From Alpine Goatherd to Teacher of Greek – Thomas Platter (1499-1582)

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When we came to Munich, it was so late that we could not enter the city, but had to remain overnight in the leper-house. When in the morning we came to the gate, they would not let us in unless there was a burgher in the city whom we knew. But my cousin Paul had been in Munich before. He was allowed to fetch the one with whom he had lodged. He came, and spoke well of us, so that they let us in. Then Paul and I came to a soap-boiler by the name of Hans Schrell. He was a Master of Arts, of Vienna, but was an enemy of the Church. He married a beautiful girl, and many years later he came with his wife from Vienna to Basel, and here also carried on his trade, as is still known here to many people. For this master I helped to make soap rather more than I went to the school, and travelled with him into the villages to buy ashes. But Paul went to the school in the parish “Our Lady,” and I too, but seldom. I went merely so that I could sing for bread on the streets and give it to my Bacchant, Paul; that is, carry food to him. The woman in the house loved me very much, for she had an old black, blind dog which had no teeth, which I had to feed, put to bed, and lead around in the yard. She said all the time: “Tommy, take the very best care of my dog; you shall then be rewarded.”

When we were there some time, Paul was enamoured of the maiden of the family. This the master would not allow. At last, Paul determined that we would go home once more, for we had not been home in five years. So we went home to Valais. There my friends could hardly understand me, and said: “Our Tommy speaks so profoundly, that almost no one can understand him.” For, because I was young, I had learned something of almost every speech where I had been some time. During this time my mother had once more married, for Heintzmann “am Grund” was dead. After the period of mourning, she had married one called Thomas “am Garsteren.” On this account I did not have much of a visit with her. I was for the most part with my aunts, and most of all with my cousin, Simon Summermatter, and my aunt, Frances.

Soon thereafter we set out again, towards Ulm; then Paul took yet another boy, who was called Hildebrand Kalbermatter, the son of a priest. He was also very young. They gave him cloth, such as is used in that country, for a little coat. When we came to Ulm, Paul told me to go around with the cloth and beg for money to pay for the making of it. In this way, I earned a great deal of money, for I was accustomed to pleasant manners and begging. For this the Bacchants used me continually, though they brought me not at all to the schools, and had not even taught me to read. While I so seldom went into the school, and always, while I should have gone, went around with the cloth, I had the greatest hunger. For all that I received I brought to the Bacchants. I would not have eaten the smallest morsel, for I feared a beating. Paul had taken another Bacchant to live with him, called Achacius, from Mainz. I and my companion Hildebrand had to serve them both. But my companion ate almost everything given to him; then they went into the street after him, so that they might find him eating; or they commanded him to wash out his mouth with water, and to spit in a dish with water, so that they saw whether he had eaten anything. Then they threw him on the bed, and put a pillow over his head, so that he could not scream; then both Bacchants beat him terribly, until they could no more. Thereafter I was so terrified that I brought home everything; they often had so much bread that it became mouldy. They then cut off the mouldy outside, and gave it to us to eat. While there I often had the greatest hunger, and was fearfully frost-bitten too, because I often went about in the dark till midnight to sing for bread. Here I must not overlook, but must relate, how at Ulm there was a pious widow, who had two grown-up daughters, yet unmarried, also a son, called Paul Reling, also yet unmarried. Often in winter this widow wrapped my feet up in warm fur, which she had laid behind the stove, so that she could warm my feet when I came, and gave me a dish of vegetables and then allowed me to go home. I have had such hunger that I drove the dogs on the street from their bones, and then gnawed them. I have also searched at school for the bread-crumbs in the cracks in the floor and eaten them.