle 29: Movitz, take your sticks [Movitz tag dina pinnar]
Only this once one of Fredman’s disciples appears at a ball for the aristocracy. Movitz has been invited as drummer. Even though the minuet is dignified, the atmosphere is just as erotically charged as on the tavern balls. Underneath the surface of French conversation, elegance and refined manners, base desires rule. High and low obey the same laws of life in Fredman’s universe.
Epistle 30: Drain off thy glass! See death upon thee waiting [Drick ur ditt glas, se Döden på dig väntar]
Death is the constant dark backdrop of Fredman’s world. Here Fredman is a marked man on the threshold of the room where the consumptive Movitz awaits death. Fredman cannot comfort his friend but urges him to play and drink yet a while and the juices of Bacchus seem to be miraculous.
Epistle 31: Why Movitz, why are you crying? [Se Movitz, hvi står du och gråter]
On occasion Movitz is the laughing-stock of the epistle world. Bellman has no compunction about making fun of him and here it is pure slapstick. Movitz has found a willing girl, but suddenly a rival turns up, takes her from him, and on top of everything forces him with blows to play his double bass while having to watch the two others make love in front of him.
Epistle 32: Strewth! How you look without a glass, you rascal [Kors! utan glas, du ser ut, din Canalje]
A strange epistle where Bellman paints a portrait of Father Movitz. His painting is composed of details picturing something else than the whole. He lets Fredman, half in jest, half seriously, draw a parodic picture of Movitz without a glass. He does it by likening him to a ship about to founder, but order is restored, Fredman buys him a dram and the wreck is under sail again.
Epistle 33: Splendid isle! [Stolta Stad!]
Never has the capital been described with mightier trumpet blasts and more skillful pen than in this, the most congenial description of Stockholm in Swedish literature. This is not a poem, not a song. This is musical drama of a kind created by Bellman himself: From a jumble of voices, the collective music of Skeppsbron, a row-boat leaves for Djurgården with Ulla and Fredman on board. The sound background becomes a landscape painting and the whole a dazzlingly beautiful picture of the crowds in Stockholm harbor in the 1770s.
Epistle 34: Aye, alack what wretched dwelling! [Ach hvad för en usel koja!]
Town fires were common in 18th Century. In the Old Town the flames easily moved from house to house. Now there is a fire in in Movitz’ house in Kolmätargränd. All is chaos. Bellman mixes voices, screams, and flames into a cacophony with the anguished precision of personal experience. The melody is as dramatic with its monotonical grinding and excitedly increased tempo. Finally the drama resolves in a contented insight: if, like Movitz, you own no more than what you carry, a burnt-down house makes no difference.
Epistle 35: Truly the brethren go often astray [Bröderna fara väl vilse ibland]
We feel the angst of Fredman in some of the epistles, perhaps most clearly in this love drama. Fredman’s Anna Greta has been unfaithful, in spite of all he has done for her: protected her from the vice squad, hidden her child in the orphanage and drunk with the gravedigger when the child died. Day and night he’ll drunken be to blunt his grief.
Epistle 36: Our Ulla lay one morning and slept [Vår Ulla låg i sängen och sof]
Ulla Winblad is beauty in person. When she awakes, all nature awakes. When she enters the tavern every client feels that “Such an Eden … Never yet was seen”. But when the vice squad turns up, four limping old men who arrest her and take her to the spinning-house—the fate for many of the town’s prostitutes—life turns grey and poor again.
Epistle 37: Mollberg, stand, stand by the gate [Mollberg, stå stilla, stå stilla vid grind]
By the gate to the Royal Gardens there was in Bellman’s time a guard, seeing to that lesser folk did not enter. Corporal Mollberg stands on guard here and gives Fredman and us a view of a pleasance where the aristocracy walks and countesses jostle each other. The epistle is remarkable in that it is quite different the usual dancing and drinking songs and becomes a tribute to the king, his beautiful park and his army.
Epistle 38: Out of the way, see the plumèd provost [Undan, ur vägen, se hur’ Profossen med plumager]
Here we see a funeral procession passing through the alley accompanied by brassy march music. Soldiers, tavern-keepers and drinking friends honor the dead Corporal Boman. The grotesque parade is led by a pompous Mollberg, followed by a staggering crowd of drunkards. The parade becomes like unto a circus, with ale-wives and drunkards as a strange backdrop to the macabre scene.
Epistle 39: The storm and waves are becalmed [Storm och böljor tystna ren]
In this epistle Bellman writes one of the most delightful descriptions in Swedish literature of a morning in the countryside. For once we have left the bustling town and are now at the Lily tavern in Torshälla som 100 km west of Stockholm. The artist Movitz is working by his easel while Fredman heckles his droll portrait of the ale-wife. The first seven tones of the melody was for a long the pause signal of Swedish Radio.
Epistle 40: Make room in the wedding house, you cur! [Ge rum i Bröllops-gåln din hund!]
The disastrous wedding at the Leg Lathe tavern on Södermalm is a ruckus developing at a horrible rate. It starts with a chimney fire and ends with a huge fight where the officiating vicar makes off with the wedding collection, intended for a hospital. The epistle is a burlesque involving many of the persons of the epistle world.
Epistle 41: Mollberg sat up in bed [Mollberg satt i paulun]
Mollberg’s habit is to indulge in a proper fight on his birthday. This year the uncomprehending Christian Wingmark is the hapless victim, and according to Mollberg “that’s all”. Here Fredman is just the reporter, telling what happens, and the room where Mollberg lives turns into a stage where he lets loose his drunken primal force.
Epistle 42: I believe a trick is due [Ren Calad jag spår och tror]
Bellman has been described as a summer poet before others. It is very rarely winter in any of his songs. In this epistle, however, cold winter covers Stockholm and Fredman and his friends have departed to a tavern in the countryside in Hägersten to play cards. Between the deals and the heated play Bellman shows what an excellent landscape painter he is—the views over the ice-covered Lake Mälaren belong to the most beautiful descriptions of Stockholm in Swedish literature.
Epistle 43: Warm more ale and bread [Värm mer Öl och Bröd]
Birth, love, and death are always closely coupled in Bellman’s poetry. Here we meet this trinity in its utmost expression. This is one of the most heart-felt and touching epistles. Ulla Winblad is about to give birth and the mid-wife has been summoned. Fredman is worried, he stands next to her and advises as well as he can. He is well aware that the delivery may be the death of Ulla.
Epistle 44: Movitz all alone [Movitz helt allena]
Movitz is no proficient lover, indeed his affairs are uncommonly misfortunate. If he manages to find a girl he gets beaten up or messes it up for some other reason. Here he simply has drunk too much and fallen asleep. Instead of raising the desired altar to Venus he now sits on the Three Lilies tavern and sings an elegy to himself.
Epistle 45: Servant, sir, Mollberg, what are ye at? [Tjenare Mollberg, hur är det fatt?]
International politics seldom inspire Bellman’s muse, but this is the clearest exception. Poland has been divided by powerful neighbors and when Mollberg plays a polska at the Rostock tavern the clients see this as pro-Polish propaganda. They attack him and smash his instruments. Mollberg decries this and gives us one of the first exhortations for liberty of speech in Swedish literature.
Epistle 46: Out of the way, make room for the courier [Undan ur vägen, ge rum för Courirn]
Epistle 46 is one of a pair, where the events continue in the next epistle. The ale-wife of the Wismar tavern has passed on and Mollberg is sent out to arrange all the things necessary for a proper funeral. The corporal takes on this task with military discipline and jumps on his horse.
Epistle 47: Is Mollberg not coming? He just arrived [Kommer intet Mollberg, Jo nyss på stund]
Here is described what happened to Mollberg in his attempts to arrange for the funeral, as he set out to do in the previous epistle. When Mollberg returns to the next of kin the following day he has arranged most matters. Admittedly he’s forgotten about such trifles as coffin and procession, but thankfully the schnapps has been procured.
Epistle 48: Now the sun gleams in the sky [Solen glimmar blank och trind]
A gem in the Swedish song treasury. Few of Bellman’s songs are as well-known as this. Never before has Stockholm been painted as magnificiently. The song describes a boat outing on Lake Mälaren a summer morning in 1769. Each verse is a charming picture of the awakening landscape until the song towards the end shifts into juicy eroticism.
Epistle 49: Missy Ulla, note my miss [Mamsell Ulla, märk Mamsell]
Fredman and his friends return by boat to the tavern where they once played Tresette a winter’s night in epistle 42, but now it is summer and the sleighs on the ice of Lake Mälaren have been replaced by fishing boats. Their picknick baskets are filled with dainties, not least drink. Bellman has chosen the same melody as for epistle 42, further underscoring the connection between the songs.
Epistle 50: Phoebus enlivens [Phoebus förnyar]
Originally Bellman intended to publish his epistles in groups of 25. Here he has created a finale, a counterpart to epistle 25 that was intended to finish the first collection. In that epistle the dazzlingly beautiful Ulla Winblad was rown to Djurgården; now she returns in triumph, now as then courted by all the antique gods and all kinds of fairytale creatures. The epistle is like a grand opera finale.
Epistle 51: Movitz blew so merrily [Movitz blåste en Concert]
Here we are transported straight into a bacchanalian jam session, a musical evening at the Three Barrels tavern. The instruments are played by Movitz, Mollberg, Wingmark and Bergström while Ulla Winblad surprises as an opera singer. The orgiastic performance is a parody of the period’s entertainment in middle-class parlors.
Epistle 52: Movitz, my bleeding heart! [Movitz, mitt hjerta blöder!]
Movitz has lost his wench, the light-footed Charlotte has suddenly died by her spinning-wheel at the spinning-house. Movitz cries but Fredman knows where to find comfort: in the tavern. He urges Movitz to follow the gospel of Bacchus and escape the snares of love to the freedom of drunkenness. Drink and beware of love is one of Fredman’s most important commandments.
Epistle 53: By an ale and some drams [Vid et stop Öl och några Supar]
It is a sad and gray autumn evening. Father Berg is downcast and does not want to play. Grudgingly he lets the fiddle sing and the clients are gradually getting into it. Suddenly the excise man Sjögren turns up, sent by the authorities to find illegal servers of spirits. He is all but lynched, if not for Fredman who finally intervenes to keep Sjögren from getting killed.
Epistle 54: Never an Iris upon these pallid fields [Aldrig en Iris på dessa bleka fält]
This is one of the more well-known epistles. A melancholy and beautiful elegy on the churchyard of S:t Catherine and the funeral of Corporal Boman. The bacchanalian funeral procession that carried Boman through town in epistle 38 is distant from the grief of the weeping poor widow. Fredman comforts her: Enjoy Movitz’ playing and find yourself a new corporal.
Epistle 55: There he stands among the rays [Så ser Han ut midt bland de strålar]
Bellman is the poet of summer. Here he describes Mollberg playing skittles at Hammarby Tull a beautiful summer evening in 1770. The epistle is in equal parts nature lyricism and a meteorological miracle with all kinds of weather at the same time, including a rainbow and aurora. The play goes on, punch bowls and ale cups are emptied and the friends miss the pins again and again until they surrender completely to Bacchus.
Epistle 56: See Mollberg black-clad standing there [Se Mollberg med svart Råck och Flor]
Mollberg grieves. Mother Maja at the Golden Beaker has died. Mollberg has lost his madam and cries for her and the boarded-up tavern. Fredman sings heavily about the inevitable losses in life, but tries to cheer up the grieving corporal as best he can with flowers and a bottle of schnapps.
Epistle 57: All properly done and readied [Allting är rigtigt clareradt och gjordt]
Mollberg is the master of ceremonies in the epistles. A child is born and the happy news shall be proclaimed. Mollberg is sent away to invite guests to the celebrations. He is so eager that he has to be called back to taste the newly-made liqueur and reminded not to enter into discussions on the paternity.
Epistle 58: My heart is oppressed [Hjertat mig klämmer]
Bellman could have great contrasts between the lyrics and the music. Here Fredman has found his friend Kilberg dead behind the counter in the empty and dry tavern. Fredman feels the call of death and would go hang himself. This drama is set to an airy and graceful minuet (the same melody as “Up, Amaryllis”—“tinkey plinkety tinkety plank”.
Epistle 59: Bosun, take your hat [Båtsman tag nu din lufva]
Using the same dramaturgical technique as in “Splendid isle” Bellman paints a cacophony of voices, noise and hubbub at the sailor’s tavern The Lynx. Here sailors and drunkards congregate to quarrel and celebrate; many tongues and dialects bounce off the walls and Fredman enjoys himself. The melody is the same as in epistle 1.
