Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/546

Rh 528 the effect. of an elderly CUtlllC‘ltC who, refusing to believe in the ravages of years, tricks lierself out in the gay adorii- iiieiits of youth. An earlier book, the ll'ez'.-s li'um'3/, an autobiography of .I-axiiiiilian, written by his direction in prose by his secretary T i'eizs-.iuei'weiii, has the excellence neither of a chronicle nor of a romance ; it is for the most part the fantastic work of a mind which misunderstood its epoch and its own powers. GrEltMANY [L1'l‘l-Ill.Tl' 11 E. their tendcrest, most pathetic memories, the one link which has connected sordid lives with noble and sublime ideas. An.l for the first time it gave the nation a literary language. Up to this stage every author had written in the dialect with which he was himself familiar; henceforth for the men of Swabia, of Bavaria, of Saxony, and of all other dis- tricts there was a common speech, which the writers of each state could use without any sense of infe1‘iority to those of Popul;.i- Behind the strife and noise of contending sections there T auotlier. It is thus to Luther that the Germans owe the I'0t‘U'.V- was slowly growing up an admirable intellectual product uiost essential of all the conditions of a truly national life of Germany,-—its popular poetry. One of the earliest and literature. The writer who deserves to stand next to Luther is writers who struck the note of the popular poets was Veit 'eber, a Swiss who fought with his countrymen against Llrich 'n1l Ulrich von llutten (1~l88—l523). An accomplished H utteii Refnr- IV. The (,-'enlury of Ike Ii’qf0rmalion.———It is possible breathes through them, the lofty political ideals of the “““_i°“ that if there had been no lteforuiation the Renaissance writer, and his generous ardour for the popular welfare. 1’m°d' would have revealed itself in Germany in a great literary A far more voluminous author than llutten or Luther II.ui.< movement, as in France and England, or in a great artistic was Hans Sachs, nieisters'zinger of Nuremberg ( 149-1- 5391"- nioveinent, as in Italy. The conditions of both movements 1576). He was, indeed, one of the uiost proliﬁc of Ger- were present in the labours of the liuinaiiists on the one man writers, having composed, according to his own cal- hand, and of the Holbeiiis, Albert Diirer, and Lucas culation, more than 6000 poems. Although extremely Craiiach on the other. But the questions of the 1tcfor- popular in his own time, Sachs was almost forgotten after iiiatioii were too profound and agitating for the mind of his death. His memory was revived by Wiel-and and the nation to turn seriously to any task save that Goethe, and he is new universally admitted to have been which they imposed. Thus it happened that the young the chief German poet of the 16th century. Every species shoots of the Renaissance withered almost before they of verse then known he freely cultivated, and there is no were in leaf. It was settled that Germany must wait important element of his age which is not touched in one until a much later time for the full exercise of her highest or other of his works. He had little of the culture of the energies. schools, and many of his verses are excessively rude. But Luther. In literature iiotless than in religion Luther(1483—154G) Hans had considerable force of imagination, sly liuiiionr, Charles the Bold, and who celebrated in vigorous verses the battles of Granson, Murten, and Nancy. From this time the German people had always a living poetry of their own, created by unknown authors, but caught up by the masses, passed on from village to village till it was every- where known, and handed down by each generation to its successors. This popular poetry ultimately reflected every aspect of daily life among the humbler classes ; each section auioiig them had its appropriate lyrics, and there were songs of youth, of age, and of middle life. There is no elaboration in these offshoots of the popular fancy, but many of them have an artless beauty which touches the fountains of smiles and tears, and which had an irresistible fascination for the poets of the greatest period of German literature. was the commanding spirit of the age; but he was so rather by accident than by choice. For form for its own sake he cared little ; he studied it solely that he might the better produce the moral effect at which he aimed. It is hardly possible for any one to sympathize now with the violence and the dogmatism of his tracts, addresses, and sermons ; but they had the high merit of addressing the nation in a language it could understand. They are always clear, simple, warm with the glow of a passionate nature; and amid their noise and fury an attentive ear will sometimes catch the still small voice of a spirit touched to ﬁner issues than mere party warfare. “ My husk may be hard,” he himself said, “ but the kernel is soft and sweet.” “'0 do extreme inyustice to Luther if we do not recognize in him a strongly poetic element.——an element which had free play only in the best of his private letters, and in his still popu- lair hymns. By the highest of his literary achievements, his translation of the Bible, he made a truly splendid coii— tribution to the spiritual life of his people. No body of literature has been so fortunate in its translators as the Scriptures; and Luther's rendering ranks with the best. Its absolute simplicity brings it to the level of a cliild’s understanding; its strength and grace give it an enduring place as a work of art. Iermany instantly felt its charm; and for three centuries it has been to innumerable millions the supreme coiisoler and saiictifier, the power associated with liuinanist, be effectively attacked the enemies of the new ciil— ture iii the 1;'pi.stolu- Ubscurorum l'irorum, of which he was one of the chief writers. This was before the special work of Luther began; and at a still earlier period he had assailed in a series of ﬁne Latin orations the tyranny of Duke Ulrich of Wiirteniberg, who was accused of murder- ing a member of Ilutten’s family. ]Ie had little real sym- pathy with Lutlier’s religious aims; but he threw himself heartily into a movement by which it seemed possible to purge the state of the spiritual and secular ills which were in deadly antagonism to the progressive energy of humanism. llis German writings are mainly short satirical poems and prose dialogues and addresses. Their style is direct, bold, and treiichaiit ; but they are now in terestiiig mainly because of the spirit of freedom '.'lllL'll and, in his happiest inoinents, a true feeling for melody. IIis best works are his “Shrove Tuesday Plays.” It is true he makes hardly more attempt than Rosenbliit to develop a dramatic action, but his characters have life, and in many individual scenes are artistically grouped. llis didactic dialogues and satirical tales present a remarkably vivid picture of the ideas, controversies, and moral senti- ments of his generation ; and some of his lyrics still live in the memory of the nation. The song in which he hailed the “Wittenberg Nightingale ” gave fine utterance to the reverence of the Lutherans for their chief, and in his hymn, Warmn betrz'il)st du cliclz, main 1[erz? he so happily met the spiritual need of the day that it was soon translated into eight languages, including English, French, and Greek. If Hans Sachs was the most industrious poet of the century, Johann Fischart was beyond all comparison its Fisciim greatest Satirist. There was a distinctly labelaisian touch in this restless, bizarre, and effusive spirit-,——a man of up- right and manly character, keenly alive to the evils of his time, and continually opening fire at new points on his enemies. He was an enthusiast for the lleformation, and did it more lasting service among the middle class than half the theologians. Ilis chief work was an adaptation of ltabelais’s G'arg_rmlzm, which he rendered with an insight into its purpose, and a fulncss of sympathy with its