Editing Max and Moritz (section)

==Description==
''Max and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks'' is an inventive, [[Black comedy|blackly humorous]] tale, told entirely in rhymed [[couplets]], about two boys who play pranks. It was written and illustrated by [[Wilhelm Busch]] and published in 1865. It is among the early works of Busch, yet it already featured many substantial, effectually aesthetic and formal regularities, procedures and basic patterns of Busch's later works.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ruby |first=Daniel |title=Schema und Variation – Untersuchungen zum Bildergeschichtenwerk Wilhelm Buschs |publisher=Europäische Hochschulschriften |location=Frankfurt am Main |year=1998 |isbn=3-631-49725-3 |page=11 |language=de}}</ref> 

Many familiar with [[comic strip]] history consider it to have been the direct inspiration for the ''[[Katzenjammer Kids]]'' and ''[[Quick & Flupke]]''. The German title satirises the German custom of giving a subtitle to the name of dramas in the form of "Ein Drama in ... Akten" (''A Drama in ... Acts''), which became dictum in colloquial usage for any event with an unpleasant or dramatic course, such as "Bundespräsidentenwahl - Ein Drama in drei Akten" ("[[Federal Convention (Germany)|Federal Presidential Elections]] - A drama in three acts").<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,703940,00.html |title=The German presidential elections in June 2010 |newspaper=Der Spiegel |date=July 2010 |access-date=2010-08-02 |language=de|last1=Medick |first1=Veit |last2=Gathmann |first2=Florian }}</ref>
=== The pranks ===
There have been several English translations of the original German verses over the years, but all have maintained the original [[trochaic tetrameter]]:

==== Preface ====
Ah, how oft we read or hear of <br>
Boys we almost stand in fear of!<br>
For example, take these stories<br>
Of two youths, named Max and Moritz,<br>
Who, instead of early turning<br>
Their young minds to useful learning,<br>
Often leered with horrid features<br>
At their lessons and their teachers.
[[File:Max_und_Moritz_tinted_3.png|thumb|The widow's four chickens (first trick)]]
[[File:Max_und_Moritz_tinted_21.png|thumb|The widow's house (second trick)]]
Look now at the empty head: he<br>
Is for mischief always ready.<br>
Teasing creatures - climbing fences,<br>
Stealing apples, pears, and quinces,<br>
Is, of course, a deal more pleasant,<br>
And far easier for the present,<br>
Than to sit in schools or churches,<br>
Fixed like roosters on their perches

But O dear, O dear, O deary,<br>
When the end comes sad and dreary!<br>
'Tis a dreadful thing to tell<br>
That on Max and Moritz fell!<br>
All they did this book rehearses,<br>
Both in pictures and in verses.

==== First Trick: The Widow ====
The boys tie several crusts of bread together with thread, and lay this trap in the chicken yard of Bolte (or "Tibbets" in the English version), an old widow, causing all the chickens to become fatally entangled.

This prank is remarkably similar to the eighth history of the classic German prankster tales of [[Till Eulenspiegel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=5&xid=229&kapitel=9&cHash=b7aed406c52#gb_found |title=8th history of Till Eulenspiegel |access-date=2010-08-02 |language=de}}</ref>

==== Second Trick: The Widow II ====
As the widow cooks her chickens, the boys sneak onto her roof. When she leaves her kitchen momentarily, the boys steal the chickens using a fishing pole down the chimney. The widow hears her dog barking and hurries upstairs, finds the hearth empty and beats the dog.

==== Third Trick: The Tailor ====
[[File:Max und Moritz (Busch) 029.png|thumb|Sawing through the bridge planks (third trick)]]
The boys torment Böck (or "Buck" in the English version), a well-liked tailor who has a fast stream flowing in front of his house. They saw through the planks of his wooden bridgelet, making a precarious gap, then taunt him by making goat noises (a pun on his name being similar to the zoological expression 'buck'; in the English version, they use his name for a straight pun), until he runs outside. The bridge breaks; the tailor is swept away and nearly drowns (but for two geese, which he grabs a hold of and which fly high to safety).

Although Till removes the planks of the bridge instead of sawing them, there are some similarities to Till Eulenspiegel (32nd History).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=5&xid=229&kapitel=33&cHash=b7aed406c5eulen32#gb_found|title=32nd history of Till Eulenspiegel|access-date=2010-08-02|language=de}}</ref>

==== Fourth Trick: The Teacher ====
[[File:Max und Moritz (Busch) 045.png|thumb|The teacher with his pipe (fourth trick)]]
While their devout teacher, Lämpel, is busy at church, the boys invade his home and fill his favorite pipe with gunpowder. When he lights the pipe, the blast knocks him unconscious, blackens his skin and burns away all his hair. But: "Time that comes will quick repair; yet the pipe retains its share."

==== Fifth Trick: The Uncle ====
[[File:Max und Moritz (Busch) 057.png|thumb|The uncle and the May bugs (fifth trick)]]
The boys collect bags full of [[Cockchafer|May bugs]], which they promptly deposit in their Uncle Fritz's bed. Uncle is nearly asleep when he feels the bugs walking on his nose. Horrified, he goes into a frenzy, killing them all before going back to sleep.

==== Sixth Trick: The Baker ====
[[File:Max und Moritz (Busch) 076.png|thumb|The baker with Max and Moritz covered in dough (sixth trick)]]
The boys invade a closed bakery to steal some Easter sweets. Attempting to steal pretzels, they fall into a vat of dough. The baker returns, catches the breaded pair, and bakes them. But they survive, and escape by gnawing through their crusts.

==== Final Trick: The Farmer ====
[[File:Max und Moritz (Busch) 092.png|thumb|The fate of Max and Moritz (final trick)]]
Hiding out in the grain storage area of a farmer, Mecke (unnamed in the English version), the boys slit some grain sacks. Carrying away one of the sacks, farmer Mecke immediately notices the problem. He puts the boys in the sack instead, then takes it to the mill. The boys are ground to bits and devoured by the miller's ducks. Later, no one expresses regret.