Epistle 60: Still sitting and lying? [Sitter du ännu och ljuger]
The shyster Kulkus is an odd person in the epistles, and this is an odd epistle. Here we are in court due to some “incident”. What actually happened cannot be ascertained in this tragicomical trial parody with farcically caricatured persons.
Epistle 61: Dear Mother! [Kära Mor!]
The shortest epistle of the collection is also one of the least known. It is all the noisy ball epistles boiled down. Fredman speaks to the alewife at the Square tavern and asks her to arrange a night of dance and debauchery. Fredman is inspired, lusty and truly in his element.
Epistle 62: Movitz tries the horn [Movitz Valdthornet proberar]
While the previous epistle was the shortest, this is one of the longest. Dance is a central theme in many of the epistles. This describes “the last ball at Gröna Lund” in a cacophonic moment of a noisy polska in torchlight. The voices of artisans, sots and tarts are mixed, the tempo and tension increases in vibrant sensuality until the vice squad makes a raid and the music is silenced.
Epistle 63: Father Bergström, get up and play, sir [Fader Bergström, stäm upp och klinga]
While a believer, Bellman had tense relations with the church. From time to time the clergy attempted to stop the spread of Bellman’s songs. Furious at the hypocricy of the church Bellman lets Fredman mince no words about the priesthood. This is an invitation to dance, wine, wenches and all that sweetens the night. When the epistle collection was published the attack on the church was excised. What remains is one often sung and beloved song.
Epistle 64: Cast down your eyes in shame, you fool [Fäll dina ögon och skäms nu din tåssa]
The epistle is reminiscent of the raid in epistle 62: At Fröman’s tavern in Hornskroken Movitz plays dance music while Lotta, in borrowed finery, looks for customers among the male clients. Suddenly a knife fight erupts, Movitz looks away and notices the vice squad preparing a raid.
Epistle 65: Movitz with crape, stay! [Movitz med flor om armen, hålt!]
Movitz is the most soft-hearted of the epistle persons, he is often the one who grieves and weeps. Now he is returning from the funeral feast for one of Fröja’s sisters who’s suddenly died by her spinning-wheel at the spinning-house. Unfortunately Movitz ended up in a fight and got his teeth knocked out.
Epistle 66: See Movitz sitting there [Se hvar Movitz sitter där]
Movitz has many talents, here he makes a painting. Bellman lets the picture merge detail by detail while the amorous tension between the artist and his model increases. In the final verse Movitz grows extatic, seduced by the beauty of his art and finally by his model.
Epistle 67: Father Movitz, why [Fader Movitz, Bror!]
The epistle is a dialog between the alewife at the Cock tavern and Movitz. The Mother at the Cock is a brisk lady showing motherly concern for her old minstrel, sees to that he cleans up and sets him to play as in the good old days. Movitz accepts the challenge, raises his cup and goes to nightly games of love.
Epistle 68: Movitz, the ball is tonight [Movitz, i afton står Baln]
There is a party at Mollberg’s in Grönlund. The horns echo in the alley and the drums thunder in the night. There is a crowd in the gateway, but Mollberg doesn’t let just anybody in. The affair turns rather boisterous, the house full of willing women.
Epistle 69: Dancing-master Mollberg teaches [Se Dansmästarn Mollberg, Bröder]
Mollberg, the master of ceremonies, appears somewhat more refined, but no less burlesque than in the previous epistle. Mollberg teaches Ulla the difficult steps of the minuet, but it is more of a comical cat-and-mouse play where the clumsy Mollberg tries to get the nymph to follow his instructions.
Epistle 70: Movitz, fold your cap over your ear [Movitz vik mössan högt öfver öra]
Here Movitz for a change appears in his military garb, but also as Ulla’s lover. The stage is a military exercise in 1773, but the depiction of the landscape comes from a considerably later stage in Bellman’s production. It is morning, Movitz awakes in his tent and Fredman urges him to quickly take care of Ulla, who makes a rather noisy entry into the camp.
Epistle 71: Ulla, my Ulla, what sayst to my offer [Ulla min Ulla! säj får jag dig bjuda]
When publishing the epistles in 1791 Bellman was inspired to add new songs. This is a different man writing, 20 years later. “Ulla, my Ulla” is one of the so-called Djurgården pastorals added now, more sophisticated, more elegant, but still an epistle. Ulla stands in the window at Fiskartorpet, a country-side tavern on Northern Djurgården; the enchanting summer landscape showing its full splendor. Fredman offers Ulla delicacies. She is more beautiful than ever and all of nature is stoked by her beauty. Isn’t it divine? Bellman’s eroticism and sensualism is more sublime than ever before.
Epistle 72: Glimmering nymph, glances so sparkling [Glimmande Nymph! blixtrande öga!]
The most vibrant love song of Swedish literature without compare. Fredman praises the glimmeringly beautiful bar wench Cajsa Lisa by her bed. It is eventide, a sudden summer thunder storm passes, the finch ceases her twittering. The final verse describes the meeting of man and woman in this fabulously dreamy song of sex, love and Swedish summer.
Epistle 73: Damn the furniture! Tip the chairs [Fan i Fauteuillerna! stolarna kullra]
The German journeyman Jergen Puckel is a strange character in the epistle world. Here we meet him alone in the cellar of Rosendal tavern where he signs the contract with the Devil that he renews every two years. He promises to never be sober, attend church as seldom as possible and forget his wife. Jergen speaks German-Swedish gibberish and Bellman yet again demonstrates what a talented language humorist he was.
Epistle 74: My son! Your vessels, your glasses [Min Son! / Dina kärl, dina skålar]
The great 18th Century artist Johan Tobias Sergel was one of Bellman’s close friends. This epistle is dedicated to him and the theme is easily chosen: Movitz, the lover of arts, has been struck by love. He has fallen in love with his model and his unrequited love pains him so that he considers drowning himself. The epistle contains long sections of alexandrine verse, a way for Bellman to make a French connection and allude to the French opéra comique The Painter in Love with his Model, enormously popular in Stockholm in the 1760s.
Epistle 75: Laugh my children and friends [Skratta mina barn och vänner]
Another of Bellman’s artist friends to be dedicated an epistle was the composer Joseph Martin Kraus. Again we meet the glimmering nymph Cajsa Lisa and the rivals Fredman and Movitz, visiting her on her name-day, Movitz by serenading her with his oboe, Fredman with his torrent of words, each with a banknote (the current rate for prostitutes). Fredman jealously comments on Movitz’ playing and begs Cajsa Lisa to find “a father for her child”.
Epistle 76: See Hans Jergen bow [Se Hans Jergen hur han sig bockar]
Bellman was a master of imitation and spoke several languages. Again we meet Jergen Puckel, the laughing-stock, and witness how the German journeyman is thrown out of the Wismar tavern due to his unruly and noisy behavior. The epistle mixes Jergen’s German tirades with the fashionable French of the time and gives Bellman and his successors an opportunity to show off.
Epistle 77: Cheers my girls, see the gleam of the skies [Klang mina Flickor! se skyarna glimma]
In this late epistle we meet an elderly Fredman, but not so ravaged by life that he cannot drink his fill and court Sophia at the sailor’s tavern The Lynx, competing with a dangerously virile Spanish captain with brutal opinons on how to treat rivals. The image of ships rubbing against the quay at Stadsgården is a miniature masterpiece.
Epistle 78: Scarce Jeppe on his nook had gone in [Knapt Jeppe hant ur gluggen gå in]
It is a summer morning at Skeppsbron and the peace is broken by the noise of badly tuned instruments. A strange orchestra with Father Berg on the oboe, quarrelsome Löfberg on the bassoon and Tall Anders on the double bass, attempt to entertain the proprietor of the Amsterdam tavern on his name-day, but this is not appreciated. Fortunately his wife offers them newly-brewed ale and a dram. The awakening town is one of Bellman’s most beautiful descriptions of Stockholm.
Epistle 79: Charon blows on his horn [Charon i Luren tutar]
Fredman at the border of the Styz is one of the most powerful songs of the epistle cycle. His vision of death is harrowing in its horrific drama. This is more serious than for example “Drain thy glass”, this affects him personally, death awaits him, which he clearly expounds to Mother Maja the Ant, with the desired result: he gets one for the road and prepares his will, drunk and wet in Charon’s boat.
Epistle 80: As festive a comely shepherdess [Liksom en Herdinna, högtids klädd]
One of the most beautiful and enchanting descriptions of summer in the Swedish song treasury. Ulla Winblad arrives at the well-reputed inn The First Cottage by Brunnsviken, a classical beauty dressed in the latest fashion. But after a few drinks she becomes her old self, pulls her skirt over her face and ends up on the floor with Mollberg.
Epistle 81: Mark how our shadow, mark Movitz, mon frère [Märk hur’ vår skugga, märk Movitz Mon Frère!]
The most frequently sung and most well-known of Bellman’s songs is one of the darkest. It is heart-rending and deeply human. Quarrelsome Löfberg’s wife is dead and Fredman sings her praise by the grave. Bellman tells of the death that makes us all equal, who unites enemies and friends and creates emptiness and grief. Who now for bottles shall call? Bellman dedicated his Death epistle to his “personal physician”, Doctor Blad.
Epistle 82: Come now, ourselves reposing [Hvila vid denna källa]
Perhaps the most loved and well-known of all of Fredman’s epistles. Fredman’s unexpected leave-taking, declared at Ulla Winblad’s breakfast a summer morning in the country-side is immortal Swedish nature lyricism. Never has Ulla been depicted so lovingly. All of nature takes part in the last repast and the air is filled with sensuality and music. In the final verse our narrator Fredman steps aside, Bellman appears and lets Ulla be for the last time a bride crowned. A more suitable exit from the foremost collection of lyrics in Swedish literature is difficult to imagine.
Song 1: Noblemen of Bacchus (Heralds of Bacchus in gold and fittings) [Bacchi Adelsmän (Bacchi Härolder med guld och beslag)]
The first of the order parodies that open Fredman’s songs is perhaps the most comical. It is a prelude to the poetical work that more than anything praises Bacchus. Here we witness the ennoblement of deserving brothers of the Order of Bacchus and almost choke with laughter. The song parodies both the bigotry of the orders of the time and the aristocracy.
Song 2: The 1st dubbing of Bacchus (Heralds of the order, raise your spires) [Bacchi 1:sta Riddarslag (Ordens-Härolder ta’n Edra spiror)]
The Order of Bacchus has assembled to dub knights. There is pomp and circumstance, drums and trumpets, and a befitting abundant flow of the sweet juices of grapes. The latin mottoes of the new knights fly through the air and the atmosphere is intoxicating, to say the least. The drummer Stendecker has to attack his drums with vigour to be heard above the revelry of the brothers of the order.
Song 3: The 2nd dubbing of Bacchus (See the public) [Bacchi 2:dra Riddarslag (Se menigheten)]
The drums roll at the second dubbing of knights of Bacchus. Here two deserving brothers, Meisner and Nybom, stride down the centre aisle of the church to gain ceremonious entrance to the most ancient and honourable order. All necessary regalia are in place, as are the brothers of the order, and the dubbing is celebrated as befits devoted apostles of Bacchus.
Song 4: Taking the Knight’s oath in the Order Chapter (Hear drums and trumpets!) [Riddare-edens afläggande i Ordens Capitlet (Hör Pukor och Trompeter!)]
The song is a direct continuation of Song 2. Here the newly-dubbed knights take their Knight’s oaths and are decorated with orders and belts. It turns into a strange affair with wobbly participants. The formal gathering is comical and makes a striking contrast with real orders and the middle-class settings where Bellman performed his songs.
Song 5: As often as I can [Så ofta jag äger ledighet]
The songs 5a, b, and c, while rarely performed together, are a triptych beginning with a formal letter telling of the death of the judge Johan Glock. This is followed by three famous elegies over the missed brother of the order. Each of these should count as Bellman’s great masterpieces, both shattering in their vision of death and comical as parodies. Originally they were set to the same melody, today sung to Song 5b.
Song 6: Dirge for Brandy-distiller Lundholm, a knight of the Order of Bacchus [Öfver Brännvins-brännaren Lundholm (Hör klockorna med ängsligt dån)]
The most popular of Bellmans order parodies (Bellman wrote scores of them and would return to the during most of his life) is the song of the knight Lundholm. It is a rather bizarre lament over a departed drunkard with a nose read as the sunset and a breath that could intoxicate anyone coming in his way.
Song 7: For Love and Bacchus (My toast to Love and Bacchus) [Til Kärleken och Bacchus (Kärlek och Bacchus helgas min skål)]
A wishing song that well could be the manifesto or the inscription over the gate to the World of Fredman. A celebration of wine in all its splendour and to woman in her earliest bloom, early enough that it today is more cause for appal than appeal. Fifteen year-old girls, full cups and employment in the service of Bacchus and Venus are what the brothers most wish for.
