Der Taucher [SEP] editor
Der Taucher
"Der Taucher" ("The Diver") is a ballad by Friedrich Schiller, written in 1797, the year of his friendly ballad competition with Goethe.
Synopsis.
A king throws a golden beaker in an abyss and promises that the one who can recover it can also keep it. But none of his knights and knaves wants to do it. So the king has to ask three times before a "Edelknecht" (squire) finds his courage. He deposits his sword and his coat
will marry his daughter, if he recovers the beaker again. The boy has a look at the girl and wants her to become his bride, so he jumps into the deep and does not return.
Settings.
Franz Schubert set "Der Taucher" as a song for bass and piano in two versions (1813–1815, D 77 – the second version originally D 111).
Sources.
- Reinhard Breymayer: "Der endlich gefundene Autor einer Vorlage von Schillers 'Taucher': Christian Gottlieb Göz (1746–1803