Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/99

 Schaffer 93 of these words are practically illegible in the manuscript). The word in question is "jadu," and the whole clause should read: "Lo jaduvelojabinu" IJPIT N^njTP #b" they know not and they understand not. " This is a direct quotation from Isaiah 44,18. 4) Gedauscht. Tittmann, in his Gryphius-edition, remarks on this word that "die Bedeutung ist nicht zu errathen." This is certainly true of it in the form in which he presents it. Tittmann previously observes on the Hebrew words in this scene that many of them are incomprehensible because of misprints and that they had to be reconstructed into the proper orthography. In this case, Tittmann seems to have been unable to do this. It is just possible, too, that Gryphius may have slipped up in his use of He- brew or, as may be the case here, of Judaeo-German. Two ex- planations of the word present themselves to me from the context. The Rabbi says: "It is not otherwise, as true as I am a Rabbi and have to-day 'gedauscht.' " Now, the late Hebrew term for "to deliver a sermon based on Biblical exegesis" is "darshan" j^"n from the classical Hebrew root " darash " $*T to in- quire. This word has been taken over into Judaeo-German, where the past participle is "gedarshant. " The objection to this explan- ation of Gryphius' word is that the Rabbi's sermons were usually delivered on the Sabbath, and the day on which our scene takes place could not have been a Sabbath, because the Rabbi is carrying on a commercial transaction. However, such sermons might also be delivered on Mondays and Thursdays, when portions of the Five Books of Moses are read in the synagogue. The second explan- ation is this: "To say one's daily prayers "is, in Judaeo-German, to " daven " (a word the origin of which is rather obscure), and the past participle would be "gedavent. " Now, as every pious Jew says his prayers three times daily without fail, the context would seem to indicate that this is what is meant. The objection here is that " daven " is a word used by Polish and Russian, and not by German, Jews, but as Gryphius spent some time in a Polish city and had probably become somewhat familiar with the Polish Judaeo-Ger- man, this objection might not be a very valid one. In any event, the two explanations of the term "gedauscht" are offered; the choice is, for the present, left to the individual student.