Song 8: The desire of a man of Bacchus (Oh, if we had, good friends, a tub) [Önskan af en Bacchi man (Ach om vi hade, god’ vänner, en Så)]
A magnificient wishing song about exclusive Tokaji wine to excess, with a refrain perfectly suited for singing along to: “Oh, if we had, good friends, a tub of Hungarian wine for our throats. The song is an antithesis to remorseful bacchanalian gutter philosophy and presents an almost unearthly dream of a life in splendour, shared by all drunkards.
Song 9: Song at dinner [Måltids-sång (Nå ödmjukaste tjenare, gunstig Herr Värd!)]
The major part of Bellman’s drinking songs were composed for anniversaries, festivities and receptions. Bellman was but rarely solvent, but was often invited and expected to sing for his supper. This is such a token of gratitude from a party hosted by the accountant Möller at Årsta Holmar in 1785. That the company would have drunk an entire barrel of warm punsch must be ascribed to poetic licence.
Song 10: Drink till after twelve or more [Supa klockan öfver tolf]
This is one of the more well-known of Fredman’s Songs, in particular in Denmark. We recognised a theme from “Ah, tell me Mother”: the drunkard drinking with his departed father. We meet the contented gutter hedonist who is satisfied with his life and doesn’t care for reality, as long as he has a glass in his hand.
Song 11: Portugal, Spain [Portugal, Spanjen]
Being king for a day is a classic subject for a wishing song, as is having a princess as mistress, being offered oysters and wine, puddings with plums in, waffles a dozen and a dram at the last. Reality is however different, lacking in rockets and bombs and trumpets and drums. Possibly it can offer brandy and a cutlet on credit if innkeeper Malm is in a good mood.
Song 12: Venus, Minerva
Here we are invited to a party in a simple hut; all the Olympic gods are invited to the strange affair, where the host offers the gods ham and mustard. No-one will come though and in the end the lonely host falls asleep by his cup and his drunken fantasies. The melody has survived as the birthday song ”Ja må du leva”, engraved in the Swedish song treasury thanks to Bellman.
Song 13: At The Lynx Tavern [Klubben (Det var rätt curieust)]
Chatterboxes in politics are no new phenomenon, but the question is if this prattler who addresses a very uninterested abstainer has any contemporary match. The song is a satire on the idle talk in the discussion clubs of the time, and by all means the political bickering in the parliament. Bellman, as always, takes the side of the hedonist and lets the bacchanalian preacher get the last word.
Song 14: If six thousand dalers they gave me [Hade jag sextusende daler]
The wishing song is a special genre in Bellman’s œuvre. Quite commonly the song’s protagonist dreams of glory and riches. In this early song the dream is for friends, wine, women, and Nebben’s crayfish patés in the taverns in town. Maybe these are Bellman’s own longings. By this time he had had to experience how his family had had to move from Stockholm to a country house in Visbohammar.
Song 15: Cellar song (Come sweet Cellar girls) [Källarsång (Kom sköna Källar-flickor)]
This is one of Bellman’s earliest songs, maybe the oldest of all Fredman’s Songs, but the message is familiar: “Drinking is our purpose”. The song is a traditional description of a spree in tavern. The theme of young Bellman is not unique, but his masterful handling of rhythm, metre, and rhyme-arrangement is already clear.
Song 16: Am I born, then I’ll be living [Är jag född så vil jag lefva]
One of Bellman’s most life-affirming poems. A powerful wishing song that above all praises frivolity and zest for life. It is a manifesto for the Fredmanian philosophy that speaks to all people, in all cultures, in all times. Be happy, sing, dance, drink the nectar of gods, eat grilled sparrows if you can and live in blissful drunkenness.
Song 17: The Calendar of Bacchus (In January, good health!) [Bacchi Calender (I Januari månad, Gutår!)]
A very remarkable and famous Bellman song. Here we meet the titular wine god in a quite non-divine state. Rarely an Olympian has been so stripped. His usually so freely flowing cornucopia has dried up and he has literally drunk away all his possessions. Or isn’t this Bacchus? Maybe it’s just his image embodied in the annual report of a pitiful drunkard.
Song 18: The ague (Soon I’ll be torn from time) [Fråssan (Snart är jag rykt ur tidens sköte)]
“The ague” is one of Bellman’s darker songs and different from his other death poems. Here is no sip as comfort if the grave is too deep, here is nothing that stills the agony, no consummation devoutly to be wish’d, just illness, thirst and fear of death. It is a touching song that enrichens our understanding of Bellman the person.
Song 19: Ah, death he is a frightful bear [Ach! döden är en faslig björn]
Several of Bellman’s songs are based on his experiences as unpaid temporary clerk. These songs are often called secretary songs, since the protagonist usually is a poor, indebted secretary, hounded by his creditors. Here the creditor (called “bear” as was the fashion) becomes a symbol for Death, always present in Bellman’s poetic universe.
Song 20: My bears, gather round [Mina Björnar samlen eder]
Thematically this song is connected to the previous one and Bellman’s many-faceted view of death. Not even in death is one free from one’s creditors. Here the “bears” are called to carry the coffin of the debtor to the grave. The song is a poor man’s resigned prayer for peace in the grave, written half in earnest, half in jest. This early song was probably written when Bellman’s dissolute life on borrowed money was at its most intensive and his fear for his creditors the greatest.
Song 21: Away we trot, soon, ev’ryone [Måltidssång (Så lunka vi så småningom)]
This is without a doubt Bellman’s most often sung drinking song—or is it a song about death? The multiple meanings of the song make it a precious jewel in the Swedish song treasury and an evergreen at sing-alongs. The song contains the very essence of Bellman’s poetry, timeless and universal in its message of the human condition and drunkenness as comfort. Between the cheerful lines we glimpse the abyss, and on second thought our smiles turn into grimaces—our glasses into chalices. Bellman first performed the song at a dinner with the Widman family at Elfvik on Lidingö after Christmas 1787.
Song 22: The marriage of Bacchus (Oh, hear of this droll wedding!) [Bacchi bröllop (Ach hör ett roligt giftermål!)]
One of Bellman’s poetic peculiarities is that he often moved the Olympic gods to the hills of Södermalm. Occasionally he took great liberties with the ancient gods. He let Bacchus be reborn to an earthly and stormy life as drunkard in the back alleys of Stockholm. Here we witness the stately wedding between the wine god and Venus, managed by the groomsman Fuhrman and we’re all invited! Fuhrman is the first Bellman character, a predecessor of Fredman in several early songs.
Song 23: The funeral of Bacchus (So endeth our sad days) [Bacchi begrafning (Så slutas våra Sorgedar)]
The wedding of Bacchus was apparently exhausting; immediately after the festivities in the previous song we are invited to the funeral of the ancient god. The melody is the same, the same characters take part, but instead of a wedding procession we are now present at the funeral procession, where Bacchus is brought to his final rest in a wine barrel. The song is a companion-piece to the wedding song, but written a year later.
Song 24: The Inn (By a gate in a forest) [Krogen (Bortt vid en grind uti en skog)]
Bellman was primarily a city poet, but on occasion his muse brought him along paths and village roads—at least if there was a tavern or an inviting host. Here Bellman describes a country inn as if it was a church and the innkeeper a priest.
Song 25: The Inn-keeper (Cornelius lived fifty years) [Krögaren (Cornelius lefde femti år)]
The song is a eulogy to a dead innkeeper. It probably does not have any particular person in mind, even though Bellman ten years later would write an entire biography of Cornelius in his comic journal Hwad Behagas? The song is an elegy, using the same melody as the elegy over Lundholm.
Song 26: Fredman’s funeral (Out of the way, turn) [Fredmans begrafning (Ur vägen och vik)]
Jean Fredman enters Bellman’s poetry as a corpse. The real life master watchmaker Johan Fredman passed away on 9 May, 1767. The event gave Bellman inspiration to a song, and eventually to an entire world of poetry. In Fredman’s Songs the titular character plays a largely insignificant role. He is occasionally glimpsed as a guest in a tavern, but his only major appearance is in this song when he is taken to his final resting place. Somewhat jocularly his biography in this song is called the shortest characterisation in literature: “Fredman lived and died.”
Song 27: By the grave of Capt August von Schmidt [Vid Capit. August von Schmidts graf – Chor (Ur vägen)]
Yet another funeral procession marches through the song cycle. To the sound of muffled drums, captain August von Schmidt is carried to his grave. The Order of Bacchus assembles by the crypt, in the gallery a moved Bacchus grieves and the brothers honour the departed drunkard with beer and music.
Song 28: Three Rummers (Movitz went to University) [Tre remmare (Movitz skulle bli Student)]
In his youth Bellman registered himself at the University of Uppsala, but his studies were not for long, he was back in Stockholm after a month or so. Maybe we meet Bellman himself here, he often called himself Movitz. We are at the tavern Tre Remmare [Three Rummers] on Regeringsgatan (where it still remained until 1970). Movitz leads a dissertation with his brothers in drink on serious subjects such as drunkenness and the art of drinking. The song is a murderous satire, in epistolary tone, on academic hypocrisy.
Song 29: The hostelry (Grannas Lasse! Play the lyre) [Gästgifar-gården (Grannas Lasse! Klang på lyran)]
Here Bellman takes us on an invigorating visit to a country hostelry, a stage station where you could change horses, have a bit to eat, have a beer, dance, and have a game of cards. The cards hit the table, travellers come and go and the mood is soon as rowdy as in the city taverns. Grannas Lasse plays his lyre to make the floorboards rock.
Song 30: At the audience of the Turk 1773 (Hear the trumpeter, alarum!) [Vid turkens audience 1773 (Hör Trumpetarn, alarm!)]
Bellman was rarely a political satirist, but in this song he aims his sharp pen towards some very questionable diplomatic intrigue. An emissary from Tripoli has arrived in Stockholm to collect piracy protection money, sheer profitable extortion, probably with no positive effects for the Swedish merchant navy. Bellman is furious and calls the emissary pirate and devil.
Song 31: Going fishing [Fiskafänget (Opp Amaryllis!)]
In the summer of 1773 bellman worked on a three-act pastoral opera, either on the request of , or as a way of pleasing, king Gustavus III. The opera was finished but has been lost. The only remains are five songs. One of these is about a fishing expedition a beautiful summer morning. “Up, Amaryllis” was probably an aria in the opera.
Song 32: Song at nightfall [Afton-Qväde. Dediceradt til Fru Assesorskan Weltzin (Träd fram du Nattens Gud)]
This is one of the songs we know Bellman has put most effort in. It is one of the masterpieces of Swedish nature lyricism and is preserved both as a handwritten manuscript and in several modified versions. Here Bellman excels in perfect alexandrines and paints an enchanting crepuscular landscape with the entire antique pantheon in the stalls of the Stockholm night. Maybe Bellman created this chef-d'œuvre to show that he was more than just an inn entertainer. The song was published in the prestigious literary journal Den Svenska Parnassen in 1784.
Song 33: The Magistrates of T**** hanker [Magistraten uti T**** fiker]
Bellman was a Stockholmer and did not mind heckling small town citizens, in particular not if they came from Södertälje or Mariefred. Surely he laughed at the jokes about the “Tälje fools”. Here is a remarkable small town satire, a pamphlet about a sow instated as magistrate in court in Södertälje.
Song 34: At Gripsholm all is too droll [På Gripsholm är alt för roligt]
It is hard to understand why Bellman vents his spleen upon what today is a beautiful and idyllic small town. This song’s constant scorn towards Mariefred maybe suggests personal experiences. That the song was still considered worthy of inclusion in Fredman’s Songs more than ten years after writing suggests that it had been well received in the capital.
Song 35: Concerning Noah and his wife [Gubben Noach]
The song about Noah introduces a suite of Old Testament travesties where several belong to the gems in the Swedish song treasury. It is something of a mystery how a purportedly sacrilegious 18th Century drinking song—written by a twentysomething youngster—has become a children’s song known to all. In its time “Old man Noah” aroused the full wrath of the church and the song about the drunken man of God was spread in chapbooks even outside the borders of Sweden.
Song 36: Old man Lot and his wife [Gubben Loth och hans gamla Fru]
The story of Lot and his family is found in Genesis 19. It is the incestuous story about Lot’s daughters who have been saved from the destruction of Sodom and concerned about continuing the family line trick their father into becoming drunk and then impregnating them that has appealed to Bellman, like that kind of racy erotic stories always have fascinated people.
