The Bohemian Commandments (Norwegian: Bohêmbud) or Nine Bohemian Commandments (Norwegian: Bohêmens ni bud) is a frequently cited text from the Kristiania Bohemian movement in Oslo:
- Thou shalt write thine own life.
- Thou shalt sever thy family roots.
- Thou canst not treat thy parents badly enough.
- Thou shalt never smite thy neighbor for less than five crowns.
- Thou shalt hate and despise all farmers, such as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.
- Thou shalt never wear celluloid cuffs.
- Neglect not to make a scandal in the Christiania Theater.
- Thou shalt never repent.
- Thou shalt take thine own life.
The commandments come from an article published in Impressionisten no. 8 in February 1889, which is often attributed to Hans Jæger. However, in the biographical novel Jæger – en rekonstruksjon (Jæger: A Reconstruction), Ketil Bjørnstad writes that the journal's publisher, Johan Collett Michelsen, wrote the piece together with Oda and Christian Krohg as a parody of Jæger, whom they were having a dispute with.
References
Bohemian Commandments Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA