¹It should be noted that Johannes von Tepl wrote in the dialect employed by the Imperial chancery in Prague which was to be the basis for Luther's translations of the Bible.
²In accordance with legal procedure, the Ploughman identifies himself and presents the formal charges.  He is a "ploughman with the pen," a roundabout, but not uncommon, way of saying that he earned his living with the quill, that is, as a clerk.  He is from Bohemia, and Death has robbed him of his wife.  Note that the charge against  Death is not of having killed the Ploughman's wife, but of having deprived him of something he had to which he felt he was entitled.
³In the Latin alphabet the twelfth letter is M, since J is not a separate letter.  The ploughman’s wife’s name was Margareta, as he tells us in his concluding prayer for the repose of her soul.
⁴Many of these expressions of endearment are derived from the «Minnesang» tradition  and the veneration of the Virgin Mary (mariolatry); the image of the turtledove has its origin in the Song of Songs (2:12).Walther von der Vogelweide, too, uses similar images in his praise of women, as for instance in his Christmas poem "Ez gienc eines tages als unser hêrre wart geboren," where he refers to Irene, the wife of Philip of Swabia, as "rôs âne dorn, ein tûbe sunder gallen," i.e. ‘Rose ohne Dornen, Taube ohne Galle’ (l. 9).
⁵The last sentences of his speech echo biblical language.
⁶In the arguments that follow, Death reflects the decidedly masculine outlook of the Middle Ages which refused to accept women as equals except in those rare cases of highly educated women.
⁷Compare  Psalm 51, 5:  man is born in a state of impurity.
⁸widerwärtiger Spülzuber:  disgusting dish pan
⁹faules Aas:  lit. ‘rotting carrion.’
¹⁰Schimmelkasten:  ‘musty box’
¹¹This and the preceding ‘epithet’ refer to male and female anatomy
¹²Blasebalg:  lit. bellows
¹³betrüglicher Puppenschein:  deceptive farce
¹⁴lehmiges Raubhaus:  lit. ‘sticky house of robbery,’ that is, man takes and latches on to anything he can put his fingers on
¹⁵unersättlicher Löschtrog:  ‘hard to satisfy’
¹⁶gemaltes Trugbild:  painted illusion
¹⁷Erdklumpen:  clod of earth
¹⁸Eselsdorf:  ‘hicksville’
¹⁹Schandsack:  derogatory reference to male anatomy
²⁰unflätig:  filthy
²¹nutzloses Kläffen:  futile bark
²²Kobold:  gremlin
²³behagliche Annehmlichkeit:  pleasant enjoyment
²⁴The language of this passage is deliberately reminiscent of the Book of Genesis, since the Ploughman’s whole argument rests on the fact that Death was not created by God in Paradise but ‘dropped’ there—in the fashion animals give birth to their young.  Death came as a result of man’s fall from grace, so that the Ploughman’s argument is tenable.  The praise of man as God’s finest creation anticipates many similar passages in Renaissance and Baroque literature, of which the most famous are the speech in Hamlet II, 2 ("What a piece of work is a man!  How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!"  But even in Shakespeare there are still medieval throw-backs, as when he lets Hamlet conclude: "And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?").  Angelus Silesius (1624-1677) reiterates the same ideas when he states in an aphorism: "Das größte Wunderding ist doch der Mensch allein: Er kann / nach dem er’s macht / Gott oder Teufel sein."
²⁵Handschlitten:  ‘person who will not pull his or her weight’
²⁶Kummet:  horse-collar
²⁷tägliche Rostfeile:  lit. daily rust file, that is ‘a daily source of irritation’
²⁸"Füchse" and "Schlangen" are allusions to craftiness and deception.
²⁹Literally ‘turning-lathe,’ here the meaning is that the type of wife described by Death constantly twists words and manages to be disparaging even when she seemingly praises something.
³⁰unreasonable demands or nagging
³¹befremdende Aufsässigkeit oder Muffeln:  alienating insubordination or sulking
³²"Von den nächtlichen Ärgernissen wollen Wir erst gar nicht anfangen":  not to mention ‘conjugal aggravations’
³³The following is a praise of women in the vein of the «Minnesänger».
³⁴Boëthius was a Roman philosopher and statesman (c. 480-524, A.D.) who, while awaiting his execution, wrote De consolatione philosophiae, a series of diatribes on stoicism, cynicism, and Platonic and Aristotelian metaphysics.
³⁵Augenweide:  pleasure for the eyes
³⁶Walther von der Vogelweide’, "Ein niuwer sumer, ein niuwe zît," ll. 47f.: "swer guotes wîbes minne hat, der schamt sich aller missetat." (p. 342)
³⁷Frauenlob, Spruch 387: "O reine wip, ufhaltunge aller werlde."
³⁸Kornrade:  corn-cockle, a purple-red weed in grainfields
³⁹Walther von der Vogelweide, "Zwo fuoge han ich doch, swie ungefüege ich sî," IV, l. 57: "Under frowen sint unwîp."
⁴⁰Maulheld:  loud mouth
⁴¹It is appropriate that God should conclude the debate by referring to another famous «Streitgedicht», the Conflict of the Seasons.  Technically both the Ploughman and Death are guilty of the sin of pride, since they have claimed for themselves what really belongs to God.  Death is granted the victory because in the nature of things he must win.  He has a function to perform and natural law is on his side.  The Ploughman gains honor because he has debated better.
⁴²The work ends with a series of prayers by the Ploughman for his wife’s soul. It is interesting to note that the work was most probably divided into thirty-three chapters because of the association of the number 33 with the life of Christ.  Others utilizing the number were St. Augustine in Contra Faustum manichaeum, Cassiodorus in his Institutiones [d. c.580], and Gottfried of Viterbo in his Pantheon [d.1190].  Notice also that Dante's Divina Comedia is divided into 1+33+33+33=100 cantos!