Song 37: Merry brothers, when we drink [Glada Bröder när vi dricka]
This somewhat vague song can be considered a biography of Abraham and tells both of his strategic cunning and his virile manliness in spite of being well over a hundred years old. In particular the last bit interests Bellman. The original story comes from Genesis. The erotic attraction of Abraham the successful womanizer gives the song timeless appeal.
Song 38: A Potiphar’s wife in her beauteous way [En Potiphars hustru med sköna maner]
The story of Joseph, Potiphar and his wife comes from Genesis 39. Joseph, the “madman”, is a wimp who cannot handle a willing woman, quite the opposite of the tall Abraham in the previous song. Bellman passionately explains what he would have done in Joseph’s place.
Song 39: All transforms, all tumbles down! [Alt förvandlas, alt går omkull!]
The song is about a funeral feast in memory of Moses and Aaron. Bellman does not depict any specific Biblical episode, instead he gives us an irreverent reinterpretation of several passages in Exodus and Leviticus. The two patriarchs are portrayed as good drinkers, well worthy of membership in an Order of Bacchus.
Song 40: The mighty Ahasverus [Ahasverus var så mägtig]
The song is a risqué pearl among Bellman’s Bible travesties. It is a summary of the Book of Esther in the Old Testament about how the Jewess Esther became the wife of king Xerxes and how she prevented a massacre of Jews. The lyrics are close to the Biblical original.
Song 41: Concerning the chaste Susanna, and her brush with the Elders [Joachim uti Babylon]
The story of Susanna in the bath has been called the first detective story in the world. Next to “Old man Noah” it is the most well-known of Bellman’s Bible travesties. The story comes from an apocryphal addition to the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament and tells of how the chaste Susanna is accused of adultery by two “low rascals”. Originally the song was intended as praise of chaste Swedish women, but with time has been mostly interpreted as a racy erotic story.
Song 42: Judith was a rich widow [Judith var en riker Enka]
Another song that in ballad form and with a medieval-type refrain praises Woman. The story of the widow Judith who all by herself conquers Holophernes and drives his army away after the men in the town of Betylua have decided to capitulate, is like the previous from the Apocrypha. Bellman’s lyrics are close to the original and do not shy away from either horror romantics or entertaining violence.
Song 43: Cheers to Adam, our old father! [Adams skål, vår gamla far!]
Yet again we meet Adam, Eve, and Noah, but also ordinary people like Malin, Pål, and Per. This is no Bible travesty and there is no Biblical text to refer to; instead it is a traditional drinking song where both old saints and riff-raff are wished good health and are exhorted to drink to forget the problems of the world.
Song 44: Old brother Jockum, by this filled cup! [Gamle bror Jockum, klang vid denna rågan!]
A therapeutic song about a man with love troubles. Old brother Jockum sits in the tavern drinking. He is sad, his beautiful wife has more lovers than downs in her mattress and jealousy eats him. The advice he gets is filled with Fredmanian wisdon: Drink and feel good. The final lines of the verses are atypically marked by “kor”, thus indicating a sing-along.
Song 45: If destiny should send me [Om ödet mig skull’ skicka]
The view on women that Bellman expresses in the songs about Susanna and Judith meet their complete opposite in this bawd-song. The lecherous and jocular song tells of a man of Bacchus who dreams of owning a beautiful girl who he could rent out to others. The song became very popular in the 18th Century, was widely spread and received many additional verses written by others.
Song 46: Mollberg and Camilla, bacchanalian pastorale; dedicated to Captain Daniel Kempensköld (Smile and make eyes at me) [Mollberg och Camilla, bacchanalisk pastoral; Dedicerad til Herr Capitainen Daniel Kempensköld (Hur du dig vänder)]
This is a different song in the Fredman repertory. It is really a full collision between antique pastorale and bacchanalian poetry. This was probably exactly the dialectic Bellman was looking form. This song is the only one written as a duet. We meet the virile corpral Mollberg in a somewhat unfamiliar role, disguised as the first lover of a pastoral operetta, and Camilla of pastoral poetry. The song has presumably been written during the editing of Fredman’s Songs.
Songs 47–54
Concerning the bankruptcy of Bacchus [Handlingar rörande Bacchi concurs]
47: The proclamation of Bacchus (Bacchus sobbed, wept, and stammered) [Bacchi Proclama (Bacchus snyfta, gret och stamma)]
48: The inventory of Bacchus (On the Fifteenth of November) [Bacchi Bouptekning (November den femtonde dagen)]
49: The prolongation of the case (Now and since) [Upskofs Utslag i Saken (Som nu och emedan)]
50: The parties appearing on the day of proclamation (The parties around Bacchus so red) [Parternes Inställelse på Proclama-dagen (Parterna syns kring Bacchus så röder)]
51: The roll-call and oath of the parties in the bankruptcy (Utterquist—Present!) [Parternes Uprop och Edgång i Concursen (Utterquist – Ja!)]
52: The signing of the minutes of the bankruptcy (Present at the fluids) [Protocollernes Justering i Concursen (Närvarande vid fluidum)]
53: A separate vote of Magistrate Christ. Wingmark (According to the acts, brothers) [Särskildt Votum af Rådman Christ. Wingmark (Som af Handlingarne, Bröder)]
54: The minutes and final verdict of the magistrates’ court in the case between Bacchus and his creditors (Ye parties present) [Rådstu-Rättens Voterings Protocoll och sluteliga Utslag i concurs-Tvisten emellan Bacchus och des Borgenärer (I närvarande Parter)]
On 15 November 1783 we witness a lawsuit the like of which has never been seen in a Swedish court. We meet the destitute Bacchus in the magistrates’ court due to his bankruptcy. Giving antique gods human form and moving them from Mount Olympus to the crass reality of Stockholm is a method that Bellman would repeatedly use in his poetry. Now bacchus has drunk himself penny-less; “naked, drunk, and ugly” as in the “Calendar of Bacchus” he is in court. Fortunately for the wine god the magistrates, judge, mayor, clerks and other judicial officials have been picked among the most accomplished drunkards at the town’s taverns. The bankruptcy suite consists of eight songs in strict chronological order of the judicial proceedings. Bellman was quite familiar with bankruptcy laws and cases. In the first song the creditors appear to make their demands. The next song describes a very peculiar inventory. In the third a prolongation is granted since all parties are so horribly drunk. In Song 50 the parties finally appear in court and in the following song a roll-call is read and the parties are sworn in. Next the minutes are signed quite fittingly by the men of Bacchus. In Song 53, Christian Wingmark of the Epistles requests permission to speak and makes a passionate plea for the defendant and in the final song Bacchus is naturally acquitted on all counts. The striking musical lies close to Bellman’s order songs. It was first published in 1784 in a comic pamphlet mostly written by Olof Kexél. Bellman himself had already gone through a bankruptcy at the age of 23 and during the 1780s he was repeatedly sued. Perhaps the song suite about the bankruptcy of Bacchus can be read as the poet’s own desire to finally be rid of his creditors.
Song 55: Baggensgatan (Mollberg held the bottle and Bredström sat across at the door) [Baggens-gatan (Mollberg höll flaskan och Bredström satt mitt emot i dörrn)]
A song much like the epistles; some have suggested that it might even be a rejected epistle. We are at Baggensgatan in the most infamous part of town, well known for its many brothels. Embarrassingly enough we run into old acquaintances: Mollberg, Bredström, and Wingmark, but older, more nostalgic and not as obvious targets for Cupid’s arrows. The song may well have been written at the time when the Epistles were published.
Song 56: Memorandum [Nota Bene (När jag har en plåt at dricka)]
One of the more often sung of Fredman’s Songs, a wishing song, or rather a contentedness song, where the protagonist establishes that the wine must be good, the girl in his lap faithful and that the times should be better. In particularly now that old age makes itself felt increasingly often. We recognise the message: “have your wench and drink” and everything will be fine. This is a very early song, written in Bellman’s youth.
Song 57: The prayer book of Bacchus, to support and comfort the staring congregation (Sing and read now the prayers of Bacchus) [Bacchi Böne och Sententie bok, den stirrande församlingen til tröst och styrko (Sjung och läs nu Bacchi böner)]
The song is an ironic parody of church and service. According to the title the song is quoted from “The prayer book of Bacchus, to support and comfort the staring congregation”. It’s high mass in the Temple of Bacchus and the pious congregation kneels by the chalice, but the church is a tavern and the hymnbook a bottle. Instead of “Amen” the prayers finish with a loud “Cheers!”.
Song 58: Stadshagen, pastorale dedicated to the wholesaler Eric Noer (No, vainly, wherever I look) [Stadshagen, Pastoral, Dedicerad til Herr Grosshandl. Eric Noer (Nej fåfängt! hvart jag ser)]
In Bellman’s pastorales the landscape is usually divine, enchanting, and magnificient. Here we meet another side of Bellman the nature lyricist, for a change painting in shades of grey. Stadshagen is an unsightly landscape of desolate and marshy woods, the unhospitable border area between town and country. Here are no inns, girls, or bottles. Had the drunkard but had the means, there would have been taverns here and everything would have been different.
Song 59: Is there anything left in the bottle? [Har du något i flaskan qvar?]
“Am I born, the I’ll be living” is the joyous message of Bellman’s poetry. However, the joie de vivre often gets overdone and turns into violent drinking sprees. This coarse drinking song offers both brandy and beatings.
Song 60: The mean and presumptuous guest (You may request of my heart) [Den snåle och tilltagsne gästen (Du har at fordra af mitt sinne)]
A strange song of as strange an innkeeper and his patron. The host is self-effacingly obliging and in the course of a long alternating song he gives away all his wine, other possessions, and his wife to his guest. It is a comic song, presumably presented as thanks to a host sharing Bellman’s bizarre humour.
Song 61: To his bottle [Til buteljen (Se god dag min vän, min frände)]
Fredman, or whoever the singer is, and the bottle were mostly a very happy couple. Seldom has a bottle of claret received as a tender and passionate adoration as in this “serenade”. Anthropomorphising an inanimate object was common in old drinking songs and Bellman frequently used this poetic practice.
Song 62: Never a word! [Aldrig et ord!]
Bellman’s drinking songs cover all possible expressions of drinking. Here we meet th aggressive drinker. The protagonist threatens those around him with violence and cursingly demands that they drink. Every other line is “Drink you bastard”. The song is an angry outburst from someone who does not carry his liquor well.
Song 63: Master Peter from the high and holy [Mäster Petrus från det helga höga]
Bellman and the clergy were sometimes at loggerheads. Quite often the church expressed its displeasure with Bellman’s songs and in turn he subjected them to his sharp wit. Here Bellman ridicules the men of the cloth who are more eager to eat, drink, and revel than to tend to their calling. The satirical song reputedly was aimed at a specific person still active as a minister when Fredman’s Songs were published.
Song 64: Haga [Haga, Dediceras til Herr Capitainen Kjerstein (Fjäriln vingad syns på Haga)]
The song about the butterfly at Haga is one of Bellman’s most beloved nature songs, somewhat obscure in its elegance and archaic images, but eternal in its charm and beauty. Originally it was written for Gustavus III as a supplication that Bellman’s wife should get employment at the “Versailles” the king wanted to erect at Haga. “Haga” is the most sung and recorded song by Bellman and a sparkling rococo diamond in the Swedish song treasury.
Song 65: Letter to the Royal Secretary Elis Schröderheim, on the occasion of the King’s journey to Russia in 1777 (Thus I look out from the strand, my brother, where Mälaren melds its waves) [Bref til Kong. Secret. Elis Schröderheim, i anledning af Konungens resa til Ryssland, år 1777 (Så ser jag ut vid stranden, Min Bror, där Mälaren blandar sin bölja)]
The most peculiar of Fredman’s songs is the five pages long letter in verse that ends the book. The recipient is Bellman’s closest friend, the courtier Elis Schröderheim. The versified letter depicts the departure of Gustavus III for his Eriksgata in Finland (not Russia in spite of the song’s title—that journey was undertaken two years after the writing of the poem). The song is a magnificient tribute to the king and a powerful attack on the literary elite who treated Bellman as a simple tavern singer who wasn’t capable of proper poetry. This is probably the reason why the letter became the postlude of the Fredman poetry, as well as Bellman’s wish to dedicate his life’s achievement to the king. In rhymed heptameter, a meter never before subjected to the Swedish language, Bellman delivers his most extensive nature lyrics. Its rhythm is impeccable and masterful in its sharp-sighted depiction of each detail of the scene. That it has been titled Fredman’s Song 65 is probably a mistake in editing, it should rather be seen as a postscript to the entire corpus of Fredman poetry and a dedication to Bellman’s benefactor. The final stanza was added in publication to further strengthen this monument to the king.
